A shadow crept up on the wall last night
Cast by the pale moon’s soft eerie glow,
A silhouette so dark it beckoned fright
Yet if a shape and form I seemed to know.
It’s been so long, why vex me now, I said—
You did not answer but the umbra smiled,
Stygian black, as mourning recent dead,
I rubbed my eyes that they not be beguiled;
What brings you now, cloaked in these widow weeds
Maleficent, mid murderous murk of moon
‘Midst mounting horrors of All Hallows’ eve,
Haunting me from out some wicked tomb?
Ah but then, what perfect night to call,
Where undead walk and evil may enthrall.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Give me treats of Keats and bowls of Shelley
And Milton honey may my palate praise,
May bits of Byron fill my empty belly
My hungry pen it’s Worth in Words to raise;
When feasted well on Poe drown thirst with Blake,
Mead drink to Shake with ice or stir with Speare
Of mint, and quaffing so my soul to slake,
While musing yet on melodies of Moore.
May such a feast be blessed by wondrous Pope,
May Marlowe yet so toast this grand tableau
And somber Hardy lead us not to tope
That from gold tongues might tender verse yet flow.
There on sweet lyrics let me gorge my brain
And so surfeited thus my zeal sustain.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

She bled a living red, her tears were salt;
She felt the paper cut of poetry
In images of love she found no fault,
White heart worn on her sleeve for all to see.
Serendipity brought her to my realm,
She’d read some lines somewhere, sometime before
Though not enough her soul to overwhelm,
But yet sufficient to unlock the door.
This meeting more than chance, it were to seem,
She was so seeking there my arms of verse
And in a moment, like some pleasant dream,
She did my doubts of love sweet there inverse.
So now in blackest ink, ensconced in rhyme,
We live on ever in this rune of time.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Though you may doubt, I’ve always thought of you
For where I’ve roamed, your visage followed me,
Whether at sea or on yon mountains blue
Your smile a rainbow of felicity.
By evening fire I felt you by my side,
Eyes closed to restful sleep, I saw you there,
No place I’ve gone on this great world and wide
Did my lone soul not pine to have you near.
Sweet love seems both a blessing and a curse,
A feather light and yet a heavy stone
To raise us up when we are at our worst
Or bring us down in loneliness undone.
By sense alone these actions speak of love,
For if not so what argument disproves?

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Stained leaves lay shorn by cruel autumn winds,
The gold of summer strewn upon the ground,
Stark proof that Time gives quarter to no things,
On all terrestrial things his stroke is found;
So the marks the creeping rust upon the sword,
So marks tall castles rubbled to decay,
So marks bound books that hold the Holy word —
What monument of worth can Time not slay?
But life renews where stone is ground to sand
And in the spring lime buds will light the trees
And blood yet through new blood ‘gainst blade shall stand,
So human hope through love of deity.
Abiding time to press his murderous reign,
Despite this siege, yet life shall rise again.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

That time ago when I was first to gaze
Upon sweet smiles that shine upon me still,
Where look returned did set my heart ablaze
And crowned at once that essence of my will;
With lustrous light you thrilled me from afar,
Heart ebbed of life, eyes wide with lips struck dumb
As first observance of some new found star
Or ancient awed by full eclipse of sun.
Surrendered so to glad astronomy,
Enamored by a grand celestial glow,
Uncertain as to sights veracity,
Content to bask in blessed sweet heavens glow.
Each night I turn my eyes to skies above
To thank my favored stars for your sweet love.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

I look out on a cold autumnal day,
Where last remaining leaves so desperate cling
To humbled branches that did once display
Their verdant spoils as if some haughty king;
This wealth now gone, spent assets on the ground
Though in their forms enlightened worth remains
That they, once living majesty so crowned,
Lay razed by force no right could there contain.
So lies clear proof in rumpled rust stained ruin
That every living sovereign has a span
Where even in proud glory of full bloom
No power known can times’ bid countermand;
By love’s great strength I yet here so decree,
That summer ever live in this and thee.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

In quiet moments when it seems God sleeps
I pray to him knowing he cannot hear
My murmured pleas that earnestly beseech
Or fervently thank him for his love and care;
Here echoes do return as joy or pain
So meted in long minutes or brief days,
Those random bursts of sunshine or of rain
That leads me to the hope that heaven sways
Some blessed direction to my lonesome path,
That is true lit by some sweet guiding light
And not a darkened journey filled with wrath,
Its shadowed valleys marked by endless blight;
But if it comes to be I walk alone,
Hope and serendipity were my song.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.