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''Absence'' A Dark Poem From Joel Lane


By the pervading dawn I knew the long night past,

Yet dared not prove in truth the dream's deception fled

Back to the vaults of memory; I had dreamed you dead,

Had almost seen it, erewhile, in the sky overcast,

The sickly shadows swallowed by mist at the last,

The moribund evening and the clouds bleeding red.

The night wind snatched away the purple blooms that bled

Peace on my eyelids, and my bare eyes stared aghast

Into the pearl of a place, painful world of day

Where daylight's living colours all had leached away

Into the weaveless fabric of night's sombre shade;

And your eyes were dull; unstrirring, your lips were grey;

Then the cold rain fell hard like a sharp-edged blade

Upon my bent neck as I knelt alone and praved.

ABOUT AUTHOR


Joel Lane (R.I.P. 1963 – 2013)

He was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, critic and anthology editor. He received the World Fantasy Award in 2013 and the British Fantasy Award twice.

HERE'S THE LINK;

YOU MIGHT BE BUY HIS BOOKS ON THE INTERNET

Novels

  • From Blue to Black (2000)

  • The Blue Mask (2003)

Novella

  • The Witnesses Are Gone (2009)

Single author short story collections

  • The Earth Wire and Other Stories (1994)

  • The Lost District and Other Stories (2006)

  • The Terrible Changes (2009)

  • Do Not Pass Go (booklet, 2011)

  • Where Furnaces Burn (2012)

Poetry

  • The Edge of the Screen (1998)

  • Trouble in the Heartland (2004)

  • The Autumn Myth (2010)

  • Instinct (pamphlet, 2012)

Anthologies

  • Birmingham Noir: Urban Tales of Crime and Suspense (2002, co-edited with Steve Bishop)

  • Beneath the Ground (2003)

  • Never Again (2010, co-edited with Allyson Bird)

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