Thursday, December 31, 2009

On the Eve of a New Heart

Brighten my cold cavern, every crevice
with your distant atomic flash.
Melt away the frozen particles
of stubborn animosity, cowardice, fear.
Belshazzar sits at the side,
knees now knocking one against the other
as he witnesses the foreboding script.
His fate is the fate of Herod
and countless other would-be dictators,
once confident in their cruel reign
over the enslaved souls of men.
Come to me and burn deep inside
with your distant atomic flash.
Every vestige of me a fading memory,
every despairing tear removed,
and now every morning, new mercy.
Let the revolution start!



A reflection upon the following image from Read Write Poem prompt #107.


11 comments:

  1. There's a wonderfully incantatory feel to this poem, and a powerful sense of destruction preceding renewal. A very apposite piece for the very edge of the old year.
    Dick.

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  2. I LOVE the use of the imperative voice in the poem, something I have been playing with quite a lot. Nice Work.

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  3. I love this poem, Jerry, beginning with the invocation, the invitation to the divine to burn away everything negative within the self.

    Wonderful!

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  4. Perfect! From the title to the end, this one has a powerful thrust of remaking, remastering.

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  5. I enjoyed the idea of the cleansing light, taking away oppression and bringing renewal. Your poem is confident and powerful. I loved the energy through out the lines. Thank you for sharing, Jerry! I hope the coming year brings light, love and renewed energy to your corner of the world, sir! Happy New Year!

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  6. I like the idea of good triumphant over evil
    Belshazzar's knocking knees and especially the start of a revolution!Happy New Year!

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  7. This is really intriguing, a very different use of an "atomic flash".

    Elizabeth

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  8. Aha! Another great idea turned into poetry! (I believe our political beliefs are quite the same!)
    "Melt away the frozen particles of stubborn animosity, cowardice, fear." Such great words...

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  9. What a powerful call for renewal!

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  10. Sir, I perceive thou art a Gentleman and a Scholar and yet hale from Texas – is this not the starkest of contradictions then? How do you bear up?

    Indeed, ‘tis the residence of Dictators most cruel – and yet Despair not! For he is indeed a fading memory and holds no national office now.

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  11. Yes but this Revolution appears to have transpired some time ago with no word since. Does the flag fly still? Whither now the Glory and the Dream?

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