Along with reams of short stories, and longer attempts at fiction, I’ve written countless poems over the decades. The bulk were written in my teens and twenties and I literally have folders full of handwritten and typewritten compositions.

I’d been threatening to put a selection into print since the mid-90’s. I remember discussing it with an old girlfriend in ’95 but a number of things always seemed to stop me. Part of that was not really being sure if I wanted to share them with the world, part was never having the time to go through what was amounting to thousands of bits of paper – ranging from typed and formatted finished compositions to hand written stanzas on the back of paper bags, or anything I had at hand when inspiration hit.

A few years ago I finally got round to sorting out a collection and published them under the title “Wild Card Symphonies”. Consisting of three smaller volumes of my work, “Wild Card Symphonies”, “Cry To Me”, and “This Graveyard Heart”, the book totaled just over 120 poems. You can buy a copy (plug plug) through Lulu on one of the links at the bottom of the page if you like what you read and want to have more.

The Spirit Within Me

The spirit is in me

Telling me I shouldn’t have taught you,

And wishing you dead.

The other face of evil

Hidden behind your disguise,

Keeping me from knowing you

And from loosing the masks you wear.

The spirit is in me

Telling me I told you too much

That you could use against me.

That you could destroy me

If I can’t tame you first.

I’m pulling myself out of sleep,

Calling you like a child,

And the spirit within me

Says that I depend on you too much

And wishes you dead

So you can’t interfer.

Try to understand what I’m risking

By falling in love with you,

By opening myself up this far.

Try to see the visions through my eyes

And try to smooth over my fears.

I don’t want to be loosing you

Because the line I walk is already so thin.

And the spirit that’s within me,

That doesn’t want me this close to you,

Only does so to try to save me

Because it knows you could destroy me

Just by going away.

(THE SPIRIT WITHIN ME By A R J Abranson; 24-08-95/18:38 & 26-04-96/00:52)

My poetry anthology, Wild Card Symphonies, is available to buy now on Lulu in both Softcover and Dust Jacket Hardcover.

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Wild Card Symphonies, Cry To Me & This Graveyard Heart are Copyright ©2015, Angus Abranson. All rights reserved.
Cover design by George C. Cotronis (Ravenkult Studios, www.ravenkult.com) Copyright © 2015 Angus Abranson
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
No reproduction in part or in whole without prior written permission from the author of the copyright owner.