Sept. 25~ STRIDER MARCUS JONES

Today SHINE welcomes back Strider Marcus Jones, EIC over at Lothlorien. Please enjoy:  "The Hermit," "Us," and "This." Thank you, Strider, for sharing these three new poems with the SHINE international poetry community!

The Hermit

off rink
i think
and sit
like a hermit
but time
isn't mine
to design.
the images erased
from memory in this cave
reverses the lathe
of shaped corruption
to avoid self destruction.
to an unseen, individual,
prime residual
unlit spark in the integral
strum of strings
that turns in revolutions rings,
the equal hands on the cosmic clock,
plays rhythms we know
but have forgot,
neither quick or slow,
but just so, with natures tow.
this solitary Eden,
paradise without our seed in
beneath the clouds of atmosphere,
alters with us here
overthrowing Older Orders without consent
in the deafening, silent firmament
and near
in conditioned fear.

Us

we are composed
out of the fate of stars
a light dark light so old
and tuned that regards
most of Us as Other
peasants
who are clothed
without privelaged presents
to burn wood in cracked stoves
under crumbling cover.
stitched to Their time
we entwine
in our own interpretation
of this spinning station.
only burlesque bright skies
and the iris flowers of abandoned eyes
can change the fixed views
of a selfish landscape
into united hues
of equal state.
our reality is broken-
we are the hosts
and ghosts
who have been stolen
the violated tokens
of corporatist totems
screen greed being traded
and invaded
then beaten for protesting by police
working for the Thief.

This

this stone
is my mountain
and my home
this puddle
is my fountain
and my muddle
this star
is my jar
and lantern of life
seeing me go
to each outpost
where seasons grow
and real comes close
this wilderness
is my nothing to confess
and consent
for no material content
this cigarette
is my remember forget next
and smoke flavours the sensations
of situations

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. He is the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/. A member of The Poetry Society, nominated for the Pushcart Prize x4 and Best of the Net x3, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

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