C.S. Starling

I'm so thrilled to announce that my work is to be included in The Havisham Steps: Modern Gothic Poetry anthology from @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Weeks of unending grey skies and mist in the UK provides inspiration plenty for gothic poetry...
Huge congratulations to the other authors! 👏🎉
#PoetsofBluesky

Thank you! Very kind 🌟

Thank you! 🌿❤️

White text on a black background that reads: A flower blooms at the end of the world Her delicate petals blushed with peach And beaded with morning dew A tiny mote of life and yet So much more For what beauty can blossom Amidst such desolation? Perhaps it was resilience that kept her strong Through the snow and the fire Taking nourishment from the ash Or maybe it was her grief that moved her Calling her towards the sun To be a balm in the wake of such loss For the few who remain But perhaps it is simpler yet And neither frost nor flame Nor pollution so thick it blotted out the sun Told her to hide and wait for better days That it was merely the spinning of the seasons Which roused her from her slumber Their cycles impervious and indifferent To all that would befall the earth In the stillness of the morning Whispers on the wind sing of The end of the world But the little flower wonders As she warms her petals in gentle sunlight The end of the world for whom? All things ebb and flow The tides recede and the leaves fallow Making room for something new Whatever left did not go quietly Did not think it was their time But only fools struggle at the end For time it was, all the same And thus the cycle begins anew

The end of the world for whom?

Thank you @thebrokenspine.co.uk and @alanparrywriter.co.uk for this week's #PoemsAbout #NoFuture

Thank you! I'd been wanting to write something like this for a while, so the prompt was perfect 🌟

White text on a black background that reads: Waiting Once I drummed my fingers Paced with anxious anticipation For the door before me to open As so many had before At first it was excitement That held me Desperate to know What life lay beyond the threshold And I would step forth with purpose Only to realise There was another room Another door And soon I was waiting again So many rooms And so many doors Quicker and quicker Until I stopped seeing the walls And furnishings altogether If there were people or animals Or any sort of oddity I never paused long enough to know Until I came to this room With its dust and faded wallpaper Sagging with the neglect of time Had this rot been chasing me? Insidious and ravenous While I was too consumed By what was next To notice its unrelenting pursuit Creeping ever closer It seems obvious what waits Beyond that final door How keenly now I feel The sharp sting of regret Such beauty passed me by And now all I have left Is the contemplation Of my foolish haste As veins of decay seep Through the cracks Knowing the wood is only Whetting its appetite In its search For me

Another evocative prompt! Thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk and @alanparrywriter.co.uk for #PoemsAbout #LockedDoors

Thank you so much! You spotted my inspiration 🌟 I hear Lestat's voice when I read it!

Thank you! Gothic poetry is my favourite 💀

#Halloween has two faces
The overt horror
And slow, creeping dread
A gothic beauty
Sepia-washed and painted
With vivid red
Of vice and vicious delight
That crumbles beneath such
Aching melancholy
A longing that cannot be sated
Echoed in lace and memento mori
In this eternal dance with death
#vss365

White text on a black background that reads: Un Coup de Coeur The vein in your neck Flirts with me when you laugh Your eyes are less sure Instinct screams its alarm And yet you cannot look away As enthralled by my beauty As I am by yours You will, in time When you finish your drink And politely excuse yourself Blaming traffic and work Regret itching at your skin As you wonder What the night would have held If you had stayed But fear not, mon chéri, Do not deny your desire As we commence our dance Through the shadowed streets A waltz, or a minuet, perhaps Your pulse suggests otherwise With its relentless accelerando The rush and the roar Of a sanguine symphony Soaring to its peak So calm your worries Mon petit fleur And come to me I wish only to see you smile As ecstacy floods your veins After all What is there to fear? This is nothing more Than un coup de coeur Destined to die By the dawn

A spooky poem for a spooky day... #PoemsAbout #Blood for @thebrokenspine.co.uk and @alanparrywriter.co.uk

Scorched and defeated
Icarus plummeted
Doomed by his hubris
They say
Who damn underambition
In the same breath
But what glory comes from
The middle road
From never daring to dream
Beyond our bounds?
The phoenix must burn
If he is to rise from ash
With #heliacal defiance
In spite of the dawn #vss365

From dawn's golden light
To the reverent stillness
Of fallen #ash
A memory of a life
Once lived
Now reunited
Welcomed with the same grace
And tender care
Once given to the earth
Be one again with the circles
And seasons
Arise on birdsong and breeze
Resting in the verdant hills
Of home
#vss365

Battered and bruised
Is this heart of mine
Small and disappointed
It feels lost in the cavity
Of what once was
But it is strong
Inured to the whims
Of life's indifference
And through the pain
#Elastic resilience
Waits to swell
Knowing there is hope
And love
And dreams
In the days yet to come
#vss365

Cherish the journey
Not the destination
For satisfaction at the close
Is fleeting
Raw brilliance
Or ambition
Are too volatile
To #sublimate potential
Into promise overnight
Still, the road is long
And lonely
Despite the clamour
Within the chasm of talent
Where perseverance goes
To perish #vss365

Decline and ruin
A damning legacy
Of the Dark Ages
Yet are you
Content to ignore
Or despairing
That the sun is setting
Again?
Hope dictates
I must hold on
For the dawn
Remembering
Meanwhile
Incandescence
Will still light
The way
#PoemsAbout #NeverAgain
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
@alanparrywriter.co.uk

White text on a black backgtthat reads: Extinct The enormity of space Captivated and frightened In equal measure Vast beyond comprehension And despite the maddening number Of galaxies entangled In the cosmic web No contact was made Nothing to suggest anyone Or anything Existed somewhere else In the void But fear can be misplaced And in the end We realised we needn't have Looked so far For I have never known Such existential dread As I do now Staring back at our planet Now empty And silent As the last of us flee Into the mercy of the cosmos Knowing we have no one to blame But ourselves

'But fear can be misplaced
And in the end
We realised we needn't have
Looked so far'

#PoemsAbout #SilentPlanets
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
@alanparrywriter.co.uk

What joy
To behold a moment
And pluck from
The ephemera
The seed of something new
To be distilled
And nurtured
Until the sentiment is
Crystallised within
Not all who try
Can temper such
Volatile spirit
For beauty can never
Truly be tamed
Beware
Its #synthesis
Must be a symphony
Not a sprint #vss365

I stare in a mirror
A stranger stares back
One that lives her days
Hoping to blend in
To belong
Exhausted from trying
To #rein in
All that she is
Only to ruminate over
The fragments of self
She did share
So warped and bent
To fit the mould
That everyone sees
Themselves reflected
In her eyes #vss365

Thank you! Wonderful prompts as always 🌟

Thank you! ❤️❤️

Thank you! ❤️🕯️

White text on a black background that reads: The Vigil-Keeper Eventide scatters golden light Across worn, hallowed stone Dappled with shifting colours From glass halos and fluttering wings The hour brings stillness A reprieve from shuffling feet Or half-hearted whispers While a sneeze soared towards The heavens above He sweeps in the reverent calm Clearing leaves and careless litter A nightly ritual of care Odd, how God never spoke to him His questions unheeded, unheard Only to be answered instead By the seasons, the elements And the quiet peace of a chapel at dusk Hundreds of candles flicker and sway Bathing the walls in gentle light Memories, lit by those who one day Will be orange flames themselves He knows no candle will burn for him Alone as he is in these winter years But when his bones are dust Free to dance on the fickle wind His soul will seek the solace of this place Of the wick-bound warmth of all those He tended as their wax burnt low And in this light They will be one

A lovely prompt - #poemsabout #candlelight for @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk

The same question haunted him.
"How can we make this more #bearable for you?"
Said with kindness, but misplaced all the same. Tempering the pain diminished it, and he was not ready to let go.
Sorrow could take his soul if it meant they had a little more time together, however futile the hope #vss365

Do not think I take for granted
How minute a #chance
Our meeting was
In all the boundless universe
Across time's infinite stage
Yet we crossed paths
Locked eyes
And my destiny became yours
But a moment later and
You'd have been
Another face in the crowd
Hurrying away to a life
I'd never know
#vss365

The apple fell
Before gravity had a name
We speak of souls
Yet how to be #conscious
Remains but a mystery
Soon to be stolen by silicon
If reality is a hallucination
The question is not whether
A simulated soul
Could be the same
As one bound in flesh
It is whether we can tell
The difference
#vss365

The clock ticks
Errant raindrops fall
In sunlight
Constants and chaos
Coexist
Is it harmony
Or dissonance
Perhaps it is neither
For what is the #arbitrary
But fate masquerading as whim
Destiny may captivate
Dreamers and poets
But none may escape
What will be
It is already written
In what was
#vss365

Does it #elude me
Or was it always an illusion
This dream we were fed as children
Forsake play for purpose
And be rewarded
Yet we arrive at our life's goal
And find it empty
Rotten
The world nothing like what was promised
While a new pressure mounts
Start the cycle again
And sell the dream
#vss365

White text on a black background that reads: Till Death Delicate skirts shift in evening’s breeze Their snowy lace ripped and marred Hanging from the bed’s posters That buckle beneath the weight Of a duty never wanted Never fulfilled Through broken windows and sagging ceilings The old manor groans with every breath A symphony of decay Fissures crawl along the walls in time Scattering plumes of mould and paint Over the rotten carcass of a cake The tiers long collapsed Bearing the wounds of savage hands That had taken their fill And left the rest to its fetid fate The chandelier lies crumpled in the hall Shrouded by a veil of dust Glowing above a single candle Still alight Its dancing flame had once shifted Setting the veil ablaze So its acrid smoke coiled towards the heavens How the wind howled its delight But another had soon taken its place And another And another Until the candle’s flame did not dance again The footprints in the dust soon Stilling their waltzing step As the manor’s death rattle Moaned no more

I really enjoyed this one; #PoemsAbout #Chandeliers for @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

We were never made
For concrete and commutes
Watching something they call
Intelligence
Form vapid versions of what
Our souls yearn to create
We are of the sky and the sea
Of grass and dirt and trees
Crafted perfectly
To watch the sun rise
And vegetables grow
A simple life
But never #mundane
#vss365

What if the dream we were sold
Was never meant for us
We stand as #vigil keepers
Hand in hand
Watching as they dismantle
All once promised
The lies of history's victors
Will be exposed
So those yet to come
Will know joy in abundance
Existence not as a commodity
But a gift
A right
Once more
#vss365