LABYRINTH


In the half-lit
twistings, turnings,
Stink of bullshit…,
Heaven’s burnings
in the gut, the very soul…

What is this, that
you are seeking,
Hero,
here among the reeking
passages
that twist around,
and lead you into
cul-de-sacs,
hemmed in by walls
marked with the axe,
double-headed and
two-faced…?

Once upon a time you raced
in sunlight gleaming off the sea,
you sweated in your lissome grace,
by the age-twisted cypress tree,
stood tall and young, full of your years
and watched the galleys tribute-full
of youths, of maids, of parting tears
and carrying a nation’s fears
with black sheets sail
to serve the Bull…

Turn and twist,
and shy
and hold…
hide in shadow…
step out bold– 
sword sings out 
and strikes–
the air…
You hunt a thing
you know is there
deep-descending
to its lair…
Moving canny,
grip the thread
that guides you out
if you’re not dead…
A distant hostile rumbling
and cries of woe,
and grumbling
of monster
finding frightened meat…

The Beast would rather
waving wheat, and basking
in the radiant heat of white ground
tossing back the sun…
But that is not how this is done.
This labyrinth
pleases no one here,
it twists with pain,
it reeks of fear,
and no one, 
so it would appear, 
does what he will
But–
there’s this Destiny to fulfill…

No need to say, it won’t end well.


2004 CL Redding

On The Half-Shell

Out of the sea on rising foam
Venus emerges,
makes herself at home,

and the Gods all pause a moment to look
and admire and plan…
and their canny brains cook…

The Goddesses, too–they look and they see
a sister to them
and a rival-to-be…

For the proper attentions, there must always be
offered to Wisdom,
and Fidelity.

And Discord smiles to see this birth
Her job’s secure
forever on Earth!


2004 CL Redding

MEDUSA

O maid, you once were lovely,
full of grace, and named
for Wisdom in eternal female form–
Metis, Maat, Medha the names you bore…

But the passing generations,
reshaping and restructuring the norm,
made you over as a thing to fear,
no longer Maid, but monstrous
with a deadly, stony gaze;

Men made you cruel and cold
and perilous to life in latter days,
forgetting that the peril in your eyes
is Truth too true for them to see, and live.

Grim-faced now, the Gorgon who is wise,
whose serpents in her hands once offered Life
now–writhe in ringlets on her brow
And Perseus pursues her with a knife…

2004 CL Redding

Ashes in the Oracle’s Mouth


Helen, oh Helen!
You silly git!
You pretty face,
You great lack-wit!

Paris, perspective
was never your strength
Just please yourself
at any length!

Menelaus,
big as a bull
your heart pumps blood
and that is all.

Agamemnon,
greed for power
cuts at your life line
hour by hour.

Achilles,
as honest as killers come–
kill and be killed
is your personal sum.

Hector, oh Hector,
where else could you end
but dragged beyond death
your mouth full of sand.

Homer, great Homer,
Troy’s yours for the giving–
I know, I know, Poet–
writing–Well, it’s a living…


2004 by CL Redding

Shadows…

a song of middle-aged angst


…shifting, drifting airs with faces
and imaginary graces
but never firming to the touch…
Are you a shadow?
Am I?
Would you have me real?
Or I, you?

Shadows cast no pain, no joy.
Their suffering is not real
their fading glamor
passing clamor
not much to be wondered at.
They neither harm nor charm,
passing through one another
without the consequence of caring
or of sharing…

Each shade real only to itself,
plays out its game
with shadow pieces–
itself is played,
mislaid,
and never knows.

There is in Reality
much joy to be won
or to be lost.
I would not play Reality
with just anyone.


1981 CL Redding

IN THE CITY

In the city
I remember green you can smell
and breezes you can hear;
Clean rain
Silent mists
Spider webs glistening
and solitude
that stretches far and wide…

In the city
I live with mostly greys,
Harsh vivid colors
slicing it in pieces;
The smell of industy
Burning coffee beans like tar;
Howling traffic
Pressing crowds,
eye never meeting eye
and solitude
a tight defense around you…

In the city
time is cut in segments
unforgiving
resistant to the slightest
alteration of The Plan:
Run
against the changing of the light;
Wait
on automated command;
Answer
authority’s demand
for identity and purpose;
Justify
your presence
As if this is a place
you want to be…

In the city.

CL Redding

In This Season of Punditry…

 What weighs two tons and wears a flower behind its ear?
a hippypotamus

What weighs two tons and practices medicine clumsily?
a hiippocratic oaf

 What weighs two tons and is always under medication?
a hippochondriac

What weighs two tons and has an hourglass figure?
a hulahoopapotamus

 What weighs two tons and lives under a Roman bathhouse?
a hippocaust

 What weighed two tons, and once lived in the White House?
Rhino Reagon

 What weighs two tons and stands in the corner?
a hippoteneuse

 What weighs two tons and affects your nerves?
a hippothalamus

What do you call something that weighs two tons, walks under rivers and dresses in grammaflage?
hippreposterous

What do you call the love child of a rhinocerous and elephant?
elephino.

What is it when a bracchiating ape steals your breakfast?
gibbon-take

What has four hoofs and wanders around Africa in a state of confusion?
a bewilderbeast

What do you use to put up an African roof?
Giraffters

“Clear!”

I want my heart to move
to stir–

to be touched
into excitement,
to pangs of poignancy…

I want the world
to thrill me,
make me laugh,
delight me,
inspire me to dance,

to sing aloud,
to share,
to give
from my own open heart…

to reach out,
touching other hearts
grown stiff and cold
to bring them back

to life,
to light–

where all our hearts began.

~2000 CL Redding

Love’s Not Always Pink

Love’s not always pink–
It’s what you feel and live
not what you think.
Sometimes it’s what you give
or are allowed to take
or nothing you can have
for someone else’s sake.

Love’s not always song–
its voice not always heard
or clear and strong.
Sometimes it’s just absurd
and makes no kind of sense
Or it speaks without a word,
has neither rhyme nor tense.

Love’s not always glee–
It has its moods and swings
and doesn’t see.
Sometimes imaginings
turn into fear and doubt
or expectation clings
to aims that can’t play out.

Love’s not always true–
a permanent romance
to nourish you.
Sometimes it is mischance
or timing’s never right
or only fine in sunshine
or only in the night.

Love’s not always whole
but without its tricks and tides
neither is the soul.

2009 CL Redding

Possum: Caught in the Act

Upon discovering a very young, small possum raiding the cat’s food

I am small I am fierce I will bite
if you poke at me
again!

I will gnash hiss snarl bite
if you bother me,
you Big!

Snap hiss See my teeth?  See my teeth?!
keep back or I’ll
bite! bite! 

And turn off that bloody light!
I’m a Creature of
the Night!
Small, and fierce and
I
will
bite!

co 1985 by CL Redding