Five Poems by John Drudge

 

Abstract

 

Black on white

White on black

Shadows

In the reflection

Of light

A bold statement

Of harmony

In contrast

A subtle slipping

Of time

Into abstraction

Footprints of Angels

 

Losing one’s self

For the sake of beauty

And relief

Dancing in rhythm

Through a galaxy of air

Among the footprints

Of angels

Waiting to dare

The night into being

Like big black lines

On white paper

Something carved

Out of nothing

A walk

Through glaring snow

With the blindness

Of history marching

Across a smooth

Glass sky

From the Beginning

 

Adam and Eve

And the first of everything

Or nothing but dreams

And original sin

Or the first freedom

And the paradise

Of painters

Lost in translation

And smothered

In need

Behind the guise

Of Satan

And the wisdom

Of an owl

The lust for knowledge

As destruction

In the garden

Of earthly angst

And hard earned

Remorse

New Thought

In the dried out husks

Of new thought

Grifters and black holes

Of empty promises

Misguided sweat lodges

And worn swamis of sin

Laws of attraction

Run amuck

Blaming ourselves

For weaknesses

Beyond our making

The proliferation

Of hollow manifestations

And the glorification

Of relentless positivity

Unfalsifiable claims

Soul bait

In the mist of hopelessness

Stripped away logic

Lost enlightenment

And the desperate moans

Of fallen angels

The Prayer

 

On a simple grey morning

Over the modern iron bridge

Beyond the ruins

Of Romans

And the faint smile

Of history’s belief

He came across

The geometry of a deep

And subtle perspective

Blacks on blues

And the battering crispness

Of erupting light

Where a smack

Across the cheek

Stings deep

Into something lost

In the skin

And left behind

On the surface

Of a weeping prayer

For relief

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.