Filigree and Fire - Poetry, Art, Journeys | Graeme McAllister | Substack

A Metaphysical Poem

Nov 7, 2024 • Graeme McAllister

Chantry-Circuitry

Chantry Circuitry Part 16 - Call to Chronos

I call to you, O Chronos, Counting face, hands spin. Grandeur submitting to Moss As I battled your whims.

Mar 6 • Graeme McAllister

Chantry Circuitry Part 15 - Call to The Moon

I call to you, O Distant Moon, Past flowing through your palette. Moments come, gone too soon Unbidden moonlit silhouettes

Feb 25 • Graeme McAllister

Chantry Circuitry Part 14 - Call to The Spiral

I call to you, O Spiral. Roll experiential load From outer to the liminal On the soul’s spinal road

Feb 11 • Graeme McAllister

Chantry Circuitry Part 13 - Call to The Hermit

I call to you, O Hermit, At the bridging interlude. Guiding lamp, steady, lit Along the roads of solitude.

Feb 3 • Graeme McAllister

Chaos Charms

Chaos Charms Part 21 - Meaning Melts

The crooked collapses to potential In a resting reflection moment. A burdened head abandons tail. Every silver nerve is spent.

Oct 22, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

Chaos Charms Part 20 - Passion Spits Oil On Fire

Nouns Explode in a New Sun. The Language maze collapses. Ice barricades flow and run Washing watercolour maps.

Oct 15, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

Chaos Charms Part 19 - Brightest Suns Shine Blue

Brightest suns shine blue All that fire pulsing tranquil We fly over pushing through Raging reds and yellow yells

Oct 7, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

Chaos Charms Part 18 - Limbic Laboratory

Atomic insight splits assumption. I light my limbic laboratory To spark a second sun On eye’s edge, all entirety.

Sep 30, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

Hypnos Hermes

Desert Elemental

Swift impressions slow into An ancient desert elemental. Sparkling sheets and molten flow Carve a figure of hardened crystal.

Apr 15, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

A Thousand Tempting Solar Songs

I am all places, always and absent. Burn my brittle voice! A thousand tempting solar songs Collapse consequence and choice.

Apr 8, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

The Neptunian Shepherd

FREE Amazon Book - Please enjoy this excerpt from Hypnos Hermes - link included for the free Amazon Kindle book.

Apr 1, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

She seems dressed in all the blooms Of summered centuries. Violet and scarlet, surge, and riot, Still, she clasps her mysteries.

Mar 11, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

Filigree and Fire

March Movements

Quiet blooms flex steel strands Bending, breaking earthly bones. Precision moves beneath the sands; Revealing, raising painted thrones.

Mar 2 • Graeme McAllister

Evolutionary Exile

Soft chimes play on my ribcage; Neanderthal, alien That blinking lights can't lull to sleep.

Mar 5, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

Words gathered, grown, lie in bundles, Gardener’s gifts or scientist’s samples? Carried gently past expectant faces, Strive to flee parental pages.

Feb 28, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

Desire moves like dancing dust, Slips between sunlit shafts, Strong as dawn, Soft as dusk, Curves around imagined paths.

Feb 12, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

Sovereigns of the Seasons

Cupid and the Queen

A swift spark slips the gate. Tricks ticking clocks, deceives the bell. Smallness slips past time and fate, The cherub’s charming spell.

Feb 14 • Graeme McAllister

Solstice Promises

Sun hides for many moons, Lethargic laps, sets, rises. Chilled cries and soft moans Wait for solstice promises.

Dec 21, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

Sleepers’ Shadows

Eyes droop like sullen skies.Wind times drifting heartbeats.Minds loosening their tiesFollowing the sun’s retreat.

Dec 5, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

Memories coalesce, law lapses. Ripe mulch erupts outside reason. Seed to stem, the map collapses Fungal fruits speaking treason.

Nov 17, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

Reviews

McAllister's Mates Thirty

Another one of James Kenwood’s fascinating Sci-Fi - Fantasy - Egyptology stories and a metaphysical poetry book I stumbled on by Mark Westmore.

Feb 21 • Graeme McAllister

McAllister's Mates Twenty Nine

Two strange, diverse, and very enjoyable sci-fi stories from Stefan Baciu and Victor Jimenez.

Feb 9 • Graeme McAllister

McAllister's Mates Twenty Eight

Two beautiful and uplifting pieces that celebrate Ireland bringing forth plenty of mystery and wonder, from Caroline Barnard-Smith and James Anthony…

Feb 1 • Graeme McAllister

McAllister's Mates Twenty Seven

A highly inventive and engrossing science fiction saga by The Black Knight This is a long, involved story that I decided to give its own solo review to.

Jan 24 • Graeme McAllister

Stories

The sun set in a vibrant orange haze shot through with unwelcome teal streaks.

Nov 24, 2024 • Graeme McAllister

The dream comes at irregular intervals; details replicated with clockwork precision each time, a fog-shrouded landscape, the horizon a billowing grey…

Nov 9, 2024 • Graeme McAllister

The Serpent Path

A great stone head surveys the desert, the crowned tip of an iceberg reaching into an ocean of sand.

Oct 16, 2024 • Graeme McAllister

The Temple Throne

Do the great sandstone blocks remember their function as components of the temple? Did they draw down the breath of heaven?

Oct 12, 2024 • Graeme McAllister

Thoughts and Essays

No! You're not broken. Neither is Substack

A post to point out some negative and very disruptive influences. But more importantly why you are probably doing a lot better than you think you are.

Mar 1 • Graeme McAllister

Why the Obsession with Poetry?

Something of my manifesto (oh how VERY teenage) and perhaps mission statement (oh how VERY corporate) as a writer.

Jun 18, 2025 • Graeme McAllister

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