Sunrise

"...burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..." -jack kerouac

A long time ago, I swallowed

A mountain range of lies.

It took all night to digest the wrong,

But the truth fought its way out

From the darkest corners of me.

Small fires burned in my fingertips and toes

And the truth swallowed me.

I dreamt all sorts of Bosch dreams

And thought about becoming

The sort of artist that cuts his ear off.

My head and my heart battled

Somewhere south of the Sahara.

Parched and scorched, they both lost anyway

Beneath a Sun that tackles Darkness

One ray at a time.

And the light bleeds into streams

That penetrate the edges

And every shiny cell of who I am.

It leaves behind a girl

Who fought the fight against herself

And everything she thought she wanted.

In the end, she ended up the type of winner

That lays in bed at night

With a deep sense of courage
Given to her by someone bigger than herself.

Author's Note

"the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."
-jack kerouac

Reviews

[Writing Cherry Blossom]

It is an amazing poem. I can imagine the fires and imagine everything you've describe. Its such powerful writing. Truly admirable.

[BJ "Bunneh3000" Brown]

I absolutely love how powerful the imagery of the first three lines of this poem are very powerful. They really set the tone for the rest of the poem. At times I forget how important the beginning of a poem is. Drawing the reader in and immersing them with such emotion as this is a rare skill and you've certainly mastered it here!

Great write!

[zainul]

Wonderful write.

[Stephen Churchill]

so incredibly visual. great job.

[Antonio Valentino]

Having trouble finding the words, except that I very much enjoyed this! Love your artwork too by the way. You're very talented.

Antonio

[Coyote Poetry]

The Jack Kerouac words are perfect. We learn with time and the hard way. A excellent poem. Thank you.
Coyote

[Wharton]

We are all naive at one time, sadly, it takes getting hurt to learn, to become wise. There is nothing wrong with dreaming, nothing at all, just it's good to know when it is a dream and when reality, that is what I see as the crux of this poem, learning to become wise.

Burning is fine sometimes, but I doubt even Kerouac lived the life he imagined, in quite that way he suggested. Sane men need equilibrium.

Lovely poem.

[RAWR!]

cool
i had to look up the word bosch ^_^

[Jaffa Forbes]

Amazing poem! And a great quotation above as well. I immensely love the line 'Beneath a Sun that tackles Darkness / One ray at a time.' That is seriously one of the best lines I've read recently. And in fact the next dozen or so lines are also great, the way that such a huge, awesome source of power can reach every little cell, every little part of who we are. Great imagery. As ever a pleasure to read your poems :)

[Jasmine]

i love this...i cant really explain why - not well anyway (it would be all the usual "i identified with this" and "it's captivating and beautiful" stuff) but i do like it a lot. it's empowering with a hint of a darkness overcome. i especially like the last four lines. really great. keep it up :)