Awkward Angle of Perception

By Irtimd Kuoilel

Our way

Mindless crowds are worshipping again
And, again, unworthy futile idols
How come that ignorance and idleness
Daze and captivate uncultured brain?

How come not merit but conceit
Worth ahead of worthiness are valued?
Why hot air is puffing and prevailing
Where cool breeze was laughed into retreat?

Why, disdaining bigger, better ways
Throngs insist on treading life in circles?
How this unholy, wicked circus
Self-perpetuates its empty days?

Drags us down, perchance, not greed's disgrace
But top-heavy curse of least resistance
Clay persists in clinging to existence
Thus, not all is lost for human race

Crookedly, delighting in delays
Masses coax world to grind at poles
And, in stagnant pool where hope floats
Rotting corpse of time still undulates

Irtimd Kuoilel

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499028096

Book preview

FIRST STEP

So, do I have a right to merely sidle –

Refrain from staring straight into abyss

Even without witness by my side

Betrayer – albeit anonymous?

So, do I have a right – perforce, but staring

To skip a step, albeit even final

Into the void, with worlds like sparks awhirling

To render fear redundant if not idle?

So, do I have a right to falter, blunder

Amid reflections of illusions past

Where seas and skies – transcending over, under

Feed vertigoes and doubts, in me – in us?

So, do I have a right to turn around

Without trying this interface strained

With bare foot, not sure if this ground

Won’t shatter into meteoric rain?

So, do I have a right to loaf, lamely

While others, entertaining thoughts akin

Fought back their fears, and trod – with not a lament

Bright needles of stars and truths – however thin?

CASTLE IN THE CLOUDS

May be Kant ridiculed by dwarves –

I will clench my teeth not to trip

I pursue my dream on tight rope –

Fumbling, awkward, losing my grip

May thick fog weigh down like burden

May abyss below be unseen

Time, like bowstring taut with foreboding

Leaves me only choice – to proceed

And proceed I do, scared but sure –

This ordeal is mine to surpass

Others won’t have nerve to endure

On this shaky, treacherous path

Though my odds are few, I don’t care –

Fortune favors first time arounds –

As I picture castle of my daring

In the future – far in the clouds

I press forward, though from clifftop

Where dim crowd is idling, in dread

I receive advice – jeering, flippant

That, with no bridge, dream is dead

Let them wait behind, safe and stolid –

I am not the kind to sit back

No, I’m not against easy going –

Thus, I ask – why there’s no track?

On their side, black shadows are thickest

Way ahead is wispy and gray

Time of fools is time of eclipses –

Deeper darkness creeps every day

Strands cut deep through body of rope

It’s alive – all sinews and flesh

Thus, I pray with abject, last hope –

For god’s sake, don’t snap on a gash!

Mists behind have closed like shroud

I can’t see a thing – not in depth

There’s but rope, slicing through cloud

Pole in hands and heart in my chest

I advance through fog – slowly, lonely

Like lost angel – raving and blind

I repent in knowledge that only

End of rope in future I’ll find

That my castle – but steam of wind’s molding

That long life’s a drudge, not a gamble

That my rope’s cut short – still, not folding

Like taut nerve, it’s tense and atremble

Still, in other, higher dimension

There’s, above abyss, printed line

Like my rope – short cut, stiff with tension

Which another man walks – head high

In his face I see kindred spirit

He’s like me – exile on a dare

Grasps his pole, whiteknuckled with fear

Frozen stiff – with foot in mid-air

TWILIGHT SPY

Night rolled its boulder forth from due east

Framing red gash of the west

Clouds, like fishes, agape and betwixt

Swim to pursue their quest

Walls of the buildings are huddled, snug and tight –

Golden and crimson assembly

Windows are blotches, bedazzlingly bright –

Either ablaze or dissembling

Waters of river are mimicking sky

Matching each hue