Five Poems by John Drudge

 

A Dance 

 

Inspiration’s 

A funny thing 

It blurs vision 

With reality 

Faith with imagination 

Igniting creativity 

Fuelling passions 

Breathing life 

Into the mundane 

A muse that whispers 

In the ears of dreamers 

Like a gentle breeze 

Or a sudden rain 

Connecting time to fantasy 

Desire to aspiration 

A painter’s brush 

A poet’s tone 

A dance  

Between lovers

Walking Home 

 

The street lights 

On St. Michel 

By the cathedral 

Always made you look 

Like an angel 

When you smiled 

Your laughter 

Echoing off walls 

Your essence 

A ripple of light 

On a moon-soaked river  

And a love for everything 

Falling over 

The reflected surface  

Of your eyes

Wheatfield with Crows 

 

The truth of art 

Lasts much longer 

Than the truth of events 

Especially 

When your brain  

Begins to sear itself 

In the boiling blood 

Of passion’s release 

Before one big blow 

Puts you down 

Like a throat punch 

From the setting sun 

Fixated 

Like a dog on a bone 

On somewhere 

Lost to time 

Overwhelmed  

By the reality of beauty 

And the singular  

Experience 

Of being one’s  

Self

Giverny  

 

Near the bamboo garden 

By the pond 

Across the surface 

Of a summer’s kiss 

And the Japanese bridge 

Over waterscapes 

Of lilies 

And sun-spiked splashes 

Of yellow irises 

Like an incredible  

Painted expanse 

Of freedom 

In a slow  

And peaceful  

Luminescence 

In a quiet provincial  

Backwater 

On the banks 

Of the river Seine

Fences 

 

The length of days 

Grows longer  

In the summer sun 

Beyond the fables 

And the stories 

As the rain on the horizon 

Threatens 

And crowds huddle 

Together 

Along the fences

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 seven books of poetry: “March” (2019), “The Seasons of Us” (2019), New Days (2020), Fragments (2021), A Long Walk (2023), A Curious Art (2024) and Sojourns (2024) . His work has appeared widely in 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.