The Hanging Garden

[Antipodi]

This poem is dedicated to those who misguidedly advocate the death penalty


The Hanging Garden

I know a secret place
A place where quiet reigns
Teardrops fill every corner
And water every grain
Beautiful red roses bloom most every day
Their exotic scent brings sadness
No animal or bird comes here to play

There is a place near by
A dark foreboding place
Somewhere...those who are about to die
Dark vile sins accompany everyone
Some so horrible to mention
Even the innocent cry tears of blood
This garden waits for them too

A tree grows in this garden
Its branches strong and true
Stark against the autumn winds
Strong enough to bear a strange fruit
The Rope is strung, a neck is hung
A body dances in the wind
Now the world is silent..the garden waits with

Strange flowers on unmarked plots
The bodies of the forgotten
This garden grows for no one
The stench is stark and rotten
So much despair here..a darkness and a fear
This garden is now waiting ..another's blood to smear.

[Henry P]

This is one of your best pieces, controlled and structured, and movingly sincere. I share your revulsion of capital punishment, which taints every country that still uses it. There is no place for gallows and poison injections in a civilised society. Every time I pass the prison in Leeds I think of those hanged there and buried up to the 1960s,

[Nature's heartbeat]

Brrrrrrrrrr...This hanging garden really gave me the shivers. But your imagery is very vivid and it's a moving, thought provoking and well-written piece. Great work on that! As for the harsh reality it portrays, that is something that needs more work, from all of us!

[Luna Light]

Staggering poem. It sucked my warmth dry.. Never really thought much about capital punishment- i just relate it to Sadam Hussain. You think he should have lived? I'm not sure i could accept that. Though on the other hand, I'm as sure as the sun that i would physically be unable to carry out capital punishment on a criminal- so why should someone else??? :S I think i'm still a bit naive to form a strong opinion on this subject, i need to think about it more. I suppose in many cases over time the innocent have also hung... Sad world we live in aint it.