A Stylist Submits
Pianissimo
Verse in the Discord
1×
0:00
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:24
-1:24

Verse in the Discord

My own poem.

Verse in the Discord

Unwritten dark matter in scroll always / no / no wasteland there is no land to waste / nuclei can’t hold electric thoughts can’t bear / no / unwriteable diodes not even decay exists / where can we / no / grayed space that doesn’t unfurl form beauty or fine sounds / thumbs can’t grate stop or feel / no wasteland

Then came five couplets sent from home;
Then spoke a clear voice like a tome.
Wasteland, but there flowed a still sea
Cut syllabic’ly, firm, gently.
Planks hewn and joined and ready filled
With meanings, men, and what they willed.
A light to dance and mark the times:
Where all was gray swept in spring rhymes.
A commonwealth flame on the wave
To spot our shadows of the cave.

Were these five our forgery?
Did our scored hands, by the falling light,
only happen upon the maze floor?
Whispered in secret, behind an oaken door:
keep me from falsity, from fear.
Render this my poem a felt object
true as creation, blue as prayer.
It must disperse from over the waters, rise
more well-wrighted than our devices
which might yet bear it high,
more fully embodied to breathe, to pain,
than even a text frittering down alone.

Support the work to come!

Discussion about this podcast

Oct 1Liked by Kevin LaTorre

For some reason this poem shares an affinity, in my mind, with this art rock mini-symphony. It's more than the shared three-movement structure; there's something similar in the management of tension and expectations that are common to the two: https://youtu.be/WGbL_GvL0OY

Expand full comment
author

Thanks for saying so -- you're exactly correct, somehow (since I'd never before heard this music). Definitely, the mini-symphony has its three parts set in both concert but also in formal antagonism with each other. That's what I heard most there and wrote foremost above. Thank you for piecing together the two pieces!

Expand full comment
Oct 5Liked by Kevin LaTorre

Nice! That second part was such a surprise and a relief lol

Expand full comment
A Stylist Submits
Pianissimo
Poems read aloud, in search of an aesthetic experience like a divine touch. My favorite poems, as well as my own poems.
Listen on
Substack App
Spotify
RSS Feed
Appears in episode
Kevin LaTorre