Ending.

A time of ending
A bitter truth
To give up defending
The mistakes of youth
That somehow became
Vagaries of age
Still burns the flame
Consumed by the rage
Haunted by history
No use pretending
There’s no real mystery
In a time of an ending

Beginnings were so sweet
Joys held precious inside
Swept off your feet
A beautiful bride
Remember those days
Tears sting her eyes
So many ways
To bury the lies
Some from your peers
But most from yourself
A dusty book of the years
On your own bookshelf

Romantic notions
Buried and lost
In life’s great oceans
Where dreams are tossed
Swamped by the waves
Drowned in tears
We are all slaves
To the passing of years
We paint smiles on our faces
Though doom is impending
And we seek out our places
And times of an ending

Time Machine

In the dying glow of the sun declining
When the world slows down to rest
And the moon rises, its moonbeams shining
To shine a light on the nightly unrest
In It’s pale light ominous shadows will make
A hangman’s noose against a wall
A man who did his own life take
And a rope to break a fall

A clock ticking a sound so pleasant
A Time Machine to count the beat
To draw in the changing present
Reject the past in its defeat
Yet nothing changed but everything broken
Tears from a mother, regrets and despair
The whole world turns on words unspoken
For though still a presence he is no longer there

His memory lives in all those who loved him
They pray to their Gods for the sake of his soul
But they wonder what demons he harboured within him
That damaged his mind and swallowed him whole
What could have been done to his state of mind
What circumstance did lead to his plight?
So many unknowns and all intertwined
So many wrongs that no-one can right

The grandfather clock keeps on counting its heartbeat
Calling the future without judgment or fear
What’s done is done and is now just bittersweet
Memories of times when he was still near

Blood on the water

She stands staring out to sea
But she’s blind to what is out there
She’s replaying her life history
And laying her soul bare
She feels the tears sting her eyes
Scared of where life’s bought her
She doesn’t see the summer sky’s
Only blood on the water

She thinks about the hopes she had
A family lost to war
Ideals once so ironclad
We’re not worth fighting for
The price paid was far to high
Overtaken by the slaughter
She’s no tears left to cry
Only blood on the water

The cliff edge beneath her feet
Waves breaking far below
Life that once tasted sweet
Burdened by deaths shadow
She knows the pain will not cease
That at least this life had taught her
She steps forwards to a final release
And her blood to the water

Copyright Tallisman 2022 All rights reserved

In to the fire

Where the hunger is
Where the desire
Born in desperation
Raised from the mire
Struggle through life to
Raise themselves higher
But we’re all running
Into the fire

Twisting and turning
No avoiding our fate
Feeling the burning
Is this love or hate?
The struggle consuming
You’re beginning to tire
But you can’t stop running
Into the fire

Feeling so alone?
It’s part of the game
Without a sweet lover
There’s no-one to blame
Baby, If you want me
Look to the funeral pyre
I’ll be dancing like a flame
Into the fire

Again and Again….

He reaches out and puts his arm on her shoulder
Pulls her close and into his space
She trembled as the darkness enfolds her
As she sees the look on his face
He kisses her hair and whispers his guarantees
“No one will love you as much as I could”
He puts his hands around her neck and started to squeeze
Somewhere an owl hooted deep in the wood
The moon and the stars conspired for romance
Heedless of those that hunt by their light
Young lovers caught up in the passions of loves dance
Unaware of the monsters that crawl in the night

He laid her down gently in the heather
Kissed her lips in whispered goodbyes
Promised her that they would always be together
The moonlight reflected from her open eyes
He thought it was no more than he deserved
The love he offered was always the best
Such love, he mused, should be unreserved
Such unspoilt memories to take to her rest.
And the moon and the stars kept on shining
Uncaring of ill deeds done under their light
But it’s not natures way to be redefining
The role evil plays in the heart of the night

Another town and in another bar
Another hopeful smile exchanged
Two hearts beating under another star
One mind remains deranged
And so the world keeps on turning
A desperate lovelorn dance
Lonely hearts keep on yearning
Playing a game of chance
And the moon and the stars oversee all
Illuminating all the sins of men
Bedevilled in the grip of another nightfall
The record starts playing…again and again..

Man in the moon

This poem was inspired by reading a lovely poem by Jay Maria Simpson called The Silent Vision. Jay has kindly allowed me to link back to it.

20th May 2023. StoryStars story of the day!

Watch the moon, does he smile
Will he hold your heart a while?
Take the pain, hold it tight
Diffuse it through his pale moonlight
But dawn will come and all reborn
My heart returned to be forlorn
My memories also will renew
And I can see the face of you..

Bitter tears, so well remembered
Bitter love so well dismembered
Torn apart, ravaged and spurned
But oh so deeply I have yearned
I curse the dawn and miss the night
Look for oblivion in cold moonlight
But dawn colours the sky in autumnal hue
And I can taste the scent of you..

The rising sun will bring no heat
It brings the taste of bittersweet
It’s rays of gold darken my heart
It’s shadows a perfect counterpart
For how can I welcome the day
My life just mournful shades of grey
On the roses glistens morning dew
Memories of the tears I cried for you

Fly in the storm

There are those who stand together
And others who drift apart
Bonds supposed to last forever
Crumble from the start
For some they follow their own creeds
Others follow their own desires
Some take depending on their needs
Others what their greed requires
Some pray to a God that’s benign
Others to a God that rages
Some live life to their own design
Some live their life in cages
Some worship only what they see
Others only what they are taught
Finding religion in imagery
Or salvation in theological thought
Some cry for a past that’s not forgiven
Some weep for futures pending
For the path that on which we’re driven
Leads only to an ending
Some laugh in the face of fate
Some whisper in the wind
Some love where others hate
Some pray where others sinned
We are but a single drop of rain
In a storm battering eternity’s shore
A fly caught in a hurricane
Then lost for evermore

They lie beneath

In this place where blood was spilled
A place where many men were killed
Each fighting for a dishonourable cause
Where some distant lord will take applause
And count his coin with sweating hands
The price of death in foreign lands
Paid by the blood of fighting men
Who never returned to home again
Their bones restless in unfamiliar ground
Thrown together in a burial mound
No mourners there to vent their grief
Grass grows on the soil they lie beneath

But still there are those that mourn
In the places they were born
Where streets of smoke deny the day
And candles burn to light the way
Where some still weep and some still wait
Unable to comprehend their fate
Time sheds hope like a tree sheds leaves
Some live now only in their memories
As the world moves on they are left behind
Still searching for a love they cannot find
No tombstones stand, no flowers or wreath
Grass grows on the soil they lie beneath

Pulvis et umbra sumus

we are dust and shadow
Ethereal ghosts
Moving in life’s undertow
Within temporary hosts
Doomed to live for eternity
Yet to die and be reborn
Lost in our self pity
Tortured and forlorn

We are forced to roam
Through the realms of man
Outcasts from our natural home
The Gods cursed our clan
Once Angel born and pure of heart
Now ancient and laid so low
We questioned the Gods and they tore us apart
Leaving just dust and shadow