Writhen poems on Hello Poetry

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Sweet Love,— but oh! most dread Desire of Love
Life-thwarted. Linked in gyves I saw them stand,
Love shackled with Vain-longing, hand to hand:
And one was eyed as the blue vault above:
But hope tempestuous like a fire-cloud hove
I’ the other s gaze, even as in his whose wand
Vainly all night with spell-wrought power has spann’d
The unyielding caves of some deep treasure-trove.

Also his lips, two writhen flakes of flame,
Made moan: ‘Alas O Love, thus leashed with me!
Wing-footed thou, wing-shouldered, once born free:
And I, thy cowering self, in chains grown tame,
Bound to thy body and soul, named with thy name,
Life’s iron heart, even Love’s Fatality.’

William Ernest Henley

Casualty

As with varnish red and glistening
Dripped his hair; his feet looked rigid;
Raised, he settled stiffly sideways:
You could see his hurts were spinal.

He had fallen from an engine,
And been dragged along the metals.
It was hopeless, and they knew it;
So they covered him, and left him.

As he lay, by fits half sentient,
Inarticulately moaning,
With his stockinged soles protruded
Stark and awkward from the blankets,

To his bed there came a woman,
Stood and looked and sighed a little,
And departed without speaking,
As himself a few hours after.

I was told it was his sweetheart.
They were on the eve of marriage.
She was quiet as a statue,
But her lip was grey and writhen.

Vlarken Hvyrmtor Jul 2015

Cast No Shadow

I saw him there under the
treeroots lurking

It was dark thereunder, but he
beckoned darker

                             Still your rotting mouth
                             Shut your eldritch eyes,
                             or everywhere you'll see him

I saw him by night in
my window screaming

He had his owlface on
with eyes like
nectar-filled lamps

                            Turn away your brittle body
                            Draw the covers to your chin
                            and bear the beak in mind

I saw him on Sunday
in the churchyard digging

He laid the bones of my Father
in the wet wormsoil
for marrow cracked and clean

                            Stand still your writhen legs
                            You cast a shadow over him,
                            and he reaches up towards it

I saw him on the strand
in my lover's face seething

He took my lips in his
and breathed into me
her still beating embers

I walked the path back alone,
full of ash

I went to my knees at the altar
and tried to *****

I saw him in the steepled tower
by me standing

He opened his mouth
and whispered the words
I craved to hear

I stood over their graves
and cast no shadow

#suicide #dark #ghost #demon #night #macabre #haunting

Philip Lawrence May 2017

Immigrant Heart

Do not be saddened by our sullied and blackened shores.
Do not forsake your dream, for the tocsin will always ring
for those unmindful of origin,
who bear convenient constructs, writhen mores,
all weighed by the dunnage of fear.
Or worse.
Strive, persist, and wait and wait and wait
until voices rise and the pendulum descends.
For the lady still shines, clear-eyed and steadfast.
She still wants you, still needs you.
Your soul, your yearning heart.

#love #fear #hope #desire #tolerance #faith

Melina Anthi Pullin Feb 2019

A Hospital Visit

I wandered for a moment, surrounded by the white tunnel
In which I smelt the metallic tang from stainless steel
Travelling in the open air.

Glancing, I saw the disarray: nurses dashing in assistance, paramedics charging through the gaping doors with emergency cases
And doctors immersed in the plight to save lives.

I slid a door open,
Discovering an image so brief and profound,
A man, varnished with red, ached as it
Dripped through his hair -
Hesitantly, he settled sideways,
You could see his hurts were spinal.

He had fallen from an engine,
Dragged along the grating metals,
And as he lay, half sentient -
To his bed came a woman,
Who stood and sighed,
Her lips were writhen
As the sun had risen.

How desolate it was,
As she lied near the thundering waterfall of his heart,
Only to realise,
They were on the eve of their marriage.

#hospital #cleanliness #distance #pain #injury #despondency

Mike Essig Apr 2015

Tennessee: My Job

From the pellucid
night sky,
a waning half-moon
spills frozen light
on writhen branches
of forlorn trees.
Two owls
hoot conversation.
A distant coyote
attempts to join in.
I am the amanuensis
of early morning:
if I do not
write this down,
no one will know;
this useless,
frigid beauty
will disappear
unnoticed
with the dawn.
- mce

#poetry #nature #beauty

Axion Prelude Jul 2019

Untitled

Writhen with doubt, stricken with silent fear

9/18

— The End —