Happy New Year

Hey All,

No poem tonight. Spending time with family. I hope you’re all having a wild night or getting to spend it however you most want.

Wishing all of you the best possible new year.

Be good to each other.

-Bacchus

Of Slings and Slang

when your arbitral ghosts debate

through the frozen morning

when do you cast off your dictionary

of too sober generations' recycled pages

intransigent against alleged quagmires

i am one man among billions of people

and so we are strangers

but we will die together brave pupils

traitors to meaningless incursions

which eternal war is this

who are the alleged villains

forbidden vocabularies and new words

shout them back into their alabaster mouths

hardened against the changing of tongues

I Beside Myself

in minutes of deleted devotion

your life of too many turns sings these words

demanding only correct adoration

in service of undoing youthful imprudence 

and desperate for a name now dead

digesting death and misery’s hours

in essays dividing and rolling

did you intend respite accentuating nothing

so much of this life tangled in dedications

when shining there beside you 

unseen in ecstatic light

a more authentic love exists

Out of Winter Dark

grass shivers in the wind

of winter’s departing breath

lilacs fume rippling 

leaf shine haloes of light

out of darkest darkness 

the trumpeting throats 

of geese still in flight

these dreams spring

Human Destiny Presumed

to be born of earth 

eternal migrant 

forsaking the light of our star

fire in the hearth

to be among stars burning

barren worlds

to live by that darkness 

until darkness

even to the outer edge 

thrown like a stone 

in the hope for life

Holidays Ongoing

 Hi Everybody,

Today was another day exchanging gifts and spending fun time with family. There was no time for poetry or painting today though, so no post other than this one.

I hope you are all well and finding some peace and happiness this continuing holiday season.

Be good to each other.

~Bacchus

Trying To Sleep New Year's Eve

simulacrum of fire

mesmerizing imposter

what burns in this beautiful caricature

fire of my meager sorrows

minor amorous bloom flickering

what fire – oh god i remember

what little distance

take the memory of its name

in shame temperature rising

mind spare me this 

for one more year

Holiday With Family & Self Portrait

 Hi Everybody,

There will be no poem tonight. It's a busy time as we prepare for family to visit. Here's a new self portrait though.

I wish all of you a happy holiday. 

Be good to each other.

Regards,

Bacchus

Migrations

the song of earth 

in creation or destruction

it is the story of transformation

inheritor species and devoted life

following geologic paths

in motion at the boundaries

displaced people in their shared labors 

wailing and blowing apart borders 

not in search of but demanding

redistribution of wealth

dismantling these fictions 

inequality equality

emerging from my body

this wholly differentiating desire

to proceed on paths

unique to itself

Simpler Time

oh these old

fettered bones

marionette

longing for home

on these strings

i used to dance

for you

Temper

within the magma chamber

the jagged iron geode beating

those vapors meant to remain encrusted

crushed by Hephaestian hammer

instead vent from fulminous Vulcan mouth

and the acrimonious air turns ashen

all who shelter there

Drinking In The Solstice

in this last low light of the waning year

deep blue shadows westward leaning solely

craven and cold they cling to edges

recline beneath trees astride cars below ledges

stretching toward the long night to join them wholly

wrap a shawl around your shoulders dear

and let’s trip the year’s last light

we’ll blithely sip the shadows here

drinking much too long into the night

until at last refreshed with darkness gone

we turn our longing to the waxing dawn

Welcome New Readers!

Hi Everybody,

Tonight, I just want to welcome all of the new readers to my blog. There were a lot in the last few days. 

So, welcome! Thanks so much for your interest. I hope you’re finding things here that move you, or at least give you something to think about.

A bit of history: 

I'm a published poet, and an artist. I’ve kept this blog since August 2021, and if you haven’t guessed (or read) yet, I post every day - even if it's only to say I'm taking the night off. Most of the time I post poetry and the poems I post are almost exclusively written the same day that I post them. This is how I keep my writing practice.

Sometime in the very near future I’ll be making a chapbook of art and poems I’ve revised. I’ll let you know when that’s available.

In the meantime, feel free to comment on and share the poems you like. You can follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky @BacchusBlam ... though most of what I post leads back to this blog.

Be good to each other.

~Bacchus

Autumn Shine

deliver your heart

to the morning lit path

radiant wet pavements strewn

with high autumn leaf shine

or revel in the romance

of having it stolen

in the fog of your breath 

by the same

Going In

of the subterranean dark be not afraid

go down into the cold river rushing

the old flowing source

the ghost voices of choices made

the bowsprit adorned with lantern 

hazy white light effulging

for the oared boat at last on its course

to the deep dwelling no more delayed

Mother and Earth

don’t call it mother

earth is your progenitor

they both deserve more

Make A Small Space

suddenly the world is too close

a noise flood of clay mud ripples my mind

air thick and confining as wet concrete

breath heavy as calcined lime in my blood

within and without there is no escape

the defined world is a soup to muddle through

some slog and some struggle some drown

some push out 

         all around

                 to make a bubble

a small space for making the right kind of trouble

Of Words and Worlds

you see a wall where i see bricks

i see abdomens you see cores

in your decorum i see tricks

your song birds are my dinosaurs

you think my words are clever games

i think they bring our worlds to life

you quote Shakespeare “what’s in a name”

i say all we know of every thing

Where Should I Go To Love You

where should i go to love you

there is no room here

the ocean too vast

would swallow me whole

the woodland too dark

below castoffs cached

where should i go to love you

when the gulf of our bed

already too wide

leaves us lying backs facing

like parallel peninsulas

flooding in a rising tide

where should i go to love you

if never to another’s arms

only dreams are safe and fair

far enough from your distance

that cold windswept expanse

perhaps to find you loving there

Cage Without Bars

endorphin gorged this morning

pouring over pages 

sorting word porridge

clawing away through my artistic middle ages

and what’s strange is

to overcome fear i find anger is a boost 

but if i’m only brave as my rage is

in that chaos contained 

confusing freedom with rights

is what a contemporary cage is

In Need of Recharge

Hi everybody.

I’m taking tonight off to read some contemporary poetry and recharge. I don’t have it in me to stare at the blank page for an hour waiting for words to come.

Be good to each other.

~Bacchus

Reflecting Light

as a child i asked

if it’s not a star how does

the moon glow

you told me

moonlight is sunlight

reflecting off regolith

i remember you

brilliant and distant but here

in my words

Our Holiday Card 2023 (Maybe)

 Hi everybody.

No poem tonight because I spent so long painting I lost track of time. 

So below is the preliminary watercolor sketch I did a few mornings ago, and the progression of the acrylic painting I worked on tonight that may become our holiday card this year. Enjoy.

Silence at The End of Night

after the pale shallow winter sun

has a cold day to run its courses

after the early evening dark

has signaled dinner and then

after the dishes are cleared away again

with children asleep in their beds

quiet like a quilt spreads and creates

a rare hollow place of silence

of space to stretch a thought

of time to soak weariness

slowly into the bones over tea

and embrace sleep like a dear old friend

Teen Veneer

you ask for my considered opinion

then denigrate my reply

defensive in the face honesty
you flee and feign offense

squeamish confronted with compliments

you self-deprecate

from all of this you are convinced i’m trapped 

within your gaslit ruse

but you’ve built the walls so high i’m left outside

and have yet to enter

a carnival keep of contradictions

the edifice of youth

Relative Faith

elevate this mercenary faith 

to more than a mouth

open to the sky

awaiting pennies from heaven

copper taste of blood

sticking in my throat

choking on dissembling appeals

lying on the ground

humbled in the muck

faith itself appears a rich reward

Sick and Tired

the lesser part of me has had enough

it slouches slowly to my bed 

claws curled holding my head

makes a tunnel of my quilt

and crawls into the calling dark

the lesser part says empathy is gone

requests and pleas will meet with growls

denials barking howls

later i’ll contend with guilt

for now i must traverse this arc

the lesser part is neither man nor beast

not husband father lover least

but battered folded creased

a strangled bloom bruised left to wilt

takes shelter in the calling dark

Ontotheology

I don’t recall the small clear voice

that must have whispered in my ear

to give me such profound belief

I’d find my way to everywhere

I need to go without a doubt,

or when precisely all that faith

and quiet certainty ran out.

I watch for what it left behind

to find reminders, keeping hope,

if not my memory, alive.

Back To My Doubts

the hollow shouts of you boring doubts

come on as though i could quit

but i can’t and won’t so why don’t you

fucking cut the shit

An Evening At The Theater

Hi everybody.

My oldest is in a production of Clue tonight, and my attention was engaged elsewhere for the rest of the day, so no new poem this evening.

I hope you all are well and have the chance to enjoy the weekend.

Be good to each other.

~Bacchus

Traveling To Where I Am

my mind is headed westward now

to New York’s western door

where i grew my independence

for fourteen years before

my heart is headed farther north

for numbing in the cold

the cost of what i then endured

the confidence i sold

my soul is headed southerly

for warmth and growth and change

i feel the dying of the year

rise bold and new and strange

my body in the east remains

to tread familiar ground

to sleep and fret and feed and sweat

to write to paint to sound

around around around around