Category Archive: Poetry
Killing Witches
The twelve women confessed of course, a multitude of sins; They had not bled at all it seemed, when pricked with little pins; According to the documents they murdered little boys; Summoned forth the West Wind to make a fearful noise; Drank the blood of livestock which they had contrived to kill… Burned the holy wooden cross stood upon the hill. Crops they cursed and ravaged; with the Devil they did dance And made young couples barren by potions from their plants. The Court was packed so tightly that some people had to stand; Every second day or so a…
Continue Reading →When We Buried the Gods
Epicurus asks what God's good for
When silent starlight rains upon the midnight of thy face But thy heart contains no vestige of belief, The fires of a million stars vanish without trace, In the gloom, the grant of unction lacks relief. Would thou have a life in which thy faith did have no part? Where damaged vitals strove for every breath? Where demons stalked throughout the empty chambers of your heart And thy soul throbbed as a vulture robbed of death?
Continue Reading →The Ballad of the “Angry Penguin”
(photo by Paul Ensign)
The Bollinger missionaries and arboreal grubs, Inhabitors of dam sites and oafs from hiking clubs All packed into the Angry Penguin as it prepared to sail, It did so with a mighty swell that, sadly, beached a whale. Ho, the Angry Penguin was turned out like a pin, It glistened as it cut the water’s surface like a fin, The captain was a dedicated, heavy drinking salt And if the ship reached its destination, `t’wouldn’t be his fault. Languages abound and irk the crew, as does the lice But luckily there’s ready packs of snow to break the ice, Two…
Continue Reading →Tibet
(photo of Sera monastery by McKay Savage)
Across the ice we walk on knives, Guided by stars and ancient stone steps, Up rickety paths that skate between chasms, Through tiny corridors out of the sun. Over immense broken plains, towering mountains, With huge coloured banners stretched upon rock. Light bouncing off snow peaks gleaming morning, Like the golden roof of the retreat at Sera, With its garden of jewels. From one form to the next, we remember the sun through cold, clean air. The Dalai Lama holds spiritual and temporal power in Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th Dalai Lama (born 6 July, 1935) was compelled to flee that imprisoned country…
Continue Reading →The Royal Commission
Royal Commission by Samuel William Reynolds
A ‘plane is down; Once contented heads are bowed. Where the lotos grew there are skulls in the grass. The experts are in shame, clowns dance in the swamp And the fool whose heart burns takes in the pleasures of the town. Now a `plane is down Inquiry lines are opened up, all concerned are getting counsel Transcript fees are mounting high — People in the clear scream At the ones who run for cover but the evidence just sits there, While the heavens frown. Monkeys in the sun Spin a giant wheel of fortune; A man out of place…
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