The Tangled Branch Discussion Forums

Thanks indar. To be fair to the others but as i am posting from holiday on my phone i changed the poem already to clarify. Glad you can get something from it

Thanks Colm and Mark. Just to be clear I am not religious as such nor anti- religion and i don't see the poem too much as desparate. Rather there are 2 paradoxes that interest me: one is that belief and doubt cannot exist without each so every belief is a doubt and and vice versa so to believe in go...

Thanks Mark and Colm i understand the problem just not the answer.Will give it a try.

Birches I know.
The childlike blossoms
and incidental grasses
like so much life
along this finite path
remain mere shadows

when so often
distracted by imagination
I choose to wander
coastlines and cliffs
a single light step
from an ocean of mirrors.

I have a sense of the colored leaves being the elaboration of what was in the roots. Roots being as source of the relationship and autumn leaves both rewards but signs of nearing end. The leaning in is a strange image and hard to imagine for me. A threatening i.age even as closer suggests residue of...

Tom this is affirmation of your gentle, easy way with skillful writing. Good word vhoices and a keen eye combine to lead the reader without effort. As a Brit only the Americanised adverbs grate a little. Great writing.

Each Sunday finds us
on our knees, heads lowered
offering prayers,
sometimes lies,
we feel safe to hide behind.

We add coins to the mystery
assured that to give is to receive
and between songs of praise
stare at the altar where sacrifice
promises to save us all.

Thanks Mark. See what you getting at and my only poor defence is that it appears as a definition as such. Descent is more dangerous than ascent surely would work without articles.

Thanks for all the comments, always sppreciated and useful. Good to see you back colm

I am a dissenter here i am afraid. This reminds me of early attempts i made to post poems in this stylised way and remember being roundly and rightly criticised. This only works if it is accepted as being ironic otherwise it sounds like parody. What we need is some straight talking truth like lets n...