this phantom span

loss impales once more
but though dagger remove
the void advance

there is urgency
for stay
but it is done
the world vacates
and the drop plummets
down its hurtling descent

would thy intercede
for a fool
recused by right
writhed in wrong
but how can you beseech
the dead
they will not rise

I am thy slayer
seed of Cain
I shall
no more repose
though banished to grave
and dangle upon this
spectral thread

a pendulum creaking
in the wind
regarded not
the known unknown
invariably denied

I would loose this bond
that garrote
with its assuring grip
but no sooner do I break
than I commence to slaughter
renewed

my recidivist impulse
condemning me to evermore
return and serve the sway
of this phantom span

oh would that I learn to slip
this noose that with its
taught snap, suspends
oblivion

 

Written by Scott Schoffstall
© March 11, 2012
all rights reserved
Poetic Sojourn

The Wilderness

In my time of understanding
I’ve seen many failings
they’ve been death to life
and have cursed the wild things within me
I have roamed amongst them and they’ve known me not
yet I have joined in the hunt and it has brought me low
I harrow from deep within and have spilt much blood

I have toiled in fertile fields and seen them barren
a reckoning has parched my soil to dust whence I came
I long for healing rain so I may stand beneath
renew my growing and my soil reclaim

I have reached out to the universe and it has shown
me silence

I have pled my case before man
and witnessed only a prevaricator’s judgment
as  holy creed

in my time of understanding
I know not whence wisdom comes

I sought it in the dark places that showed me
only delirium without meaning

I sought it in places aflame with prurience
and have seen the longing empty flesh
and theft of beauty

I sought it in the things which move men to covet
and have seen their hunger rending

I sought it in the powers and movements of the day
and have seen consuming baseness
without equal

I sought it in the wounded
and have seen only the bitterness of blame
with no communion of souls

I sought it within mine own spirit
and it takes me back to the wilderness
and its ruins of rejection

where can I seek to find this knowing?

in my time of understanding
I need only this guidance
and I will forsake all careless abandon
cast down my wants and attend

 

 

Written by Scott Schoffstall
©  February 12, 2011
all rights reserved
Poetic Sojourn

Dose

trigger the pain shock me to now
buffer my madness escape for me how
can’t listen no memory trips on the wow
fuck me up side down gimme that pow

howlin at nowhere lost blowin my mind
travelin back forward still doin the time
can’t hear all yu sayin even tho fine
for down I been fallen pale hitn the line        

now take me on climbing yet higher I try
travelin back for word cut deeper I cry
hurt can’t go under it just outs the lie
for higher you fall it ain’t no deny

you are what you are cuz out it you die  

 

 

Written by Scott Schoffstall
© December 17, 2010
all rights reserved
Poetic Sojourn

Rain

Puddles, rain collects
Tears from a despondent god
Drinking the silky silence of a fear
That is out of my reach and into your hands
My hands cup around the drops
And time stirs with the bitter
Then falls thru the cracks in my hands
Trickles past my parched lips
To lay fallow in my sentient bowels
I don’t pretend to understand
Anything about this life, about what it’s like to be a god
But there’s something about drinking raindrops
That makes me realize, I know all I need to know
I’m wet now, soaked thru, bone-drenched
Saliferous flow irrigating the soul
Nourishing the movement for where it needs to grow
Here alone springs a garden from tears

 

 

Written by Scott Schoffstall
© December 1, 2010
all rights reserved
Poetic Sojourn