This Is A Night

This Is A Night

This is a night of long silences,
except for Peace Train playing
on my friend's guitar.
If I tell her she is a master,
she says, It is a Martin,
if I fall asleep because the night
is full of today's ghost parade,
or an exhaustion I had not anticipated
in a manic moment,
she throws a blanket over me
and goes away.
She will be back.
We all return to the familiar.
And if we fight sometimes, and rage,
with bitter misunderstandings,
it is only that it is easier
to be mad than sad.
Sad, being a soldier of regret
and could have been pictures,
so tiring and fetal
in his position.
Rage being nearer to life
and comforting,
the scream of being here, being now,
being drunk with the passion
of our own opinion.
Some days my head is an oven
of love and explosions
Some days I am the blizzard
of a hermit soul walking
quiet and barefoot in the snow.
Tonight I am sleeping on the couch
that has a hard back
Here, I can seal my sources
and hedge my bets.
And if I turn the other way,
it is just as well.
The way my arm swings out
into empty space,
until I am very open to falling.

Reviews

[W.k.kortas]

Wonderfully constructed piece, fine use of rhythm and language; it reduces large issues to a scale we can easily relate to, framing complex ideas in everyday relationships. The final nine lines are as fine as anything you've written. Top-shelf stuff.

[Toni Prehoda Kahler]

This is fresh writing, vigorous writing. I was right up close with your images, so enjoyable. "We all return to the familiar" and "it is only that it is easier to be mad than sad" is terrific! and then the follow-up introspection of both emotions - great. I wasn't clear at first about the lines, but I think you just need to insert some dashes to connect ("could-have-been pictures") so it reads clear.
I like how you open me to the dynamic image of being hot, heated "...an oven/of love and explosions" contrasted with "a blizzard of a hermit soul walking/quiet and barefoot in the snow" - I love those lines!
And then back again, right up close to you on the couch. I'm tempted to fuss with your punctuation a little bit, but that is my obsession. (comma instead of period after "just as well") or you could keep the period there, and have the next line start with "My arm..." (leave out "The way"). I like that arm preparing the way for you.
What an enjoyable read! And so I repeat: This is a wonderful piece, fresh, invigorating - great write.