‘No Going Back’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society February 10, 2022 Beauty, Poetry 10 Comments . No Going Back We feel our lives are slowly closing round Us when the nights grow longer than the days, When winter brings us sadness and...
‘The Demons of the Night’ by Peter Hartley The Society January 26, 2022 Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . The Demons of the Night All since she left me I have lived in fear Of creatures dwelling in the shadows here, And all around and pressing into...
‘The A-bomb Dome in Hiroshima’ by Peter Hartley The Society January 12, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . The A-bomb Dome in Hiroshima The epicentre of the blast was here, This dome, its empty ribcage gaunt and bare, It stands mute testimony to the...
‘The Dodo of Mauritius’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society December 29, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 39 Comments . The Dodo of Mauritius This island nation scarcely can be proud Of avifauna lacking common sense, Surviving only in the perfect tense, Their right...
‘Panic’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society December 17, 2021 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry 31 Comments . Panic What is this feeling that sometimes afflicts Us with awful intensity and fear? A feeling close to panic, very near To dread, to terror;...
‘Maria Montessori’ and Other Clerihews by Peter Hartley The Society December 10, 2021 Clerihew, Culture, Humor, Poetry 33 Comments . Maria Montessori Seldom felt hunky-dory. Her vision for education Fell short of inspiring a nation. . King George the Second It has often been...
‘Guilty Thoughts’: Three Poems by Peter Hartley The Society November 26, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 37 Comments . Guilty Thoughts I Through idle thoughts alone if no-one knows, We cannot hurt someone who never will Find out. No victim: none could ever spill The...
On Three Pre-Raphaelite Paintings, by Peter Hartley The Society November 12, 2021 Art, Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry 52 Comments . . The Hireling Shepherd painting by William Holman Hunt This comely wench was Emma Watkins, she Who sat for Hunt in eighteen fifty-two. Too...
‘An Incident on the Cornish Cliffs’ by Peter Hartley The Society October 28, 2021 Culture, Poetry 21 Comments . So many things were churning in his mind When scrambling down the track towards the cove, To take especial care or drop behind Them both, decide...
‘Alfred the Great’ and Other Limericks by Peter Hartley The Society October 12, 2021 Culture, Humor, Limerick, Poetry 25 Comments . Alfred the Great Alfred the Great was a shy king Who found it not much to his liking __Making do with cornflakes __‘Cos he’d burned all the...
Two Poems About Penguins, by Peter Hartley The Society September 27, 2021 Beauty, Humor, Poetry 34 Comments . À La Mode In Antarctica The boffins in Antarctica are well Adapted to the climate on the ice. Among the most exclusive personnel, For stylish kit...
‘Regrets and Repercussions’ by Peter Hartley The Society September 13, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 27 Comments . Regrets and Repercussions Inconsequential are the things we do Sometimes, or things we don’t, we don’t know why. So will we wonder far too late...
Musings on Dali’s ‘Christ of St. John of the Cross,’ by Peter Hartley The Society September 7, 2021 Art, Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry 18 Comments . I This crucifixion hides the anguish. Racked With pain, belied by bloodless hands and feet; Intolerable torments, they compete As muscles in that...
Poems on the English Moors, by Peter Hartley The Society August 20, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 30 Comments . Geese on the Moor On Laddow Moss the April air is cold And still. A single pair of wayward geese We find beside a tarn, their nest of fleece And...
‘While Waiting Through the Night’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society July 25, 2021 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry 33 Comments . While Waiting Through the Night This morning, searching on the laptop, I Found notes I made upon the night she died. All through the darkest hours...
Three Poems on Oölogists, by Peter Hartley The Society July 13, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 33 Comments . A Black-Listed Species The avian community is glad He’s dying out, the mad oölogist. With every species on the British list He always wanted...
Review: ‘Light In the Darkness—The Poetry of Peter Hartley’ The Society July 7, 2021 Clerihew, Essays, Poetry, Reviews 19 Comments Reviewed Book: Light In the Darkness—The Poetry of Peter Hartley, Dunecrest Press, 2021. by James A. Tweedie Peter Hartley writes poems. Good...
‘The Blackbird’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society June 23, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 18 Comments . . The Blackbird So what can make this joyous songbird sing That cannot but proclaim its blackbirdhood? In fairest weather and in foul it...
‘Not a Sparrow Falls’ by Peter Hartley The Society May 16, 2021 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry 21 Comments . A portent for our loss, this bird, so nigh Its end. The slowly creeping dusk had dared It to emerge, its doughty spirit bared, Eyes bright as...
‘Grauballe Man’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society February 21, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 46 Comments .. Grauballe Man He lies exposed to view in this glass case Exactly as he lay three hundred years Before our Christ was born, between his ears Torn...
A Poem on Sir Edward John Poynter’s ‘Faithful unto Death,’ by Peter Hartley The Society January 7, 2021 Art, Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry 14 Comments . From Parthenope’s coast each to his post, Beseeching eyes upraised with steady gaze. That night would nature’s cruelty erase A city from the...
‘Apocalypse’: Three Sonnets by Peter Hartley The Society December 21, 2020 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry 28 Comments _ I How will I know you or will you know me?When every bird has hurtled to the ground,When every whale and every fish has drowned,And every beast,...
A Poem on Losing Someone to Motor Neuron Disease (MND), by Peter Hartley The Society November 14, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 18 Comments A Wheelchair They kept their car-doors shut and windows closed, Nor left their house but stayed inside, disposed To hide if D were waiting...
‘While Sitting by Her’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society October 9, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 27 Comments While Sitting by Her While sitting by her sometimes I would eye Her dextrous fingers plying to and fro While unbeknown to her, as she...
Poetry on the Passing of the Poet’s Wife, Part II, by Peter Hartley The Society September 8, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 26 Comments No Longer There I wonder if a change has come about. No longer do I feel that she is there As physical a being in her chair To me as I to...
‘The Taj Mahal’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society August 7, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 44 Comments Taj Mahal Built to commemorate a love that died Four hundred years ago, how sad to say She never saw what we can see today. Serenely does...
Poetry on the Passing of the Poet’s Wife, by Peter Hartley The Society July 16, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 34 Comments Coming Home “Thank you for letting me come home,” she said To me the night she died, and I, tongue-tied, I could not answer her. I...
Sonnets on the Music of Bach, Handel, and Mendelssohn, by Peter Hartley The Society June 16, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 30 Comments “Laudamus te” from J.S. Bach’s B-minor Mass This aria so beautifully sung, Its obbligato part ethereal; Such coloratura from one so...
‘The Rats of Kathmandu’: Two Sonnets by Peter Hartley The Society May 16, 2020 Culture, Humor, Poetry 17 Comments I. The rats infesting Kathmandu Airport Appear to co-exist in peace with man And have, it seems, since local time began, Been treated...
‘Saint John Southworth’ by Peter Hartley The Society April 17, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 41 Comments So here he lies as he has lain in state These ninety years in this cathedral crypt At Westminster. We come to venerate The relics of a...
On a Bereavement: Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society February 29, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 21 Comments On a Bereavement I Mourning Sickness Can anybody say how long it lasts, This numbness that deceives while it relieves The harrowed brain? My...
‘The Plight of Animals’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society November 25, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 94 Comments The Plight of Animals The plight of animals, how must it be Ordained thus, either by a just God or A merciful? By nature meek and poor, They...
Sonnets on the Four Seasons and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society October 26, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments Spring In spring the crocuses broke out as bold As brass from refuge in their barren clay. They speared the air in colourful array And blazoned...
‘Of All God’s Living Creatures’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society September 19, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 15 Comments Of All God’s Living Creatures Of all God’s living creatures only we With subtle artifice create our style Of dress and image, and with...
The Remote Islands of Scotland: Six Poems by Peter Hartley The Society August 27, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 16 Comments I. The Evacuation of St Kilda The remote island community on St Kilda had existed for thousands of years in considerable hardship until, from the...
Two Poems on Dogs by Peter Hartley The Society July 15, 2019 Culture, Humor, Poetry 24 Comments The Thoughts of a Dog What really does go on inside the mind Of the domestic dog? To simply say They think of very little else all day But...
Six Clerihews by Peter Hartley The Society June 1, 2019 Clerihew, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Poetry Forms 39 Comments The clerihew is a kind of epigrammatic verse (normally) consisting of a pair of rhyming couplets. The first line will usually introduce the name of a...
Five Sonnets on World War I by Peter Hartley The Society April 23, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 33 Comments Gallipoli, 1915 There are none left on earth can ever tell At first hand of this mortal waste of war Hard-fought one hundred years ago and...
‘The Fate of Fine Art’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society March 6, 2019 Art, Beauty, Culture, Poetry 13 Comments The Fate of Fine Art Too late to turn the clock back on fine art, Egregious oxymoron that it may Be called today, but where to find the...
Poet Bio: Peter Hartley The Society February 27, 2019 Peter Hartley’s poetry reflects his career as a restorer of 16th to 20th century art, and a world traveller and mountaineer who has climbed more...
