A short free-flow poem I wrote a long, long time ago:

Words beg their commission from a hidden king, whose graces they resent. 
Emissaries, soldiers, courtiers, troubadours, and priests, 
they are sent forth from his castle to bid the world take heed of him. 
For without their tireless march, 
the master would suffer alone 
in his windowless tower, 
dark, brooding, 
and voiceless. 
But without his strength, 
those flickering lights of mirrored meaning 
would themselves go dark.
https://gmgauthier.com/post/london-a-poem/Sat, 09 Jun 2007 16:40:05 +0000Blog: [literature poetry]

                    
My first visit to London, was during a holiday trip in 2007. Here’s how I memorialized it

The ancient matron grasps longingly for the sky, 
a crowd of bony fingers stretching upward, 
black threads tied to each one,
laden with dangling bits of civilization renewed.

Below, in her bowels, a gritty brown aroma,
and clattering, grumbling, tin boxes 
scatter frantically along well-worn paths,
long sullen with a heavy memory 
of countless other footfalls.

Humming and pulsing with the life force
of a thousand generations,
she swells with pride at eager dawn, 
and heaves a great sigh at setting sun.

She is the gray lady of the West. 
The history of the anglo man is embedded in her bricks,
and the future of the world flows through her heart,
and into the sea.