Dryad

Portrait of a Heroin Addict

 

An intense dryad
fixated with cooling down,
eyes hollow and dusk,

veins hard and lifeless
as twisted twigs. Flesh, the bark
of sun lucid trees

where only the dull,
faded, ochre now remains –
surface defaced.

 

Reviews

Some of the most powerful pieces depict great depth in just a few words, as if describing a painting of great impact. It is, at the same time, a very challenging art to perfect.

You seem to have done a very good job at that. This is written exceptionally well. You have great fundamentals.

A wonderful piece.

[koRnkitty]

Not sure about the last line. Maybe it just seems a bit harder than the rest of what is a very considered piece. I do really love the extended metaphor. It works well, and better, it works as a poem even if you don't read it as being about a heroin addict.

[Siddartha Beth Pierce]

Much to say here - interesting that you would compare a heroin addict to a wood nymph...beautiful, haunting imagery. Nice write. Thank you for sharing. Well done.
Light,
Siddartha

[Vanessa Whiteley]

A small poem with a heck of a punch. You really paint the picture of the addict well. I was going to write that as dryads are tied to the tree - one bound up in the other so this man has been taken over by the drug. A point of interest (just discovered I thought this applied to all dryads) Hamadryads are born bonded to a specific tree. If their tree died, the hamadryad associated with it died as well.

Be that as it may the tree imagery works wonderfully well here.

[Pema Dorje]

... the dying addict has a stoned Beauty like a statue uncovered from the earthen depths staring at forever ... well writ, Sel

[PianoandPage]

3 short stanzas and yet they completely capture this.

dusk eyes.

hard veins.

ochre skin.

wow. you seem to like using gnarled oak trees to define used up people. it's a great metaphor and really transmutes the feeling instantly.

[Blackbirdsong]

You really pack a lot in a short poem, Sel. The hardened veins really got me for some reason. That image is stark and painfully real and just sort of stopped me for a second. I had to look at that and not look away or read past it quickly. Then I reread the whole poem. This is something that shouldn't be rushed through. It deserves time as these people deserve our time. So often we quickly look past them, but we shouldn't. They deserve better of us than that.

[[untitled]]

"Veins hard and lifeless as twisted figs"
"surface defaced" Enough said! Very moving work. Bethlynne.

[Lex]

As always very strong writing, and very vivid images which it conjures up.

[Donald Meikle]

Ken Simm's turned on! Me? I see a guitarless Keith Richards. You've made Ents cry