Tag Archives: #aspiration

Tomorrow

When I was young, I looked ahead
To years I would spend facing the
Great unknowns, the unexpected.
When I was young, the future was
Not in the rearview but it loomed
Near and far. The future was just
Where I wanted it. Where it should
Loom. It was all my tomorrows. I
Loved its mystery. I anticipated 
The twists and turns but did not
Know where it would lead me nor
Where I would follow. Today, the
Tomorrows may be fewer but I do
Not know what that future holds. 
Now, that I am not young, I hold
The hope that the future brings a
Little closer and tighter. It will be
A surprise, I hope. Unexpected, a
Mystery lies in my tomorrows, or
Maybe if I am lucky there will be
Many mysteries. Still even now.

By chance, by choice

Crawling close to the ground as
Rocks rolling close to the edge
Is this a perilous path we chose
Or fell upon, willy-nilly, by chance
Or choice? Are we in a position
To make a decision, to correct
Course? Is this a perilous path 
We asked for, that we wanted 
For ourselves, consciously and
In our right mind? I, blah blah, 
Being of sound heart, have set
My journey on this course. We
Are human beings, and being
Human, we walk the earth on 
Two feet. We are always on a
Back foot. Humans evolved to
Walking upright, being human
We only crawl when abjected,
Humiliated, as if we were cast
Off, drawn close to the ground
Is this a perilous path we chose

Like Aeschylus

Shakespeare was clever, his
Language precise, but cheeky.
He was not a muse, he was a
Legend, an icon, one to envy,
One to emulate. To dream of
Emulating, a beacon and the
Star in a firmament of English
Poets, Marlowe, Jonson, Dunne
I am done and undone but I,
Like you, try, and want or wish
Or hope, to bend my English to
My thoughts, to trail in the vein
Of the Masters who have so
O'ermastered their English that
My trials are vain, and in vain,
Vainglorious, the Poet might
Say, but not to mock me as I
Try to follow a path that I am
Doomed to find harder than
The Bard's whose prose was 
Poetry and poetry unerringly
Human and complete. I aspire
Where inspiration will not go

Cliché

I need a cliché to anchor
My poetry to a real world
To bounce off of what is
Real and what is not, or 
Just to add verisimilitude
To what I say, or maybe to
Add significance to mere
Words, we know that they,
The mere words are not as
Substantial as we expect
Them to be, as we need 
Them to be. Mere words

Simply put

The stranger and less familiar
The greater the pull. Unusual
Words want me to use them,
To sprinkle them over the top
Like so much sweet garnish
Over common expressions,
Expanding meanings from the
Ordinary, trivial. Meandering 
Far from what you think you're 
Saying to a novel thought on
A different trajectory. You've 
Built a tree of ideas, branches
Alive with the unexpected, the
Consequences of imaginative
Thinking opens adjacent ideas.
Strange and unfamiliar words.
Transform an idiom, so it's ass
Over teakettle with excitement.
Simply put, give it a new verve.