Tabula Rasa

“Muse of Poetry” by Alphonse Mucha

what do I do with

unbearable imminence

certain that some unknown something

will soon spring to mind

when my insolent muse

remains lazy with sleep

sprawling nice as you please

on white sheets of my unmade ideas

unresponsive to prodding

unheeding of all implorations

blind to the easting aura of dawn

deaf to the noise of impatience

ungrateful and willful

as if she could live long

without me

 

 

(originally posted May 2013)

A Crying Shame

“Face of Unhappiness” by Frieda Bruck

 

slobbering victims
of doctrinaire radicals
die discontented

Submariner

“Deep Blue Abyss”
Painting by Paul Tokarski
From fineartamerica.com

do you know who I am
here beneath my own sea
the deep waters of words
I released on the tides
never knowing what shore
they might reach if at all

do you know why I write
why I’ve chosen to live
in this literate ocean
with creatures who can’t
read a word but who pass
every poem through their gills

do you know why I swim
in this cold crushing darkness
displacing with each striven
stroke a whole lifetime in
churned cavitation of thoughts
burst as soon as they’re born

do you know or not care
either way hardly matters
for writing at crux is a lonely
affair independent cerebral
well suited to drift the abyss
here beneath my own sea

Beached

Photo from my-walls.net

easy turned difficult
hard to accept
for one who made
difficult easy

frustration
rises up in the gorge
choking golden years irony
dashed expectations

reopened wounds sting
where scars failed to
seal in contentment that
bleeds beyond reach

bones can rust before
settling into damp graves
wrecking plans to kick ass
on the way out the door