“Ichabod Crane”
Illustration by Norman Rockwell
gangling romantic
chased from the hollow by guile
unwisely smitten
fickle beauty his downfall
legend before his own time
Archives
All posts for the month October, 2015
Colonial Era New England House
Photo from myipamm.net
colonial clapboards
wear weather of centuries
bounding the hearth
its adjacencies forming
the intimate space
generations called home
where the wild wooded
northern frontier
promised gifts of seclusion
the private pursuit
of a life lived by one’s
libertarian lights
free will flourishing
in and among nature’s bounty
where hands head and heart
worked and worked
at fulfilling their snow laden
self-imposed purpose
a freehold existence in yield
of a new world inheritance
useable legacies carved
from the good wood
and sustenant soil of liberty
leaving posterity blessed
with fit means to
construct its own choices
“Addiction”
Painting by Howard Lancaster
From fineartamerica.com
neurochemistry
twisted and kinked
ropes of darkness
hang brains from
powdercoat gallows
transmuting the
psyche disabling the
organs of dreams
choking choice
freely burning all
natural identity
down to black ash
here the predator
heat of ferocious
scaled cravings turns
tissues to sopping
with alien moisture
the sweat from a
grim peristalsis
biology bent to
enslavement of
merciless purpose
destruction not
damage sheer
utter destruction
its ruin apparent
just look in the eyes
vacant pods sunken
sallow and sightless
all trace of a man
hidden fetal and deep
cowered under dead
layers of life from
the past wrapped
in skin of what
once was a womb
“Broken Heart”
Painting my Marlene Burns
From galleryhip.com
given to passion
mistaking her sigh for love
the heart of a man
Painting by Robert Joyner
From houzz.com
more or less civilized
gridiron gladiators
weaponry wits and testosterone
highly trained martial drilled
muscle and mettle
fine specimens bred
from competitive impulse
arrayed and arraigned
in arenas of organized mayhem
a beautiful violence
lifted from Rome’s golden age
to be tamed by degrees
still a classical clash of
apt human scale titans
Americanized with the
sanctions of commerce
controlled entertainment of
spirited conflict enfranchised
by visceral loyalties
deep in their tribal affinities
God save my soul
but oh my how I loved it
to play it to watch it
to revel in mano a mano
contention each scrimmage
and skirmish a test
a primeval imperative
torn from the dinosaur
given new transplant in
creatures of conscience
with college degrees
and a one-day-a-week
ineluctable retrograde passion
“Balance & Opposition”
Painting by Ibrahim Savas Pekdemir
From dart.fine-art.com
serenity suffers
standing on scales
of off-centeredness
leans to the drag
of a lopsided life
out of plumb
lost of level
deprived equanimity
too much of this
leaves too little of that
without balance
no temper can
modulate tones of
emotional swings
without tug from
dependable keels
every journey
tempts hazard to list
without equipoise
character never stands
upright and virtue
cannot offset vice
cannot neutralize
random embrace
of an ethical drift
overloaded by heft
of an unstable culture
caught up in the speed
of the sweep of some
popular thrill or another
its flywheel stopped
dead in the heart
Remnants of Art Therapy
in an Abandoned Asylum
Photo by Tom Kirsch
From opacity.us
late do the calendar pages
come quietly
peaceful in season
of soft shortened sun
that abbreviates days
time enough to look back
from this slower paced place
on the life of a year
on the noise of its speed
time enough to reflect
upon choices and judgments
behaviors and accidents
all of which led from
the bedlam to here
late do the calendar pages
come provident
safely removed from
the perilous paths
of that journey through
frenzied existence
now given its respite
its final arrangement of solace
the culminant chapter of time
colors fading to gray
all the senses less busy
no longer in want of excitement
content with their imminent
turn for the end
“Innuendo”
Painting by Cliff Spohn
From fineartamerica.com
push your voice
through the tubes
time has turned
into ears
say the things
that will rearrange
meanings to smell
of torn truth
speak the cause
of opinion inculpable
drawn like a wire
through a die
utter sequels to
stories that grow in
the sunless suspicion
of fiction
whisper distractions
to alter the courses
known by the mind
of the wind
express yourself
shamelessly showing
us all despite words
who you are
“Girl Reading”
Painting by Oliver Ray
From poeticapubishing.com
Thank you dear readers for pushing your number of visits to this blog over the 200,000 mark. I sincerely hope that you continue to enjoy reading what you find here.
It’s been a great joy to immerse myself in this WordPress world, with its lively population of so many talented and friendly poets and authors.
Developing the discipline of reading and writing every day has been positively therapeutic for me. Your receptivity and interaction has been uplifting.
See you all on the reader.
– Paul
October, 2015
“Old Sawmill”
Digital art by erebus74
From deviantart.com
blades of industry
edged with cut notches
the serrate of
terrible teeth
taught to tear out
dimensions of uniform
lumber from unlovely logs
timber felled to feed
screams of the sawmill
great riots of motion
tanned leather belt drives
turned through gearworks
by stout wood pole pistons
arranged autodidact
design rustic genius
resolved to convert
flowing water to energy
sees the mechanics of
magic in circular visions
the wheel the big wheel
it all starts with the wheel
never ending so long
as the impulse to build
pushes man to a purpose
Poesy plus Polemics 