An Ode for Lined Paper

How wonderous
Such a simple thing
Gentle blue guiding
My measured pen
To a monolithic
Structure
Rising // marching
The solidarity of
Ink matured
From chaotic crayon
Bringing order at last
To my every
word

How harmonious
Such a simple thing
To fill the lungs
With intent
blooming forth
A shared meaning
To bind breath
With fettered word
Each caress of the tongue
A familar path
the mind must follow
Bringing order at last
To my every
thought

How glorious
Such a simple thing
The flow of thought
An electric frisson
Of stimulus
Everflowing within
It's own awareness
Of itself
Of the world
Of a greater meaning
Bringing order at last
Around a structured
... regressing...
Word

How odious
Such a simple ode
Obscuring loamy soil
beneath marching boots
Stripping the world
Of as it is
Leaving this
simulacrum of truth
Of pounding thoughts
Gripping me with
Vice like introspection
So I may never know
How glorious the world
Will continue to be
Without the latticed taint
Of my every thought
Every word
Every discarded scrap
Of wonderous lined paper

Reviews

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Indeed I recall the certainty of lined paper as a child learning to write and especially when we progressed to joined-up writing. Then we learn to discipline and guide our own pens and gain confidence and courage. But still those pale blue lines hang behind in our thoughts and keep our 'writing' straight and between the social norms we subscribe to. Nicely penned in flowing free verse.

[Einstein Noodle]

wow...creative weave from simple to complex to mystical ..top notch work with the metaphor .. really like its repetition .. works well for me! ;) the irony and sarcasm in closing is almost torturous to me .. as your lines go from "..wondrous" to "...harmonious" ..to "..glorious" ...and then boom "How odious" .. sharp turn sir .. and yes .. who can say how beautiful the world will continue to be when our vain attempts at truth finding are done .. i also really like the "..every discarded scrap" being included in those precise lined papers ... i think i can safely say we all have them .. the "brilliant" inspirations seen less glorious in the morning light .. so happy to see you return to the Cafe now and again Nusquam! and glad i did not miss this one :)
E.

[Nusquam Esse]

I rarely write odes, to dedicate a poem to praise is a flighting mood. So I decided to do one ironically, even spiteful. Surely I am not the only one to turn an Ode Odious. In what I doubt is uniquely my struggle alone, find that the more enamored with words we become, the more frustrated we are with how powerless they are. Then there is that sense of being, but a drop in consciousness... it is frustrating to assign so much priority to just that drop, a drop that is just a drop for the rest of the world. I'd say this ode very much goes back to my story Faustian Eidolon; where I was really musing over the worth of words, thoughts, desires. Isn't it odd how the world seems it's best when we still our thoughts, and just let it be... yet we obsess over the beauty of words. Is there thought unrestrained by words? Ah, the complicated relationship of a wordsmith.

[Einstein Noodle]

well ... i would respectfully disagree about the value of words .. they are important and all we have to fill those lined pieces of paper..a tranquil no mind state of mind is entirely another matter to me ... they don't really go together .. but one can certainly enjoy the endeavor of both .. are you questioning the value of your expressing in pen and ink then?? i would miss you if you chose the meditative and quite the writing ... you have a unique place from which your poetry flows says i ... :)

[Delmar Cooper]

Marvelous. A life lived on paper. Careful, people will begin to appreciate poetry if you let this loose.

[Nusquam Esse]

I will need to hide it in an ocean of jargon and awkwardly paced poems then. It would be a shame to be be accessible beyond a flight of whimsy. ;) Thanks for swinging by; it is a surprise to see people will still visit considering how intermittent (if not inactive) I am on here.

[Delmar Cooper]

Legends endure and revisit, thanks.