Poem
not
natural or ethereal
not
composed of elements
from any
needy origin story
this
particular city morning
revels in
luminous telepathy
with the
first rising sun
ritual
sacrifice
skyscraper
phalanxes
those high
priests of profit
who are
really deluded prophets
cast
beloved death-waking shadows
to confess
monstrous alibis
deep
listening heals
for the
second blinding
white
flash of rapture
beyond
tenacious reality
the
alter-ego mirror
of the
collective unconscious
shatters
ornate sprigs
of Thai gold
that
cheerfully drown in restless pajamas
of heroic
separation
from any
earthly body
ordeal or
recovery
Poem
silent prayers
for betrayed autumns
these remaining New
England trees
conceal nothing
their projected limbs
climb skies to eat
sunlight
only punch air in
bitter winds
scheme no species
death masks
and utter the
soundless Ommmm
that lets go pain
of never again
released beauty--
treetops crowned the
highest right
between wrong
and we
still glowing coals
and embers
of dying lives
their all-seeing
leaves
are miniature orange
robed Buddhist monks
doused in human
gasoline
to set themselves on
fire
as flaming ghosts
who chant purple
crimson supplications
to feed the earth
as they drip down
hillsides
Stephen A. Rozwenc is a widely published expat poet, who currently resides in Thailand. He has published seven collections of poetry. His published book collections are: The Fourth Turning, Grass Hill, Ekphrastic Nightingales, New England Fortune Cookies, Death Is Birth, Russia, Translations of Famous Russian Poets, and Thai Diary.
More than two hundred of his poems and translations have appeared individually in numerous poetry publications including: The Mailer Review, Buddhist Poetry Review, Blue Lake Review, Dm Du Jour, Equinox, Eunoia Review, Glass Poetry, Naugatuck River Review, New Pattaya Review, Philadelphia Poets, Poets Against War, Plum Tree Tavern, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and Wordpeace. His poetry and translations have been published internationally in Europe and Asia. He has been a past recipient of two Williamsburg Massachusetts Arts Council Grants for poetry.
Each of these is a gem in its own right that connects apparently disparate phenomena in surprising ways that make us rethink our understanding of how the world works.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of any creation lies in the spirit and the imagination of who is bringing forth his thoughts and willing to share them.
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