Sparks Beneath the Surface
List
Again, you make a list of things
you need to do. Each time, you list
“Make a list of things to do”
as number One. Something on the list
must be one thing you can scratch
right through each time.
You notice items Two through Last
look much the same, list to list.
Were you more efficient,
you would scan and save the list,
after reading it through,
so you could save and print it
next time. You won't be doing that.
As always, after scratching item one,
you'll paralyze, seized
by all the work the living make by living.
Then you'll soldier on
to clean the litter box and watch
as indolent cats piss and scratch
the tranquil Shinto garden you just raked
to mime a calmly waving sea.
Cleanliness and Godliness
Most can't tolerate a squalor.
An underlying sense of order prevails
and out come the trash bags, dust rags,
and soaped-up warm water with sponges.
It takes an addled or despondent
or despondent and addled mind
to tolerate and cultivate
a proper, sordid squalor
which draws the well, like
car wrecks and open, runny, sores;
they are compelled to right
the toppled monuments back to upright
evidence of human enterprise.
Creative Control
There are too many writers.
If we could portion ourselves out,
like diamonds through De Beers,
we'd have a higher value,
our dark and common origins
pressured by the tiny valves of control
into something sparkly and coveted
though fundamentally useless.
Writer's Block
It's nature's way
of saying Shut
the fuck up!
End Times
If I should wake
before I die,
just shoot me through
the one good eye.
Why You Sympathize with the Despised Few
Suicide's the special toy
you hide behind the heavy chest
and when there's no one looking
take and wind up with the key
hidden in the secret space
behind the night stand drawer
and watch march slowly like
a great stone statue come to life
to take you home to the hypostyle
temple of Anubis, far away,
where stonework never spalls
and cracks, eaten at by water.
Respite
Words arrive,
small sparks
beneath the surface
of the great gray sea.
Again, you make a list of things
you need to do. Each time, you list
“Make a list of things to do”
as number One. Something on the list
must be one thing you can scratch
right through each time.
You notice items Two through Last
look much the same, list to list.
Were you more efficient,
you would scan and save the list,
after reading it through,
so you could save and print it
next time. You won't be doing that.
As always, after scratching item one,
you'll paralyze, seized
by all the work the living make by living.
Then you'll soldier on
to clean the litter box and watch
as indolent cats piss and scratch
the tranquil Shinto garden you just raked
to mime a calmly waving sea.
Cleanliness and Godliness
Most can't tolerate a squalor.
An underlying sense of order prevails
and out come the trash bags, dust rags,
and soaped-up warm water with sponges.
It takes an addled or despondent
or despondent and addled mind
to tolerate and cultivate
a proper, sordid squalor
which draws the well, like
car wrecks and open, runny, sores;
they are compelled to right
the toppled monuments back to upright
evidence of human enterprise.
Creative Control
There are too many writers.
If we could portion ourselves out,
like diamonds through De Beers,
we'd have a higher value,
our dark and common origins
pressured by the tiny valves of control
into something sparkly and coveted
though fundamentally useless.
Writer's Block
It's nature's way
of saying Shut
the fuck up!
End Times
If I should wake
before I die,
just shoot me through
the one good eye.
Why You Sympathize with the Despised Few
Suicide's the special toy
you hide behind the heavy chest
and when there's no one looking
take and wind up with the key
hidden in the secret space
behind the night stand drawer
and watch march slowly like
a great stone statue come to life
to take you home to the hypostyle
temple of Anubis, far away,
where stonework never spalls
and cracks, eaten at by water.
Respite
Words arrive,
small sparks
beneath the surface
of the great gray sea.
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Author's Note
From a small boat in the deep vast sea of acedia
Other stories by Gary Hardaway
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Enjoyed all but the two middle tinies very much.
A good set, Gary. Especially like List, Cleanliness... and Why You Sympathize with the Despised Few. *
1,2,3, & 6 are all excellent.*
Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting. I am grateful for the responses.
Cleanliness and godliness must be my favorite.
It’s the car wrecks. Allowed to do as I please, no public radio donated car would ever see a junk yard but rather would become my garden gnome until I die.
Creative Control is wonderful too. I don’t believe in Writer’s Block... Only my own vanity.
Sympathize is sending me to the dictionary AGAIN. What the hell is to spall? Do you speak old English? (joking).
Another fine set. Favorite!
Thank you, Steve. Architecture teaches one many ordinarily useless words.
"Cleanliness and Godliness" because I'm both and neither at once, and "Writer's Block" because it's true.
Thanks for reading, Gessy.
Enjoyed reading these Gary.
Thank you, Gloria.
Fun, nice control, very nice read with my AM coffee. Thank you for posting this.
Thank you very much, Clark.
"Respite"
and nepenthe!
*
Good list of poem, Gary. I think "Why You Sympathize with the Despised Few" is my favorite.*
Bill, I'll have to do something with nepenthe now. Never encountered it before in an apparently sheltered little life.
Thanks for the comment and the star and for reading these.
Thank you, John. You cite my favorite as yours. Thanks for that, too.
nice *
Great nuggets of poetry. Think you hit some writerly nerves here. "our dark and common origins." I like the last two especially, and how they all seem to build and topple each other.
Thank you, Larry. I appreciate the reading and comment very much.
Thanks, Emily. Not exactly regenerative. I am grateful that you read and delighted that you enjoyed these.
love all your writerly advice, gary.
Fave. How did I miss this earlier? So true for me. At least one on a list. This is so well done.
"Something on the list
must be one thing you can scratch
right through each time."
Thank you, Marcus. I'm grateful you read these.
Glad you found and read these, David. Thanks for the attention and comment. I appreciate them.
I especially loved List, as a compulsive list-maker completely out of control. And I loved Creative Control. It's just a question of how to portion?
Thank you, Gloria, for reading this little clutch.