Homework W/E 20/8/18 - A Bleak Outlook

[Terry]

A Bleak Outlook

In drink he strives to drown the thoughts, of tortured years gone by,
when wars had been the major cause that innocents must die.
No sense can now be made of conflicts wrought upon the earth,
by Despots who don’t give a damn - that’s all a child’s life’s worth.

It’s man who’s brought on all our ills though few can understand,
the lash of whip may scold and sear but love still rules the land.
It’s man’s to blame for bleaching bones from when time first begun,
and hasn’t learned through all those years to see the damage done.

He tries to shake his blackest thoughts; look back in time once more,
for surely there were better days he must have known before.
His mind drifts back to youthful days when outlooks were upbeat,
when there was beauty all around - the scent of dew so sweet.

In truth he knows there were no jewels along life’s paths once trod,
or maidens fair from days long gone in velvet slippers shod.
The sound of mocking laughter rings here loudly in his ears,
for evil now still stalks the world as journey’s end now nears.

© T.E. Piggott

[Shelley Hansen]

Very insightful Terry - an excellent take on the prompts!

How true it is that those who don't learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them - sadly, that seems to apply to most of humanity, both in our time and in times gone by.

As Bob Dylan aptly put it, "When will they ever learn?"

Cheers
Shelley

[Maureen K Clifford]

Well done Terry - very insightful indeed and sadly so true - we never learn and no one benefits long term from wars either IMO. Terrifi c use made of the prompts

[Terry]

Thanks Shelley

It's fair to say that i used a fair bit of poetic license - but hey it's homework!
A good chance to experiment I reckon.

Terry

[Terry]

Thanks Maureen

The funny thing about prompts is that sometimes you wonder where to begin,
But in this case I looked at the prompts and they seemed like an outline of this poem to me.
I just needed to fill in the gaps so to speak - I probably could have improved it a bit with an extra stanza or two - but I'm lazy.

Cheers Terry