6 June 2019

Poem

A week ago, I asked for ideas or titles that I might use to spark another poem into existence. I focused upon a title suggested by JayCee, the Isle of Man based  blogger responsible for "The Diary of a Nobody". The title JayCee suggested was "The Dark Side"...

I pictured woodland in the shadow of a hill with night falling and I thought about the current rise of dark political forces in Europe, America and various other corners of our planet. I wondered if I might be able to meld the two together - the dark woods and the dark hearts. This is what arose:-
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The Dark Side

With dusk, shadows congeal
Becoming night.
On old animal tracks
We cut through these forbidding trees
Stumbling now
In an odour of decay -
Of rotten stumps and
Gangrenous mushrooms clustered
In gangs, their flesh uneatable
With spores of nocturnal creatures
Decomposing in the gloom.
It is a place for iron hearts
And unforgiving stares.
The relentless march of brutes
Echoes everywhere -
Taking Nature in their stride,
Singing their hollow anthems,
Trampling toward pale glints of starlight
Blind in their faithless fantasies
Dark heralds of a blacker night.

14 comments:

  1. Oh my. I shall be too afraid to venture into our woodland at night now! Thanks for the mention by the way and I am tickled pink to have inspired such an opus.

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    1. "Tickled pink" was not really the reaction I was hoping to elicit

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    2. Over the moon then?

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    3. The Dark Side of The Moon?

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  2. I often wonder if the dark forces in the world (i.e., people) are at all in touch with nature's beauty. I can't picture it. Maybe if they were, things would be different today.

    Well done, Mr. Pudding.

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    Replies
    1. Maybe. Thanks for sharing your take on this poem Jenny-O.

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  3. I'm scared! Excellent poem. I love the term "faithless fantasies" and I can easily see how it could be applied to the politics of the world today. Well done Mr. Pudding.

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    1. Thanks for reading my poem and for thinking about it Bonnie. I must confess that though I worked quite hard on this one, I am still not entirely happy with it.

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  4. I went to the dark side last night...I switched off my bedside light...the dark descended before I could blink, I thiink.

    Well done, Major Pud...your poem is very descriptive...thanks for sharing.

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  5. Excellent. Could almost shoot myself for the despair felt, but then I have always loved Tolkien and Lewis and know that the forces of evil are always overcome by the forces of good.

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    Replies
    1. I hope that that is true in real life Thelma. Thanks for reading this poem and thinking about it.

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