BEAUTY HAS NO FEAR

The concept of beauty and the beast has never been more evocatively captured than in the above photograph, which drew out the following verse from my mind as I delighted in its incongruous charm.

BEAUTY HAS NO FEAR

Beauty is has no fear,
Which makes it so precious,
But also so fragile.

WHAT IS LOVE?

This verse quite literally wrote itself in my mind just a few moments after I had discovered online the wonderful artwork presented above.

WHAT IS LOVE?

What is Love,
But a meeting of minds,
A fusion of feelings,
An offering of opposites,
And a silhouetting of self?

BLUE SERPENT

Snakes are inextricably entwined among and around the very earliest outgrowths of humanity - their sinuous, unblinking, inherently unsettling, yet intrinsically fascinating image is deeply rooted within the human psyche, and will continue to be for as long as we exist.

BLUE SERPENT

Gazing through unblinking incarnadine eyes
And intimately ensheathed in cerulean scales,
The blue serpent watches long, and waits longer,
For of what little concern to it is time,
When the azure sky and the glaucous sea
Are its infinite dominions to rule through all eternity?

MY LADY ABSINTHE

In just a few short, succinct lines, I have sought to convey the ecstacy and the agony, the zenith and the nadir, the dream and the nightmare, conveyed by the bittersweet enchantment of absinthe - the potent green fairy of bewitching intoxication.

MY LADY ABSINTHE

Give Grace to My Lady,
To Absinthe of Wormwood,
The dream-robed Green Fairy
Of Delight and Despair.
Delight in her smile
As her lucid inebriate,
Despair in her scorn
As her ague-ridden fool.

WOLF MAGIC

Inspired by the spellbinding image above, the following verse calls forth the inner wolf within us all.

WOLF MAGIC

I am the wolf at your door,
A howl at your moon.
What big eyes I have,
All the better to see you with.
And what big claws I have,
All the better to seize you with.
I am the shape in your shifting,
The dream in your drifting,
The wolf in your wearing,
The teeth in your tearing.
I am the night and your hunter,
And you are the day and my waking.

MOON CAT

The mesmerising image above challenged me to consider what it may be like to encounter a moon cat one dusky blue evening.

MOON CAT

I saw a moon cat once.
Its fur was moonlight and shadow,
As blue as the bluest blue moon.
The moon was its mistress and mystery,
And I but a moon-dream in its eye.

A DIAMOND JUBILEE TRIBUTE TO HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II

My tribute in celebration of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee - God save the Queen!

A DIAMOND JUBILEE TRIBUTE TO HER MAJESTY

QUEEN ELIZABETH II

Far ‘cross the rich verdant meadows of Britain,
Church bells chime long of the great Jubilee.
Even Britannia raises her trident
Proudly before you in praise from the sea.

Trumpets announce you and fanfares precede you,
Children smile shyly as slowly you pass.
Rose petals spiral from window and rooftop
Downwards in reverence to drift through the grass.

You are our glorious monarch and sovereign,
Bearing our might like a shimmering crown –
Set with the sadness and joys of your birthright,
Sparkling like stars in the evening’s rich gown.

Yours is the fate of our kingdom, and ever
Must you alone bear our sorrows and joys.
Ne’er can the world know your innermost secrets,
Yours must be majesty, splendour, and poise.

So let us praise you this Jubilee season,
Long may you reign o’er our country serene.
Long may your years of resplendence continue –
You are our Lady, our Light, and our Queen.