Five Poems by John Drudge

 

Background

 

I shy away

When things

Break big

Contented to be quiet

On the surface

Of wayward prayers

Recoiled

Like a spring

When the loudness

Of sin

Breaks like rain

On the hard tin

Of time

Receding

Like the sound

Of shattering glass

On a clear

Still night

Into the Hills

 

Getting rid

Of the agitation

In my back pocket

Holes

Burning halos

Into the sun

Into my eyes

Where a life grows

Over the course

Of one more day

Down the backstreets

Out of town

To feel

One more breeze

On another hill

And the pull

Of one more valley

As the sun rises

New Beginnings

 

In the quiet

Tired morning

When the seconds

Of summer

Tick down our options

Bending time

Into a libretto

Of old lessons

Calmly solemn

And prayer like

Cutting and reweaving

Straining

Against reason

In the worn sunshine

Of fading days

Howling

Like some kind

Of madness

Hidden in the screech

Of long forgotten

Sirens

On the cliffs

To nowhere

Beckoning me

To places

I’ve already conquered

And teaching me

Nothing

In the silence

Of new beginnings

Survival

 

External objects

Drifting

Without connection

Without hope

Coming up for air

Without sufficient

Reason

Like Schopenhauer

On a down note

I walk the streets

Of the city

Toward survival

The Birth of Europe

 

Back

To a cultural

Big Bang

Petroglyphs

And the emergence

Of Europe

The birth

Of a new art

Of movement

And inspiration

From caves

To the world beyond

To Stonehenge

And the circles

Of the sun

Observing the world

In new ways

Cults of belief

And ritualistic worship

Meeting and mixing

On altars

Of endless wonder

Chasing each sunrise

And sunset

With a singular need

For tangible

Purpose

 

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.