Five Poems by John Drudge

 

A Hunger in Positano

 

With the sky washed clean

By the rain

And birds singing wildly

In lush trees

They walked down

The steep grade of the slant

Toward the ocean

“Love is acceptance

And being open

To the flow of existence”

She said as she walked

On ahead

And it warmed him to hear

As he followed closely behind

With the vistas over the sea

As breath-stealing

As ever

But she was in a hurry to eat

At the little bistro

At the bottom of the trail

By the water

Where they had been

Once before

When youth was unending

And love was long

In the stacked little town

Above the shore

 

At the Shore

 

I stroll to the wharf

In the morning rain

My thoughts opaque

Like the heaviness

Of Matisse

Where details detract

And vagueness

Penetrates to the heart

Of things

To wait for my lost

Ambition

With the broken things

Piled by the shore

Rage

 

Through a winter maze

Of ice and art

Frozen still

Beneath every movement

Light in the darkness

Of a stone cold rage

And lost in the lifetimes

That we left behind

Barking and biting

At the night time

Beyond the shadows

Of our discontent

Spout

 

Aloof over Paris

Perched in silence

Gargoyles

Gaze To the east

With a steady stare

Into tomorrow

Over the greyness

Of a near

November sky

Moving

Toward the razor’s edge

Of a shaky horizon

Where things

Often go badly

And grief is just love

With nowhere left

To go

The Pull of Stonehenge

 

We set out from Bath

Through the English

Countryside

The relentless greyness

Of the sky

Lending a constant drizzle

Of drama to the day

It can be seen for miles

On the horizon

As we approach

The sarsen towers

Of mystery

And the blue stones

Of forgotten meaning

A Neolithic madness

Growing bolder

As we hike across

Wet meadows

To get a closer look

They say Druids

Moved among them once

In rituals of the seasons

And offerings to the sun

But for you and I

It’s a new beginning

With our own legends

Coalescing

As we pass beneath

Ancient knowing eyes

Illuminating hidden stories

Across lands of the dead

And the fragments

Of a deeper understanding

Of everything

That we are

John is a social worker working in the field of disability management and holds degrees in social work, rehabilitation services, and psychology.  He is the author of three books of poetry: “March” and “The Seasons of Us” (both published in 2019) and New Days (published in 2020). His work has appeared widely in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies internationally. John is also a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee and lives in Caledon Ontario, Canada with his wife and two children.