Five Wonderful Poems by David Alec Knight

 

Old Scarification And New Wounds


I rise from rich
soil, of a cycle spun
round since Time's record.
The dirt falls away     
slow, adhering to places
of old scarification
and new wounds.

I am awake in rain      and feel
part of charcoal sketch skies.
I recall my life as serialized story,
a story too many have skimmed
then claimed complete understanding.
They want to know     it all, but
don't want to get dirty to get there.

Calm and clear, I am,
under nearing storms.
Some dirt runs off me now,
whipping         wet      slaked.
Weeds share with grass under foot,
until the weeds choke out grass.

I am moved like an ancient
obelisk, by secret means long lost.
Today,             I am returned.
Shards of memory un-splinter
noon sun         risng    in storm.

In this present
I am host to possible pasts,
to old scarification
and of new wounds.



Wool Portraiture


Those skies have clouds of elder faces.
As they roll, they reveal themselves.
They are soft seeming in the distance.
When passing, they lose or gain portrait detail.
After each cloud passes, features changing,
I squint with clarity of detail making near,
while the obscure is    distanced.

When I was very young I stared long at silent
skies I didn't know overflowed with sound.
The memory makes me defiant -- I tremor.
Sound with sight affirms the present.
My heart cadence matches the wind
while it wails on,        rising higher.



The Vernal Morning


Kaleidoscope individuals root

in the garden of scent beneath

a stretch of pale tree-shadows.

Caressed by the whispered

contrivance of the winds

clouds burrow into the land,

prove the sighed language

of Nature, is as transient and

wilful as that whisper.

A hungry ballet of resilient birds

take flight, the buxom quality

of Nature now unbound anew.

The sun falls upon this garden,

select desires no longer to be

boycotted as feelings too simple.



Grendel Descent


One of Grendel descent
is an intuitional creature:
having a conscious intuitive
process, he uses intuition chronically,
considers and reconsiders numerous
intuitions until one claims dominance
and so is nearest to truth.

One of Grendel descent
fears his instincts will lead him
to do what his thinking mind tells
him he should not do, and to go
where his thinking mind tells him
that he should not go.

One of Grendel descent
cannot reconcile who he is
alone, with who he is when not.



Saxon Shore

She imagines each wave         each white-cap fair hair

Are otherwise murky              strangers, dark suitors

She aches for salt-taste           sways in wind-breath

Auburn tresses fly                   in turbulent pant

Rebel strands find mouth        then sad eyes know

Awakening waves roll            ship of men sea-hunted

 

Sky-shouts punch end-land   sky-torches cross sky

She heart-screams for lover   lost to sea-hate now

Sad pleas not to roll heave      ship-men to water-death

Small hands into fists-ball      mist spray holds her

She closes nose to smell         once thought sweet air

She stays until storm-sleep     ship-bones float to hurt-shore

David Alec Knight is from Ontario, Canada. David has had many poems printed in American and Canadian journals and anthologies. Recent poems have appeared in Verse Afire, The Rye Whiskey Review, Cajun Mutt Press, and in By The Wishing Tree - A Canadian Poetry Anthology. In 2021, David was recipient of The Ted Plantos Memorial Award for Poetry. His first book of poetry is called The Heart Is A Hollow Organ (Cranberry Tree Press, 2021). David works in healthcare.