Writer’s block

#NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo Day 5

All through the days so cold
I wanted to write
But the words had died
Slithering away in a whirlpool
Of frantic anxiety;

I stood at the threshold
Surrounded by the bellows of
Unrelenting stress and misery
I could barely stay afloat
Wallowing in fear and self-pity,

When they knocked at my door
I struggled to make sense
Of those jumbled letters.
So, I shut them all out –
Now no one will ever know
The stories those words told!

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Masquerade

#NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo Day 4

Book cover of Das unheimliche by Felix Schloemp Buch

Darkness whispered to me
Secrets from the ghastly depths
A smirk on her lips
A spectre of disdain
She laughed at my troubles
Amused at my failures.

“I saw it die a thousand deaths
Ages ago it heaved its last breath
Goodness is a cadaver
Goodwill a misnomer
It’s the time of the Black Serpent
Slithering on slippery slopes
In and out of its slimy scales;
Let me teach you the spells
From the bowels of hell
To charm Beings of the Night
For they are all that survived.”

I embrace the inky silhouette,
“My dark friend, I heed your advice.”
I summon them from within
Pettiness, dishonesty, slyness –
Throbbing, waiting to be spawned
I befriend the shady shadows
Blind like the bats betrothed
To deepest caverns and gallows
They tell me how to don a mask,
This masquerade I join with pride,
Of the deceitful who have thrived.

Poetry inspired by the book cover of Das unheimliche by Felix Schloemp Buch. Munich: Georg Mueller, 1914.

Halt

#NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo Day 3

Book cover designed by Walter Crane for A Masque of Days by Charles Lamb.

Tread gently and stay for a while
The crisp summer air beckons
Emerald trees tip their branches
Swaying leaves give a nod
Hear the birdsong in the breeze
Sunkissed glades, always serene
Look around you, notice the pace
It’s tender, slow, in a lazy way

We pursue and embrace chaos
The hustle and hassle of our days
Sleepless, hopeless, washed away
Riding a storm, dropped like debris
A wild goose chase; always in a hurry
Our souls are tired; we know it all
The entire futility, yet we cannot
Tread gently and come to a halt

Poetry inspired by the book cover designed by Walter Crane for A Masque of Days. London: Cassell and Co., 1901 by Charles Lamb.

Lava

#NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo Day 2

Image generated using Dream AI

Today, I wrap them up,
Tuck them away in a corner
The worry and weight I carried
I shove them aside
Now, I seek to return to words
That aspire to be heard

They tore out the letters
Wriggling on my lips –
These troublesome thoughts
They snuck into my space
Where the poetry should live
With the stories craving to be

I am ready to reclaim my peace
Banish the darkness
With whatever spell it takes,
To let the ink not run dry
And creativity to burst forth
Like molten sparks from my core.

Green shoots

#NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo Day 1

Neil Munro. Gilian the Dreamer, His Fancy, His Love and Adventure. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1899. Cover by Thomas Watson Ball
Book cover designed by Thomas Watson Ball for Gilian, the Dreamer, His Fancy, His Love and Adventure by Neil Munro.

The dried twig that lay still
At my doorstep is not dead yet
It has sprouted green wings;
The cracks in the sidewalk
May hide magical abodes
For I spied tendrils of a beanstalk.

Burdened by daily chores
It takes a moment to see
Hope arrives in the strangest ways
In a message bottle,
Washed ashore
Or in a heart,
Just weary of being sore.

Poetry inspired by the book cover designed by Thomas Watson Ball for Gilian, the Dreamer, His Fancy, His Love and Adventure by Neil Munro. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1899.