image from hd.wallpaperswide.com
Charred
“Only the Charred Council--not angels or demons, could
hold the warring factions at bay.”--from the Darksiders,
When char replaces flesh
and bleaches bone black,
fire scars burn deep--
beyond reconstructive surgery,
beyond recognition,
beyond humanity,
where upon the bark,
protoplasm, pulp and sinew,
sentinel and soul,
are converted to
first bright and
then dark energy--
when
cremation
obliterates
the creation.
Glenn Buttkus
Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub Q44
16 comments:
Glenn, as always is the case with your work, the sounds within are fantastic:
"protoplasm, pulp and sinew,
sentinel and soul"
I can feel this pulsing. I can smell the smoke.
This is a wonderful poem, filled with darkness, but also a hope that's almost like a Phoenix... wonderful, and so nice to have you back again.
Okay.... so jet lagged here....but I had to read your poem first. It is, as always, amazing! The repetition of the word "beyond" sends it even further beyond. And the repetition of the s sound makes me hear the hissing of the fire. This is quite powerful.
So good to be back from our Australia, New Zealand and Singapore journey. Someone said "glad to have you back" so I take it you've been away as well. Hope all is well with you --- by these words, I'd say yes!
The pain in this permeates each word, carefully placed. I have to confess, of all your poetry, I love your quadrilles best. When you are forced to choose your words so deliberately to fit the grand scope of your thoughts into just 44 words the results are always astounding.
I liked the sound of your poem in your recitation of it.
Powerful words and imagery.
Glad to see you back, Glenn. I bet you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
This quadrille is really quite dark - it made me sit up and I had to read it again. I love the alliterative oxymoron, 'bleaches bone black' and the repetition of 'beyond', both of which seem to drive the poem. I also love the progression of sounds from labial plosives - 'protoplasm, pulp' to the hissing of 'sinew / sentinel and soul' - like spitting out the gristle or the spitting of fat in fire!
Good to read you again Glenn ~ For me, there is life pulsing and rising up again from the charred and scars ~ That's the new energy from what was ~
first bright and
then dark energy--
when
cremation
obliterates
the creation....wow..strong writing.
it is so vivid...powerful...gave a feeling of something in make against all odds...
Strong stuff this.
Such a powerfully penned quad!❤️ Good to see you again, Glenn
Wow, how darkly descriptive your words that pull us in and draw us through this poem. While cremation itself is a designated burning after passing, this leaves a deeper, more morbid image, unplanned, absorbed by an inferno such as the most recent losses in CA, and even a few years back in Rhode Island, or even of those who serve who have found themselves in the harm's way of a bomb blast. Yes, this captures that true darkness, for sure.
Hey You, good to see you writing again. I can sense the smoke and smell the charred remains. There have been terrible fires in Tennessee and I wonder how much life was destroyed?
"When cremation obliterates the creation"...your well-chosen words speak the tragic defiance of ashes, Glenn.
A dark, uncompromising and wonderfull poem!
Post a Comment