A Mostly Benign One

Because poetry is a disease...

Thoughts ought to be transient, surely?
fluid,
replaceable,
replaced,
the same way
cells have to die, regenerate,
die, regenerate,
die.
It's not natural for
such things to be
permanent.
The cell that wants to
live forever
mutates, becomes
pre-cancerous, if
unchecked, then cancerous,
and kills.

I sometimes think of
everything I've ever written
- these ideas that wouldn't die -
as an exposition of all the tumours
I've excised from myself over the years,

some more malignant
than others.

Reviews

[Sleeper Note]

Amen. Damn near scriptural in my mind's bible. I like your writing. I'm not much of a 'reviewer.' More just a reader and writer. Sorry if I have no suggestions. But, I can cheer and pound my pint glass on the table with the best of them. Comparing tumors is fun. Cheers!

[terry smith]

...'cept for the jellyfish...and why is that? Cancerous thoughts can consume us, turn us black! really good writing Nico!!

[BrttnyWllms]

Brav-f*****g-O

I teally appreciate the movement in this poem. The language is both cyclical and not. I absolutely loved the metaphor. Thank you for this!

[Arezzo]

What an intelligently-sustained metaohor! That which moves and muatates is alive (even a tumour). Most of life is sweet, but the other stuff is also part of the deal.

I've been toying for a long time with a similar idea - but using an opera company. The spirit (ie the music) continues over the years, though the singers retire, die, go off and get drunk - whatever.

However, yours is (a) better and (b) actually achieved. Heartfelt congratulations.

[Philip Muls]

The link with static, cancerous cells is powerful. Indeed thoughts evolve so when you read back something written in the past, it feels obsolete somehow. Great poem.

[Relic]

Great way of putting it. Music has always been my disease since I was young. Then writing came along as a whim. Now its a virus that won't go away even though I could vaccinate myself at any time. I love the way you think. Good one Nico.