Thursday, January 19, 2012

Argumentum ad populum

for Elmore Leonard and the Black Dahlia

A riddle sets atilt the door jamb
when ugly words issue from an angry bed;
severed trunk splayed wide to obscene eye
and surgeon's blade splicing the Gordian knot
gone haywire in a faceless heart:
secrets unseen and unspoken even in the head.

At heaven's gate the dead find answers, hear
the word said that ends the tormenting sentence
that plays on the lips but never turns sibilant.
To the dilemma shuddering between the no to life
and the yes to death, stiff cock and winking labia
promise salvation for the agendum of the race.

And the wound that scabs the everyday routine,
the transgression that no poet will love, no hymn
solemnize, renders its terror in silence, shamed
by mob and public bathos; azygos, alone without end.

(c) copyright 2012 Charles David Miller. All rights reserved.

12 comments:

  1. wow...great imagery charles...the surgeon's blade splicing the Gordian knot
    gone haywire in a faceless heart... esp. the first stanza started a whole film in my mind..Argumentum ad populum...your title is great as well...gives the piece even more depth...and me some food to chew on for the day..

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  2. Awesome write, Charles. Deep stuff!

    http://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/black-words/

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  3. my first response was the same as claudia's - wow

    hadn't expected such a powerful rendition, all from those starting lines,

    "A riddle sets atilt the door jamb
    when ugly words issue from an angry bed..."

    much there, thanks charles

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    1. def has some great intensity to it charles...nice word selection to set the tone...angry, severed, sliced...stiff cock and winking labia, nice...really well done...

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  4. Yes... graphic and visual indeed... a superb piece, Charles!

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  5. Strong voice in this. I could feel the frustration/anger ?

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  6. This is a good example of how imagery can make a poem come to life. Very effective write.

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  7. Never could finish that book--unlike your poem, which I had no trouble reading through twice. Fine language all through, and the images shake the reader with their cold intensity and purpose. Definitely an interesting piece, and effective ekphrasis, if ekphrasis you meant it to be.

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    1. Not ekphrasis per se, no. I saw Leonard in a documentary and he talked about the murder of his mother and how the Black Dahlia related to that. I had also seen the gruesome photos of the crime scene on Anger's book and had been repelled. At the same time, there are issues in my father's treatment of my mom that provided some personal depth. On top of all this is the fascination that serial killers play in the imaginations of the public. I am not sure whether that answers your question, but it is what was swarming in my head when I gotnit down.

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  8. This is my favorite line: "A riddle sets atilt the door jamb"

    I love the soft internal rhyme (secrets/unseen; head/heaven's/dead) and flow between these two lines:
    "secrets unseen and unspoken even in the head.
    At heaven's gate the dead find answers, hear"

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    1. Rosemary, thanks for that. I do often write with internal rhymes and greatly appreciate when others see them. Thank you.

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  9. This horrific mystery haunted the novelist enough to write about it and now the poet revisits secrets that only the dead find answers to at heaven's gate. The cold anatomical descriptions render the deed all the more chilling as does the curiosity and macabre appeal to the masses. Your imagry is bloody, fleshy, and violent death becomes disturbingly alive with your very effective words. Another fine work, Chazzy!

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