Within

 

Within

A stranger walked inside of him,
his voice was faint; his light was dim.
A shadow born of pain and rue,
the man he was, he never knew.

The curse took root as he grew old,
it wrapped his heart in icy hold.
A ghost within, it learned to hide,
and whispered lies from deep inside.

He lived half here, half out of sight,
his spirit torn between the night.
Another soul, forever hurled,
adrift within a broken world.

And when his breath has come and gone,
the haunting will go drifting on.
For every wound the dark consoles
begets a host of restless souls.

Written By: Alan.Clark@WW1POET (Oct 2025)

In Haunting Thought

 

In Haunting Thought

Each day she bore the weight of being,

Life’s cruel inequity, unseen.

The sun would sink, the shadows climb,

And night devour the edge of time.

 

Where daylight yields to dark’s command,

And colours fade from earth and land,

The waking world in silence lies,

Its toiling breath replaced by sighs.

 

Then soft as feathers, freed from care,

She drifted through the twilight air,

Across the border, faint and thin,

Where dream and darkness both begin.

 

Her bed behind, her body still,

She wandered where the night winds chill,

Through ghostly halls of thought and fear,

Where unseen whispers brushed her ear.

 

The dream-weaver, with wicked grace,

Would twist her mind, her heart displace;

Through restless storms her spirit torn,

By ghoulish shapes the night had born.

 

Perhaps they were the dead’s remains,

Still bound by longing’s phantom chains—

They sought her soul, so frail, so kind,

To claim a home within her mind.

 

Illusions danced, her senses frayed,

Her peace undone, her strength decayed.

She woke in tangled sheets of dread,

The echoes screaming in her head.

 

Her thoughts, once calm, now bruised, confused,

Her reason dimmed, her courage bruised.

In fearful dreams her mind confined,

A captive of its darker kind.

 

And yet when morning’s mercy came,

She found the world looked much the same.

The monsters fled, the night withdrew,

But still their shadowed breath she knew.

 

She pondered all her visions deep,

The secrets sown within her sleep—

Each dream a riddle, warning, plea,

Unanswered through eternity.

 

And when the dusk again draws near,

She braces for that reign of fear—

Prays that her fragile soul might keep

One peaceful hour of dreamless sleep.

Written By: Alan.Clark@WW1POET (Oct 2025)

The Lord of the Spies

 

 The Lord of the Spies

He cast his all-seeing sight, right out across the great divide,

Through barren lands where faith was lost, and hope had died.

Beyond the reach of mortal gaze, beyond the bounds of men,

He looked on realms of ruin vast and turned his gaze again.

 

For there, in law’s corrupted hand, the weary masses lay,

Their hollow souls by greed enslaved, bartered day by day.

He saw the still, unblinking eyes of faces carved by strain,

A host of ghosts who served as thralls, their suffering all in vain.

 

Their bodies bent to tyrant’s rule, their worth cast to the ground,

Their sadness drowned in endless wars, in deaths glory crowned.

His vision, through the vaulted sphere, beheld in spectral skies,

A realm of hollow, sightless orbs—an empire built on empty eyes.

 

Eyes of famine, eyes of fear, eyes of sorrow, and submissions,

Eyes that saw but could not change their hopeless, harsh conditions.

Eyes of children, dimmed by dust, who never learned to dream,

Eyes that watched the fading light as it lost its fragile gleam.

 

He saw the rot of pride and gold, addiction’s shining snare,

Hearts consumed by shallow gain, minds stripped cold and bare.

He saw them dread the trumpet’s call, conscripted to the line,

Dragged from life to feed the beast—their sacrifice divine.

 

From wastelands bleak they came in tears, in misery forlorn,

Harvested by hands of hate, condemned, betrayed, and torn.

And all their pain, their muffled cries, ascended to the skies—

The tale of ruin told and read within their sunken eyes.

 

Ten thousand heads, ten thousand graves, beneath the evil guise—

The broken dreams, the fallen schemes, the Lord of the Spies.

Written By: Alan.Clark@WW1POET (Oct 2025)

In the Deep Sea of Despair

 

In the Deep Sea of Despair

 

Caught in a current, cold, and deep,

where shadows twist and secrets weep,

you struggle hard for one last breath,

adrift between despair and death.

 

The waves collapse, they drag you down,

their liquid hands pull till you drown.

Each gasp is swallowed by the tide,

no place to run, no strength to hide.

 

Your thoughts like storms begin to spin,

a chaos roaring loud within.

Disoriented, frail, confined,

a prisoner of your own mind.

 

The surface fades—no light, no sky,

just endless depths where echoes die.

Each pulse, a drum of slow despair,

each heartbeat whispers, no one’s there.

 

But then—against all odds, a light,

a distant spark that cuts the night.

A current shifts, a gentle hand,

that pulls you back toward the land.

 

The tide recedes, the weight is gone,

the ocean’s grip no longer strong.

The fear dissolves, the storm grows mild,

the sea now whispers soft and wild.

 

You rise through clouds of silver mist,

the pain released, the dark dismissed.

Your burden fades like vapor thin—

and peace, at last, flows deep within.

 

There sits an angel, pure and bright,

her presence bathing all in light.

A realm of warmth, serene and fair—

no trace of sorrow lingers there.

 

Her voice, a song both sweet and clear,

melts every ache, dissolves each fear.

You’ve drifted past the storm and hate—

you’ve landed now at heaven’s gate.

 

Yet there you pause, your heart unsure,

a soul once lost, now seeking cure.

Left to wonder if you may pass,

to enter paradise at last—

 

Where time stands still, where pain is gone,

where light and love forever dawn.

A place of peace, both vast and plain…

a world beyond the reach of pain.

 

But suddenly—a pounding beat,

a surge of sound, a fierce retreat.

Two breaths of air, your lungs ignite,

you gasp—awake to blinding light.

 

The ocean spills, you choke, you scream,

the angel fades—a fleeting dream.

Dragged back once more to mortal shore,

to live, to fight, to breathe once more.

 

Now gracious to your saviour’s hand,

pulled safely back upon the sand,

you whisper thanks, your vision gone—

no word of where your soul had shone.

 

No talk of gates, no wing, no song,

just trembling breath where you belong.

The sea lies calm, the tempest through—

and life begins its course anew.

 

Yet when the quiet night descends,

and waking thought at last suspends,

your spirit drifts on silent wings

back to the place your angel sings.

 

Content beneath her gentle light,

you linger there through the night—

her melody, so pure, so slight,

in restful dreams till morning bright.

Written By: Alan.Clark@WW1POET (Oct 2025)

Lost Child of War

 

Lost Child of War

The wind still hums your lullaby,

through hollow streets of gray.

Your name, a ghost on crumbling walls,

erodes a little more each day.

 

No one recalls the shade you wore,

the eyes that once could gleam.

The world moves on — a careless god —

that tramples every dream.

 

Yet somewhere in the quiet rain,

a tear betrays the sky.

It falls for you, poor child of pain,

though none recall just why.

 

The earth has kept your secret well,

beneath its mourning shroud.

Your silence hums beneath the roots,

your sorrow speaks aloud.

 

And when the night grows still enough,

the stars begin to weep —

for they, too, lost a fragile light

the world refused to keep.

 

So, rest, forgotten one, in peace,

your grief at last undone.

The world may never speak your name —

but the darkness whispers one.

Written By: Alan.Clark@WW1Poet (Oct 2025)

Les enfants de Palestine

 

Les enfants de Palestine

Children born in the shadow, of broken brotherhood, in madness caught,

The neglect found, in a crumbling state, the purpose of life so distraught.

Each day, sluggishly wasting away, as awful hunger gravely feasts inside,

Famine eating every fiber, to the bone, craving the bitter taste, genocide.

Silently shriveling, your little voices unheard, your images hauntingly sad,

Cradled, in your helpless mother’s arms, your condition well beyond bad.

Reduced to skin, and bone, your figure evidence, of your dreadful plight,

We repulse, our minds retract, in disgust, reeling at your shocking sight.

Malnutrition has set in, shutting cells down, your young bodies strained,

Clouds of lethargy, fogging your brains, with every bit of energy drained.

The measure of depravation, a harsh reminder, like we have seen before,

History, once again repeating, in another place, and time, in another war.

Like lifeless forms, from the concentration camps, in the past we dread,

As evil men feast, on the legacy, that they create, architects of the dead.

While fat politicians, feed on the discontent, manufacturing more waste,

The cogs of time grinding, “Oh so slow!” Bound up in ideological distaste.

People lost in platitudes, too frightened to take a stand, and be counted,

As insignificance, of your existence, right to survive, is heavily discounted.

Thousands of you left, to bear the ransom cost, for the hostages detained,

Under a banner of terrorism, confined within the biblical land, so shamed.

The regime resolute, content for you to starve in terrors war, till the end,

Unwilling to change, what they have started, to surrender, make amends.

Creating heartless collateral damage, in pointless deaths often mourned,

More death and destruction laid, by their dysfunctional regime so scorned.

Where madness cannot be cured, their wicked fellowship so badly broken,

Poor infants of Palestine, so tangled in the wrath, that has been awoken.

Written By: Alan.Clark@WW1POET (July 2025)

The Haunting Thought

 

The Haunting Thought

Each day, she felt the burden of weight, the inequity of life, resting on her soul,

While waiting on dusk, the sun setting West, the world into obscurity rolled.

Where light of day must yield, to the dark of night, and day colours concede,

Time for the waking world to rest from work, to fall asleep, from duties freed.

As light as feathers, floating from the yoke of day, into the spheres of dreams,

Drifting across the threshold, from reality, up into the realms of fantasy seen.

Leaving her bed far behind, knowing she should return, with the break of dawn,

Sometimes brought back, her mind in tatters, soul far from refreshed, all torn.

By the dream weaver, subjected to a state of restless thoughts, in wild storms,

With the plague of frightening creatures, meta morphing into fearsome forms.

Perhaps the restless dead, the troubled spirits, that hang out in darks domain,

Looking for another host, a fragile mind to occupy, to walk and breathe again.

Conjuring up strange illusions, the kind of folly inset, that she could not feign

Creating chaos in her mind, leaving her brain to wake, all battered and bruised,

Her mind distressed, bed in a mess, a state of pandemonium where she snoozed.

Where her mind was paralyzed, powerless to escape, held in a state of unrest,

Her reasoning subdued, bound in fearful thought, her consciousness repressed.

Oh, the sadistic pleasure, the dream weaver gets, casting each fearsome phase,

Fortunately, when woken, most of the monsters in her mind, have been erased.

As she is left to ponder, the meaning of her vivid dreams, each warning brought,

The point of her troubled state of mind, abused, the distressing visions wrought.

Aroused to face the host of new challenges, that each other day conveys to her,

More hurdles set in her way, more untimely anxiety, wherein the emotions stir.

Toward days end again, darkness encroaching, set to fight the demons of night,

Desperately yearning, to be granted peaceful dreams, according her soul respite.

Written By: Alan.Clark@WW1POET (May 2025)