The Heart Must Remember

The war of heart and head

Mediocrity.

You call my name,

Cruel mistress of misconception.

Your taint is unrestrained

In its complacency.

 

Silver tongued, your barb

Lies hidden beneath

Flowery words painted on moldy canvas.

A still life,

Floating atop a velvet abyss of regret.

 

The perfect choice of word,

The finest turn of phrase,

The honing to sharpest point

Of intellect cannot banish

The mediocrity of word untouched by

Heart’s fire opened.

 

The heart must hold the brightest

Light of mind’s court in check.

Lest words fail

To touch the most tender wish for humanity

Hidden within the many-petalled heart.

 

The cold steel of intellect cannot pry open

The heart of another.

Touch instead this fragile flower,

Perfect in its brevity,

Wild in its compassion---

To remember.

Reviews

[FJ Davis]

Sage advice sweetly presented--delivered in lush imagery; spoken with lovely lyric; displaying and illuminating a vital truth.
Such a soul-pleaser, Audrey!

[emmajoy]

In my eyes, right or wrong, sincerity in a mere three letter word means and reaches further and deeper than a tome. Words for words' sake to make an impression are just empty cant. it's the difference between being given a bunch of daisies by a wee child's hand and a box of secretary ordered orchids ..

' .. .. touch the most tender wish for humanity ~ Hidden within the many-petalled heart.'

A thoughtful and very lovely poem, Audrey, one to come back to. x

[sarah]

This is a great write and it flows just beautifully great write!

[ice]

The first stanza could stand alone as a poem...but it does set the stage for the rest of the word play...Mediocrity is what I dispise second, the first being indifference.

A battle of wits can be lost by those who feel intelegence can overcome a romantically weak heart...whose fire remains unopened, but they are wrong.

"The cold steel of intellect cannot pry open
The heart of another."

Such a wonderful line, among the many meaningful lines in this poem, I like this one the best.

Thank you for this poem, Audrey.

[...]

. your language is very beautiful ... "velvet abyss of regret" ... "the mediocrity of word" ... "mind's court in check" ... "many-petalled heart" ... "the cold steel of intellect" ... are amazing expressions ... and then the last three lines ... are absolutely magical ... indeed "the cold steel of intellect cannot pry open the heart of another" ...

[Juliet]

Wow. This is excellent. What a powerful first stanza. Oh, who am I kidding? This entire poem is powerful and written elegantly. I'm almost jealous that I didn't come up with it first. :P Exquisite write and I look forward to reading more. :) I'm going to go add you now.

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

Beautiful, love this stanza: The perfect choice of word,

The finest turn of phrase,

The honing to sharpest point

Of intellect cannot banish

The mediocrity of word untouched by

Heart’s fire opened.