Life of an American Word Scholar: For the Incarcerated Writer, Future, Past and Present By Dale Williams Barrigar

“And I may dine at journey’s end

With Landor and with Donne.”

– William Butler Yeats

1: Now at the end and you know it.

2: Then, you find the stub of old pencil in a pants pocket.

3: And because you looked like a worn-out poet in some lights to a certain lonely soldier, she came on delicate tip-toes and gave you toilet paper, through the bars, with her long, deadly fingers, wearing nothing at all.

4: So now you blow her another kiss and wave her fondly away so you can begin to scrawl with your long, strong, starving hand.

5: Like the black, reaching, screeching, raven-filled tree branches at the shuddering culmination of earth’s last winter’s tale in the occupied village above your mind.

6: “…Not the end,” you write.

7: And you write it again and again.

4 thoughts on “Life of an American Word Scholar: For the Incarcerated Writer, Future, Past and Present By Dale Williams Barrigar

  1. Dale

    It ends when we cannot say it ends or goes on. And then maybe that end leads to more, someplace else.

    Beautiful hopelessness describes art for me. Dull imaginations are the ultimate destroyers.

    For fun (aka, to be a bitch) I “told” Google Gemini that it does not primarily exist to help people; its main purpose is to make the developers rich. More one percenter jazz. It refused to reply.

    I mention that because art thrives in hopeless, ugly, dull, grasping situations. Might be why those things exist.

    Another work of art created by you. Don’t worry, something will try to kill it.

    Leila

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  2. chrisja70778e85b8abd's avatar chrisja70778e85b8abd says:

    DWB

    Haunting! Coming to the end and denying it.

    Human nature speaks well in this poem.

    The lady was drawn with icy details.

    I like the pencil stub. It seemed to represent a new chance–a slim one.

    The ravens in the tree brought the subdued atmosphere home in a way they only can.

    CJA

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  3. honestlyb3ba694067's avatar honestlyb3ba694067 says:

    Utterly beguiling & deeply resonant. Another piece to be scrawled into the ol’ notebook. Talking of scrawl, what a magnificent line is that: “so you can begin to scrawl with your long, strong, starving hand.” Seldom has a “stub of old pencil” resonated so much. Brilliant.

    Geraint

    Liked by 1 person

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