Another Night
Inspiration
From the dark side
Of living
Explosive reactivity
In the underbrush
Of passion
Settling in
To tomorrow’s promise
Of sunny days
And redemption
From memory’s mistakes
And dreaming’s demise
Tagged and tied tight
By stilted effort
Slipping insight
And another lonely night
Of strident prayers
For relief
Homeward
Running
Between raindrops
And stepping over
Sidewalk cracks
Through shards of reality
Into the fog
Of failing moments
With no footing
In slickened time
Slip-sliding into misery
Stretched and simmered
And scratching
At the barking moon
Bereft and bereaved
On the long walk
Home
Fading
Softly
The twilight cries
As I sit and watch
The rain
Dance like pockets
On the pond
From under the cover
Of the tall pine
On the ridge
As tired light fades
Into the blackness
Of the waiting
Night sky
Through the Valley
Through an eternity
Of tears falling
And slivers of light
Through cracks
In caves
The death of flames
In the morning dew
And the embers
Of smouldering truth
Beneath skin
Thinning
Bringing me to the edge
Of my awakening
Where the sun
Walks softly through
The valley
Of fearless dying
Turn of Winter
The cold days
Of November came
Like something inevitable
In the shortened slant
Of darkened days
Some sort of knowing
Deep in the center
Of us
The winding down
Of us
Through too many
Terse springs
And summers
Of brief awakenings
Too many turns
Toward nowhere
Waiting in disbelief
In the ice cold grip
Of winter looming
John Drudge 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 four books of poetry: “March” (2019), “The Seasons of Us” (2019), New Days (2020), and Fragments (2021). 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.
Wonderful poems.
ReplyDelete