Sonnet - Woods

My eyes open to an unusual sight,
 My skin tingles in the cold, harsh, night air.
 My red knuckles sting from the bruises there.
I look through the canopy at moonlight.
Blinking as I have something in my eye,
 Laying on itching leaves, my chest is bare.
 I've gone too far, further than I would dare.
My face is covered in dark blood gone dry.
What have I done, that's made my memory,
 Usually so bright and so obvious,
 Black out these sacrificed hours. These short days,
When I let the clown, all cruel smiles, rule me.
 My free will is both mine as it is lost
 And no man's words can take his grin away.
 

Sonnet - Arms to Hold

With my glory came a great loneliness,
 A black abandon I thought I'd removed,
 But in the place God lived, something else grew
I was no longer alone in my head.
It's face painted in deep purples and reds,
 Like a serpent it twisted, writhed and moved,
 A turning blade in my gut as it stewed
And Clown was born from the wound as I bled.
So named he wreaked havoc out in the cold
 Of the world I was no longer a part.
 His fingers would crush the spirits of all,
But when he came home, with strong arms he'd hold
 Me down in comfort while squeezing my heart,
 Making me hate him but also his thrall.

Blood and Bandages

What news for us today?
Perhaps news of blood and bandages.
It's for blood and bandages we wait.

We'll be old enough come the great day.
Four boys will march to glorious war.
Just one will walk away.

Mothers and sisters pray,
Cry and sing and wail absolution.
While we fight because they need the pay.

And the army life really does pay.
For our insurance we're remembered,
When death takes us away.

Posted for One Shoot Sunday on http://oneshotpoetry.blogspot.com. Picture taken from here too.

Sonnet - The Vastness

The vast oblivion is beautiful
 Now I've chosen not to believe in you.
 My shoulders free but now what do I do?
How do I make my life that much more full?
I can feel my heathen heart start to pull,
 And my feet will follow in search of new
 Horizons, experiences and truths,
To brighten the world you once made so dull.
Do I hurt you by rejecting your light?
 Do I hurt myself by standing alone?
 Honestly, I wish that these things were so,
Because I reject you through petty spite.
 See, now I know you as I once was known,
 I want nothing but to see you brought low.

Sonnet - Faith

My blood is up. My wounds lay open wide
 And leak across the floor for all to see.
 Don't care to know why you abandoned me.
I just want everyone to know you lied.
With worship didn't come a sense of pride,
 Or the feeling of watchers heavenly.
 Just hope and in truth a false hope only,
As my reason withered and slowly died.
May your kingdom collapse for all I care
 And fall upon the failing realm of men
 Crushing weak man and holy choir alike.
I know you'd do nothing except sit there
 And watch your angels suffer and repent
 For singing of a God that's lost his sight.

Sonnet - Grace

This lasting pain will ache through all my days,
 To know I don't reside within your grace.
 What crime did I commit to raise your plate
Against my charm and all my subtle ways.
Sky is blue, but above me it stays grey,
 And spreading rust retains me in this place,
 Where I am doomed to sit and rot and waste,
Wishing you'd told me the right way to pray.
I scream at you. I scream for justice sent
 In my direction just this once my God,
 Whichever form you feel it's good to take.
Just send a sign and give me grace again,
 To be complete and once more analog.
 And end this trouble Lord, for heaven's sake.

This sonnet is the first of a series of 5 to wrap up my month of poems (which you'll be glad to know I have completed.) Below are the links to parts 2, 3, 4.and 5

Sonnet 2 - Faith
Sonnet 3 - The Vastness
Sonnet 4 - Arms to Hold
Sonnet 5 - Woods

Hope you enjoy them.

This poem has been made into my entry for One Shot Wednesday, which is an awesome weekly showcase of brilliant poets on One Stop Poetry. Check it out and make a post! It's open to posting from 10pm GMT every Tuesday night. Give it a shot (harharhar.)

Comatose

A flicker through my eyelashes.
A murmur of a gasp
Low and bass and almost panicked
"...his eyes moved! Look at that!"
Consciousness returning
I remember everything,
I want to drift back in to peaceful sleep
But my mind won't quit rising.

Because it's out there and it's blazing,
Those white walls, flaking, false
The waking world is grim and fake
And this sleep was something else.
Sorrow's sake keeps me still,
But they buzz all around.
My family, my loving brood
An ever growing cloud.

I sigh inside in silence
And think back to my day
Living in imagination,
In a place a bit less gray.
I've walked a dream for years now.
I've moved on with my life.
I have my precious children.
I have a perfect wife.

My eyes flicker again,
This time they expel tears.
My hands raise to my face,
As the panic in me rears.
I realise I can't go back
My sleep is ever done.
My dream of life is over,
And with it joy is gone.

Posted on One Stop Poetry for One Shot Wednesday http://oneshotpoetry.blogspot.com 

Udulo's Rise 5

Read stanzas 1-4 here

This place would seem familiar to any of us.
Green grass covering vast vistas of great beauty,
Interspersed with great, grey cities to house those few
Tired travelers who chose new life among the stars.
With great investment, the human race did strike out
And settle worlds like this to build new lives again,
With peaceful intent and a greater sense of passion
Than we've ever had for this sorry world of ours.
But no. Alas our naive dream was not meant to be
And Apollo, like many, stands divided now.
The ground torn up in chunks of burning, smouldering sod.
The cities now a maze of blasted, concrete walls.
What remains are the lost settlers despairing hearts,
Hounded in to hiding by loud, chattering guns
Borne at the shoulders of Apollo's fallen lords,
Soldiers corrupted by the words of Morrovore.

Udulo - An Update

So tomorrow night is my night for writing more of Udulo's Rise. I'm on second draft now and so tomorrow I am posting a bit more of the story in it's semi-completed form, probably as a link to my Udulo-centric blog. Third (and hopefully final) draft is in December and so part 1 should be out by end of December (Yahoo!) I'm going off to bed now. Nighty night :D

Other People's Poetry

Hey guys,
You may have noticed a couple of poems that aren't by me going up on here the last few days. There are a couple of reasons for this. First is that I have some friends who are great poets and as far as I'm aware, they don't have their own blogs. I decided to post their poetry up on here (with their permission) to get them some readership and exposure. My blog is relatively young but has had a lot of views (for which I thank you) and I don't see why I shouldn't share the audience.

The other reason is the brilliant blog One Stop Poetry. The guys there, do a weekly showcase called One Shot Wednesday which posts on a Tuesday night and allows poets to showcase their poetry to other poets as well as giving them the opportunity to see other people's work. The two poems I've posted up ("Patience" by Stel Tsolakides and "Sallow Place" by Tara Glickman) will be going up tomorrow night, alongside my own contribution (I think the poem West this week.) I urge you to pop along some time on Wednesday to have a look at all the brilliant stuff that people have posted. It's been a joy and a highlight of the week for me for the last three weeks. If you have something you want people to read, you should post on there too. If you don't have a blog of your own, I'd be happy to put your work up on here and post it for you so that you can get some feedback.

Visit One Stop Poetry at http://oneshotpoetry.blogspot.com

Patience by Stel Tsolakides

I lay on the cold, hard ground,
I knew that you were coming,
I knew that I’d be found

The trees whispered all around,
The grass danced before my eyes,
I lay on the cold, hard ground

As I waited on that mound
I didn’t panic, there was no need,
I knew that I’d be found

My head & heart began to pound
As my body grew bitter,
I lay on the cold, hard ground

And then I heard a sound
As you walked towards me,
I knew that I’d be found

I gripped the gun & loaded the round,
As you came closer & closer
I lay on the cold, hard ground,
I knew that I’d be found

Posted to OneStopPoetry for their One Shot Wednesday initiative. Check it out at http://oneshotpoetry.blogspot.com/

More Facebook Haikus

It's only weather.

No need to open your wrists

You silly bleeder!

 

What a cocky pleb.
Died of bad diarrhea,
Just to prove he's right.

 

pull your finger out,

seize the moment with both hands

and plunge your face in.

 

Pray for my brother.
Victory is in his grasp,
But he must be bold.

 

Do you feel like I?

A crusade against stupid

Is a worthy cause.

 

Like unbound rainfall,
Good things splash all over me.
Don't know what to feel.

 

Don't look at my eyes!
I know you're climbing inside,
Chewing on my brain!

 

Isn't it awesome
When things just fall into place
Like leaves in my hood.

 

The satisfaction
Rides in on glory's great wind
As I show my worth.

 

I just realised,
Nobody likes X Factor;
There's just nothing else.

 

I convince myself

Its not technically skiving

If I'm here for work

 

Work work work work work.
In a conventional sense,
I'd rather eat turds.... 

 

I should not exist.

I contradict my own terms.

Naughty li'l haiku.

Lionheart

I had a friend and for the first time since she died ten years ago, I forgot to grieve her. I hope that wherever she is, she forgives me for this.

You're here,
In my room, all coy,
When I return
And you wear a smile.
I laugh,
A glad laugh at that
And so do you,
Because... well, you would.
"Lionheart"
You say quietly.
And I decrease.
The accusation.
The word.
The cruelest you have,
To remind me
I live on for both.
Your face,
Distant memory.
My cowardice,
As I walked away.
Then gone,
You're dead as ever
And my crying's
A comfortless sound,
Silent
As I grieve your loss
In isolation
And undignified.

Lying

I see through similar eyes,
So believe I speak the truth,
When I say this pain will fade.
(You can tell I'm telling lies.
The slight twitch above my lip
Goes off and gives me away.)

Blood boiling, you walk away.
I fall to rough, sturdy knees,
Already taken too much.
(They lost all their skin that day.
How can this be thought graceful?
It's pitiful at a push)

All you get today are haikus

When the world is wax,
I guide myself by colours
And get lost in town.

Nothing can wake me
I walk fiery corridors
And ice-ridden plains.

I need rescuing.
From time to time I'm wasted,
On my own sick mind.

The sky is open
And deep dark hell pours freely
In to my ocean.

The Sea

We rumbled around in my father's car,

Which I thought was cool.

Dire Straits played too loud in those poorer days.

Money for nothing.

 We journeyed far west, out to wild Wales

And I saw the sea.

For the first time, I really saw the sea.

A vast, rippled bed sheet for eternity,

Past which lay long nothing,

Save imagination and the bright sky.

Beneath it lay the shape of some wet lie,

Which only I see.

Like hands beneath a delicate blanket,

Moving to attract

The attentions of the curious cat,

Who would, prowling, pounce

To find the playful, taunting fingers gone.

And how they tugged at me and lead me on.

An awful siren song,

Brought me to deep waters and then, away.

I drowned and drowned and drowned again in it.

Then, I saw it's face,

Cracked lips smiling. Flaking. Devoid of joy.

There for my comfort,

Though utterly failing at that small role.

I screamed no sound,

No air could form in inundated lungs.

Beneath it's teeth I saw a hungry tongue
Lapping. Picking bones loose
From between sharp and brutal, bony points.

My legs refused to kick me free from there,
Unprotected I,
But try I must and broke some coral free,
A desperate pull,
Then dived for something soft. It's swirling eye
Once blue ringed with black,
Became a bloody mess because of it.

Darkness filled my eyes and then, that was it

Panicked, it swallowed me.

Breathless, I woke alone on slimy rocks.

The Dollmaker - His Hands

His hands. His steady workers hands,
They work a dark workers task,
Twisting lives with thread and needle,
And souls infused in cloth and glass.
Forming perfect feminine shape
Sweetly curved and lovingly made,
With naive minds unused to life,
Innocent, untouched and afraid.

With their feet, their delicate flesh
As soft as softest, bone white silk,
They wake unknowing in the dark
Skin shining bright like moonlit milk.
Hearts of glass rest in breathless breasts
And no breath will pass their painted lips
And eyes like stars freshly cast
Guide ships in to their careful kiss.

He made one most desirable
Of all his pretty maiden dolls.
Kairi. Her name was Kairi and
She had the most shining of souls.
She was kind and sweet and caring
And giving with her lover's heart.
Her beauty left perfection spent,
Surroundings rendered empty, dark.

All able men craved her presence
Wanted, not the word for her.
Craving the most common of sights,
Her smile raised and so deftly turned
They would promise no disservice
To the beauty of his great craft,
But on this day, his love was money
And where there's money, there's a man.

He was a lord, a libertine,
A hedonist both crass and cruel,
A violent and heartless creature,
A drunkard and a proven fool
His fists played harsh on her beauty
From the first night she spent enslaved
Her suffering was so lasting
That one cold night, she ran away,

Her stitches split, stuffing scattered
Kairi dashed through dark and winding streets
Far from the pain her master gave
With clubbing hate and cloying heat.
She ran back to her great maker,
Through a bleak and telling storm,
To fall at his door and scream for love,
And sanity and for warmth.

His hands, his steady workers hands
That night they pulled at golden seams
They tore at cloth and snapped strong thread
Despite her cries and dying screams.
He ripped her perfect form apart
And smashed her eyes of starry glass
And started work on replacing her
With his hands, his steady hands.

West

Incandescent, my world exploded into light

And you walked from phosphorous ash in the hot air.

Love. My love is what materialised out there.

Gratified and grand, life takes it's own sweet, small turns,

But for the occasional sour cooking apple

That your taste washes away. Liquid, beautiful.

I watch from abroad, the shining star to my west,

Growing brighter, seemingly closer yet so far.

I want nothing more than to dive into the dark.

To swim, to fly blind towards the glint of your heart

And, like Icarus, my wings of wax would melt, fail,

So I could fall in to your sun and reach my grail.

I wake, cold and laid bare on crisp, white, winter snow.

My dream stands above me smiling as ashes fall

And I wonder at how I ever lived at all.

Posted to OneStopPoetry for their One Shot Wednesday initiative. Check it out at http://oneshotpoetry.blogspot.com/

Rubber Skin

Remember when I prayed for peace of mind,

Or at least release from this constant dirge?

It came. It came and sundered my spirit,

So it did, and I turn and spin in it.

In fact, when I heard the words, I vanished.

Mind empty, I walked creaking, cold floorboards.
 

Stepping back and forth, making some noise and tears,

Not laughing, not crying, not either-or.

Not even somewhere in between the two,

Somewhere terrifying, unwalked by man

Where voice and reason reckless, abandon

You to the dark and the light each at once.

The air tastes thick of a lie that will last,

Though my word and testimony stand true.

How can you escape an unhappy past,

When rubber-skinned liars turn it on you.

Shorter Days Are Coming

The day is finished.
I step from the bus in to biting cold
And walk through these dank, urban eaves.
Oh Birmingham, you never fail to please.
A smile on my face,
As the walk makes me feel less and less old
And my ears sting in the ripe air.
I lift my hood and am doused in your leaves.

The hour is passing,
Yet still you play your playful pranks on me.
Silly world. Silly autumn ways.
I don't begrudge the way you waste your days.
Mine go on apace
And bring me closer to the open sea,
Where the crashing waves of my fate
Paint colour on to all I saw as grey.

Sallow Place by Tara Glickman

The anemone meets the vague warmness of your springtime air,
though the streets are full of turning meat and trees of fruit are bare.
He lowers his omniscient arms and tickles heaven and grass,
while hungry dogs and babes alike ferment to their last.

The solitary god, tired as the moon is wasted in your place,
graces your belligerent youth and dusts their candid shoulders
with his cool and foreboding old man’s whiskers
and dresses the British skyline with his royal brace.

Willow, you move as though time waits—
as though children grow to men and
beasts, too, have a special spot
that your wise whiskers can tickle.

Trees suffocate in your whispery willow manner
and boys and men turn to dust while you,
lonely hermit, look down at the rest of the sealife:
to you they are not just lewd and dissonant,
to you they are colourful and prolific,
more than their lackadaisical mock misery,
they are like autumn leaves still soft
(though maybe a bit gnarled and soused).

You nod slow when the wind tuts at your sentimentality;
she tries to uproot you and feed the absent Eden of your planet,
planting sallow seeds around your swollen god’s thumb
as you (not listening) and the Earth remain one.

Posted to OneStopPoetry for their One Shot Wednesday initiative. Check it out at http://oneshotpoetry.blogspot.com/

Reflux NineSevenFive

Do you still find me so beautiful,
Now that I'm a flagellant,
Self-mutilating?
Covered in rope burns,
Deep cuts and wounds on my skin
And the bruises the knots leave showing.
Untainted by the world around me,
I cut in to it's rough flesh,
Taking all within,
And loving it's taste,
As acid reflux burns me
Itching the scars of my former sins.

Thursday is Sarcasm Day

Oh I adore these long and dreary days
Circled by the grays and blacks of my work
Where each moment punctures my healing soul
And I fill the hole with more work, less play.

And what a new trauma the new day brings.
Forced to face fresh slings full of fetid shit
In to which, I, spitting, walk blind, in bliss,
Uncaring for this temporary thing.

My Facebook Haikus

Once here and then gone,
...Life's brittle glass breaks easy
So love while you can. 

 

Point of no return.
We're past that place forever,
And thank God for that. 

 

Sitting on the bus
Stinkers feel obligated
To sit next to me. 

 

The cold air blunted
Against my goosepimpled skin.
The feeling's welcome

 

Shadows fall apart.
I feel sick in the best way.
Farewell awful days.

 

Hope today's the day.
The days will become shorter
If I get my way.

 

I had stopped caring
When I rediscovered you
Will you be my geek?

 

Neo-politics
Unintelligentsia
Directionlessness

 

The screaming night comes!
What stands behind you my friends,
Where you don't dare look.

 

The air hums with it,
And it's taste is thick as oil.
This is Halloween.

 

I lived in the dust
Twisting sickly in the light
But I'm the king now

 

If it's dark outside,
I honestly wouldn't know.
My curtain's still drawn.

 

These things keep me sharp,
...So you don't try to touch me.
I'm a prickly thing. 

 

The world is not bleak,
Despite my outlook on it.
Cheer up, be happy. 

 

Damn purple monkey.
Always leaping on my head.
You'll pay for this, chimp! 

 

Autumn's blasting clay
Patiently destroys the sun
And the world turns grim.

 

Shards of it's body
Spill over the cooling earth
Making it's skin red. 

 

I got four letters,
None of them the one I want.
Hurry the hell up.

 

One piece of advice,
Don't push out a poo sideways.
It really does hurt.

 

Drab, wet afternoon,
You limp lamely on and on.
I want today dead.

 

I can feel the cold.
Icy fingers on my heart.
Anxious for nothing.

 

The air cold and still.
Daylight hides behind thick clouds,
But it is still there. 

 

'Tis fighting season
When all the jerkies run free
Let's bring the whoopin'! 

 

Coat white as winter
I've always loved this dog breed
Wonder how mom feels...

 

The air has turned cold
The world is silent. Empty.
Oh God. So alone.

 

We built walls today
And yes, they may be crooked
But dammit, they're ours.

 

On a shaky roof.
The branches scratch my forearms.
Good job it's sunny.

 

In bed already...
Or should that be in bed still?
I love lazy days.

 

It's a crappy day.
The sky is grey and ugly,
But I'm still happy. 

 

I hate the 3 bus
It smells like fried monkey balls
Have a bloody bath 

 

These famous women
Are unrealistic beauties.
Who will love the trolls?

 

Back to the Future
On at cinemas again
Losers need not go

 

Kiss my ass L. Ron,
You sanctimonious dick.
Dianetics sucks.

Late Autumn on Priory Rd

My window creaks and I know what is waiting for me out there.
I look outside and the bright, summertime soul has been replaced,
With a fiery, scorched vision of the long, bleak autumn I've had
And the cold of the coming winter for which I should stand braced.

But I've been away. I've been so away I missed September.
I missed it's songs and it's glory and it's sweet transformation.
I've missed October's long, slow days of torture and suffering
And it's conclusion in a great whirlwind of nightmare children.

I've even missed November's burning skies and needless ashes,
Returning as I did a day too late to marvel and stare.
My window creaks under pressure of the ever-spreading frost
And I look outside and my Autumn is dying in the air.

The once blooming willow trees have lost their lives in wandering winds,
Now skeletons of themselves reaching for grey and dreary skies,
Wavering sentinels ready to collapse under the strain
Their whispering branches bending and intoning woeful cries.

Icy rain falls suddenly and my wonder washes away,
Confusion at my apparent months long coma fading fast,
Replaced by cool madness at all I've lost because of your lies
And the lasting anger that you'd dare drag up my misty past.

This year, this Autumn, I did not mourn her hurtful, awesome loss.
You took this rightful pain from me and made me harsh and selfish,
Stealing her dedication and remembrance, all I have left
Of her beautiful soul in all those black, wasted days I wished.

Her life for mine, or one day for one hundred I'd sacrifice
Just to hear goodbye and get to say I love you one last time.
Or to get one last, not even lasting moment in her arms.
I don't get that, you harpy. All I have is one mourning night.

I draw my curtains and fall back from their awful orange print,
Crashing down to cry at last over something more worth my tears
And forget the agony sewed through my happy, little life,
Living for the dead and gone for all my still remaining years.

posted to  http://oneshotpoetry.blogspot.com/

You're a Star

You can't fool me with false humanity.
I can hear your clockwork innards.
I see a ticking in your eyes.
I even smell your oily blood.
A heartless hard heart in disguise.

I know when you are standing near to me.
I feel the touch of your cold skin,
Lifeless and uncomfortable on
My fingertips warm and searching,
To taste the you that's too far gone.

I still remember you as your were though.
All joy and laughter and dark sleep,
And misheard words in long nightmares
For which I deeply hated you.
I still do I guess, like you care.

But that you is long dead and gone by now.
Now you're just trembling eyes and lips.
Fear of what stands behind the sheet
With it's grinning face and grim wish
To fill you with it's sickly heat.

One Time

If I reach out, I can eat the clouds above me
And leave the earth rain-free, ashen,
Broken bodied and sort of bleak.
What a burden I bear with my grand ambitions,
What a hand of aces and coins.
Thirty silvers gladly taken
To pay the army of undertakers I'll need.

Thanks for the self-dosing of reality there.
Keep it in check another day,
And another, for all my life.
Drowning his face in a bucket of daily pills,
Until the haze make him a blur,
And the blaze of chemical bliss
Takes me back to an easy day I had one time.

Mad Butcher II

The lie collapses around my shoulders,
Leaving a sticky cloak of tortured days,
Which will wash off in a few scant moments
Spent beneath a shower of tumbling waves,
Cleansed and held by my most gracious savior
And I will be much finer than before.
A better, stronger man for your failure
Unchained and unshackled from the cool floor.
And what of you? What of punishment? Pain?
What of the woe you merrily did weave?
Am I to understand and then refrain?
Am I to forget and then gladly leave?
I think that is fair. I think I earned that.
I think I earned the right to be higher.
Your goblin blade coated in thick white fat
And burning in bright black, billowing fire
Is needless now. Granite skin doesn't cut
And poison doesn't hold in veins this thick.
You can enjoy the blood already put
Inside the vial of your manifold sins.
Time for me to run, to live and to play
Among the distant seas of far away.
As far away from this as I can be
Contented that I've seen my darkest day
And that my past has at last set me free.

Mad Butcher

With tiny hands you wield your errant blade
Like an expert butcher through my whole life,
Cutting balloon strings in the world we've made,
You replace hope and fortune with black strife.
You. I call you liar and I call you whore.
Absurdity. Need to comprehend this
Madness. What lunacy do you work for?
What agent of chaos brought this venomous
Insect. This ridiculous twist of chance,
Event, moment, morose to my own door?
On the eve of my  grand deliverance
From all the agony I felt before.
Can't you see it shows? The lie shows in you
'Cause you don't know how this sits in a heart.
How it purrs and bleeds, rots, festers and brews
How it screams out. How it leaves such a scar.
Such a scar that the whole world can see it
And acknowledge it and keep walking on,
Accepting the false smile for what it is.
A cover. A nice, comfy, warm cocoon.
An obvious white lie that none will miss.
But never black, never me, Never this,
Never would I, never could, never will.
Because I am better than you. Than him,
Who wrought this and you who would raise it still.

A Villanelle - Night & Day - A Poem

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanelle
Read all about the villanelle form here. I've opted for a more modern pentameter. Enjoy.

When sunrise comes, our edges start to fray
And eyes will suffer in that early light,
But the night's grand. We don't sleep 'til the day.

Sweet memories I hold of last night's play.
In the darkness, the world did seem so bright.
When sunrise comes, our edges start to fray.

All will again degrade to dirty grey.
The hours will be a wearing, bitter fight
But the night's grand. We don't sleep 'til the day.

How happy I am to waste it away
And avoid existences bracing bite.
When sunrise comes, our edges start to fray

And unconsciousness will replace decay,
Taking all of the moment from my sight,
But the night's grand. We don't sleep 'til the day.

To wake again and hope the dark will stay
And forget itself what must follow night.
When sunrise comes, our edges start to fray,
But the night's grand. We don't sleep 'til the day.

Dear budding poets

Not everything you write can be gold. I'm currently in this place again. In the last few months I have written somewhere in the region of 150 poems and have a couple of big ol' projects that I'm working on (which will keep me busy) but I now have writers block. Yes, what a pain in the rear end that is.

Thing is I'm none too bothered. I've been here before several times, sometimes or months where I am completely stuck for new things to write. That's when I go back to all the old work I have and edit it. Why not? I started writing when I was 16. I have a lot of ground covered and a lot of it is pretty substandard. This is either because I just wasn't as experienced as I am now or it's just not very good anyway. Hell, a good half of the stuff I've written recently probably falls in to the latter category.

This lack of inspiration is probably a good thing for now. Means I can get on with editing Udulo's Rise but I don't doubt that some time in the next few days, weeks or months, something will happen to inspire a whole downpour of new ideas and I'll be back to my usual productive, unproductive self.

What I'm saying is don't get disheartened if you are where I am. Look back, edit your work and keep yourself writing. Eventually that one beautiful line will come along and you'll be bursting with awesomeness again.

Air (Theme) - A Poem

Corner of the eye, I see you moving,
All glitz and garters and piteous smiles
Thus you invade my gullet, my mind so
In every minute you're twice haunting me.

Splitting the sky, you would reveal yourself,
Golden masked and turning the wind and air
To your deftly balanced, unbridled strength
Like a horse of war who rides his master.

And what am I to that kind of power?
Nothing but a common shared suffering.
A shared life and appearance outwardly,
But for my hidden scars covered in gloss.

And when you arrive, the windows shudder.
I don't though. I welcome the unique fear
That comes in knowing destiny's great plan.
I am as you are and will always be.

Earth (Theme) - A Poem

A brutal bending of the spine when the truth reveals itself
And we are torn down to our well worn, worshippers weary knees.
The minutes pass. The hours. The long days of tears, blame and turmoil.
The turning back just to turn away again to end up back here.
Back here on this mound, floods turning the dust to thick, brown mud,
My fingers plunged desperately into it's comforting, rough mass.
Yes. This is who I've always been. Uncaring but for the earth.
The earth is fair. It doesn't speak and won't twist the knife deeper.
It doesn't lie intentionally, doesn't hurt you for hurting's sake.
And that, for all of it's flaws, makes it kinder than you, dear heart.
Kinder and quieter. Unchallenging and familiar.
Beautiful and bright and boring by any comparison.
My hair and flesh caked with it's dried and flaking, freshly drawn blood.
I walk naked and aimless away from it's welcoming arms,
Back to your doorstep to bleed some more for pointless, earthly love.