Music of Scars

“Scarred” by Leisha Lopez

 

your voice is like whiskey
poured through gravel
and hardship
it teaches us something
that song without stones
of an age can’t deliver

your music of scars
moves on chords
built from pain
long suffering sounds
we’d give our last heartbeat
to sing even once

your implausible poise
plays a plaintive arpeggio
climbing the sequence
of notes that express
the best senses of
wounded humanity

 

 

(originally posted October 2013)

Curves

“Abstract Head: Pain” by Alexei Jawlensky

(Originally posted February 2014)
 

finding curves in the wounds
was surprising
the pain always angular
all hard and sharp
acute corners
pushed up under muscle
where only the dirty moons
rising from sickly brown bottles
and bedsheets
give comfort of two or three
midnight click hours
of crippling clocks
as the curves of the wounds
swallow life bit by bit
mean and raw with their red
violent purpose

Onslaught

“Early Dawn” by Jose Favian Sosa

night slips under the sash

cool blue unguent of moonglow

balming the wounds of the day

sleep in its mission of healing

rejuvenates muscle and mind

making ready for onslaught of

rage from a dubious dawn

Old Men of the Forest

“Red Oak”
Photo by Lyle Hatch
From fineartamerica.com

stout northern red oak
will seal its old wounds
overgrowing the pain
reaching confident into
the face of new storms
understanding the
intimate gist of survival
the alternate beauty
of scarred-over age
the sheer sense of cert
as it surges from roots
standing into the danger
a casualty naked and
altered by time ready
willing and nonetheless
able to withstand the
onslaught of seasons
to come bearing nothing
of malice toward weather
and wind who will merely
attack in accord with
their own violent nature

stout northern red oak
old men of the forest
regret their lost limbs
but not so the girth of
their years or the loft
of their ego grown tall
in their consciousness
knowing those injuries
come through their time
and travails made them
stronger than ever

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
– Ernest Hemingway

Old Wood

“Old Wooden Window”
Photo art by 10Ft
From deviantart.com

old wood settles me
shares its story of time
told by fingers who
crafted warm histories
creased by fine grain
pieced with joinery
passed down through
secret-wrought skills
from medieval guilds

old wood settles me
gives me respite from
the metal the plastic
the chemical compost
of noxious modernity
smooth honeyed edges
console a displaced
sense of era with
antique aesthetics

old wood settles me
fills up with ambient
comfort my eyes
gone distressed by cold
landscapes of artifact
ugliness feigning to
decorate life within
sight within reach
without owning a soul

old wood settles me
touches its treasures
of gold to the holds
of my galleon mind
draughting deeply in
currents of maritime
memory wars of
emotions laid quiet
in pacified interlude

old wood settles me
teaches its lessons
each mar and gouge
every splinter and split
reminiscent of wounds
to my heart to my skin
wounds that qualify me
and old wood for a
dignified elderly life

Music of Scars

“Stoic”
Painting by Kim Roberti
From dailypainters.com

your voice is like whiskey
poured through gravel
and hardship
it teaches us something
that song without stones
of an age can’t deliver

your music of scars
moves on chords
built from pain
long suffering sounds
we’d give our last heartbeat
to sing even once

your implausible poise
plays a plaintive arpeggio
climbing the sequence
of notes that express
the best senses of
wounded humanity