Touch

When, in a lonely night,
I still feel lips, pressed
against mine;
when, if I can just
still my unquiet mind,
with all its pride
and fear, my chest
senses your sorrow;
when, whilst concentrating
on some detailed task,
I am distracted
by the crying
of your distant heart,
so that I cry
to you;
then, I know,
you are not gone,
and your light
will be my dawn
again.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

News & Views

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Lifeplan

Choices reverberate
through lives,
through the cosmos,
beyond fields of stars,
and back
to our futures.
In ignorance,
our ways are set,
and our choices
become snares,
traps, we set
for ourselves,
closing doors
before we see
how we may have walked.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Too Tired

Sometimes, when I feel
I bear more years than this flesh
can count, I seek dreams;
there, forgotten, a pagan
past weighs heavy, on today.

True, I’m not alone,
in those æthyreal days,
where blood and fire mix;
but stars seem colder, now, and
Selene weeps more freely.

I feel I have loved
so long, through ages of fear,
and have learned nothing;
how many lives am I cursed,
to let our hearts turn to ash?

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Same Road

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Let's Go

Shall we walk
together, though
the horizon bars us,
and the sun divides?
In the liquid light,
come to me,
and we will speak
of the stars we
will inhabit,
in our frenzied
meeting, when this
prison wall is
breached, forever.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Searching the Night

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Refusal

The voice, that tells me,
"No.
You are not...
good enough,
wanted,
capable,
loved,
interesting,
undeceived..."
and so many
other things.
It is this, only this,
that angers me,
pains me;
that makes me
turn away, from
all that is offered,
and makes me bleed,
alone.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Fire

All the long years I've known,
since my birth.
All the æons, since
this universe
was framed in
a cosmic dream,
and we became
the germ of an idea,
to be fulfilled
in endless cycles
of so many lives.
All these ages, we
have loved, but not lost.
None of this prepared me
to know the intensity
of blessed passion, in this body.
But, in the countless
ages, we always knew
the fire, from which we both
were carved. So,
we must burn.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Today

I was born, and live
where I have never belonged,
and long to return;
will the same stars guide my way,
as blessed us, in our shared dreams?

Gods of night, hear me:
if I must live, far, in time
and place, from my home –
let me reach past boundaries,
to touch my ancient love's heart.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Visions of the Lost

Lost, in the endless blue
of cloudless, boundless sky,
my heart expands,
in hope, to find, at last,
a road back home.

Lost, in gathering mist,
on a long, lonely track,
my heart searches,
in hope, to glimpse, afar,
a long lost love.

Lost, in the night’s temple,
searching the stars for signs,
my heart laments
lives long parted, that still
walk far apart.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Legend of a Cretan Shore

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Moonphase

The dark moon is near.
My time,
to howl, in shadow;
to curse the day,
for its light,
and the creatures
it harbours –
those who try
to possess,
because love
is too dark,
too painful,
too honest
for their hearts
to bear.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Odysseus

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

How Long?

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Lament for Freedom

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Howling to the Moon

I feel a rage,
burning, in my chest.
It is the gathering
of the stormwind,
the blackness of
angry clouds.
It is the deluge
of rain's fury,
and the splitting release
of lightning's anger.
Ye Gods, call me
to name this madness –
and I shall call it
by your name,
my love.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Unchanged

I have had enough
of those who believe they are
due a piece of me.

I will give myself
to whom I will - a choice made
in long past æons.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Intent

Let us be unseen
unheard, unknown,
by all, save in the secrets
of our hearts.
Let us be ignored
by those who judge,
according to their atrophy
of soul.
Let us not be possessed,
save by desire,
by freedom, and rebellion’s
anarchy.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

Friday

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025