It Was the Word After All

Wrapped into a cocoon of impenetrable meaning and faith he followed the light

Doom and gloom had once shadowed his library of dreams and contentment

Scattered in his loony resemblance of a rational mind words rearranged reason

Analyses can be paralyses when parables and images leave inclinations behind

On a scrap heap of garbled projections irrational rationalizations and repression


Tobias lifted his weary bones from a rocking chair next to the fireplace of passion

Surrounded by words written on actual pages he settled for days in the night

Dust had gathered on poems and fables great words of legends and scribblers

There were simply too many pages to turn revisit and explore for the book worm

They called him a loon and bedlam was a good friend just as the literal works


He had once been a young man of many impressions expressions and hunger

For learning understanding comprehension and an unquenchable thirst for more

It had all started with Pippy Longstocking and Famous Fives’s escapades and

There was no escape route from caves and quest for memorable anticipation

Robinson on his island The Little Prince Plato’s Cave and the Never Ending Story


His hips had crumbled one leg was now shorter than to other and he limped

Held on to bannisters and a stick as he hobbled through a Theatre of the Mind

Mens sana in sana corpore ‘Carpe diem’ as he tried not to trip over the kilims

‘If I slide one book under one of my feet there will be equilibrium and harmony’

Book titles and covers a few manuals and a whole encyclopaedia of wisdom


Shelves all over the walls for ‘ex libris’ post scripts and forewarning letters

Summaries epilogues odysseys even epitaphs collected all for the same purpose

Some on the desk some under the bed and piles everywhere in leaps and bounds

He could not choose elevation at pure random and thus he went with his heart

The pedestals under his legs got taller and taller and he reached for the ceiling


Time ago he had draped oriental rugs from the plafond which he now vaulted

Firmly suspended under a seemingly weightless canopy of decorous carpets

Draped onto silken threads knots and the sheer beauty of pattern and purview

He gazed in awe and astonishment at more leather-bound volumes of charm

Jules Verne’s Travel to the Centre of the Earth and the journey was his own



07th March 2019
Copyright © | Year Posted 2019

Poem

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De Beaulieu Avatar
April 1, 2019 at 11:13 AM
Hello l Kaj Micheal Neumann, this is a great poem.have a nice day my friend.
Neumann Avatar
April 3, 2019 at 4:33 AM
Thank you Darlene. I appreciate that. I have not written much recently. Our stuff from South Africa has arrived in Spain and we are in the process of unpacking hundreds of boxes. Mostly books. Kind wishes to you, Kai
Agustin Avatar
March 13, 2019 at 2:14 AM
Wow! Thanks for the example, and for sharing your talent. God bless you.
Neumann Avatar
March 13, 2019 at 3:33 AM
Thank you Beata. Kind wishes, Kai
Dietrich Avatar
March 8, 2019 at 2:38 PM
Lots of detail in your example poem for us. Very good description of a book worm!
Neumann Avatar
March 9, 2019 at 9:26 AM
Thank you Andrea. We have moved to Spain. Bought lots of bookshelves at IKEA, but our stuff from South Africa is still on the ship.The shelves look very lonely at the moment.
Michael Avatar
March 7, 2019 at 5:37 PM
Love your concept and write...like a fruitful tree of poetry...
Neumann Avatar
March 9, 2019 at 9:26 AM
Thank you Arturo ...
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