Wednesday 23 April 2014

POETRY JAM - DESERTS

“The avarice of the miser may be termed the grand sepulchre of all his other passions, as they successively decay. But unlike other tombs, it is enlarged by repletion and strengthened by age.” - Charles Caleb Colton

This week, Poetry Jam has prompted followers with the theme of “Deserts”. Here is my offering:

The Hidden Tomb

In endless, shifting desert sands
A hidden tomb lies undiscovered;
Far from all sacrilegious hands,
In centuries of dust lies covered.

The wind and sky will sing a dirge
The stars and moon shed tears;
While ghostly shadows urge
Old memories to flee from biers.

A lonely traveller lost will trip
On buried headstone drab,
And with a crazy fervour grip
The ancient broken marble slab.

Here treasure lies, shiny gold
Here rubies, pearls, more jewels.
Much more than he can ever hold,
The endless wealth his avarice fuels.

He fills his pockets, clutches treasure,
While desperately he thirsts for water;
He laughs with endless mirth and pleasure, 
Forgotten thoughts of wife and daughter.

The desert sands will move and shimmer
The sun will burn and scorch and wither.
A year has passed, his white bones glimmer
Among the bright gold, vipers slither…

12 comments:

  1. Wow... this demanded a second reading. Love it.

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  2. The desert sands will move and shimmer
    The sun will burn and scorch and wither.

    heat personified...

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  3. Love that you made a story of this! Ah those bones don'e have much use for the treasure! Spectacular photo.

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  4. Is that a photo from The Great Sand Dunes National Park. If so that is the sme place my photos came from this time. I love your poem great words and thoughts. The sands do really move and bury with the wind there.

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  5. Very powerfully put, Nicholas. What is the worth of money when we cannot have the most essential things we need in life?

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  6. A tale of truth and power and they way you have made it sing gives it a lost feeling. Great power here.

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  7. oo the lust for wealth meets such end......strong storyline...

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  8. How we can forget the things that really matter, and cling to those that hold nothing to sustain us!
    Very nice!

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  9. Water is the precious jewel of the desert. Diamonds and gold are useless except to the tomb raiders.
    Unfortunately a lot of folk still cannot come to terms with the fact that you cannot take your amassed fortune with you when you die.

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  10. Ah... This was really nice, both fairy-tale, rhythm-wise and the lesson to avoid avarice. Great job!

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  11. Wonderful poem and story. It flowed so effortlessly from the history to the traveler's story. Well done!

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