Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Wooded Windows By Strider Marcus Jones


as this long life slowly goes


i find myself returning


to look through wooded windows.


forward or back, empires and regimes remain


in pyramids of power


butchering the blameless for glorious gain.


feudal soldiers firing guns


and wingless birds dropping smart bombs


on mothers, fathers, daughters, sons,


follow higher orders


to modernise older civilisations


repeating what history has taught us.


in turn, their towers of class and cash


will crumble and crash


on top of Ozymandias.


hey now, woods of winter leafless grip


and fractures split


drawing us into it.


love slide in days


through summer heat waves


and old woodland ways


with us licking


then dripping


and sticking


chanting wiccan songs


embraced in pagan bonds


living light, loving long,


fingers painting runes on skin


back to the beginning


when freedom wasn't sin.





Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford,

England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. He is the editor and publisher of

Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/. A member of

The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

  

His poetry has been published in numerous publications including: The Huffington

Post USA; The Crossroads Magazine, The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine;The Lampeter Review and Dissident Voice.