Exposed

By Michael A. Griffith

Is pain a test for untested men? Can it tap unseen reserves of strength and courage? Such are the raw truths exposed in this short but immensely moving collection of poems.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Soma Publishing
• Release date: Oct 8, 2018

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INTRODUCTION:

THE WILL TO RISE

The Spartans with 300 warriors and an alliance of 7,000 various Greek-state soldiers held off 40,000 Persian invaders at the Battle of Thermopylae.

In three days of fighting the Greeks killed half of the Persian invasion force and suffered 2,000 casualties. What gave these men such presence of command?

I call it the Will to Rise. A deep passion stirred not by slogan or song but by absorbing reality with sober vision. Instead of collapsing in defeat the Will to Rise offers prayers uttered in profanity and defies the cosmic order.

If we are honest with ourselves most victories are not works of art or meditations in grace. They are an imperfect path of progress propelled by an urgency based on fiber and faith.

Results are messy but necessary reminders that humanity can only stay human if it retains the ability to be fragile and flawed. The predicament of being Exposed though terrifying may also marshal the mighty energy contained in transformative survival.

Mark Antony Rossi

DOWNFALL

Bleeding from a dozen-plus wounds,

the bull turns on stiff legs.

Matador smooth, tall, slender,

in black and silver jacket, his shirt whiter than bones.

Adulation is his bride.

The crowd is a haze of sound;

rank with perfumes, sweat, and tobacco.

The bull is meant to lose. He doesn’t know this,

just as his brothers and their fathers and more never knew.

The snorting, the fiery blackness of his eyes, the charge,

savage froth forming in a mouth soon to be stuck open—

none of that will help his cause,

though some in the crowd hope otherwise.

Upset can be so sweet, surprise