2012 Poetry Form Challenge
#02 Wreathed and Unwreathed Quatrains
Wreathed poetry is simply a natural blending of English poetry with the Celtic Welsh. Its creator George Herbert was born into a wealthy artistic family in Wales and later was educated in Trinity College, Cambridge and was unpublished until after his death. It is believed that his poem A Wreath was inspired by the Welsh form Englyn cryrch which uses an internal rhyme scheme with an external one and gives a couplet scheme of:
Later poets realised that some Irish forms led with an internal form and from that was born Un-wreathed poetry, simply the reverse of Wreathed in that the first line starts with an internal rhyme with the second external and so on, there being no fifth line there is no external rhyme, giving it a basic rhyme scheme of:
Wreathed and Unwreathed Quatrains
What nature is within yourself
That self that the arrow cannot find,
It's kind needs no drug blinding gulf
To engulf truth inside your mind.
back to list
When a violent wind begins to blow
Following tears of the darkest clouds
That shrouds above the earth below
The flows of winters storms endowed.
Loud the thunder rolls within the sky
The eye of storms that see`s no fear
So near streaks of electric storms fly
Driven by the force of natures sphere.
Pent up passion released within stress
To caress the turbulant earth with calm
A balm that soothes the minds distress
Compress of calmness that does no harm.
Child of the Forest
Come child of the forest and sing thy song
For long hath thy dwelt in the forest wild
Beguiled in the bracken where thou belong
Then along with the wildlife meek and mild.
In tune with wild life thy words that please
Thy tease the dryads beneath the full moon
That soon come tumbling down from trees
When bees fly free from a silent cocoon.
Come dance Oh child of the forest green
So serene in dreams of her wild life stance
A glance of wildlife in a forest has been
Only seen through a childs eye by chance.
Gathering Winters Fuel
This night of howling winds that rest by day
Which may cease the blessed power of light
That might be proven for reasons to dismay
So those that pray, shall perhaps be alright.
Bills of fuel crammed thro'a letter box door
But more not less the final cost can be cruel
A duel at a court house devours much more
That bore a big hole from accounts for fuel.
Come forth the season for daylight saving
Just craving for existance for all it is worth
Let girth's be tightened tho'rapidly fading
Upgrading our loss for providers rebirth.
Art Work By Robert McGregor
Of joy and sorrow love remains to me
For he shall ever stay within my heart
Far apart though we both seem to be
Love we seek together from the start.
One day soon he shall swim the ocean
His devotion never ceases thus I know
To go with the flow of waves in motion
His emotions shall be rewarded so.
So here I sit waiting for him to arrive
I thrive upon the feeling of his touch
So much depends on strength of drive
For alive he shall thrill me oh so much.
I call his name from across the deep
Dont sleep or you shall come to harm
Be calm remember I am yours to keep
To reap this passion whenever I charm.
Kung Hey Fat Choy (Happy Chinese New Year)
Year Of The Dragon (23rd January 2012)
In ancient China many dynasty`s before
Within lore the beast `Nian`spreads fear
For cheer he ate the villagers and more
And bore the blame first day of the year.
To protect life they gave him more food
The mood of his evil schemes they reject
Disrespect when intentions were so good
That could help the countrys final project.
Afraid he was then of bright red shades
And evades farewells with an inner fear
He hears the firecrackers that invades
That bades to this land a happy new year.
From that day on old rituals still stand
A band of red banners deck the street
That greet with firecrackers over this land
To hand out sweet meats for beast to eat.
Why we should heed the call of the wild
When mild the chances assistance can be
For we shall seek only a poor helpless child
Compiled of a love that is tender and free.
When all that is needed to nurture and grow
A flow of true love from mothering charms
What harm is inflicted from stories of woe
Forego animal instincts to a soothing balm.
For warmth and love is all they shall need
When seeds have scattered far and wide
They ride the storm and hope to succeed
To feed and to flourish an affection inside.
How lonely hearts share a comfort plea
Set free from distress of hurt and pain
Once again found affection and company
Within harmony dearer than any humane.
Old Feather bed
Soft the down of the old feather bed
That led them both to desirous dreams
But seems they went to sleep instead
And misread intents to high esteems.
She looked at him with dreamy eyes
To prise him unto a night of passion
Compassions of loves endearing cries
Ne-er implies it was then upon ration.
Bright the stars as a full moon shone
Gone was the touch of purest content
The intent to love the whole night long
Pleads wrong but `tis nout they repent.
Soft the down of the old feather bed
Thats said to stand firm upon its own
Not groans of springs shall be heard
Deferred amidst fantasies unshown.
Bitter winter winds that draw unto a close
That blow wild the trees of autumn leaves
When sheathes vanish from all that grows
Who knows if plants which perish grieves.
Come spring the tiny buds of life burst forth
Thats worth the wait thro`winters bitter cold
For bold the boughs that turn away from north
Bringing forth the tiny chicks of downy gold.
Cool summer breezes drift in from the ocean
Gentle motions caressing of senses blessed
That rest within arms of love and devotion
Of emotion and fantasies nature possessed.
Come ye autumn colours bring on your glory
Thy story of natures seasons that never end
To blend and nurture ancient planets history
An Ilusory of fantasy which seasons defend.
Presence of Love
To feel his presence when nobody`s there
And share the passions of a lovers dream
May seem like warmth only lovers do share
Both are aware of those pleasures supreme.
So despairing when dreamers are so new
For few of these visions both are sharing
Or prepairing for a similar point of view
While two minds may be erotic and daring.
When quite alone and thoughts turn to lust
They must be closer to dreams that night
To fight this passion would be most unjust
But trust within reasons upon lovers insight.
Hold dear this love where passions do flow
And know you shall shed no other sad tear
A fear the loss of both hearts may bestow
Shall go away forever when lovers are near.
Touch of Warmth
TWhen lovers lay neath a desert sun
As one when they cherish true love
Spirits above this web they have spun
Whats begun they shall ever be part of.
A Prince of the golden desert sands
Long since she had felt his soft touch
For such the love within these hands
Commands warm affections so much.
Though storms are only grains that blow
That flow gently when happiness forms
Which informs true hearts that ever glow
To know a lovers touch forever warms.
back to list
Oh Queen of night, thou art my dreams,
In dreams Lady of Death I see,
I see thy light to calm my screams,
My screams for thee to be with me.
The lily white of palest skin,
Inside my skin, my heart beats wild,
On wildest night I call thee in,
Deep within I become thy child.
Thy silver eyes reflect the moon,
The violet moon that haunts my soul,
O’er my soul marked by ancient rune,
This runic night my Queen shall stroll.
O Goddess of the dark divine
The divine flame that lights the night,
This night embrace my heart with thine
For thine is this, my sacred rite.
For thou art all before my eyes,
The eyes that trust your secrets shown,
Dark Mother show thy child the highs,
The wondrous highs before thy throne.
Her Morning Dove
She sits above the rolling waves,
Her golden waves capture the sun,
The sunlight beckons wistful slaves,
Enslaved their hearts are led to dun.
For her beauty entraps the soul,
The soulful songs she sings at sea
As eyes see her beauty cajole,
So cajoled they can ne’er be free.
And I, the poet, gave my art,
In artful words pleading for love,
But can love touch her wicked heart,
Or leave my heart her mourning dove?
The High Wire
In cold words of spite, shoot me down,
Let hate grind down the heart to dust
The dust to fuel the icy frown,
But frowns can smile when truth they trust.
I'm caught in the bitter cross-fire,
Bullets fired in to cause her pain,
In pain, I can walk the high wire,
High tension wire where words lay slain.
Gutless, using me to get 'She',
'She', perceived threat to the male,
A male so weak he shoots at me,
And me, they won't make me fail!
So waste dear words, it changes naught,
From naught everything is grown,
In learning grows the strength I sought,
And dreams I sought to be my own.
Into the silent darkness bring,
Come bring the beauty of your light,
A lightning bolt on angel’s wing,
Radiant wings lucent tonight.
When in the night I call for love,
Will love answer me in my dreams,
While I dream upon stars above,
Above all, I need her it seems.
And so, it seems love made her claim,
Her passioned claim upon my heart,
For my heart held on to her name,
Her name that tears my soul apart.
A Midnight Dream
Its warming glow says welcome home,
Sit in a chair and stop awhile
Meanwhile through the day gently roam,
Memories roam then softly smile.
An evening spent by the fireside,
Inside my mind of restless thoughts,
Old thoughts, new thoughts, I can't confide,
Bona fide thoughts so long I've fought.
By the fire a decision made,
Made while searching a midnight dream,
The dream that would not drift nor fade,
The faded self has found esteem.
Passion Love Needs
No light is brighter than the heart,
Once the heart lies touched by love's kiss,
As lips kiss, the souls can impart,
The parts of love that reminisce.
Memories like water-quenching thirst,
With first pleasurings of love's song,
Passion songs that make the heart burst,
Joyful bursts as love comes along.
Love the talisman of desire,
So desire becomes more than a need,
The heart needs to know of this fire,
Fiery passion is love indeed.
Inside my head, I hold a thought,
Sweet thoughts that guide my pen to write,
And as I write the ink is naught,
Naught but words upon their flight.
A little thought begins to grow,
It grows beyond restrictive mind,
The mind with words must let it flow,
A flow of thought in ink defined.
In words of love and words of hate,
The hateful verse that spews from death,
The death of words must surely wait,
Await the thought on poet’s breath.
Shards of Lace
Her beauty shines in waters still,
Where ne'er a ripple disturb,
A whispered prayer seeks her will.
Her light reflects upon the ground,
In shards of latticed silver lace,
She lands without the lightest sound.
She dances on the earth awhile,
With barely moving slender feet,
She graces love with beauty's smile.
Within the darkness of the night
For love, she'll cast her witch's spell,
And thus release the soul to flight.
The winter sun stays longer now,
Now as the seasons start to turn,
Returning life beneath the snow,
The snow that held the earth's sojourn.
A poet sits beneath a tree,
A willow tree bedecked with buds,
The buds of blooms waiting to be,
Beneath the tree, my heart now thuds.
The goddess works her magic round,
Around the earth she calls for life,
The living seeds burst in the ground
Upon the ground, the signs are rife.
The sparrow sings its mating call,
A call to love and dance again,
Once again, the earth lives for all,
And for all ends the winter's reign.
Beneath the shady breezed kissed stock,
The mind takes stock and looks for thee,
My thee, my love, my heartbeat's clock,
The ticking clock I cannot see.
The passing hour that moves too slow,
So slowly turn the hands of time,
And like wild thyme on winds doth blow,
Love blows the breeze of sweet sublime.
Upon the breeze, I hear thy voice,
Oh, sweet thy voice that calls the flame,
Thy flame that makes my heart rejoice,
Rejoicing love within thy name.
Spring at Avebury
Cold, grey stone in formation stand,
Old standing stones, they gathered round,
Around the magic close to hand,
Old hands that grasped the Pagan ground.
The joyous come to dance and sing,
They sing the tales the ancients told,
The stories told by bards of spring
That spring shall come end winter's cold.
All seasons turn upon the wheel,
The wheel of life that never ends,
At winter's end the warmth we feel,
All feeling the path springtime wends.
To My Cheerleader
Some days my pen just cannot write,
That's right; the poet's lost for words,
The words I love have left my sight,
My website blank, it's too absurd.
A voice cheered our from in email,
Can mail messages fuel my pen?
It seems my pen has found its sail,
It wants to sail in verse again.
So pen writes in thanks to a friend,
To a friend who said 'just do it'
It seems I must write 'til year end,
So ends this verse, 'I will do it!'
Words of Foolish Love
We share the words of foolish love,
Love's wisdom lost in acts of lust,
Yet lust creates a velvet glove,
The sensual glove of deepest trust.
We speak of them that stare and frown,
The icy frowns shrouded in hate,
With hate filled words that pushed us down,
So down we hid, prepared to wait.
We spoke of here, we spoke of there,
There, a time when love will live free,
Freedom found in moments we share,
As love now shares your dreams with me.
We whispered desire to the stars,
Those starlit nights that saw us kiss,
One kiss that sealed the um's and ahh's,
Our joining made in love's own bliss.
back to list
There are sounds of morning awakening again
Once again the birds help me open my eyes
I surmise the sun's warmth's awoke my brain
As I attain normality I look over with surprise.
You're still lying there well within your dreams
Those dreams could involve me, I'm loath to stop
We would not swap our nocturnal extremes
But can love have extremes, why should we stop?
I look to the skies seeing shadows cast by the moon
Then from the moon to you and the shadows there
No harsh black and white there cruelly hewn
Stead the moon highlights you especially your hair.
And so I'm trapped here within this morning
Noticing with the dawning, features that took me
And made me fall deeper with each dawning
Now without clinging, forever hold on to me.
Eternity (Mist of Space)
Somehow I know that in the mist of space
There's a time and place where we'll meet again.
Souls will unite again and our hearts will race
Our loving embrace will then prove love's reign.
You can see that it's written in our eyes
It's no surprise that bonds cannot be broken.
Not those of what is spoken for love will rise
Claiming the prize of a passion unbroken.
No matter where or what Fates bridge may be
What time what scenery, it's our meeting place.
We'll find a base for us for all Eternity
Somewhere you'll see, in the mist of space.
Just A Little Poem About The Moon
The moons bare stone sharpens the spears
That appears as shafts we call moonlight.
Each night lovers plot their love for years
And years, and from this, dreams take flight.
She smiles knowing she made those dreams
And the dreams were carried in each shaft,
Only in draft, so that lovers took those beams
Then from their schemes they built their craft.
Cast adrift on a sea of uncertainty
My hope is scanty as events shift.
I must be swift and cease ambiguity
Removing this insanity my spirit lifts.
The anchor has been weighed
And a decision made without rancour.
The shore in the distance arrayed
Yesterday's been paid the future not made.
Now I stand on this driftwood raft
My craft has sunk and far from land
Nothing was planned I'm left feeling daft
I broke my rules now naughts to hand.
Is this what Karma is, you sow then reap?
Proving life's not cheap, there's no armour
For a dreamer who always stays asleep
No matter how much he is a charmer.
Kiss me and think nought of yesterday
Because passion today is so easily bought.
The cheaper bought the easier given away
But that's not the way I was taught.
Love and respect your partner is what I was told
But as I'm old you'll probably laugh I expect;
Then perhaps detect some wisdom of gold
And then finally with time learn respect.
Kiss me and think about us tomorrow
There will be no sorrow, lets drink.
Our glasses clink, celebrating tomorrow
As with time your apprehensions shrink.
Night And Day
How lonely is the Night, without her soulmate
The one who shares her life, the Day, now asleep
Yet whilst she sleeps, half a world he must create
He has a lot on his plate, the load never less deep.
During her vigil, the night has seen fit to ignore it all,
And covered it all with a cold blanket and darkness,
As if were a mess worth naught, showing her gall.
What has caused this gall, why the irritation, the vex?
With the first sign of day you hear welcome sounds
Sounds as all forms of life burst forth with their song
Night's done her best to suppress song all round
Where silence abounds all night long.
Some people would claim that the night is wrong
How can it be wrong, a 24 hour day isn't right,
Sleeping's best at night, not in daylight's throng
I wonder how long they would last without a night.
"Should I" I wonder. "Dare I", I ask
"Such a dangerous task", I think
I think I'd like to repeat the task
But the task is pleasure just think.
I reach out and touch you once again
Again you smile and draw me close
Close, closer, I'm going insane
Fain I would resist, but know I'd lose.
Your lips, too close, I wish to kiss;
Kissing again, and again, I give in.
To give in is easier than miss one kiss,
And to miss one kiss, a grievous sin.
Thus the mood of the night goes on
And on, and on, without a pause
There are no laws as love moves on
And on, and on, with her applause.
Consider seeing a falling star
A star that's no longer in paradise.
Realise paradise is now so far
So far you can't return at any price.
Consider a flock of birds in flight
Know by night they'll be home again,
Again soaring in the morning light
In the light alone they're content to reign.
Compare the two a star that's now a rock
A cold stone rock cast out from above,
And above us each day an avian flock
This flock considers flight's a labour of love.
back to list
Divena and Ryter
The fire we made last night I see still glows
And though for a little while we must part
Making our way apart through winter snows
That fire we made last night was only a start.
The fire we made last night will always glow
The fierce glowing embers an everlasting flame
Love games made a kiss and an eternal vow
Now linking our souls together in its game.
The fire we made last night the Gods now know
Just stir the coals and add the fuel and see
See how it always burns, with a lively glow
Flames leap and grow from love of you and me.
I have no place for a broken heart
No part of grief I shall want for me
I see no tears that break me apart
That flow so sadly of a sorrow free.
I have no pleasure for any sadness
But bless this moment of love divine
For mine are the pleasures to caress
That possess spirits that intertwine.
I have no doubt, no regrets or sorrow
Tomorrow I know I shall feel the same
This flame that burns shall ever borrow
And throw the warmth of eternal flame
back to list