I've made a change! For this poetry posting, the first poem will be the one that is of the more salacious nature, as the second has heavier themes and I'd rather not force one of you to read it, should it be a topic you're uncomfortable with. 

And now, another lesson on poetry. An acrostic poem is one in which the poet hides a message in the text. The easiest way to do this is to have the first letter of each verse spell out a word or phrase, which generally has to do with the subject of the poem. If the poet is a bit more daring, they hide the message in the last letter of each verse: this makes the message less apparent, but also more difficult: in English, for example, "i" is a very infrequent ending letter. Finally, the most difficult way to hide a message is to do it "diagonally": the first letter of the hidden message is the first letter of the first verse, the second letter of the second verse, third of the third, and so on.

I, of course, have chosen to do all three. 


The Everlasting Knot

[K]indled is desire by the spark lurking deep within your eye[s];
[N][I]gh draws the hour of our return, reborn anew from as[h].

[O]u[s]ted from the inferno, my light, my warmth began fade, and you, to[o],
[T]hu[s] began to wither, as the remnants of fire did lick and snap and gna[w].
[M]eta[m]orphosis by way of flame, you said, as smoke did fill the roo[m]:
[E]very [e]nd, no matter how brief, you whispered, would set the sky ablaz[e].

[W]hat ot[h]ers had failed to grasp, we held with all our dwindling migh[t],
[E]ven in d[a]rkness, I found, I was drawn to you, blindly like the mot[h].
[R]utting, c[r]ying out each other’s names, we writhed and boiled the se[a],
[E]mbers of I[d]yllic times long since past, consuming all in our dying hea[t].

[W]ith your he[a]rt, your thrust, your muzzle on mine, you vivif[y];
[O]ver and over, [n]ever ceasing, your throbbing passion pushing int[o]
[L]issome loins [d]eeply so; once I was void, cold and empty, but now yo[u]
[F]ill me, searing [h]ilt pressed flush against my entrance, and I but[n].

[D]epravity has no [o]ther; we do, and in that, I know we are divin[e];
[A]nd if we must thus [l]anguish, and indeed, if we must thus di[e]
[D]are we not mark our [d]issent in setting fire to our be[d]?
[D]ancing in the blaze un[m]arred, are those not our telo[I]? 

[Y]oung we do return, two [e]nds, smoldering, of an everlasting kno[t].


Below is an ode, although in using the word ode, I should stress that I'm not seeking to glorify or romanticize abusive relationships. My aim is, rather, to write on how relationships can go through extremely difficult periods (due substance abuse, infidelity, here) but can be salvaged and begin anew, if the people within the relationship are able to change and overcome their troubles. 


This is a warning /
Please don't read below this point /
If it's not your speed.


An Ode to Companionship

Since fatefully finding a buddy for binding,
Through whoring and warring and whorling and winding,
I found it confusing, confounded in musing
On how bruising his words were during his boozing.

Fleeing was fleeting, and while chilled by my cheating,
It seemed maudlin and mawkish and marred by our meeting,
Repeatedly meeting, remeeting and greeting,
And our brutishly, balefully, each other treating.

We were impudent partners, imprudent and rude,
We'd shamefully sullied and so scornfully skewed
What we'd wishfully wanted, so flagrantly flaunted,
So youthfully yearned and vaingloriously vaunted.

We remet once again, for one final first,
Watching behind us the worst of the worst, we versed:
"Whatever the weather, we'll weather together,
From now until never, for now and forever."


-Charles Michael Averin