Saturday 29 December 2018

Smoky Kiss - A Poem.


Ghosts of the past,
sigh in smoky bliss;

Hot moments cease to last,
as crimson flames fizzle & hiss;

Misty illusions are cast,
locked in a sinful kiss...

*****
Image : pinterest

Erotic Chaos - A Poem.


Erratic heartbeats flutter
in breathless precipice
of capricious immensity.

Melodramatic feelings mutter
& glow in mind's edifice
in calm intensity.

Erotic sighs utter
a radiant song of bliss,
in chaos of captivity.


*****

Image: pinterest.

Winter - A Poem


Twilight skies
sprinkle silver snow,
embraced by frozen leaves;

Stark beauty smiles
in winter glow,
to brighten desolate eves.

****

Image: pinterest

Dialogue with Nature - A Poem.



Embrace the distant horizon,
when the mind is filled with fog;

Entangle perplexing puzzles in aversion,
as intellectual obstruction does unclog;

Engage the cloak of thought in abandon
with wondrous nature in deep dialogue.

***

Monday 26 November 2018

Dawn - A Poem.


My sixth tribute is to Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), who was one of the major English Romantic poets of the 2nd generation.

He was regarded as a fine lyric, as well an influential & philosophical poet in the English language.

I have used some prompts from Shelley's Poem, 'The Triumph of Life' to pen my verse.

Awakened Earth
Mountain snows 
Kiss of day
Smiling air
Melodious dew
Sweet dreams brood
Sleeping tempest

***
Celebrate 'The Triumph of Life',
dispel darkness, destroy strife; 
Get inspired by P.B.Shelley, 
pen verses of verve, in a volley...

***
 DAWN

Ravaged by freezing mountain snows,
the leafless trees lay bare;
The sleeping tempest is devoid of her throes,
sweet dreams brood in pre-dawn prayer;

An awakened earth shrugs off her icy shroud,
and welcomes the kiss of day with flair;
Famished nestlings chirp clear and loud,
Melodious dew sings, in the smiling air...

***

Images: 1. Pinterest 2. Deviantart

Monday 12 November 2018

Companion : A Poem.


When hurdles arrive as a battalion
& raging tempests form,
we all crave a companion
to help us weather the storm.

To jump in joy or suffer in gloom,
to brave boredoms of numbing norm;
To share a hug & balance on a bloom,
we need sunshine to smile after the rainstorm.

***

Image:Ajar Setiadi

Saturday 10 November 2018

The Lady of Shalott - A Tribute Poem.


This poem is my fifth tribute to an English poet. This is in memory of the haunting lyrical ballad by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 -1892), 'The Lady of Shalott'. 

'The Lady of Shalott' tells the story of a young noble woman imprisoned in a tower on an island near Camelot. She can only watch the outside world through a mirror and must weave what she sees. She has heard that if she looks at Camelot directly, she will be cursed. 

This is one of Tennyson’s most famous and beloved poems. It was originally written in 1832 and was published in 1842.

***

A medieval maiden near Camelot,
is cursed beyond repair;
In hues of reflected images sought,
weaves perpetual webs of despair;
The lonesome lady of Shalott
seeks redemption fair;
Loss in battle of wills well-fought,
a cracked mirror doth impare

From her tower, she departs distraught,
pale attire she doth wear,
Embarks she, on journey untaught
a quest beyond compare
A buoyant boat, she floats for a naught,
heavy heart barren & bare;
In whirls of water she is caught
clutched in a quagmire's glare.

Freezes she, in grasp of a deathly draught,
long before she spies a lair.
Found she is, her skin taut
& eyes in sightless stare.
They bow in grief, bereft of thought
& bow their heads in prayer.

A quandary she stays, in poetry wrought,
eternal in her story unfair
A paradigm of Providence's pitiless plot,
a memory, in millions' minds aware

And thus remains the Lady of Shalott
a testimony, to Tennyson's matchless flair.

***
Images: deviantart & slideshare.net

Sunday 4 November 2018

Heavy Heart - A Poem.


The remains of love
rot in a coffin of betrayal,
murdered by lies,
buried in memories of distress.

Morbid petals mock
as muscles of melancholy
inflict a crush of death,
to remnant hope in duress.

A heavy heart
breathes its last,
smothered by the weight
of its own emptiness.

***

🎨 : Derek Hess.


Tuesday 30 October 2018

Flamenco - A Poem.


Devoured by flaming fire,
in boisterous beats of a crescendo;

Winged limbs refuse to tire,
ensconced in embrace of a hero;

Twirled in circles of desire,
as arms of steel, tango in a flamenco...

***
Art: Hamish Blakley.


The Curse - A Poem.


A sinister moon casts her noxious curse,
ominous clouds mock in menace above;
Treacherous thorns, cross from bad to worse,
spine-chilling death adorns the alcove;

Betrayal-cloaked monsters, darken the dove,
stagnant passion begins to ebb;
Smothers the soothing shelter of love
& ensnares, in a mummified & mysterious web…

***
Image : Pinterest.

Saturday 27 October 2018

Sinister - A Poem.


The blaze of a sinking orb, sets free
embodied ravens in her soul of sins;
The vengeance of her brokenness begins,
crossing the facade of her ecstasy;

Baring the beast within the beauty
is a sinister stem of scaly skin;
Majestic in spirit, winged monsters within
unveil a beautifully shattered travesty.

***

Image: Pinterest.

Friday 26 October 2018

Turmoil - A Poem.


My fourth tribute is to Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), English poet, literary critic, philosopher and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets.

I have chosen these prompts from his poems, to use in my verse:

Ceaseless turmoil
Caves of ice
Demon lover

(Poem: Kubla Khan)

Phantom Light
Smothering weight
Dallied with distress
Luminous mist
Smarting wounds
Bitter grief

(Poem: Dejection: An Ode)


***


Inspiration in a volley
from Coleridge's Dejection;
Spill of melancholy
in poetic suffusion!

Turmoil.

In the phantom light of a luminous mist,
Bitter grief shalt hover,
A smothering weight on soul, doth exist
Resonant memories, beneath a moonlit bower;

Ceaseless turmoil, within cavernous caves of ice
in the heart, shalt ne’er recover;
Dallied with distress, ensnared in games of vice,
smarting wounds, left by a demon lover.

****

Image : Natalia Drepina , DeviantArt.

An Ode to Solitude.


My third tribute is to one of the most favorite poets of my childhood, the nature poet, William Wordsworth (1770-1850).


I have chosen these prompts from three of his poems to pen my verse.

Act of stealth
Troubled pleasure
Silent water
Trembling oars
Measured motion
Sparkling waves
Tempestuous time
Tenderness of thought.
Benign is Solitude

(Poem: The Prelude)

Vales and hills
(Poem: Daffodils)

Melancholy strain
(Poem: The Solitary Reaper)

I have written this ode in the Terza Rima rhyme scheme of poetry. I first read about this scheme in a famous poem by P.B.Shelley, called ‘The Ode to the West Wind’ and was compelled to attempt a similar scheme for one of my own poems.

In a terza rima poem, the first and third lines of a stanza rhyme, but the first line of the next stanza rhymes with the second line of the stanza before it. So, the stanzas would look like A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, and so on, with each letter representing the rhyming words. 

***

A flow of ink,
for Wordsworth's Prelude;
To marvel & think
in poetic magnitude!


An Ode to Solitude

An act of stealth, in troubled pleasure
amidst vales & hills, on a moonlit night,
a quest for peace, an intangible treasure;

Sparkling waves, no horizon in sight,
rising tides, the boat doth slaughter,
adrift eastward, sails in flight;

A churn of memories, in the mind’s mortar,
the heart seeks harmony, all in vain
but all is tranquil, in silent water;

Tempestuous time, wreaks a melancholy strain,
shining waters sliced by trembling oars,
toss of tempests in the brain;

Singed soul, in voiceless roars,
plaintive pursuits of a pensive mood,
no conscious memory of distant shores.

Measured motion unearths quietude;
the weary will discovers tenderness of thought
for in blessed nature, benign is solitude.

***

Image: YouTube.com

Nemesis - A Poem

My second tribute is to William Blake (1757-1827), the poet, painter, imaginative, mystic & intellectual visionary. A seminal figure of the Romantic age, he has been deemed a major poet & an original thinker.

The prompts I have chosen from his poems are:

Dark secret love 
Crimson joy 

(Poem: The Sick Rose)

Seize the fire 
Immortal hand 
Dread grasp

(Poem: The Tyger)

***

Spilling poetic ink 
for William Blake; 
Letting words spin & link, 
as verses arise & awake! 

Nemesis.

A dread grasp
of an immortal hand,
doth seize the fire of gloom,
deceives in pitiless ploy;

A burn of betrayal,
hard to withstand
writ on the faithful plume
of her heart, t'was but a toy;

A dark secret love,
of sinister strand
blackens the bloom,
poisons petals of crimson joy;

A deadly duplicity,
is quiescent quicksand
nemesis rages in doom,
profound passion, it doth destroy.

***
Image: XiNature, Google.