D. Ellsworth

Jan 14, 20181 min read

Sometimes A Word Will Do

I was looking through some of my poems and found a couple which deal with definition. It is interesting how much is written to explain how we interpret words. Here are a couple of examples. Welcome to the New Year.

Rewritten Definition

There is no need to talk

silence says it all—

just listen to soft breathing

see chest rise and fall.

'Tis the love transcending

species or race—

just abiding with another

sharing air and space.

The bond making family

is not genetic traces,

it's the caring and aiding

that differences erases.

Thus pets become family,

as do close friends—

the boundary is nebulous

and definition bends.

The opposite is also true

it grinds upon the ear;

that the nuclear "family"

is not always dear.

For if there isn't love

but genetics alone

then family is a blasphemy

burning to the bone.

A canker is inseminated

in the living soul

that as it grows

tends to taint the whole.

Don't save the nuclear family

at any cost,

be circumspect and realize

some things are best lost.

So there you have it

family is just a word

to place it on a pedestal

is dangerous—and absurd.

Surreal

stark,

dark,

jagged,

disjointed,

staccato images,

rubble of what once had been whole.

dominoes sequentially fall into each other.

a war scene of random rubble,

in the labyrinth

I stumble.

I'm lost,

lost,

lost.

surreal,

thoughts in shards,

eyes that dimly see,

I follow words but not meaning.

bricks, mortar, splintered glass litter

the field of my mind, a cacophony of vision.

Escher and Dali duel in me,

op-art, or warped view.

yes, surreal.

lonely,

shards,

shards.

D. Ellsworth Hoag

Poet

Sometimes A Word Will Do

I was looking through some of my poems and found a couple which deal with definition. It is interesting how much is written to explain how we interpret words. Here are a couple of examples. Welcome to the New Year.

Rewritten Definition

There is no need to talk

silence says it all—

just listen to soft breathing

see chest rise and fall.

'Tis the love transcending

species or race—

just abiding with another

sharing air and space.

The bond making family

is not genetic traces,

it's the caring and aiding

that differences erases.

Thus pets become family,

as do close friends—

the boundary is nebulous

and definition bends.

The opposite is also true

it grinds upon the ear;

that the nuclear "family"

is not always dear.

For if there isn't love

but genetics alone

then family is a blasphemy

burning to the bone.

A canker is inseminated

in the living soul

that as it grows

tends to taint the whole.

Don't save the nuclear family

at any cost,

be circumspect and realize

some things are best lost.

So there you have it

family is just a word

to place it on a pedestal

is dangerous—and absurd.

Surreal

stark,

dark,

jagged,

disjointed,

staccato images,

rubble of what once had been whole.

dominoes sequentially fall into each other.

a war scene of random rubble,

in the labyrinth

I stumble.

I'm lost,

lost,

lost.

surreal,

thoughts in shards,

eyes that dimly see,

I follow words but not meaning.

bricks, mortar, splintered glass litter

the field of my mind, a cacophony of vision.

Escher and Dali duel in me,

op-art, or warped view.

yes, surreal.

lonely,

shards,

shards.

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