Looking Back

Looking Back

Do you ever stop and reflect?

Stand before that dark cranial mirror

as you delve for recall and long lost thoughts,

and the feelings they once brought.

The blunt rock of regret begins

to lay heavy in your stomach’s pit

as the passing years flake away,

peeling the cold flesh of tragedy like paint

from once highly glossed wood.

The sharpened scalpel of reason

dissecting the past, as your post mortem progresses,

has a blunted edge.

Echoes reverberate from the convoluted, steep-sided

canyons of those memories

to rattle like a pin ball in your skull.

And the shock therapy has no placebo effect

as you drown in the putrid stained flows of that sewer

that defines your past.

 

26/09/13

Author's Note

Reviews

[Lyn Anderson]

This is a very powerful poem. I like the imagery used to describe that whole "hind sight is 20-20" phenomenon and how we go through our pasts and dissect them. Is the possessive Echo's on purpose, and if so, I am unclear as to its meaning. I would have just put Echoes, but maybe there is a hidden meaning I am missing.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Thank you KLG. A typo me thinks. You are either a proof reader, a teacher or at least a scholar of the English language and I am none of those lol!

[Lyn Anderson]

I used to proof read an entire small town newspaper every week.:)

[James Huston]

like the imagery used and even the flow you created. really makes you think deeper about things, even almost helps you self reflect better.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Thank James

[James Huston]

i like your work, i really understand the deepness involved in each line. good job again

[Neon]

Nice poem, very well captured the moments. Brilliant job.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Hi Neon, many thanks for the lovely review.

[SHEEMA HUQ]

Your descriptions and metaphors are superb, very imaginative and intense work, well done!

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Thank you for such a supportive review Sheema.

[Pryde Foltz]

It's funny. When I think of my past it is either with fondness or gratitude that I have escaped certain situations. And with most people who are no longer in my life there is a winsome sadness. But I shutter to say I look forward with this kind of pain. I think I need to change that. Profound write.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Thank you Pryde. None of us has the answer yet we think they do.

[Pryde Foltz]

So true..................

[Lydia Shutter]

Shiny dreams of the past tend to dull as the years pass. Is it really a good idea to dissect the past like that? The regrets haunt us and fester deep in the psyche. The dark imagery here is powerful. Very well written. Lydi**

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Thank you Lydi

[Jack...]

I found myself lost in your words this day my friend. This was a dark look into one's past, the hauntings of those memories we'd like to, but just can't flush from our minds. Very cool.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Thanks Jack. Having been there it is easy to saty in touch without too much darkness.

[Emerald Seas]

Wow John, tell how the character really feels. This is so dark! I guess everyone has regrets. I hope people realize that the dwelling on mistakes to thus degree rob them of their present and future. A deep write, where I felt the anguish of this man in each line.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Thank you QSS. It was mere reaching in to feel what darkness feels like. We have all been there.

[Leslie Philibert]

A poet who contributes a lot of poetry, and writes well..

[Frieda P]

Deep and profound John, your pen overflows metaphorical, I love this one, much food for thought, 'dark cranial mirror' is smashing! Great one, this new persona works well poetically speaking.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Thank you my Lady (bows low). Hey and the smashing joke does not make you a comedienne lol!