"Pleasure Garden with a Maze" by Toeput Lodewijck‘Within My Garden’s Soul’ by David Hollywood The Society October 12, 2017 Beauty, Poetry 10 Comments Within my gardens soul abounds, A spirit stirring neath the ground, Aroused by secret depths that found, Concealed, inspired, a place profound. And as the rustling leaves surround, With stories from the breezes sound The haunting wind shall sing and pound, Upon the life beneath this mound. And in this knoll of moistened dirt, Where worms dig deep into the earth, The tubers turn to sleep from hurt, As winter storms its first alert. And slumber waits for times delay, To show how seasons laws obey, Arousal’s that deny decay. David Hollywood co-Directed The Bahrain Writer’s Circle and founded and ‘The Colours of Life’ poetry festival in Bahrain , The Gulf, and latterly worked in Antigua, The West Indies upon a variety of poetry in performance events. He is the author of an eclectic collection of poems titled ‘Waiting Spaces’ plus co-author of ‘My Beautiful Bahrain’, ‘Poetic Bahrain’, ‘More of My Beautiful Bahrain’, ‘Lonely’ and a variety of further publications. He was the in-house poet for ‘Bahrain Confidential Magazine’ and is one of the most widely read poets in The Middle East. He is a literary critic for ‘Taj Mahal Review’ plus an essayist on the subject of poetry appreciation. There are plans for a new collection of poetry and essays to be released in 2018. David has additional responsibility for the teaching of Wine Appreciation Programmes and Themes which he developed for the hospitality industry, and currently lives in his home country of Ireland. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Trending now: 10 Responses Sultana Raza October 12, 2017 Quite evocative, surreal, and nicely done. I was wondering what kind of illustration the editors would use, and I must say, am impressed by their choice as usual! Reply David Watt October 13, 2017 Lovely Nature themed Villonnet David. Reply David Hollywood October 13, 2017 Dear Sultana and David, Many thanks to you both for your appreciations. Best regards, David. Reply Cyrus October 13, 2017 Beautiful. And a wonderful sense of meter! Reply Rohini Sunderam October 13, 2017 Beautiful David! Great to see you have found a venue that accepts our structured styles! So evocative and appropriate to the season. Reply David Hollywood October 15, 2017 Dear Rohini and Cyrus, Many thanks to you both with best regards,David Reply James Sale October 18, 2017 Great stuff – very accomplished use of rhyme. One tiny caveat, though: isn’t ‘Arousal’s’ a plural, not a possessive, so should be ‘Arousals’? However, I still thoroughly enjoyed this poem and plural or possessive makes no difference to the sound of it in the mind. Reply David Hollywood October 20, 2017 Dear James, Many thanks for your very kind words and appreciations and please forgive my delay in sending this response, and which is a consequence of the carousel style world we live in. It’s wonderful to receive your observation and correction, which I accept as probably true in its view because while I had seen the subject matter as plural due to my thoughts being scattered across a variety of shared life forms plus reference to ‘a’ spirit, I clearly hadn’t made this evident. It escaped me that the imagery may have given the impression of a singular plant and its essence, rather than many, and which now makes me think I ought to be more careful in my presentation, and so therefore I thank you again. Also, it reveals the experience of seeing a poem from more than one perspective and which is something I have often tried to highlight with others, whereas now I have fallen into the trap of seeing it only from my position. Anyway, best of regards as always and I am uplifted that you gained some joy with my effort. Reply Kim Cherub October 21, 2018 David, this is my favorite poem of yours that I have found so far. I was, however, a bit puzzled by the last stanza. Should it be: time’s delay (an apostrophe because the possessive form is being used) Arousals (no apostrophe because the plural form is being used) Reply David Hollywood November 1, 2018 Dear Kim, Many thanks for your very kind words, and yes indeed you are correct in your observations/recommendations. I need to go back to school for further instruction, and thank you again, best. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Sultana Raza October 12, 2017 Quite evocative, surreal, and nicely done. I was wondering what kind of illustration the editors would use, and I must say, am impressed by their choice as usual! Reply
David Hollywood October 13, 2017 Dear Sultana and David, Many thanks to you both for your appreciations. Best regards, David. Reply
Rohini Sunderam October 13, 2017 Beautiful David! Great to see you have found a venue that accepts our structured styles! So evocative and appropriate to the season. Reply
David Hollywood October 15, 2017 Dear Rohini and Cyrus, Many thanks to you both with best regards,David Reply
James Sale October 18, 2017 Great stuff – very accomplished use of rhyme. One tiny caveat, though: isn’t ‘Arousal’s’ a plural, not a possessive, so should be ‘Arousals’? However, I still thoroughly enjoyed this poem and plural or possessive makes no difference to the sound of it in the mind. Reply
David Hollywood October 20, 2017 Dear James, Many thanks for your very kind words and appreciations and please forgive my delay in sending this response, and which is a consequence of the carousel style world we live in. It’s wonderful to receive your observation and correction, which I accept as probably true in its view because while I had seen the subject matter as plural due to my thoughts being scattered across a variety of shared life forms plus reference to ‘a’ spirit, I clearly hadn’t made this evident. It escaped me that the imagery may have given the impression of a singular plant and its essence, rather than many, and which now makes me think I ought to be more careful in my presentation, and so therefore I thank you again. Also, it reveals the experience of seeing a poem from more than one perspective and which is something I have often tried to highlight with others, whereas now I have fallen into the trap of seeing it only from my position. Anyway, best of regards as always and I am uplifted that you gained some joy with my effort. Reply
Kim Cherub October 21, 2018 David, this is my favorite poem of yours that I have found so far. I was, however, a bit puzzled by the last stanza. Should it be: time’s delay (an apostrophe because the possessive form is being used) Arousals (no apostrophe because the plural form is being used) Reply
David Hollywood November 1, 2018 Dear Kim, Many thanks for your very kind words, and yes indeed you are correct in your observations/recommendations. I need to go back to school for further instruction, and thank you again, best. Reply