JOHN DRUDGE - POEMS

John is a social worker working in the field of disability management and holds degrees in social work, rehabilitation services, and psychology.  He is the author of two books of poetry: “March” and “The Seasons of Us” (both published in 2019). His work has appeared widely in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies internationally. John is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and lives in Caledon Ontario, Canada with his wife and two children.

Battle Cry 
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We descend
Toward the essence
Of our fortune
Twisting deeply
Into the meaning
Of our breathing
In one last charge 
Of will
Up the hill
Toward the clearing
With the clarion call
Of angels singing
Over the lost battlefield
Of our futile
Inclinations

​

Idiots
​

Because everything 
Is flawed 
Pain will always
Pursue us
Forever disentangling 
Who we think we are
From that which 
We are
In love with our suffering 
Cultivating dead gardens
In perpetual wonder
Of how illuminating
A glint of sunlight can be
In the face 
Of the inevitable
We are sublime idiots
Unable to live in purity
Craving forgiveness 
And grace
In cages 
Of jilted reason
In one long
Wayward embrace
Bleak and unbroken
In our wandering

​

Tick Tock 
​

We’re always losing 
The moment 
It’s always vanishing 
On the edge of somewhere 
Gone just outside 
The grasp 
Of our certainty 
And slipping 
Into a whisper

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