Apr 2012
Awakened by the rumble in the ground,
I stared unfocused at a rolling cloud
of smoke and black soot falling all around,
and startled at the thunder-crack so loud,
that scared to lifeless sleep a thousand faces,
which littered fields to the most remote places.
The rumbling, now with squeaking iron wheels,
grew louder as the iron beasts approached,
I stood and reeled upon two aching heels,
the sight of monsters ready to encroach.
I fell beneath the belly of one beast,
devoured into its raging, trampling feast.
Awakened by the whooshing of my breath,
pressed out from lungs and skin so completely,
after the cracking, crunching sound of death,
where pneuma from its flesh finds liberty.
As light as soot-less air that blows away,
I bid farewell to me. I could not stay.
Around the fields where soldiers came to slay,
some shadows danced their jig victoriously,
while others puppeteered warriors in play,
and bathed in blood-warm sin so joyfully.
And white-robed praying men stood off aside,
with faces deep in praying hands to hide.
And, as if sniffing blood upon the air,
some shadows turned their heads at once to me,
proceeded to approach like floating hair
of one drowned, pushed about, under the sea.
Their un-mouthed accusations, gurgled screams,
struck fearsome that I burned up at my seams.
Yet one warm hand upon my shoulder stayed
my tremblings, my accusers ghastly shrieked.
My fears, not fully quenched, were much allayed.
The white-robed man, in un-mouthed words did speak,
in my defense, recalling all good deeds,
at times when his advice I'd somehow heed.
The raging shrieks cast all I ever did,
from infancy until this very war,
all things exposed and all I ever hid,
my very being was bared down to my core.
In minutes lasting for eternity,
my every living moment I could see.
Both sides had piled my deeds upon a scale,
each deed a colored weight much like a stone.
When one would add his stone, the other'd wail,
till finally I found myself alone.
I looked around and saw no one in sight,
as darkness overcame me with a fright.
In blindness, all around me, grinding teeth,
unreachable, beyond my farthest reach,
a heaviness, as trapped down underneath,
a chasm, somewhere, never to be breached.
The argument had finished, I surmised,
with my conclusion hardly a surprise.
(C)2010, Christos Rigakos
I stared unfocused at a rolling cloud
of smoke and black soot falling all around,
and startled at the thunder-crack so loud,
that scared to lifeless sleep a thousand faces,
which littered fields to the most remote places.
The rumbling, now with squeaking iron wheels,
grew louder as the iron beasts approached,
I stood and reeled upon two aching heels,
the sight of monsters ready to encroach.
I fell beneath the belly of one beast,
devoured into its raging, trampling feast.
Awakened by the whooshing of my breath,
pressed out from lungs and skin so completely,
after the cracking, crunching sound of death,
where pneuma from its flesh finds liberty.
As light as soot-less air that blows away,
I bid farewell to me. I could not stay.
Around the fields where soldiers came to slay,
some shadows danced their jig victoriously,
while others puppeteered warriors in play,
and bathed in blood-warm sin so joyfully.
And white-robed praying men stood off aside,
with faces deep in praying hands to hide.
And, as if sniffing blood upon the air,
some shadows turned their heads at once to me,
proceeded to approach like floating hair
of one drowned, pushed about, under the sea.
Their un-mouthed accusations, gurgled screams,
struck fearsome that I burned up at my seams.
Yet one warm hand upon my shoulder stayed
my tremblings, my accusers ghastly shrieked.
My fears, not fully quenched, were much allayed.
The white-robed man, in un-mouthed words did speak,
in my defense, recalling all good deeds,
at times when his advice I'd somehow heed.
The raging shrieks cast all I ever did,
from infancy until this very war,
all things exposed and all I ever hid,
my very being was bared down to my core.
In minutes lasting for eternity,
my every living moment I could see.
Both sides had piled my deeds upon a scale,
each deed a colored weight much like a stone.
When one would add his stone, the other'd wail,
till finally I found myself alone.
I looked around and saw no one in sight,
as darkness overcame me with a fright.
In blindness, all around me, grinding teeth,
unreachable, beyond my farthest reach,
a heaviness, as trapped down underneath,
a chasm, somewhere, never to be breached.
The argument had finished, I surmised,
with my conclusion hardly a surprise.
(C)2010, Christos Rigakos
For lack of a better genre or poetic form description I would categorize this poem as a Linked Quatrain-Couplet Narrative (or a Venus and Adonis Narrative--after the Shakespeare poem of the same name written in iambic pentameter), and somewhat in the style of William Wordsworth's "Daffodils" (1804), written in iambic tetrameter.
After more extensive research, I found this to be a Narrative of Sicilian Heroic Sestets (of rhyme scheme ababcc), not to be confused with the Italian form (of rhyme scheme abbacc). The Sicilian Heroic Sestet is identical to the English Sestet (which I believe was brought to England from Italy by Petrarch?)
As an extra aside, this form was inspired in me after reading a poem of similar form inside the wrapper of a Chocolov chocolate bar. Great chocolate, great poetry.
After more extensive research, I found this to be a Narrative of Sicilian Heroic Sestets (of rhyme scheme ababcc), not to be confused with the Italian form (of rhyme scheme abbacc). The Sicilian Heroic Sestet is identical to the English Sestet (which I believe was brought to England from Italy by Petrarch?)
As an extra aside, this form was inspired in me after reading a poem of similar form inside the wrapper of a Chocolov chocolate bar. Great chocolate, great poetry.
