“The Priest as Cactus Lover”
Painting by Karl Schuch
From mary-cassatt.org
what arcana does the poet conceal
beneath wordsmithing ritual robes
what mystic IQ guides his hand
across altars of meter where ink
transubstantiates taking on voice
that incants phonaesthetics
to strains of a metaphor harp
it all comes revealed
by the wide open secret
that poetry thrives on the truth
truth to the self as it lives
breathes and thinks
truth to the self in emotion
and all it imagines
but most of all
truth keeping faith
with the poet’s beliefs
fiction is blaspheming art
accursing the poet
with sacrilege
collapsing his poetry
down into dull
profane prose
Poesy plus Polemics 
shapes
sounds of letters
always
transcend
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it’s why we do what we do
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WOW, I like this–I like thinking that there is something good and elevated, priestly, about being a poet; not because I crave large amounts of praise and glory–but because I’d like to think I’m doing something worthy when I put pen to paper, something that pleases God. And yes, I see I used “like” 3 times–rather uncharacteristic of me, so I hope you’ll forgive the uncreative redundancy. God bless you Big.
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so pleased you enjoyed it – why apologize? – notice how I repeat much of stanza 1 in stanza 4 – repetition is poetic, too
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Reblogged this on Poesy plus Polemics.
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A little harsh on Enid Blyton – yet seriously this piece both profound and profoundly good.
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even children’s stories cannot succeed without the ring of truth
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Excellent.
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appreciate that
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Reblogged this on OUR POETRY CORNER.
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thank you for sharing my poem with your readers
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Beautiful writing, always–though I’m troubled by “fiction is blaspheming art”. Once in a while I’ve read fiction/prose where the writing is as lovely as poetry. And isn’t some poetry fiction? Lots of mine is…. I’m not meaning to be argumentative today–my comments reflect that I’m thinking about what I’m reading here.
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a poor attempt, perhaps, to elevate poetry over prose
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Not a poor attempt at all, I just wanted to discuss it with you. I’m sure some poets could never write a fiction book, and some fiction writers couldn’t do a passable poem if their lives depended on it…
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I’ve tried fiction prose a few times – I don’t think I have the head for it
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Interesting–doesn’t matter though, you tell great stories–and offer fine lessons–in your poetry. How are the books selling? Just curious.
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better than expected – but not any great surge
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It may come in waves–like around holidays and such.
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