Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 Jan 2023 Wk kortas
Evan Stephens
The statues are eyeless in Iveagh,
ruins under leafed eaves,

effaced, pitted, blotted,
benighted green and wet:

they have heard far more love
than mine and hers, witnessed

others filled with beer, wine,
& whiskey. Forbidden fruit

rots on the branch. Magpies gather
by blue knees, curious and hopeful.

Crimes of the heart were committed
on that night. The sound of the river

sinewed through the cracked window.
The past was father of the present,

the sheets were stained sails.
Coffee was brewing in the evening,

corks rolled into corners,
whiskey emptied the memory.

Now it's years, years later:
I just walked on water,

the river would not collapse beneath me.
A friend sent me neon letters,

rain is due tomorrow,
and the kittens are restless.

I open a bottle. My lovely neighbor
is building a mirror before dinner,

she borrows a screwdriver.
I am guilty of everything you said.

I am guilty: but there is no jury
who would ever convict.
 Jan 2023 Wk kortas
Lawrence Hall
Happy Nonsense Rhymes for V.B.

A tuppence for your hopes and dreams
A florin for flowers for your hair
A sixpence for some seven sunbeams
A half-crown for a comfy fireside chair
 Jan 2023 Wk kortas
Whit Howland
A polka dotted
Volkswagen

an impression
done in smudges

swipes

swaths

and such as life
they say

a journey
with little or no points of reference

or context

but that's what makes it
poetry

so they say
 Jan 2023 Wk kortas
Lawrence Hall
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.c­om
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com

        Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Moderated Commentator

How comforting to know that at the end of this plod
Despite each fault and flaw and fall and fail
We will be judged by our loving God
And not by the readers of the Daily Mail

(Cf. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards)
 Jan 2023 Wk kortas
Lawrence Hall
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.c­om
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com

                  ­                         Subverting Poetic Convention

Given that the convention
Is to subvert convention
Then to subvert convention
Is to follow convention

Or we could craft poetry
With honesty and wit
And as for convention
Give not a thought to it
Forgotten in the rank long grass
A Café of an ancient class,
Purloining in a classic way
Good beverages of yesterday.
Astride a weathered timber seat
We sat and deigned to rest our feet,
The comfort in this run down place
Permitting smiles to crease our face.

We happened, on this windy day,
To watch the rippled grasses sway,
Watched the starlings flock and mass
Above, in clouds of seething gas.
Autumn tones in billowed leaves
Gathered as the breezes pleased.
Stretched the legs and felt the sun….
Joyously, we laughed, as one.

She served us mugs of steaming brew
A thick Moroccan medley stew
With vegetables in chilli’s bite
And sautéed lamb to add delight.
So glorious, in the afternoon,
We sipped, deliciously, attuned.
Moments, in that space of time,
To make our wondrous day….sublime.

M.
Taranaki, NZ
April 2022
 Jan 2023 Wk kortas
Lawrence Hall
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

                       The Machine Pauses (and then Restarts)

Within a Dark-Lit Egg

Mechanical Air
Mechanical Light
Electronic Beepings
Procrustes is a Short, Bitter Man Who Doesn’t Like Anyone

Mechanical Air
On the day Papa Benedict died
I lived
And so prayed with him
As the electronics beeped in the new year

Mechanical Light
A crucifix on the wall faded away
And gas was silent in a tube
And when the haze was gone
The crucifix was still there

Electronic Beepings
BeepBEEPBEEPBLEEP beep                 beep
beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep
I turned to my wristwatch
But it was dead

Procrustes is a Short, Bitter Man Who Doesn’t Like Anyone
Tubes in both arms, and arms must not be bent
Hard plastic bubbles beneath weary sheets
A plastic paddle of obscure call buttons
There is no time within no time

All made better

Heilige Elisabeth von Thuringen
And those who serve with her
Quiet voices beyond the door, beside the bed
Soft footfalls hastening to come to us
With baskets from the Lord’s table



(Cf. The Machine Stops, E.M. Forster)
 Jan 2023 Wk kortas
Lawrence Hall
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                            An Accident in the Scriptorium

One of the monks fainted, and bruised his head;
“This copier is broken,” Brother Armarian said
Next page