"Poetry at War"
by Anthony Roberts
Fake poetry is mistaken often for the real thing as the language of love misconstrued as written from a place of weakness The poet seen as effete effeminate sprawled on a chaise passing the days in pursuit of women he cannot have That is not poetry that is how cowards hide as they've done from war to war demanding better men give more and more secured by stronger men while in safety they reside Cowards write bloodless sonnets and cri du couer works best read within Parisian sewers Cowards write triumphant odes and scores in Vichyesque obeisance to conquering Teutonic or Islamist hordes Cowards write to curry favor with culture's prevailing winds read their intersectional works on transgendered Lemur feminism Cowards write to create the world they seek where to be a man, one must be weak Cowards write hidden and out of sight when they hear Hemingway is looking for a fight This is not poetry Poetry is war emotion and story concentrated into lines marching stanzas forms are Katas practiced with all the devotion of a written martial religion Poetry is discipline a legionnaire who has marched from Gaul to Germania who has spent so long fighting for Rome that he is no longer Roman no longer has a home he has become a barbarian to defend civilization Poetry is violence Elegant slashes across the page thrust, parry, riposte, with fine point blade Mayakovsky adopted the Russian weapon of sharpened spade The battlefield and bookstore are universities where survival is your passing grade Where is the poet while the imposter writes? Here is the Poet words are weapons honed to the same sharpened edge as a saber aimed with the same lethal accuracy as Hathcock's rifle The poet can kill from a distance the target unaware until line or stanza plunges into the mind the bright white flash of impact leaving behind the shimmering pink halo of headshot and understanding both are fatal
Anthony Roberts is a veteran of Baltimore and Afghanistan. He currently lives in New Jersey in a home with beautiful views and interlocking fields of fire.
He is the author of Pigtown and The Clearing Barrel.
You can follow him here.
Want the best date night possible this Saturday night? Drinks, dessert, a hilarious live performance, professional actors, an intimate unforgettable space, pay-what-you-can tickets…it simply does not get better than this. So come on out and join us at our Parlor on Quaker Avenue for our staged reading of Ira Levin’s legendary Broadway comedy/thriller Deathtrap.
Don’t know Deathtrap? It was the winner of the 1978 Edgar Award for Best Play and record holder for the longest-running comedy thriller on Broadway. It’s about Sidney Bruhl - a successful Broadway playwright with writer’s block and a recent spate of box office failures. Desperate to break his dry-spell, Sidney finds hope in Clifford Anderson, a student in his seminar class who has submitted a thriller script, cleverly titled Deathtrap as well. Can Sidney convince Clifford to collaborate and give him co-credit? Or is there a way to cut Clifford out altogether and get sole credit?
As always, you’re welcome to show up and hope for a cancellation. But if you really want to see the show, why not book now and save yourself the uncertainty?
This week on the Savage Wonder podcast…
J.F. Holmes is a retired Army Senior Noncommissioned Officer, having served for 22 years in both the Regular Army and Army National Guard. During that time, he served as everything from an artillery section leader to a member of a Division level planning staff, with tours in Cuba and Iraq, as well as responding to the terrorists attacks in NYC on 9-11.
From 2010 to 2014 he wrote the immensely popular military cartoon strip, "Power Point Ranger", poking fun at military life in the tradition of Beetle Bailey and Willy & Joe.
His books range from Military Sci-Fi to Space Opera to Detective to Fantasy, with a lot in between, and in 2017 two are finalists for the prestigious Dragon Awards.
In 2018, he launched Cannon Publishing, (www.cannonpublishing.us) specializing in anthologies and works from up and coming authors.
J.F. Holmes has published over eighteen books and two novellas.
Feel free to join The Command Post on Facebook, and get a chance to influence the course and plot of his next book!
Follow Cannon Publishing here.