Exercise in Poetry Appreciation

My name is an Incantation
An exclamation on the face of ancient men
Looking up at thundering skies
Whispering dark secrets
God to ear to the ear of the Priest
Who wonders in mute amazement
At the will of the demons
His heart beating faster
His legs drenched in the golden rains
The name evokes

My Name...

It is an ancient secret this name
That travels through souls in the kiss of lovers
Entwined in amorous touches
In wide eyed dreams of unknown lights
Like the light of the setting sun
Embraced by darkness
As the God Queen follows
In her large wooden boat
Sails filled with the eastern wind
Down the western abyss
Off the river, off the sea
Off the horizon, off the flat
End of the world
Off the waking edge of her eternal sleep
She follows the Sun down and down

Down the rabbit hole
The black knight knows
The Red Queen wonders
At her ancient quest
Her sacred lust
Among visiting heroes
And snake bitten lovers
Among shadow ghosts that once had lied
And sinned between husbands
Moaning out loud
In the very depths of love
Never looking back
Aided by a clue
She searches for the name
And whispers its power


And says it again
Like the sound of fire
A warning for approaching death
Fearful of what dreams may come
At the misty headed glimpse
Of the cavernous dark
Sticky black pit
Of after-life
Like the mouth of a monster
Beneath his bead

My Name...

She says
Languidly slowly secretly
Quietly
Into ears that are far away
Hearing him breathe
Hearing the silence
Revolving around him
Listening to the quiet stillness
Of a sleeping love
Engulfed by the illusion
And whispers...

The stillness responds
She grasps the illusion
And descends into
Comfortable sleep
Like a serpent’s tongue
In the blades of grass
And towering brown heights
Of forest scenery