Donations are essential to keep Write Out Loud going    

Tags from last 12 months

Happy New Year (2) William Shakespeare (1)

War is Hell

 

To our young men, war is an opportunity

for posturing youthful swagger.

With arrogance and recklessness

head first or by cloak and dagger.

 

Half-cocked, without a sensible thought.

No consideration for what’s ahead.

Forward. Running into eternity. 

Future decided, they’re already dead.

 

To our old men, war is considered a just cause,

detached by age from rea...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(3)

A Balcony in Verona

Prologue

The balladeer sings his songs, sweetly sung.

Balconeyed, she listens from high above.

Juliet: Verona's otherwise rose,

Though star-crossed, she must obey courtly love.

 

Earlier, love’s soft light broke from the east, 

like brisk fireflies on a scented breeze.

His lyrics besieged virtuous walls. She. 

surrendered subsequently, with ease.

 

Romeo

Fair la...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(3)

Lest we forget

 

Form a queue boys, form a queue,

Stand still in line boys, stand still in line,

It's coming to you boys, it's coming to you,

One at a time.

 

Your country needs you boys, your country needs you,

To fight in their wars boys, to fight in their wars,

For the right and the true boys, the right and the true,

You’ll likely die for this cause.

 

So march with the band b...

Read and leave comments (4)

🌷(9)

Anything more?

She spoke soft ‘’Are you ok?’’

‘’Not quite yourself today?’’

‘’ Is there anything more to do?’’

‘’To help bring yourself back to you’’

 

I’m not feeling so good right now

You are aware of why, and how

you’ve taken all I had, it’s gone.

One has lost, the other has won

 

Before: Considered our unhappy time 

love was then not a pleasure, more a mime

Unappreciated, ...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(6)

Mothers Song

Her song, sung in a sing-song pitch

Musically hemmed with a Giocoso stitch

Chords played Staccato in different keys

Rapid Toccata, stylistically free  

 

As a young boy, she was my first violin

The major key to performing life as it begins

Dancing carefree, rhythmically to her beat

Tunes of the sixties, nostalgically on repeat

 

The unison of love, my Mother's embrace

...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(8)

And the winner is….

Welcome, beautiful viewers,

This year's celebratory reason

The annuality of time 

the gloriousness of the season

 

Let's relive those quivered moments  

Holding ourselves, no longer to linger,

Harsh winds herald from the north.

the onset of subzero Miss Winter

 

Frost, paints hung abandoned webs

Snow glistens upon your bluing nose

freshness of the air, patterns,

...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(3)

Let’s Talk

 

The ancient art of conversation lays frost-covered, almost dead

No one's listening anymore to what the other person said

Defiantly devaluing the nuances of syllables heard

Randomly clipping, unquestionably, necessary words

 

Discussions typically hurried—no mutual listening.

Group communication resembles children's Chinese whispering

How frequently have you heard someone ...

Read and leave comments (3)

🌷(4)

The ballad of Teddy Sheean (1942)

 

He went down fighting,

Tasmanian Devil still sighting,

His Oerlikon gun skyward blazing,

All hell in hell-raising.

 

HMAS Armidale evasive,

Bridge captain persuasive,

Manoeuvring this way, then that,

Avoiding the Japanese air attack.

 

He went down fighting,

Dropped bombs dynamiting,

The ocean whipped in fury,

Teddy, keen, but weary.

 

HMAS Armidal...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(6)

The Lane

Pitter-pattering, soft translucence,

An unseasonal summer rain,

Refuged 'neath low-slung boughs

In a tree-lined Cornish lane,

 

Fine mist-splattered spectacles

impairs sight with every spurt

Drip, drip, drip down the collar

Wetting this warming undershirt

 

Cascading from the leafed canopy

Tramping slowly to the ground

Flickering rainbows glisten

As diamonds ...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(9)

Weathering love

Oceans, believe me, will never run dry,

Whilst flooded tears fall from my saddened eyes.

I'm unloved, now you are gone.

 

Neither can I comprehend, nor explain,

The reason for storms or the driving rain.

Or figure, why you are gone.

 

Or why the frosted field, now whitened cold,

Is abandoned as my heart, frightened, old.

Lonely, lost, now you are gone.

 

The Art...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(9)

Strange how.

Deep down, this old heart sings a love-lost song,

A dirge, slow sung, how did our love go wrong,

Gently tuned, with a melancholic verse,

Strange how sensualness, falls back accursed.

 

First verse is about how two lovebirds met,

Umbrella shared, not willing to get wet,

Laughing as they watched others in the rain,

Strange how that first spark, ignited a flame.

 

Second...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(5)

21st-century eulogy

I have no faith in faith

that gives little hope to the already hopeless,

Nor am I fascinated by fanaticism

or the intolerance shown by their obsessiveness.

 

No trust in grey suits with greyer faces,

stumbling forward from fumble to bumble,

elected despite the world-weary apathy.

Democracy grumbles, ultimately crumbles.

 

I applaud the science of science.

Others bl...

Read and leave comments (3)

🌷(3)

The Kiss, (Gustav Klimpt. 1908)

His sensual ruggedness, closer

Her rouged cheeks, surrender

head softly caressed, cradled by

masculine fingers, though slender

Hold that puckered pose

Crimson lips tender

Anticipating gentleness

She’s a love defender

 

Hand-picked blooms

Threaded through reddened locks

Petals stroke barefooted soles 

Verbena, Primrose, and Phlox.

Robed in gilded weave

Poli...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(6)

If tomorrow should start without me

If my tomorrow should start without you

I'd shed a million tears and watch them fall

I'd find the grief unbearable

Unsure if I could cope at all

 

If my tomorrow should start without you

The inner pain I'd feel would be immense

You were my reason for living

My purpose and my present tense

 

If my tomorrow should start without you

I'm uncertain of just what I should...

Read and leave comments (5)

🌷(8)

Misquoting Cohen

Leaving home, my new tomorrow 

Leaving home, life without sorrow

Leaving home, for somewhere better, for sure

 

Leaving home, I’ve escaped his gaze

Leaving home, from mis-fathered days

Leaving home, pleasingly, slamming the door

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(4)

What can I do?

 

North Carolinian slave

Her beloved mother. Slave.

Her rejected father. Their owner,

A plantation master who disowned her.

 

An exceptional level of intelligence shown, 

A yearning passion for learning grown.

Whilst outside, the barbarity of the Civil War brought 

not only bloodshed but, the emancipation sought. 

For Anna, a God-sent opportunity

An escape from thi...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(6)

Triarchy

 

Perfect triumvirate. You, me, our love,

But passion soon died without majesty,

Muse, as I sit north of the Rubicon,

Recollecting Julius's strategy

 

Let us cross to a point of no return

Where former foolishnesses lay unmasked,

Let the die be cast, let those thrown die, lie,

Show the falsehoods that peppered our past

 

Spitefully conniving, you planned and schemed

...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(5)

“America’s Best Girl.”

A new century of enlightenment beckoned

The age of women’s suffrage had begun,

A young girl born in downtown New York,

Unaware of the greatness soon to be won

 

Eight kicks, one stroke, the eight-beat crawl.

Propelled like a torpedo down the lane

World and national records blown from the water

Seven in one afternoon. This was her domain.

 

Paris, nineteen twenty-four,...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(3)

Catherine Bush

 

 

Audibly warmed, such mellifluous tones

a subtle mix of soft sexual moans

Transported in song to different worlds

Moments of pleasure in her every word

 

Visually Wowed, an alluring sight.

Provocative, dreamers Dreaming delight

The man with child's eyes since seventy-eight

Sweet vision. Aroused my pupils dilate.

 

Forty-six years on, I'm listening, still

A...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(5)

New World Sonnet

The bigotry of racial prejudice,

Multi-racialistic injustice.

Views distorted by xenophobia,

And an irrational paranoia.

 

Islamophobic or Negrophobic,

Antisemitic or Pantuetonic,

An ethnocentric attitude belongs

In landfill sites with all the other wrongs

 

Discrimination and segregation,

Dehumanising demonisation

Unwarranted tribal castigation

Racists shoul...

Read and leave comments (5)

🌷(5)

Remembering You

Silently, I walk, wringing anxious hands,

Crossing acres of once familiar land.

Fast-flowing memories of what was then,

that'll forever stay as my former when.

 

Mainly unminded though unforgotten,

Desires driven that were once begotten.

An age of optimism and attainment,

Where possible dreams feared not containment.

 

My future holds with little certainty,

My pres...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(3)

Memento Mori

Reminiscing nostalgically,

I ask. Have you pursued life ecstatically?

Have you chased it fully with determined tenacity?

Have you gained your life's well-spent validity?

Or, tragically and drastically

Have you succumbed to someone else's gravity?

Given in passively to their selfish vanity.

Their unending capacity for indulgent banality.

There’s always an unenviable possibil...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(6)

You could never………

You could never understand, not even in an eternity.

The subtle intrigue in this mystery

Our present, once lived, becomes history,

That had a splendour and a beauty

now lost, as you glanced sideways into periphery

I was caught in a spell of your bewitchery

Wishing I was your mainstay, not a mere auxiliary

Loving you hurts, it mimics a ruinous injury

You could never understa...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(3)

Grey-scale Love

It's impossible to catch the north wind that blows,

Or quick snatch the breeze from a lover's sigh.

It's inconceivable to pause rain as it falls,

turn the tide of tears that a lover cries.

 

It's hopeless to reverse the direction of time,

Realign the planet's path in the sky.

It's unthinkable to relive a love now past,

acknowledge our truth: Let sleeping dogs lie.

 

I...

Read and leave comments (1)

🌷(5)

Did I?

 

Did I hear the drone?

Or hear the air around it moan?

Did I see the photoflash?

Or how close the rotors almost clashed?

Did I view the guiding lasers?

Or the defender's stream of rapid tracers?

Did I feel the aerial explosion?

Or the small arms bullet’s detonation?

Did I feel the overwhelming heat?

As the missile landed in the adjoining street?

Did I suffer the m...

Read and leave comments (7)

🌷(9)

You're my disappointment 

Like rain on a summer’s afternoon,

A sexual climax that comes too soon,

The morning post that brings only bills,

Excluded from both parents' wills.

You're my disappointment. 

 

Like a hotel room with a brick-wall view,

A pint of beer with an inferior brew,

A firework that's a dampish squib,

A left-handed pen with a right-handed nib,

You're my disappointment. 

 

...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(3)

Beware the Ides

 

As I watched our mutual world, I cried.

Bruised and buried deep inside,

this saddened heart of mine had died.

Realistically, was it your choice to decide?

the time when happiness would be denied.

Whilst I enjoyed the emerging ride,

you had plunged down the other side.

You told me once you were satisfied,

but now open-mouthed I’ve realised,

how much you’d fed me bare...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(2)

Coprolalia

Your world moves on greased rails, sleekly

Twitches and twerks hijack mine uniquely.

Orchestration of vulgar sounds and ticks,

life with Tourettes, this lousy box of tricks.

 

Dancing a rhythm that no one else can hear

This herky-jerky jackass body bucks severe

A mind, full of whirlwinds, where random thoughts collide,

Clinging on to this whirling dervish, what a ride

 

...

Read and leave comments (3)

🌷(5)

Metamorphosis

She changed

love rearranged

No second thoughts

His approval no longer sought

 

She’d absconded

Love unbonded

No looking back

Or papering over the cracks

 

She’d stirred

Her love deferred

No hanging on

To conditions where love's gone wrong,

 

She realigned

Love reassigned

No longer they

Pledging self-success in her way.

 

She breathed

T...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(5)

Greater than Alexander

His love delighted her

Shirley Valentine would have been proud,

Intertwined, on sun-bleached sand.

Quietly tender, both breathing loud.                              

 

Unlike her suburban life

Every moment, utterly forgettable,

Together yet separate, final vows unfurled,

The sadness of marriage, entirely regrettable.

 

His love delighted her                           ...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(6)

What does it feel like

 

 

What does it feel like to be unloved?

Feelings hosted, taken for granted

What does it feel like to be ignored?

Inconsideration's planted

 

What does it feel like to be alone?

drift aimlessly through familiar crowds

What does it feel like to be unheard?

When everyone else is shouting loud.

 

What does it feel like when all hope's lost?

A future much bright...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(9)

Metaphorically: A life

Before, a taught rope, you pulled on life's haul

Feet planted firm though you never stood tall

Mostly, enjoyed the seven deadly sins

though you're struggling now to gain any wins

 

The absent smile, from the faces of clowns

Our world straight upwards, whilst you're upside down

Lost within, though there is no maze around

One of life's bankrupts, currency unfound

 

Time...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(4)

Innermost Coast

 

Within you lies a refuge,

Where wild vexations are tamed,

And consolation releases

those happy thoughts, now unchained,

A sanctuary from your chaos

Ocean's haven from life’s storm,

Moored securely port-side

Leeward safe and sheltered warm.

Anxiety takes a back seat

Worries find release.

No scrutiny from others

Your troubles ebb, then cease

This precious sel...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(4)

It doesn't excite me anymore

You know,

that doesn't excite me anymore,

Making love,

it’s not unpleasant, though a bit of a chore.

Intimate thoughts

No longer whirl inside my head.

when you and I

lay close together, at night, in bed.

 

There’s no reason

for you to be so upset,

after all

We move on, hold no regrets,

We've been there,

done that, it was ok back when

we were young,

I...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(7)

A better you.

Deep within, a bounteous fountain springs.

That inwardly cleanses what self-doubt brings.

Be kind to yourself and to those close by.

Uncertainty drags us down in a sigh.

 

Stride courageously, break untrodden ground,

Urged on by the kindness of others, found.

Be undeterred when a fraught journey's long,

With inner confidence, step forward, strong.

 

Despite any blackn...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(7)

Nature’s Green

Amongst emerald-coloured fields, where nature's dreams unfold,

Lush verdant hues paint vibrant tales, as yet untold. 

There, between the mystic realm of love and life, serene,

Landscape blankets woven, composed in shades of green.

 

Beneath canopies of majestic leafy boughs,

I lie silently alone and casually browse

an arborous ballet; mellow breezes reanimate the scene

Plié...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(9)

The colour of crucifixion

 

Crushed cream limestone, trodden underfoot,

Natural brown, the oaken hue

Of the Cross, for crucifixion borne.

He would die for you, and those true blue.

Sunrise, golden-edged the blackened clouds.

Whose threatening veil hangs above.

Calvary, its slopes lush, verdant green.

Yellow sallowed his sorrowed love.

Green and yellow-blue, the sparks that flew

as grey iron-he...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(6)

Elegance, on the 10:54

Initially, our train carriage, devoid,

Lacking something,

Something

we were unaware 

was a something to be lacked 

Then you,

glided from the platform,

majestically

This onward journey, our onward time

Slowed

in silent motion.

You cat-walked 

down the central aisle, 

A model vision, 

Men’s hearts skipped. 

jealous women sneered,

But all eyes opened wi...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(5)

George O 1903–1950

Young man.

E. A. Blair.

Literary predilection

An uncommon flair.

Each page, inspired, 

His soul laid bare,

Dystopia pondered

From his polished wooden chair.

He wrote of men 

Who lived without a prayer,

P.S. Burton, the tramp,

No grace, no air.

The squalor of poverty

Before ‘Coming up for air,’

On ‘The road to Wigan Pier,’

As he breathed Southwold's salt...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(8)

School bully

He died,

And although I tried,

Deep inside 

Relief sighed.

He passed away,

And all I could say,

To him today

Was, hey!

You were my misery,

Joy of youth razed, you made me jittery.

Swerved rebuke, you were slippery,

Considered me a frippery.

Butt kicker.

head flicker,

Unable to escape bullying quicker,

Morphed from carefree to quitter

Thank you, thoug...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(3)

The end

We have nothing much to offer love,

Embarrassingly, we extend a nothing offer

We have very little to say about love

Ashamed that love escaped its heart-shaped coffer

 

We had high hopes once, for our forever-ever

Searching forever with higher hope

Scarcely do we have anything left of belief

Recognising that belief in love is beyond our scope

 

We have little time that...

Read and leave comments (1)

🌷(5)

Time heals

 

Time heals, however, grief still bleeds the wound.

Life appeals, a brief hope you'll be immune.

Heartbreak recites a language unspoken,

Love's gone, though unforgotten; Love's broken.

 

Reminiscing, there's nothing to achieve

Love is, as it is, nothing remains; Leave.

Exploring your commitment, you both found

Love swam in shallows, then finally drowned

 

Love, un...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(4)

Cherished Canine

Monetary rewards of life

Established through labours long,

Disrespected by office minions

Jealous words from uttered tongues

 

Apathetic greedy offspring

Disinterested homebound wife

You purchase them their latest wish

If not, ‘’it's such an unfair life’’

 

Curled in her corner, soft-bedded

Contented, tail freely wagging

Unconditioned love transmitted,

No sho...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(6)

The colour of crucifixion

Cream-crushed limestone, trodden underfoot,

Natural brown, an oaken hue,

The Cross, for crucifixion borne.

To die for you, and those true blue.

 

Sunrise, golden-edged blackened clouds,

Whose threatening veil hangs above.

Calvary, its slopes a verdant green.

Yellow sallowed his sorrowed love.

 

Yellow-greenish blue, the sparks that flew

as grey iron-headed nails ha...

Read and leave comments (1)

🌷(4)

Hope

I'm the warming summer sun

I'm the blue lazuline sky

I'm the bond between two souls

The answer, without the why

 

I'm your wished-for confidence

I'm the promise each has made

I'm the trust that two hands hold

A shared future unafraid

 

I'm the beat between two hearts

I'm the care, that both will cope

I'm the trust right from the start

Your belief; for I am HO...

Read and leave comments (1)

🌷(4)

Dubiety

I'm the chill wind that blows across your face

I'm the obstacle to winning life's race

I'm the hope that's lost when out on a limb

The uncertainty of your faith in him

 

I'm the hesitation felt in your core

I'm the question unanswered from before

I'm the misgiving you have in your heart

The reason you are sure you both should part

 

I'm your suspicion that all is not ...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(6)

1,000,000 Acred sky

This Fenland million-acred sky,                                                     

Perceivable vastness beyond mortal eyes                                                      

An atmospheric canvas of blue-washed dye                    

Souls unbound by expansive skies                                                   

This Fenland million-acred sky so wide 

That fluffed white cl...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(7)

Will Shakespeare, therapist

If all your world's a stage, my dear,

Contrived words in scripted scenes

Voice and thought directed, my dear

Exit stage left, and follow your dreams

 

The lady doth protest, my dear

Maybe an unworthy cause

There before you, your future, my dear

Dominate your life, without pause

 

If music be your food, my dear

Allow lover's tunes to play

Object to pizzicato, my ...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(7)

Shakespeare 460. A summary.

Stratford’s sonneteer and scripter.

Gladdened glove-makers girded groin.

Studious son: Sunny student.

Choice cusswords casually coined.

 

Dangled, dipped, disastrous rhythm,

Woo, weather, bed and wed.

Minor marries maturing Miss Anne,

Mistress Mother’s birth bed bled.

 

What withered within?

Hamnet’s demise, heartbroken by death?

Fleeing Poacher, teacher, soldie...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(2)

William Shakespeare

Smile

Sat still, his back resting against the dirty brick wall

He, like the facade that he leaned against

begrimed, likely unpleasant to the touch

He smiled a nervous smile, apprehensive, awkward

Cradling close, a defensive metal crutch

Many walked, avoiding him, clearly incensed

He was unwelcome, passers-by rejected him one and all

 

I walked between line painted boxed parked ca...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(4)

Show more entries …

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Find out more Hide this message