Thursday, July 12, 2012

Verse Has a Voice



image borrowed from bing


Verse Has a Voice
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning
well, poetry is just the ash.”--Leonard Cohen
Poetry burrows its way into everything,
into song lyrics,
blues chords,
sax riffs,
dance moves,
garish graffiti on bare brick,
the guts of good prose,
the fabric of politics,
the swoon of sermons,
digital recordings sent by NASA,
thrust into the evermore, endeavoring
to communicate with what’s out there,
into the overlapping dimensional shifts
of my dreams and my several lives.
It definitely is
scatological
              sensual
                     pathos
                           bathos
                                  crocodile tears,
                                                 heartaches
                                     seminal joys
                              the seasons
                         birdsong
                      blood
                   tirades
                touch
        beat-downs
     defenses
injustices
liberty, freedom, heroic, macabre, absurd,
humorous, heartbreaking, bolstering, reconstruction
and nostalgic. 
                            
It
flies, crawls, stumbles, struts, leaps, somersaults,
races, stalls, skips, taps,
and gyrates its hips.

Often it can
exhilarate, depress, uplift, confuse, illuminate,
stimulate, explicate, dampen, perplex
or justify.
It is capable of screaming, whispering, lecturing,
cajoling, alienating, hugging, bitch-slapping, raping,
making love, assaulting, cuddling, defining, strangling
or holding at arm’s length,
but thank the gods it also
french kisses, shrimps, gets on top, crosses its arms,
unsnaps its bra and shows its breasts, flashes
its butt, performs in every imaginable position,
and wraps its long legs passionately
around our muscular backs.
I find it to be
my constant companion,
my counselor, 
my guide,
my matron,
my lover,
my voice,
and sometimes I fear
it is hermaphroditic,
both
my master
and my mistress.
Glenn Buttkus
July 2012.
Posted over at dVerse Poets

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22 comments:

Claudia said...

smiles..it is all that...esp. like the french kisses and shrimps stanza and great quote by cohen to start this with... there's a lot of ash eh...which is a good sign..smiles

Brian Miller said...

nice...love the ski slope bit there sir...it adds movement beyond that which your words engender....both my master and my mistress...yeas she surely is....

Anonymous said...

very good, it can indeed be the master

Buddah Moskowitz said...

And that's what I call a working relationship! Good poem.

Daydreamer said...

Such a powerful way of putting it, but so aptly put. Powerful word: poetry...much like love. So many things! I love it!

Janine Bollée said...

Phew, I'm exhausted.
Quite a ride.

flipside records said...

Yes indeed.

"my lover,
my voice,

and sometimes I fear
it is hermaphroditic,
both
my master
and my mistress"

The lines two lines are spot on.

Laurie Kolp said...

I think you nailed it... and I love it. Poetry is all that. I really like the visual effect, too, Glenn.

Marian Haddad said...

LOVE THIS LINE

Poetry burrows its way into everything,

AND ALSO "AROUND OUR MUSCULAR BACKS" I THINK IT WAS

NICE!

Jim Robbins said...

Nice.

It is all this in the words and grammar of life and so much more mystery breathing just between the lines.

Its Neruda Hafiz on Facebook.

David Gilmour said...

Like. Burning for the sensuous in Idaho.--David

Beachanny said...

The length and breadth of it, I'd say- love the sensual and sensuous references. It does all of that for me as well. Thanks Glenn. Much appreciated

Dana Dampier said...

I love it visually! I loved how you used many words to describe poetry since poetry is many things.

Tashtoo said...

THIS is the passion...THIS is the desire...for those in my real world circles it happens to be regarded as pure insanity...and I love it even more because of that. Hat's off to you on this one Poet..it's a virtual fist-pump and then some!

Matt Spence said...

From the Leonard Cohen quote onward until the thrilling end this was a sehr groovy, ride, brother, and one I loved every word of. Peace

Anonymous said...

I find myself writing poetry in my head when I shouldn't because as you said it is in everything! I just pray nobody asks me what I'm thinking.

Paul Bauck said...

I like this a lot. It speaks to the muse of all arts.
Paul

Chris Lawrence said...

This gives it as it is brilliant

Dave King said...

sax riffs,
dance moves,
garish graffiti on bare brick,
the guts of good prose,

The first - but definitely not the last - lines to wow me!

K McGee said...

This was like a bit of chaos all tied together and made sense of - just like poetry.

Sreeja said...

loved this....

RMP said...

Verse - I think you managed to pin it down quite well while taking it for quite a ride. I know I enjoyed the ride.