Michael Pendragon

Michael Pendragon Poems

Michael Pendragon Biography

*Visit Michael Pendragon's Tumblr page at http: //michaelpendragon.tumblr.com/ Michael Pendragon's short stories and poems have appeared in over 100 publications, including: Edgar: Digested Work, Fantasque, Ocular, The Dream Zone, Event Horizon, Pluto's Orchard, The Romantics Quarterly, The Catbird Seat, The Blue Lady, The Roswell Literary Review, Frisson, Voyage, Mindmares, Nasty Piece of Work, Monomyth, The Raintown Review, Enigmatic Tales, Morbid Curiosity, Lovecraft's Mystery Magazine, Terror Tales, Tales of the Grotesque & Arabesque, Lovecraft's Mystery Magazine and Masque Noir. His stories utilize the conventions of the horror genre to explore the philosophical and, especially, the psychological aspects of the human condition. Themes of morality, death, loss, and remembrance figure prominently in his work. He finds the possibility that ghosts could exist far more frightening than any harm they might enact. He uses this possibility as a stepping stone to what he considers to be an even greater horror—the persistence of the soul after death. While many of his tales contain supernatural elements, it is never clear if their reality extends beyond the protagonist's mind. Pendragon leaves ample cause to support both propositions and their ultimate reality is left to the readers' discretion. There is also a strong undercurrent of morality running throughout his works, although his ethics are often of an arguably questionable nature. His self-absorbed, obsessive and/or solipsistic protagonists rarely question the justification of their acts, although the author will often reveal his own opinions of these through the general tone in which they are presented. He is irreligious, often sacrilegious, but occasionally reveals strong sympathies toward Pantheism and Cabalism. Like many of the Romantic writers he admires, he may ultimately be included among what William Blake termed as 'the Devil's party'. His poetry is often rhymed/metered and employs such devices as internal rhyme, alliteration and onomatopoeia. Death, loss, disillusionment, and decay are again his primary themes. He is strongly influenced by Edgar A. Poe in both his poetry and prose, and he has sometimes been compared to him ('...heralded as the. Edgar A. Poe of the new millennium...', The Threepenny Review, No.80, Winter 2000, p27) . He attended Jersey City State University (back when it was still a college) where he wrote, directed, and/or acted in several student films in the late 1980s–early 90s, and appeared in small roles in two of the campus' stage productions. He also wrote for the school paper, The Gothic Times, and edited their art and literary magazine Excalibur. Pendragon was later the founding editor and publisher of a pair of literary journals: Penny Dreadful: Tales & Poems of Fantastic Terror, and Songs of Innocence & Experience. Stories and poems from both publications have received honorable mention in various editions of The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, St. Martins Press, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Eds. Both publications are currently on a more or less permanent hiatus. He has also published several multi-author anthologies, including The Bible of Hell,2000, and There is Something in October,2005.)

The Best Poem Of Michael Pendragon

The Four Horsemen

Prancing proud, the horses come
Hoofbeats loud sound thru the land
Marching to an unseen drum
Beaten by an unseen hand

First a snow white horse drew nigh
Whose rider held an ivory bow
He shot the stars from out the sky
And dealt the sun a fatal blow

Next appeared a horse of red
Its rider raised a scarlet sworde
'Come and see' the Four Beasts said
'Now Peace hath fled from all the world'

Third did come a coal black mare
Its rider carried scales of Gold
Famine struck the thoroughfare
And starveling sons their mothers sold

Last a pale horse did appear
Hell did follow in its wake
Tortured Souls, cold and austere
Nailed their brethren to the stake

Now the solemn church bells sound
Calling all to Midnight Mass
Now the dying gather round
Now the final hours pass

Endless years of toil and flood
Mark the ages from Christ's birth
'When wilt Thou avenge our blood
On them that dwell upon the earth? '

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