So many say they can write, and here I add pink flurries
to the leaning stack, as gargoyles snort snot and
hang from my eyebrows laughing at my twisted,
sick, inadequate brain, and the excuses grab
my knee caps, rip them out, and the man on the corner
snickers. I don’t say I can bake. Why am I compelled
to write? I spy on the snake that guts, rather swallows whole,
all the other writers, and he and I drink grape juice at all the futility,
and the man on the corner hands me Pessoa, tells me
to read this, this that will tell me why I can’t
write, but the ants keep crawling up my
ass, while the gargoyles jump in the man’s pipe, burning
up into little leaves that blow up toward dirty clouds, and I keep
trying like a little baby with nothing to say worth anything.
.
#1 by Jamie Dedes on June 5, 2013 - 3:28 pm
I would have to disagree about “nothing work saying.”
Poem on, Carl. ๐
#2 by Jamie Dedes on June 11, 2013 - 4:15 am
Hmmm … That shoud have been “worth” not “work” … Sorry about that, Carl.
#3 by Carl on June 11, 2013 - 8:00 pm
It’s nice to have your disagreement, Jamie! And I changed the k to th ! Thanks for your kindness!
#4 by Jamie Dedes on June 11, 2013 - 8:07 pm
Thank you! ๐
#5 by clinock on June 6, 2013 - 2:01 am
“Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.”……..
#6 by Carl on June 11, 2013 - 8:05 pm
I’d like to be one of those babes! Thanks for your comment, John.
#7 by joanna on June 6, 2013 - 9:46 am
i feel like this, sometimes. but it boils down to what a friend told me the other day, and which i feel applies to you too, Carl: You are a poet. You couldn’t stop writing if you wanted to.
#8 by Carl on June 11, 2013 - 8:06 pm
Thank you for your comment, Joanna. Your words are kind, and I appreciate it!
#9 by Shawn on June 6, 2013 - 10:41 am
i don’t feel like you’re looking for a pat on the back here (unless you need to be burped).
just wanted to say that i enjoyed the words, ideas and imagery of your infantile parts.
#10 by Carl on June 11, 2013 - 8:08 pm
My burping days are partly over, but they’ll be back! Thanks for your comment, Shawn. I appreciate it.
#11 by claudia on June 7, 2013 - 1:47 pm
love the images…my fav were the gargoyles hanging from the eyebrows…and heck…why do we write and does it always have to make sense and how do we measure worth..? dali said once that if he paints something that he doesn’t understand at the moment, does this mean it doesn’t mean anything or isn’t it even more valuable because of the deeper meaning – cause from somewhere it comes –
#12 by Carl on June 11, 2013 - 8:11 pm
Thank you for your comment, Claudia. I had not heard that from Dali, but it seems so richly true.
#13 by Evelyn on June 14, 2013 - 10:00 pm
the best part of your poetry and how you are dealing with being sober/alive/depressed/sick/alive THRU them, is your acceptance of your flaws.
you are humble and snorty and silly and exposed and so are your poems.
#14 by Carl on June 17, 2013 - 11:50 am
Thank you, Evelyn. You are very kind to comment.
#15 by Carl D'Agostino on June 25, 2013 - 10:52 pm
Glad to see Clinock and Joanna here.
#16 by Carl on June 28, 2013 - 6:39 am
I’m lucky for you and everyone who is so kind.