Burst the Bounds
The snow and ice have melted
the grass returns to fields of gold,
So why am I still shivering?
The seas and rivers change their courses
and flow awry.
So why am I not turned to stone?
Faeries and elves stir up their sisters
into a furious dance.
So why cannot I move my legs today?
Immortality seizes man's imagination.
So can I live another day?
And why do I carry all the hours of all the days with me?
Zephyrs blow the seasons hither and thither,
So what is there to fear?
From year-to-year the swift moon repairs the heavens.
Tonight the star-clotted sky, tomorrow stitching clouds.
Have I grown old with all this waiting?
The good die
their heirs scramble and lie for their inheritance.
Who knows why?
The greedy hands of the already-rich
reach out for more, more. Always more.
While elsewhere bodies are tossed carelessly into a ditch.
Children's bodily eloquence is exploited.
Innocence pleads guilty to all charges.
If it is not you to restore your life? Who, then?
The chaste goddess, Diana of the darkness,
is no longer alone.
No god, can break man's pettiness and greed .
They no longer try to modify this ape.
All have tried and all have failed.
Stupidity is man's self-denying ordinance.
They run away from the potential to begin again, again.
John Marks
Fri 13th May 2022 19:10
Thank you Clare, Stephen and Holden. You are very kind. What a generous thing to say, Stephen, thank you very much.
'In this poor body, composed of one hundred bones and nine openings, is something called spirit, a flimsy curtain swept this way and that by the slightest breeze. It is spirit, such as it is, which led me to poetry, at first little more than a pastime, then the full business of my life. There have been times when my spirit, so dejected, almost gave up the quest, other times when it was proud, triumphant. So it has been from the very start, never finding peace with itself, always doubting the worth of what it makes.' Basho