Saint Osgyth (illustrated)

Tags

abbess, abbey, anglo-saxon, cephalophore, comic, folk, folk poetry, headless, holy ground, holy woman, illustration, medieval, osgyth, poem, raiders, revenge, saint, spurned husband, story, wimple

This was a commission piece from the incredible Sarah Peploe, an illustrated version of my Poem ‘Saint Osgyth’.

 

Skald of the Hills

Tags

adventure, age, bard, breeze, coming home, decicated, defense, exile, family, father, hills, home, leaving, life, meadering, meandering, migration, Mountains, path, people, poem, poetry, rest, singing, skald, skald of the hills, son, travel, travel poetry, wandering, war

Skald of the Hills

 

He climbed to the hilltop,

To sing his king’s name,

Into the valley below,

So that all would hear,

The gods would bless

The travellers,

This pilgrimage,

As they trudged towards

The hope of a new land,

Praying that, in slowness,

They were at least fast enough.

 

He stood on the walls,

Bellowing song,

As they defended their home,

Hard won, long ago, founded

Far from their enemies grasp,

In an improbable basin

That could only have meant

They were favoured.

 

He sang as his son left,

Carrying his bags,

He hoped that

In a new life

Full of strangeness

And adventure,

He would listen

To the wind,

Hear a fragment

Of the song, on an

Erstwhile breeze,

And long for home.

 

 

 

This is dedicated to Jack Warren, fellow poet and Westcountry exile in Yorkshire 😉

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I’m putting all this up for the love of writing and your enjoyment, and if you would like to use it for your own purposes that would be awesome. However, it’s my writing, and I must ask you to ask me first, and credit me (obviously). Also, if you do I’d really love to see/hear/watch it!

If you’d like to support me, on a monthly basis, then i’d love you forever, and feel free to sign up for my patreon here.

https://www.patreon.com/lonpops .

If you would also like to help me keep putting things up for free, and support my writing but would rather not do monthly donations, my paypal is:

paypal.me/henrythorpe

Share, like, comment, critique, spread the word(s) and thankyou for visiting my page, you’re all wonderful.

I’ve also done recordings of several of my poems and stories, which are available on soundcloud here

If you’d like to give my page a like on facebook it’s here – https://www.facebook.com/HenryArthurThorpe/

Follow me on twitter (i’m afraid I don’t post much) – @Lonpops

Or drop me an email at hathorpe506@gmail.com

Carving

Tags

blizzard, carving, footsteps, forest, goodbye, hunt, hunter, line break, loss, lost, love, sleep, snow, waiting, wandering, winter

Carving – a poem of line breaks and missing endings, about loss in the forest in winter and waiting.

 

 

Carving

 

He left a message in the ice

Before he went out

Hunting

Into the blizzard

But I woke too late and missed

My chance

To say

Goodbye.

I told him I loved him,

I’m sure

I

Did.

But enough?

Who knows. He left to hunt

Without me,

Left me snug in bed,

And

I never got to tell

Him I loved him

Again.

Watch the forest

Children,

One day he’ll return,

He went to bring me

Food

When I was small

And

I never got to

Say I loved him

Enough.

We stand out every winter

For a while in evening‘s

Cold,

For he can’t have left

Like this,

Things were so unfinished

He left us

Without

 

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I’m putting all this up for the love of writing and your enjoyment, and if you would like to use it for your own purposes that would be awesome. However, it’s my writing, and I must ask you to ask me first, and credit me (obviously). Also, if you do I’d really love to see/hear/watch it!

If you’d like to support me, on a monthly basis, then i’d love you forever, and feel free to sign up for my patreon here – i’ll link the blog to here whenever I post something new, as well as a few extra snippets just for patrons (so extracts of WIP larger projects etc)

https://www.patreon.com/lonpops .

If you would also like to help me keep putting things up for free, and support my writing but would rather not do monthly donations, my paypal is:

paypal.me/henrythorpe

Share, like, comment, critique, spread the word(s) and thankyou for visiting my page, you’re all wonderful.

I’ve also done recordings of several of my poems and stories, which are available on soundcloud here

If you’d like to give my page a like on facebook it’s here – https://www.facebook.com/HenryArthurThorpe/

Follow me on twitter (i’m afraid I don’t post much) – @Lonpops

Or drop me an email at hathorpe506@gmail.com

Post Modern Faerie

Tags

bards, faerie, fairy, hunt, iron, myth, poem, poet, poetry, post modern, post=modernist, reinterpretation, song, stolen, style, what if

 

 

Post Modern Faerie

 

They used to bring

The poets to fairyland

To entertain the folk

As they ran and danced

And hunted,

The bards

Marching tune.

 

They were used

To the outcasts

All too willing

To join

The never ending song

That took worlds

And made them theirs

To see their songs

Made manifest

At last.

 

This new breed,

Taken by the faerie,

As was the custom,

Confused them,

Too much,

Even for chaos,

Unused to

Being asked

Why.

 

This post modern

Faerie

Took the old

Tricks, distorted them

In ways the fey lords

Were not

Ever prepared for.

 

Nobody ever asked why,

before.

Nobody ever raised

An eyebrow,

before,

At the ridiculousness,

Of this whole business.

 

Faerie faded with

The post-modernists.

Iron had held them true,

But skeptical,

self-loathing poets

Finally drove them

Away.

 

This piece is dedicated to the lovely Phoebe Boleyn Vowles-Webb, as a 2017 Christmas present. I wanted to explore the idea of a post-modernist poet or bard being drawn into Faerie like a traditional bard, and how faerie would react to that situation.

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I’m putting all this up for the love of writing and your enjoyment, and if you would like to use it for your own purposes that would be awesome. However, it’s my writing, and I must ask you to ask me first, and credit me (obviously). Also, if you do I’d really love to see/hear/watch it!

If you’d like to support me, on a monthly basis, then i’d love you forever, and feel free to sign up for my patreon here – i’ll link the blog to here whenever I post something new, as well as a few extra snippets just for patrons (so extracts of WIP larger projects etc)

.

If you would also like to help me keep putting things up for free, and support my writing but would rather not do monthly donations, my paypal is:

paypal.me/henrythorpe

Share, like, comment, critique, spread the word(s) and thankyou for visiting my page, you’re all wonderful.

I’ve also done recordings of several of my poems and stories, which are available on soundcloud

If you’d like to give my page a like on facebook it’s here –

Follow me on twitter (i’m afraid I don’t post much) – @Lonpops

Or drop me an email at hathorpe506@gmail.com

 

Saint Osgyth

Tags

abbess, cephalophore, death, head, headless, life, martyr, nun, pooem, saint, saxon, st osgth, st osgyth, st osyth

 

Saint Osgyth

 

She would carry her head

Back to holy ground

After they had struck it

From her neck

So rudely.

 

Scorned men are fools

That they chase

Full of pettiness

That they would

Take an abbess

And remove her head

Just for spite.

 

You should have seen their faces,

When she picked her severed head

From the ground, gingerly,

Placed it upon her bloody neck

And made a silly face

That made these monstrous fools

Faint or stumble down,

 

“The devil!” They cried

On this holy woman

They had just killed

Dragged from the abbey

Still in her wimple

And murdered

Cold, in the name of

A spurned husband.

 

“The only devils I see are men”

The dead woman cried,

As she strode away,

Crossing herself

For protection

Although this act,

With a severed head

In hands, Bloody,

Seemed to bother them.

 

She would find her way back,

To the abbey, Eventually.

She had a few more

Misbegotten fools

To frighten first.

 

 

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I’m putting all this up for the love of writing and your enjoyment, and if you would like to use it for your own purposes that would be awesome. However, it’s my writing, and I must ask you to ask me first, and credit me (obviously). Also, if you do I’d really love to see/hear/watch it!

If you’d like to support me, on a monthly basis, then i’d love you forever, and feel free to sign up for my patreon here – i’ll link the blog to here whenever I post something new, as well as a few extra snippets just for patrons (so extracts of WIP larger projects etc)

https://www.patreon.com/lonpops .

If you would also like to help me keep putting things up for free, and support my writing but would rather not do monthly donations, my paypal is:

paypal.me/henrythorpe

Share, like, comment, critique, spread the word(s) and thankyou for visiting my page, you’re all wonderful.

I’ve also done recordings of several of my poems and stories, which are available on soundcloud here

If you’d like to give my page a like on facebook it’s here – https://www.facebook.com/HenryArthurThorpe/

Follow me on twitter (i’m afraid I don’t post much) – @Lonpops

Or drop me an email at hathorpe506@gmail.com

Caterpillar / Dragon Tails / Snowglobe

Tags

caterpillar, Childhood, confusion, dragon, dragon tails, fire, innocence, legs, life, loss, love, mess, papercut, poem, poet, poetry, shelter, short poems, snow, snowglobe, tails

 

 

 

Caterpillar

The

Caterpillar

Has too

Many

Legs

They Wobble

All

Over

The place,

Bumbling along

And eating

Lettuce

Like

They think

A healthy diet

Will make

Them

Beautiful

Or give them

Wings

Or something.

 

 

 

Dragon Tails

 

Dragon tails

Swish like cats’

At play, they’re just

Bigger, and excitable

Dragonlings

Tend to make

A whole lot more mess.

It’s like small fire breathing scaled things

(who are bigger than houses)

Falling all over the place and shooting flames

Are perhaps

A little bit

Of a liability.

 

 

 

Snowglobe

 

The flakes fall,

As light and sharp

As papercuts

Freshly milled,

On our little home in the forest.

We know,

That whilst the snow

Keeps falling,

In our little world,

We are safe, for a while,

From the shaking.

 

 

 

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I’m putting all this up for the love of writing and your enjoyment, and if you would like to use it for your own purposes that would be awesome. However, it’s my writing, and I must ask you to ask me first, and credit me (obviously). Also, if you do I’d really love to see/hear/watch it!

If you’d like to support me, on a monthly basis, then i’d love you forever, and feel free to sign up for my patreon here – i’ll link the blog to here whenever I post something new, as well as a few extra snippets just for patrons (so extracts of WIP larger projects etc)

https://www.patreon.com/lonpops .

If you would also like to help me keep putting things up for free, and support my writing but would rather not do monthly donations, my paypal is:

paypal.me/henrythorpe

Share, like, comment, critique, spread the word(s) and thankyou for visiting my page, you’re all wonderful.

I’ve also done recordings of several of my poems and stories, which are available on soundcloud here

If you’d like to give my page a like on facebook it’s here – https://www.facebook.com/HenryArthurThorpe/

Follow me on twitter (i’m afraid I don’t post much) – @Lonpops

Or drop me an email at hathorpe506@gmail.com

 

On Waking I Find Myself In An Unknown Place

Tags

alien, arrival, beach, city, coast, colour, curiousity, dance, help, immigrant, language, on, on waking i find myself in an unknown place, port, reflection, refugee, sea, travel, unkown, waking

 

On Waking I Find Myself In An Unknown Place

 

Waking to a Cornucopia of colour

I stretch, breathing in new air,

In an unknown city.

Hubbub surrounds everything

In bizz-buzz conversation,

Language unknown,

Lurching upwards I stand

To newborn fate,

Another day, another place.

 

Not noticing me yet, I decide (or I must, soon)

Whether I want

To dance in the reflections

Of these unusual lights,

Embrace my new home

Or hide from them,

In case they hurt

My travel-scarred form.

 

I lie here, an unknown thing,

Alien to them,

Curious and enthralled,

Wondering at a sky I do not recognise.

I think I would like

To move myself,

Like they do,

Dance alongside them,

In hope that their cruel eyes

Are only reflections of the sea

As it brings us back to shore.

 

 

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I’m putting all this up for the love of writing and your enjoyment, and if you would like to use it for your own purposes that would be awesome. However, it’s my writing, and I must ask you to ask me first, and credit me (obviously). Also, if you do I’d really love to see/hear/watch it!

If you’d like to support me, on a monthly basis, then i’d love you forever, and feel free to sign up for my patreon here – i’ll link the blog to here whenever I post something new, as well as a few extra snippets just for patrons (so extracts of WIP larger projects etc)

https://www.patreon.com/lonpops .

If you would also like to help me keep putting things up for free, and support my writing but would rather not do monthly donations, my paypal is:

paypal.me/henrythorpe

Share, like, comment, critique, spread the word(s) and thankyou for visiting my page, you’re all wonderful.

I’ve also done recordings of several of my poems and stories, which are available on soundcloud here

If you’d like to give my page a like on facebook it’s here – https://www.facebook.com/HenryArthurThorpe/

Follow me on twitter (i’m afraid I don’t post much) – @Lonpops

Or drop me an email at hathorpe506@gmail.com

Instructions For Successful Teleportation

Tags

amorphous goo, conceptual, control, death, douglas adams, fizz, human, imperative poetry, incorporeal, individuality, instructions, instructions for successful teleportation, life, poetry, portal, reality, recording, Sci Fi, star, teleport, ten, trust

 

Instructions For Successful Teleportation

 

Firstly, do not ask questions.

You are here, you must concentrate.

 

Second. You cannot worry about the future.

It will be what it will be.

 

Third. Do not think of where you have been.

Where you have come from has no impact,

You cannot afford to leave part of yourself behind.

This could prove fatal.

 

Fourth. The journey is immaterial.

As are you, during this process.

Relax.

 

Fifth. Concentrate on your destination,

This is absolutely crucial,

At this juncture you cannot afford to lose control.

 

Sixth. Think not about the consequences.

Overthinking can distract,

Causing some particles to

Wander.

 

Seventh. You will still be you, in the end.

Whether a version of you died,

And a new one was formed during this process,

You are still the version of you that must continue.

 

Eighth. There may be points

Where you don’t feel entirely yourself,

This is normal, the system sometimes glitches

All time spent as a small lump of amorphous goo

Is simply a part of the process.

 

Ninth. All meetings along the way are best forgotten,

Anyone you meet whilst temporarily non existent

Cannot be trusted fully.

 

Tenth, At this stage you will hopefully have arrived

If all things have gone according to plan.

 

There will be some potential complications,

Refer to Appendix D-A Page 4.2.

 

 

 

————————————-

 

I’m putting all this up for the love of writing and your enjoyment, and if you would like to use it for your own purposes that would be awesome. However, it’s my writing, and I must ask you to ask me first, and credit me (obviously). Also, if you do I’d really love to see/hear/watch it!

If you’d like to support me, on a monthly basis, then i’d love you forever, and feel free to sign up for my patreon here – i’ll link the blog to here whenever I post something new, as well as a few extra snippets just for patrons (so extracts of WIP larger projects etc)

https://www.patreon.com/lonpops .

If you would also like to help me keep putting things up for free, and support my writing but would rather not do monthly donations, my paypal is:

paypal.me/henrythorpe

Share, like, comment, critique, spread the word(s) and thankyou for visiting my page, you’re all wonderful.

I’ve also done recordings of several of my poems and stories, which are available on soundcloud here

If you’d like to give my page a like on facebook it’s here – https://www.facebook.com/HenryArthurThorpe/

Follow me on twitter (i’m afraid I don’t post much) – @Lonpops

Or drop me an email at hathorpe506@gmail.com

 

The Holly King

Tags

cold, curse, curses, dead, death, folk, folkie, ghost, ghoul, hanged, heart, holly, king, madness, murder, old gods, regicide, spirit, the holly king, traitors, tree, undead, vengeance, winter

The Holly King

 

As the season’s getting colder,

There’s a madness that comes down,

From an ancient murdered king,

Whose corpse rotted

On the holly bough,

He was pierced right through the heart,

Atop his oaken throne,

Then left hanged on a tree.

 

The Holly King,

His crown of leaves

Stained crimson,

As he breathed his last,

He swore a dreadful curse of sorts,

To find his way back to the earth.

 

The Holly King, he found them all

One by One by One,

These traitors who had murdered him

His spirit found them as they slept,

Took their minds, and led them hence.

 

They all ended like him,

Their bodies, naked,

On the bough,

On their heads a holly trim,

Their hearts pierced

Blood melding with the snow.

 

They call the madness of the Holly King

A curse for traitors all,

That they will dance naked,

Out into the cold,

Singing of their crimes,

With nothing but a Holly Crown,

Nestled upon their heads,

To their deaths they dance and smile,

‘Til they are merry dead.

 

 

 

 

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I’m putting all this up for the love of writing and your enjoyment, and if you would like to use it for your own purposes that would be awesome. However, it’s my writing, and I must ask you to ask me first, and credit me (obviously). Also, if you do I’d really love to see/hear/watch it!

If you’d like to support me, on a monthly basis, then i’d love you forever, and feel free to sign up for my patreon here – i’ll link the blog to here whenever I post something new, as well as a few extra snippets just for patrons (so extracts of WIP larger projects etc)

https://www.patreon.com/lonpops .

If you would also like to help me keep putting things up for free, and support my writing but would rather not do monthly donations, my paypal is:

paypal.me/henrythorpe

Share, like, comment, critique, spread the word(s) and thankyou for visiting my page, you’re all wonderful.

I’ve also done recordings of several of my poems and stories, which are available on soundcloud here

If you’d like to give my page a like on facebook it’s here – https://www.facebook.com/HenryArthurThorpe/

Follow me on twitter (i’m afraid I don’t post much) – @Lonpops

Or drop me an email at hathorpe506@gmail.com

Trick Bird

Tags

aesir, air, ancient, bird, chaos, faerie, fantasy, Feather, Feather Dress, flight, freedom, freya, freyja, games, Loki, magic, medieval, Mountains, myth, mythology, Norse, outcast, poetry, release, roles, selfishness, shape, shapechanger, sky, surt, Thrymskvitha, trick bird, Vanir, viking, wind

Trick Bird – which is a Loki Poem, written for a night of Norse-inspired poetry a while ago. The Feather-dress which grants flight appears in several myths, and belongs to Freya, Loki borrows it in Thrymskvitha despite being a shape-changer himself.

 

Trick Bird

I wear my feather dress

Flying across the mountains

I am free,

No longer constrained,

No longer outcast,

This never belonged in her hands,

This was always mine,

Arrogant, foolish, petty sods,

They never knew what they had,

When they had me.
I wrap my feathers around me,

Let them change me,

As I shift they become

Part of me,

Runes glistening

On feathery scythes,

I let it guide me,

Across the eddies of the storm,

As changeable as myself,

I find kin in magicked things.
I am not the old man’s son,

No friend to chaos’ fire lord,

When I fly I am not a liar,

I am simply gale-borne,

Riding the ever-changing ripples

Of the sky,

I could almost sleep,

I could almost trust,

But a traitor sleeps with one eye open,

And I am that,

Treated with scorn.
I am not a traitor to myself,

I would burn first.

 

They never wanted me,

The wind does not care,

So I soar,

Invisible, at last,

Until I find myself

Drawn back to Earth

To play another game.

 

 

 

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I’m putting all this up for the love of writing and your enjoyment, and if you would like to use it for your own purposes that would be awesome. However, it’s my writing, and I must ask you to ask me first, and credit me (obviously). Also, if you do I’d really love to see/hear/watch it!

If you’d like to support me, on a monthly basis, then i’d love you forever, and feel free to sign up for my patreon here – i’ll link the blog to here whenever I post something new, as well as a few extra snippets just for patrons (so extracts of WIP larger projects etc)
https://www.patreon.com/lonpops .

If you would also like to help me keep putting things up for free, and support my writing but would rather not do monthly donations, my paypal is:
paypal.me/henrythorpe

Share, like, comment, critique, spread the word(s) and thankyou for visiting my page, you’re all wonderful.

I’ve also done recordings of several of my poems and stories, which are available on soundcloud here

If you’d like to give my page a like on facebook it’s here – https://www.facebook.com/HenryArthurThorpe/

Follow me on twitter (i’m afraid I don’t post much) – @Lonpops

Or drop me an email at hathorpe506@gmail.com