Saturday, April 21, 2012

Dutiful Bones

Manicdaily is hosting Poetics tonight over at D'Verse.  Tonights prompt is to write about duty, obligations etc.. Head there to see the great poetry linked up tonight, and while you're there, how about taking a stab at the prompt yourself.  Cheers.

Distancing the gap created
by lost vestiges and saltine
goodbyes, I must say, are
words that I simply allowed
slip from tongue to page.

Transient digressions into
dark and tattered ventricles,
I feel as if I deny this
journey more often than
naught.  For fear, perhaps
I allow the sinew to entangle
and to clot.

Saracens and poets, salesmen
and thieves.  Liars and bigots,
parrots and queens.  Lower-cased
opinions, divided amongst
grandiose ideas that will never
pass the eyeball test….yet
time fades quickly, and we stare
and stare, for ways…

Approaching the chambers of
wind and steel.  Dancing with
zealots and laughing with fools.
Caricatures aren't we all, of not our-
selves than tell me whom?

Chagrined impressions done
with pen in hand.  Sincerity
lost in terrain we've no business
upon.  Or do we?

Isn't the air free to breathe?
Last time I checked it certainly
was….there I checked again,
and perhaps you were right,
there's something in the wind.

A line of prosperity is often not a line at all
An area of magnitude is often very small
Sailboats and augers both
set for the unknown
in spite of what may be
buried
deep
within
the stains we
see

Dutiful bones, unearthed, to dust...

They say to write for twenty minutes
they say not to lift the pen, er. fingers,

They say not to filter
they say not to punctuate
or to worry about spelling.

But if, I chose to do as they instruct me to,
there would be so many dissected sentences,
so many foreign words scattered about the
page.

If I chose to obey their wisdom, surreal
architecture of a journey would not be all
that unwinds…for when I dream, which of
course, I'm a poet, so I do it all the time…

You'd find love, freely anointing most the page…
not that there's anything wrong with love
not saying that at all
but last thing
anyone wants to read
is advice from
one who
never takes
any himself.

So now I'll sing the songs I hear
as they scrawl about the air..
right now, it's Nine Inch Nails
slowly speaking of elaborate
dreams…in a song called right
where it belongs, which, now
as I reflect…is as perfect as a song can get...

darn it all to someplace hot, the
stopwatch chimes it's note, but done I'm not

Okay, I'll cheat, just don't tell anybody…you promise…
ok, I'll quietly finish
by saying, in regards to duty…

I do this for you but
mainly I do this all for me…


17 comments:

  1. Yes, Fred, we do write for ourselves--and yet, your writing also provides a kind of inspiration and companionship to others--I love the idea of saltine goodbyes--so brittle and well, the opposite of saccharine (but not really)--and all the advice! (I personally am all for punctuation! Ha!) At any rate, cool take on the prompt--thoughtful and varied. Thanks much. K.

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  2. Fred, I do think most of all we do this for ourselves. And we can't follow all those rules that other people pen. We have to do it our own way. Those who instruct are NOT you OR me. A thoughtful write!

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  3. As we age we realise too that people are all multi layed. We only see the parts they chose to show us. A friend once told me we are like onions, we peel off one layer only to discover many, many new ones beneath the skin. I for one, don't like to keep to the 'rules' of writing. I much prefer to do my own thing ;)

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  4. I like the architecture of your journey and may your pages be filled with love, freely anointing it ~

    Cheers ~

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  5. hehe love the quiet little confession there at the end...we do it for ourselves hopefully...when we start doing it for an audience or for someone else its just not as genuine...really nicely spun man, love the strength in your voice, dance the madness poet...

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  6. I love the fragments thoughts and rhythm of this
    even with it's rambleness it still made perfect sense!

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  7. IMO, anyone who writes in anticipation of an audience is inauthentic. The work comes first, always first.

    "Dancing with
    zealots and laughing with fools"

    Very cool line.

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  8. Thank God the air is free to breathe for everyone and so our our gifts. Thank you, and I have document this reading in my mind as something to think back on.
    http://leah-jamielynn.typepad.com

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  9. A wonderful ode to a writer's self-possession, and I agree with Karin, it inspires others. The world is better for it and your artistry becomes more virtuosic in the process.

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  10. Well I for one certainly enjoyed your journey even if you write for yourself, I hope you don't mind the passengers from time to time...

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  11. smiles...really like this...yep...we write mainly for ourselves i think and then try to edit it so that there's some sort of value for the reader as well.. dancing with zealots, laughing with fools...i like..

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  12. Man- this is great- probably my favourite piece of yours so far- this is just o introspective, yet a powerful commentary on the how we are 'supposed' to act- our duty to others and not ourselves - particularly like how you apply this to writing- if we're not writing for ourselves then who the hell are we doing it for? I think the moment you start trying to please others with your words you've lost it....great stuff

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  13. i really love this... a voyeur's peek at the process

    and the stanza "Saracens and poets" ... oh my...

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  14. Again, pulling us into the dialog between soul and body, duty and inspiration. This is like a lazy stream that flows quietly by, while beneath the stream life has dreams of other worlds, other realities.

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  15. However random it seems to not be random, if that makes sense, but than the cat ever truly does make sense so there we go...haha....And so very true, you do it for you first and then it turns out so much better. You start doing it for everyone else and that is when it is time to quit.

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  16. We each have our own way that works for us... love "Lower-cased opinions"... so true!

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  17. The cruel fate of the writer - the truth of a vision can only be recognised by the reader and they, if the writing is done well. will think it theirs!

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