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ALAN FORD - POEMS

8/9/2021

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Writer is not a typical poet. He enjoys writing about unusual subjects that poets don't always cover or even notice. (eg The Bench) Writer has had acceptances from Ariel Chart, Conclave, Dissident Voice,Down in  the Dirt and Academy of the Heart and Mind literary magazines.

​Do Ideas Die

Bitter is the fate of poets
of all tribes, but fate has
punished Russia
worst of all.
                   -WilhelmKuchelbecker.
 
Poetry paramount over prose
more Pushkin, less Tolstoy
important and influential
censored by exile.
 
oppressive state control
poets dangerous to power
memorised each other’s work
memories stronger than chains.
 
poems on scraps on paper
one reads, the other burns
as Chukovskaya quotes:
Hands, matches and ashtrays.
 
trials by opinion
no room for interpretation
poets speak their truth
their integrity unpublished
 
Siberia reached out
recitations in the gulag
verse their only defence
words and thought survive.
 

​Withdrawn

​Books now withdrawn
knowledge diminishing
reading lists shortened
history thrown away.
 
books stamped out
shelf life over
our memories lost
defaced by time.
 
library no refuge
books unwanted guests
thinking time served
on literary death row
 
reader’s loyalty marginalised
like folded page corners
dust jackets collect dust
book sale imminent.
 
photos of authors
reputations now cropped
autographs unwanted
lines scribbled on egos.
 
now a closed chapter
fate always the same
ideas on their way
to the knackers yard.

​Leaving Home

​A rejected home
no backwards vision
consent absent
for an untouched future.
 
nothing left behind.
gathering broken parts
of temporary images
of a second-hand life.
 
many long days
of a childhood betrayed.
no out-flung arms
of immature years.
 
an unwanted birth
of memories cut out
of unlinked hands
contact deformed.
 
a birthmark discarded on
an unloved face.
a history stillborn
like a wound closing.
 
a confused youth
now incognito
merely a cipher
en-route to where?
 
no guide, no map, just steps
on unknown streets.
not fleeing, just changing
looking for wisdom.
 

​The Bench

​an ordinary bench
a witness to history
a record of forgetting
as years unfold
 
impassive, unmoved
a static reminder
of life evolving
but rarely upgraded.
 
footsteps approach
identity unknown
an invisible birthmark
faces promising nothing.
 
sees failure abound
some wasted breath
hears truth and lies
in different languages.
 
lovers expose a love-knot
in everlasting moonlight
host wooden faced
taken for granted.
 
a memorial plaque
time unwinding backwards
brings death to life
old becomes young.
 
bench removed
old, broken, pitted
an empty space
filled only by memory.

​Translators

mapping the contours of
the world. Recording others
history. Like explorers
finding new words,
discovering unknown lives.
 
spreading communication like
a street map of cities, an old
print where debate can surge,
where the past
meets the present.
 
making sense of foreign lands
unfamiliar countries reveal
untapped potential. Knowledge
gift-wrapped for success.
Wisdom in another language.
 
forging links to obscurity
like opening closed doors
to rooms unfurnished
with light. No longer
reading in the dark.
 
a messenger for all
words across continents
translating infamy, cruelty,
compassion and aspirations.
Evil now displayed.
 
once out of reach, but
meaning now revealed
touching the edges of literacy,
 shaping understanding,
prompting praise and critique.
 
reading between the times
revealing the forbidden,
learning truth from lies,
emotional power released
liberating the past.
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    Categories

    All
    ALAN FORD
    ALEXIS GARCIA
    ANOUCHEKA GANGABISSOON
    ARIANNA SEBO
    AYAFA TEKENA
    BOBBY Z
    C. BARRY BUCKNER
    DOUGLAS J. LANZO
    DR. DOUGLAS YOUNG
    ELEANORE LEE
    FREDERICK POLLACK
    GTIMOTHY GORDON
    JAMIE FIORE HIGGINS
    JOHN J. BRUGALETTA
    JOHN VALENTINE
    JONATHAN WIKE
    KEITH BURKHOLDER
    LOIS GREENE STONE
    MARY KIPPS
    MICHAEL H. BROWNSTEIN
    MORGAN DRISCOLL
    NDABA SIBANDA
    RENEE DRUMMOND-BROWN
    RENZO DEL CASTILLO
    RICHARD T. RAUCH
    ROB LOWE
    SAMUEL PRESTRIDGE
    SAUL HUGGINS
    SHAAN SOOD
    SHAHEER PULIKKAL
    STEVIE VOSS
    TED MC CARTHY
    THULISILE NGOMANE
    VISHNU B. UNNITHAN

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