When I am up, every sky is a boundless, cloudless expanse of brilliantly blinding blue.
When I am up, I am William the Conqueror and William Shakespeare and William Jennings Bryan all in one.
When I am up, life is an eternity of perfect days punctuated by soul-shaking truths at every turn.
When I am up, every person I meet is a fount of infinite expectations.
When I am up, my momentous happiness is so moment-to-moment that if I look away for but an instant I might miss it all.
When I am up, I cannot turn away. I am a moth to the flame. I am Icarus. I am entranced by my own fire’s burning ballet. I am ablaze.
When I am up, I feel the gravity of every instant, weighing me down with the weight of it all as I struggle not to fall back to reality.
When I am up, I am alone. I am adrift on my sea of ideas?—?in search of my white whale, trying to stay within the white lines, staring into the glaring white light?—?without hope of rescue.
When I am up, I must come down…
-- by ThoughtsFromB4
"just something I wrote to better explain my bipolar poles"
Categories:
william the conqueror, how i feel, love,
Form: Free verse
I smell the blood of an Englishman
fresh from the womb--- umbilical snip.
Ingloriously clad, illegitimate lad,
appointed for leadership.
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
and, lo, his enemies are slain.
High on the saddle, mighty in battle,
as England's new king he would reign.
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
the odor of bloat and remorse.
With moans and cries, no more he'd arise;
The clock is a powerful force.
I smell the blood of an Englishman;
William's vigor flows through my veins.
His blood is my own, line of the throne---
one of more than five million names.
6-30-23
Categories:
william the conqueror, baby, family, history, humanity,
Form: Rhyme
Relics, relics sad and lone,
Cromwell's head and a single bone
that William the Conqueror left on earth
prove today of petty worth.
Oh that now those proud in power
knew the shortness of their hour.
Categories:
william the conqueror, death, power, vanity,
Form: Elegiac Lyric
The Vikings surviving
Travelling fighting
All were uniting
Ending enlightened
invasion surprising
England arriving
Provided a King
Fought and did win
The Normandy Vikings
My family were tied in
aligned with the timings
Madness my mind thinks
Extraordinary findings
All of it binding
From Norway as Vikings
Invasion and fighting
winning exciting
crowning the king
Battle of Hastings
History writing
William the Conqueror
Past paths wonder for
The first to the pinnacle
Witnessed a miracle
My Family ancestry
Walked with the best I see
very impressed I be
My life depressing me
Categories:
william the conqueror, history,
Form: Rhyme
I.
Higgledy piggledy
Roger de Coverley
Fonder of hoofing it
Than of romance
Found himself typified
Characteristically
King of the Reels and the
Lord of the Dance.
II.
Willety wallety
William the Conqueror
Wanted his subjects to
Quail at his power,
Crowing to Londoners
Hyperdespotically,
“Look, everybody, I’ve
Built me a tower!”
III.
Rickety tickety
Wolfram von Eschenbach
Sought for a subject to
Fashion a tale;
Tiring of writing so
Eschatologically,
Rather, he turned to the
Quest of the Grail.
NB. The nonsense opening of a Double Dactyl was originally, and is still most frequently, "higgledy-piggledy", but it can be any alliterative pair of dactyls. Here, the opening of the second is from the adapted version of the Scots folksong "Wee Cooper o' Fife" in the schoolhouse sequence of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds-- though some postings online mishear it as "willaby wallaby" or "willicky wallicky". The nonsense opening of the third is from Tom Lehrer's "The Irish Ballad".
Categories:
william the conqueror, dance, history, humorous, nonsense,
Form: Double Dactyl
CLERIHEW REVIEW
Sir Isaac Newton
Though genetically close to an Orang Utan
With his larger cranial cavity
He discovered the law of gravity
Atilla the Hun
Was a man who liked innocent fun
After a day of rape and pillage
He played cricket for his village
King William the Conqueror
Breeding not from the very top drawer
Put that with the deeds of a dastard
He was known as Bill the Bastard
Julius Caesar
Was a really imperious geezer
Though he headed for a fall
You must admit he had the Gaul
King of France: Louis Quatorze
Loved to dress in silky drawers
When asked “Do you feel that’s alright?”
He said: ”Yes, when they’re pulled up tight”
Categories:
william the conqueror, humor,
Form: Clerihew
Dover’s high
Cliffs reach towards the sky.
William the Conqueror breached the wall;
Spain, France, Germany…these waters held back them all.
Drake, Nelson, and Spitfire pilots in turns stood tall.
What do you call this battlefield trench?
The English Channel; French
Call La Manche.
Categories:
william the conqueror, england, hero, history, ocean,
Form: Verse
I knew a
Guillermo or William,
who had a liquor-flavored
tongue that conquered my
mother and peeled her
skin. His words were
alcoholics on a three
day binge, my mother
was the house that they
laughed in. His voice
turned my mother into a
beggar, she pleaded not
to be a victim of his love.
The portraits that hung in
his home were images of
his hand imprinted on
my mother’s suspecting
face. He played pity
so well. So well, that my
mother accepted his
violent imperfections
and learned to live in an
imaginary home. Where
are you now father?
Categories:
william the conqueror, family, people, mother,
Form: Free verse