CHTHONIC
The world seems carved today
shaped by a sculptor’s hand,
the flaws smoothed out,
bumps and hollows
ironed and folded
into well-tended fields.
Right angles and straight lines,
the borders of a shield
to protect us from pagan gods,
dormant below tilled land.
But their snores can still be heard,
gnarled tongues mutter dreamtalk,
guttural incantations
call back into being
timelines etched deep,
cragged features re-emerging.
An Untitled Piece
Thoughts flicker,
broken,
blinking sodium strip,
the world shifts
in and out of view.
21st century mind
that can only see
in artificial light,
pulsing electricity.
Instinctively I know
I am better suited
to the spark and hiss,
the smoky glow
of embers in a pit.
Forest gather round me.
Shadowplay
Straw hat on her head
and light that seeps
from beneath the bathroom door
combine to cast
woven shadowplay
Speckled shadows flit
glow and shade
to robe her torso
in a shifting smock,
vivid in years to come
when memory of face and hair,
the clothes she wore,
strewn muddled on the floor,
have been absorbed and crushed
by the weight of decades.
Feast
Stripped back birch
red flesh
crescent plates ascend
peeling bark,
crooked platters
delf for wood nymphs.
A feast of berries will be served.
Bio:
Tony is an Irish poet, novelist, journalist, environmentalist and walking guide.
He has had two novels published in paperback – ecopunks and The Lost Chord – both issued by Lagan Press, Belfast – and two e-books A Verse To Murder and Paws in Time. Two collections of poems, Coill and Tranquillity of Stone were published by Lapwing Publication.
His most recent collection, Mountain Under Heaven, which won a James Tate International Poetry Prize 2019, was published by SurVision Books, Dublin.
He has previously been published by HU, Books Ireland, Crannóg and Boyne Berries
There is more information on his books and a selection of travel journalism and reportage on his website www.tonybailie.com.
Fevers of the Mind 
Wonderful poem.
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