Friday, September 30, 2011

Otter

For Matt H.

Near moon mountain and sun mountain, the Greek
style emerged from adobe and white heat
of the noon sun. Socratic irony
swam among the lilies in the small pond.
At night, when we weren't drunk, Matt,
we explored Plato's cave where poets live.
High on acid, colored arabesques wormed
in the ceiling as we wrote riddles.

You were brilliant. A mind as fine as Euclid's
proofs. Your poems like a morning campfire
compared to my borrowed insanity from Artaud.
I hear the splash of the otter
as you dive and veer into the current. Later,
you told me about the rape by knife in the snow.

I worked with a woman from Montana
and strangely heard your name in her voice.
Fate brought her to tell me how you fought
for Nature's cause until
cancer sucked your bones dry.

I think of you as though I'd seen a ghost,
living on the edge of self-deceit, in the capital
of the new empire, of you and snow
and how we betray time and love and ourselves.

I'd dive into time to see you again.

(c) copyright 2011 Charles David Miller. All rights reserved.

10 comments:

  1. dang charles...this is tough write..i like how you allow us in..almost a bit like entering your brain, your memories, the fine spun threads of thoughts.. fascinating and captivating..

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  2. The past is a powerful drug, like the fumes inhaled by the Delphic seers, you never know whether it's poison or that fine edge of clarity that slices through the confusion to the suddenly obvious. You've drawn a vivid portrait here, of both narrator and subject, and where they meet. Fine fine poem.

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  3. I feel like I've been on the "inside" of a relationship. That is a real talent...

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  4. dang...what a tale...makes me think of the guy from into the wild a bit...living ont he edge that way...ack on the rape part, makes me shiver and angry...great response to the prompt...

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  5. how we betray time...cutting sentence for those who have wasted it, terrific

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  6. some really great verse such as:

    A mind as fine as Euclid's proofs.

    I'd dive into time to see you again.

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  7. What a lovely tribute to your friend... I like the nostalgia specially your last line.

    Enjoyed it very much ~

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  8. "poems like a morning campfire" is very nice, although I gotta say I'm also a fan of Artaud! But I love the transition from that to the splash of the otter.

    I'm a little confused about the rape - who perpetrator and who victim - but that line "betray time and love and ourselves" makes me pause. I wonder sometimes if that will be my fate, if, somehow, it happens to everyone in the end.

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  9. Not easy to get into, but more than worth the effort. Congratulations on a fine write.

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  10. One of the signs of age are the friends we don't see but somehow count because of the intensity of how we came together. Then we loose them and the pain is worse because of the times we were going to call, were going to visit...

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