This last week, I was thumbing through my third book, Shadow and Memory, and found myself liking the poems in there. As I’ve written poetry or music over the years, I’ve found it’s easier to enjoy something I’ve created once some time has passed. Memories of agonizing over which word to use, whether to break a stanza here or there, and other obsessions have faded. I don’t remember how I thought the poem “should” go anymore, so I’m free to engage with what it is.
“Perdition” is one that particularly struck me. It is a meditation on history’s most famous villain, Judas. Jesus referred to him as, “the son of perdition.” Being betrayal’s poster-child is a tough legacy. But it is good material for a poem 😉
Perdition
The groaning tree
spread in the sickle moon’s light:
a crooked hand
dangling the noose-wrenched marionette
whose silver lips
gave blasphemy’s kiss
for all lost angels
and fallen stars.
A Wandering Minstrel 