“Relentless: Seconds trickle; Tickled-pink - I think of several methods linked to leveraging - I won’t sink: Fixed the drip - the levee’s mended - on the brink;
A ring of fire - mind the mine field up ahead of hinging trap floors - don’t get zapped or stinged by shockers; Block the blasts - pockmarks on the jacket;
Stab at obstacles - the course, of course, is jagged; I’ll stay sharp, embark on bold adventures;
No indenture - not to customary measures;
Plan my trips? True - that’s my pleasure;
I take risks - that list’s voluminous;
Imaginings, they do illumine - torch the passages that loom in front; Intact the badge - edges scouted - Lonely Mountain -
ridges seem so little given all the gold within;
The Shire is afar, all the familiar hills;
The Czar’s on par: Desires stardom, hies toward parlors just to meet his mark on carven dartboards; Tried, his art form; Started to apply his smarts more;
He lives his lifestyle, loves his heart - it’s worn for those to see - tucked over sleeves - adorned; Perform the feats; Order:
Stretch the borders of The Keep;
A wider reach; Provide and teach;
Don’t besiege, but do beseech:
Would you spread the profit?
Show them peace?”
- Old Dying Joe
About the Creator
Joseph Severo
I’m Old Dying Joe.
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A Flower Song
Apparently the Aztecs, Toltecs, Chichimecs and other Mexica were crazy about poetry. Despite the book-burning, slaughter, and epidemics that characterized the early stages of the Spanish conquest of the empires of Mexico, some hundreds of poems from the height of their tradition come down to us in Classical Nahuatl, preserved by Nahua and Spanish scholars of the 16th century. One of the most famous poets, Nezahualcoyotl, was a sage-king who opposed the cult of human sacrifice associated with Tezcatlipoca, God of the Smoking Mirror, and favored Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent. Flowers and feathers were the favorite offering of the Plumed Serpent. Moreover, flowers and feathers are a metaphor for poetry. Individual words, scattered petals, the down of tropical birds. The temples of blood sacrifice could be transformed into temples of flower and song. A sublimated offering to the Heart of Earth and the Heart of Sky encapsulated in the Classical Nahuatl kenning for poetry: in xōchitl in cuīcatl, meaning, "the flower and the song." The following poem is part of a longer work, and is in a state of flux, so take the waters as they flow:
By Rob Angeli3 days ago in Poets
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