Tag: poetryportal

Prompt Day 22

vagabondprophet:

I lilt and sway

Just like Gord’s voice

When he sang Fiddlers Green,

Soundtrack for my life.

Sinclair drops the bass,

Fay crashes cymbals,

Paul and Robby plucking strings,

Like wizards to make waves

For the words to dance all over,

Like the wind in a storm,

A real nautical disaster.

Yer not the Ocean but the surface is green

And the dark interweaves

In a lonely iridescence,

It’s terribly deep and the cold is complete.

Just like the ocean.

Loving your country, playing songs of small town news,

I can teach my children about the nation

With rock and roll.

Canada divided into thirteen parts,

A discography of thirteen albums,

No coincidence.

The most honourable thing yet,

That you evolved to challenge a nation

Unknowingly flawed, abusive.

Adoring your home, but not calling it perfect

True patriotism, true love always seeks to improve.

That’s just what you did

You are ahead by a century.

Now Downie gone,

But his voice will ring out forever,

As he walks among the stars.

I still lilt and sway

Just like Gord’s voice

When he sang anything,

Soundtrack for my life.

– Vagabond Prophet

          – for ‘ The Tragically Hip’, quotes throughout this poem from their songs: Nautical Disaster, Yer not the Ocean, Fiddlers Green, Ahead by a Century, The Drop Off.

        – If you don’t know this band you should, He rhymes Catharsis with ‘My arse is’. If that’s not a clever lyricist I don’t know what is.

Can’t believe its been a whole year since we lost him.

Gravitas

All sound is born from silence

All art is born from fractured beauty

Trying to graft some goodness to some pain.

Now I dare to unlock my voice

I’ve carried this whole time.

The knot in my stomach

Turns to words on my lips

And though I am afraid

I know that half of fear is wonder.

I wonder

I wonder will my voice

Find a pleasing place

Amongst the octaves

To sing my story gone untold.

With baritone gravitas

And soprano urgency

My song will soar above the madness.

– Vagabond Prophet

@josy57 gave me the prompt “I’ve carried it all this time.” Thanks for that. I hope folks enjoy.

Printing Press


I’d believed the lie

I conjured nigh

The hour of my undoing.

That I am unforgivable

That I am my mistakes,

Thinking some fears

Can’t be assuaged

Those depths too deep

To ever plumb fully.

Now disregarding my grief

For your magnitude,

Your tongue the printing press

That published the good news

With words inked

In your blood

That should be mine.

– Vagabond Prophet

Open Heart Surgery

The surgical blade

The drape that was laid

Upon skin built up for years.

Flat on your back

Ragged breath gone slack

Clamp down the mask

Begin the task.

The harm always starts

Before the healing can,

The cracking of ribs

The loss of blood.

If this is you

Going under the knife,

Remember some go a lifetime

With nobody seeing their heart,

For the struggling pump that it is

Trying to bale out a boat

Under constant downpour.

– Vagabond Prophet

Stitch

The coffee bitter

May lend vigor

As your need beckons

With cast iron eyelids.

The aching blistered feet

May still travel

As your destination croons

“Come hither.”

The convoluted spine

May still bare some burden

As I trudge the road

Trodden by many before me.

I can see their faith rewarded

In the footprints on the path,

So many that I follow

But none that do return.

Now this knotted mind

Will journey on and surrender,

The rebels in my heart

Will lay down arms

And all past harms

Working backwards

Will stitch themselves.

– Vagabond Prophet

Hear, See, Do.

Stop up my ears

With drunkards used corks

So I may hear no evil.

Gouge my hungry eyes

That I may see no evil.

Bind my hands together

With the lashings of my acts

That I may do no evil.

This is what I deserve

And much worse

But to curse

Was never your intent.

You open my ears

And sing with wind as your accordion

Play the branches as your harp

That I may hear hope.

You open my eyes

You hold my gaze

When I stare into clear skies

That I may see beauty.

Cut my binds free

And tie them to yourself

That this man of clay

Who ought to decay

May know freedom.

I am but the dribble of paint

Animated into something that can smile.

– Vagabond Prophet

Wooden Heart

The featureless face

Has known no joy or sorrow,

So when you see me

With my visage deeply fissured

Remember life has hewn me.

I have peeled back my skin

To let life better in,

It has shaped me

As the river does the canyon.

Beginning a flat expanse

Until the life bringing rush

Begins to carry away

What was dead.

Leaving only the elemental me

The undilutable you

The saturated facthood

Of who I’m made to be.

I stowed the truth away

Far below deck

And tightened my sails

Heading always west.

You and I always tied

Though I may have denied

Your course set east

Made taut the distance between us.

The chord stretched tight

It sang a plight

Plucked beautifully by the wind.

The song so mournful

The plaintive cry so sorrowful,

Weeping into the sea

Tasting the salt pouring from my eyes

Into the salt spoken from your tongue

I knew I could not escape you.

Though you’ve been forever constant

Today is no assurance of tomorrow,

Carve me sharply

Take hammer and chisel

Sculpt this stony soul.

With careful but persistent love

Shape this brow

And make cavernous my visage

As you alone see fit.

When this trunk falls

Count the rings

Of this wooden heart

And know I thank you

For the chance to have grown at all.

I’ll even thank you for the toothy blade

That brings me to my knees

For death that day

May be better than growing pains.

You demolish me more beautifully

Than I could ever adorn myself.

– Vagabond Prophet

@josy57 thank you for the totally groovy prompt “A featureless face.” It’s always a good time.

Hidden Wings

Let your blue eyes shine

Let our hands entwine

For I delight in you

And everything you do.

You who came from heaven

With hidden wings,

You better things

With the vigor of your stance

When you roar when you prance.

Though you give me trouble

You’ll shake the earth to rubble,

You’ll end things abrupt

That you see corrupt.

With every glittering smile

My heart jumps a mile

Jump and travel

The length of my stride

My girl you’ve embodied

All of my pride.

– Vagabond Prophet

@delightfulharmonypoetry

For our girl on her birthday.