The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poem Thread, 10/17/07 Bonus

[BlueIris]

"The House of Pain"

The old Greeks tried to flee
unending nights of ache,
agonies like blade on blade
by hiding in rented rooms
in the Temple of Asklepios,

but pain is a haunted house
that reads our mind. "He
has seen but half the universe,"
Emerson says, "who has not
been shown the house of pain."

Here some drafts only disturb,
but others suck in our breaths,
make us sweat each heartbeat,
or frost windows bone-white.
Such nights, desire is nothing

but desire for nothing.
Muscles spasm, back's crack.
We bark shins on table legs,
singe fingers at the grate,
chairs too heavy—nearly.

Kant was able for one night
to will away his pain,
five loud toes of gout,
by sitting close as he could
to the fire and studying

the speeches of Cicero,
but Kant, after all, was Kant.
For most of us, if pain
chains and locks us in,
we will study no one else.

—David Citino

[BlueIris]

1. Kick.

[BlueIris]

2. Kick.

[BlueIris]

3. I thought this one would be hugely popular.

[ThomCat]

4. This guy knew what he was talking about.

Wow. Another good one for the wall over my desk at work.

[BlueIris]

5. Yes, he did. Sadly, he passed away a couple of years ago.

Not sure what he died of. He did have MS, though, I believe.

[DarkTirade]

6. Still waitin' for monkeys. :)

[BlueIris]

7. Working on it.

I did post a poem with monkeys in it a while back...on 8/20..."The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter."

A re-post for those who missed it...it can be found in my journal by the by:

“The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”

While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.

At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.

At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever and forever.
Why should I climb the look out?

At sixteen you departed.
You went into far Ku-to-yen, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.

You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
As far as Cho-fu-sa.

—Li Po

[DarkTirade]

8. Yay! Monkeys. :)

Here's a couple of mine.

Monkey

Monkeys, everywhere, chasing me
rabid chimps and baboons.
I run into the dark
room and close the door.
Shadows all around me
the red light bathes my soul in a hellish glare. I take my
sword and dive into the shadows
fighting with the shadows
rabid monkeys pouring through
windows. I am bitten. I am gone.
I am...
A MONKEY!

My english teacher told me that one was 'esoteric'. I.E., she read a lot more into it than I'd bothered putting into it in the first place. :)

And so I did this one as a followup.

Dreams are Real

dreary life fades away
red light enters my mind
elephants march by in my head
all of them are purple and pink
monkeys chase me all around
silver swords swing at my mind

all around me the monkeys swarm
resigning to my fate I lie down
everything goes fuzzy for a while

realizing I was asleep
everything makes sense
all the monkeys that dragged me away
left on the last train to Paris

Yeah... I didn't particularly like that english teacher. :)