Word Sale

Auction words at your soul’s service counter,

slap down verbs and nouns as faceless

drones calculate worth, wisdom, wander

lust, tallied alongside guitar strumming beggars.

 

Oh-oh. Search.

Oh-oh. Find.

 

A blighted spot of sauce splatters your being,

ruins the Parthenon day yawning across centuries

where blind keyboard coin collectors harp tunes

of sell-sell-sell your adjectives and metaphors, please.

 

Where? Are you?

Where? Will you crash?

 

Shelves and shelves of sleeping words housed

in your tender care sit patient as clouds drift nearby,

lucky encounters await those fortune hounds

who cherish and love [finger licking] meaningful word bargains.

 

by: P. R. Lenihan

8/30/2011 �" first draft

Reviews

[NoneOfYourBusiness akaK..]

I beg to differ with the reviewer beneath me~ I see clear as falling starlight the core that builds this gem outward~ the stanzas blend like complimentary paints blending one into the other~ the in between breaks in brevity add to to the finesse of the mood linegring from word one to the last~ a lover of words I can more than appreciate the treasure of the mind that holds the composite construction of creative language so very dear~ beautiful writing~

[Muse]

I'm so glad you joined this website. What a refreshing kind of write. Your beautifully penned words made me smile......it made me think. :)

[J Todd Underhill]

Love the write, I am glad I dropped in on it, Quite creative on the form used. Nice to see other poets from Colorado on here.

[anne p. murray- LadeeAn..]

"To hold back a poem is like trying to hold in a sneeze. When you allow it to burst out, it just feels good. Other poets would probably understand what this means. There are things inside that we just need to get out. They're uncomfortable where they are.
Another way to state it is, it's like having a mosquito bite that you can't quite reach. When you finally find someone who will scratch it for you, it just feels good. A good poem engages the heart of the reader it should be more than intellectual cleverness.
Laurence Perrine says, "Poetry is defined as a kind of language that says more and says it more intensely than does ordinary language".

In my analogy of this poem, Lenihan is tellng the reader what a treasure it is to find the "finger licking" meaningful words of a poem that strike a meaningful chord in your heart and soul.
I like this, it does strike a chord in my heart and soul of how a poet and his poems not only fill a need to release emotions but also feed the reader the meaningful nuggets to also fill and release emotions

[LilyT]

Forgive my displeasure with the first reviewer, which I have to address;
Poets DO NOT write from the reader's perspective. They don't write to grab attention, or clamor for recognition. Poets are the rare breed of writers who take parts of their soul and make them dance or weep on paper.



This poem you've written here is a mural which showcases what can be done with language when it's translated through the emotional and creative spirit. You animated the heart of each expression and made it dance and made it cry. Applause! (:

[Robin]

a banquet of words at a table set for those who appreciate the nuance of language ~

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

Well I must say that the raging infection of the words, counteract the need to negate the rapids of your words. Slaying the reader as to the imagery and poignant interuption is par for the course, well done, great read.

[Pablo]

Yes, I'm out on a limb with this poem, not tight enough in my direction and needs edits, but the risk felt worthwhile - didn't know how much time/weight to invest in the poem, in this website - and so it was a risk standing on a limb, reaching and picking images that could make some readers fall flat, yet what I was grasping at was a feeling of the value of words. Are they worth as much as the coins you give the guitar strumming beggar in the subway? Or do you let words safely sleep in the library, drifting by them? Or hound after them? What meaning do words have for you?
Bless you "NoneOfYourBusiness aka .." for your review that shall be framed! : )

[Azariek]

Nice work, but I honestly don't see what you're trying to get across here. The stanzas, while built nicely, don't seem to flow together like one would expect them to. It's kind of jarred and random. Maybe you should try looking at it from the reader's view, not the writer's? But still, good work. :3
Azariek--out!