Short Crag Poems

Undistinguished crag.
Play you boldness before us.
You soon will be climbed....

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Chilled musty air
Teasing ageing crag-
The Owl oblique.

© Harry J Horsman  2011...

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a sliver of spring
the sun peeps over the crag...
shadows melt away

	© Harry J Horsman 2018...

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Wind upon the crag
unadulterated truth...
fanned moorland fire kills.

© Harry J Horsman  2012...

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The moor side broadcast,perpetually
amid airwaves of delirium,
aria that reverberates, from crag to scar
beacon to abbey century to century,
Everyday truth in simplicity
to ignite the human race!

© Harry J Horsman  1998...

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I stood naked on the edge,

          (Cold feet gripping the stony crag),

               Peering into the shadowy depths of the abyss ...

     With a distant glint of black flame,

It looked back ...

          And smiled....

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Unforgiving rocky crag
    juts
into empty space
hanging
on a whisper of frozen
   exhale
Puffy whiffs rise
oh
   so
      gently
lazy
Icy death on misslip
slippery ledge
free
     fall
         forgiveness
tumble me silent
     after all ......

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Ways so serpentine
Garden path now dim at dusk
Oh Peregrine, casting thine eyes down
Clutch up my deepest sorrows
Lifting high my soul, place crown

Once in flight
Search out my ghost
Over tree and crag of rock
High above cliffs of sea
One sheep of scattered flock....

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Scrambling across the sky
Oh, just to know
How the sun bird flies
With my brain in tow
Growing in my mind
Fluttering on a wing
Flight from shoreline
Oh, how he sings
Lift on high old one
Perch upon thy crag
Closest to the sun
Waving your feathered flag
How we so enjoy
Your screech of ahoy!...

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Down, down, down we spiral into the great unknown.
Dark, dark darker becomes our world till bitter were entombed.
Down, down, down we go into the endless crag, into a world of emptiness
where our senses start to drag.
Strong, strong, strong we hold until our dying day
and when our final destination comes we simply fade away....

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shivering …
I stood naked on the edge -
cold feet gripping the
stony crag like a vagabond vulture,
peering into the shadowy
depths of the abyss ...
and with a distant glint of black flame,
the savage shadows looked back ...
and smiled.






Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden, August 15, 2019; rewrite, August 28, 2022...

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Towering 
As towers do
A monolithic mass 
Fills the canvas and the room
Green glass mountains
Deep and dark and without reflection
Draw you in and your gaze

Up

To a thread of eclipsed sky
Where burning 
In silhouette
Clings a raptor
To its man made crag




1/13/2020

Cityscape Poetry Contest
Sponsor Julia Ward...

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Slinging boomerangs from a faraway crag.
             Over ocean, mountain and the tundra of living.
                             Slicing chests of the wayward and vulnerable.
                 Seeding souls with fear of the greatest alone.
             Circling back to grasp the palm of the slingers.
Wearing the red meat from the heart of dreamers....

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She was an ugly mean old hag,
Born out of a tapestry bag,
She smelled like old lint,
Her mouth was wider than a stag,
Her sense of humor made you gag.
A terrible skin-flint.

Original spinster from Crag,
Was usually on a crying jag
Her eyes were a squint,
Being with her an instant drag
She’d whine, complain, throw out a nag.
Perfect wife for Clint....

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Colonel Flighty is a cad
Thinks himself a funny wag
Thinks he's mighty, ain't that sad
"Look at me! A strutting stag!"

Jiggly belly, jowls that sag
Throat all phlegmy, such a drag
Trousers smelly, makes you gag
Leaky colostomy bag.

Toss him quickly drown a crag
If he lives we'll be so mad
End his sickly feeble brag
Hear his fading shout, "Egad!"...

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He stands on the slippery crag of Simon’s Seat
has done since time became tradition
from the Lupus a call to the Luna moon
howling at the illuminant of the night.
His descendants thrash the poignant air
a reminder of a fear once gone, forgotten
yet, today there are many still hold them fair
but it is the moon that drives the begotten.

© Harry J Horsman 2018...

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.. must self-worth perilously 
   hang on to a cracking crag..

         crag  that is slowly loosening 
         off  the edge of a crumbling cliff..

               cliff of other people's opinion,
               dangerously above the rocks..

                     rocks of subjective humiliation,
                     actually, self-perceived oblivion .. ?...

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I want to draw eternal kisses on the vermilion of flowers
I wake up with a sip of tea crag to catch the full moon
Poetry of certainty calls me to your lenient body in the drowsy night
In the civilization of the sun, I travel future with the dress of a pilgrimage
The salutation of Eden Garden in the flowery tears with dumb tongue


© Mahtab Bangalee
Chattogram
31/08/2022...

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A Dribble a Trickle a Dram a Splash
Flowing Down a Brae Past the Steading 
Rushing Over Rocks Creating Crag and Tails
Waves Wash and Bleather on the Bank 
Water Shimmers and Shines in the Sunlight so Braw 
Dinnlin the Earth and Trees as it Flows 
Over Moor and Though Glen Toward Linn and Loch
Eventually Passing a Stone-Thrust and Becoming the Sea 
This is the Path of a Burn....

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Mortally wounded, a soldier writhes in pain, 
crawls bloody on the burnt, 
bloodied earth.


From up a crag, a sniper takes aim again
to finish off a task 
bereft of mirth.


On the ground, ants lug hefty loads around lumps
of seared soil, singed sand and 
torched boulder splinters


to build again and again their anthill crushed
by blood-stained boots of the 
slain and the slayers!...

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Woman Pirate hit a tiny snag
Wildebeest boyfriend was a drag.
He made her walk the plank.
Ship was caught in a current’s crag.
So she picked up a dirty rag.
Gave him a little spank.

Wildebeest snapped at her full force.
roaring with his great mouth of course.
she was smart and stepped aside.
I frankly cannot tell my source
But she came out on top of course.
Beast long gone, in ocean wide....

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While we floated down the river,
We felt a wind that caused a shiver,
It was quite the sight for sore eyes,
That eagle up in the sky.

There was silence in the air,
All the creatures stopped to stare, 
Up above it looked so heavenly,
The bright yellow sun shone down heavily.

He grasped the crag with crooked claws,
The eagle seems to have no flaws,
If only I could fly so high,
Like that eagle in the sky....

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Granite; dark with quartz
and royal with feldspar
           polished with stars and ghosts

its brother Marble
           cool with drops of scented water
           proud for veiled eyes

Chalk; full of dead white fish
          rings of old life

Slate for a roof under Northern rain

Jade for a burned queen
          hot and stripped of arms

A cycle of rock, an old crag
shouting through the mist....

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To take you in hand
or hold you here where you stand
the wind is your guide
as I salute you with pride
emblem spick and span
for I am a yorkshire man
together we hoe
tall in the fields hence I sow
in freedom we grow
arm in arm against the foe
for you are my flag
that soars over moor and crag
white rose I love you
on a background of sky blue.

© Harry J Horsman 2015

The Flag of the county of
Yorkshire England...

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grizzly grazing a meadow
pretending not to notice the dancer
wind shifting-it stands horribly- tall
sniffs the air
pivots nonchalantly
methodically swaggers
appetite enhanced
moment ignited
by the ancient guide 
it charges-bloody eyed
stomping the meadow blossoms
it swats at the dancer
again -again and again
as she flits toward the cliff
brute tumbling over 
to its cold slag death
ballerina dancing
over the screaming crag...

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