Thread: A Taste For Eternity

Infants are born with a thumbprint
pressed against eternity;
infants have potential.
Adults punch clocks.

At first sight you wouldn't know it;
purpose crumbles and is forgotten,
yet we wander in the wreckage
of habit and propensity.

Like Babel and confused speech:
skyscrapers are no less eloquent than graffiti.

Ziggurats come with the territory.
Around them we cultivate history
and hanging gardens ripe with meanings
gleaned from other meanings,
all children of a single seed.

Immortality.

In culture, country, kindred
it is comfortable to imagine one cell dying
but the body alive forever.

Civilization is ink and concrete.
Artists daub blank pages and walls of canvas with insight,
praying a life of work will be deemed important enough
for preservation by the priests of cool.

To be remembered means life;
survival depends on a myth too sacred to forget.

Posterity is sweet
when the alternative
tastes like death.

Originally Posted by Edgewise

Infants are born with a thumbprint
pressed against eternity;
infants have potential.
Adults punch clocks.

At first sight you wouldn't know it;
purpose crumbles and is forgotten,
yet we wander in the wreckage
of habit and propensity.

Like Babel and confused speech:
skyscrapers are no less eloquent than graffiti.

Ziggurats come with the territory.
Around them we cultivate history
and hanging gardens ripe with meanings
gleaned from other meanings,
all children of a single seed.

Immortality.

In culture, country, kindred
it is comfortable to imagine one cell dying
but the body alive forever.

Civilization is ink and concrete.
Artists daub blank pages and walls of canvas with insight,
praying a life of work will be deemed important enough
for preservation by the priests of cool.

To be remembered means life;
survival depends on a myth too sacred to forget.
Posterity is sweet when the alternative tastes like death.










Note: I've been out of practice. Be vicious.

Some nice imagery. The only nit I have with this one is the highlighted repetition. Good poem.

Sorry, Edge. I can't be vicious when you don't deserve it.

I liked it as well. It had great flow. I might have found the last stanza a little stronger if the last line were broken in two: "Posterity is sweet when the alternative/tastes like death."

I will work with your suggestion later Baron. No replacement for the line you pointed out immediately comes to mind. It is a difficult idea to rephrase without the repetition.

I split up the last stanza based on your comment Damien. It reads better now. Thanks.

sweet man. I could learn a thing or two from you. God bless

Not that I'm surprised, but I thought this was excellent, man. Sweet imagery without falling into vaguery or confusion. Solid, solid piece of art.

Why not change to first "meanings" for "answers" to give the "ar/ah" sound to go with "gardens" and to complement "gleaned" and "meanings" in the next line?

I liked the subject and you pulled it off well. I have no problem with the repetition of 'meanings'.

Good stuff Edge.

Awesome poem Edge.