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Thoughts From Arturius

Mad Monk Musings...

I am Arturius!
I come upon the English!
Leave these shores
to the wine-knights
and Danish whores!

I grab you Barbarians
and carve out
a Nation
from the ashes
left in burning piles
From vile
Romans

In my task
I rely on bards
to weave a story
true

Or my truth my version
lost in a
thousand years
of subversion

The 'Saxon Shore'
repels all comers
to no avail
they slink upon our
English edges

Assimilating
pillaging
raping
the usual fare for
nation
building

I'm picking up the slack
Roman reins
Oh Honorius!
Why does it always
come down to funds?

Tightfisted overstretched
rotting empires
de-colonizing
Now Germanic hordes
the new flotsam
flooding forth

I halt hard
I say "dux bellorum"
to all the Bedlam
and instruct my
bards
to weave the cloak
of legend

No true battles
How could I be
fighting foes
at the same time?
In different centuries?

But I've made my mark
I'm a filigree
truth fragment
re-told in draughty
dank abbeys
and low battlements

Arturius, heroic Christian
Warrior!
Ambrosius who was of the
nobel purple cloth
a Roman shard still remembered
in English place naming

Here Amesbury!
'the fortress of Ambrosius'
home for figments
and kernels
and myths.

Last few words: 
...especially for Wesley, to wax his lyricals on!
Editing stage: 

Comments

Free verse, no rhyme. Short sentences.
Why oh why, then do I love it!
History? Maybe. Big words. That must be it.
I love this thing. I think I may have to archive it that I may read it in my dotage... tomorrow.

At least you had the dignity to misspell a word I could correct:
chrisitian (Christian)
Ah, to be useful.
Seriously Betty, this is awesome, just awesome. I love it.

W. H. Snow

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. Percy Bysshe Shelley

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Oh to be useful...

'No rhyme"???

There is assonance & half rhyme and irregular rhyme all through this. I also made darn sure I added in alliteration. (Sulking now)

I knew you'd like it though, it's from my series of the Mad Monk of Monmouth musings...remember I did 'Thoughts from Guinevere' last year? I'm planning more as I love Anglo-Saxon history and my dad is Welsh and my mother a Scot. The celtic mongrel in me laps up all the myths & legends of where we 'English' came from!

Thanks for reading it.

Ells x

author comment

I was looking for traditional rhyme and missed all the things I love about poetry. This deserves multiple readings. What a marvelous thing you have constructed. I have no better words.
And no I have not read the other poem. I have been gone for over a year recovering from bypass surgery. However, I WILL read it. I will read it.

W. H. Snow

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. Percy Bysshe Shelley

Learn how, teach others.
The NeoPoet Mentor Program
http://www.neopoet.com/mentor/about

the blue eyes were scot but even of this im not sure and not caring
and they were from the viking shore landing parties
i have a welsh friend i think....intelligent ...meet at the coffee house
now and then..
with the other odd bodkins..

i love this...read through it enthralled also
love the use of dank...

finally a land here of people that still use
language as a gauge
history and symbolism
and yes...never thought of bards
as the free pres of its time

the royals of the north clans
funded much and hadrian built his
wall and sometimes
it was just the one woman one man
whom stood together
were organzied by a galvanic
mythical magical persona
to push back the pushing
...

its happening now

thank you for this poem
it has enlivened
and entranced

Thanks...yes, we Celts are all over the world, especially in the Americas!

To be honest, all the 'true blood' englishmen/women are really a Heinz 57 variety gene pool from all over the world...saxon, germanic, moors, normans, romans, europeans, viking, scandinavian...later african, indian,indo-chinese...

However, when I travel up to the North of Britain, I feel an ancestral "pull"...like I KNOW places and have visited before. It was very 'tribal' in my house growing up when we watched the game of Rugby. My sister & I doggedly supported the white rose of England through the hurling insults of both parents! LOL

Glad it entranced you.

Ells x

author comment

but I was looking for a reason to complain, so you were duly impressed that I loved it. Not liked. It was, in a word, fun. Just a rollicking good time.

W. H. Snow

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. Percy Bysshe Shelley

Learn how, teach others.
The NeoPoet Mentor Program
http://www.neopoet.com/mentor/about

I wish you two lovers (Wes And Betty).... of poetry i mean. LOL, sounds like a lovers tiff, only joking. Somethings are just meant to be enjoyed, and this is certainly one of those. Nice writing Love Roscoe..

Roscoe Llane,

Religion will rip your faith off, and return
for the mask of disbelief that's left.

hadde meeke yaf varsities yeve versatile

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

I am not a student of history but your write walked me through the centuries, eras.prophesies & dialects and at the end left me wondering if it is true that history repeats itself. I must add that to me your presentation style is refreshingly different and innovative...

Regards,

raj (sublime_ocean)

Love this poem. I've printed it out (hope you don't mind) so I can read it over again at my leasure. Will get back to you with a more fitting comment in the by and by.

John

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