Six Poems by John Drudge

 

A Curious Art

 

Accepting

Where we are

Anywhere

Adapting to change

But remaining the same

Moving

Into something else

Becoming

One being after another

Through great sorrows

And expressions

Of pure freedom

Surrendering to curiosity

As it happens

As the storm

That surrounds us

Walks on waves

Of a deep blue

Glass

Broken

 

What becomes

Of the things

That are broken

The chipped

And fractured things

And the deeply

Withered ones

With a ruptured sense

Of self-discovery

Sliding

Below the surface

Of reflexive shame

3-D printed organs

Extending life

In the mocking face

Of death

With the bones

And shadows of fear

Receding

On a still and resilient

Artifice of hope

And change

Close Shave

 

Into time

And through space

Participating

In the process

And finding a place

At the center

Of everything

The heart

Of everything

Bracing

For the loss

Of original beauty

And secondary sin

And shaving off

Character

From the edges

Of our carelessness

Downswing

 

A terrible spectre

Born of deprivation

And distressed

Connections

Reflected

In the tired eyes

Of disorder

Full of solitude

Unease

And agitated intent

The thinning language

Of our fading desires

Forcing outward faces

To smile

With bold hearts

Slipping

Into reflexive monologues

Searching for poetry

Between the lines

And behind

The backscattering

Of our collective

Despair

Truth as Story

 

The mystery

Of creativity

Warm from the kiln

Assuaging sorrow

With beauty

Moving us

Beyond the heavens

And the earth

As we scour

The ancient stories

Of gods

And ghosts

Searching

For forgiveness

In the power

Of myth

We Weep Alone

 

As the divine

Walk among us

Once again

Hobbled and maimed

With no fixed destination

Or attachment to faith

Beaten by mistrust

And shivered by shame

We weep alone

With only

The minor notes

Remaining

In a symphony

Of vice over virtue

On the long

Cold walk home

With a sense

Of our own paradox

Ending

In self-devouring

Starvation

And the reverberations

Of a slow

And enduring pain

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.