and we write of them, still

 

 

and we write of them, still

 

 

 

there have been Plaths and Sextons

Berrymans and Jarrells....

none filled with barrels

of metrical laughter

 

these tortured artists

ran out of reasons to breathe words

found highways, garages, bullets and ovens

and as poetic spirits

of a coven

joined hands in death

and left their pens on empty desks

silent typewriters

silent pens

and odds and ends

 

unfinished and unwritten 

catacombs of writing gathering dust

in decomposing minds

 

if only we could Lazarus them back to life

what would they write now?

lines of regrets

for the lines 

unfulfilled

unpunctuated ?

 

or about lives 

unfulfilled

 

and dead end pens

that were destined

for posthumous notoriety

and postscripts 

 

becoming footnotes

in some research paper

paying due respect

as if they all would turn over in their graves

 

and give the fledgling doctoral student

a thumbs up

for the acknowledgment

 

that was really just 

                                an afterthought...

 

 

 

erin-cilberto

10/9/17

Reviews

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

Your words call out to those brilliant hallowed minds in their decaying skulls-yes. Did they write to dispell their darkness, or to espouse it? Acerbic homage vents anger,sorrow at their waste of life and potential. “Dead end pens”-and acrimonious, grieving poets. The last magnificent broken line relegating them to academic “afterthought”. Loved this.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your very kind words, Annette...
j.

[ROXANE DORSEY]

A poet's mind hard to define, such talent you display. thanks cause it's fascinating.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, Roxane,

j.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

An excellent perspective on the tragic poets who have taken their own lives. Many artistic people are fundamentally flawed and it is the personality traits that drive them to create. Many schizophrenics are creative. People often express in art what they cannot seem to do in life. This is a really thought provoking piece Jacob, put together in such a flowing, appetising set of metaphors.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

yes, and sometimes i think emotions i should feel just by-pass me right into the poems...
read moreyes, and sometimes i think emotions i should feel just by-pass me right into the poems...

thanks, John.