Seven Poems by John Drudge

 

Clandestine Grace

 

A gentle touch

Igniting fires

In the gaps

Of resonant silence

Ensnared by desire

Intensely burning

Consuming

Elusively whispering

Through birth and demise

With our eyes reflected

In the splintered mirrors

Of fractured time

In forgotten epochs

And the illusion of lines

Through eternal space

Over the sound

Of broken notes

With a sudden

Clandestine grace

And a new-found communion

In a wilderness

Of words

Muse

 

My ultimate muse

My perpetual

Work in progress

You peel things

In the dark

And wait

Owl

 

Wisdom comes

In quiet moments

Gentle wings

On wayward winds

Soft callings

Guiding sharp eyes

Through dark forests

With the silence

Of an owl

Shimmering

 

In the moonlit air

Thick with possibility

In the jazz-filled nights

Along the river

Down long corridors

Of souls alight

Beneath the surface

Of ourselves

Where heartbeats

And dreams

Stoke shimmering fires

And we chase

The gilded mirrors

Of endless running

Beneath a new

Wolf moon

Reflected

Union

 

Absolute

In the search

For reality

Pale blue powder

In the morning light

Doors creaking open

Insight through attention

Captured

In a kiss

Under wild moons

And the union

Of the spirit

With the flesh

Unseen

 

Melancholic notes

Symphonies of longing

In dimly lit corners

Of cafes

Where unspoken dreams

Reside

And emotions bloom

With fragile petals

In silence

Cutting verse

Across night skies

Within the echoes

Of hope

And promises

Unfulfilled

Weavers

 

Savage jungles

Lovers prowling

Ravenous instinct

Dragging

Gripping

A saviour

And our undoing

A wilderness

Of untamed forces

Beneath lost language

And the intricacies

Of secret souls

And the endless weaving

Of being

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 five books of poetry: “March” (2019), “The Seasons of Us” (2019), New Days (2020), Fragments (2021), and A Long Walk (2023). 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.