Apr 7, 2014 Uncategorized

 

Exhortation

(OR Who the Hell Knows What This Is About?!)

©April 7, 2014

By Vijaya Sundaram

 

Force the wo-

rds

Cor-

ral them, he-

rd them

Cro

wd them, ha-

rass them

Cow them into sub-

Put them on the boat

That awaits all words.

 

Yes!

 

(Poetry thrives on this –

The fear of silence.

 

Prose does, too.

Except that it has

So much more space,

So much more leeway.

So much wind blowing

Madly through chapters,

Stirring our consciences,

Making us stammer out

Confessions.)

 

And, like a silken thread

Running palely blue and gold

Between words and worlds,

Silence glows,

A Presence

Waiting to be glimpsed,

An Absence

For whom we yearn.

 

Death can wait.

Death knows how.

Death lies low

Waiting to spring

From the shadowy recesses,

Near where Charon waits.

 

And Life turns

Her head, as she flees

The Silence,

While the words

Become a ghost,

Wailing for her

Orpheus, us.

And all around us,

Roll her echoes,

As we climb, sobbing

Into the light.

Tags: #NaPoWriMo, #Original Poetry, #Orpheus, Charon, Escape from Hades, Life and Death, Sound and Silence