Spellbound in Darkness

Silent Moments

Conversations bubble as seats taken
Hush descends, lights slowly dim
Orchestra pit lamps illuminate shadows
Stillness overtakes as anticipation rises

Music fills the air with excited promise
Curtains part, a column of light appears
Smoke is caught and whirls endlessly
Flickering images appear on the screen

Title cards announce a tale of woe
Of love, heartache, tears and laughter
A dashing hero, a beautiful heroine
The dastardly villain bent on revenge

Romance told in visual vignettes
Music plays to action unfolding
Restrained melodies serenading lovers
Thunderous crescendo for the villain

With the sound of silence ever near
Transported to a place of wonder
When faces spoke and we listened
A world of shadow and light

Those far off days of glamour
Old Hollywood frozen in time
Dreams in silhouette survive
Forever spellbound in darkness

Copyright © 2015 Shawn D. Standfast. All rights reserved.

Spanning Time

This is a re-write on an earlier poem. To read the original click HERE

A Lonesome Survivor

Its shapely leaves adorned heads of ancient kings
Provided shade for lovers on long summer days
Sheltered travellers through cold winter nights
A resolute beacon in an ever changing landscape

Scared by the embrace of a hangman’s noose
Grown strong from blood of lives lost long ago
Sired generations that built ships of the line
Framed buildings and bridges spanning time

On a windswept hilltop stands a solitary oak tree
Old and weary this majestic sentinel silently waits
Bark gnarled and twisted, bursting with memories
A lonesome survivor of rituals from a bygone age

Copyright © 2015 Shawn D. Standfast. All rights reserved.

The Bowthorpe Oak in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. Photo by Beth Moon.