Reading room

Cherry

By Parson Thru

Sat, 25 Jan 2020
  • 3325 reads
16 comments
 

Is it harsh of me 
To look down from these walls
Across the rooftops of a former life
And be appalled?

Is disloyalty justified
When scars redden
And the welts reappear across my back?

Whose fault is it that I’m so different?

Better just to melt away
And let the demons be

To not disturb the dogs

Would that the arc could be so smooth

As simple as an early morning flight

Unproblematic

 

 

Then why not?

I have no fear of Dantean torments

No millstone weighs around my neck

 

 
Great Peter doles its mood into my reverie

The river running through these walls
Rises to its banks when rain falls to the west

Its waters bear a constant threat

I feel them brimming now

Inundation

She and Us

 

 

Nature: the sewerage pouring through your door

Nature: Departing Manchester 6:30 for Madrid

Nature: the Phoenician
Groaning at the bottom of the sea

Nature: the demented mother
Ever-present stench of piss

Nature: when nothing else remains
But what I can do for you
And you for me

Birth

Life

And the final end of everything

Certificate PG
Poem
Mortality Games
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by Di_Hard on

you have made the memory of hurt into a liquid, it's a fantastic metaphor

the welts reappear across my back...

groaning at the bottom of the sea...

the sewerage pouring through your door...

the river running through these walls...

the demented mother/Ever-present stench of piss

and this has the rhythm of the little waves on the edge of the tide, where the sea, the huge but not infinite past, meets the present, with the future spreading out behind, waiting

"when nothing else remains
But what I can do for you
And you for me"

you have distilled some strong thoughts/feelings, this one needs lots of reads. What is the Phoenecian?

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thank you Di. You know more about the poem than I do, but it sounds bang on. The situation here is all too real, unfortunately.

Thank you for the cherries! X

Parson Thru

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Sorry Di. I missed your question.

The Phoenician is something/one that/who appears in Eliot's "The Waste Land".

It refers to a drowned sailor.

Eliot pinches it from earlier work and probably from works he read about fertility/vegetation rites in the ancient Mediterranean. Joyce's "Ulysses" to a point, too, depending who you read. B. C. Southam is good on it. "A Student's Guide..."

I just like the imagery.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thankyou. I am overawed that you have read Ulysses!

 

 

feeling very ignorant

 

 

tiptoing away

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Slowly, slowly. It's taking years. Actually, I've just read in the last few weeks the section in the taxi/tram shelter where Bloom and Dedalus meet the sailor. Life's like that sometimes.

You're absolutely not ignorant. Life and humans and human lives are immensely complex. We're all hacking away at different things. Reading different things. Different experiences. There's nothing clever about ploughing through thick books.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Phew. I think Ulysses is salt in cooking, more than a few pages and my mind is overwhelmed, but those pages make everything SING

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Poco á poco.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Cherries are not from me - am not an editor :0)

I like poems that hit me with an emotion. Sort of headbanging rather than waltzing around

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Cherries very well deserved

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thanks insert. X

Parson Thru

Submitted by Di_Hard on

yes, very well deserved. Can read it over and over and come back and it's still brillant

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thanks a million Di. I'm a lousy judge of anything I write, so it's lovely to read what you said.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Ed Crane on

And nothing ferments guilt like the fear of disloyalty. A circle of fear I guess. I imagine it will be over eventually one way or another. The books are your friend, love them and they'll see you through.

I attempted Ulysses but I was kind of disappointed, I confess I skipped to Molly's brilliant monologue.

I'm also struggling with Don Quixote. I love it but it's hard work. I keep reading a bit and then forgetting what I have read the next time I pick it up, two steps forward and one back so to speak. I imagine you could read the Spanish version now?

Good luck, Kevin 

 

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Hi Ed.

Thank you.

I've read book one. No, my Spanish is awful. I try to improve it by reading graded books. Friends help with whatsapp and the odd voice message.

You're right about books. Just need to keep finding mental space.

I hope everything is OK with you.

Best wishes,

Kevin

Parson Thru

Submitted by onemorething on

Sharp and sensitive. A moving read. :) 

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thanks, onemorething.

Parson Thru