Posterity Posted

enlighten me illustrious men
who've wandered far beyond the ken
Of we who strive with words and pen
to tell the world of c***s and hen
who roosted in the way back when
in lofts of thatch and wicker den
stooking hay on soggy fen
Or tending hind in mountain glen
Beside the hearths so plastered then
with ashes mixed in salted mud
to hold the heat of hand split wood
beyond the time of burning
well past the times of yearning
like cockled eggs and oaten whey
to hold us through another day
Until the long ships make their way
Into this mountain sheltered bay
to give us news of how they fared
so we may write and spread the word
far into times and ways ahead
past the lives of men so dead
who sailed seas and conquered dread
while we who shiver in the night
and stubbornly record our plight
weaving rhyme and beating time
with words to paint the ways
in all the rain of days

Reviews

[Sel Whiteley]

'weaving rhyme and beating time/with words to paint the ways', you employ a masterful use of sounds in this poem. Your images are quite simply beautiful:

in lofts of thatch and wicker den
stooking hay on soggy fen

like cockled eggs and oaten whey
to hold us through another day

and many, many others. There is such resonant nostalgia in this poem, its beautiful.

[Ron]

Love the listing. Reminded me very much of Oscar Wilde's work. Lists paint great pictures. Visions of Vikings, druids, Anglo Saxon Chroniclers, Book of Kells, highland villages, casting of the runes etc. All appear in this work. Which, you must agree, is lots of mental images from a one page poem. Liked it! Ron

[Ken Simm.]

Wonderful, lyrical and quite simply charming. Not bad from an ex Scouser.

[Gandré]

this was serious work specific from the origin but universal in scope.
Beside the hearths so plastered then
with ashes mixed in salted mud
to hold the heat of hand split wood -------I loved those lines (and the others, too of course)
beatiful writing.

"All a poet can do today is warn.

Preface (written 1918) in Poems� (1963)"
Wilfred Owen 1893�1918
English poet