Two Poems:With the Whole Crowd/Apparently So
by Darryl Price
With the whole bizarre crowd
surrounding us like birds on shit covered cliffs, offering up a bowl full of choppy seas to the many bored and stuffed sky gods,
we danced our way
into all their hard shell covered hearts
as one thing. Still they never
knew our hiding
places at their side. It's someone's shame, but I'm not sure exactly whose.
Oh yeah that splendidly imagined
air kept fanning
its brilliant wings up and down for
us; like some unholy golden
breath it caused
our glowing skin to burn with each
newly risen
piping hot note.Others
thought," they're just
simply reflecting to sad
stars like resurfacing
fish," but they
bent their cold wicks upon our frightened
faces anyway -- like angel children
with their hands full of unlit cold candles.
The circle would not be
broken for them
no matter how
hard they pulled on
its golden twisted belt.She tried out many sweet
smiles, her gentle
gait being much the preferred wheel
spinning all around them in their fizzy heads like any cool breeze would at that circus.
I wanted to
go first to bear
it for her but
she insisted
that our loss should always be one
shared breath.And so their
sharp stones buried us together.
062310
Apparently So
"Fun is the one thing that money can't buy."--The Beatles
"Fun is the one thing that money can't buy."--The Beatles
And the unwinding rain that blew against us
became black and reddened
like so many had always
dreamed it would. Did that make it
any less true for you? The kids refused
to murder their
own childhoods in order
to appease the
adults who were always so terribly busy
digging holes again and again
in their own thick as brick skulls,
the frightened sad adults.
And birds refused to
act like muted cats.
And branches refused
to stop groping for
more sun. And secret
stars still came out. And
lovers refused to
stop caressing hands.
And the poets sang
into their battered
top hats upon the
filthy alleyways
without asking for
an audience or food or more
money. And there were
lights in windows and
windows in rain and if
you chose to look at it really
close up then finally
you could stare and just
make out a million
little new flowers
pushing up the dirt
with their tiny soft heads.
And no one thought peace
had a chance in hell
of making the news at midnight.
And the TV comedians
made everyone
cry. And so
the children sang,"Enough
already, rock
and roll all night long!"
dp
Your poetry stimulates many layers of thought. These three in particular stand out to me:
. . . the poets sang / into their battered / top hats upon the / filthy alleyways / without asking for / an audience or / money . . . no one thought peace / had a chance in hell . . . so / the children said,"Enough / already, rock / and roll all night long!"
Darryl you are in rare form with these, my friend.
"...reflecting to stars like surfacing fish..."
Jesus, man. Genius, much?
I agree with JMC, there are so many layers in both of these poems, so many ways to consider the imagery, the underlying concepts. Just wonderful.
What a marvelous closing to "With the Whole Crowd," DP. I especially like the phrasing in that piece - and imagery. Both pieces work well. Nice work.
Thanks so very much JMC,Sheldon,Cherise, and Sam. Much appreciated.
Once again, Darryl, you take me to that wonderful place of ever-after possibilities in the first poem. Then into the harsher realities of what does come after, perhaps- apparently so?... But not necessarily so. Fav of course.
Love the way music pulls both pieces together, so yin and yang. "And so their sharp stones buried us" is just beautiful. Peace...
Gorgeous stuff here! Love this, in Apparently So (forgive the formatting): “And the poets sang into their battered top hats upon the filthy alleyways without asking for an audience or money. And there were lights in windows and windows in rain if you chose to look that close up.”
also
“And no one thought peace had a chance in hell of making the news. And the tv comedians made everyone cry. And so the children said,"Enough already, rock and roll all night long!"
I also love With the Whole Crowd. This is just a thought, but it might make for fantastic prose…
Absolutely Gorgeous! Fave!!
Darryl, both of these people are so gorgeous. The last line from "The Whole Crowd" did me in. I love the defiance in the "Apparently So." It seems to me your gift in particular seems to be rallying all of us to believe in our better selves, despite the fact that we seem so doomed. I always feel hopeful when I read your poems, as if reminded of something really important.
Sorry. I meant to write "poems" instead of people. Or maybe it was a Freudian slip.
"Apparently So" is a wonderful poem. Love the "secret stars" and the poets "in battered top hats" and the TV comedians who "made everyone cry" and particularly the "birds [who] refused to / act like muted cats"! You are a poet of exquisite detail. Fav.
The first makes me sad--the second makes me smile. :) Enjoyed both of these, Darryl. xoxox, H