Tallow Poems

Enter deep into our woods
and you’ll come upon an old cemetery.
It was a cleared-out field then

when they were lowered in those graves.
The native slate that marks each one
is now roughed-edged by years 

of gnawing time and weather. 
The flesh that...Read More

Did I see a flicker, glimmer, ray of light or hope in some far-off stained glass window,
where pillar candles melt upon mosaics,
where rosehip stearates clutch at fragile perfumes,
where wax encrusted drips turn into cherry blossom plasmas of the mind,
when hardened...Read More

Yours truly snapped, popped,
and cracked his crown out cervix
(I'll spare ye the bloody graphics),
whence obstetrician able, eager, and
ready underscored with italics

to pass (think football) garden variety
wrinkled newborn asthma
noggin heralded lix
plus deux orbits ago
sported an ordinary

uneventful, nonetheless miraculous
biological secrete reproductive tricks
immediately...Read More

From summer's loam we took our daily bread
But now the season of the lean and mean
When soil has turned to black and much is dead.
The last few shoots are numb and earth is stone.
Sunlight is worth but a tallow glimmer.
Some...Read More

(A pauper girl's account of the coalmine.)

Gentleman Jack we thank you for the work.
Cutting coals from your mine we do not shirk.

Each day we labour to win weekly wage
in tight tunnels with turns and tortuous twists.
Down in a shaft we...Read More

Candle bright affection 
is melting
Trust is on the wane,
our love light is flickering

Vows of fidelity
was such a beautiful beginning
Heartfelt words spoken with sincerity
had no echo fear of ending

This love burned so bright,
but only for a short time
Until waxen tears of...Read More

Summer Heat

Morning melts and dribbles
through the blinds, where it rests
in molten puddles on the floor
If you are very still, you can hear
the tap...tap of its fingers as it tries
to seep under the door
Hide anywhere you want to...
go ahead and find...Read More

I am talking about the first day to throw you away.
The day you hit me; 
My bird took refuge in your secret house. 
Both of us were in the trunk:
of the cemetery;
Both are very happy.
Then you were sucking my lips...Read More

(Idea engendered from Lombok earthquake: Indonesia)

Nary a chink of illumination pierces thru
thick cavernous rock solid chamber home
     to this crepuscular anchorite,
who spent untold countless chunks of time
holed up deep underground

     initially to...Read More

frankly zapped after wildly oscillating
in tandem with seven bobble heads and ten French horns)
a devilish trumpeting event
by pre-Christian Celtic festival standards
with a “proto” Don twick or tweeting
like a Taj Mahal wonder of webbed, wide world scout
Samhain celebrated on nightfall of...Read More

KALEIDOSCOPIC WORLD
By R.e. Taylor

When I look at the world
I do not see what everyone else sees
I see lands where colors are swirled
How the colors blend with ease

There is no more black, white, red, tallow or brown
Everyone I see is every...Read More

People of Color

“People of color”- indeed!  How absolutely ridiculous! 'I am “people of color”'!!! My eyes are blue like a summer sky, azure like the sea. They are green and gray and brown and hazel!  My hair runs...Read More

Just a few coals and I'll give you some heat.
Put my hot flame to these black faces seen.
Such wonder seems for me as no big feat,
and by the fire enjoy yourself serene.
Just a small candle, I'll give you some light.
The...Read More

Seasons
Autumn with rustling red and brittle brown,
Time weighing heavily as honey oozes;
Or as silently as the sun goes down
With no birds singing as all nature closes.

Winter with gritty grey and creaseless white,
Time freezing smoothly as iron pressing;
Or as stretched as...Read More

No hearts and flowers for me on Valentine's Day,
so Cupid, don't take aim with your arrows.
My heart will not allow love to sweep me away.

For past passion there was a profuse price to pay.
I was wounded in the breast like...Read More

Self Inflicted


The wounds were “self-inflicted”
unmindful of the pain
that surged within the shattered soul
a never ending rain.

The priest in sanctimonious lie
anointed, blessed, and prayed
the parish nodded knowingly
they too had been betrayed.

The charlatans of Christendom
succumbed to mourning wail
while covering for demons
who should...Read More

Tallow made candles, and Middle English used to spell the word as 'candels'.

candle or candel -
back in the past with the last -
    a world of candels

I am imagining that time, with darkness in the corridor until...Read More

Shadows flicker and dance
Faint the glimmer 
Of candlelight flame
Frantically dancing 
As if to keep 
Darkness at bay

Not e’en a tap dance
Upon taper of tallow
Nor whispered prayer
E’er so hallowed 
can  help to hasten 
The breaking of day

So doth the flames...Read More

INSPIRATION PEAK AT MALIBU

Nestle between dancing trees
a rock bed creek
leaks out to the beckoning sea
leaving abandoned thongs 
peeking through the sands of time.

A proud lizard 
strikes a kingly pose
on his throne of dead wood;
butterflies dart to and fro
the incense smoke...Read More

As a young boy
    I watch with interest the small man
   Wolf Hunter - a wise father of the hunt


He begins an old ritual
   coating his knife blade 
   rich animal...Read More

Another poem that I wrote alone,
Another one that blossomed from woe.
Will this be the last poem I'll writ?
The gift from the Goddess thrown in a pit?
Have I deicided the Moon's tallow dreams;
A divulged matricide to noose bind gleams.

Why is it...Read More

Nature's, anesthetizing beauty held 
tightly in escrow
'Til on tendered form its heavenly 
charm can bestow

Fair maiden strides through 
manicured meadow
In her lovely essence, the enchanted 
flora doth wallow

Overhead, azure canvas paints a 
regal halo
Her satin cheeks radiant in Helios's 
afterglow

Beneath,...Read More

Majestic colours
Line the room
Red, Orange Gold.

Champagne bottles
All popped their corks
Stand tall on shelves.

Mirrors, Mirrors
Fretwork frames
Everywhere reflecting
Orange lighting.

Tallow hanging
Like pearl dropplets.

Arched doorway
Draped in red velvet
Tied back with
Gold sashes.

Pictures, pictures
Hang all around
Past and present
Black and white.

Busy, Busy,
Mind racing
Will I write?
I think not...

...Read More

Spring's annual rhythms cerebrally flow
Nature's mercurial splendour to show
Balmy portents o'er icy mantle glow
Earth's axis tilts; hearth to mellow
Helios's furnace with spawning heat doth bellow
Residual beams to brush face so sallow
A glossy, emerald sheen on encrusted folds bestow
A jaundiced hue...Read More

A wicked wick of tallow lit
witch's sacrifice remit,
smoky tapered candles fit
in a dead man's skull a writ.

Eyes ablaze Satan permits,
the single soul to rest a bit,
and blood runs-- into the pit
in candle light the witches flit.



...Read More