The Raven - Ian Duquemin

The Raven
Drenched in darkness
Eyes observing everything
Life... Death... Perversion
Unable to separate
As all is one
Life... The beginning of all ends
Death... The end of all beginnings
Perversion... All that lies between
There is no escape on these fragile wings
As only sorrow is truth
From a baby's cry to the final breath
The Raven observes you all

Ian Duquemin


Image : Pixabay - blackrabbitkdj

A Minor Chord - Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1855-1919)

I heard a strain of music in the street -
A wandering waif of sound. And then straightway
A nameless desolation filled the day.
The great green earth that had been fair and sweet,
Seemed but a tomb; the life I thought replete
With joy, grew lonely for a vanished May.
Forgotten sorrows resurrected lay
Like bleaching skeletons about my feet.

Above me stretched the silent, suffering sky,
Dumb with vast anguish for departed suns
That brutal Time to nothingness has hurled.
The daylight was as sad as smiles that lie
Upon the wistful, unkissed mouths of nuns,
And I stood prisoned in an awful world.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Image : Pixabay - Vladvictoria

A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing - Lyndon Queripel

Do you know where we are
Can you count every star
With your naked eye
Do you know the way to go
Can you stop the acid rain
Falling from the red sky
Do you know if it’s a dream
A white vision of light
Or a flight of fantasy
Do you know the key
Is this life a mystery
A soul dance with destiny.

Lyndon Queripel

Image : Pixabay - PatoLenin

The Shepherd David - Stephen A. Roberts

Sir David, venerated wildlife teacher
Has now turned into an eco preacher
As we watch exotic creatures mate
He reminds us of our likely fate

When earth may no longer be able to resist
The power of the Sun’s fiery disc
He says there’ll be a drastic change of scene
To ice planet Hoth or Tattoine

Maybe it’s just the way of things
Destined to melt like Icarus’ wings
Isn’t space littered with dead worlds
Where no one heeded their wise men’s words?

Stephen A. Roberts

Image: Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau, The Shepherd David, ca. 1895; Oil on canvas, 60 1/2 x 41 3/8 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay; Photo by Lee Stalsworth

Sands Of Time - Ian Duquemin

Life is just a timer… 
Where the sand falls faster every day
Everything surrounding you
Will turn to dust, and drift away 
Every day that passes by
Another day, that now is past 
Nothing in this life, was made to last

And what was young
Will soon be old
And memories, only stories told 
To no one who will even wish to hear
And like the ghosts surrounding you
No matter what you try to do 
Those memories of yours, will disappear 

And every passing day will be 
Another lost, for you and me 
And soon the last will come, without a sign 
With all your dreams that never came
You never had yourself to blame 
As no one ever slowed the sands of time 

The bells will echo on and on
But even those will soon be gone
Silence will descend upon us all 
The timer can't be turned around 
And in the glass a final sound 
One last grain of sand, is yet to fall

So close your eyes, don't be afraid 
Of your mistakes, and choices made 
Life was never yours to understand 
The time you never thought about 
Unknowingly, was running out 
And every day of life was only sand 

Ian Duquemin

Image : Pinterest - Daljeet Kaur

Hinge - Donald Keyman

This tiny nation

More than the sum

Of its parts

Sits on the

Hinge of history

Watching the men

Of dark arts

Becoming more insular

Than even the

People of these

Battered shores

Ever dared to be


Donald Keyman

Constructive Thoughts - Stephen A. Roberts

There is no satisfaction in
the pushing of the pen
helping to make money
for the suited men

For years my soft hands
and mind served these fools
before I found my true love
was wielding power tools

The whine of the bandsaw
the smell of fresh cut wood
the sweat leaking from me
felt equally as good

Pavilions and pergolas were
created with my hands
solid and enduring on
life’s shifting sands

No more presentations
of sales graphs and trends
running things up the flagpole
as a means to an end

My tangible constructions
rise up from the earth
spreadsheets are forgotten
I’ve found a new sense of worth

Stephen A. Roberts

Fearless - Stephen A. Roberts

Fearless they plunge
in their flimsy youth
into the depths
of the future

Indestructible they are
inured by the belief
that the sea
is their friend

If only their coming
plunge into life
would be so
naively simple

Stephen A. Roberts

One Man’s Evolution, Or Lack Thereof - J. Archer Avary

I didn’t come quickly to poetry
I never did find it that cool
What caught my attention
Was punk rock aggression
And showing my ass like a fool

Pursuing the simplest of pleasures
Like drugging and women and booze
I wasted my youth
Spitting three-chorded truths
When I thought I had nothing to lose

Lamenting my twenties and thirties
My foibles remain unsurpassed
Repossessions and ex-wives
And workingman’s strife
Leave those terrible years in the past

Now I’m much older and wiser
I’ve mellowed like expensive wine
I’d sooner forget
Than dwell on regrets
It appears that I’ve turned out just fine

What lies ahead for the future
Oh where in the hell might I be
Pushing up daisies
From down in my grave
Or charged with disturbing the peace

J. Archer Avary

Borderline - Lyndon Queripel

On the other side of time I stand
It runs like sand through my hand
From the black hole of the soul
Release a word of peace unplanned
To echo through this promised land

It seems we must have come too far
You can’t remember where we are
Our shadows run under the burning Sun
Searching for fragments of trust
In powdered gold and diamond dust

As tears of truth from hollow eyes
Part exchange lies and alibis
With no sweet retreat from the heat
Lock the window and bolt the door
Your clothes don’t fit you anymore

Illusions of hope surround the haze
Your gaze is reflected in a daze
It’s no surprise to recognise
In the mirror of mercy and love
The only one you’re not scared of

Sirens scream like a dream in space
A dark star fallen far from grace
It flashes through the midnight blue
Then disappears without a trace
Another unsolved borderline case.

Lyndon Queripel

Vote Vote Vote - Donald Keyman

We’re on the slippery slope oh yeah
To a Marxist Utopia
Equality for all sounds nice
But it comes at a huge price

The back of an envelope oh yeah
Holds the plan for the Marxist Utopia
No time must be lost
Before we all count the cost

It’s money for old rope oh yeah
To peddle that Marxist Utopia
And slowly bankrupt the place
So it can no longer wash its face

Surely there’s still hope oh yeah
That we reject the Marxist Utopia
Head off those eco-fascists
With their sackcloth and ashes

So get out and vote oh yeah
But not for a Marxist Utopia
Vote for the people who care
Not to leave the cupboard bare

Donald Keyman

Balance - Diane Scantlebury

In her head’s the sound of waves,
As they lash relentlessly 
Against the land,
Each spitting their foam
Onto the beach,
To dribble between the grains of sand,

And across the blank canvas of that sand,
A single track
Of footsteps become imprinted,
There to be eroded
On the next tide,
Their existence lost or barely hinted,

In her head’s the sound of trees,
As buffeted by the wind
Their leaves dance and rustle,
While birds cling to the swaying platforms
Of the branches,
A brief respite as on their forages they hustle,

And from within the shelter of those leaves,
The tiny aviators face their daily challenge,
Then hurl themselves headlong
Towards the sand,
Where survival or death 
Hang in the balance.

Diane Scantlebury

Paintings and Flowers - Nicholas Rowe

I saw your paintings, and your flowers,
and I remembered when,
for just a second,
I had not lost hope.
When my long closed eyes
felt a hint of light,
when I felt at long last
my dreams could take flight,
no longer trapped in the past,
with me shrinking behind my disguise.
At times I feel I cannot cope,
yet I have always known, when troubles beckoned,
fresh hopes would follow them.
~
And I am lost
in the beauty
of the paintings
and the flowers.
~
Raindrops on petals, and
art in rusting metals,
fields bursting with colours, and
pictures of never heard album covers,
urban streets, and
tempting retreats,
solitary blooms, and
graffiti ravaged rooms,
the detail of an insect’s eyes, and
infinity found in starry skies,
peaceful scenes of quiet seas, and
poplars leaning in a breeze,
an instant of a bird in flight, and
eternity captured in the camera’s light.
~
And I am lifting in the wind, with the birds in the air,
slowly drifting, I let go, I am free of my care,
swirling through the colours as the land beneath me passes,
twirling with the swallows over fields of waving grasses,
turning to the treetops that look tiny from so high,
churning through the troubled air and spinning through the sky.
~
I cannot change the winds that blow,
to where they take me, I cannot know,
music seeps into my mind,
my worries now lie far behind.
~
I accept control
is beyond my powers.
~
And I dissolve
in the world
through the paintings
and the flowers.

Nicholas Rowe

Sail Away - Tony Bradley

Growing up in hard stuff can distort your life
you respond to things, with a glare, and a growl
but it can be so different . . if you rise above it
and try to smile, instead of scowl.

You didn’t choose the boat you came in
so that Ferryman, you don’t have to pay
set your own course, build your own boat
leave the hardship . . . just sail away . .

Tony Bradley

Nothing Else Planned - Ian Duquemin

Will you walk with me darlin’?
Will you take hold my hand?
I don't know where we're going
But we got nothing else planned
Let's head for the sunset
Watch it fall from our view
I will keep you beside me
The entire night through
We can lay in the fresh fields
Count the stars in the skies
I will keep those that shimmer
In the stillness, of your eyes
And the moon it shall greet us
Like an old trusted friend
And paint you in silver
In this time, that we spend
When we wake in the morning
With the beckoning sun
We will follow it somewhere
We’ll just keep, moving on
As long as we're together
We are never alone
And whatever we find there
We will make that our home
But let's take long time
Be it gentle and safe
This path which we travel
Is a journey, one of faith
And as we grow older
We can look back and say
That we did this together
And we've come a long way
But each step was worthy
And every day new
This life that I dreamed of
Was inspired by you
And when we both lay down
For the very last time
I will keep hold your fingers
And your hand, clasped in mine
We can roam into twilight
Where we never will part
Our journey continued
Yet only, just the start
Will you walk with me darlin’?
Will you take hold my hand?
I don't know where we're going
But we got nothing else planned

Ian Duquemin

Anthropod - Richard Fleming

They sit at desks, PC-equipped,
round-shouldered, fingers stroking keys:
without exception microchipped
beneath their skin, like worker-bees
engaged in labour: a dark hive
of insects only half alive.

An artificial, sterile pod,
is their environment, austere.
A faceless robot is their God.
Its scrutiny engenders fear
so they work tirelessly, these fools:
not men or women, merely tools.

This is the future, mark it well:
all life ersatz, no air, no trees.
No brimstone but no less a Hell
where there can be no escapees.
All life lived in an endless Now.
The Beast’s mark stamped on every brow.

Richard Fleming

Life Unravelling - Diane Scantlebury

Where have you been young man?
What adventures have you experienced?
And what have you seen?
I sense that you’ve been over the edge
Fallen off the jagged cliff of sanity,
I can tell by your fixed smile,
Your trembling hands,
As you embroider while you wait,
Muttering under your breath,
Curses and profanities,

Where to now young man?
Where will you go?
Each day you return
To sit and patiently sew,
Your mind vacantly travelling,
The tangled threads
Of your short life,
Once tightly wound, unravelling.

Diane Scantlebury

Fugit - Stephen A. Roberts

The remembrance of all things past
Those golden days that could never last
We stood upon the reservoir of youth
Convinced we knew the only truth

Was it arrogance or naïve belief
That carried us over every reef
Swept along on the rising tide
We laughed so hard and enjoyed the ride

Now we wait in rooms for our turn
Looking back on what we've learned
The doubt crept in and is here to stay
We sold our souls for another day

We repeat repeat the same mistakes
Until our film has no more takes
The final reel is spinning down
Fade to black and no more sound

Stephen A. Roberts

Watch me fly - Callum Lee Doherty

It’s quite simple from here,
Absentee, candidly,
Scream in rhythm; scream in glee,
Free from prisms bound of me.

This nigh wisdom, my Dear,
Can you see? Shall we breathe?
Gleaming victims; thieving leaves,
Dreams of visions, hounding me.

Watch me fly, watch me fly.
Oh, brother, watch me fly.


Watch that hand forever slow,
Weightless Kings forever float.
Nameless crystals, taint my wings,
but through my wrists, they’ll never know.

I demand to see the scriptures;
Reprimand me as I go,
Enslave the guards who pray forgiveness
Whilst enlists of xenophobes.

Watch me fly, watch me fly.
Oh, lover, watch me fly.


I’ve gone without your jurisdiction,
Fled from timeous control.
I’ve reached the plain through which my fiction
Lifts the stain we call our Home.

I feel the breath within my fingers,
See the blessed expanse below;
Within my depths, I’ll re-consider
But on my terms, all alone.

Watch me fly, watch me fly.
Oh, mother, watch me fly.
Do not sorrow; in my judgement,
I’m resolved, and so I die.

Callum Lee Doherty

Under The Bridge - Lyndon Queripel

It’s all water under the bridge
Just listen for a sigh
As it washes and rushes by

It’s all water under the bridge
And clouds across the sky
Where time just seems to fly

It’s all water under the bridge
You’ve no tears left to cry
Like a river that’s just run dry

Lyndon Queripel