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fractal007
Senior Member

since 2000-06-01

Posts 1958

0 posted 2009-05-23 11:39 PM

I've posted all of the parts of this cycle of poems on this forum previously.  But I wanted to post the work as a complete whole for your consideration.

This is a set of four satirical poems on a period of teenage existential angst I had when I was younger. I decided to tie the four poems written over a few months into a single "cycle" of poems depicting a marriage between passion and meaning, as embodied in the speaker, and inert knowledge as embodied in the woman. The female opposite of the speaker sees the world around her as something now fully understood and not something into which new experience can be injected. The speaker, however, is comfortable with the idea of looking at the world anew despite the fact that the world as is lacks any kind of normative direction for human beings and their lives.

1
The cold night air brushes my skin
and the gentle lapping of the waves
answers the forlorn face of the moon
staring down cast upon the surface
of the deep.

It's then that I see her standing
feet just touching the water's edge
face held high eyes to the horizon

I'd like to ask her if she comes here
often but I know she probably gets that
all the time so why would I be any different?
I'd like to get to know her but would
I be the first person to desire that?

I'm about to walk away -- too chicken to try

How long will it be?

I don't know what to say.
No one's ever asked me
that type of question out
of the blue before.

How long will it be
that we look out on
shores like this and
make up stories and
conceive of knowledge
and dream up ideas
before it all ends
and we die and
turn to dust?                Everyone someday
                             dies I think to myself
                             Joy Kogawa -
Every world has to die       Marcus Aurelius?
and it will take its
stories and knowledge
into the blackness again   what a pitiful sentiment
                           what's wrong with living
                           life to its fullest if you
          and your life won't
          count for anything
          beyond the confines
          of your own experience

2
I see her again the next night
before the depths of the sea
as the moon gazed down upon us.
I still remember her question
I'm brave enough to try first.

It will take as long as we want
It's the only answer I can think of

Her face is still, eyes gazing
    straight out toward the distant
    horizon where moon and water meet
  I try again

We'll create and conceive and revel
for as long as we want because the
universe won't care and neither will
we when we're gone.
   Exactly
      It's a quiet answer but it's
      positive, assuring, calm.

                    Every universe has to die
again with          every person will perish
the universe        taking her ideas and
thing.              his stories with it.

      I wonder now
      would she stand
      there if I
      weren't here to
      see it?

   Why do you always talk about this?

I know the magic's been
broken now -- this is
one of those moments from
an artsy film where
the girl and I exchange
profundities that only
graduate students in
philosophy get and the
poor little undergrads
get headaches.

    But I'm not playing.
    She can live in her
    little emo world all
    she wants and I won't
    care.

                nor should you
                everyone dies
        so        everything
        what?     ends

3
I have just about had it with that woman
and her blubbering about a meaningless universe.
No, the beauty on the beach is among the
most boring women I've ever met,
depending always on the world around her to
provide her with purpose, never looking inside.

So that's exactly why
I took to grabbing her hand
and bringing her with me
the third night when the ship
came alongside the beach

I'd tell you what she said but I think you already know
since I've given her thoughts on everything high and low
previously in poems just like this one

4
There's Andromeda
There's Scorpio
There's Pisces
There's The big dipper

Okay okay I say I know
But the captain is so
enthusiastic about space
and astronomy and science.

I love listening to what he has to say
as we voyage into the midnight waters,
the monotonous beauty by my side.

    It's time for confessions    I am befriending her
    I brought her aboard for     slowly and surely
    the same reason any man      with her sadness
    would have brought such      melting - not that
    a beauty on this ship        it was ever there
                    in the first place.

  ennui is the first step to becoming creative,
       the world is meaningless, she says,
  creativity is manifestation of the nonexistent
         the universe without concern or love
  upon the plain of human experience

    I hold her in my arms, my Sophia, and laugh.
The world is without meaning, I say
and she sighs, smiles, and replies
           who cares?

Life's short. Think hard!
Me!

JenniferMaxwell

Member Elite

since 2006-09-14

Posts 2423

1 posted 2009-05-26 11:15 AM

"ennui is the first step to becoming creative, the world is meaningless, she says, creativity is manifestation of the nonexistent the universe without concern or love upon the plain of human experience"

Thinking about those lines should keep me busy for a while. Good write, Kevin. I'm reading your Kelvin series in prose and liking it a lot.

Also wanted to mention a new to me fantastic fantasy fiction writer whose work I think you'd really enjoy. Sheri Tepper. Ever read her? Great stuff.

fractal007
Senior Member

since 2000-06-01

Posts 1958

2 posted 2009-05-26 10:34 PM

Thanks Jen:
I'm glad you like my stuff. The Kelvin story is actually part of the other stuff - a spurt of stories that begins with "The Girl."

As to that cryptic last stanza, you should keep in mind that I designed it to be composed of two voices. The indentations and line positions are intended to mark out two trains of thought overlapping.

Life's short. Think hard!
Me!

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