This Savage Life

By Ewan

Thu, 09 Oct 2008
  • 2944 reads
7 comments
 

No war-paint or feathers here:
no anthropological
signifiers; rite-of-
passage cicatrices.
No bloodied knives or hands.
Scant nobility,
merely uncivilised
disregard for others'
raw sensibilities:
greedy satisfaction
of every want - at the
expense of every need.
Every one-day love
turned to jetsam, just
to keep oneself afloat.
We low self-esteemers-
with our carapace built
of faux-exuberance-
are failed young cannibals.

Certificate U
Poem
The Long and the Short of It...
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by jennifer on
A comment on knife-crime? I like the imagery, the idea of having 'failed'. Striking, yet abstract.

 

Submitted by Ewan on
Writers.

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Submitted by littleditty on
Absolutely loved this - and there is rite of passage in this write, so there - its about older wiser failed young cannibals, and flows a treat - youth is wasted on the young anyway, right? Right. :o)

 

Submitted by onemorething on
I loved it too...and don't think it's impenetrable at all...I empathised completely and liked the wryness of it.

 

Submitted by Ewan on
I think I have come across many instances where proper writers have commented on the innate self-centeredness or even selfishness of writers. You might be interested to know that one of Orwell's four motives (and the first) for writing listed in 'Why I Write' (1946) is 'Sheer egoism.'

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Submitted by Ewan on
In fact, Stefano and FTSE100, your comments both indicate to me that you understood what this is about better than you think. 'I devoted my youth to the cannibalism of my own profession;' So did I: the point of this poem (which is a little obscure) is that I feel that despite the fact I did exactly that, I am really concerned about doing the same foolish thing again. If anything the poem is meant to be a self-accusatory/deflationary apercu. One thing it has done, that poetry is supposed to do, I believe, is provoke thought, more than anything else I've posted; so I take refuge in that small success. Wonderful to exchange views like this. That's what ABC is for, I firmly believe. Regards Ewan

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Submitted by Bradene on
My God I never try to analyse why I write really. I only know that it has helped me through some tough times and it gets rid of a lot of crap that builds up inside me. I think I would die if I couldn't write whether or not it's judged good or bad by my peers. I liked the poem by the way, it took a couple of reads and I still wasn't too sure but I got there in the end and anyway half the fun is putting one's own interpretation on someone else's poem . Val x