At the prow, a maw appeared,
and began to tear at and consume the sea-mother
from whose vomit they had risen.
In the stern, various gods
enormous of mouth, globular, gelatinous,
wounded each other avidly.
On a blue sea beneath a pearl sky,
the angry damned carried this obscene craft on their hands,
filmed with pitch and gasoline.
Cretinous sailors with disappearing arms
composed semaphore hymns sung by trapped demons
who drowned tangled in blind flags.
The angry damned
consumed in flame!
Sea on fire!
Blood immolation!
Worlds cracking, erupting,
lava herds of the diseased damned plunging headlong
into further misery.
Miasma of sick flotillas expanding, gaseous, unwholesome
into the scaled palms
of the shrieking, angry damned
leading each other by sharp hooks through the brain
down into hard pressure depths
where transparent monsters wave phosphorescent pennants
and say, through needle teeth,
Behold, I am the sun, the light, come unto me,
and they rush in, like vermin to a corpse.
_________
with thanks to Arthur Rimbaud, Stephen Crane and Allen Ginsberg. This is either an homage or a rip-off, depending on what you think.
for Sunday Muse #167.
Blogger absolutely would NOT let me fix the spacing at the beginning. It is not meant to have the extra spaces there.
A chilling, almost excruciating ride, voluptuous in its mirroring of evil, rapacious in its all-encompassing truths. I definitely sensed the Crane in some of those startling, stark images, particularly in the cascade of vivid language leading to the final killer lines. I hate to quote as you know, but some of these phrases just blew me away, especially "..various gods/enormous of mouth...wounded each other avidly." "filmed with pitch and gasoline.." and "....leading each other by sharp hooks through the brain/down..." Probably the best and most accurate exposure I've read about the hate and anger ruling so many now. Fine writing, Shay, at the top of your form.
ReplyDeleteThank you dear BFF. You know what a comment like this, from you, means to me.
DeleteLike HW, I hear the Stephen Crane. Can get to the Ginsberg. What/where in Rimbaud, I want to read that!!
DeleteA Season In Hell and/or The Drunken Boat. ;-)
DeleteA powerful message flows here my friend, one that only a great poet like you could craft! I love how the imagery takes from what the image holds and does not and leads us down a dark path of what sadly is in this world. One cannot read this and not be affected by it's raw truth. You always inspire me with your talent Shay!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, my friend. This image was awesome, as usual!
DeleteThis alone is close to perfection: "On a blue sea beneath a pearl sky, / time's drunken messenger carved a name on the side / of the shell in which he was born." And I love the repeat of the soft chew of that opening line of the blue sea and pearl sky -- the first time, it leaves us unprepared for the intensity that follows. The second time, it is an echo back to how far we've been blown by a tornado from Kansas. The setup at the end is "incroyable:" "down into hard pressure depths / where transparent monsters wave phosphorescent pennants / and say, through needle teeth, / Behold, I am the sun, the light, come unto me" I'm too crap a poet and would have stopped there and strut my life before the stage, but a poor player. I wouldn't have had the guts for that amazing last line.
ReplyDeleteThat ending just rolled right onto the page, almost unbidden. I'm so glad this spoke to you. Thanks for your comment!
DeleteSurrealistic horror of the most chilling kind. Hooked through the brain and pulled into the depths of darkness is a good way of putting it!
ReplyDeleteSuch a nightmare at times in these days of madness. Strong write Shay. Perhaps some monsters cannot be killed?! Though I hope to gawd this one can!
ReplyDeleteThat was chilling! A powerful write Shay.
ReplyDeleteThe final image of monsters claiming to be gods just set the shudders going. With apologies of my own for being so ill-read that this puts me more in mind of Cthulhu than Ginsberg, it was both chilling and stomach-turning. And I could see it being read as a warning and taken as a spur to further madness.
ReplyDeleteI was most taken with the opening lines qbit quoted. Amazing imagery and tale-telling, as always. Wow.
ReplyDeleteShay, this is powerful, intelligent, riveting, chilling! Not enough adjectives in my brain will do it justice. Happy 4th to you and yours.
ReplyDeleteand this is it: "who drowned tangled in blind flags"
ReplyDeleteas well, the opening line so good it merits repeating. To me, that's Hemingway or Steinbeck - writers who witnessed the carnage of their age, the film of depravity of it, yet also - like you - wrote sublimely ~
Your words encapsulate the very nightmares of which I dreamt . Spoken aloud, they roll around the tongue - pure enjoyment. :-)
ReplyDeleteIf Jacques Yves Cousteau wouldn't have invented his diver's cabin and showed us the world in the ocean under the glistening surface, my fear of the ugly monsters in the far depth of the swimming pool, would have grown into this. Not as well worded, but as creepy,... and burdening fantasy.
ReplyDeleteSo chilling and creative. Almost the antitheses of Lucy In The Sky
ReplyDeleteWith Diamonds. (just my fantasy)
Hello, friend. i stopped by to say Hi and catch up and what an amazing poem to land on. The insanity of present times is so perfectly conjured in your lines, in a way that chills the marrow in my bones. Great to read your voice.
ReplyDeleteThe Temptations was a perfect accompaniment to this poem. The whole poem was perfect, but I especially loved this line: "leading each other by sharp hooks through the brain." Wow!
ReplyDelete