Four Poems by David Alec Knight

 

All Resolutions Can Lead To Reset...

After years -- I'm painting again.

A few of them are great, but

most are merely good.

A few are neither

great, nor merely good.

 

Some won't see a gallery.

But some may sell anyway.

Quite a few I imagine will be

purchased at vendor events,

some perhaps by recently divorced

soccer moms, you know, the ones

who drive around rocking to Danzig

acting as if no one notices it,

the ones who still think that Danzig's

evil bricks is still a thing even.

 

And some of my paintings

would not look out of place

on a drug dealer's living room wall

in an old episode of Miami Vice.

 

 

Poet And Continuum

Reading poetry and learning

from all you read how to write poetry

can aid your development as a poet.

Being mentored by other poets

can encourage your growth as a poet.

Reading your poems at readings

can establish you as a poet.

 

Paying your dues like every

other poet can make you a poet.

Being published in anthologies

can make you a poet to the critics.

Receiving an award for your poetry

can validate all you do as a poet.

Having books of poems published

can preserve your words as a poet.

 

You will remain long after

your passing in some way

as long as someone somewhere

sometime is reading

your poems.

 

So, you will be

so, you are then

so, you were

poet.

 

 

On Reading "Spring and All"

I was reading William Carlos Williams'

"Spring and All" while listening

to The Doors album Strange Days.

When I began to read Chapter XIX

this maddening sudden vision overtook me

of a young Jim Morrison, in the years

before I was born, reading the same

and being moved to write "Horse Latitudes".

 

 

Anticipatory Grief

The slowly setting sun

still sinks too fast when

one has a deathly sick cat

in their arms, and those arms

are saddened at his diminished weight

his shoulders sharpened and his body

limp with no flick from his tail.

 

I remind him in cracking whispers

how far he recovered, how much

he healed with me... Long nights he shook

in my arms during fearful, insecure sleep

of nightmares, and how I cradled him,

calmed him, reassured him.

I yet grieved for the cat before him;

he yet grieved for the human before me.

We shared empathy and shared healing.

I remind him of all the good days had.

 

My voice is crumpled like dry leaves --

It is okay to close your eyes, my friend,

I cry. It is okay if you have to let go, I cry.

David Alec Knight grew up in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. He is a graduate of St. Clair College and University of Windsor. Poems have appeared in many anthologies and journals in Canada, the US and UK. Recent work has appeared in NIght Owl Narrative, Verse Afire, and Medusa's Kitchen.  He was recipient of the Ted Plantos Memorial Award for Poetry, 2021. Leper Mosh (Cajun Mutt Press, 2022), was his first book to feature his own art on the cover. A new collection will appear in 2024.