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Open Poetry #34
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wranx
Member Elite
since 2002-06-07
Posts 3689
Moved from a shack to a barn

0 posted 2004-10-20 06:05 PM


The Dead

There’s a smugness about them
After having divested themselves of everything earthly

You can tell they know things
That you and I, in our limited capacity, can only surmise

And they’re not talking

Their tongues are stilled behind taut painted lips
And clenched teeth

The windows of their eyes
Are shuttered tight against my inquiries

And I wonder if pulling aside the heavy drapes
By lifting an eyelid would afford me a glimpse
Of what might lie beyond

Would I be looking into an empty parlor?

Pale rectangles on the wall where pictures once hung
The furniture, piled up and covered in sheets  
Dust settling on the chandelier, cobwebs in the corners

Or at a Monet-like landscape?

The Sun, shimmering on a lakeside picnic
Smiling women reclining with wineglasses
The men, scanning the horizon for sign of the ferry

Or perhaps, just one lonely figure

Walking away down a very straight path
Tiny, and backlit in the immeasurable distance
Between here and the sunset


© Copyright 2004 E.F.Rose - All Rights Reserved
Gentle Spirit
Member Patricius
since 2000-10-09
Posts 13989

1 posted 2004-10-20 06:07 PM


Yes, Ed, we can't help but wonder what lies beyond sometimes....
Your closing lines in this really stuck with me....
very well done sir..

The greatest beauty on earth, is
found in the hearts of those
who love....

serenity blaze
Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738

2 posted 2004-10-20 06:08 PM


"Pale rectangles on the wall where pictures once hung
The furniture, piled up and covered in sheets  
Dust settling on the chandelier, cobwebs in the corners

Or at a Monet-like landscape?"

nodding with the knowing yeti--I moved into such a place as yanno...and it is all different yet somehow he's still here

sigh

I go cook Lima beans

hugs you

Cpat Hair
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Patricius
since 2001-06-05
Posts 11793

3 posted 2004-10-20 06:18 PM


indeed.. or the hall of mirrors.. that only reflected you again and again..each time smaller...

nicely done sir... always a pleasure to read you

Honeybunch
Member Rara Avis
since 2001-12-29
Posts 7115
South Africa
4 posted 2004-10-20 06:34 PM


You so well ponder the questions many ask.  I, however, have already decided what I'm going to find.  A house on a hill not far from a river where willow trees sway in the wind of freedom.  Just over the hill, the mysterious sea and miles and miles of white sea sand.  No harm in being prepared!  
Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354
Listening to every heart
5 posted 2004-10-20 06:39 PM


Some people paint picture with their poetry.  You, Sir, paint panoramas...

and I am always pleased to view the landscape...no matter the subject.


Huan Yi
Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688
Waukegan
6 posted 2004-10-20 07:16 PM


A Meeting


In a dream I meet
my dear friend.  He has,
I know, gone long and far,
and yet he is the same
for the dead are changeless.
They grow no older.
It is I who have changed,
grown strange to what I was.
Yet I, the changed one,
ask:  “How you been?”
He grins and looks at me.
“I been eating peaches
off some mighty fine trees.”

Wendell Berry

Magnus
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Member Laureate
since 2001-10-10
Posts 14135
South Carolina, USA
7 posted 2004-10-20 07:19 PM


Ed,  this is awesome writing...you have
penned precisely what even most of us might
be thinking of "the dead"...

Seymour Tabin
Member Empyrean
since 1999-07-07
Posts 31720
Tamarac Fla
8 posted 2004-10-20 07:27 PM


wranx
Excellent write, yet the mystery to me is the living.

brian sites
Senior Member
since 2002-06-25
Posts 1475
usa
9 posted 2004-10-21 12:48 PM


you are on the

     still
            quiet
                   path

assimilating
into your own

the laurels

more, boy!

Aenimal
Member Rara Avis
since 2002-11-18
Posts 7350
the ass-end of space
10 posted 2004-10-21 12:51 PM


I agree with Seymour on both counts, excellent writing
MGROVES
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Member Elite
since 2004-02-01
Posts 3802
california
11 posted 2004-10-21 01:33 AM


awesome  
    
      


Susan Caldwell
Member Rara Avis
since 2002-12-27
Posts 8348
Florida
12 posted 2004-10-21 04:40 AM


hmmmm..chilling thoughts.

Well done.

"cast me gently into the morning, for the night has been unkind"
~Sarah McLachlan~

babygirlwlove
Senior Member
since 2004-10-10
Posts 1180
New York City
13 posted 2004-10-21 06:54 AM


wow...captivating read!  indelible images fade onto the eyelids of the soul...

great stuff, wranx...
**babygirL**

**Intoxicant to the SouL**

Larry C
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Patricius
since 2001-09-10
Posts 10286
United States
14 posted 2004-10-21 08:49 AM


Ditto Sy & Karilea. An amazing write. Thank you.

If tears could build a stairway and memories a lane, I'd walk right up to heaven and bring you home again.

choshi
Senior Member
since 2004-01-01
Posts 1184
New York
15 posted 2004-10-21 08:52 AM


Strong and poignant writing...very powerful

~P

Greeneyes
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Member Rara Avis
since 2000-09-09
Posts 9903
In Your Poetic Mind
16 posted 2004-10-21 11:19 AM


WOW.....this is amazing!
runs deep in thought.....

~~*~~
Read between the lines
look deep into each word
and you will understand the
depth of my soul (GE)
~~**~~

Martie
Moderator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049
California
17 posted 2004-10-21 11:31 AM


Ed

Deeply thoughtful!  

Earth Angel
Member Empyrean
since 2002-08-27
Posts 40215
Realms of Light
18 posted 2004-10-21 11:32 AM


I concur with all the accolades that both you and your poem have received, Sir Poet.

And I also enjoyed the vision that Honeybunch presented! I am likewise prepared! lol

Love your writing! Your are in a league of your own!


Linda


Mary Parry
Junior Member
since 2004-10-12
Posts 45
Felixstowe, England
19 posted 2004-10-21 12:45 PM


All will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Amazing poetry.   Do you give lessons?

Mary

littlewing
Member Rara Avis
since 2003-03-02
Posts 9655
New York
20 posted 2004-10-21 03:49 PM


Eddie?

I would like to think it is a figure in a Monet like landscape surrounded by those who love him . . . *smile*

you make me WANT to write better.
Thank you,

(not a writer hmmpprrff!)



Dark Angel
Member Patricius
since 1999-08-04
Posts 10095

21 posted 2004-10-21 04:25 PM


Or at a Monet-like landscape?

The Sun, shimmering on a lakeside picnic
Smiling women reclining with wineglasses
The men, scanning the horizon for sign of the ferry


Wow, what a visual.

Excellent... Brother Ed

Another one for the library.

Mxx

and I am haunted
by my illicit exquisite dream
but I can't really wake up
so I just drift in between

~ani difranco~

pandonov
Member
since 2003-10-03
Posts 478
b/w conscience and insolence
22 posted 2004-10-21 05:30 PM


very, very nice
ecrivan
Member Elite
since 2001-12-10
Posts 3923
my own state
23 posted 2004-10-21 11:58 PM


perhaps it is just like seeing Charlie Chaplin walking away in the sunset with Paulette Goddard one of his favorites, good stuff here


MARK V SHELDON
Member Elite
since 2001-06-21
Posts 3015
In a corporeal internship...
24 posted 2004-10-22 12:38 PM


Ed, you amaze me with your unique voice in each of your writings.  You have some of the freshest images and thoughts I've had the pleasure of reading.  Much respect...

-MVS

You CAN make a difference, but first you should learn how: http://educate-yourself.org/intro.shtml

mysticpoe
Senior Member
since 2003-02-28
Posts 883

25 posted 2004-10-23 12:54 PM


To close the gap between what you feel and how you convey a subject so undefined. Brilliant, just brilliant.

wayne

If nothing is something
then everything is
our thoughts and feelings
and all that exists.

Mysteria
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Member Laureate
since 2001-03-07
Posts 18328
British Columbia, Canada
26 posted 2004-10-23 01:06 PM


Maybe you should ask John Edwards Seriously though, this is the one thing they can't get any real answers to, or at least ones I believe, and I am with you - I sure would like to know if goodbye is forever.

Oh, nice write Yeti.

Midnitesun
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647
Gaia
27 posted 2004-10-23 07:32 PM


now you know, for me, it's a starry starry night sky, a small outdoor cafe, with a vase of vibrant sunflowers
and an artist to chat with in eternity

vlraynes
Member Rara Avis
since 2000-07-25
Posts 8229
Somewhere... out there...
28 posted 2005-01-24 03:00 PM



You... are amazing...

Love this, Ed...

"When the power of love overcomes the love
of power the world will know peace."
--Jimi Hendrix

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