Tag Archives: victorian

As Love Often Does

Hey folks, poem today! This also marks the official launch of my substack too (substack.com/samdotson) if you’re interested. I’ll probably be posting poems both here and there, but there may be some extra content thrown that way. Let me know what you think however you’d like! Without further ado…

As Love Often Does

The love in your eyes looked as love often does: 

Golden, and witty, and warm, and pretty.

I have seen a great many things I found to be less beautiful, 

and many fewer that I desired more.

Ice and fire met there like sapphires raining on the sands of old Venus,

a painting in baroque style

so torrid it would threaten to burn.

Ancient pits and wells were far gone from my eyes then,

as were the machinations of myself and other men. 

I hoped one day to live up to that adventurous promise

in the eyes of that hope-filled novice.

Fresh alabaster met the marble of old,

belying youth in the age of soul untold

and love again had moved to take hold.

Atop a lonely mountain,

beside a lonely fountain,

a chance to see my home again.

The love in your eyes looked as love often does.

What Once Was

Hey folks, waiting on my computer to restart, and I figured I’d post a poem I just wrote last night. I hope you enjoy; without further ado…

What Once Was

In truth,

I have taken on that spirit of a most incoherent melancholy.

It feels bucolic, this, an almost romance of a deepening despair.

From what depths then do I dredge these awful, unbegotten things?

~

Blown far off course, 

I find myself wanted and wanting.

Simultaneously unwanted and unchained,

in ungracious and unkempt embrace.

With wind in my sails and yet stagnant,

watching and listening as the phantom breeze delivers old whispers.

~

Blasted Bastarnae,

as I have learned and been enraptured

in your ancient embraces,

I find myself still in somber memories

haunted by wailing spirits and adoring lies.

Would it be that I should be in such a state?

I am fraught with consternation,

with woe that was earned in fire and in blood.

~

What man is this?

What beast?

At once the God of Qart’Hadasht became the Demon of Antioch.

~

And I am afraid.

Witch Trial

Morning, folks. S’pose I can’t sleep; I’d say it’s the perfect time for a haunting melody to drive you mad. I can also say that I’ve not had an especially easy go of it these last couple of months, and I really appreciate everybody who lets me know how excited they are about my new poems. While things certainly will get better, for now I’m finding it somewhat difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I hope you all have a blessed holiday season and may we all find peace in our time. Without further ado…

Witch Trial

Always turned away

with never a question answered,

until again I saw you

with no questions left to answer.

~

Tepid rebuttals

become angry retorts,

and painful things of so many sorts.

~

I looked again upon a forgotten vessel,

sweet image of hair so tussled;

I’d forgotten I had the muscle.

~

Trials that do

simply pass

in untoward recess.

~

Isolate, away, on the outside of a faraday cage:

Trapped by freedom’s vaunted embrace,

I simply could not look you in the face.

~

Never the same,

and forever lame.

I thought to play an uncertain game.

~

Buried now

in the iron maiden,

a lover’s quarrel,

beneath the soil.

Erinnerung

Howdy, folks. Got a new one today about quiet reminders. Not much to say here, but I hope you like it. Without further ado…

Erinnerung

There flows a river,

meandering gently

through one soft and solemn place

where memories and remembrances do meet

in quiet, somber embrace.

~

And in its path

do they twirl and dance,

astonishingly simple

in their great complexity.

~

Simple loves and simple loss

that floats and swirls about the waterline

with little foam

and clear view of gentle stones

that lay about

as old and gentle bones.

~

The leaves of Autumn do fall,

absent chaos of a sea-like squall

as quiet breezes drift along,

carrying notes of one simple, quiet song.

Darkest Demesne

Good morning! I hope you guys are ready for a steaming helping of cosmic horror because, boy, have I been cookin’! If you’ve ever enjoyed Lovecraft or you like that movie Annihilation with Natalie Portman, you’ll probably dig this one. Let me know in the comments what you think. Without further ado…

Darkest Demesne

Atop the mountain

lies a fortress.

Beneath the stones,

lies a fountain.

~

Unnatural and indecipherable,

the masonry tells

the story of a being

whose presence trails

the very last of the bells.

~

In the dark,

It comes;

My master.

To quell the living disease.

Upon that stroke of midnight,

I make haste to the gate.

I whisk past maze-like halls

and labyrinthine corridors

to the old and battered door,

covered by runes and chains,

behind which It slumbers.

As I venture deeper into the dungeons,

where no light penetrates,

I begin to hear the distant, disembodied, interminable screams

that haunt my every waking moment;

I come upon the fountain.

The waters glow faintly with a distinct sickly, violescent purple.

My head, again, starts to pound as I draw near,

the intricate designs of the stonework calling out to me,

reaching out, yet again.

A sacrifice must be made.

I draw the sacrificial blade

and move it gingerly to my shaking, outstretched palm.

I make a ragged cut.

As my blood drips into the fountain,

the wailing quiets for a moment.

I am knocked from my feet by a gust of wind that tears at my skin like sandpaper;

all the while, Its howls reverberating throughout these dark and desolate halls.

This formless, black mass, blacker than the dark that surrounds, alights and descends again upon the town below.

It hungers.

It feeds.

I envy them as I watch the color fade from their faces

and the blood drain from their veins into the pool before me,

its purple waters now flowing crimson before my eyes.

I fade in and out of consciousness and find myself again in my bed,

in my chambers.

~

My torturous servitude remains immutable.

I am bound to these old cobbled stones and dark, cobwebbed halls.

I was once the lord of this castle,

but in my hubris,

in my… ambition,

I called upon powers most foul.

I cannot remember the last time I saw the light.

~

Now…

My master.

It calls again.