For Pegasus
What makes your wild-fire heart cry low,
Calling for the gypsies so?
The violin with singing bow
The music and the dancing flow
Like phantom rhythms through your dreams
And you with willing heart take flight
To a high land place of strange delight
Pursuing ghost-fires in the night.
What is the song that beckons you still
To vagabond play beyond the hill?
All night long it lures you on
Only to find the caravan gone,
Misted away into the dawn.
What makes your yearning heart cry low,
Longing for gypsies so?
FOR PETE DUEL, SYLVIA PLATH, FREDDIE PRINZ and all the ones WHO FED THEIR SOULS TO THE HAWK
We cheered and applauded.
They gave all they had to give
And asked only for one answer.
We saw and denied.
They cried against the silence
And screamed their fears into a void.
We sat and watched.
They fed their souls to the hawk
And they died.
AUTHOR NOTES
GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby
“THE WORSHIPPER” is included this week for November 1, World National All Souls Day. This poem was found among the poet’s papers.
REFRACTIONS—the poetry by Robert Roxby
“STOP THE MACHINES” is included this week for November 6, World National Stress Awareness, UN Environment Day. The poem first appeared in the author’s book Reflections on a Lifetime published when he was in his late eighties.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby
“FOR PETE DUEL, SYLVIA PLATH, FREDDIE PRINZ and all the ones WHO FED THEIR SOULS TO THE HAWK” is included this week for November 1, World National All Souls Day. These three poured out their lives in occupations this poet admires: poetry and theater. All three died in approximately a ten year period of emotional turmoil in poet’s own life, so their deaths had special meaning for her.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.
Guidelines for submission:
SPLINTERS FOR NOVEMBER 2024
TIDBITS
There are certain times at night
When a very special quiet comes.
I am visited by a light touch
That inscribes words, such as these,
Upon my mind in open scripts
As though some ancient one visited
To sow thoughts upon the winds, so
Simple souls such as I can reap and record
Though oftentimes we cannot understand
What truly great thoughts are there.
So, I scribble what I think I see.
THE WILD-FIRE HEART
For Pegasus
What makes your wild-fire heart cry low,
Calling for the gypsies so?
The violin with singing bow
The music and the dancing flow
Like phantom rhythms through your dreams
And you with willing heart take flight
To a high land place of strange delight
Pursuing ghost-fires in the night.
What is the song that beckons you still
To vagabond play beyond the hill?
All night long it lures you on
Only to find the caravan gone,
Misted away into the dawn.
What makes your yearning heart cry low,
Longing for gypsies so?
FOR CHARLES WHO COULD NOT FORGET THE FACTORY AT HUNGERFORD STAIRS*
Who knows
what scars
the heart
of a man?
Scars deep
beyond forgetting
beyond hope
of disguise.
What cure
is there
for the wound
that ever bleeds?
What help
for the child
spitted
on the spear
of his fate?
*Charles Dickens
AUTHOR NOTES
GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby
“THE WILDFIRE HEART” is included this week in honor of National Authors Day, November 1. The poet wrote this piece in honor of her friend, Pegasus Buchanan, a poet with California Federation of Chapparal Poets (CFCP). Margaret wrote the following note to her circle of poet friends who exchanged poems via Round Robin letters. In this 1989 Robin she said: “…after her book of poems which was a Honorable Mention award from CFCP*—(my HM, that is)—Gee, the above is sure a confusing sentence…forgive me, please.” *The Honorable Mention prize awarded to Margaret was a book by Pegasus.
REFRACTIONS—a poem by Robert Roxby
“TIDBITS” appears this week for November 1, National Authors Day. The poem was found in the author’s journal.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby
“FOR CHARLES WHO COULD NOT FORGET THE FACTORY AT HUNGERFORD STAIRS” appears this month for UN World Mental Health Day and National Authors Day. The child in the poem is Charles Dickens forced to work at a shoe factory (in the shop window) due to the debts his father incurred. As an adult he often walked the streets of London at night, frequently revisiting the rundown location of this shop by the river.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.
Guidelines for submission:
SPLINTERS FOR OCTOBER 2024