Howl down the screaming wind
Howl down the screaming wind
Stem gushing flow of innocent blood
Rescue souls lost from whirlpool’s trap
Floundering lost amidst thunderous waves
Dashed and broken upon jagged rocks.
War mongers demands beyond control
Silencing all prayers for peace
Lies told to quell the panic
Inmates running the asylum
Madness giving birth to destruction.
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Quasimodo weeps in anguish
Despised for twisted hunchback ugliness
Needing ecstasy of a woman’s touch
Knowing he can never father a child
Nor kiss the lips of lover who is true.
Deformed, limping ugliness sublime
Children flee in terror flee screaming
Dogs howl seeing his grotesque shape
Limping miserably from place to place
Trying to hide among the shadows
Face turned towards the shadows.
He swings clinging to the Great bell
Deafened by the thunderous peals
Enjoying one brief moment of happiness
Forgetting agonies of his loveless life
Spirit soaring like a dove over Paris.
In times long gone
In times long gone
When I was a boy
Running innocent and free
Supported by family, love and joy
Sweet days of sunshine and delight.
I thought it never ending
Happiness inspiring the heart
Those I love immortal
Death forbidden stranger
Without time aging body and mind.
Mermaid
Senses reeling, unsure, chaste and inspired
Half human, half fish, consumed with love
Mermaid, beautiful and bold, green-eyed
Saves sailor fallen overboard from drowning
Sinking down to where giant squid is king.
Three-masted sailing ship smashed and wrecked
Hull crushed with masts snapped, sails ripped
Hauled below by goliath squid beneath the waves
All hands lost but handsome second mate.
Night and day she supports him in her arms
Head resting on her bosom and unconscious
Kept safe above white crested dancing waves.
She swims him to shore then waits far off
For humans to come and carry him away.
Pregnant
In radiant bloom she sits in a garden
Eyes closed, kissed by the sun
Thinking of life within her womb
Boy or girl, it does not matter
Baby conceived in sweetest love.
Nearby, her man watches her
Heart quickened by her beauty
Loving her and life within her womb
Boy of girl, he does not care
Baby conceived in sweetest love.
Tic toc
Time, relentless and hard
Sweeps me swiftly forward
Moving onwards without pause
Each lover soon a memory.
In childhood time seemed paused
Bright summers never ending
Holidays of happiness and adventure
Shared with family and friends long dead.
How can I hold back time
Trapped and precious to my heart?
Slipping rapidly away
Chaining me to loneliness.
Note: To read more poems by the same author, click here
About the Author
Colin Ian Jefferey is an established English poet and novelist with world-wide reputation. He was seven, a choirboy, when he became entranced by poetry after hearing the twenty-third psalm. The beauty of the words struck his soul like lightning and his Muse began to sing. He then found poetry was being read on the BBC radio Home Service and would listen in awe and delight to such poets as Dylan Thomas, John Betjeman, and Ted Hughes.
