Five Poems by Linda Imbler

 

Wild moon

 

A fusion of

the goals of youth, deeply affected,

always too impatient to wait for the end,

the goals of age, to establish a dynasty

by way of modest victory,

the aims of the dead ones,

the potent wishes to return home again

and forget what they have undergone.

 

A symbol avenged,

a lonely hero’s pain,

diminished when the work is done.

 

All sacred stones,

tumbling down,

carrying a taste for the sensual,

and the memory

of the oldest names ever known.

 

A caught butterfly,

or unbroken chains hold fast,

offer little distinction.

 

The universe restructures,

after many delays,

disruptive breath,

a voice departed,

removed from

the natural shape

of a box of former misfortunes,

injuries once found in disguise.

 

 

Counterfeited Glory

 

We should harbour no ill opinion

of poorly chosen heroes,

but need to weigh the significance

of their contributions,

realizing we only know a limited number

of their secrets,

if any at all,

as they strut,

faking the importance of their

exaggerated astonishing splendour,

striking poses in an attempt to demand

an awe they say should be lasting.

 

Bestowing our flattery

upon the peacock proud

to whom we impart

vacuous praise.

Keeping our fawning

in steady grand proportions.

 

Counterfeited glory,

in accordance with their wishes.

 

 

Defanged Pain

 

The most bountiful fount

after a cosey rain,

after the landscape wept.

 

A weary multitude,

tired but fortunate,

under the sky’s network.

 

Knowing what to do,

as memories snap into place,

as whims are flung aside.

The staunch upholders

of defanged pain.

 

 

Death On The Run

 

Death should have been more careful choosing who to take.

 

The shake, rattle, and roll of my serpent’s spiral,

uncoiling, laying open my wrath,

like a snake with dragons’ flair.

 

He can only swim by torch

because the world’s gone dark.

Even the stars withdrew,

when they heard

my never before imagined ear-splitting hiss.

But it will do him no good.

There’s froth on the sea by such fury,

creating a blistering flow.

He becomes caught in my blaze to be swept away.

 

He’ll try to hide behind the thunder.

He’ll try to creep under

the amplified stroke of my lightning.

He’ll pray to be rescued

from my twisting stare.

 

He sits cowering, trembling,

trying to imagine a place through which to escape.

He’ll long to discover a new orbit

where I cannot pursue him.

 

But, I found him anyway.

Because I made huge billows of dark clouds,

turning them pale like those he made dead,

and exposing his location.

 

I clawed fragments of thread

from his stealthy black-cowled robe,

now a torn thing,

melted the straps he put on the living,

turned his concocted schemes

into a sizzling pan of burnt dreams.

 

Death has spent his last cold-lipped kiss.

He’s never coming back.

Fate of the Devil’s Victory

 

The hideous fruit of

unadorned palaces,

victory’s consequence as ashes strewn.

Squat manors of immense size

that cannot satisfy.

Old and squalid open temples,

once considered all that was desired.

 

Looming dangers,

hanging over the edge of the abyss.

 

Who could possible flourish

at the table of those bearing cruelty?

 

Who could patiently endure

sitting at the knees of those so strange,

of the horrible, coarse, and grotesque?

 

Who could give devotion to

those who foster the true cause of grief?

 

A fantasy of imagined bliss,

caught in the hollow of a rock,

in an age-old attempt

to fulfil the myth

that to overcome evil

it will take the most amiable peace.

Linda Imbler is an internationally published poet, an avid reader, classical guitar player, and a practitioner of both Yoga and Tai Chi.  In, addition, she helps her husband, a Luthier, build acoustic guitars.  She lives in Wichita, Kansas, U.S.A. where she enjoys her 200-gallon saltwater reef tank wherein resides her 24 year old yellow tang.  Linda’s poetry collections include eight published paperbacks: Big Questions, Little Sleep First Edition, Big Questions, Little Sleep Second Edition; Lost and Found; Red Is The Sunrise; Bus Lights; Travel Sight; Spica’s Frequency; Doubt and Truth; and A Mad Dance.  Soma Publishing has published her four e-book collections, The Sea’s Secret Song; Pairings, a hybrid of short fiction and poetry; That Fifth Element; and Per Quindecim. Examples of Linda’s poetry and a listing of publications can be found at lindaspoetryblog.blogspot.com.  Linda has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and six Best Of The Nets.