Monday, September 19, 2005

The Jaws of a Lion

The lion roars inside me.
For those of you who know,
And those of you who don’t,
This symbol of my youth

So strong, so stealthy, so
Strange to know so better
Than acres of green grass
And the scent of a woman

Still rules my lonely moments.
When every breath of Midnight
Brings doubt, regret, and knowledge,
I still harbor the great cat

In every second ticking
On a watch stopped yesterday.
My claws grow long tonight,
Take ink and shred words:

The cantos of my Love!
Burned hasty in the sun,
Mistaken by a friend,
They cool in Midnight’s blanket:

Not trophies, not curses
Just words from a fool
In cover of darkness
And the jaws of a lion.


As always, everything on this site is copyright Thomas Jackson 2005.

4 comments:

Laurel O'Keefe said...

This is rather uncanny as just yesterday I felt a compulsion to look for photos of big cats online. I was esp interested in jaguars as I must admit, they really intrigue me for reasons thatI'm not really sure of?
Anyhoo...here ive had cats on the brain and I pop in to your blog and....whaddya know-a peice of prose about the lion-who they say is the greatest cat of all but i am partial to that sleek jaguar myself.
I've got some gorgeous big cat photos if youre interested hon,let me know and Ill email em in a snap!
oh and I like your latest work, good to see you up and running-missed you!

Thomas Jackson said...

Lions dominate some of my poetry. The great cat isn't as important as it used to be, but I still find verses to pen upon them.

It's good to be up and running again; I missed me, too. All sarcasm aside, thank you for the kind word. When do we get to read an update on your blog?

Laurel O'Keefe said...

Ive been a little disgusted with my blog lately becuase its been sullied by the invasion of my sister-someone left a rather rude comment on one of my most personal posts and when i checked the site meter to see who was on at that time it was a computer with an isp at her place of work-at the exact time only that person was on my site--busted obviously.
And the worst part, the most hurtful part, is that only a few weeks ago i told her in a phone conversation that i was beginning a writing campaign, making a serious effort at freelancing-you know, actually getting paid for my writing, and more importantly, being published-and read.
She knew how dear my wriing and my blog were to my heart and she stealthfully sneaked on to it at work and left a rude message critisizing my wrriting-not the subject matter or my opinion, no she aimed it right between the eyes at my writng-and she chose this one post that was my first one and admittedly very disjointed as i was getting the hang of this blog thing, and indeed i made a disclaimer to that effect several times on the blog, if you rememeber-(I have since taken both related posts down)

The thing here isnt really about what she said as much as the fact that shew posed as an anonyomous reader-she obviously didnt know about site meters or she never wouldve done it-and if shed done it as a joke she wouldve aimed it at a lighter post and let on that she was who she was-in fact when i asked her if shed visited my blog etc-she denied it, even when confronted with the fact that the sitemeter showed the isp adress at her job in her town,and that they looked up my blog by NAME in google blog search-all of this info is on my site meter for marketing purposes-I never use it, but this time i had a reason to..
Well needless to say, it hurt me that she would try to denigrate my wriitng abilities, of all things- when she knew that i was in the midst of a serious effort to finally pursue a life long dream of publishing-(besides some tech wriing and boring copyright stuff ive done-and some articles for newletters etc.)
I mean, this is simply mean-spirited underhanded and ugly-and it was definetly not constructive criticism either-i'll show you later-
whew... Now that i got that rant out of my system.... this is why ive been kind of avoiding my blog-its as if she shot an arrow thru my balloon, and i know I shouldnt let her, and ill get over it im sure-but it just adds to my disillusionment re my family..

Oh and btw I have red hair and green eyes-though they are bright green, not hazel like your first muse..kinda funny...

Thomas Jackson said...

That's a horrible thing for a sister to do; she should be ashamed of herself. Good writing takes tons of practice: you shouldn't let a small-minded obstacle stand in your way this early in your writing efforts. Keep writing on your blog; your style will improve. Writing can test your endurance: part of the vocation is accepting criticism of all sorts, and coming back with something better no matter how bad the reviews of your work become.

Oh, and red hair with green eyes sounds beautiful; I wouldn't know where to start.