**Nothing More (A tribute to E. A. Poe)**

[Amathir]

<pre>
Sit here, I, in drunken dreamings,
My mind ablaze in fanciful schemings.
I think up tortures with a heartless
seething.

A broken man upon the floor.
A love gone wrong of years before.
Tonight the night I lost it all.
An empty shell
And nothing more.

Lay awake and midnight heralds.
A call to arms of ghosts and ferals.
Of evil beings and ghoulish devils.

Suddenly I hear it, from outside my
front door:
The howling of a hungry wolf. A thing
I do abhor.
I grab the closest weapon And outside
I to explore.
Curious is all,
Nothing more.

Cautiously outside I look. Nothing but
an empty night,
Chilled down to my soul. Frozen cold
with fright.
Though warm enough to up a decent
fight.

I wait a while outside my door
To hear the sound of moments before.
But nothing comes. Nothing at all.
Silence there and nothing more.

Step inside and close the door and walk
back to my bed.
The corridor seems too long, Am unsure
just where it led.
Then, I heard it breathing ‘Death’
atop my head.

I fled down the hallway, open my
bedroom door.
Turned to see a demon… Nothing… just
shadows on the floor. “I must be mad”.
There is no demon in my corridor.
That it is
And nothing more.

I close my bedroom door and suddenly
grow quite pale.
A demon in my quarters? For the air has
grown quite stale.
Still I hear the breathing, a rhythm yet to
fail.

I turn aghast to see that which stalks my
floor.
Nothing stands. All there is… a closed
bedroom door.
The room untouched, Exactly like before.
That it is
And nothing more.

The door swings open and I shut my
eyes.
I am ready now for this cheap demise.
But still I stand here living and tired of
these lies.

Open up my eyes and I look once more.
Stands there nothing at my bedroom
door.
Just the shadows that creep along my
floor.
That it is
And nothing more.

“Is it I?” I say unspoken.
Holding fast that silence golden.
“Is it I?”
“My mind broken?”

Why does it mock me so? This I do
implore.
“Give me back my silence”.
“Leave alone my door”.
“Leave alone my world.”
Leave it just like before.
No answer there,
Silence. Nothing more.

Try to face my fear. But nothing there to
see.
The enemy is not without. The enemy is
in me.
“How do I fight myself?”
Nothing to but flee.

Stood there nothing at my door.
Just my dreams that haunt my floor.
Just my hovel. Just like before.
That it is
And nothing more.

In my lonesomeness to madness send.
No evil here at my wits-end.
Just a broken hovel in desperate need of mend.

All that stands between myself and my
front door,
Is myself and silence, like so oft before.
“What awaits me out there?”
A world I need no more.

So many years of silence in my hovel
behind locked doors,
With broken furniture and shattered
dreams and the creaking floors.
This safety I’ve created seemed to me so
sure.

All that’s left
Is madness.
That it is
And nothing more.
<pre>
Admin note:
Nominated for Poem of the WeekNovember/2006

[Tom Watson]

Terrific!!
Masterfully created! Mr. Poe would be proud of this tribute.
I would suggest you post this in the Dark Forum in order that more may truly be stunned by it.
Did I say I really enjoyed reading this?
If not, I should have!

Tom

[heinzs]

Interestingly enough I am usually one who recommends shorter lines, but in this case where the emulation of the master craft of EAPoe is in question I would heartily suggest the rhythm would be enhanced by combining every couplet into one line.

Cheers to you for choosing Poe!

:heinzs:

[Amathir]

One can always rely on you, Heinz, for concise suggestions. I thank you for it, and i certainly shall take it in to account when i review my work. Though i was not necessarily going for total emulation of Poe in structure of the poem.
and just a question regarding Tom Watsons' statement that i move it to the dark poems forum: Is it possible to do this?

Much obliged, sirs!

[heinzs]

I like it here in the tribute section, though it would also fit in "dark" or "classical".

Why don't you simply post a second copy in the dark forum? You have my permission to duplicat this piece.

H.

[heinzs]

[heinzs]

[Amathir]

I have reformatted this poem. united the couplets as Heinz suggested a while ago, but also reduced the size of the border so words fold over on the next line (I wanted to keep some kind of visual structure to it). I think it looks better than it did before

[negatvone]

It does look good. Reads good also. The boarders are a bit wide, but it looks good.

BTW, what did the original look like?

[moonflower]

this is great!..Mr. Poe would indeed be proud!..i thoroughly enjoyed reading it!

[Amathir]

just a question, is this supposed to be nominated for poem of the week? Because technically, I didn't post it 'this' week, I just reformatted it... If it didn't win poem of the week in '03 when it was post, I don't know whether it should win it this week when I editted it.. I don't think it would be altogether fair, and would set a precedent that would throw the idea of poem of the week in disarray.. just my
I am happy for an 'honourable mention' that I finally got the formatting right to go with the content after so many years

[negatvone]

We nominate when we want to.

[heinzs]

Poems are nominated when they are nominated... not when they are written.



I still like this one very much...

[negatvone]

Poems are nominated when they are nominated... not when they are written.



I still like this one very much...

Ditto. I couldn'y have said it better.

Deal with it.

[richie]