Curse and Imprecation

[Tinker]

Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry
Liturgical Verse

Curse or Imprecation - from Latin imprecat - "to pray", is an utterance of God, an invocation to consign a person or thing to destruction, divine vengeance, misery etc. It is verse written to invoke or call down evil, the opposite of Charm. As a genre of verse it calls for divine assistance against a foe; it is the belief in the negative power of words to bring ill will or harm against an enemy. Obviously it is not very Christian of those early clerics, turning the other cheek and all. But the first Christians of the Western world were pagans first. Naturally their history would influence them. I imagine the sounds of the words should be heavy and dark, the frame at the discretion of the poet. Here is my version of a curse, I guess there is a bit of pagan in me too

Dragon by  Judi Van Gorder

Damned are the dragons of doom,
denied, dispelled despised,
those who break the bodies of bairns
to tame their own twisted desires,
their selfish secrets succor sin,
staining purity, raping innocence.
Down into putrid bowels of perversion
descends the debauchery of the damned.
Denied, dispelled, despised,
Damned are the dragons of doom.