Friday, 14 January 2022

an ode to and ode to Paul Carroll

 an ode to an ode to Paul Carroll


never heard of him

never read him

i know you

you wrote this ode

telling me i should read him

sharing my exegesis of those times

when all that stood was a poem

it doesn’t matter which one

or which poet

it matters to the reader

at a point in time 

when time itself is explained

the permanent transience of a spark across two electrodes

the writer and the reader a clichéd monolith brandishing

both dawn and dusk

oh i read you i have read of you

i read your ode in my ode isn’t that odd

the leach of the mineral words hanging in a stalactite

building a stalagmite display of the dark waters

i can see the slowness of leach

but i cannot see the immediacy of teach

teach me how to change me 

no thank you

i prefer to remain an uncut diamond

fascinating to dig for 

brash when faceted

climbing down to the summit

well that’s the sum of it John boy

one awful ode in this odium of self-expression

as feral as the wild horses with matted manes

snorting dawn’s breath standing untamed

elemental in the reading of the sky

the seas and the coming storms

let the pain of fear teach me to chisel

your ode upon my heart

there now

come here 

and if 

you’ll show me your ode i will show you mine 


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