Jump to content
  • Join Gay Authors

    Join us for free and follow your favorite authors and stories.

Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

Disasters, Delights and Other Detours - 100. Two Ballades: Bastion and Complemented

Two final Ballades are presented here. They may bear reading aloud. As is ever and always the case, any errors you encounter are my own fault.

Bastion

 

One guards an anxious soul for safety’s sake

with fences far too fierce to be dismissed,

and some through every season seem to make

excuses when another might insist

they lie upon his wheel like so much grist

and only in the dawn’s light to bemoan

the treasure stolen from the wrong lips kissed;

as watchful hearts are often overthrown.

 

 

For what prize can a random stranger take

that would not make him one more plagiarist,

who would without the least compunction break

that partner held beneath him by the wrist

enticed by guile and fawning to enlist

in legions which the years have only grown

yet in each ear the bitter motto hissed,

as watchful hearts are often overthrown.

 

 

So while the planets dance, I lie awake

and wonder why these old bones still exist

as if to cage and cradle one more ache

to supplement a thousand on the list

accumulated since an adolescent tryst,

those many sins for which I must atone,

ecstatic moments when the world seemed blissed

as watchful hearts are often overthrown.

 

 

Capricious fate, you love an artful twist

to mold our lives to shapes strange and unknown;

incline your ear when yearning I resist,

as watchful hearts are often overthrown.

 

 

 

 

Complemented

 

Consider precious stones that glint and shine

of which the fortunate may stand possessed,

their splendor may the owner fain consign

to iron safe or metal-banded chest

constructed to withstand whatever test,

then stowed in chambers hewn from living rock

to wait in niches shadowed and recessed:

a key is made deep secrets to unlock.

 

No matter how concealments may combine

with mechanisms crafted by the best

there must yet be a facet of design

allowing him whose fingers they caressed

a visit to that vault upon request

wherein the cherished trove yearns for his knock

that will from time’s strong bands its treasures wrest;

a key is made deep secrets to unlock.

 

 

So too it is with secrets that are mine

which long my spirit burdened and oppressed

awaiting whispered words of the divine

to make me sparkle bold at his behest

when he might gaze upon me all undressed,

of pins and springs and tumblers taking stock,

his shaft and shank my pretense to divest:

a key is made deep secrets to unlock.

 

 

Your arrows, Eros, could not pierce my breast,

for these were poorly fitted to my block,

but with his spear, all closed things are confessed;

a key is made deep secrets to unlock.

p>

 

With this final chapter, I lay down my poetic pen. To any of you kind souls who have taken time to read these lines in Disasters, Delights and Other Detours: thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. One hundred entries is plenty for one collection of amateur poetry, and it seems that this may be a good place to stop. I owe special thanks to @AC Benus, whose steadfast help, friendship and support burnished and improved so many of these poems. I am deeply in his debt.



 

For those heaving a sigh of relief or gasping with trembling hope that I might finally, finally, have finished inflicting poetry on the world, I must disappoint you. There will be more.

Copyright © 2017 Parker Owens; All Rights Reserved.
  • Love 8
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
You are not currently following this author. Be sure to follow to keep up to date with new stories they post.

Recommended Comments

Chapter Comments

10 minutes ago, Headstall said:

What a way to close the book, Parker. These are both stunning...

"as watchful hearts are often overthrown" ... in this poem I heard such regret... even shame to follow fleeting pleasure... or maybe simply a disappointment in being human... and the poetry itself is exquisite.

... and to the second, Complement, I will add a wow. These go well together. 👍 

You have been very kind to join me for 100 entries in this book. Bastion does indeed strike a melancholy tone. It’s hard to acknowledge one’s own deeply flawed humanity. I hoped Complemented might atone for the minor key in the first one. Thank you very much for your thoughts. 

  • Like 3
  • Love 2
Link to comment
1 minute ago, AC Benus said:

Phew! I misread your concluding comment, thinking you were quitting verse. Glad I misread thaaat :yes:

No fear. The muse hasn’t managed to shake me off that easily. :) 

  • Like 3
  • Love 2
Link to comment
1 hour ago, dughlas said:

Of have enjoyed each entry for their myriad delights. Thank you for sharing them.

You’re very kind to have read and reacted to each one. I’m very happy you enjoyed them. 

  • Like 2
  • Love 2
Link to comment
3 hours ago, Mikiesboy said:

A wonderful book of poems... waiting for the next xo

Thank you so much for your encouraging words over the course of 100 entries. Hugs and thanks.

  • Like 2
  • Love 2
Link to comment

The end of one book often means the fun of awaiting a new one. I hope you won't be too long!

One verse perhaps a little dark, the other more appealing,

but just as always, dear poetic bard,

you've left my senses reeling!

  • Love 3
Link to comment
3 hours ago, Geron Kees said:

The end of one book often means the fun of awaiting a new one. I hope you won't be too long!

One verse perhaps a little dark, the other more appealing,

but just as always, dear poetic bard,

you've left my senses reeling!

Your own couplet made me smile. I’m very glad you found at least one of these to be appealing. I agree one is relatively darker than the other. Thank you for reading your way through Detours. I’m most grateful. 

  • Like 2
  • Love 1
Link to comment
On 9/30/2021 at 8:58 PM, Parker Owens said:

Your own couplet made me smile. I’m very glad you found at least one of these to be appealing. I agree one is relatively darker than the other. Thank you for reading your way through Detours. I’m most grateful. 

I actually found them both very good. One was simply darker than the other, a bit. :)

 

  • Love 2
Link to comment
View Guidelines

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Newsletter

    Sign Up and get an occasional Newsletter.  Fill out your profile with favorite genres and say yes to genre news to get the monthly update for your favorite genres.

    Sign Up
×
×
  • Create New...