Outside the Realm of Words

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem 

                    “Words after all,” he said, “are only words ;

                     And I have heard so many in these few days

                    That half my wits are sick.”

                     Lancelot ~ Edwin Arlington Robinson, Lancelot, p.164

As Lancelot once said, “Words, after all,

Are only words.”  He then went on to say,

“And I have heard so many” they appall

Me.  They become like lies.  Day after day

They pile up.  Truth is quite beyond their grasp.

He thinks of Guenevere and does not know

About the stake and faggots as they gasp

To punish her for love.  Words, more like dough

For priests and lawyers who can mould mere words,

Shift into worse than words.  They shift to tricks.

They shift to spiritual and legal turds

Or dooms from Inquisition Catholics.

  Give up on words.  Think only Guenevere

    And what your love can commandeer.

~ Phillip Whidden