Submerged

Why Beauty?

Why should poems be beautiful?

Keats had said it's so.

I didn't think of beautiful

Some 50 years ago.

Rhythm, rhyme and phrases,

Sensations, feelings too

Stirred gently in a cauldron

Often come out true.

I didn't aim for beauty,

I didn't think of truth

When I tried for poesy

Somewhere in my youth.

4-7-14

Submerged

Beneath a sea of love,

Don't break the surface.

Everything you need is under water.

You can love.

The medium's the ocean.

Too much coffee gives me indigestion.

I cease to strain to keep myself consistent.

And whim the nature of my conversation.

Reach for air and grasp it and

Discover Lamia.

4-20-14

Easter

The Eastern Orthodox

(Oh my, such words!)

Are celebrating Easter.

Little horns

To blow at midnight,

Paper and balloons

Falling from the ceiling. And the band.

Everybody laughs and sings and hugs,

And everyone forgets where he was born,

His dialect and language and the wars.

And all the colors dancing in the air.

4-20-14

 

Styles

Nothing to my former hero Keats,

Better than my current, like the sea

In which she would be drowned. And that completes

My heroes. Brooke and Poe. And poetry.

Linear, explicit. Undisguised,

Articulate. And warm because of Keats.

Lilting rhythms coming unsurprised.

Every stanza regular repeats.

4-20-14

 

Roses

Only with the vicious do I shut

A heavy, oak and metaphoric door.

Or when on feelings does my conscience glut -

But you – I wish that you would love me more.

The day is overcast. A gloomy bummer

That I like. A chill is in the air,

Although on the threshold of a summer

Where breezes toss stray paper through the air.

My poesy is gone. The Muse has fled.

I'm digging in the rocks to find a theme.

The Muse that kissed me once perhaps is dead,

Looking back, an island in a dream.

4-20-14

Camus & Sartre

Camus for his absurdity,

Descriptions, and one novel -

“L'etranger”. I read it,

Twice in English,

Several times in French.

The French is very simple,

Stacked with cognates. Then to Sartre -

I've read so much so many times,

Relaxed and interesting.

A writer to remember, failing that,

To read again.

4-19-14

 If you like my poems, I have several books on Amazon.  Paperbacks are usually $10, and Kindles are usually $1.  To see them, go to Amazon, click Books on the drop down, and type Joseph Hart Poetry on the search bar.