One by One...
If I should disappear one sudden night,
Escape, take flight, cast off my chains
And venture out one final time
Into the darkening light,
To leave this sinking hulk behind
Mired fast in weeds, and shallow deeds
That never now may be undone;
Take heed, I pray, who loved me once –
Death takes us, one by one!
If once you speak, but never get reply,
Though my eyes stare, not having said goodbye
When all that moved me, once, has gone
To join in common history the fate of everyman…
Don’t cry for me, for I am well content;
A life, lived, loved, and now made more complete
By ending thus, as everything must end.
No – save your tears for those I leave behind,
Grief is for the living, not the dead and blind!
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Dyes Cast
Each night
As he drops his head
To the deep dream
Of the dark bed,
A shape beckons him
Wellaway
From the starlight
And the dim day.
A mare
Black as a spade, calls
From the dark hill
As the wind falls,
The reeds mutter
The night is black
As he leaps blind
To the mare’s back.
Then like the roar
Of an ill wind
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Teenage Howl
‘Do you think that I’m Captain Marvel,
Do you think that I’ve got the power?
I’m a teenage howl with a hooded cowl
As the whey of the world turns sour.
I’m a puppet, churned in a frenzy
By the battlescars of men,
If I take my place at the end of the race
I’ll be left at the start again.’
‘Do you think that the great decisions
Are left to the likes of me?
With a zap-pow-zok, the atomic clock
Would banish their pedigree.
But a mere ‘Shazam’ from a young Batman
Won’t challenge the surly throne,
Don’t make no wave from your fortress cave
If you want to be left alone.’
‘They’ll poison your drinking water,
Bombard you with radium ‘B’,
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Deserted Village
There's a road on the hill, leads down to the plain
Where once was a village before the Black Plague,
And the old stone walls that marked off the fields
Lie hidden by the village called Tiverton Lees.
Where the gorse has flourished since the old crops died
Laid waste, un-nourished through the countryside,
And the old plough furrows ripple down through the vale
Where the farmhands idled, swilling lunchtime ale!
There are marks on the ground, along the main street
Worn smooth by the passages of carts and feet,
And the old foundations of the King's Head Inn
Lie stark, untroubled, where the men filed in.
The land lies fallow by the old cattle byres
While hearthstones, burnt, tell of warm cottage fires,
Of children, spooning at their hot pottages,
And wives, sat darning in their warm cottages.
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Where Are the Birds of Wenzhou, Bei Bei
‘The skies are empty and grey at dawn,
They’re empty and brown at noon,
Where are the birds of Wenzhou, Bei Bei
Deep in the afternoon?
Even at dusk when the air is still
Or the cool breath heaves from the sea,
I wait for the beat of wings then, Bei Bei
Rushing to comfort me.’
‘The birds were once when the paddy fields
Ran down by the river tides,
When the sky was blue and the air was clean
And the trees reached up to the stars.
The birds were here when the skies were clear
No buildings blocked the view...’
‘But where are the birds of Wenzhou, Bei Bei
Why have they gone from you? ’
‘They left when the smog came rolling in
And the insects died on the ground,
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Tense, You Buggers, Tense!
If ‘I CAN’ can, it’s done right away,
‘I CAN’ never can do it yesterday,
‘I can see, I can do, I can hear, I can feel,
‘I can go, I can stay, I can move, I can steal.’
If ‘I COULD’ ever could, then he’d do it last week
Because ‘I COULD’ and ‘I DID’ are best mates, (so to speak) .
‘I could see, I could do, I could hear, I could feel,
I could go, I could stay, I could move, I could steal.’
If ‘I DID’ ever did it, the deed has been done,
‘I DID’ never does it right now, old son.
‘I did not' - 'You did too' - 'So I did, you can sue, '
'What I did, when I did it, I did it for you.’
If ‘I WILL’ or ‘I WOULD’ or ‘I SHOULD’ are your thing,
Then don’t hold your breath, it’ll happen next spring,
‘I will go, I will come, I will be, I will see,
I would stay if I could, I should get home for tea.’
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Pu Tong Hua
English is simple, it flitters from the tongue,
It means what it says when all’s said and done,
No matter how we say it, stress it or declaim,
In English it always means the same, same, same!
Chinese is difficult, your ‘Pu Tong Hua’,
Is drawn in little pictures that go back so-o-o far,
And every one’s a concept, with no strict meanings
Making it impossible to delve your gleanings.
As often as I study, and try as I might,
I can’t get your xiang xing’s or qing qing’s right.
There isn’t any gender; there isn’t any tense,
So how can your past, present, future, make sense?
Then when I’ve mastered some simple Chinese
You say: ‘That’s fine – but it’s Wenzhou-nese,
Nobody in Guangzhou, Wuhan or Beijing
Would understand a pennyworth of what you’re saying! ’
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
For George...
(In Memory of the Reverend George Potter...)
How do I tell the world you've gone
Old friend, with never a tear,
When we knew each other for ever so long
In the world that spins out there,
For we rubbed along with an easy grace
And you taught me how to pray,
I thought that you'd see me out, old friend,
But death has snatched you away!
I mind when the stage of life was full
And we bent our backs to the toil,
When the days and the nights weren't long enough
And we burned the midnight oil,
When we schemed and dreamed of a better world,
And we played our part throughout,
With what it took, with a wing and a prayer
We saw it all work out!
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Never The God...
Your eyes bright, eager and trusting,
Where do we go from here, my son,
I spent my essence, loving and lusting,
Chasing a paper god, my son.
I turned my sword to a feathered quill,
Ensnared your mother’s heart, my son,
She loved the god in the paper spill
But never the god in your father, son.
We came together when life was full
And loved at the morning light, my son,
‘Til she grew heavy and I grew dull
While you just quickened and grew, my son.
Then you burst out like a single star
That beamed from our both horizons, son
We loved you more than the what-we-were
Than ever we loved each other, son.
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Funeral
The village lay in silence
As I lounged there, on the hill,
The grass so soft and evergreen,
The flowers, petalled still,
The morning sun shone brightly
As I lay, without a care,
And watched the village come awake,
I watched the village stir.
The baker with his basket
Dropping off each loaf of bread,
The milkman chinking bottles
As the wives stirred from their bed,
The countrymen at breakfast
Peering out to greet the day,
The cock had crowed just once that morn,
The fox had had its way.
Then later on that morning
I could hear the church bell toll,
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!