I Found Words In The Road Today

An Unfolding - Part 2

Scavenger

I found Words in the road today
Down by the side near the curb
Huddled, waiting there to be seen
And patiently, before I gathered them
They spoke themselves to me
 
The garbage-heap has been a place
Where Stories languish in dirt
Out-cast, or fallen out of love.
But willingly, they offer themselves up
For me to scavenge verses from.

Visions pass through mind in dreams
Of new Turns Of Phrase to come.
Alight with joy at being found
And shuddering: their prophecy foretold
We’d find eachother now.

Tomorrow I may chance a glimpse
Of a Couplet in the air
Waltzing; to otherworldly songs
And gracefully, through cold-clouds of my breath
They'll spin the world along.

                    - N.C-J, 2025

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I wrote this one only recently, and had a lot of fun with it. I don’t know where it came from. The weather’s been cold and bright here recently and I could see my breath on the walk to work. I was standing outside later, at midday in the low winter sun just looking around at people in the street; walking to work themselves, looking to catch a break, scheming, thinking of loved ones. Not looking at my phone was really the key there. And now I am here, sharing it with you. Being able to have the self-control to not look at my phone for a good length of time reveals all the wonder that can be found by just having my eyes up. Lots to look at, take in, make up.

With this poem I wanted to capture a little of how they (poems) come about for me and how I conceptualize what I’m doing. I’m trying to strike a balance here for readers, but also for who I want to be seen as. In this case I don’t want to come across as too navel-gazey in my writing, but I also don’t want to reject flowery language or dramatic prose out of hand.

I really want to find what it means to be Sincere in my expression, not trying to use evocative New Romantic prose just to appeal to a certain crowd, or purposely plain ‘I’m-a-normal-guy’ language to appeal to the opposite. Maybe I’ll do both when it suits me, in different poems, but I hope I’ll be able to combine those true sides of myself into something relatable and helpful. I confess I feel awkward and cringey posting this at all. But I must come back to the idea that I am trying to reclaim the Sincerity Lost from my life. So to that end, I am proud of this poem, and the magic that it makes me feel.

Erhard - 1818

It is about finding words, words finding us, the powerful transcendent action of sitting and thinking. I scrounge and cobble and fit together these poems; often it is not so much a refined process as scavenging. Even the time to write is scavenged from the rest of my day at work, school, with family or friends. Done in the times between, on the plod through Frontiers.

Let me know what you think!

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