Under the Sun: A Cycle of Poems

by Christopher DeGroot (December 2017)

Music, Gustav Klimt, 1895

 
 
Old Dream 

 

Bizarre as history,

here you are

old dream come

to tear the truth out

from its hateful home.

 

Relent a little,

O my soul,
let compassion flow.

Oh No

Oh no, oh no, oh no no no!
Neither will they do what you won’t do.

Oh no, oh no, oh no no no!
That force carries love, you know.

Oh no, oh no, oh no no no!
Upon your feet—son—man.

Just This Thought

Just this thought                                                                                                                           

on this night

in this world.

 

Just this thought

(witness to my confinement,

my passion to believe).

 

Give to me

that intrepid resolve,

that knowing look,

that clear-eyed vision.

 

Let me be the one,

the only one

to justify

your part

in the spectacle,

the freedom

you get

from tragedy.

 

Let me be the one,
the only one

strong enough,

what some say

weak enough,

to believe

your wants

mean more

than my own.

 

For this alone—

as all know well—

for this alone—

witness the love of God—

for this alone—

we cannot speak of how much this means.

Father

 

for him
 

You are home in your sadness, father.      
I am home

in memory.

Whom do we praise?

This tenderness brings to knees,
and we know
we know
to praise.

………………………………………………………

I praise also your sadness, father.
Praise me. Know me. I am home.

A Forgiveness

A pellucidness impresses,
   and then you bind and become
             greater as you unfurl.

         Greater than my praise in words.

                         Seraphic.

                 A blazon I can touch.
 
      To my life a forgiveness, you give a new retina
                          in trust.

 Issuing and glorious, redolent and resonant.
                                        I must.

 

_________________________________
Christopher DeGroot—essayist, poet, aphorist, and satirist—is a writer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His writing appears regularly in New English Review, where he is a contributing editor, and occasionally in The Iconoclast, its daily blog. He is also a popular columnist at Taki’s Magazine. Compositions in progress include a novel, a collection of epigrams and aphorisms, a book of poetry, and a few satires. You can follow his work at @CEGrotius.

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