Jarl’s Wake Youth’s Dream
Bright wake frozen horizon
snow crystals chill heavy cipher.
Still heard hoary ghost glorified voice.
Voice vibrating Viking furied forth.
Hunting on fierce defiant Arctic wind
pacing out time run eternal packed ice.
“Rage destined exile famed
birth right blade Jarl seize.
Strive death, sin stained,
birthmark fate be birth price.
Purposeless, plebeian spilt salt lust,
tempts base shame straw death.
Dying, death bound be outcast
warrior dies dust outsider doomed.
Hurled with savage savoured thrust;
darts, skilled flown, hawk prey, fled throw.
Quiver, between convulsive, rich walls,
torn red robed, wrap flesh, pierced marrow.
Dances dreams, laughs streams, in melt;
springs, freed flowing, lanced veins cut.
Youth evoked, fled swift flow, summoned;
cold bound, icicle laced, death conquered.
Youth, vain life, starkly smothered;
snow crystalline form; shape, flake.
Winging wayward, blown blooms,
seeded schemes, snow, eternal wind.
Ice, blood, iron held; destiny seized;
be real; all else, mere mortal delusion.”
Copyright © Terence George Craddock
Jarl (Old English eorl Earl) ‘a man of noble birth’; hence used as the title of hereditary Norse and Danish chieftains; later, of the royal liege-man next in rank to the king whom they followed. An old Norse and Danish chieftain or under-king.
Plebeian [Latin. Plebs, the common people].
See also ‘Child Of Ice’ and ‘A Season Of Growth: The Swan Road’.
poem by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
A Season Of Growth: The Swan Road
Jarl (Old English eorl Earl) ‘a man of noble birth’; hence used as the title of hereditary Norse and Danish chieftains; later, of the royal liege-man next in rank to the king whom they followed. An old Norse and Danish chieftain or under-king.
Remember chill child channelling infamous ice,
listening intently as if awaiting what;
among helm heights of wind blown crags?
Straining to catch each Wodan word, dripping;
dripping slowly, from thrive thawing ice.
Grim grain weathered wheat waiting;
for birth bright born sun warmth water.
Hopelessly longing for season of growth
to burst forth heralded by ye breath of spring.
Jarl lifts face before wenian leave taking wind
to hail heavens these heraldic words Jarl cries.
“Mine ancestors have fought bleed died;
under eal earth’s parched foreign skies. eal A.S. all
Froth looting alien plain; raid memory;
was locked in all descendant brains.
Awaiting chill coming ravenous rains;
for raid warriors who draft row survived,
with potent power staining scarlet bled skies.
For mine blood is bile blood; warming warriors;
bile blood river tide flows in mine veins; unlike
mildew blood; sheaf shed in Anglo-Saxon heirs.
Odour oozing mortality hangs in mist breath air;
from sterile peace to fertile revenge plough strife.
Only death; grants release from slave; thrall life.
Chieftain boiling blood burning; warrior skald king; skald Old Norse poet
left furrows littered within earth locked Danegeld.
Guarded within sacred sealed longship barrows.
By ye will of Nordic Gods we build we fight
by norther stars Dragon longships sail err night.”
Then Jarl turned in one swift movement; back
to ye ships which rode stone anchors lightly, waiting;
to fly with wind while riding roaring oceanic waves.
Back to ye gathering place where assembled each crew.
Jarl’s eyes were as eager as any raw blood lust youth;
yet as fierce as cornered wolf held at pierce point bay.
Like ye beautiful eyes of ye battle trained wolfhound;
which stood ever ready upon shield blade guard side.
Locks which fell, to muscled shoulders, were still golden;
as was wolf-beard, yet mesmeric face, was weathered stern.
When he laughed, it was like ye soaring, ghoul haunting;
cry of gulls on bewitched wing, guarding territory seashore.
Each wrist was rank, covered guarded, by a golden bracelet;
a handwidth wide, at his throat bindan, a band of wrought gold.
On scourge sword arm, Jarl wore famed bracelet, ye great red
dragon; which gleamed transient light, cast in feeble sunlight;
upon ye metallic mating, marking tribute, copper married gold.
Crafted by Norse master craftsman, an artisan, without equal.
Chain-mail dragon scaled body, life merge weaven, cunningly coiled;
about ye iron muscle of Jarl’s, blade thrust bite, death blood arm.
Jarl now stood before raid gathered crews to speak.
His hands raw boned strong; like ye fist of iron; he ruled with.
Beneath ye woolen tunic; ye chain linked shirt; ye scars fell.
Always about same places; where enemy blade; opening lay.
As viking strode furiously; to be first; within hunted battle foe.
For warriors who go to battle; many raid seasons; following.
Summer succeeding summer; bore ye bite; of enemy blade.
Eagle eyes with wisdom; cold indifference; to pain or spirits;
scanned ye viking; with glacial weighing; ice crevice measure;
of all weakness encountered; which set teeth; of teething on edge.
Suffering within himself; ritual warrior berserks; left him unmoved.
“In ye beauty of bare swan road fiords; ye Gods;
have left us ravenous; we hunger; month winter.
In ye fat; warm lamb lands; of Christ On Ye Cross;
is much meat; slaughter sport; had with sword game.
Always ye unknown is before us! It will ever be so!
Waits to swallow sheep; not equal to be blood wader;
men. Who could not face; what men; have ever sought.
Now is ye time; for dragon ships; to sail swan road seas.
Like ye wolf winter’s teeth; has been hard; on barren bones.
Like ye wolf winter’s bite; has left us savage; starve lean.
Like ye wolf we hunt; alone in dragon; row wolf pack;
we ravish; rich green river feed; plunder pastures.
For us it is everything; or nothing; ever must it be so!
For are we not hungry; hungry; like ye winter wolves?
Else to summer; on homebound, farm crop labour shores;
we grow weak next winter; when food, be season short.
Lacking rich lands; fertile loam soils; for crops or beast;
we must raid fight; for number to increase; to survive.
Not even before ye eye; of ye fierce rage; north sea storm;
or ye ocean’s; own deep hunger; can our own be calm.”
total 80 lines to be continued...
this Viking Epic poem, had the 1st to 5th stanzas posted by 7.10.2010.
poem by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
snow crystals chill
heavy cipher
ghost glorified voice
haiku by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Death and Birth
Death leads to birth rather than birth, to death.
Birth is close to death and not vice versa.
Every birth is at the result of a death.
Death to birth, not birth to death, is the path.
The death of clay is the birth of a pot;
The death of the pot is the birth of clay.
Ice melts to water and water forms ice.
In each conversion, occur death and birth.
The death of a night is the birth of a day;
The death of a day is the birth of a night.
New Year means the death of the old year too.
In each transition, takes place death and birth.
The death of a seed is the birth of a plant;
The death of gametes is the birth of an embryo.
Salts die to form cells; cells die to form salts.
In each growth, form death and birth of matter.
The so called death and birth is nothing but
Deaths and births of forms made of matter.
The matter itself does not die to be born
But is converted to different forms.
Elements disappear to form plants.
Plants as food add to the animals’ flesh.
Plants and animals on death liberate
As elements, serving through worms and germs.
When a child is born, there’s no birth of life.
The embryo transforms into a child.
When a man dies, there is no death of life.
The body disintegrates to salts.
Matter, energy and life have no death
They have got one birth since when they’ve been.
They interact and come different stages
In which the pattern is death and birth.
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Love Written In Passion Blood
love is written in warm passion blood
life is written in lust stirring flow blood
union is written in rich soul merging blood
blood in all union gift birth children born
blood bled in surge birth new life
blood corrupted death end finale life
blood love warm pure pumps renewal
blood flesh pierced sword's blade
blood climatic performance act ends
blood in taste of virgin experience death
contradiction the birth of life the birth of death
music cosmic soars at moment of conception
a moment seals love passion or life rape ripped
life poem writ contains such complexity such depth
lucky are lines life focus love given in glad glee read
glad for startling insight thoughts reflections merry
poem by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
fierce defiant Arctic wind
pacing out time
swift ebb run eternal ice
haiku by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 1. The Musician's Tale; The Saga of King Olaf III. -- Thora Of Rimol
'Thora of Rimol! hide me! hide me!
Danger and shame and death betide me!
For Olaf the King is hunting me down
Through field and forest, through thorp and town!'
Thus cried Jarl Hakon
To Thora, the fairest of women.
?Hakon Jarl! for the love I bear thee
Neither shall shame nor death come near thee!
But the hiding-place wherein thou must lie
Is the cave underneath the swine in the sty.'
Thus to Jarl Hakon
Said Thora, the fairest of women.
So Hakon Jarl and his base thrall Karker
Crouched in the cave, than a dungeon darker,
As Olaf came riding, with men in mail,
Through the forest roads into Orkadale,
Demanding Jarl Hakon
Of Thorn, the fairest of women.
'Rich and honored shall be whoever
The head of Hakon Jarl shall dissever!'
Hakon heard him, and Karker the slave,
Through the breathing-holes of the darksome cave.
Alone in her chamber
Wept Thora, the fairest of women.
Said Karker, the crafty, 'I will not slay thee!
For all the king's gold I will never betray thee!'
'Then why dost thou turn so pale, O churl,
And then again black as the earth?' said the Earl.
More pale and more faithful
Was Thora, the fairest of women.
From a dream in the night the thrall started, saying,
'Round my neck a gold ring King Olaf was laying!'
And Hakon answered, 'Beware of the king!
He will lay round thy neck a blood-red ring.'
At the ring on her finger
Gazed Thora, the fairest of women.
At daybreak slept Hakon, with sorrows encumbered,
But screamed and drew up his feet as he slumbered;
The thrall in the darkness plunged with his knife,
And the Earl awakened no more in this life.
But wakeful and weeping
Sat Thora, the fairest of women.
At Nidarholm the priests are all singing,
Two ghastly heads on the gibbet are swinging;
One is Jarl Hakon's and one is his thrall's,
And the people are shouting from windows and walls;
While alone in her chamber
Swoons Thora, the fairest of women.
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Love
Love is sweeter
than the sword’s blade.
Love is warmer
than chill interstellar space.
Love is more pure
than the taste of virgin bride.
Love is the birth of life
at moment of conception.
Blood is the birth of life
Blood is the birth of death.
poem by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Punishment
There never really was a place of sanctity
For you, the mortal entity.
You thought you had prosperity,
The while you thrived and were.
Angels don't exist, you see.
You lived without a guarantee
Atop your brutal Earth.
Still, you had a birth.
And whither now, your crying whim -?
Answered by a tearing limb-?
Are you contrite; your valour slim?
And will He care...?
'Tis down to Him.
Copyright Mark R Slaughter,2009
Death has come, has death Death has come, has death
Death has come, has death Death has come, has death
Death has come, has death Death has come, has death
Death has come, has death Death has come, has death
Death has come, has death Death has come, has death
Death has come, has death Death has come, has death
poem by Mark R Slaughter
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
It's Death Again
It's Death again - He's always there -
Watching, waiting - e'er the stare!
Every time I look behind
Or reach to pull the window blind,
I catch a glimpse of grubby hood -
A little clue to where he stood;
The glint of light that caught the scythe.
Perhaps if I could pay a tithe…
But O! no use, he'll never go.
The adamant phantom; don't you know
He will but wait until it's time
For me to hear His fateful chime? -
The toll that claims my destiny,
To Hail: 'You're next, it has to be…'
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2009
The Reign of Death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
poem by Mark R Slaughter
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Death and I
When death comes
I’ll need not love –
Consumed,
No wreath or dove
Could offer me salvation,
Not when I’m no more.
A weathered stone will bear my name –
Identity of once a being
Living out existence in
A world of risk, and never seeing
Sense of why we’re here.
My genes will die away thro’ child –
Hue of eyes and hair, the way of thought,
Will quickly dim with generation –
Bow to future dominance –
Memories of provenance
Resigned to curious few.
When death comes
I’ll need not grace
Below; no grieving face
Will call my resurrection,
Not when I’m at ground –
Death and I so bound.
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2011
D eath Crawl
death death death death death death death death death death death
death death death death death death death death death death death
death death death death death death death death death death death
death death death death death death death death death death death
death death death death death death death death death death death
poem by Mark R Slaughter
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Disingenuousness
Here lies another box for nature,
Carbon ready;
Black to eyes down here,
Where death is at its job.
Up there you’ll hear a rhythmic sob
Or two from living yet-to-dies –
A humming lacrimoso –
It all but cleans the eyes:
Forget it –
The dismal show of grief –
Life is only chemistry –
Our stay is only brief.
It’s we who hype it up!
Diaphragms jerk again;
The jet monotone of hearses
Feeds the disingenuousness
Of undertakers –
They seem to stare at something up ahead –
For them, it’s in the blood,
To taxi off the dead.
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2011
The March of Death
Death death death death death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death death death death death
poem by Mark R Slaughter
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
In Death, My Final Part
A tower grim; a glowering darkness,
And only brown of red the other hue
– I saw it in the distant eyes –
And yes, He knew, but focussed only
On the mortal soul of mine –
After all, He had a role to play,
And wine: my shivering blood to quaff!
If only I could Him betray –
To break the seal of destiny;
Escape the lone cacophony
That emanates from wailing minds!
Damn the fate of His – it awes and blinds!
But oh! the mighty hammer strikes a toll;
The slow approach of Him upon the knoll
Commences exudation of a dying heart.
Endorsing all, I honed my final part.
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2009
Death death death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death death death
The final part
poem by Mark R Slaughter
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Mortals! Around Your Destined Heads
Mortals! around your destined heads
Thick fly the shafts of death,
And lo! the savage spoiler spreads
A thousand toils beneath.
In vain we trifle with our fate,
Try every art in vain;
At best we but prolong the date,
And lengthen out our pain.
Fondly we think all danger fled,
For death is ever nigh;
Outstrips our unavailing speed,
Or meets us as we fly.
Thus the wrecked mariner may strive
Some desert shore to gain,
Secure of life, if he survive
The fury of the main.
But there, to famine doomed a prey,
Finds the mistaken wretch
He but escaped the troubled sea,
To perish on the beach.
Since then in vain we strive to guard
Our frailty from the foe,
Lord, let me live not unprepared
To meet the fatal blow!
poem by William Cowper
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Death And Birth
Death and birth should dwell not near together:
Wealth keeps house not, even for shame, with dearth:
Fate doth ill to link in one brief tether
Death and birth.
Harsh the yoke that binds them, strange the girth
Seems that girds them each with each: yet whether
Death be best, who knows, or life on earth?
Ill the rose-red and the sable feather
Blend in one crown's plume, as grief with mirth:
Ill met still are warm and wintry weather,
Death and birth.
poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Snow
Down out of heaven,
Frost-kissed
And wind driven,
Flake upon flake,
Over forest and lake,
Cometh the snow.
Folding the forest,
Folding the farms,
In a mantle of white;
And the river’s great arms,
Kissed by the chill night
From clamor to rest,
Lie all white and shrouded
Upon the world’s breast.
Falling so slowly
Down from above,
So white, hushed, and holy,
Folding the city
Like the great pity
Of God in His love; 20
Sent down out of heaven
On its sorrow and crime,
Blotting them, folding them
Under its rime.
Fluttering, rustling,
Soft as a breath,
The whisper of leaves,
The low pinions of death,
Or the voice of the dawning,
When day has its birth,
Is the music of silence
It makes to the earth.
Thus down out of heaven,
Frost-kissed
And wind driven,
Flake upon flake,
Over forest and lake,
Cometh the snow.
poem by William Wilfred Campbell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Death, Inevitable Death
Death, inevitable Death.
So now You come to show Your world,
Hence the blackened cloak – unfurled.
And peering down upon my form
– Bereft of pity – Your eyes of storm.
Death, inexorable Death.
‘When? ’ The only question out of Thee.
My dream retorts 'But ne’er for me! ’
But now awake, I bid you so –
My giving tears cry ‘Where to go? ’
Death, adamant Death.
You cast Your spell and guide me 'way,
For life and I have had our day.
And what of me? I prey You, tell!
Be glorious in Heaven or gnarled in Hell?
Death, ineluctable Death.
Oh wiry ghoul, I'm here to follow –
I leave my body grey and shallow.
‘Come! ’ You bid in thund’ring tones,
‘Beg farewell to shattered bones.’
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2009
Death
Death death
Death death death
Death death death death
Death death death death death
Death death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death death
Death death death death death
Death death death death
Death death death
Death death
Death
poem by Mark R Slaughter
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Fighting Death
Death follows birth; does birth follow birth?
Birth to death, journeys have ups and down.
What is the status between death and birth?
Why must you fight death if no-rebirth is bliss?
(15.03.2011)
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Slit the wrist and let it flow.
Hate and pain, feelin’ it in my veins.
Hate and pain etched in my mind.
Love and hate are all the same,
Life and death are all our problems, but you treat them as there mine.
Slit the wrist and let it flow! !
Slit the wrist and let it flow! !
Life and death are all the same in my mind.
Life and death are all the same,
Play with fire and get burned.
Accusations flying my way, will they ever stop?
Slit the wrist and let it flow.
Slit the wrist and let it flow.
Life and death are all the same.
Life and death, when will it end?
Anger and frustration all boiling to the top.
Vengeance and Violence seems to be the only way.
Slit the wrist and let it flow! !
Slit the wrist and let it flow! !
Life and death, it’s all the same.
Life and death, is it my turn yet?
Death is living again.
Death is bliss I will never discover.
Slit the wrist and let it flow! !
Slit the wrist and let it flow! !
Life and death, it’s all the same.
Life and death, a new fire is born.
Death is an eternal fire being blown out.
Death is being free from the shackles of life.
Slit the wrist and let it flow! !
Slit the wrist and let it flow! !
Life and death, it’s all the same.
Life and death, it’s our destiny.
Death is the only escape.
Death is the forth stomach of a cow.
By Ariel Morris.
poem by Ariel Morris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Birth And Death.
I who have known thee, Birth, must know Death too:
As old, old men their children's children fold
In their gaunt arms, and though their blood be cold
Feel their own youth burn in them as they view
The features that were theirs — each sign so true
To their own breath and blood, 'tis as retold
Their very youth was, when they are so old,
By those who nothing of their childhood knew.
So even Death but a new birth may be,
And in some other star beyond to-day,
When we have put the use of Earth away,
E'en like those old men's children's children we
May see ourselves rise from our own decay,
The very offspring of our verity.
poem by Robert Crawford
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Of Birth And Death
Of birth and death,
life is but a cross-fade.
A tinge of meaning,
painted to the trembles of my tendrils
as the soul of each encaptured emotion.
The aumkara of the first voice of the universe,
fumes up in my crevices.
With the smoke of ashes,
the wisdom of soul
smothers my ambience.
In the receding mist
of the unscribbled unclarity,
as I open my eyes-,
flown with the wind,
I find me gone…
I take birth,
in each bubble of fatality.
And I die in the sublimation,
of each vibration of music…
of every birth and death,
life is but a cross-fade.
poem by Sarvesh Kulkarni
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!