Steve will be choosing the poetic theme for September.

good luck everyone.

Thanks Gilly

I would like you to write a poem about travelling through time, either foward or back. Perhaps you would like to witness the dinosaurs... or Jesus preaching on the mount... maybe to see how your great great great grandchildren turn out, or possibly watch Queen Victoria's jubilee parade. Any moment from history or future is yours.

Have fun.
Steve

Nice sentiments Margaret, if Jesus is as wonderful as you believe, then he will make your dream come true.

Meticulously planning for that day
I spent hours each night upon E-Bay
Buying white fivers, and period clothes
For reasons which, I shall soon disclose

I decided to construct a time machine
Travel back to myself, to fill gaps in between
If time travel is possible, and there’s anything in it
I should be arriving at any minute

To tell myself how such a thing is constructed
Then to build it as my future self instructed
It worked and I could hardly believe my eyes
As this wonderful machine began to materialize

Before long plans were set and completed
Some history soon would stand deleted
The date I set was famously chosen
For history is written, static and frozen

I stood on Southampton dock, April tenth
Marvelled at her height and length
Yet I alone knew how it would be
A vision lost, beneath the sea

A cold death in the deep Atlantic
A ship of doom, this bold Titanic
To save one life, I had vowed
And I spied her lost amongst the crowd

Her name was Mary, she travelled alone
And soon I made my intentions known
A sob story of how I needed to travel
And lots of money made her resolve unravel

Ticket in hand, I walked away
I think of her still to this present day
She lived a long life, though each night she cried
Remembering the stranger, she thought had died

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivors/

Thank you for setting the topic Steve, and it's certainly getting some interesting responses already, and I look forward to reading more. Gilly

Margaret, a huge wish of yours - which if it could come true, would, I feel, be too much emotion to cope with

Steve, that would be a good way to use time travel, to save someone's life. I like it very much

[size=18] My Hero

I thought and thought and thought again
About a person I would like to meet
Winston Churchchill, Joan of Arch
But William Shakespeare it has to be
he was born some 400 years ago
My hero was an actor
And people remember him for plays
and for all his laughter

Willam was born in Strafford
But he liked to tour the land
with plays and poems that were many
he was always in demand.
I woould like to shake his hand
and thank him for his time
He educated lots of people
with his stories and his rhyme.

/size]

Steve, this is just beautiful. Is this a special format?

Doreen, it would be a wonderful experience, to see Shakespeare's plays the first time they were performed!

Here is a trip, I hope not, into a future made by the folly of a 'God' allowing man's scientific progress to run ahead of his moral development.

Quite possibly, it may well occur in the name of some benighted 'God' or other. It certainly wouldn't happen in the name of common humanity...



To Ashes



There used to be trees here.

The rustle and scrape of long dead,
Shrivelled leaves accompanies the soft
Whisper of the breeze through twisted railings.

The East wind blows alien dust
Through Kensington Gardens,
Filling the cracks in the dried lake bed.

Quiet reigns at the despatch box and
The great clock hands move no more,
Chimes stilled.

Toothy grins slant silently through the
Shattered windscreens of the frozen,
Park Lane rush hour.

Father Thames flows softly in watery sunlight,
Waves lapping against sunken barges,
Broken bridges.

The Square, much extended,
Boasts contorted pools of melted bronze
And an unheroic, stunted column marks Ground Zero.

The Mall, now bare, leads to a Palace
Of collapse and solitude, finally freed
Of tramping sentries' boots.

There used to be grass here.



© Rowan Hicks

Hi Rose, glad you liked it.
Yes it's a shakespearian sonnet.

14 lines
Usually formatted as 8 lines, 4 lines, and two lines.
Each line should consist of ten syllables
In the format ababcdcd efef gg
Supposedly in iambic pentameter, but blow that for a game of soldiers...
I just like them to make sense and tell a story.
They should however be written with love or passion

Well done Doreen, I think perhaps us poets aspire to be like William, I always think if I keep writing then perhaps just one poem will turn out ok

Rowan, that is an excellent poem, a totally different slant on this challenge, albeit a grim one

Rose

Ha Rowan, obviously written after a rainy day spent in Stroud

A stark vision of one possible future, judging by God's performance so far, I think perhaps we had better make an effort to ensure such a future does not happen.

I wonder where is that time to be
That very best place to stop and stare
Which era would be the best for me
Probably most anywhere but here

I have a taste for historical romance
When gentlemen paid their court
And girls were chaperoned at a dance
Behaving shyly as they ought

So I think I would like to visit
In the early Georgian days
Find a corner in which to sit
And watch those gentle courtship ways


(Steve, I had a try at a sonnet, but I don't think it is right, so I didn't post it)

Good one rose. I liked this. Where men were men, and women were women and all lived a sedate life. Not like the hustle and bustle of today.

Ah a romantic at heart then Rose.
Meet me on the terrace and we can discuss your sonnet, lol

Seriously we all have to start somewhere, you should post it and let us have a look, I don't think anyone here will bite

Ah, a woman after mine own heart, Doreen! thank you

Rose x

Me a romantic, Steve? Maybe - once upon a time
however the offer to meet on the terrace to discuss sonnets is tempting

Better post it then Rose, so we shall have a reason to partake of the terrace
Pray tell if it looks like rain, I shall wear my riding boots, and bring you a parasole.

I scrapped it, Steve, I couldn't post anything I wasn't happy with
Maybe a meeting with a gentleman wearing riding boots is just what I need to try to write one

Last day for the September challenge today... the winner will be announced in a few days time.

Thanks for all the entries.. good luck. Gilly

The winner is...

Rowan Hicks with his poem 'To Ashes'

Rowan will be setting the theme for October.

Congratulations to Rowan, and well done to everyone who entered.