Hello Poetry
Submit your work and get some sparkles! Create free account
"clifftop" poems
I'm paying for the careless laughs I cast at my poor mother in the past when she would cringe and turn away as we sought edges to enhance our play. High trees and rooftops cliffside walks - whatever would extend the view beyond the grim grey granite grip we knew. The humour lay in knowing we were safe, that these short frissons were a break between long stretches of mundane and easy comfort, free from pain. Perhaps, we thought, it does her good to gasp and shudder, shout and blame - she knows that nothing's gained by shouting "Not too close!" That just extends the game. And then we're home and she, once more, is sane. That un-won wisdom taunts me now. The thought that fear was rare, somehow that each new feat of daring was a treat the spice and colour in a mother's life which otherwise was dull. Then, suddenly, my children, you appear and now I fear that everything's a crumbling clifftop a wind-bent, beetle-brittle branch that you are twisted in the fickle hands of chance Your precious whims your pale, glass-fragile skins are buffeted by everything. All ice is thin - the wolves are real it was not just the wind. And even here upon the edge of morning misfired wires inside your precious head could make a storm-tossed life-raft of your cozy bed I stand beside you, out of reach though long prepared to meet the reason I am scared. You curl and shrink turn glassy eyes towards the wall while I await the blow that, thank God, doesn't fall, this time my youthful self has found a cliff to climb above a rocky beach and cackles at his mother's panicked call.
0
Oct 5, 2017
Oct 5, 2017 at 4:05 PM UTC
Edges
I'm paying for the careless laughs I cast at my poor mother in the past when she would cringe and turn away as we sought edges to enhance our play. High trees and rooftops cliffside walks - whatever would extend the view beyond the grim grey granite grip we knew. The humour lay in knowing we were safe, that these short frissons were a break between long stretches of mundane and easy comfort, free from pain. Perhaps, we thought, it does her good to gasp and shudder, shout and blame - she knows that nothing's gained by shouting "Not too close!" That just extends the game. And then we're home and she, once more, is sane. That un-won wisdom taunts me now. The thought that fear was rare, somehow that each new feat of daring was a treat the spice and colour in a mother's life which otherwise was dull. Then, suddenly, my children, you appear and now I fear that everything's a crumbling clifftop a wind-bent, beetle-brittle branch that you are twisted in the fickle hands of chance Your precious whims your pale, glass-fragile skins are buffeted by everything. All ice is thin - the wolves are real it was not just the wind. And even here upon the edge of morning misfired wires inside your precious head could make a storm-tossed life-raft of your cozy bed I stand beside you, out of reach though long prepared to meet the reason I am scared. You curl and shrink turn glassy eyes towards the wall while I await the blow that, thank God, doesn't fall, this time my youthful self has found a cliff to climb above a rocky beach and cackles at his mother's panicked call.
Continue reading...
70
I’d walked back home by the clifftop path, I’d only been gone an hour, Rounding the point, it came into view The sight of our Black Stone Tower. Its ancient mystery suited me then We’d picked it up for a song, Nobody else had wanted it, At the price, we couldn’t go wrong. They said that a king had built it there Far back in the mists of time, And soldiers climbed by the old stone stair, But now, thank god, it was mine. A roof to shelter my Evelyn, Though we supped by candlelight, And drew our water deep from a well, Made love when the stars were bright. But now a breeze blew up from the cliff, Was chill, and ruffled my hair, And something about the Black Stone Tower Was strange, a sense of despair. For weeds had grown where the weeds were not When I’d left, an hour before, And someone had painted a bright red cross On the Baltic Pine of the door. It was only when I had got close up That I saw that the red was blood, And the door was half off its hinges,where It was splintering, as I stood, Then shapes began to appear to me, Of soldiers, battering in The Baltic Pine of this ancient door To slay the soldiers within. There wasn’t a single sound to hear, There should have been clash and roar, A mighty battle was raging in The Black Stone Tower of war. I called and I called for Evelyn But there wasn’t a single trace Of the love that I’d left alone in there, That now, most terrible place. I ran outside to the edge of the cliff And stared down into the bay, And there was the foulest, evil ship Sails set, for sailing away. And Evelyn strode down on the beach While a soldier pulled at her hair, Dragging her into a longboat as She fought and struggled down there. But this was a different Evelyn To the one that I’d left at home, The girl on the beach was dressed in peach, My Evelyn dressed in bone, And not in a full length courtly dress Like you see from the days of yore, As her ghostly shadow stepped in the boat And sailed away from the shore. I turned again to the Black Stone Tower And the door was back in its frame, There wasn’t a sign of the ****** cross That had been there, just as I came. And Evelyn staggered from out the door As I cried out, ‘Where have you been?’ And she said sleepily, ‘Don’t be cross, I’ve had an incredible dream!’ David Lewis Paget
0
May 29, 2015
May 29, 2015 at 7:03 AM UTC
The Black Stone Tower
I’d walked back home by the clifftop path, I’d only been gone an hour, Rounding the point, it came into view The sight of our Black Stone Tower. Its ancient mystery suited me then We’d picked it up for a song, Nobody else had wanted it, At the price, we couldn’t go wrong. They said that a king had built it there Far back in the mists of time, And soldiers climbed by the old stone stair, But now, thank god, it was mine. A roof to shelter my Evelyn, Though we supped by candlelight, And drew our water deep from a well, Made love when the stars were bright. But now a breeze blew up from the cliff, Was chill, and ruffled my hair, And something about the Black Stone Tower Was strange, a sense of despair. For weeds had grown where the weeds were not When I’d left, an hour before, And someone had painted a bright red cross On the Baltic Pine of the door. It was only when I had got close up That I saw that the red was blood, And the door was half off its hinges,where It was splintering, as I stood, Then shapes began to appear to me, Of soldiers, battering in The Baltic Pine of this ancient door To slay the soldiers within. There wasn’t a single sound to hear, There should have been clash and roar, A mighty battle was raging in The Black Stone Tower of war. I called and I called for Evelyn But there wasn’t a single trace Of the love that I’d left alone in there, That now, most terrible place. I ran outside to the edge of the cliff And stared down into the bay, And there was the foulest, evil ship Sails set, for sailing away. And Evelyn strode down on the beach While a soldier pulled at her hair, Dragging her into a longboat as She fought and struggled down there. But this was a different Evelyn To the one that I’d left at home, The girl on the beach was dressed in peach, My Evelyn dressed in bone, And not in a full length courtly dress Like you see from the days of yore, As her ghostly shadow stepped in the boat And sailed away from the shore. I turned again to the Black Stone Tower And the door was back in its frame, There wasn’t a sign of the ****** cross That had been there, just as I came. And Evelyn staggered from out the door As I cried out, ‘Where have you been?’ And she said sleepily, ‘Don’t be cross, I’ve had an incredible dream!’ David Lewis Paget
Continue reading...
65
Once I stood upon a clifftop where the wind rose up to brush my face my cheek, blowing my hair behind me. It opened up my heart to feel, as if God himself was coming at my heel. As if I stood on the edge of time, glimpsed beyond life itself,   heard the cry of gulls beneath my feet, howling some anguished message in their desperate frenzy to eat. I breathed the Ocean's scent saw it's deep blue green erupt, as it hit the hard rocks of time, unbowed and unbent, not to be tamed,broken or trapped, mysteries remaining untapped, forever. perhaps only to be caught in my imagination, like a photo, a painting,a dedication for memories sake. This magic,this ocean deep, this pure,good energy,that heals and soothes, the horizon, where the water meets the skies, these things, I found within your eyes.
0
Jun 14, 2015
Jun 14, 2015 at 5:45 PM UTC
Sea Blue
I’ll walk clifftop. Watch the sunrise fractured by a hundred different puddles, made whole again by the sea. I’ll bleed peace and spill calm over ground that should’ve been cared for by now, and I’ll draw maps of the old season in battleship blue and a half-healed ****** crimson. I’ll love them. Today they are mine. Tonight I’ll give them away, and I’ll love them more. I’ll walk clifftop. I’ll pause. Watch the sunset rain copper-coins into a rolling-smoke sea, and I’ll miss him.
0
Jan 4, 2021
Jan 4, 2021 at 3:43 AM UTC
Today
We’d moved on in to a clifftop house When our babe was very young, I had to ***** a barbed wire fence To keep our darling at home, For Ellen was a precocious child With a beautiful, smiling face, But for all our efforts to tame her down It was hard to keep her in place. She would bounce about, would run on out The moment we turned our backs, Many a time I would see her climb And she’d give us heart attacks. ‘She’s halfway up the chimney, John, She’s climbed right up to the thatch,’ The wife would cry, and I’d almost die In bringing our daughter back. She’d stand awhile by the cottage gate That led on out to the track, That wound its way right down to the bay On a narrow, winding path, I wired the gate, and I thought it held Till the day she broke on through, And made her little way to the bay Before we even knew. I found her at the mouth of a cave That sat just up from the shore, And breathed a sigh of relief as we Embraced, like never before, But she pointed in to the darkened cave With her tiny little hand, ‘I want to go in the cave with him, That funny old sailor man!’ ‘There isn’t a man in the cave,’ I said, ‘You must have been seeing things.’ ‘Oh no! He asked me to follow him And he showed me lots of rings. He had a black patch over his eye, And a ponytail in his hair, I want to go where the sailor goes, Will you let me go in there?’ I carried her back up the winding path Though she clung to me and cried, ‘That cave is simply an eerie place And it’s cold and damp inside.’ I should have taken more notice then, I thought it was just a rave, For days, young Ellen would speak of him, The man who lived in the cave. I went to check at the library, The history of the town, And read that smugglers used that cave When nobody was around, And long before there were buildings there A smuggler on the run, Had sheltered there in that dismal cave With his daughter, Ellen Gunn. I raced on home to the clifftop house To find young Ellen gone, The wife was having hysterics there And I was overcome. I ran, pell mell down the clifftop path It was such a deathly scare, And searched to the end of that awful cave And I found her Teddy Bear. A fisherman on the beach had seen Young Ellen on the sand, Then watched as a sailor took her in To the cave there, hand in hand. ‘I thought that he was her father,’ said The rustic fisherman, ‘She seemed quite happy to go with him And he looked a kindly man.’ I must have searched it a dozen times And I called, and cursed, and cried, And prayed to god that I’d find my girl Hid somewhere deep inside, When out of the depths, she toddled out Stood still, turned back to the cave, And that’s when I glimpsed that sailor man, Who stood at the back, and waved. David Lewis Paget
0
Apr 7, 2015
Apr 7, 2015 at 2:44 AM UTC
The Man Who Lived in the Cave
We’d moved on in to a clifftop house When our babe was very young, I had to ***** a barbed wire fence To keep our darling at home, For Ellen was a precocious child With a beautiful, smiling face, But for all our efforts to tame her down It was hard to keep her in place. She would bounce about, would run on out The moment we turned our backs, Many a time I would see her climb And she’d give us heart attacks. ‘She’s halfway up the chimney, John, She’s climbed right up to the thatch,’ The wife would cry, and I’d almost die In bringing our daughter back. She’d stand awhile by the cottage gate That led on out to the track, That wound its way right down to the bay On a narrow, winding path, I wired the gate, and I thought it held Till the day she broke on through, And made her little way to the bay Before we even knew. I found her at the mouth of a cave That sat just up from the shore, And breathed a sigh of relief as we Embraced, like never before, But she pointed in to the darkened cave With her tiny little hand, ‘I want to go in the cave with him, That funny old sailor man!’ ‘There isn’t a man in the cave,’ I said, ‘You must have been seeing things.’ ‘Oh no! He asked me to follow him And he showed me lots of rings. He had a black patch over his eye, And a ponytail in his hair, I want to go where the sailor goes, Will you let me go in there?’ I carried her back up the winding path Though she clung to me and cried, ‘That cave is simply an eerie place And it’s cold and damp inside.’ I should have taken more notice then, I thought it was just a rave, For days, young Ellen would speak of him, The man who lived in the cave. I went to check at the library, The history of the town, And read that smugglers used that cave When nobody was around, And long before there were buildings there A smuggler on the run, Had sheltered there in that dismal cave With his daughter, Ellen Gunn. I raced on home to the clifftop house To find young Ellen gone, The wife was having hysterics there And I was overcome. I ran, pell mell down the clifftop path It was such a deathly scare, And searched to the end of that awful cave And I found her Teddy Bear. A fisherman on the beach had seen Young Ellen on the sand, Then watched as a sailor took her in To the cave there, hand in hand. ‘I thought that he was her father,’ said The rustic fisherman, ‘She seemed quite happy to go with him And he looked a kindly man.’ I must have searched it a dozen times And I called, and cursed, and cried, And prayed to god that I’d find my girl Hid somewhere deep inside, When out of the depths, she toddled out Stood still, turned back to the cave, And that’s when I glimpsed that sailor man, Who stood at the back, and waved. David Lewis Paget
Continue reading...
81
The woman on the clifftop dreamed that she could fly she longed to be an angel to soar up in the sky she planned her journeys carefully all the places she would go as soon as she had her feathery wings as soft and white as snow the villagers all laughed at her and told her she was mad that perhaps she should jump off the bridge (to be rid of her they'd be glad) but the woman did not care and her dream stuck in her mind as she thought of all the places and the secrets she would find she took a step towards the edge and flung herself at the sky and whispered as she slowly fell "God please help me fly" the woman on the clifftop disappeared that day and as her body was never found the people often say "she was a mad old woman who dreamed that she could fly she longed to be an angel to soar up in the sky no one knows what happened to her and when the church bell rings we look up at the sky and hope that God gave her her wings"
0
Jul 22, 2011
Jul 22, 2011 at 2:00 PM UTC
The Woman on the Clifftop
There once was a man A man “with a plan.” For our purposes We’ll call him “Dan.” Dan had a friend A friend “’til the end” But a hand was one thing This friend couldn’t lend. Dan cried for a lift As he hung from the cliff And he hated himself Every minute of it. And they sat in silence Obvious Passive Violence But no matter how he tried, His mouth remained flat. Dan needed some help Like pants with no belt But his friend “’til the end” Had no message to send. And Dan cursed at his past For things move too fast In a world where you can’t Leave the thoughts you had last. And Dan cursed the world The world he unfurled Through the months long before And his body felt torn. And as Dan wept Alone he was left And his friend “’til the end” Didn’t give the smallest little **** So Dan cursed his friends As his knuckles turned red And the dirt in his fingers began slipping free. And he cried out for help Like pants with no belt But a hand was one thing That this friend couldn’t lend. It’s a matter of pride Of choosing a side But Dan didn’t want To go for this ride. And the sun burnt down hot And the moon burnt up cold And his heart, it did rot And his mind did unfold. He cursed everything From the sun to the moon And a poison in him Did bloom in the gloom. He said “I don’t care,” But an occasion so rare Made this man stare At his friend’s hollow glare. As Dan’s knuckles turned bare His friend, he did stare And his friend said “Dan, this isn’t fair.” Dan knew he was right, But straight out of fright Looked down to the beach: The glass man was in sight. “You treat me so wrong,” Said this man’s friend “Please just tell me… When will it end?” Dan tried to speak out Without having to pout For he knew exactly What he was talking about. “Please, my dear friend,” Cried the man on the cliff. “If you could just lend a hand We could end this small tiff.” “But a cliff top, so high As the one you stand by Is something I cannot do alone. So, please, my dear friend… Be willing to try.” And these mortal two These mortal few Who stared below At the water so blue Stared at each other Thinking anew. And as for their fates, I’ll leave that to you.
0
Jul 8, 2010
Jul 8, 2010 at 11:07 PM UTC
The Clifftop (Enlightenment Part III)
There once was a man A man “with a plan.” For our purposes We’ll call him “Dan.” Dan had a friend A friend “’til the end” But a hand was one thing This friend couldn’t lend. Dan cried for a lift As he hung from the cliff And he hated himself Every minute of it. And they sat in silence Obvious Passive Violence But no matter how he tried, His mouth remained flat. Dan needed some help Like pants with no belt But his friend “’til the end” Had no message to send. And Dan cursed at his past For things move too fast In a world where you can’t Leave the thoughts you had last. And Dan cursed the world The world he unfurled Through the months long before And his body felt torn. And as Dan wept Alone he was left And his friend “’til the end” Didn’t give the smallest little **** So Dan cursed his friends As his knuckles turned red And the dirt in his fingers began slipping free. And he cried out for help Like pants with no belt But a hand was one thing That this friend couldn’t lend. It’s a matter of pride Of choosing a side But Dan didn’t want To go for this ride. And the sun burnt down hot And the moon burnt up cold And his heart, it did rot And his mind did unfold. He cursed everything From the sun to the moon And a poison in him Did bloom in the gloom. He said “I don’t care,” But an occasion so rare Made this man stare At his friend’s hollow glare. As Dan’s knuckles turned bare His friend, he did stare And his friend said “Dan, this isn’t fair.” Dan knew he was right, But straight out of fright Looked down to the beach: The glass man was in sight. “You treat me so wrong,” Said this man’s friend “Please just tell me… When will it end?” Dan tried to speak out Without having to pout For he knew exactly What he was talking about. “Please, my dear friend,” Cried the man on the cliff. “If you could just lend a hand We could end this small tiff.” “But a cliff top, so high As the one you stand by Is something I cannot do alone. So, please, my dear friend… Be willing to try.” And these mortal two These mortal few Who stared below At the water so blue Stared at each other Thinking anew. And as for their fates, I’ll leave that to you.
Continue reading...
88
The ocean moves like restless hands these days. Abrasive: rubbing cliffs to sand and dust, their spirits crushed to foam. Alone too long is what I think, Aegean fathers pull- -ing back their sons. But myth is myth, I must admit. Instead, the water beats the shore for natural want, its swells and frothing tides some violent children, asteroid-born, conceived from outer orbit kisses. Moon-side, roar- ing waves arise, as high as mountain peaks. Their tensions break and churn up flotsam: jag- -ged wood from ships reclaimed. My lips, too, crack apart from frigid air. The blood is cop- -per salt to taste. But salt still, none the less: familiar sea foam flowing through my veins. Genetic instinct winds me back to shrines, the Greeks and Romans knowing more than we, Poseidon having planted home alread- -y thick upon their lips. Ensconced in coves, Amalfi’s citrus piers had housed the songs of sirens, trilling hymns to Venus. Her divine softness, human-wrought: distilled from strong eternal surf. I think it wants her back again. And so it hurls itself against the shore to beat our body’s blood back into foam. My feet are cold atop the rocks, the goose-flesh prickling needles deep in skin. My head is past the precipice, suspended at the point of no return. My arms are tingling in the rain-drenched squall, beginning to dissolve as salt is known to do. I take a breath before the fall– a retrograded Aphrodite’s sigh– now flooded as the clifftop leaves my soles.
0
Aug 21, 2015
Aug 21, 2015 at 11:17 PM UTC
La Venere Moderna
The ocean moves like restless hands these days. Abrasive: rubbing cliffs to sand and dust, their spirits crushed to foam. Alone too long is what I think, Aegean fathers pull- -ing back their sons. But myth is myth, I must admit. Instead, the water beats the shore for natural want, its swells and frothing tides some violent children, asteroid-born, conceived from outer orbit kisses. Moon-side, roar- ing waves arise, as high as mountain peaks. Their tensions break and churn up flotsam: jag- -ged wood from ships reclaimed. My lips, too, crack apart from frigid air. The blood is cop- -per salt to taste. But salt still, none the less: familiar sea foam flowing through my veins. Genetic instinct winds me back to shrines, the Greeks and Romans knowing more than we, Poseidon having planted home alread- -y thick upon their lips. Ensconced in coves, Amalfi’s citrus piers had housed the songs of sirens, trilling hymns to Venus. Her divine softness, human-wrought: distilled from strong eternal surf. I think it wants her back again. And so it hurls itself against the shore to beat our body’s blood back into foam. My feet are cold atop the rocks, the goose-flesh prickling needles deep in skin. My head is past the precipice, suspended at the point of no return. My arms are tingling in the rain-drenched squall, beginning to dissolve as salt is known to do. I take a breath before the fall– a retrograded Aphrodite’s sigh– now flooded as the clifftop leaves my soles.
Continue reading...
34
Fear standing atop crumbled clifftop. A fleeting breeze whispers to me "what’s next?" My Earth corrodes, this tearwater runoff lifting fertile soil. Memories cropped; despaired debris remains in frame. Perplexed fear standing atop crumbled clifftop. Two arms spread wide, frantic, balance I sought. "Resist," whispers the breeze, "and breathe, reflect: my Earth corrodes, this tearwater runoff you precipitated; my ruin you wrought." My toes begin to peek: the sea. Obsessed fear. Standing atop crumbled clifftop we teeter with unease that love means naught when trust already sunk below the crest. My Earth corrodes. This tearwater runoff shall carve away our ache, and so we fought against the chance that our love could contest fear. Standing atop crumbled clifftop, my Earth corrodes this tearwater runoff.
0
Mar 7, 2019
Mar 7, 2019 at 10:05 AM UTC
Unsettled
I don’t know if I have enough heart left to give to anyone else in sharing I’m always back at the start just trying to be myself and pretend I’m caring and it’s glaring me in the face this stalled pace at which I’m crawling through my own life trying not to cringe from the deep cuts of the knife that you all call love it all feels to me like a clifftop kiss goodbye with a hard shove and from where I stand it makes me wonder if I misunderstand it what I thought was the right way that I should but apparently I really misunderstood and it all makes me beg and cry out to everyone in this part please save my heart there’s so little left of the me that could ever believe couldn’t this god ****** world just once let me keep a little piece all I ask of this terrible wretched ******* lifetime is a life that’s actually all mine let me build something and protect it and keep it safe as my own beautiful charm safe from the chaos and the harm am I worth so little do I count for so much less that I should endure my heart being belittled and beaten under this much stress I don’t even know anymore how to trust and the machine that has become my day to day survival is so filthy with rust I just want to feel like I am a human being with some worth and knowing deep down that I never will be, is the very worst.
0
Mar 8, 2013
Mar 8, 2013 at 7:51 PM UTC
SHARDS
I should have driven away but tomorrows are just the same as today so I stay. I could only become what I am, what I see is what I'll be and what you want me to be is not what I am but a man for all that where the fat from the grist is dismissed as a fad. I am glad I have grown and have changed on the trip, for to slip into old ways,go back to the bad days and chase dragons through walked ways where demons lay eggs only begs me the question, which to answer quite clearly is that we're all nearly scrambled, as we ramble on tracks made by ill informed facts and if you're in the know ,why then is it you go to the back of the pack are you smoking some 'crack' is it a pipe that you lack? let me look in the dustbin, we've been there before,let me pick up the droplets of rocks off the floor. I talk this to myself as I go slowly insane,it's something to do with drugs effects on the brain and it pains me to say that tomorrows will be just the same as today I just can't get away nor can I escape from the greed of the grasping of the cold hands of fate. So I wait for a break in the train of these thoughts that bedevil me, wait 'til I see the whites of my eyes in the blue of my face as I engage once again in some riotous revelry,and in case that I think that I'm thinking to much and the thoughts that would touch me would rush to a clifftop I stop. Full stop. Turn to look around at these things that confound me astounded I am, am I? I am I must be that man that would make me a liar as higher I go up my nose goes the snow and the warmth reappears.
0
Aug 2, 2013
Aug 2, 2013 at 5:38 PM UTC
Sures.
I should have driven away but tomorrows are just the same as today so I stay. I could only become what I am, what I see is what I'll be and what you want me to be is not what I am but a man for all that where the fat from the grist is dismissed as a fad. I am glad I have grown and have changed on the trip, for to slip into old ways,go back to the bad days and chase dragons through walked ways where demons lay eggs only begs me the question, which to answer quite clearly is that we're all nearly scrambled, as we ramble on tracks made by ill informed facts and if you're in the know ,why then is it you go to the back of the pack are you smoking some 'crack' is it a pipe that you lack? let me look in the dustbin, we've been there before,let me pick up the droplets of rocks off the floor. I talk this to myself as I go slowly insane,it's something to do with drugs effects on the brain and it pains me to say that tomorrows will be just the same as today I just can't get away nor can I escape from the greed of the grasping of the cold hands of fate. So I wait for a break in the train of these thoughts that bedevil me, wait 'til I see the whites of my eyes in the blue of my face as I engage once again in some riotous revelry,and in case that I think that I'm thinking to much and the thoughts that would touch me would rush to a clifftop I stop. Full stop. Turn to look around at these things that confound me astounded I am, am I? I am I must be that man that would make me a liar as higher I go up my nose goes the snow and the warmth reappears.
Continue reading...
28
Dear Swinburne, how fell you if Death felled himself? Did the wind not last, had the running sun stumbled? What knocks the stone from the clifftop shelf? What rocks the sea still since the high tide humbled? If all that remains remains all that that dies And immortal soul lies forever relieved, What am I left that your lyric decries But bereaved? The same words grow from your garden grave Where the thorns of the wrought lead roses jingle, But rocked by the roar of the wild wave The words disperse and forever mingle. Time can unravel the thorns and the weeds And the wind and the sea and the sun and the rain, Unravel Death and destroy his seeds And remain. I pray that your song stands stable and true Through the covers I turn, on my lips when I sing As the first day your meter upon the page drew And your rhyme first ascended on nimble a wing; If not, let you molder with meadows of roses, As lovers are buried by solitary men, Till I, upon every couplet that closes, Read again.
0
Feb 27, 2014
Feb 27, 2014 at 11:44 PM UTC
To Swinburne
Spring in the air feeling crisp on my skin, breathing it in. Run down the lane, over the clifftop to end all the pain and the air on my skin drifted out, drifting into unconsciousness. Conscious only of that long lonely drop. The drunken Angel despite no wings flings caution aside and comes along for the ride. I dream of flying and dying too, but never died yet and hardly flew, few do anyway. Tragic when the magics stop off the cliff at the bottom of the drop. But it's all a trap that's set to get the body count high and who in their right mind would try to fly on such a windy day. The thief would want to steal my tears unmask me and unwind my years, the Angel and I have a few more beers and head for the clifftop again.
0
Jan 29, 2016
Jan 29, 2016 at 4:37 AM UTC
The blind Venetian
Slowly I'll become that flower you loved, A sunflower, a rose, a tulip bud. I'll twist, I'll turn, I'll wilt, I'll forever be this guilt. Slowly I'll be there, and slowly will I twist and fall in, Throwing myself into the ocean where I can begin. So shallow, so empty, Is this all that there is left? Slowly, slowly I'll be that flower. Slowly I'll be the one in power. Slowly I'll find a place where I can open my petals with grace, Slowly I'll live once again. Cautiously you will find me on the clifftop, This time I'll be smiling. This time I'll no longer wilt, I'll be tall and strong emptying myself of that guilt. This time the sun will bless me with all of it's hymn, and turn your gun.
0
Jul 28, 2019
Jul 28, 2019 at 8:44 AM UTC
‘Slowly like Your Favourite Song’
The clattering wind came back again In the cold, dark hours of the morn, There must have been such a mighty wind In the hour that I was born. For I went outside to savour it, I love the wind in the trees, Anything from a sultry blow To an ice cold winter breeze. And Miriam always chided me I should keep the door pulled to, ‘You may delight in the wind at night I don’t share in that with you.’ ‘Doesn’t it tell you the earth’s alive When it’s breathing, Oh so hard?’ ‘That may be so, but just keep the blow Trapped in our own backyard.’ It rattles around the chimney pots, It lifts the tin on the roof, And drives the rain to the window pane As if to say, ‘Here’s proof!’ Proof that the world’s alive and well When it howls and plucks at the eaves, And swaying each branch so you can tell By filling the air with leaves. ‘I don’t see the purpose that it serves,’ Miriam used to shout, The wind replied and she almost died When it blew the hearth fire out. Hurtling down the chimney flue Like a gale she’d made inside, I said, ‘Just watch what you say and do, Even the wind has pride!’ I’d say that the two were enemies From the time she opened her mouth, ‘It’s wrecking my pink anemones When it blows from the freezing south.’ I told her to hold her anger in, She was weak, the wind was strong, She hadn’t the power to save her bower While it knew not right from wrong. It came to a head when she slammed the door On an innocent springtime breeze, And sealed her fate when she muttered hate, She was brought down to her knees. Walking along the clifftop path As she did, and both of us must, A sudden blow sent her over, though It was merely a random gust. I go each week to the cemetery And I leave anemones, While lurking around the headstones there Is her ancient enemy, If only she’d kept her tongue in check She would still be here with me, Not lying beneath a howling gale In the local cemetery. David Lewis Paget
0
Jun 21, 2015
Jun 21, 2015 at 7:20 PM UTC
A Fateful Blow
The clattering wind came back again In the cold, dark hours of the morn, There must have been such a mighty wind In the hour that I was born. For I went outside to savour it, I love the wind in the trees, Anything from a sultry blow To an ice cold winter breeze. And Miriam always chided me I should keep the door pulled to, ‘You may delight in the wind at night I don’t share in that with you.’ ‘Doesn’t it tell you the earth’s alive When it’s breathing, Oh so hard?’ ‘That may be so, but just keep the blow Trapped in our own backyard.’ It rattles around the chimney pots, It lifts the tin on the roof, And drives the rain to the window pane As if to say, ‘Here’s proof!’ Proof that the world’s alive and well When it howls and plucks at the eaves, And swaying each branch so you can tell By filling the air with leaves. ‘I don’t see the purpose that it serves,’ Miriam used to shout, The wind replied and she almost died When it blew the hearth fire out. Hurtling down the chimney flue Like a gale she’d made inside, I said, ‘Just watch what you say and do, Even the wind has pride!’ I’d say that the two were enemies From the time she opened her mouth, ‘It’s wrecking my pink anemones When it blows from the freezing south.’ I told her to hold her anger in, She was weak, the wind was strong, She hadn’t the power to save her bower While it knew not right from wrong. It came to a head when she slammed the door On an innocent springtime breeze, And sealed her fate when she muttered hate, She was brought down to her knees. Walking along the clifftop path As she did, and both of us must, A sudden blow sent her over, though It was merely a random gust. I go each week to the cemetery And I leave anemones, While lurking around the headstones there Is her ancient enemy, If only she’d kept her tongue in check She would still be here with me, Not lying beneath a howling gale In the local cemetery. David Lewis Paget
Continue reading...
57
In dark or day, with rain or burning sun, nothing holds as pure as a mountain’s air. When all is quiet and the day is done, I feel so much guilt for the weight she bares. Among me are thousands of other guests, Her rocky flesh, we will surely consume. Myself, the trees and the animals- pests, worsening winter’s night till summer’s noon. She pushes me closer to her clifftops I peer over the edge, fearful, yet numbed. not fearing the pain, not fearing the drop, but fear of destiny- to which i will succumb. For my bones will become fertilizer, to the ever-selfless, fertile mother.
0
Oct 5, 2015
Oct 5, 2015 at 12:55 PM UTC
clifftop
Better than ****** Christmas this six weeks that we continually justify that stop our hands breaking, the dying of hearts and minds though in the middle somewhere when we regain our human form sometimes storms rage a bit and we stand, clifftop howling at an unknown moon on return we’ll have lost friends, loves, yet be reborn to care, to teach, to take the slings and arrows again from this pauper’s fortune
0
Jul 15, 2021
Jul 15, 2021 at 4:28 PM UTC
All ends and beginnings
There was always something strange about The tree by the clifftop farm, It hadn’t been there when I was young Till the storm blew down the barn, Then once the land was cleared it grew At a pace I’d never seen, A raggedy, twisted wreck of a tree That my wife said was obscene. ‘Why don’t we cut it down,’ she said, ‘Why do you let it grow?’ ‘It doesn’t do any harm,’ I said, ‘It’s there for the winter blow. It stands where it will protect the house From the fiercest winter storm, It may be ugly to see,’ I said ‘But it helps to shelter our home.’ The roots were massive and twisted, and They spread, all over the place, They tunneled under the house and then Came up by the fireplace, I chopped them off and I poisoned those That tried to come through the floor, And then I found there were other roots Jamming our old front door. The winter came in a rush that year And we were buried in snow, We hoped that there’d be an early thaw But it didn’t hurry to go. We stayed inside and we stoked the fire With the roots I’d cut from the tree, The food went down in the larder, but The fire burned merrily. I hadn’t so much as glanced outside For a month, or maybe more, The wind would howl at the chimney pots But to go outside, what for? Then Spring shone over the windowsill And the snow began to melt, So finally we could venture out, I can’t tell how we felt. For out there at the side of the house The tree had grown grotesque, It seems it had continued to grow Beneath its snow-clad vest, For branches snaked across to the roof And clung to the chimney pots, To hold itself upright and aloof Where I’d chopped the roots right off. But what had disturbed and frightened me Was the tree had grown in height, Its gnarled and twisted trunk so high It was almost out of sight, It disappeared in a darkening cloud That seemed to hover and stay, While other clouds were adrift up there It was still there, day by day. At night, with terrible grinding sounds The branches moved on the roof, They tumbled off the chimney pots, Believe me, that’s the truth! The wife said, ‘We should have cut it down When we had the chance, last Spring, But now it’ll probably take the house So we can’t do anything.’ I know you’ll never believe me now, It all seems so absurd, But I broke out the elephant gun At the sound of just one word, We lay abed with it overhead And the tree began to hum, It woke me as I listened, and then The word I heard was, ‘Fum!’ I aimed the gun up the tree that night At those penetrating sounds, I couldn’t have fired enough if I Had had a thousand rounds. And something hurtled on past me then To land right down in the bay, The tree was silent, it ceased to hum And I chopped it down next day. David Lewis Paget
0
Mar 1, 2015
Mar 1, 2015 at 8:35 PM UTC
The Blood of an Englishman
There was always something strange about The tree by the clifftop farm, It hadn’t been there when I was young Till the storm blew down the barn, Then once the land was cleared it grew At a pace I’d never seen, A raggedy, twisted wreck of a tree That my wife said was obscene. ‘Why don’t we cut it down,’ she said, ‘Why do you let it grow?’ ‘It doesn’t do any harm,’ I said, ‘It’s there for the winter blow. It stands where it will protect the house From the fiercest winter storm, It may be ugly to see,’ I said ‘But it helps to shelter our home.’ The roots were massive and twisted, and They spread, all over the place, They tunneled under the house and then Came up by the fireplace, I chopped them off and I poisoned those That tried to come through the floor, And then I found there were other roots Jamming our old front door. The winter came in a rush that year And we were buried in snow, We hoped that there’d be an early thaw But it didn’t hurry to go. We stayed inside and we stoked the fire With the roots I’d cut from the tree, The food went down in the larder, but The fire burned merrily. I hadn’t so much as glanced outside For a month, or maybe more, The wind would howl at the chimney pots But to go outside, what for? Then Spring shone over the windowsill And the snow began to melt, So finally we could venture out, I can’t tell how we felt. For out there at the side of the house The tree had grown grotesque, It seems it had continued to grow Beneath its snow-clad vest, For branches snaked across to the roof And clung to the chimney pots, To hold itself upright and aloof Where I’d chopped the roots right off. But what had disturbed and frightened me Was the tree had grown in height, Its gnarled and twisted trunk so high It was almost out of sight, It disappeared in a darkening cloud That seemed to hover and stay, While other clouds were adrift up there It was still there, day by day. At night, with terrible grinding sounds The branches moved on the roof, They tumbled off the chimney pots, Believe me, that’s the truth! The wife said, ‘We should have cut it down When we had the chance, last Spring, But now it’ll probably take the house So we can’t do anything.’ I know you’ll never believe me now, It all seems so absurd, But I broke out the elephant gun At the sound of just one word, We lay abed with it overhead And the tree began to hum, It woke me as I listened, and then The word I heard was, ‘Fum!’ I aimed the gun up the tree that night At those penetrating sounds, I couldn’t have fired enough if I Had had a thousand rounds. And something hurtled on past me then To land right down in the bay, The tree was silent, it ceased to hum And I chopped it down next day. David Lewis Paget
Continue reading...
81
Have the thoughts of happiness been lingering in your conscious memories of what we were and hopes of what we could be? Stalwart lover, too afraid to cross the binds of companionship. As if staring from a distant clifftop across the sea into your starry gaze. I see the life of what we could be. Dreams, fragmented and quarreled. Warm summer rain that runs through our bodies, the constellations shining in our hearts. Love older than the cosmos, passion stronger than the fire that burns our souls. Reality is distance, truth is separation. And so passes the time that could have been what we could be.
0
Sep 29, 2013
Sep 29, 2013 at 7:02 PM UTC
We could be
I’m not winning, I’m punch drunk. I’m just waiting for the next disappointment I keep getting battered, my best defences are weakening, It’s draining me of all rationale, The writing is on the wall, I’m going to end it. I process these thoughts which lead to the bridge for some, The blade or the pill or the clifftop for others. But I’m aware, I know my enemy. It will not defeat me, this most horrible of foes. I see him in the mirror each day This charming face belies the monster within, This self-loathing, destructive ugly thing. But it only hurts itself, only directs the worst venom inward. You think what I shouted at you was the worst of it? You’re crying! You should feel this in here with me. This cancerous lump of emotion belongs nowhere, It’s in my head, but not my heart. Whenever the lights come on I still have that. I cling to it like a life raft in the storm. Then the clouds break and I’m free! I fly so high it’s dizzying, exhilarating, fulfilling! Until the fall, not like a dream fall, Slow, almost inch by inch from a great height. There is no soft landing, just a thud and the darkness Then it’s Tuesday. ;
0
Dec 7, 2015
Dec 7, 2015 at 6:35 AM UTC
Monday
I can feel it rising up I can feel it becoming a part of me A waking morning thought And a soothing night's dream. Too easily do I end up here This clifftop peak of potential joy Too simply do I jump without harness And too simply do I fall without hope. All it takes is a smile A good laugh and a set of ******* Then I'm drawn in  like a dead fish In the proverbial toilet bowl It's funny how often I jump How often I convince myself of reciprocation But the truth is I'm ugly Ugly in sight, in conversation and in company I have a quick wit but a slow start Silence is a majority in my life So I choose this time to stop To walk away before humiliation She is beautiful, funny, happy I'm quiet, slow and stiff She lives with fairies in the clouds I live with worms in the dirt So I shall stay here and live Avoid public announcements and actions Avoid the weening possibility of joy For the reality of loneliness At least here I'm safe
0
Sep 4, 2019
Sep 4, 2019 at 4:10 PM UTC
Rising up again