Poetry Blog by Stephen W Atkinson

On a cold winter's night

They sat, hand in hand

Ravaged by time

Old in design

Two dinosaurs

In a digital age

Still in analogue love

Upon a wireless hub

Sitting on a park bench

Beneath a full moon

At the end of their time

Bodies poised to resign 

As frost gathers around

They glisten as one

Hands intertwined

Old parchment defined

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Sometimes

Life is like the smallest flower

Stretching for some sun

When all the bigger ones devour

All it could become

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Roses were never within her

Just the cloying fragrance of Lilies 

Emanating from every pore and ethereal breath 

Moss befriending her like an earthly blanket

Comforting her cold, dead bones

Flesh decaying to fertilizer

for sprouting fungi: 

Tempting flavoursome morsels of meaty bouquet

Take one, whispers the breeze

Persuaded by gentle winds that prickle sk...

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Like comets we slid through the crisp, white grass

In our wake billowed a powder-puff mass

It floated and swirled and twinkled with light

Like low-hanging stars broke free of the night

And in snow-laden fields angels were made

A concertina of limbs in the snow where we lay

We rolled and we frolicked and snowballs were thrown 

Not caring one jot if we were soaked to t...

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A WWI remembrance poem

(First published online for Northern Life magazine 2018)

It creaked as he left:

The old garden gate

He’d promised to fix it

But now it was too late

Tearful in the doorway

His mother cries out,

‘Do it when you’re back, Billy!’

And of this she has no doubt

He waves,

And off to glory are the swathes

Of boys, and men in their pr...

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I struggle without hands

Have no mouth, to speak of

And my eyes avert.

I itch and blotch, 

And the radiance of the sky

Illuminates my sheer loneliness.

Darkness can't come soon enough

'Though I fear my blanket will

one day

become the soil of my grave.

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(Happy Halloween everyone!)

She rides upon a crimson horse

Its eyes as black as tar

Pray not to hear her whispered name

For she'll come to where you are

Her skin: as white as fresh-laid snow 

And twice as cold to touch

Her hair: as black as night itself

Hold your breath now, hush!

For if you hear the galloping hooves

Coming to your door

Run with all ...

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From the windswept clifftop

She could see below

Far below into the cove

Where lay, a body upon the sand

And, dragged by tide,

A waving hand

It swayed like the branch

Of a wind-laden tree

Come to me

Oh come to me!

A breath of chill

Now, caressed her skin

Whilst staring down at the cove

And the figure within

And upon her grasped

Su...

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She shivered in the misty morn
Her shoulders hunched, her face forlorn
She sat upon a fallen tree
At what she stared, he could not see
Into the woods, she stared so hard
At something she could not discard

Tom, sat beside her, said 'Hello'
But no emotion did she show
'What do you see, out in the trees?'
Her hissed reply made his blood freeze:

'THE DEMON! It watches, and eats up my bre...

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Dreams are such strange creatures

Presenting vivid or

amorphic features

They steep your mind

in make-believe

Where past & present

Interweave 

I'm in the woods

'neath a gnarly tree

Where friends of old 

run wild & free 

Friends who now rest

as soil or ash

Or who simply faded

into time's elapse

But, I'm standing there

Fully gro...

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Come look inside my cooking pot

It's full of children you forgot

Upon the streets, so cold & wet

I steal away their rancid breath

Then grind them down to fit my pot

And heat it up so very hot

Then feed them to the homeless ones

Who gobble them up with such aplomb!

My good deed done, I crawl back home

And slither upon my thorny throne

And there I wait wi...

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One day I looked 

inside my head

And there I found

words left unsaid:

Make haste
No time
Forbid
Hate love
Always shout
Never listen

So, I put haste in the waste
Told No to go!
Put a lid on bid
Locked hate in a crate 
Gave shout a clout (until it ran out)
And
Got rid of never, forever

I'd like to think
That what remained
In all of us 
Is preordained:

Mak...

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I

and I alone

upon my bed of cobbled stone

Ponder

   As my flesh weeps into gravel sheets

I ponder what it must be like

to be whole again

   To feel I had a soul again

This dessicated shell

crumbles like mountain scree

down, down to the hungry, black sea

lapping and licking at the feet of my bed

dragging out, with the tide, 

such meagre light from my hea...

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Come sit atop my bed of bones

With crimson hue

And darkened tones

Discard your flesh

Come join the rabble

For ecstasy waits

For those who dabble

I've cleared a space

Atop my bed

To lay your bones

When you are dead

I'll pick them clean

And hold them dear

Just so you know

'Tis only I to fear! 

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(wrote back in March, which now seems an age ago)

The reluctant tears of morning dew 

hang from foliage of vivid green.

A global pandemic is mentioned. 

Ears barely prick 

Minds drift like snow: 

Mmm what's for tea?

The dew becomes gas and floats 

Ribbons of wispy white melt into the blue high above.

Lockdown

Feet burn upon newly laid decking under an early summer sun...

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Seven little girls went too deep

Into the forest where shadows creep.

They found a path, which was never there

And wandered down without a care

In a clearing they heard a song;

A haunting tune to sing-along

It got right in their flesh & bones

A lullaby of dulcet tones 

Within their minds, there grew a cyst

Where danced the oldest, darkest witch

Who humm...

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Your hand unfurled

Revealing stars 

You'd captured while out dreaming 

They drifted skyward:

Little wisps of hope

Reaching out like ethereal streaming

I breathed them in 

As dawn brightened 

The stirring sea

And downloaded all the wonders

Of what you and I

Could, one day, grow to be.

NB.

(Ethereal Streaming is not available via Netflix)

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(for the little girl who haunts my dreams still) 

Dear Daddy,

Not that you'd care, but

All that I wanted was to make you proud

But, I was too stupid

Too fat

Too loud

All you ever did was bring me down

I was your scar

Your permanent frown

I was your verbal punchbag

In your whiskey fuelled state

Never felt I was your child 

Just a vessel for...

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(one for the bairns...and big bairns)

Came to the world

With Dancey feet! 

Danced off the bed

And down the street

Danced on a bus

And on a car

For such tiny feet

They danced so far!

Danced up a tree

And through the air

Through fluffy clouds

That tickled her!

Danced on the sun

(And, burnt her bum!)

But still she danced

With joyful fun

Her weary fee...

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How free, flows the raging river

How free, float the clouds

How free, sways the luscious grass

How free, stand trees so proud

How free, swirls the playful wind

How free, tides ebb and flow

How free, the sunlight bathes the earth

How free, wild flowers grow

How free, the stars prick night with gold

How free, the moon that shimmers

How free, roam creatures of ...

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(A lament)
    
Ssssh
Listen…
Modern world blocking the transmission?
Too much traffic? 
A world too erratic
Does the whispering grass still play a tune
Or has brick and mortar brought it to ruin?
This world is so fast!
Take me back to the past!
It makes such a  din!
I don't know where to begin!
And cars, 
bloody cars everywhere!
If I had any left, 
I'd pull out my hair! 
    
In...

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(Wrote during the post Brexit
 vote debacle)

Ahh democracy!
What a wonderful thing!
The freedom of a vote that counts
Makes my lickle heart sing!

The Magna Carta, the 2nd Reform
The start of our foundations
The principles of all free worlds
The lifeblood of our nation 

The Suffragettes - great heroines
Spilled blood to earn the right
They would not bow or break or bend
Or fade...

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The fading embers of her mind

Drift away to a long-ago time
To shrouded visions of some young girl
A time of wonder, a world to unfurl

Through fields she would dance humming a tune
Losing herself amidst the sweet scent of bloom
A fragrant-filled-feast for her lungs to consume
Within the wonderful freedom of nature's playroom

And as the shimmering Sun went down
She would dance throug...

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She'd been told with much conviction

How the window was a shield.

For outside there lurked a wicked thief

And her breath this thief would steal

But, her family stood beyond the pane 

A daughter, granddaughter & son 

Who'd send out smiles like rays of light

And through the glass they'd come

She blows them kisses, and shakes her fist

In case this thief's about

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