I "tidied up" the October 2001 page, so that's ready to roll at http://i.am/btripp ... the poem below is the last for that. Actually, I probably WOULD have written another poem tomorrow, but I really do want to have an "even number" of poems for 2001 that will bring my total for the past several years up to a nice round 1,000 (and will bring the "archive" up to 4,000 poems!), and right now I only have 17 poems to go to reach that point. Since I wrote 11 poems this month (and am pretty much "up to speed" to be writing 15-20 poems a month again), I'm having to "put on the brakes" so as to not over-shoot my target and have obsessive-compulsive tics for the rest of my life for not hitting that 1,000/4,000 target!
This was an odd one ... the first two stanzas got penned at the Dojo on Monday, the third stanza was this morning, and the rest Tuesday evening. I very rarely "drag out" a poem like that, but it does seem to have worked pretty well. Typically I don't "work on" my poems, I drag a "snapshot" of inner states out into words as best I can and that's it ... with only minimal edits when the thing gets typed up. Odd that I can't let a piece of prose sit still without endless editorial massaging, but I like my poems ripped out all raw and bloody.
THROUGH DAYS WITHOUT REPRIEVE
in this darkness
we have no recourse
we have no vector
we have no place
immersed in grey
there is no reason
there is no meaning
there is no point
all that we do
falls to dust
decaying foully
before we're even done
no cycles end
they just resume
in middling stasis
endless unsure states
trapped in hell
at the focus of damnation
we cannot flee the flames
or escape the freeze
which grips and shatters
we can not dodge the blades
or the grinding wheel
seeking our demise
we see all assets
bleed away
a hemorrhagic river
of everything we've had
gushing down drains
nothing can replace this
nothing can staunch the flow
or slow the effluence
all madness here
all evil
we are stuck in nightmares
which fill the day
we are locked into dreams
which are horrid
and unending
and set to kill
- Brendan Tripp
10/29/2001
Copyright © 2001 by Brendan Tripp