Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Untitled (12-Feb-2008)

I've been wanting to post something new but I've had trouble finishing any poems lately. I have several pages of half finished stuff which I look at but can't seem to find the words to complete. Some say all poetry comes from pain but what happens when that pain comes from the loss of the muse?

I wrote this today and it took quite a while. Like many of my poems, it started as a phrase which repeats itself in my mind. This particular phrase was "tied-up tiger." It went through several re-writes starting as a simple word pairing which just didn't feel right. The odd punctuation and capitalization are intentional and some thought went into it as is true with all my poetry.

I'm still not happy with it and I must admit that it's not very good. I also have no idea what it means but it touches me deeply and maybe I don't want to know why. As such, I leave it untitled.

Tied-up Tiger
tail help fast;
Captive Corpse
buried at last.

Bridled Bull
horns unfreed;
Held-back horse
without a lead.

Caged Canary
fate unknown;
Manacled Man
stands alone.

2 comments:

paisley said...

that is nice... very smooth and rhythmical as well as concise... i like this form... and it suits you,, and your message in this piece....

Anonymous said...

There seems to be a message here. All the other animals are bound by man who is nevertheless not free. It reminded me of the 'mind forged manacles' in Blake's 'London'.