Thoughts from the Troll Cave

[Gaberax]

Dog Star

A single star
Grabs my attention
Coming to the end of an evening walk
With my dog
It pops in and out between fast moving spring clouds
Teasing me into noticing
And I do notice and
My eyes open up to the whole sky
And they drink in the light from
Billions of miles and
Millions of years
And I find Orion
Falling from the early spring sky
Escaping the coming Scorpion
And at his feet
Sirius
The Faithful Dog Star
Capturing my attention yet again
I am grateful for my warm coat in the cool spring air
I am grateful for my faithful dog
Sniffing for mysterious canine messages
Following at my feet

[Jean]

Gabe - before I (which is my greatest pleasure and honor!) add this thread to the Index, can you please tell me if it is going to be the thread for all your future poetry, and if so, do we keep the present title or you can think of a different title for the whole thread?

Little as bears understand in free verse, they loved the idea of walking with one's dog and contemplating Sirius!

[Jon]

"And I find Orion
Falling from the early spring sky
Escaping the coming Scorpion"


AWESOME concept...the hunter becomes the hunted!!

Good work Gabe.

[Gaberax]

Gabe - before I (which is my greatest pleasure and honor!) add this thread to the Index, can you please tell me if it is going to be the thread for all your future poetry, and if so, do we keep the present title or you can think of a different title for the whole thread?

Little as bears understand in free verse, they loved the idea of walking with one's dog and contemplating Sirius!

Jean, I hope I haven't made a mess of things. I honestly didn't read the forums rules of engagement....I just thought of a poem, slapped a title on it and posted. I am not averse (pun!) to anything you need to do to put this poem in the proper order of things (renaming the thread in anticipation of future poems seems a little premature IMO....my poem writing is rather sporadic.) I defer to your decision.

[Jean]

Great! Of course you didn't make a mess of anything - it's the bear's perfectionism and unbearable desire to foresee any kind of further development.

So, if the inspiration visits you once again (which I hope it will), post another poem right here, and then we'll look and see - or, come to think of it, post it anywhere you see fit, the point is to post POST POST! bears like.

[Gaberax]

"And I find Orion
Falling from the early spring sky
Escaping the coming Scorpion"


AWESOME concept...the hunter becomes the hunted!!

Good work Gabe.

Thanks Jon. In case you may not have known, Orion and Scorpio are opposite in the night sky, Scorpio dominating late spring through the summer and Orion in late fall and through the winter (in the Northern Hemisphere.) As one sets the other rises. They don't share the sky at the same time.

Here's a little myth

Myth has it that Orion was killed by the sting of a Scorpion. The Scorpion is identified with the constellation of Scorpius, halfway around the sky from Orion. Some say that the Scorpion was sent by the Gaia the Goddess of the Earth; others say it was Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt, who sent the Scorpion to kill Orion, because Orion had dared to hunt down all the animals of the earth. Others say that Orion had attempted to force himself on Artemis and that it was because of his unwanted attentions that Artemis sent the Scorpion after him. But as the Scorpion rises in the east, Orion sets, indicating the victory of the Scorpion over the Hunter.

[Gaberax]

Death On A Sunny Day

I spot my enemy
Trying to hide
And failing
Ineffective concealment
In the tall grass
Emotions in check
I slide my hand down
To the handle of my weapon
My instrument of death
Deliberately I walk
Towards my hated foe
I plant my feet
Slightly apart
I focus my mind
Settle my breathing
My weapon waits hungrily
At my side
The invader sits blissfully
Ignorant of the destruction
Preparing to rain down
On it’s bright, cheery, sunshiny face
I draw my weapon
And take my bead
Discharging
Toxic death
From above
Take a good, long drink,
Bastard.

Dandelion.

[Jon]

Ah yes. The infamous "Plantae wars."

Quite a coincidence. I got in a spot of trouble at work.You see, it was a dull day and the boys...young men (16-20 years old) were board. I took them all out to the football field walking. Still boared, I began lighting dandelions that had gone to seed with my cigarette lighter. I passed the lighter around and we spent nearly half an hour wandering about lighting dandelions aflame. The action was all caught on camera. Looking at it on film, in the Director's office, we looked like a bunch of mental patients.


Nice write Gabe.

[Gaberax]

Thanks, Jon. I think of dandelions as "Yard Herpes". My neighbor doesn't try to fight them at all...so every summer I watch the little buggers march across his yard, like Germans across the Sudetenland, making their way to my pristine little acre. My girlfriend laughs at me. She thinks I am fanatical, standing on the edge of the yards, my gallon of Weed-B-Gone in hand. But there ain't no damned dandelions in this man's yard!

[Jon]

"Yard Herpes". .. just AWESOME!!!

[Jean]

Now that there are two poems here, maybe you would give the thread another name? Or will both the first poem and the collection be entitled "Dog Star"? (bears need to know for indexing purposes)

[BROWNINGS CHILDE]

Now that there are two poems here, maybe you would give the thread another name? Or will both the first poem and the collection be entitled "Dog Star"? (bears need to know for indexing purposes)

"Yard Herpes" has a nice ring to it.

[Gaberax]

Now that there are two poems here, maybe you would give the thread another name? Or will both the first poem and the collection be entitled "Dog Star"? (bears need to know for indexing purposes)

How about changing it to Thoughts from the Troll Cave?

[BROWNINGS CHILDE]

I like your new av Gabe.

[Jean]

I like the new avatar, but the old avatar was part of my life for 4 years, so I hope it will be back one day



(also, I have stolen the don't poke the bear and saved it )

[Gaberax]

Thank you, Jean and Browning's_Childe, regarding the avatar. "Sometimes I'm just like my mother...she's never satisfied" ~ TAFKA Prince.

Old Friends

Demons
Have dogged me
Like old friends
Pulling at elbows
Tugging at my sleeve
Laying a firm hand on my shoulder
Holding me back when all I want
Is to move forward
I have fought them
Battered and bruised
To a bloody pyrrhic stalemate
And I have run with them
Naked under the argent moon
Mayhem and lust
Dripping from our bloody fangs
But as the day shortens
And the light begins to dim
And I rely upon battle-tested strategies
To resist their savage beckoning
They retreat to the shadowed corners
Vigilantly spying
For signs of weakness
Or new opportunities
To push me into traffic
Or down the stairs
Or to crawl into my skin
And revel in my fall
Like old friends

[Gaberax]

(also, I have stolen the don't poke the bear and saved it )

I actually made it with you in mind, my friend! It is a saying my girlfriend and I use between us, kind of a joke. But I knew it suited you.

[Jean]

[Jon]

Nice work Gabe. It reminds me of the saying "every open hand is there to push and shove."

[Gaberax]

Nice work Gabe. It reminds me of the saying "every open hand is there to push and shove."

Thanks, Jon. I was opening the fridge the other day and there were a few beers left over from a weekend party and for a moment I was tempted to crack one open...I haven't had a drink in about 10 years or so. But, I remembered the hangover and closed the door.

[Gaberax]

Chance

Whether my eyes see through brown or blue or hazel lens
Or I sit in darkness bereft of light to blind me

Whether my face is fair or plain, alluring or repulsive
Or forgotten and forgettable, devoid of distinguishing landmarks, a blank scan

Whether my hair falls gaily into my eyes, twisted and curled in reckless clots
Or light blasts harshly from my pate in the glare of the needling sun

Whether I look down from above, towering over suspicious glances
Or scuttle at the feet of giants, biting and hissing in frustration
Or search the mundane eyes of the bloated, vacant faces that surround me

Whether my gender inclines to the flamboyant, beaming, robust masculine
Or the mysterious, dusky, nebulous feminine
Or some tortured chimera of the two

Whether my skin grants access to secret societies of class and wealth and privilege
Or condemns me to overcrowded sweatboxes filled with other wretches like myself

Whether my thoughts are sharp and nimble and cruel
Or my mind labors to synthesize data, to make connections and to draw conclusions

Whether I enjoy the numbing peace of health and plenty
Or shuffle painfully, uncertainly, from one spiteful moment to the next

Decisions have been reached and pathways selected
Beyond my control and before my understanding
That cinches my psyche; ghastly tentacles
Insidiously shaping and molding the very essence of who I am
Or who I suppose myself to be.

[Jon]

Thought provoking Gabe. Shades of John Calvin.

[Gaberax]

Thought provoking Gabe. Shades of John Calvin.

Thanks Jon. I recently have been thinking about the "crap-shoot" that is life. How a myriad of chance pathways have predetermined a large part of my life. A wretched actor working through a prepared text. Sometimes you just stop and ask yourself, "How and why did I get here?"

[Jon]

But your reactions to these chance occurrences could have been different. Thus I have no quarter for predestinination...but a great write anyway.

[Gaberax]

But your reactions to these chance occurrences could have been different. Thus I have no quarter for predestinination...but a great write anyway.

Thank you for the compliment. It all seems like a game sometimes, an infernal, maddening game. Or an inside joke (and I'm not in on it.)