Michael Pendragon
Old Records
Hushed voices, music stilled
Imprisoned in odors of musty shellac
Heavy and cold to touch
Like skin of a snake
Oily, obscurely alive
Stacked up in boxes they quietly wait
Shoved to backs of the closets
Lost in garages, attics, cellars
Dimly remembered melodies and times
They patiently sit
Waiting another turn
To unfurl suspended dreams.
Pilgrim Summer
When marigolds cast miniature suns,
Fleck Appollonian fields with burnished gold
Where bluebells bob and dandelions lunge
At Summer bees when budding leaves unfold
Julyean resplendence, green as lizard eyes
Or lunar moths on apple orchard bough;
While choruses of laughing birds reprise
The carefree bray of horses when the plough
Hangs cobweb-riddled on the stable wall --
Then do I take the dusted country road
Through rambling towns whose names I can't recall
Hewn from the pilgrim trees in days of old
That journeyed west to watch the sun descend
Beneath the grand Pacific's crested wave --
Nor do I care what lies beyond the bend
Or 'neath which patch of sky I'll make my grave.
When catfish splash the cedar-scented creek
And junebugs speck each violet and vine
'Round secret ponds where painted turtles seek
Some sunpatched perch the overhanging pine
Has overlooked when spreading thistled shade
In shredded blankets cool as April night --
I roam in barefoot splendor through the glade
Send wayward stanzas bursting with delight
On robin wings to touch the gold-rimmed clouds --
The lazy road meanders by a grove
Where acorn trees swap tales with spruce, while proud
And mighty oak and elder prove
The wisdom of an afternoon's repose
When thoughts suspend and sunburned hours plod,
Then only the blue-flanneled scarecrow knows
That 'mid these scrolling hills once walked a god.
Michael Pendragon is an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher currently residing in upstate New York. He is best known for having published a pair of literary magazines: "Penny Dreadful" and "Songs of Innocence & Experience" (1996-2005). His published works include: Much of Madness - a novel; "Into the Night" - collected poetic works (1980-2010). His writings have appeared in "Terror Tales," "Edgar: Digested Verse," "Enigmatic Tales," "Charnel House," "The Bloody Quill," "The Horror Zene," "Sanitarium," and over 200 others.
Old Records
Hushed voices, music stilled
Imprisoned in odors of musty shellac
Heavy and cold to touch
Like skin of a snake
Oily, obscurely alive
Stacked up in boxes they quietly wait
Shoved to backs of the closets
Lost in garages, attics, cellars
Dimly remembered melodies and times
They patiently sit
Waiting another turn
To unfurl suspended dreams.
Pilgrim Summer
When marigolds cast miniature suns,
Fleck Appollonian fields with burnished gold
Where bluebells bob and dandelions lunge
At Summer bees when budding leaves unfold
Julyean resplendence, green as lizard eyes
Or lunar moths on apple orchard bough;
While choruses of laughing birds reprise
The carefree bray of horses when the plough
Hangs cobweb-riddled on the stable wall --
Then do I take the dusted country road
Through rambling towns whose names I can't recall
Hewn from the pilgrim trees in days of old
That journeyed west to watch the sun descend
Beneath the grand Pacific's crested wave --
Nor do I care what lies beyond the bend
Or 'neath which patch of sky I'll make my grave.
When catfish splash the cedar-scented creek
And junebugs speck each violet and vine
'Round secret ponds where painted turtles seek
Some sunpatched perch the overhanging pine
Has overlooked when spreading thistled shade
In shredded blankets cool as April night --
I roam in barefoot splendor through the glade
Send wayward stanzas bursting with delight
On robin wings to touch the gold-rimmed clouds --
The lazy road meanders by a grove
Where acorn trees swap tales with spruce, while proud
And mighty oak and elder prove
The wisdom of an afternoon's repose
When thoughts suspend and sunburned hours plod,
Then only the blue-flanneled scarecrow knows
That 'mid these scrolling hills once walked a god.
Michael Pendragon is an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher currently residing in upstate New York. He is best known for having published a pair of literary magazines: "Penny Dreadful" and "Songs of Innocence & Experience" (1996-2005). His published works include: Much of Madness - a novel; "Into the Night" - collected poetic works (1980-2010). His writings have appeared in "Terror Tales," "Edgar: Digested Verse," "Enigmatic Tales," "Charnel House," "The Bloody Quill," "The Horror Zene," "Sanitarium," and over 200 others.