Friday, October 7, 2011

Penance


Every clipping, sharks the gullet of vacancy
Shadows culling dreams well worn

Vixens, Vipers, Viragos, Asps
A venomous caldarium
Scalding with each splash

Steam shrouds the succubus inside
Layered lids lay listless amongst yarns & lies
In lieu of the lackadaisically leveled Libran scales
Weights unmeasured risk resurrecting the waxen toll

Talismans and their phylacteries
Fringed magical, frayed too fine- 
For the tricks of precursors translucent lures,

Doting singes temple speak; the scriptures tome-like tones repeat
Crafting divinity from a collage of time; Divinations all
Until the sickle reaps a harvest’s moon
Until the stone wets, once sword relinquishes tenures term

Every extract, sharks the gullets of mind
While shadows sift the wraiths of love,
Resplendent twinkling’s flash before
Safely plucked as tensions quell the thirsts of yore

The fields of perdition
Flooded, by permafrost
Then awoken in oil-
To which, but one stroke
Can set the match



11 comments:

  1. Great use of alliteration. I really like the ending. Thank you.

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  2. I hope those translucent lures, sharks and vipers keep their distance from me! Or I'll take a match to them.

    Quite a heavy piece that kept on course throughout with your masterful wordsmithing.

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  3. Everyone has to pay the piper, whether to ones self or to others they wronged, what goes around will come back around to bite you in the behind on of these days. To those that deserve it, I really feel for them...haha riiight.

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  4. Brilliant piece of verse, Fred!

    Hank

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  5. The imagery in this poem holds a depth so solid and singular that each consecutive line plays off the last telling the tale of this very descriptive event. Wonderful job. I wonder where you have obtained such a diverse vocabulary as each write you post has new words, that are rare and unique. Great job Fred, in all the poetry blogs, I must say have such depth and range that very few do.

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  6. really great use of language to build this...lots of allit with the L in that one stanza almost tied my tongue in a knot...ha...def a medieval or fantasy feel to it...

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  7. esp. the last stanza spoke strongly to me..the fields of perdition - flooded - awoken in oil...and then the stroke, possibly setting the match...saw an abstract oil painting before my mind's eyes when reading - although i know it's going beyond an oil painting

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  8. Vixens, Vipers, Viragos, Asps
    A venomous caldarium
    Scalding with each splash

    Great bring of increasingly unusual and wonderful proper nouns there.. really brings it to life, adds interest. Great piece Fred

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  9. Thanks, really glad you all enjoyed the poem. It was a fun process putting it all together. As I find happening often, this was another one of those pieces that I began with an idea or a phrase, fully intent on traveling down a particular road, only for the words to hijack the whole thing, to which I always give in and let the words have their own way. Typically when this happens I'm fairly pleased with the result. Again, thanks for all the feedback, I really appreciate them all.

    Thanks again

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  10. Excellent write. The alliteration and imagery are outstanding.

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  11. Thanks Mama, glad you enjoyed the piece:)

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