Lady Luck
EvilToasterElf
Posts: 1,119
Don't know if I've posted this one yet...
Lady Luck
I saw him stretched out
under the white sheets
The final blank page
of his unwritten biography
A novel of 12 hour days
blasted by furnaces
sealed into his family
by soot and bourbon
His body the final smelter
of cancer and blood
Gambling debts mixed
with his children’s tuitions
He stares through all of us
an old card player
shuffling through
his crusty trumps of memory
His full house
of ex-wives and children
emptied his pockets
and filled his eyes
Those eyes that bluff
about late, sweaty nights
The off suit hands
and the affairs of chance
that rule a man’s freedom
The pale king of diamond
pawn shops,
still has his poker eyes,
and one look is enough
to know a man who can
bluff through scripture
and sin and take his
place at the final table
Lady Luck
I saw him stretched out
under the white sheets
The final blank page
of his unwritten biography
A novel of 12 hour days
blasted by furnaces
sealed into his family
by soot and bourbon
His body the final smelter
of cancer and blood
Gambling debts mixed
with his children’s tuitions
He stares through all of us
an old card player
shuffling through
his crusty trumps of memory
His full house
of ex-wives and children
emptied his pockets
and filled his eyes
Those eyes that bluff
about late, sweaty nights
The off suit hands
and the affairs of chance
that rule a man’s freedom
The pale king of diamond
pawn shops,
still has his poker eyes,
and one look is enough
to know a man who can
bluff through scripture
and sin and take his
place at the final table
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Most of the poems you'll see from me are also in the genre of "persona poems" though I really hate the term. Meaning it's just a character I've created not a person I'm familiar with.
oh yeah, I write plenty of them too. not as well as you do
oh, and it's madam
Learn something new everyday.
and I suppose I'll give you the same trite advice I give anyone else. If you're serious about making your stuff better, read more poetry. Look at Finsbury he's read everything published in the last 4 centuries. Poetry is hard to find out there though, I would suggest using a website called http://www.alibris.com I've found some of my favorite authors old books there. I hate poetry compilations, it works the same way music does really, if you truly like a band, you don't want to hear their greatest hits album.
thanks, but I'm not so sure that is what I want. My stuff is just for myself really.
said the gal posting her stuff on a website
well.........yeah, but nobody knows me here, so I can crap on all I want
There's a few poets I like, but I have to say I don't read that much poetry. And I only like people who have been brought to my attention, I haven't really gone searching poets out. Maybe I should. I don't mind what I've read of Robert Frost (which is not much) or Dylan Thomas. We studied Under Milk Wood in highschool, and it was probably the most interested I'd ever been in anything we had to study for English. There's a few others I like. But I don't think I have the poet gene in me
What and miss out on a life of underappreciation, poor pay, ruined marriage...Poets don't have it too easy these days, but man if their still aren't some damn good ones out there taking the shots for the rest of us
yeah, think I'll just be a primary school teacher instead. So could you recomend an poets that you think I might like? taking into consideration I like the two guys I mentioned, and you? You might start me educating myself on more poetry.
Well if you've only read classic poetry, I would suggest Lord Byron, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, famous for the Ryme of the Ancient Mariner. But if you want to transition into more modern poetry I would suggest two gentlemen, William Mathews and Stephen Dobyns.
The one book I can not stop reading is William Mathews final book, "After All: Last Poems."
William Mathews also has one of his books posted online.
http://capa.conncoll.edu/matthews.rising.htm
read a little bit of them years ago. didn't really enjoy it that much. Poetry to me is not always about how well written it is or not, but how it makes me feel. And how you can realate to it. I will check out the other's you mentioned though. Thank you. And plus I will go back and read some more from the guys above, maybe my tastes have changed since then. I will definately read more poetry. Thanks for inspiring me.
I hope this yabbering has not stopped others from replying to your poem. Sorry.
"He stares through all of us
an old card player
shuffling through
his crusty trumps of memory"
It reminds me of "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers in a way. Good stuff.