Four Poems by David Alec Knight

 

On Spec

If you allow me
the time to get through
there is little
you won't understand.
There is nowhere
to run, and nowhere
to go in the wheel
I find myself spun within.

Speak to me;
don't talk at me.
Talk to me, just
don't talk down.
Help me, but don't
help me the way
you want to, help
me the way I need.

Structure is required...
Until and unless
flexibility is.

Leave To Arrive

Leave behind your
imaginary lunar module.
Leave behind your
imaginary environment suit.
Walk down the real steps
you have so rarely trod.
Open the real old door
with hinges you let rust.
Smile at seconds of blindness
in embrace of the sun warm air.
Breathe in all of it anew.
You left only to arrive.

Crows, Dying On The Winds

At a distance, one could mistake
them for so many garbage bags
blowing in the winds as high
as third and fourth floors.

They flap their wings,
but are buffeted by coldest
of winter winds, twenty below
and blowing freight train fast

They flap their wings,
frantic against the fury
yet have lost all flight control
forced onward, this way and that.

Some crows avoid oncoming
limbs of trees; some do not,
throttled into the tracks cracking
waving gnarls of branches.

Beware Of Poet Dancing

I have written a poem that does not rhyme.
I will read it out loud.
I have written a poem that does not rhyme.
I will read it out loud.

How will it fall upon your ear?
How will it ply upon your mind?

I have written some dark prose that reads so dense,
makes Joseph Conrad's thin.
I have written some dark prose that reads so dense,
makes Joseph Conrad's thin.

How will it fall upon your ear?
How will it ply upon your mind?

I can't dance to favourite songs worth a damn.
But it still won't stop me.
I can't dance to favourite songs worth a damn.
But it still won't stop me.

I just don't embarrass that much:
would you be embarrassed for me?

I rock out to rock and roll in primal ways,
rebuking dance floor rules.
I rock out to rock and roll in primal ways,
rebuking dance floor rules.

I just don't embarrass that much:
would you be embarrassed for me?

David Alec Knight grew up in Chatham, Ontario, Canada.

He includes his middle name in his pen name as a means of disambiguation, his first and last name being fairly common. It is in response to being ignorantly perceived as a pretension by others that he wrote  the poem "Disambiguation".

In 2021, David was recipient of The Ted Plantos Memorial Award for Poetry. His first book of poetry, The Heart Is A Hollow Organ, soon followed. His second book of poetry, LEPER MOSH, was published by Cajun Mutt Press in 2022. It featured his artwork on the cover. Cajun Mutt Press would also feature a portfolio of his artwork online, as well as publishing his first full color comic story online, WRATH: The Masks We Wear.

Recent poems have appeared in Verse Afire, Cajun Mutt Press Featured Poet, The Lothlorien Poetry Journal and Medusa's Kitchen. Anthology appearances include By The Wishing Tree, Poets For Ukraine Volume 1, Love Lies Bleeding, Phantom Parade, and The Cajun Mutt Press Halloween Anthology Zine 2022.

David sees dark and light around him in equal measure and that is reflected in his poetry, whether exploring working class themes, neurodivergence, addiction, urban living, our conflict with Nature, and the effects all these things have on relationships.

David works full-time in Long Term Care.