Poetry Of RH Fay

The Parley of Elf and Troll

During an uneasy parley
Following the briefest of lulls
In their constant fighting,
Elf and troll meet
Atop a speckled toadstool
'Neath the gnarled oak tree.

Instead of reaching an agreement
To heal past grievances,
The two argue and cuss
Over who should be cross at whom.
Each blames the other
For such bitterness and strife.
Elf calls troll ugly and sour;
Troll calls elf cutesy and trite.
They insult each other's mothers,
Divergent tastes in fashion,
And even inherent talents,
Or lack thereof.

The troubled truce finally shatters
When harsh words lead to hard blows.
Troll clobbers elf,
But the coming dawn
Turns troll to stone.
Elf slinks down
Into the shadows
With the rest of his twilight kin.

Fueled by misunderstanding,
Their endless fray goes on.
Nothing seems to stop
That infernal
Eternal war.

(December 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

Necrotic Works

Numb words
penned by cold hands
fall on bloodless pages
like decayed flesh sloughs off a corpse -
dead muse.

(December 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

Brick Walls

My words
fall on deaf ears,
my thoughts forever blocked
by stark constructions laid across
closed minds.

(November 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

The Monsters in my Life

Fell beasts
haunt dreamless nights
filled with curses and pain,
coming not from Hell, but from a
bottle.

(November 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

I Mock You With My Poetry

by I. E. Loquence

I mock you, pathetic poetaster,
With my own superior verse.
Your damnable doggerel
And sadly stilted stanzas
Pain my poet's ears.

I mock you, wretched wannabe,
With pointed words
And sharper wit.
I cut your work to ribbons
And laugh at the mess.

I mock you, false bard,
Purveyor of indifference,
Meretricious minstrel,
Seller of languid lines
And cheap tricks.

Away, foul prostitute!
Take your pedestrian works
And hawk them elsewhere.
Your pale glimmer fades
Beneath my mighty shadow.

THE END
(of your dismal dregs,
not my fine libations)

(November 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

A Mermaid's Greeting
(poem for a greeting card)

Glad greetings and salutations
Sent o'er fair lands and wide oceans
To wish your future travels be
Upon safe road and calm blue sea.
May pearly songs enchant your day,
Granting luck wherever you stay.
Sweet voices sail o'er waves and hills
Quelling all storms and bitter ills.

(October 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

rustling skirts
spinning shadows
ghostly ball

(October 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

Corvus corax, Avis fatalis

Argent
shards of moonlight
glint in the raven's eyes
while that fell feathered fiend foretells
my doom.

(October 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

murmured words
heard in empty rooms
voices of the dead

(October 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

Encounter on Ben MacDhui

Footfalls
follow my own
in pale mountainside mist,
'til terror drives me tumbling down
curst slopes.

(September 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

Mothman "Specku"

screaming red-eyed beast
winged shadow over doomed bridge
strange portent of death

(September 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

A Hellish Fray

Ebon banners darken the day.
The earth quakes 'neath their marching feet
When demons fight a hellish fray.

Upon a field of churned-up clay
Mailed knights and armoured devils meet.
Ebon banners darken the day.

Brave men stop a moment to pray
Then plod through muck and hell-born heat
When demons fight a hellish fray.

Lines advance as trumpeters play
And drummers pound a savage beat.
Ebon banners darken the day.

Many an honest soul fall prey
To fell beasts and wicked deceit
When demons fight a hellish fray.

Black swords hew and spiked scourges flay
As light's bright host faces defeat.
Ebon banners darken the day
When demons fight a hellish fray.

(December 2007)

Copyright 2007 Richard H. Fay

Ode to a Lily Pad

Oh, what a beautiful green spot
To hunt for juicy mosquitoes
Sitting amongst the pond lilies
And the gently swaying cattails.

Oh, what a fine floating seat
Upon the pond's tranquil surface,
A perfect place to croak loudly
And attract a lovely lady frog.

Oh, what a grand leafy throne
For the king of this little mere.
I survey my tadpole subjects
Wriggling wildly underwater.

Oh, what a wonderful place
To contemplate my watery world
Until the sharp-beaked heron arrives
And eats me for lunch.

(November 2007)

Copyright 2007 Richard H. Fay

Inhabitants of the Shadow Realm

Wailing banshees presage lordly passings,
Keening woefully on the windswept moor.

Crowned basilisks poison trees and pollute wells,
Striking onlookers dead with a mere glance.

Black dogs pad silently along moonlit roads,
Bringing note of death's dreaded approach.

Greedy dragons slumber upon horded gold,
Devouring virgin maids and noble knights.

Hulking giants lumber across gorsy highlands,
Causing the hills to quake with every step they take.

Mischievous goblins play malicious pranks,
Leading the unwary traveller astray.

Hideous hags reside in trackless fens,
Snatching up lost souls in their iron claws.

Troublesome kobolds bother miners at work,
Wreaking havoc deep beneath the earth.

Uncouth ogres prowl the untamed heath,
Hunting endlessly for their human prey.

Cruel Peg Powler lies submerged in stagnant pools,
Waiting to drag children to a watery doom.

The dour Redcap haunts ruined towers,
Dyeing his crimson hat in human blood.

Swarthy trolls lurk in dark woods and deep caves,
Shunning the Sun's petrifying gaze.

Wicked wights wing through the still midnight air,
Seizing hapless mortals that cross their path.

However, the worst peril of all
Is that nameless terror,
That faceless fear,
Known simply as
The unknown.

(March 2007)

Copyright 2007 Richard H. Fay

Fairyland Fantasyku

fleeting shadow
borrower of lost tools
fair folk neighbour

hidden helper
doer of undone chores
ragged brownie

keeper of gold
cobbler of one shoe
lone leprechaun

poetic muse
vampiric inspiration
deadly fay mistress

dark young stallion
hungry riverside spirit
sinister kelpie

dank algid fog
tattered spectral mist
dreaded Grey Man

baleful trickster
reveller in mayhem
malicious goblin

(June 2007)

Copyright 2007 Richard H. Fay

Cosmic Ship of Dreams

Pure thought
powers this craft
across our vast cosmos.
It sails from star to star as time's
tide ebbs.

(November 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

Worrying

The imprints of the world's worst sorrows
Are laid across your wearied face like
Jagged cracks along a porcelain mask.
Ragged lines drawn by time's cruel hand
Are deepened by stories of anguish and strife.

Storm clouds trouble your toilworn mind,
Black thoughts darken your wavering soul.
A multitude of angry words and foul deeds
Weigh heavily upon your gentle spirit,
Dragging you down into a sea of despair.

Climb aboard a tempest-tossed ship.
Let tattered sails carry you far away
From the dreadful land of nightmares.
Drop your anchor in a brighter port
And leave your sombre sadness behind.

(Originally published in the Autumn 2007 issue of Skyline Magazine)

Copyright 2007 Richard H. Fay

Marriage of Earth and Antares

Fallen star
Two worlds meet
When human greets Antaran
In a meld of minds
And hearts

Soft trills
Speak to my soul
With far deeper understanding
Than mere words
Ever could

Bug eyes
Blazing with knowledge
Of the secrets of the cosmos
Look into my own
Adoringly

Shaggy fur
Glows in the dark
In tune with her emotions
And keeps us warm
At night

Some think
She's only my pet
I smile at their ignorance
Knowing she's truly
My mate

(Originally published in Sounds of the Night, Issue 2, February 2008.)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

The Birth of Sentience on Aggraboth V

A green jungun raises her head
Out of the black primeval muck.
She spreads her rainbow hued neck frill
And stares at the huge crimson sun.
The sight ignites a mental spark;
Enlightenment widens her world.

Strange ideas course through her brain
And fill her mind with new notions.
"Who am I?" she wonders gravely,
"And what might I be doing here?
How was all this I see first made?
Is there a purpose to my life?
And what may greet me at life's end?"

With clearer vision than before
Her amber eyes look all around.
They espy her scaly comrades
Feeding on some armoured quibbibs,
Oblivious to her wondrous
Contemplative epiphany.

Anxious to share her new-found thoughts
She opens her fanged maw and roars;
Junguns lack a spoken language
To put concepts into real words.
Disappointed at her failure,
She sheds a tear and sinks back down
Into the primordial ooze.

(Originally published in The Fifth Di..., Edition 10, #1, March 2008)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

Wondrous Gobbledygook

On a wonderful Nagoogoo morn,
While the bumox skip across the fwa,
I strum the strings of my zidipip
And slowly sip a gurgle burgle
Beside the pink waters of Baffbee.

On the puboo of a keckleschmeck,
I spy a blue-green fuguwordle
Crawling upon an etafal leaf.
I pluck a crimson syton flower
And place it in Zabugana's hair.

On a glittering Nagoogoo night
Wududolons wing across Phreetum
And the violet shlubiyemps sing.
A gentle breeze blows off of Baffbee
As Zabugana lies next to me.

(June 2007)

Copyright 2007 Richard H. Fay

The Secret Society of Pigs and Dead Dinosaurs

With a thunderous roar
The terrible lizard laughs.
Stomp on the tree ferns!

Here we go a wallowing
Down in the pig pits.

Brontosaurus footsteps
Precede the savage storm.
The primeval jungle trembles.

Stuff your face with slop.
Long live the belching boar!

A comet blasted the behemoth.
A dark cloud covered the sty.
The ruling reptile lost his throne.

All hail!
The overly exalted hog!

Where is Tyrannosaurus now?
Covered in miles of petrified muck.
The sow is inspired.

A pig, is a pig, is a pig,
But a pig by any other name
Is a dirty, disgusting,
Homo sapiens.

(May 2007, a revision of a poem first written 1989.)

Copyright 2007 Richard H. Fay

clash of tempered steel
armoured gladiators meet
robotic war games

(Originally published in the February 2009 Issue of Scifaikuest.)

Copyright 2009 Richard H. Fay

Chupa-Chupas

Star lights,
Earthward falling
offspring of distant suns
plummet through dark skies suffering
hunger.

Beings
from worlds beyond
human belief prowl this
steamy Brazilian night searching
for prey.

Savage
spirits glimmer
above my veranda,
flashing green and red as they stalk
their game

Pulsing
satisfaction,
glittering entities
catch me in crimson beams to drain
my life.

Fell fire
sets flesh ablaze
while ionised blood boils.
Ebbing vitality feeds those
fey lights.

(Originally published in Hungur, Issue 7, All Souls' Night 2008.)

Copyright 2008 Richard H. Fay

Wonderful!!

Thanks!

I tried to post many of the poems I had posted in the old Light Warriors forum, along with some others. Looking back at some I my works from a year or two ago, I actually realised just how much my skills have improved with practice! I should probably go back and date these things, just to give an idea of when they were composed.