Five Superb Poems by John Drudge

 

A New Voice

 

A strange new voice

In between worlds

Among the old gods

Where we look

In two directions

For the truth

Split into beginnings

And endings

And the tumultuous

Curving

Of inner space

Fast asleep in our urges

Awakened only

By the double edged gift

Of serenity’s

Breathing

Brambles

 

Parables  

Behind darkened windows

Shades pulled down

Over shame

To begin

Where we must always

Begin

Mired in the confusion

Of regrettable birth

And the wild brambles

Of messy growth

From seed

To wilted flower

In the fractured sun

Crawling over

Honed silence

And spilling into pools

Of lost reflections

With faces melting

Into regretful slumber

Before the sun rises

On our sins

Into the Machine

 

Suspended

As we fall

With our dreams

Forgotten

The essence of sound

And touch

Mercilessly squeezed

By the machine

Into prisms

Of stretched light

With waxen looks

Stifling sight

And sense

And locked in a rhythm

Of strained hope

Where the truth

Of freedom

Is twisted

Into an alchemy

Of fear

And disbelief

Loss

 

Into the deep

Black spaces

Between loss

And emptiness

Gaps in sensation

And rifts through time

Toward an infinitude

Beyond logic

And the shiny blades

Of memory

Trimmed to a point

And steeled against

The crashing cleaver

Of truth

On the Horizon

 

Simple and clear

Full of light and joy

In time’s good graces

In the aftermath

Of fear

A breath of fresh

Tranquility

High art

And a renaissance

Of sculpted relief

With broken stones

Beneath broken feet

Marking the path

Toward absolution

And the shaky birth

Of enduring grace

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.