http://slow.writerscafe.org/Dawei The original writings of author David Lewis Paget en-us Copyright 2026 WritersCafe.org 1775963183 WritersCafe.org RSS Generator 15 Rita Lee‘The villagers of La Sant MarieAre beating upon our door,What have you done, my Rita Lee,What are they knocking for?You haven’t been out and about again,Playing your silly tricks,I locked your broom in the closet room,Your cape, I threw in the Styx.’‘You’d bette.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2176218/ Train to NowhereThe passengers on the railway trainWere of a certain kind,I looked around, and saw their agesSimilar to mine,We all stared out of the windowsAs everything went by,To pastures, green and fertile,Above them just the sky.We flew by woods and forests,By cottages and crofts,By cows and sh.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2176217/ The VisitationI thought I must have fallen asleepWhen the day outside was light,Then all my characters visited meIn the cold, hard depths of night.They danced all over my keyboard,Some happy,  some were sad,Some were like little angels but Some others, just plain bad.I sat bemused as I wat.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2176216/ The news came via the telephone,‘You must come on home at once,’The voice had rasped with an urgent toneAs if talking to a dunce.He wouldn’t say what was going onHe just said, ‘Come home and see,’My heart had fluttered before I uttered‘What’s u.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2087056/ ‘Why have you left me here, alone,’She said with a tearful eye,And stared at the the cold and grey headstoneExpecting a cold reply.The breeze above just rustled the leavesOf the tree above the grave,And seemed to say, in its wayward way,‘There was nothing left to save.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2087055/ She lived at the top of Raven’s NestSo I was determined to go,To seek out the sunny uplands thereWhere the four fair winds do blow,To seek out the breeze at the top of the treesThat carry the sun-drenched dew,While up on the topmost battlementsI’d get a brief glimpse of you.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2087054/ A man delivered a casketTo the path outside my home,I didn’t know what was laid withinThe top was stamped with ROME.And two Imperial Eagles stoodAt each end of the lid,I dragged it in, just curiousTo what the casket hid.The casket lid was made of teakWith edges lined with g.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2087053/ She lived tucked away in a tiny room,With a simple computer screen,A table, a bed, and dreams in her headOf how once the world had been.She’d not venture out, her life was a droughtSince the love of her life had died,Though men came to court, that’s not what she sought,This.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2087052/ ‘Emmanuel’s heart is beginning to fail,’They said to his doting wife,‘That’s why he’s having these fainting spells,He’s at the end of his life.’‘But why can’t you give him a brand new heart?’She wept, at the awful news,&ls.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2087051/ The girl popped up on my MessengerAnd said, ‘Do you want to date?’I said, ‘I think I’m too old for you,You’ve left it a little late.’‘I don’t think age is a problem,’ sheReplied on the silver screen,‘I’ll meet you down at .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2087050/ The road was a-twist and turningAs I crested the mountainside,The sun in my eyes was burningThen it set on the hills, and died,The night had settled into a gloomAs the moon rose up from the sea,And then in the dark, an ancient tombAppeared in front of me.It stood in the grounds of .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2087049/ Lock the shutters and pull the blindsAnd set up the alarm,Chain the dogs up safe, and lockThe chickens in the barn,The sun has sunk beneath the ridgeAnd the Moon is riding high,And casting its cold evil beamFrom a cold and evil sky.The Wolf’s been seen in Basingdene,Roamed .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2087048/ The mansion known as Arbour LowCame to me in a will,From someone called Great Uncle George,I’d never met him, still,I’d heard he was so miserlyHe’d thrown his sister out,And beaten his poor wife, I heard,He truly was a lout.He lived alone in that great houseLong.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2087047/ I saw the little cottage asI walked upon the bluff,A tiny little cottage butI thought, ‘It’s big enough.’There was only me to cater for,And that would be sublime,So headed for the ownerI would make that cottage mine.It took time to negotiateI owned it in a week,Then moved in with a.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2087046/ The house had heavy gables thatHad once been painted black,Though now weathered and distemperedIn assaulting time’s attack,But it had a certain charm that drew meUp to the front door,Where a notice said, ‘For Sale or Rent,Just knock, and ask for more.’So I reached up for the knocke.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2068700/ I have always been unstableSince that day in fifty-threeWhen a bolt of lightning lit meIn that poor old acorn tree,When the tree split down the middleTaking my half to the ground,And that clap of awful thunderLeft me lying, with no sound.I was dazed and fazed and humbledIn a new but silent world,Whi.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/2068699/ One verse of the following written every ten years of my life, from 21 to 71. The last verse written two years ago. I doubt if I'll be around to write 81. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1996993/ Words flutter by us,Caught in their moments,Words sent to try us,‘Loss’ and ‘Elopements’,Some may inspire us,Others may burn,Once they decry usThey never return.Some were left out there,When I was young,Caught in the frost whereMy youth was undone.Some may pass by meMore ofte.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1994548/ The wreck sat out by the lighthouse whereIt lay, smashed up on the rocks,A miracle it had survived at allWhere felons sat in the stocks.The bow was sundered, the masts had goneLong lost in a winter storm,But still it lay where it lies todaySince before I was even born.The Lighthouse stands like a mo.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1989210/ I’d got to the final editingOf my manuscript, last night,When one of the characters in the gloomPopped up, he wanted a fight.‘That isn’t the way I see myself,This storyline must cease,Look at the way you blackened my name,I’m the villain of the piece.’‘You are wha.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1988175/ I saw her first in the lighting flashThat lit her up in the storm,The rain was beating on down to slashHer more than shapely form,She’d just emerged from a woodland copseWas soaked as she could be,So came to shelter beneath theMighty Oak, along with me.Her hair was more than bedraggled, butAs .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1986971/ ‘Be waiting up at the window,’ saidThe note he sent by hand,‘I’ll come and collect you at midnight,’Said the note, ‘the way we planned.’She heard the clatter of hoofbeats inThe courtyard down below,And waved to him from the windowAs she seized her portmantea.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1986208/ At midnight, out on the cobblestonesThere’s the sound of rolling wheels,And a shadow cast on a window paneFrom the road outside, it steals,A wagon, black in its livery,And pulled by a single horse,As black as the heart of the man that steers,Whipped up from the watercourse.From down in a tiny .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1985927/ He took to the skies most every nightUnfurling his wings of black, not white,Invisible in the night sky whenHe hovered above the world of men.‘Go out and bring me a virgin girl,’His master bade from his darkling world,But scanning this broad humanityThere wasn’t a virgin he could s.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1985300/ There were tigers, bears and elephants,The day that the circus came,And dwarves and clowns in our tiny townIt never would be the same.The people stared as it passed on byIt was like a grand parade,If only we’d known what was going down,It was time to be afraid.The tent went up in the open fiel.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1984696/ I came home to an empty houseTo find that you were out,That you’d be home much later, thenI hadn’t any doubt,But the day stretched into eveningWithout a sight of you,And you didn’t even call meLike you always used to do.When you’d not returned by midnightI was worried, and wa.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1984386/ Christmastime was lurking atThe corner of the street,Just waiting for the 25th.,It tried to be discreet.It didn’t want to force itselfOn Muslims or on Jews,On atheists, agnostics, or On skepticism views.It checked on all the homes that hungTheir holly in the hall,Dressed up their trees wi.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1983672/ There wasn’t a lot of the Castle left,A couple of Towers, and Keep,Most of the walls had fallen inTo a courtyard, full of sheep.It stood up high on a Scottish hillNow all enclosed by a farm,But once there was always blue-blood there,Brought in by its Highland charm.It ruled all over the countr.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1982841/ He was only a simple storytellerBut looked much like a clown,He wore red, yellow and jingle bellsWhen coming to our town,He’d sit outside by the wishing wellAnd gather up all the kids,Who’d laugh, and clap their little handsAt everything he did.The parents, they didn’t like him muc.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1982175/ By a stream of running water,Underneath a moonless sky,Like a nightmare of a slaughterThe blood-spattered train goes by.Where the rails have long been rustedAll along the valley plain,There the train, so blood encrustedWill repeat its run again.I can hear the rails hummingTo the rhythm of its wheels.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1981844/ My Uncle John was a woebegoneIn the all out way of things,Wherever he went, no sun had shoneAnd we all were ding-a-lings.He had no time for the hoi poloiOr women who rant and tweet,He’d pick on their saddest attributesWhen he said they had ugly feet.But those that he hated most were menWith mo.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1981615/ You sat in your chair, and read your book,As often I’ve seen you do,While each now and then I’d peek a look,A glance filled with love for you.The hour was late, but you didn’t stir,I said I’d be off to bed,I noticed your look was fixed on your bookSo it went right over your h.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1981341/ I’d decided that I’d drown myselfAnd waded from the shore,If I had to live without youI would want to live no more,For you’d shouted that you’d done with me,There was no second chance,Though I’d loved and thought you needed meYou ended our romance.They had said it was m.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1980502/ I thought that I was the only oneWho had never found a mate,I’d been so busy with other thingsThat I’d left it up to fate,Then I was suddenly fortyishWhen I started looking round,But other people had caught the fishThat were swimming in our town.The single ones were too young for me,Thei.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1979586/ We had lain back in the meadowLooking up to see the stars,They were clustered all togetherWe were trying to find ours,For we each had picked a single starUp in the sky so high,Then I rolled around to face youAnd I found your naked thigh.They were not among the brightest starsUp in the sky that night.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1979216/ I’ve been looking in the mirrorEvery day since I was three,Till a week ago I looked againAnd saw it wasn’t me.For this haggard face with wrinklesAnd grey hair that should be black,Took my place within the mirror,And it stood there, staring back.Sure, it registered surprise and seemedTo s.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1979063/ I’m so heartily sick of writingAs I do most every day,I’m missing that flash of lightning asI write my life away.My friends are dead, or went on aheadAs they left me on the page,And said, ‘You just fill the details inWhile we go off to rage.’I get no sense of achievement from.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1978424/ Caroline called from the balconyTo join her and check out the bay,‘You wouldn’t believe, there’s a barquentine,You never see them today.’I looked and I scanned the horizon thereBut all I could see was the pier,There wasn’t a sign of a barquentineAnd all the horizon was .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1978012/ We lived right up on a grassy bluffThat looked down on the sea,In a tiny cottage, fit for two,Just Arabelle and me.But Arabelle was a wistful wraithInsubstantial in the flesh,She hovered around in her ghostlike wayWith an air of faint distress.The surrounding air was turbulentFor it always seemed to.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1977859/ They laid her out on a plastic sheetWhere she stared unseeingly,With nothing to cover her naked formWhen they said, ‘Come in and see.’I thought how she would be mortifiedTo be naked under their gaze,But she was laid in the mortuaryFor this was her end of  days.That final humiliation.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1977066/ To what degree does love surviveNo matter what it cost,Can man escape lost love aliveOnce it is truly lost?When let into a tender heartLove pierces man’s defence,And leaves the heart with battle scarsWithout much recompense.The early Spring of love will bringA new and urgent beat,As love will .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1976373/ Raglan Roc was a Warlock, andHe lived up on Mandrake Hill,Up where the witches gatheredOnce a month, for a coven spell,He tended his herbal garden, growingMugwort, sage and ash,Supplying the monthly coven, thoughHe never would deal in cash.They paid him in philtres, magic charms,And the odd love pot.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1975536/ Death called my name, and I replied,‘I’m not quite ready now.There must be others, more deservingOf your time, somehow.I find I still have much to doOr leave the world in debt,For instance, all the many womenI’ve not slept with yet.‘You’ve followed me for far too long,I.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1975077/ ‘I wish that I could be young again,’He sighed from his easy chair,Watching the film he’d made back thenWhen there was still time to spare.‘Why would you want to go back to that,’His wife said, ‘What about me?We hadn’t met when you made that filmBack in 1963.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1974385/ They had said that he was dying butHe might as well be home,He was taking up an empty bedAt the hospital, in Rome,And no amount of medicaments wouldBring him back to life,So they threw him in an ambulanceAnd sent him to his wife.And she, poor girl, was mystifiedShe didn’t need the stress,Of te.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1973448/ It started late on a Sunday night,The sudden rattle of pans,With nobody in the kitchen then,‘What’s happening, Dianne?’Dianne went pale and she looked at me‘You’d better go down and see,Maybe we have an intruder there,Just keep him away from me.’I went, but nobody.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1973153/ I’d seen her wander along the streetA number of times, or more,And know I should have approached her thenBut she might have said, ‘what for?’I could have asked for a date, but thenI left it much too late,And saw her then with a guy called Ben,But he looked like spider bait.He had a.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1972154/ I always knew there was something strangeAbout that farmer’s stile,For no-one ever climbed over itAnd I’d watched it for a while.The field beyond it was out of sightBehind a hawthorn hedge,I didn’t know till I tried to goIt was perched along the edge.The edge of history, edge of ti.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1970721/ I sit entranced by the silver screenTo watch and wait for your eyes,To peer on out, as I sit and dream,Between the clouds in my skies.I’ve carried you in my heart so longWithout a kiss from your lips,But sat and sighed till I almost diedFor a touch from your fingertips.I’ve traced the ge.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1970088/ He kept them locked in a tower,And I’ll let you guess the score,The thirteen women that disappearedTo leave not a sign before.We thought we would never find them,There wasn’t a clue or trace,They’d simply gone for a gentle strollAnd walked off the planet’s face.And mine was t.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Dawei/1968208/