PERSPICACEOUS SMITH, Esq.

Perspicaceous thinks about life and death.

 

PERSPICACEOUS  SMITH, Esq.

 

Old men retreating into the night

On silent padded feet

The blazing sun sets trees on fire

Morning life has sprung

 

Light of day and work

Hope rises in our chest

Sliding into lazy warmth

Ending numbers thing of youth

 

Evening approaches

Birds settling on the perch

Families secure from the night

Gather `round the lighted hearth

 

Danger !  Danger !

Fleeing felons seize the dark

Old men on silent padded feet

Dimly in the distant park

 

----- Eagle Cruagh

Reviews

[Alice Oiseau]

Ah, an intriguing poem. I have two mind sets: literal and metaphorical. The literal side saw something that irked me in the first stanza:

Old men retreating into the night
On silent padded feet
The blazing sun sets trees on fire

The fact that you open the poem with night and two lines later I see 'sun' and it's morning now. Perhaps it's the wee hours of the morning, still considered night, but right before sunrise. Though, thinking literally, the shift was too abrupt for me.

But my literary mind set sees it as either being metaphorical and/or a foreshadow.
Let me elaborate.

"Retreating into the night" i.e. running into the unknown, the danger, the 'dark', escaping because night is a time when there is uncertainty of your whereabouts, the slightest unexpected noise sends a chill down your spine and can make you paranoid, ergo 'fleeing' -- from what? A felony. So perhaps the felons committed a crime during the day -- gah! getting literal again -- and now embark on a race of fear of what the 'night' holds. Then again, they 'seize' the dark. It could be seen as the willingness and eagerness to escape, or maybe the dark is not an escape. Perhaps it's something entirely different. Perhaps I'm over analyzing.

I tend to do that, and also tend to lose track of my thoughts as I plunge deeper into the reading.
Nevertheless, you have a good poem here.
I enjoyed.
Cheers.

[emmajoy]

Hmmm, will come back to this.

[Sheila Kline]

I have already commented..but I failed to mention the choice of the name "Smith", and Esq....gives it commonality for all....we may all be a "Smith" at sometime in our life, and the title......a note of authority.
Sheila

[Sheila Kline]

This is a most interesting write, and I perhaps one that may have a different interpretation to each reader....for "who" or "what" do we consider to be that which fades into the distant past...old men on padded feet as you speak of. Is it our own past coming back to consume us as we drag up old memories,
is it lonliness that comes more often in the hours of dark as the world sleeps, is it our dreams that were unmet for that day, is it the dread of yet another day that will come as the sun sets the new alive with flame? May even be the words of the masters who speak of philosophy...those who are now settled in the dust of yesterdays!
A wonderful poem on many levels, and is one that makes "me" think...always a welcome challenge!
Sheila

[Debra Stevens Edwards (..]

This was a very unique piece and I think that it was a tribute to someone you knew and someone who lost there life
to those fleeing felons but that's a guess.The picture made me think that. Although i think that the transition from night to day was too sudden. It was still a very good piece
Hugs Debby

[Spoken]

beware those old men, or is it the perspicacious ones that sound the alarm? "danger danger, our secrets are in danger!"

nothing can hurt you unless you let it. if you take a bat to my back, i may never walk again.. but i'll still stand tall :)

cool word dance