"dreadnoughts" poems
Prophecies of the Ancient’s decree,
Dark Pariah shall face the dragon,
In the Universal arena, heart’s quail,
Worlds tremble as giant forces clash.
Cloying Darkness is stirring, awakening,
Shadows shifting within Darker shadows,
Snake-like tendrils slithering, pulsing,
A menace daring to reveal true purpose.
Brandishers of Light must stand and fight,
Resisting all temptation of offered power,
Battling against foul corruption: death,
Halting the slide into dank, filthy, pits.
Monsters stalking the innocent; feeding,
Drenched in blood of pain and suffering,
Spawn of Dreadnoughts bring carnage,
Will any stand against the slaughter?
The fabled sword twisted in torment,
Calling, calling; seeking a champion,
Searching out those who would dare,
Questing for the brave of the Light.
Light heeds the need, offers strength,
Dragon heart’s beat, Champions arise,
Drums of war, thunderous, deafening,
As the Clysm screams to be birthed.
©Paul M Chafer 2014
Oct 24, 2014
Oct 24, 2014 at 5:12 PM UTC
Where are we now
One year to this day
How far have we come
Since I asked you to stay
I find I'm no closer
To spanning the sea
Or bridging the oceans
That keep you from me
Just drifting across them
And casting asunder
The fleeting resistance
To being pulled under
Then asking myself
How do I still drown
In a love that was anchored
And dragging me down
Could it be that your warmth
Was the sand in my toes
Or that you felt at home
In my rock bottom woes
Be they sheltering monsters
Devoid of all light
Or shipwreck sunrises
From dreadnoughts at night
We still plotted a course
With no sense of direction
Searching for shores
At each sign of depression
Guided by hope
That Northern stars fading
Would never burn out
Should they just keep on waiting
For bottles of empty
To fill with each note
Containing the words
That could save our lifeboat
But dear Aphrodite
The hole in this plot
Was the bluest of vessels
Poseidon forgot
Feb 5, 2017
Feb 5, 2017 at 12:30 AM UTC
War came. How could it not? Bringing many things especially death. They wanted to knock Turkey out of the war. One ally less for Germany.
Many events happened. Some were firsts. All included death. It was the stuff of legends. Making small nations great and great nations small and killing their empires.
It was quite a LIST:
The big ships duelled it out with the forts, boom!
And the action off the Dardanelles. Historic?
A Shorts rag wing biplane made history and put a tin fish into a Turkish ship.
Much needed Ottoman army supplies lost aboard sunken ships.
Allied subs attacked Ottoman ships in the Bosporus more than thirteen times, bled the Turks white.
Those same subs being the first enemy warships to penetrate Istanbul since 1453, the Royal Navy sub B11 sank Turkey's Mesudiye battleship.
Being killed themselves, subs still on the seabed: Royal Navy E7, E14; French Navy Saphir, Joule, Marionette.
Two were British, sunk by a German U-boat, U-21, in three days.
Australia lost the AE2 but not before she dodged mines and sank a Turkish ship. Running aground near a fort was dangerous. AE2 was the first Allied ship to transit the Dardenelles.
Massive Allied battleships and dreadnoughts fought it out with the forts ashore, the French lost Bouvet and over six hundred sailors. Bouvet brushed gunfire off but a mine killed her.
Two Royal Navy ships died by mines while shelling the forts and gun emplacements: HMS Ocean and Irresistible. Inflexible was damaged. So were French's Suffren and Gaulois.
The forts did their job, thwarting the big ships and making a land campaign necessary.
The Turkish battleships fought back, firing over their peninsula.
It wasn't all one sided, for a Turkish torpedo boat, Muavenet-i Milliye snuck through the narrows, to sink HMS Goliath, and drowning over five hundred men, with three torpedoes.
The Turkish high command was sick of RN battleships raining destruction down on their forces.
They stuck it out and weren't knocked out. The ANZACS went ashore...
Jan 19, 2020
Jan 19, 2020 at 6:23 PM UTC
I am haunted
God’s scaffolding spinning space
into constellations
The skeleton’s mock trial
Of the soul
Molecules molecules molecules
All dreadnoughts and black holes
The poet at the pulpit
His flesh and hair, fine fuels
Scripture as song, COMBUSTION
Spiraling galaxies locomotive The Duel
May 31, 2018
May 31, 2018 at 10:35 AM UTC