Through the tops of the spindle finger trees,Winds the windy breeze of autumn,Whispering in advance its warning,Its promise, of inevitable winter. It sings no song of hibernation,No prospect of warm spring regeneration,Just certain, guaranteed annihilation,And concrete dust;On children’s anticipation, Of death.
Author Archives: grahamswords1962
Mr Anthracite
When Mr An-thra-Cite is in town,The air falls to its knees in praise.The trees,Lower their limbs,Cover their leaves andAvert their gaze,As he takes to his stage.Dressed in the finest of ebony silk,He gleams resplendent.Such stature, such panache,So much elegance,Not a hint of “flash”.He is the maestro of the treetops,Dusk’s dazzling Diva,His notes can split clouds,PierceContinue reading “Mr Anthracite”
Norfolk morning
Owls, hidden in acorn laden oaks,Speak a soothing, soft goodnight to each otherAs the sunrise, that only I and the farmer greet,Suggests the bright night stars should sleep. The gentle rolling simmer of ochre pigeon chatter,Is occasionally broken by the staccato scratches dispatched by fire-grate painted pheasants.Hares scuttle through the sharp spikes of fadingContinue reading “Norfolk morning”
Future postcard
Through the plain glass paneThe cool, unmoved, slate grey is the same,As yesterday’s.As it will no doubt be tomorrow. Has anything changed?Will anything remain,Of the laughter, the love, the strains?Should we pour our memories down the drain? What if we wrote ourselves a note?We could sign it “well done you”,Then put it in theContinue reading “Future postcard”
Seasonal Punctuation
This weather, this part of this season,It’s nothing more than punctuation.A semicolon in our breathing,That slows our thoughtsTo calm hearts beating,A parenthesis with inserted meaning;You need to rest a while. It brings a comma to the budding flowers,And with bitter coldAnd sleet filled showers,That shut away all Jackdaw caws,And keeps sensible catsSensibly indoors,& makes theContinue reading “Seasonal Punctuation”
The last laff
See me, I’m the conten kreata,A full-blown, viral, soshul influenza,I aint no chuffing know-all,See my fans, day no me betta,I’m a opinion sensashun,A media manipulata,A digital top gun,A diamond instigata,A solid gold, star on a roll,Yeah, bye, I’ll see you later.I can cry like a crocodileAn smile like a alleygata,You can see me on daContinue reading “The last laff”
When Kajsa sings
When Kajsa sings,The air stops breathing,The earth sighsAnd we walk in the presence of respect.When Kajsa sings. When Katja sings,The stones give up their spirits,The river smiles,And the birch trees bow down again.When Kajsa sings. When Katja joiks,She doesn’t stand alone,Her voice is defiance,And her people are seen.When Kajsa sings.
Why does Sisyphus go fishing?
And so we reach our final challenge of 2024, that being to write a poem in which the speaker is identified with, or compared to, a character from myth or legend, as in Claire Scott’s poem “Scheherazade at the Doctor’s Office.” Every day this month (year) I have gone to work on the first thingContinue reading “Why does Sisyphus go fishing?”
Taylor Swift’s Cardigan
In recognition of Taylor Swift releasing another album, Merriam-Webster put together a list of ten words from Taylor Swift songs. The setter hoped we didn’t find this too torturous (you have no idea!!!), but we were challenged to select one these words, and write a poem that uses the word as its title. I grasped the nettle,Continue reading “Taylor Swift’s Cardigan”
Paradise Lost
Our optional prompt for today asks us try our hand at writing a sijo. This is a traditional Korean verse form. A sijo has three lines of 14-16 syllables. The first line introduces the poem’s theme, the second discusses it, and the third line, which is divided into two sentences or clauses, ends the poemContinue reading “Paradise Lost”
Missives & Musings 