Jailed

this captured heart
left from the start
all thoughts of freedom’s peace
no open walls
nor pardon’s call
can tempt it to release
for once it fell
into the cell
that your love built in me
my heart will stay
all locked away
with no desire to flee.

Thunder

the summer’s stillness
silently sits at his side
waiting for thunder

Pictures

he found photographs
of themselves which she had kept
and smiled through the tears
faded images
thought stolen by memory
turned back all the years

Verse Interrupted

a mirror floats upon the lake
reflecting sunlight in its wake
but the darkness in the waves
be silvered secrets that it saves
under the ripples monsters reign
born from darkened mirrored pain
hidden, yet in cornered eyes
we see the truth beauty belies.

5-7-5 (take five-hundred-and-fifty-two : sunset)

the sun sets quickly
impatient for night to come
and take him to bed

Dream Embrace

he awoke to the soft embrace
of warm breezes on his face
and lay there a while, motionless
lest he should the moment curse
his eyes still closed he held the scene
oft designed inside his dreams
green valleys of a summer’s end
through its pathways he would wend
to her door of promised rest
where his head lay upon her breast
there she would gently touch his face
in this endless dream’s embrace.

Lines on Memory

not with words can I impress
dare declare the hopelessness
that I could seek to find to truth
fair narrative upon my youth
nor to those days long dead and gone
would I decry in old man’s song
for that time though brief, was gold
thus in my poor verse ’tis cheaply sold.

Fog

the fog is lifting
but being partly in dreams
I cannot be sure

5-7-5 (take five-hundred-and-fifty-one : crossword)

twenty-six across
intersects with nineteen down
the answer eludes

Abandoned Croft

aside the hills
the stones relayed
their histories
in moss, decaying
their broken dreams
lay scattered there
as parnassus flowers
took the air

I sat awhile
and mused upon
where the hopes
and loves had gone
to leave these walls
in such decline
as testament
to life resigned

yet come what may
my thoughts had brought
in my resolve
they came to nought
I could not solve
the reason why
that in such heaven
dreams had died.