Daily Prompt: The frozen pond

The pond that once held frogs and water boatmen

Swimming intermittently between the fronds of weed

Allowed dragonflies to dip; hawk-like hunters across the surface

And was the habitat for newts, their long-tails trailing as they swam,

Is now frigid; solid with ice that doesn’t even crack

Beneath the force of a snowball.

Nothing splashes in the deep, dark depths

No heron stands at the edge statuesque and still

Seeking the slightest movement to spear with its beak.

Instead there is a still, glassiness reflecting the blue winter sky

The deer cannot drink; and the ducks can only skate across the surface

For the sub-zero, arctic winds have brought the beast from the east

And we must abide the glacial freeze as bleak winter bites.

Photo and poem copyright Englepip©

via Daily Prompt: Frigid

Daily Prompt: It came from the east

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It came from the East: this huge raging beast

Shrieking through crevices of rock.

It whipped up huge waves

In mountains and swirls.

Crashed into the coast and the caves.

It churned the sea bed;

Tore the beach to a shred

Gathering shingle and stones

It spit back.

It shattered the cliffs

And gnawed at the shore

Receding …….

Then breaking once more

Rhythmically pounding

The surf ever sounding

A barrage penetrating

Your core.

Poem and photo copyright to Englepip©

via Daily Prompt: Churn

Daily Prompt: Easter in the suburbs

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Radiant with light

The Easter story today

Tomorrow: always.

via Daily Prompt: Radiant

Daily Prompt: The Beatles

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Were they the quartet you waited for

Screamed for and danced for

They certainly were the famous four

In Liverpool town in sixty four.

The rebel Northern group four

Playing In a cellar down a backstreet for

One whole pound more than four

A pound less than a shop girl for

A forty hour week.

But nevertheless they sang,

All four, a quartet of

Love love me do and

You know I love you

And they really wanted

To hold your hand:

They were a very good band.

And do you want to know a secret?

Then get a ticket to ride

With a paperback writer

And I’ll tell you:

All you need is love.

In Penny Lane there was

A barber shop

Where perhaps they got that

Iconic hair crop?

And when the yellow submarine

Sailed with the walrus

Was it to a Norwegian Wood

Or was it back in the USSR?

And did they twist and shout

In the way they moved

And have a hard day’s night

These famous four?

And will they ever know

how much we loved them?

They said if you need somebody

They’d be there.

But now it’s too late to call

All four

That was yesterday

So let it be.

Words and photo copyright Englepip©

via Daily Prompt: Quartet

Daily Prompt: The Power of Steam

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” Efficiency is the ratio of useful work to resources expended. In other words, the ratio of the output to the input of a given system.”

They say steam engines were

Really inefficient.

Yet they worked and so

Were icons of their time.

Their powerful engines hissed

As their gliding pistons swished

And the big wheels steadily turned

Upon the line.

Journeying far ‘cross country

Along parallel lines of track

Their smokestacks burning brightly

There and back.

Generations mourn their passing

And old engines they have rescued

Recombining, reassembling

All from the scrap.

They hammer and they chisel

Blacksmithing with a sizzle

Engineering perfect pieces

Of great size.

And when the engine’s finished

They admire her in her glory

Resurrected into power

To run once more.

Then the new steam comes a-fizzing,

From the smoke-stack wildly hissing

And along the lines it’s whizzing

Inefficient maybe yes.

But do we care?

For that old engine it is running

And faithfully it is pulling

Is it not a most amazing sight to see?

And to smell the soot and grime

Feel the rhythm of the line

Is a special thing for all,

Especially me.

Poem and photo copyright to Englepip©

via Daily Prompt: Inefficient

Daily Prompt: The Swallow

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Little bird, swift bird,

Migrating on the wing

Swooping in from southern climes

Our harbinger of Spring

Zooming ‘cross the pastures

While feeding in flight

Scooping up some insects

Then banking to get height.

Gathering up mud pellets

For nesting o’er the door

Feathering the inside

Laying white eggs; maybe four.

They are raising a brood

See the droppings on the floor

Sweeping in and swiftly feeding

Then back again with more.

And then the brood are ready

Tentatively they take flight

Til they too are flying

And we all take delight.

Scudding ‘cross the fields

And diving from aloft

Soaring to great heights

And through the clouds so soft.

But as Autumn approaches,

And evenings gather in

You’ll find them all chirping

From the wires such a din.

A flapping and a chatting

About the journey ahead

Taking the late sun’s rays

Upon their shiny heads

And then they take flight

Ascending in the air

To go thousands of miles

On a wing and a prayer.

Bon voyage little bird

By the sun you can steer

Travel safe if you can,

Hope to see you next year.

via Daily Prompt: Swallow

Daily Prompt: Snow definition – a dog’s perspective

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When a familiar landscape becomes a foreign field

Populated with overlarge, cold, white hominoids

Of terrifying proportions; when missiles

Equally white, fly through the air – war of the juveniles

Descending slopes on their terrible toboggans

Squealing war cries of joy, fear and warning;

Alien world of crusty icing sugaredness

Powdery beneath the paws and scents and trails

Vanished beneath a cloak of icy invisibility.

Beautiful covering coming silently from the sky

Like white stars and hexagonal doilies.

Lickable and likeable in tongue meltingness.

via Daily Prompt: Foreign

Daily Prompt: Talisman

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What power weaves strength through this face?

Of Idia, queen from Benin.

Authority conjured in ivory

Great noble who knows how to win.

Portuguese traders, her puppets

Bound up as clips in her hair

Deep marks of scarification

Assert influence and dominance there.

Only one look from this death mask

Will all opposition repress

Giving power throughout generations

A talisman for success.

There are several of these masks, one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Seattle Art Museum, another in the Linden Museum (Stuttgart) which I photographed in the British Museum (London),

“The Benin ivory mask is a miniature sculptural portrait in ivory of the powerful Queen Mother Idia of the 16th century Benin Empire, taking the form of an African traditional mask. The likeness was worn however, not as a mask, but as a pendant by her son Esigie, who owed his kingship as Oba of Benin to the Queen Mother’s military aid.” from Wikipedia

The fact that this was worn not as a mask but around the waist or possibly hung from the neck of her son Esigie in the 16th century, indicates it was probably a talisman of power. Wikipedia states, “The masks may have been used in ceremonies including the Ugie Iyoba commemoration of the Oba’s mother, as well the Emobo purification ceremony to expel bad spirits from the land.^[7]^[18]^[19] Similar pendant masks are mainly used in contemporary Emobo ceremonies focused on bad spirits, though the traditions of Emobo may have changed throughout history.^[18]”

via Daily Prompt: Talisman