1 Icarus_Mark, Jan 14, 2017
Today, we move out of the Tamarack poetry and onto something else. In one assignment for English 102 back in the fall of 2010, I had to do a compare/contrast essay where you had to write 2 pieces of poetry and compare and contrast it with poems for 19th century American poets. It did cause a bit of a minor inconvenience since there was really only one poem that fit the criteria I really go back to. Thankfully, I had a plan that involved that poem, "The Raven" from Edgar Allen Poe. Poe was actually one of my favorite historical American poets, so "The Raven" was an easy choice for me.
Today's poem is basically a combination of The Raven and Canto XIII of Dante's Inferno, a poem that did not fit the criteria that I really wanted to use.
"Leaving Hell"
A wanderer enters a dark forest, through a world of mourning
The trees and bushes plagued with thorns galore
No light pierced this sight, dark as night
He is lost, blind to the core
And even as he hears the hounds cry a roar
He could hear nothing more
Try as he may, he had no sense of way
No direction existed to steer him ashore
Yet he was not dead, or so has been said
To he that treads the forest floor
As his heart continues to implore
That he may know something more
"Oh Lord. Give me light on this night to help my plight."
He prays, hoping his response takes him ashore
Predictably, nothing comes to cajole these beating drums
As a roller coaster in his body is circuited by his gore
Never-ending, never shown to the door
As it rushes he forevermore
A lone black bird then appears at a time believed to be years
Giant, bold, and unafraid to the core
Silence shows a reliance of this virtual defiance
It boasts a raven with a falcon's eyes and an eagle's roar
This new height will flawlessly soar
Sixteen feet and nothing more
Down it bends until it so ends
To meet his eyes with its head parallel to the floor
It dons an amiable gaze, but its mind is a maze
His heart skips furiously at the hands of his fiery gore
At the magnificence it gave, much like the ocean shore
From the bird that meant much more
"Get out. Why here you wander about, lost scout?
You still live today and much your future has left in store.
This inferno is for me, not for thee.
Go. Do something many generations can adore,
But go before th Harpies arrive from the Phlegethon next door."
This, the bird spoke with nothing more.
"Oh, good bird. You speak most dear, yet I am lost. How can I get out of here?"
He implores with streams flooding from eyes that can not explore
Eyes of a million years smears in the form of the raven's tears
"I will find a way for you to escape and explore
For you are my friend and I am yours to the core."
The bird promised this and nothing more.
He prepares to ascend his newfound friend
Until he is comfy among the feathers galore
Then a shrill bellow of banshees signals the..
2 Icarus_Mark, Jan 13, 2017
I'm about halfway through what I've found from before Tengaged, and today is the last of the Tamarack poems I have found. This one I vividly remember being written in early 2010 because January of that year, the inspiration came to me after I finished this excruciating workout. If you've ever done those bike exercises here you get to choose the course and scenary (I think it was ProBike Fitness or something like that?), I did and finished Ascension, which I think went on for about 18 miles and took place in outer space. Well, today's poem is about that (God that was a fucking hard workout lmao).
"Celestial Marathon"
The society of heavens surround in craze
Seatin' to watch this annual race
Bright darkness flashes in my face
Readyin' for the long chase
A rocket pierces the vacuum quickly
I run the pace admirably
Solar winds flood my eyes violently
Invisible wings build on me so rudely
Beads of water appear from nowhere
As these slopes defies truth's dare
Time slows into a glare
I swear I'm runnin' on no air
Olympics fear where I stare
The unforgiving turbulence never cares
This undulation test my inner hare
Losing sanity with each blare
An ocean of me spreads out slowly
Soakin' my body freely
Yet the miles pile on steadily
As that finish line grows clearly
I walk the line in Faith's pace
As I triumph by a face
My burnt vessel laughs in place
As I finally walk out of insanity's maze
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So yeah... another reason you should keep working out kiddies! While it doesn't necessary have to be the workout I did, if you pick something you find challenging, it might just inspire you to write poetry! :D
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1 Icarus_Mark, Jan 12, 2017
Onto Day 4 we go of this. So yesterday, I did find a short story I wrote like a playwright yesterday as I was cleaning out my room, so that'll be added to the tail-end here. However, we're still on the "Tamarack" poems, this time from April 2010. I think this is one of my happier poems since lately I've noticed my blogs have been negative in nature, but who knows? I think when I wrote this, I was in the mindset of "not all men are assholes", but I probably wouldn't write with that mindset now, and maybe you'll make something different out of this.
"Stardaze"
Daze into your walking star
Think of him long and hard
Yet tell him before he departs
To let him know he has a place in your heart
Let yourself give him a choice
Feed him the sound of your voice
If he accepts, celebrate and rejoice
And let hearts play and make noise
Give him reason to return the star daze
Allow that mind to follow a gleeful maze
Hold on a while to the craze
While you introduce each other to the haze
Learn to forgive his little mistakes
It won't conquer love or give reason to hate
Let him relax and give time to abate
The hardships that are all's fate
Allow your constellations to go free
As your heart sips that strange tea
Never give up; free yourself and love the glee
Who knows- you might even inspire me
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5 Icarus_Mark, Jan 11, 2017
Continuing on with the pre-writings I have found, I can't remember when in 2010 I wrote this or if it was in early 2011, but what I do remember is that when I wrote this particular poem, I used to have dreams about my first kiss all the time. Anyway, it's another poem that got in "The Tamarack" and it is inspired by one of those first kiss dreams I've had.
"Empty Dreams"
On the bench I sit to wait
This easy late spring brings flowers good faith
Breezes dance fluidly on my face
Draining scars of last night's wraith
Beside me my friend sits
Smilin' and greetin' on a day like this
Laughin' as we joke on a routine conversation
Waitin' for the bus to take me back to my kin
In front of us the bus arrives
I step in out of the light
Ready for the comin' night
Through the indecisive squealin' tires
In the bus you come
Next to me, close to me, longing for us to be one
Wantin' to own me, smiles sweet like a slow song
Givin' our lips to become as one
On my bed I suddenly awoke
Nobody there, leavin/ me on my own
Defeated by empty, grindin' chokes
As I continued to live alone
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3 Icarus_Mark, Jan 10, 2017
So as of right now, I've managed to find 7 poems and 1 short story amongst my older writings. I'm thinking I will go through my poems first before getting to the short story, and of the 7 poems, I found 5 from issues of my college newspaper "The Tamarack". There is also an essay that still survives, but I'm not sure if I want to post that or not (it was about the Mayan Apocalypse back when 2012 could have still ended the world lol). If y'all want me to include the essay, I will, but if not, I won't.
Anyway, looking back, I'm not sure what I was writing about with this one, but today's poem came from one of the fall issues of The Tamarack from back in 2010.
"Fallen Love"
I hear what you felt for me
It was a taser runnin' for glee
But what have I needed
To let my heart see it
I see shame in me for blindness
Yet 'tis beyond all kindness
When I'd open these unknown blinds
Connected to this knowin' mind
Truth agrees with this mistaken brain
Watchin' from those Celtic chains
Only to watch the rising shame
Cause no chance is given to my name
I knew 'twas too good to be true
I laugh; what else is new
The trees are lush without a single fruit
And clearings a beaut with nothin' to shoot
This care did not truly exist
Since love was fallen into a cyst
And I fall deeper into truth as I live
In this mind that never forgives
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7 Icarus_Mark, Jan 9, 2017
I think I’m going to just start this a few people early. So anyway, I’m going to start off my series of pre-Tengaged writings I’ve done with a poem I’ve written back in 2007 (I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since I wrote this lol). I’ve started off with this one because it’s the easiest one to find. I’ve submitted it to more than one venue (an International Poetry Contest that went back in 2007, the High School poetry journal, and my college newspaper). It was this poem that got me writing poetry for a few years to come and it’s actually the first poem I’ve ever written.
“The Twilight Fire”
Sunset skies swallow my heart with your love
It reaches out to the stars above
In the coldness of winter yet soft as a dove
Fires of passion flare out from my love
Reaching and teaching us along the way
The winds of twilight blow throughout the day
Though our minds be made of clay
The twilight fire is all that burns in the fray
Soon some sad songs sing of seraph skies
We must then descend until the fire dies
Yet when morning hits these seraph skies
We shall find a way we can again rise
An angel calls us in the fires of twilight
We descend into darkness in fright
Hurting us during the separation of the night
All eyes see night as an evil spreading through the floor
Daytime is a light few can adore
Though Dawn has us swimming far from shore
The twilight fire burns forevermore
There is more poetry to come, and I have at least one short story, though I’d have to check. But yeah, this was the first of what I’ve been able to retrieve.
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