Culloden
Culloden
What calls from the silent field,
the echo of death once bled to ground,
the chases and laments of hunts, won and lost,
the tempests faded in time’s smudge,
thunder and flashing spite
once filled the air,
or is the green a sleep-worthy
numbed memory of bygone days,
where blooms find warmth of sun,
regardless of the travesties of past?
A battle raged, death the stench of rotting flesh,
and red the grasses, soaked in life released,
as struggle always tinted the rolling green,
for food, power, disagreements and kings,
and the natural world in plight
against the night, the shadows that haunt the moor,
as tormented souls rise from their disturbed sleep,
to weep for all that’s lost,
storms that had come and passed,
now still in silent echo.
Oh battlefield, will you ever find peace in life,
the cries and pain still ringing,
the weather changing, still raining
over this never forgotten patch of ground,
where stones mark the clans,
obelisks, simple marks to honor the many fallen,
as their voices still can be heard,
their resounding disdain for the English,
who sent them to their proud Jacobite graves?
Tony DeLorger © 2016
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Sounds and memories of ancient battles linger on the lands. The clash of metal on metal, cries of pain and death, it is all heard still in the silence. Great verse, Tony.
Thanks Phyllis, glad you appreciated it. A great loss to the site as Vincent leaves, and so I wonder what’s going on. No-one else virtually reads my work, bar a few and hardly any of the twenty odd writers are submitting work. Not sure what’s happening, but as a writer, if no-one’s reading and submitting what’s the point. Sad.
I have researched and written about a lot of ancient battles, so I really appreciated your poem. It is sad what is going on, Tony, with people leaving and so many still here but not reading or writing. I dropped a lot of my duties here so I will have more time to write. We have several members who signed up in the beginning and have not posted even one story or poem. Part of the problem is likely the fact that HubPages has finally opened a niche site for creative writing, poems and stories. That took away one of our best story writers and is enticing others. In fact I also decided to start writing for HP again, but still remain loyal to TCE and will continue to make this my first priority. If the Core Members (the ones who organized the site and joined the staff) are not writing very much here then how can we expect anyone else to? I am a Core member, still on the staff (newsletter and editing if needed, and any other help needed) and I will not abandon TCE. I am so sorry to see this happen, Tony, and understand how you feel. I will continue following you. If you do leave I hope you keep in touch so I can keep reading your works.
I’m presently considering leaving, I just think its sad that few are putting in any effort to write or read. That surely won’t grow the site. If I did leave I won’t lose touch with you and will always write on several sites. Lets hope things get better. Take care.
Not considering leaving I meant!
Well, thank goodness! Thank you, Tony. To see how committed you are and to find the way to divide your time wisely when it comes to writing for all the sites you are on encourages me to do much better.
I’m lucky to have the ability to churn out work painlessly and I’ve just started revisiting HubPages to fix up some broken links etc. I like to write in many arenas and connect with as many writers as possible. Commitment is something that’s important, especially for a writer. Take care.