Wilyem Clark
01-05-2016, 11:59 AM
My heart skips beats when I hear faint praise
From a friend who has been so barely brave
As to have read some random phrases
That I have scratched on an architrave;
And yet, afraid of richer tracts,
He'll hesitate in wilder zones
Replete with verbal acro-acts
That swarm in hexadecaphones.
Intimidated, he'll shy and swoon,
And deem such flights degenerate.
And so, on one cruel afternoon,
I stand with bean dip on my plate,
And—in his intermittent flashes—
Scan the texts on listeners' faces,
A code composed of tics and dashes,
A flurry of sympathetic traces.
'Tis not enough to cheer from afar
A jewel half-heartily defended
By one who'll not reach for a star
Unless it's dim and pre-descended.
Should I have hope there are such things
As writerly societies,
Where flocks of fat imaginings
Defy those mediocrities
Produced by common tastes and trends,
That fly for rapture's sake alone?
I've followed leads to bitter ends,
And still I flutter on my own.
From a friend who has been so barely brave
As to have read some random phrases
That I have scratched on an architrave;
And yet, afraid of richer tracts,
He'll hesitate in wilder zones
Replete with verbal acro-acts
That swarm in hexadecaphones.
Intimidated, he'll shy and swoon,
And deem such flights degenerate.
And so, on one cruel afternoon,
I stand with bean dip on my plate,
And—in his intermittent flashes—
Scan the texts on listeners' faces,
A code composed of tics and dashes,
A flurry of sympathetic traces.
'Tis not enough to cheer from afar
A jewel half-heartily defended
By one who'll not reach for a star
Unless it's dim and pre-descended.
Should I have hope there are such things
As writerly societies,
Where flocks of fat imaginings
Defy those mediocrities
Produced by common tastes and trends,
That fly for rapture's sake alone?
I've followed leads to bitter ends,
And still I flutter on my own.