The Mute Poet

Gustav Dore - The Death of Abel.jpg

No cliches,
the people say.
Huddled, they sit,
within Plato's cave.
They ask me to speak,
to be their truth-finder,
for I have ventured outside.
I have seen the glory of the Sun.
I have gone down on my knees weeping
at the glory of it all, the glory of the world.
And then I turned around, standing in the doorway.
I face them, my back still feeling the warmth,
I face them, looking back into the darkness,
after being blinded by the light's truth.
And there are no words to do justice,
to convey them your glory I've seen.
I make use of the shadow-shapes,
I point and exhort them to see.
But they cannot understand,
for they have never seen.
A mute and moot poet.
I stand there silent,
No cliches.

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This was originally written in Notepad, where due to different spacing, some lines were different. In case the above does not look proper where you are sharing it (due to mono-spacing versus none), try this version:

No cliches,
the people say.
Huddled, they sit,
within Plato's cave.
They ask me to speak,
to be their truth-finder,
for I have ventured outside.
I have seen the glory of the Sun.
I have fallen down on my knees and wept
at the glory of it all, the glory of the world.
And then I turned around, standing in the doorway.
I face them, my back still feeling the warmth,
I face them, looking back into the darkness,
after being blinded by the light's truth.
And there are no words to do justice,
to convey the your glory I've seen.
I make use of the shadow-shapes,
I point and exhort them to see.
But they cannot understand,
for they have not seen.
I stand there silent,
a mute and moot poet.
No cliches.

Line-break.jpg

This piece is inspired somewhat by @dbooster who's been referencing to me lately as "The Poet," and to the muse of all my recent pieces, @mamadini, for this piece definitely has musings on what one writes, and how one writes, as a so-called poet. Especially when one writes about deeply personal experiences such as loss, depression, and love.

Check out my latest pieces:

IOW COLOR LOGO.png
art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics

The image used is "The Death of Abel" by Gustav Doré, 1866, and is part of the Public Domain.

© Guy Shalev 2018.

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