"Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood"
T.S. Eliot (1888 - 1965)


~~~


perhaps.

can I communicate
what I cannot fully comprehend?

my voice poetic keener, age-softened,
grows less popular
for it
no longer reaches for
christmas ornament words and creamy cake-in-the-rain imagery

leave that to the better ones.

cherish simplest:
coming home to fresh sheets,
plumped pillows,
music,
tousled hair on pillowed histories,
river walks,
the lightest hand touch that rouses
the fireplace of contentment to glow briefly,
from logs that are more embered ash moments
than substance
capable of more flaming

the rumpled strivings of the young poets,
creativity of the masters of
voice and dancings bodies,
shopping lists of life~items that
reshape, restore my old~ness,
the revelations of the historians,
inducements to believe
in yet, more.

these exteriors are comprehendable.

don't forget the orange juice,
the first chilled swig from the plastic,
confirms I am breath-yet-capable,
one more poem-mission ready,
the mission objectives still not published.

Sun east welcomes me,
woman puttering kitchen coffee noises
it is neither spring yet or winter gone,
in-between like me,
in-between naissance and history remnant

question thy fiat,
Mr. Eliot,
cannot frame myself,
my who-I-am
six decades of myself.

can it then ere be said,
his poetry communicated
or ere contained ever a single
genuine word?

can I communicate
what I cannot fully comprehend?

you are the hint of something sweeter
better than this
and more comprehendable
to my sour mind
than anything else
and if nothing else
in these incoherent realms of abstinence
makes any sense to me
but you
then I think
I am afraid

Ignore the demons.
Remember that you did well,
Tell the demons to shut up.
You'rekayyou'reokayyou'reokay
Don't let anyone see you like this.
Plaster that smile
Be "happy."
Let the tears and blood fall in the showers
Let the freezing water mix with your warm tears,
Let the demons out of their cage.
Cause I'm not okay, I promise.
You couldve done better. Put more effort.
Stay up late. Study more.
Do so much more...
You're an idiot how did you even get into one of the schools?
Hah must have been a pity letter.
I ****.
I should've done better.
I could've done better.
That school? Seriously?
What are you, stupid?
Why, in fact I am.
My brain is mush and I didn't try hard enough to mold that stupid ******* into something comprehendable and usable.
Ishouldhaveishouldhaveishouldhave
****...
You are terrible and unusuable,
Nothing to those school,
Youre a ******* stupid ******* who is nothing.
Nothing worth looking at or inviting to a school.
A lil *******.

Go join the other pieces of **** over there,
Yeah?

The sun has been put to rest,
He must have be tired after a long hectic day,
He has gone to sleep, to his wife,
So darkness begins to crawl on the
Surface of the earth.

The birds too return to their nests,
Singing for their young ones,
The songs replace the debilitated bones
But the evil ones say behind,
To harm their their prey.

Fireflies show their beauty,
Their light illuminates my path,
Overcoming my lover’s, Lucy.

Fireworks in the sky,
Celebrating a fair departure.

The moon made it easier and
Stars made it comprehendable,
But the night came too soon,
I never had the chance to bade Lucy
Farewell!
Can’t sleep at the same moment.

The night came too soon,
I never had the chance to tell
Mother I would be coming,
I hate I did not tell my daughter I
Would be leaving.

So I woke up right before a gate,
Something told me this must be the gate
Men speak of,
I tried to knock like a common gentleman,
But it opened and my name was mentioned,
Then I heared “come in son”.
Live like no one else,
A life you would remember!

Referencing wisdom
Chinese / Japanese / Other
you will encounter
a metaphor using trees
to impart knowledge
on confronting affliction

"bamboo that bends", or
"the oak that breaks in a storm..."
comprehendable?
yes, even agreeable
                                               - partially

Openness to change
I can appreciate... but
to destructive change!?
Therein, my inner conflict

To resist violence
and to fall instead of sway.
Stoic refusal
to accept ancient wisdom.

In how to remain
- the teachings of confucius

Lying, pondering
hearing groaning, resisting.
I now realise,
like the oak by my window

                                               - I will fall.