When someone has taken the trouble
to scrape up dog mess with no shovel
into a bag that is plastic,
then park it there as a tactic
means pollution has been redoubled.
a subtle, almost imperceptible vibrational distraction
became an irritant causing consciousness contraction
taking a step back, we allowed the flame to die out
contemplating on why we had so allowed it to grout
as such, the seeming nonevent, though a flicker in time
redoubled our resolve to entwine with the divine sublime
16-May-2023
In his mind he makes his plans
So many things he'll do
To finish each and every one
He'd surely need four hands
He starts his day, but right away
He senses he's in trouble
Yet instead of scaling back a bit
His maniacal pace is redoubled
By noon he's gassed and at wit's end
How will everything get done
Panicked, he decides to skip his lunch
Make a desperate afternoon run
At 3:00 p.m. he sees it's hopeless
He'll never win the battle
It dawns on him his quest's insane
The finish line a death rattle
Near those flowers blooming with grace
I rest in shade and find a slower pace
Spring air has faded with the rain
Summer heat redoubled with pain
Winter stillness so far away
Love will find a way I'm told
there on the bench though I still grow old
A morning mist hath gathered around the leaves
and there are no more petals remaining on the trees
Butterflies hover, working hard so delicate a creature
Winds blow the dirt on the road
dust forms under walking mold
mountain forms on the horizon dawn
steadily tread toward the peaks, a pawn
Spirit walk with me, for sunrise is gone
As youth flows out with middle age,
I find it hard to turn the page.
Life deals the cards and calls our name.
We ante up, or leave the game.
Working, saving, spending, craving
If success is measured by the things we own
By glorious deeds so widely known,
Then I must fold; in shame confess,
“I've lost this hand, I've failed the test.”
Labor, scheming, planning, dreaming
The dreams of youth are so elusive,
Love and fortune, so exclusive,
Time has placed them beyond my grasp,
The lock of age is on the hasp.
Experience, yearning, study, learning
Notions in granite, supplanted anew,
Ideals, so innocent and true
That filled my adolescent thoughts,
Replaced with truth; by patience wrought.
Knowledge, growing, wisdom showing
Life is not over! Not soiled with rust!
The dawn is now! A light to trust.
My coffers fill to overflowing.
My treasures humble, still are growing.
Riches tallied, courage rallied
A home and family; sacred ground,
With spouse and children gathered 'round,
A stronghold, safe from worldly trouble.
My life's net worth has been redoubled.
Orphic consecration, Translation of Pierre Emmanuel’s Dédicade d’Orphée by T. Wignesan
Here am I back from the other dubious bank
where Orpheus’s abandonned lyre laments
the wind down there fills my veins dizzy drunk
and my redoubled hangover numbs my senses.
After having used up my human resemblance
mauve moons of Hell have gotten me in a spin
My eyes ? two diamonds of winter or two fountains
which stare at an immutable sun and remain frozen.
Similar tree springing deep roots, blind to murmurs
shakes in its sleep nocturnal verdures
where defunct suns ripen forgotten :
Very same tree that by day the light violates
bereft of foliage, bereft of birds, clawing at clouds
curses summer with its huge arms anathème.
(from the collection Sodome, O.C. t. I, p. 253)
Note : Sonnet’s original rhyme scheme :
abab, abab ccb, ccb
© T. Wignesan – Paris, October 6, 2014
The darkness comes again
and I am fading
to shades of gray with empty eyes
until I am nothing more than a shadow
cast upon my wall
my sanity being exiled
by this dark master
dictating my steps
balance fragile
I teeter on the edge
between myself and the nothing I am to become
haunted again by the pain it revives
as I battle the demons sent to vanquish me
naked and exposed
to the tomb within my shell
my prison
while the clock ticks away the precious hours
which are lost to me forever
too many already stolen
doubled and redoubled
by this heartless evil
that I have known too long
now slashing through my mind again
with jagged razors of thought
as the last of my colors are spilled
in the rainbow tears that drown my eyes
my foothold lost
I fall once more
into the darkness
that has come
to take me
in its waiting arms
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