http://slow.writerscafe.org/ChWensleydale The original writings of author Charlotte Wensleydale en-us Copyright 2026 WritersCafe.org 1775948495 WritersCafe.org RSS Generator 15 p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Adobe Jenson Pro'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Adobe Jenson Pro'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 16.0px}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}Willow BankDown the we.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2114662/ A poem written in the darkness to remember that the light will come. The title is taken from the title of a poem by Carl Sandburg, which in part inspired this poem. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2114373/ The Dark RenaissanceDeparted now,Beyond the endYou spring onceMore to life,To drag then mineHewn from the rockOf my years-longPrison you gave me. The blackest riverFlows, the stenchOf jealousy fromOne who covetsThings you seeWithin the artThat I can conjure. But let thatTale that diedOnce now die tw.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2114242/ p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Adobe Jenson Pro'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Adobe Jenson Pro'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 16.0px}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}Janus, the lesserOh, s.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2114229/ Le PêcheurDown by the shoresOf a windswept seaStands a ghostly figure staring. In his hand sits a rodWith its line cast out,As the starlight somehow blazes. And the wind still blowsFrom its northern home,And a ship strikes upon the rocks. Cries its captain, fearful,To the fisherman’s gho.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2103956/ SiegesA battle rages on beneath the wall,On either side a wounded captain leadsAn empty legion on to fightAn enemy imagined, or remembered - who knows?The ground still glistens in the springtime sunlight,Bejewelled with the wrecks of broken swordsThat fell, it seems, from some past storm,A hurricane.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2098781/ p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Adobe Jenson Pro'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Adobe Jenson Pro'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 16.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} PoplarO lonely poplar treeUp.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2098669/ p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Adobe Jenson Pro'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Adobe Caslon Pro'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Adobe Caslon Pro'; -webkit-text-st.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2098203/ The year runs outBefore the dusk,The sands it bears,Like falling leaves, Fall down upon the earth.And all is silentDown below the storms That rage above my head;The year still rages onWith all its dying song.The stars above are silent,As the stars below are lit,Your light no longer blazes,.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2085869/ Unbroken SkiesA clearing came,Between two storms,One winter's evening, coldAnd dark, and all aliveWith faintest dust of starlight.In silence, then, I walked the grovesThat months ago were ladenWith leaf and flower,Now bare and all so hushed.And thought of you,Your voice rang round my headIn echoes m.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2083365/ p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Adobe Jenson Pro'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Adobe Jenson Pro'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 14.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} EpilogueA robin came and perched.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2080851/ O soul that once I treasured, through my ownThe echoes that you left resound, and stillThe vestiges of hidden crueltyRing through the night with deafening siren-call. And at my feet still lies the shivering graveMy aching soul once craved, and bearing stillThe name that once was mine, .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2079047/ In time, perhaps your name will have no meaning,As words with passing days become obscured,And if your lies should ever reach my ears,My eyes will stare ahead into the distance. Beyond the sea that lies beneath the cliffs,A new adventure calls, its music carriesAcross the void between you and m.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2071968/ Memento MoriPerhaps your deeds will fade someday to dust,With all your memories in the grave interred,And leave no speck upon the lasting world,As only fading stone your name will speak. Perhaps my deeds to such a fate are destined,And empty space my substance will demand,And someday, perhaps m.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2068634/ This poem is a departure from my usual style, employing iambic tetrameter, and a more direct method of expression than the deep symbolism I usually like to use. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2068432/ The bridge now burns that you have set alight,Forevermore our lives to separate,And with your hatred lighting up the night,Eternally within, you bear its weight. And sometime yet, the broken sky will shineWith fury that was ever your domain,And set against the kindness that was mine,Your Power .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2068392/ Quatrain for Truth No, not so, imputed selfishness,Your image filled my mind and ever stayed,In truth, look back, see which of us supported,And see which one the other then betrayed.17/10/18 http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2068291/ p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px} MemoryYou said, my friend, that I misunderstood you,That night upon which hung our very future,But all is not so simple as you say,.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2068289/ High above the town beside the water,In night as clear as cold, and all in hush,My inner silence comes once more in glimpses,From long and lonely years of inner tumult. And overhead, the sky bedecked with stars,Their gentle glow beams down, as from a wishFrom some forgotten friend who never lef.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2068039/ / D.P. iacet hic tumulatum. Obiit vii.x.mmxviii / Here, my greatest friend, embalmed you lie,Within the words and spaces of my verses,No noble stone to mark the place you restThat's hidden somewhere back inside my mind;And language flows from one who once adored you,Bereft of one.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2067731/ Perhaps the ground won’t always be so cold,And icy covering someday will retreat,And snow will melt, and wet the emerging soil,To bring new life that winter plucked away.Perhaps the flowers that months ago have witheredWill come to life and search for warmer days,And.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2067278/ The words I speak creep out in lonely sighs,They echo through a sad and empty mind,Hewn out from space that once was filled with charm,Where once the spark of dreams lit up the night. The air is glistening with a distant fogThat shimmers with the ghost of vanished phrases,Of things that once se.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2067277/ A vision strikes me in a clammy night,That reaches from beyond some searching void,Of things that glisten in the midnight air,Intangible, yet somehow ever-present.A world beyond all worlds began to open,With all its ever-dazzling illuminations,Of colours never seen by mortal eyes,That lit up skies t.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2067276/ Down below surrounding valley walls,By river’s roar and tide’s eternal flow,A multitude assembles as they singA hymn of praise to freedom long awaited.And as they march through lands where generationsLived out their days in cries of darkened anguish,The memories of that long oppression v.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2067275/ The ocean is my happiness,That vast and stirring deep,Where sailors lie entombed, and allThe depths their secrets keep.I’ll sink into eternityAnd lie upon the floor;As all my thoughts dissolve away,The world will be no more.6/8/18 http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2067273/ O song that rang through all my silent heart,Your sound so sweet and silently aliveWith dreams and glimpses of a life I cherished,One change wrought then in life that changed my soul,And brought a new and unimagined love.Your twinkling stood out in a blackened skyThat through long years enwrapped a .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2067272/ for Danny http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2067271/ Perhaps your heart is broken, just like mine,And loneliness creeps round your nightly bed,While mine has lain so long all drenched in shadow.If in my darkest hour, you fled away,I bear no grudge, for life has bent you lowBeneath a burden none could expiate.Your lifelong darkness brought me once to t.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2067268/ A ghost has fled and left a looming shadow,For years it stood beside me in the garden,And then became a fixture of my world,Like some familiar ornament, and I feltThe heat its corporeal ambitions sentIn my direction, as it moved in closer.And, when it left, my world grew suddenly cold,For summer wen.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2067267/ We cannot control the hurt people cause us, but we can control how we react. And we can choose to end the power they have over us. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/ChWensleydale/2067265/