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Kurt Philip Behm Jun 2017
I don’t bow to money,
  I don’t bow to fame

I kneel to that one thing,
  that time cannot change

I don’t speak for right,
  and won’t speak for wrong

My liege is the truth,
  all court jesters gone

I don’t hope to be knighted,
  my shield more concave

And rejecting all title,
  the past still enslaved

My will lay unbroken,
  my heart for a throne

A crown jeweled with memory
—all scepters disowned

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2017)
Lucy Tonic Nov 2012
Stars like scepters in the sky
Glorified in royalty
When just above God’s throne
One of them lost his loyalty
The covering cherub looks beautiful
Offspring of the morning
Possessed by a planet
Son of heaven’s mourning
Once he was a shining one
A day star of the earth
But a change of inner nature
And chaos soon was birthed
Rumors of a second coming
As Venus does her dance
Another crucifixion and
Another second chance
Paper crowns and bullrush scepters
Her throne a willow tree

In a  blue cotton gown
And Nike hightop glass slippers

She reigns over her grassy courtyard
A fearless leader ~ Wild and free

A champion of the winged and four legged
Of apple trees and dandelion seed

Dutiful of her backyard kingdom
Collecting leavings and legacy

Long may she live!
Long may she reign!

~ Our backyard Queen ~
Haadiya Sunasara Aug 2020
Scepters of Deception
The body may lie,
The lips may lie
And as it may seem
The tongue may lie
But the eyes.....
Oh those eyes
They are
Scepters of Deception
While in the midst of playing solitaire
(with losing outcome foreordained
after a couple moves), I became gripped
with combinations predicated on thirteen
ranks each of four French suits subsumed:
Clubs (♣), Diamonds (◊), Hearts (♥) And Spades (♠).

I  totalled a sum of fifty two variations.

If one of four possible draws for king available,
(which could be either Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts,
and Spades), that would automatically determine
every subsequent card diminishing in rank
topped off with an Ace.

Please feel welcome to challenge my presumption
within a dark alley late at night.

The above calculation logical since a standard deck
(not surprisingly) comprises 52 cards
(4 suits of 13).

Each suit (Clubs ♣, Diamonds ◊, Hearts ♥, Or Spades ♠)
contains an Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
Jack, Queen, And King.

There are no duplicates.

No Google search yielded results
asper this nagging question, but unexpectedly
whet an immediate appetite describing
the history of plain old vanilla playing cards.

Said legacy encompassing the four suits
i.e. collectively represent four elements
(wind, fire, water, and earth),
the seasons, and cardinal directions.

They represent struggle of opposing forces
for victory in life. Each suit on a deck of cards
represents four major pillars of economy
during middle ages: Heart represented
Church, Spades represented  military,
clubs represented agriculture, and
Diamonds represented merchant class.

King of hearts is the only king minus a mustache.

Face cards (Jacks, Queens, And Kings) so called
"face cards" because the cards
have pictures of their names.

One-eyed Royals (the Jack of spades
and Jack of Hearts often called "one-eyed Jacks"),
and King of Diamonds drawn in profile;
therefore, these cards
commonly referred to as "one-eyed".

The King of Spades ♠ ranks
as one of three immovable Fixed Cards
in the Cards of Life and resides
in the Crown Line of both Master Scripts
(Spirit and Life).

Said card, in situ, the most powerful card
in the deck.

A Jack or Knave is a playing card,
which in traditional French and English decks,
pictures a man in traditional or historic
aristocratic dress generally associated
with Europe of the 16th or 17th century.

The usual rank of a Jack, within its suit,
plays as if it were an 11
(that is, between the 10 and the Queen).

Charming, resourceful, personable and easy-going
best defines Jack of Spades.

Blessed with a creative mind,
this one-eyed Jack of the deck manifests
jais nais sais quois salient scrutiny
jest via virtue of lightness of his being.

The four card suits that we know today —
Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs
(rooted in French design) circa 15th century,
but the idea of card suits is much older.

The written history of card playing
began during 10th-century Asia,
from either China or India,
as a gambling game.

That idea found its way to ancient Muslim world
before 14th century.

The oldest known deck of Muslim playing cards,
like the playing cards of today,
had four suits: Coins, Cups, Swords, and Polo Sticks.

These decks of cards then showed up
in southern Europe, but because polo sticks
were unfamiliar to Europeans, that suit
eventually changed to Scepters, Batons,
or Cudgels (a type of club).
In France, Parisian cardmakers
settled on Spades, Hearts, Clubs, and Diamonds
as the four suits.  
    
The first adaptations of German card suits
constituted Leaves, Hearts, and Hawk Bells
(Acorns rounded out German suit).

Considering cards strictly made
for French upper class, tis little surprise
cardmakers chose expensive
Diamonds over common Acorns.

The French advanced card making utilizing
flat, single-color silhouettes for suits.

These images created with simple stencils,
made manufacture easy, quick, and inexpensive.

Innovative new, cheaper cards
flooded the market in the 15th century,
became popular in England,
and then traveled to America.    

Contrary to contemporary belief four suits
meant to represent four seasons inaccurate.

Equally questionable 52 cards linkedin
to 52 weeks of the year.

Many numerological and religious
explanations asper composition  
analogous to deck of cards postulated,
but these explanations purportedly created
ex post facto, perhaps to give deck-holders
a solid argument, that role deck of cards
maintained existed other than for gambling.
rachelle lee Apr 2013
how do i even begin to describe this color,
because it is so
******* versatile.

firstly it is the color of royalty and magic--

stuff of fairy tales that leap from the page
and into your mind's eye.
richly-hued gowns reach the polished floor;
crowns and scepters shine with amethyst,
with jasper,
with tanzanite.
this color shines in the stardust of a wizard's cloak,
shimmering in the candlelight as he pours over texts and trinkets
with a glowy-eyed owl brooding on his shoulder.
it billows from the smoke of a witch's potion--
eye of newt and
wing of bat and
toe of frog
combine into a roiling haze that will make the princess
fall in love and then kiss death.

"double, double, toil and trouble...
your dreams and despair await."

this color is also one of spring.

it dots on the hills in delicate petals of
heather and lavender,
and the slightly darker
pansies and geraniums.
it scatters on the wind and leaves its perfume for
butterflies and
bumblebees and
girls in love.

before the sun rises and paints the sky in its warmth,
the world stands still in a state that is
neither dark nor light.
the stars have gone but
morning has not quite arrived to take its place;
birds are not yet chirping and
bugs and not yet buzzing--
in fact the only sound is your own mumbling
as you press your face into the pillow as though
trying to push away the responsibilities that
loom in the daytime.

it is here that this color is perhaps at its softest.

now, there is one more place this color shows itself,
though I'd rather it not be the case.

it is the shade of hurt and fear,
the shade of loneliness.
this color blooms on her back and shoulders and over her eye--
in bruises dark enough for her to seek cover-up
and a restraining order.
this color outlines the handprint of his attacker,
when he was wrenched into an alley and
stripped of his sense of security.

this color looms over the dispossessed
no matter how brightly the sun is shining.
instead of hugs and kisses,
these lost souls are met with remarks like
"loser" and
"*****" and
"****-up."
solitude is sanctuary as invisible hands
attempt to choke the life out of the outcasts.

do you see what i meant when i said
that this color is versatile?
it is a color of kingship and witchcraft,
of nature and pain.

it is not the color of singular definition.
Part 3 of the color series! I definitely plan on getting as many colors as possible posted, but hopefully I'll be able to write other things as well. Just as before, originally written in prose and converted to poetry.

Cloud-scraped  and smoldering..
(Scepters have  handles,
not every  hand can fit)

Dream-scenes,  on fleshscreens
by far,  burn the brightest..

But;

*****-lines  in quartertimes
best accentuate--
Those  wine-goblet,   ****.

(My head is spinning;
hellbent,  on sinning..)


.      .      .      .

Evil Impulse,  brings me close
(you have a gift, my Love)
Rise above,  Paul..

Rise above
Rise above
Rise above
Rise above

Rise above.



I woke up,
and the world outside was dark..
All so quiet, before the dawn;
opened up the door
and walked outside

The ground was cold

I walked until
I couldn't walk any more
to a place I'd never been
There was something
stirring in the air

In front of me, I could see--

More than this
More than this
So much more than this,
there is something else there
when all that you had has all gone
And more than this,  I stand..
feeling so connected

And I'm  all there
right next to you

It started
when I saw the ship go down
I saw them struggle
in the sea

And suddenly
the picture disappears
in front of me

Now we're busy making
all our busy plans
on foundations built to last
But nothing fades as fast
as the future

and nothing clings like the past,
until we can see--

More than this
More than this
So much more than this
there is something out there
More than this,

It's coming through

And more than this..
I stand alone, and so connected

(And I'm all there
Right next to you)

Oh then it's alright
When with every day
another bit falls away
Oh but its still alright,
alright, alright
And like words together
we can make some sense..

Much more than this..
way beyond imagination
Much more than this,
beyond the stars..
With my head so fullsSo full of fractured pictures

And I'm all there
right next to you
https://youtu.be/7YnTKhyWRfk

asking questions
you already know the answer to
<3 <3
Julia Quizon Jul 2014
they crowd the palace
kings with golden scepters
and queens with glimmering crowns
one by one standing in front of
the tallest tower

inside there are
streamers painted with every color smudged on an artist's palette
the music is blaring
entering the ears of every listener

inside there is
food on every porcelain plate
and napkins folded into delicate shapes

there is a banner
looking down from the heavens
written on it is the reason behind this sudden celebration

congratulations my love for
once again you have managed
to make me the dust
beneath your feet and
the rust between your bones

— The End —