HERMIT SIGNALS

05 17 12

Five years ago I swooped beneath
this geologic curl that dolls up
the surly shore
like a stone pompadour
tridented in its swagger of a swish
into crew cut remission
by an unimpressed sea god
and his teal army of chicanes
shouldering its way up the beach
and closing in on my crescent corner
of compressed Society like spilled paint

I was a token boy
colour-blinded by sunset's seductive frills
when I made for the shadow in protest
to prove the weight of liberty
is malleable when exposed
to a hermit's nocturnal fire
furnacing the bliss of solitude

The grey neutrality of my seclusion
fled the waves' advancing brainwash
like a gravity-immune newt
scooting round the skewed rock awning
to meditate above the landscape
clouding the green promise of impending Spring
with scenic unease

Five years ago I huddled sonnet-tight
beneath this outcrop before
Society cast a swell on me
with its heatseeker of Demography
My smoke bullied like Jerusalem
behind the kettle-black ejaculations
of the Dark Satanic Mills of Urbanology

Nature's betrayal of the heart
that never loved her

Nature
The engine prodding Youth's run
on the brake-numbing drag strip
of real time

I thought I was a darling of Nature
and my token boyhood a nailed test
when I threw the keys back at her
All I did was carom her sight line
like a spectral laser of the binds
of prophesying English books

Five years
and a frustrated sea
educated me
Liberty
has no place in nature

Author's Note

Inspired by various images from the poetry of William Wordsworth and William Blake, and a stretch of time that I thought was mercifully over but am now not so sure.

Reviews

[Angi]

I am often found hibernating, hermiting. I find society's frills obnoxious, noxious. 'Stone pompadour' is brilliant. The image swooped up magnificently in my mind. What happened in your 5 years? Angi~

[kublakhan27]

I don't wanna say too much and risk bringing you down, but the last five years or so have brought a steady stream of losses...eventually you lose enough important people in your life to drive you into hermitage...the five-year span is also a reference to a Wordsworth poem, Tintern Abbey, which was written five years after his original visit to the place that inspired it...I'm happy and relived that you liked the pompadour image, I wasn't sure about that one haha And being a personal piece, I'm happy that it spoke to you this way...thanks Angi :)

[Angi]

That sucks about the five years worth of losses. The stone pompadour was one of my favorite imagery details in this piece. Be sure about it. It is an awesome way to describe a geologic curl that dolls up a surly shore. Love.

[kublakhan27]

Thank you again my friend...for whatever reason, I've never promoted this piece...I suppose I just wasn't sure about how it would be received, but your review may inspire me to plug it more :)