Poetry Break: "Agoraphobia"
See, the universe out there really is big and scary...
(Image from Wikipedia)
Since we're all feeling rather apocalyptic these days, or should be, let me reveal to you the hidden words of an old apocalyptic poem that I wrote around 1984, which was something of an appropriate year for writing that kind of poem:
AgoraphobiaOfftopic remark ... has anyone ever written an apocalyptic poem to a Calypso beat and titled it "Apocalypso"? Jimmy Buffett sings a Matt Betton song by that title, if that qualifies ... but I mean as poem not set to music.
Listen. The city prowls at night, and outside your windows,
In the alley, pads to and fro as though a wild thing caged.
Beware. Beware the shadow on the stair, the shade that flows
Beneath your feet, for by its hidden undertow, enraged,
It'll drag you out into the street, where more than fear shall gnaw
Your bones and suck the marrow clean until they desiccate.
Brittle one. The beast has grasped you in his iron paw
Already; your bones -- your bones are dry ones, and it's too late
To turn, or make a desperate lunge as though you could escape.
You may as well accept your fate and peer ahead, and pray
For the future resurrection of the dead; God may scrape
Your scraps together then ... perhaps reconstitute the clay.
Labels: Poetry
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 4:46 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
" Beware the shadow on the stair, the shade that flows
Beneath your feet, for by its hidden undertow, enraged,
It'll drag you out into the street"
--Horace Jeffery Hodges
I wonder whether the poet got this image from the film, "Ghost."
No, because Ghost dates to 1990, and the poem to around 1984.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
"No, because Ghost dates to 1990, and the poem to around 1984."
--Jeffery Hodges
Ah, I see. I love this part.
And I won't ask whether you ghostwrite screenplays.
;)
--lollabrats
Lollabrats, was that you in the original comment?
Anyway, if I had ghostwritten Ghost, I wouldn't be in my current penurious circumstances . . .
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
"Lollabrats, was that you in the original comment?"
--Jeffery Hodges
Yes. I just forgot to leave my moniker.
I know I've read somewhere two other poems which make use of a simliar image you use here. But being a philistine, I could only recall "Ghost."
:p
By the way, I am happy that you do allow anonymous posting. It is much more convenient to participate in this blog than in others, which ask you to have an account.
:)
--lollabrats
Anonymous posting works well enough on this low-traffic blog. I can handle the occasional troll.
High traffic might bring some problems, but I doubt that a blog like mine will gain any high traffic.
Jeffery Hodges
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