A farthing...

climb'd the trick staircase to austerity

  empty headed steps off lapsed history

genuflecting a blind-eyed anamnesis

  consummated 'tween held poetic breaths

acerbity's aftertaste sharpened teeth

   sardonic causticity bleeds irony's ink

    soft bullet assault to back of the head

French braille written of Greek tragedy

    scraping ashes to resuscitate the flame

      hypocritically ingenious turn of affairs

          pen'd a sixpence worth two cents

   a bloody farthing for posterity's inheritance

Author's Note

Reviews

[Saddam]

hypocritically ingenious turn of affairs

Hygienic and so ironic write. It is always new from you and lots of new experience. Great as always.

[Claire in VA]

Wow! These are strong words.
Took me a few reads to get it.
Brilliant writing my dear.
Claire ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°

[Frieda P]

So jazz'd you got it Claire, thanks so much. :-)

[star73]

like its deep love the music and video.

[s y e]

// French braille written of Greek tragedy //

What a freaking line, this line jumped out at me and went 'YOO HOO' I don't really think anything prepares for what is going to jump out at us but we stand guard and we're prepared for anything - or at least we hope we are!! xo

[Leslie Philibert]

Lots of impressive lines, great use of language.

[kublakhan27]

Well as you may have guessed, the Greek reference jumped out at me on contact haha...sardonic causticity bleeds irony's ink...you can also probably guess how deeply I relate to that part. I had an English prof many years ago who suggested that irony and sarcasm are the same thing, and I agree...they both come from the same place of the mind, a place the doesn't waste words...a place where the artist lives...the way with words that you possess when it comes to this kind of subject matter is something I will always marvel over...the problem is that your produce poems so prolifically that I never have too much time to dwell on specific things ;P I don't know if I'll ever be able to catch up with all your requests love, as bad as I want to...of course I don't waste time in absorbing myself in newly-posted pieces, but for all my best efforts I struggle to make it back to the older requests...I'll continue to try and read as many of the older ones as I can though...in any event, you know how I feel about all of it...they all speak to me on some emotional level, and they all remind me that you're the greatest poet I've ever met...xo

[Rita L. Sev]

French braille written of Greek tragedy... outstanding line! Spilling some bitter ink here, Frieda, and perfectly so...

[Madalyn Beck]

Oh, I sense a bit of anger in you, my dear. Hope all is well! I enjoyed this write and the venom pouring through each word. You are a fantabulous writer! xo (:

[icelandicblue]

Nothing really prepares us for what is to greet us down the road and as we desperately try to make sense of it we spill our thoughts in ink and hope that something of worth comes from it. So often in life we are short changed. This one took a few reads but it was worth it.

[Aethereal]

I thoroughly enjoyed the content of your poem! In the fullness of time, History is interpreted in the light of more advanced analytical, and psychological tools. Those who are using outdated tools for Historical Analysis may think that more advanced methods view the past with a blind-eye, but in reality they are confusing selective filtering with something that they call a Blind-Eye. Posterity inherits gems in a historical trash bin whereby these gems need to be separated from the trash through the use of more advanced analytical methods of filtering. Posterity must focus a filtering eye that filters out trash so that it may find the gems of history. Posterity must filter out all the historical trash produced by previous psychological anomalies, and prejudices. A Brave New World lies ahead of us. Somewhere in the ashes of the past there’s a little candle wax with which to ignite a flame, but not much.