Can’t Write Scared

dVerse~ Poets Pub OpenLinkNight #196

 

Can’t Write Scared

At university

the stoned poet said

“you can’t write scared”–

I continued

each word precisely penned

attuned to imaginary readers

whose lips curled derisively

on occasional lapses

of censorship.

I was an egg

concealed in a flimsy shell

like another half-dozen

cosseted caricatures

playing writer

spinning trite phrases

of sweet sounding words

imaginings of pink packaged

saccharine sentiment

but then I succumbed

to non-consumption.

∼∼∼∼∼

On rebirth I cried

“you can’t write scared”

and I didn’t, for a while

developed succinct style

of hewn craft on drafts

pinched words like pennies

wanted bennies, not

in my twenties anymore.

Fear pervades the core

bores into the brain

insane unremarkable drivel

pours through pores

I wrote scared

but scarred surfaces

surge upward

like polished wood

trampled on daily

til frailty exists no more.

 

5/18/2017

Sascha Darlington

(oops. I had farce in there, but deleted it.)

 

21 thoughts on “Can’t Write Scared

    1. I find that even though there are scars that it is sometimes hard to remember to write unafraid. Thank you for reading, Bjorn. I very much appreciate your commetns. 🙂

  1. Never listen to stoned poets! I love the lines:
    ‘I was an egg
    concealed in a flimsy shell
    like another half-dozen
    cosseted caricatures
    playing writer
    spinning trite phrases
    of sweet sounding words’
    and
    ‘developed succinct style
    of hewn craft on drafts
    pinched words like pennies’.

  2. Of course you can write scared. I get what he may have been trying to say in his ‘stoned’ way but the truth is you can write anyway you want to. Scared, sad, happy, confident, terrified….all words.
    You write beautifully.

  3. Fantastic piece. I love these sections:

    “like another half-dozen
    cosseted caricatures
    playing writer”

    “then I succumbed
    to non-consumption”

    “but scarred surfaces
    surge upward”

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