David Leger

David Leger Aug 2014

If shallow lakes hold your beauty in their waters,
I do not care to break their stilling surface,
Water lilies and reeds of wild grass do not tempt,
Because where do I find more, once the image falters
With little more than a gaze at the lilies? Their grace,
On the surface, is all they can give for an attempt.

In shallow lakes, I can see their bottom is nigh,
So to swim is not feasible, nor delightful;
To merely wade in a shallow pond — uninspiring!
Alas, to surface from deepest parts yields but a sigh,
And if waters here were to drink, it would not fill my soul,
Still beautiful to gaze upon, but after little time is tiring.

So I indulge myself in the vastness of the sea,
The depths are endless, and the storms are foul,
But in the ocean deep, when I start swimming far,
The waters are an infinite sea of fantasy,
To be swallowed whole within the temptest’s howl;
The deepest depths will heal the deepest scar.

I'm not looking for some shallow lake; I'm looking for a deep ocean to get lost in.

#love #water #soul #storm #lake #ocean #sea #deep #shallow #lilies

David Leger Aug 2014

The Tides Will Shift As They May

These here, these great seas,
All the poets have come to you;
and stood in awe before vast pleasing views,
Of tempests wrought great sorrow,
Of skies filled with ore and silver light,
Of deep unknown and questioning existence,
Of gods, and heavens more vast than you,
Of who sails beyond the horizon,
Of the winds and scents of your shores,
Of endless sands to set foot upon,
Of all the arcane myths and lores!

How may I greet these great seas any differently?
So that I may cause a shift in the tides?
Alas, dreams far grander than I, these are;
The tides will shift as they may,
And every soul will be swept away.

A tribute to Whitman's style.

#poetry #life #sorrow #soul #ocean #sea #tide #whitman #vast

David Leger Aug 2014

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David Leger Aug 2014

***** For The Cold World

Coiled around the core
     of my heart
Is a sigh for the *****
     who sold my art.

I was that fiend, lusting for care,
     not long ago,
I wrote the shame on the page I tear,
     I am my foe.

But dead now, is that ***** *****,
     Buried deep within;
I write for me forevermore,
     Yet carry still that sin.

I used to write for the wrong reasons, but not anymore. I'll never let that ***** in me sell me out again.

#truth #***** #change #selfish #writing #angry #sellout

David Leger Aug 2014

The Dress

my daughter wore
     a white dress
          to school today;

     it now looks awful
          red on her.

style somewhat inspired by "The Red Wheelbarrow"

#sad #change #white #red #color #pure #daughter #innocence

David Leger Aug 2014

She'll Hunt Me For Eternity

She draws nearer in her hunt for me,
While I cling to my world within;
Her poison dart seeks purest blood,
I am the child without sin.

Her alluring lips, the scent of lust
Like scores of ropes constricting;
I fear the Dark Angel will claim me one day
And fear I most that her love will be addicting.

This is one that I think requires some explanation. I see so many people I know falling in love and they lose who they used to be. Some for better, but many for worse. I fear the same thing will happen to me: I'll find a girl and all my interest will shift to pleasing her. I also fear I'll lose part of me because it's something that she dislikes, or I won't be able to be myself around her because she wouldn't understand my quirks and they would turn her off. I dated a girl once who never knew I wrote, and I didn't tell her because I wrote a lot about her, and it was too early in the relationship to be revealing the feelings I wrote about. That may have been the wrong thing to do, but wither way, doesn't matter now. However, I still wonder what I might hide if I were to start a relationship today.
This poem is about that fear of losing myself, and the fear that I might pursue a relationship because I've been single for so long. I'm not against "hooking up" but rather I think I'd fall for almost anyone if they show interest in me, which is why I'm careful as to who I show interest for. Anyway, that's enough rambling for something most people won't read.

David

#love #sin #fear #relationships #lips #blood #dating #hunt

Aug 2014

Walt Whitman

I Sit And Look Out

I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all
    oppression and shame;
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with
    themselves, remorseful after deeds done;
I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying,
    neglected, gaunt, desperate;
I see the wife misused by her husband—I see the treacherous seducer
    of young women;
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be
    hid—I see these sights on the earth;
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny—I see martyrs and
    prisoners;
I observe a famine at sea—I observe the sailors casting lots who
    shall be ****’d, to preserve the lives of the rest;
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon
    laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;
All these—All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out
    upon,
See, hear, and am silent.