Thursday 11 April 2013

Escape






Not in crowds, nor in the company of a few
close friends, nor when I’m alone, and even with you
there is this restless weight the soul won’t relinquish,
small knots of sorrow it’s strangely loath to undo.

 

I wish I knew to unravel their ends, I wish
I could tease their rough hemp fibres from my flesh
and bones, from spaces of the self, I wish I knew
to snip one link and escape beyond the whole mesh.

 

But no cities there made of jade, there are no views
of freeways glistening in rain, no green ooze
of rivers, nothing beyond the pale knots of anguish
that’s any different from here, nothing to choose

 

between these two sides of the rough tightened lattice
at least not so marked that you’d sit up and notice.
What world can be made whole if it’s without you
and what’s an escape if you aren’t an accomplice?






 

8 comments:

  1. beautiful!
    why is this labelled rubaiyat?

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    1. Thank you. Appreciate your eye for detail! or labels, in this case...rubai is an middle-eastern poetry form, derives from the Arabic word for 4 - arbaa, it is a quatrain with aaxa rhyme scheme, rubaiyat is the plural form. The most famous are the ones by Khayyam and Rumi, but the form is/has been used by many others.

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    2. its a learning for me! Nilanjana, thank you :)

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  2. Hi Nilanjana...I must admit this is a little deep and mysterious to me. I still enjoyed reading and mulling over it. D

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    1. Hi Denise, and good to see you! okay to be mysterious I think, but deep is a definite no-no for me...will try and paddle out to the other end ...so glad you still enjoyed the verse!

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  3. Your poem is worthy of the labels you have invoked. Yes, the force is nearly as potent as the Rubiayat.

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    1. Thank you indeed. Mine are rubaiyat...always lower case.

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