pen of words

Pen of Words

 

The bond is a rope,

a lash, a knot-

cords that tether,

cords that bruise,

a ligature of loyalty and loss.

 

We are bound as hogs are bound,

trussed like pork for market,

roped like boars dragged from the sty,

lashed like sows squealing in the cart.

 

Yet the pen is not only timber and mud,

but ink and nib, where the poet,

like a pig, roots in syllables,

wallows in rhyme,

pens himself in

with his own scratching.

 

Swine, hog, boar, sow, gilt, shoat-

each name a chain,

each word a shackle or a charm,

binding language to flesh,

binding flesh to fate.

 

And so the bond is double:

the sty that confines,

the stanza that defines.

 

Both hold us fast,

        both stink of truth,

                both shine

with the grease of meaning.

 

 

 

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Reviews

[Chris Shaw]

Compelled to write. Driven by something inside continually saying, pick up that pen. I like the dual meaning of pen here Freds. Penned in, like a pig in a pen. I guess that’s how writing can feel. A bit like being chained. You are so creative with your metaphors. Have a happy Thursday.

Chris

[redd Brick Keshner]

Thank you, Chris. It’s a joy when the literary bacon is brought home to a shared table! Most grateful for your kind thoughts and words, Freds. 🙏🏻🕊

[Coyote Poetry]

No sweetness in your thoughts. I did enjoy my friend.
"Both hold us fast,
both stink of truth,
both shine
with the grease of meaning."
The above lines were my favorite. It is sad. We learn to accept less. Thank you for sharing the amazing poetry and your thoughts.
Coyote

[redd Brick Keshner]

Thanks dear friend. How has your year been? It’s good to be conversing with you again 🕊️🙏🏻

[Lorry]

We are confined by "thoughts prosaic" as I call them. If you are ever in doubt, try to get through a day without scribbling a line, a word or phrase for possible poetic usage and see how long it takes before you ate fumbling for a pen! 😀
Just don't do what I do when being met by a group of stern and expectant faces that look like they are waiting for an answer and blurted out something completely inappropriate like "sultry perfume" or "who bit the leg off my gingerbread man?" 😆
Now, what is that word thats the name for a part of a horses bits n bobs when its saddled up that rhymes with orange?
Dang! I need another coffee, but thanks for letting me use dang! 😆

[redd Brick Keshner]

There are stirrings of another poem in this wonderful response. Perhaps the coffee would have kickstarted it! 🕊️🙏🏻

[FlatDaddy]

I seem to have been corralled by your pen lately (with an assist by Jacob) and I'm wondering when you will run out of metaphors, hoping you don't; I squeal like a little piggy myself when I find a new one. Keep 'em coming, freds.

[redd Brick Keshner]

I do wonder about that myself, sometimes. Perhaps if I keep travelling the highway of imagination and thought, there shouldn’t be any real reason to run out. Thanks FD🙏🏻🕊

[FlatDaddy]

BTW, congrats to you on the "hello, poetry" award. well deserved.

[FlatDaddy]

or was that "more than scribbles"? I think that was it, over at SR

[FlatDaddy]

either way, you certainly have the "chops" -- sorry, couldn't resist

[redd Brick Keshner]

Not sure that hellopoetry has awards. But SR does. Tough crowd over there. 🕊️🙏

[John the Baptist]

We who feel we must write may indeed be bound as you suggest. I guess there are worse bonds. It's safer than fentanyl.

[redd Brick Keshner]

Cheers, John! It is indeed a thing to be compelled. Most thankful 🙏🏻🕊