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Jason Horsler Poem
In the final week they still swept their floors.
A gate was mended on the third last day -
the people in the village so stuck in their way,
that some, in leaving, even locked their doors
as if to keep back the dam tide -
frail wooden levees that will not hold.
They die hard: the habits of old,
and cannot be casually cast aside.
There is a nephilim here, in the leafy dark,
staking his plants and pulling out weeds,
though the distant coffer dam is broken.
As in the days of Noah and his ark,
the gardener labours in vain for vain needs,
ignoring the government prophecy spoken.
Copyright © Jason Horsler | Year Posted 2023
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Jason Horsler Poem
I judge a painting on a simple term,
one benchmark that covers them all -
considering everything else I ask:
‘would I have this up on my wall?’
I love to read other's poetry
and I hope that they love to read mine.
There's much to be gained and lost (only time)
and iron, it is writ, sharpens iron.
And yes, I can list the things I insist
make a poem a wonderful thing:
what does it say and without cliche;
does it rhyme when it's read, does it ring?
Does it resonate, this topic they chose?
Is their point belaboured or brief?
What image was used to start a thought?
What thread runs through the motif?
Criteria piles up and gets in the way -
are there artless gauges or signs?
Perhaps, in the end, did it make me say:
‘How I wish I had written these lines’?
Copyright © Jason Horsler | Year Posted 2024
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Jason Horsler Poem
Who dares rouse Leviathan,
the Giant beneath the heaving deeps?
This world now teams with Ahabs
whose heaping anger never sleeps.
Each one wants to hook its jaw
and each to press its tongue;
to try its rich and fragrant oil
and see it bound and beached and dumb.
Poor soul captains on fragile ships
vainly sharpening the barbless spear.
The Whale scoffs beneath the waves,
rising to teach all wisdom through fear.
Soon the Brute will breach and blow
and send each Pequod down below.
Copyright © Jason Horsler | Year Posted 2023
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