Aging Vessel
My brittle skeleton
is trapped in the prison
of my festering flesh
and keeps my soul an inmate,
clinging to my splintering bones
Philosophic Ramblings
In the coincidence of life
we postpone death daily,
yet rarely seek higher purpose.
Now that we have been mastered
by the seductive video screen
we are victims of electronics.
Evil conspires with gravity
and pulls us down, down,
as we substitute spectation
for entangling alliances.
The grievances that rasp our hearts
devour the pleasure of our days
and stir seething cauldrons of hate
that will spill on our tomorrows.
Man is the cruelest animal
exceeding any creature of nature
in torture, mayhem and destruction.
We are raised in the garden of greed
and become trapped in the ghetto of need.
The unkind earth eats us all.
Death smiles when chill creeps in our bones.
Humanity, our dysfunctional family.
• Gary Beck's poetry and fiction has appeared in numerous publications. His chapbook The Conquest of Somalia will be published by Cervena Barva Press. His plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes, and Sophocles have been produced Off-Broadway.
I liked very much the 2nd poem and in particular the first 2 verses of it. The lead-in is brilliant. At the end of the 2nd verse I felt I was reading R S Thomas. Very good.
There's an amazingly high standard of poetry on this site. Much better than you can buy.
Gwilym Williams
More comments like this please – says the editor, with his head swelling to an enormous size.