I'm no poet.
I stood upon the hill, that last bastion of the war weary,
I looked upon the city that cried for war.
I saw the corporate concrete capillaries,
maintaining the body belligerent,
lorded over by that which believed
That it deserved the powers of the King.
The lines of the infirm, those whose sacrifice maintained the body,
shifted to those silent and obscure places,
where upon no beauty need look, cursed as their wounds delay the frenzied mad dash,
To the same location as the day before.
I saw the possessions of my fellows, marked as they were by their owner,
The owner that was not there, save by leash of silicon and lightning,
Invisible chains borne with pride and joy,
Close mouthed smiles to conceal the decay below.
All stand alone, in communion with that which directs,
every spoken word preceded by scouts of intent,
the battlefield of the conversation, heavily imbued with the mines laid decades before,
Standing on the precipice of that final portal.
(This came to me yesterday. I don't usually write poetry, as I have been unable to understand much modern poetry, which frankly comes across as self-serving and pretentious. I tried not to come across that way, but with all poems, it either works or it doesn't. What works for me, may not work for you.)
Comments
This works.
In this society, all the work we do for most of our lives, and all the sacrifices we make every day to do that work, and everything the bounty of that work buys, collectively, which defines what we contribute to the world — can be found in that particular poem.
Poetry is how we know what our lives are about.
That a view of ourselves is refreshed — as the reader or the writer — is the first measure of effectiveness and art.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Thank you that means quite a lot.
I never really wanted to write poetry.
It was just a group of images that were running through my head as I rode along on the bus that leads to the VA hospital. It's a beautiful view, but the problems of the city are immediately visible from it. Every bit of obscuring green space seems to have those sad orange, blue and red domes that signify that someone is barely scraping by from day to day.
I find most of my "Artistic" ideas have to do with the subtle signs of things falling apart, those things that are hidden from the view of the screens.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
I endorse your poetic vision
The message is clear and insightful.
When poetry relates inner truths it is not self-serving--it is other-serving. And I thank you for this.
More than welcome.
All poetry should be read aloud I think, and I read this one a few times before I posted it.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Good poem!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Thanks
We need more poetry in our lives.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott