Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Renunciation

Awake,
dream's opiate clings
in the vein, unyielding
as well-rooted trees to
the hurricane force of
our reality.

Awake,
life's dust and downtuned
guitars crush the chords
connecting one joint with
the next, one faded impulse
to purity still calling out,
off tune but clear enough in
twinned reverb.

Awake,
rivers running purple
'neath the timid moon
tonight, and it is too early
for sleeping and retreat.

Awake to the noise of sirens on
the road and tortured metal
as the car crash penetrates
from the future place where
its happening is yet to be a
mathematical surety.

Awake and stride the yawning
distances between each of us,
echoing vaults as deep as
abandoned concert halls when
the orchestra has gone home.

Awake now, sweet brothers
and sisters, and may we renounce
sleeping for the knowledge of
all those things we have missed
so far, those additive detriments
collected until all our legions
of imagined pack horses cannot
carry them, even as they raise the
dust of prairies behind us like
the spirit herds of long-silent
buffalo, for we cannot pierce
these veils unconscious, cannot
continue this way, lashed to
the saddle, heads bowed like
dying cowboys as we go
westward into the gloom.

2 comments:

Risu said...

Man, your consistency and frequency is enviable...

Patrick M. Tracy said...

Braleigh,

I'm surprised myself. I usually can't keep my poetry writing impulses "up on the cam" for this long. So far, I haven't had to start forcing it.

Erin,

I'm glad they don't all start sounding the same. I've been trying to "voice" each poem with particular language or structure. Thanks for your great compliments.

Ken,

You're not parochial. Your study and clarity in that poetic moment is a great strength, and it would be at odds with a tactic that referenced too many things.

For me, I just "throw it all at the wall", and hope it comes out good. If a poem runs me from physics to drugs to car crashes to the final scene in "Shane", then I just let it happen and hope for the best.

Glad you liked it.

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