{"id":1997,"date":"2011-11-07T09:04:29","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T14:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=1997"},"modified":"2012-07-15T20:11:23","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T00:11:23","slug":"soaring-angels-poems-by-henry-c-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/soaring-angels-poems-by-henry-c-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Soaring Angels: Poems by Henry C. Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Soaring Angels \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Baudelaire peers
\ninto
\nmy vain effort,
\nhis blood filled
\nseering
\nParis days
\ncondensed in a
\nRed-Hot Chilli minute.<\/p>\n

Bukowski lurks
\nat the end of
\nevery bottle,
\nhis failings etched
\nin America’s
\nsprawling heart
\nof whores and hardness.<\/p>\n

Wagner’s rampant
\nstrides
\nthwack with
\nthe thrum
\nof idolised war
\nabove Hollywood China
\nfoam and trumpets.<\/p>\n

Van Gogh painted
\nwith devils
\ncurled like cats,
\nmet fame in death
\nlike i met
\nthe Blind Owl,
\nthe Dunce and
\nSocrates the charmer.<\/p>\n

And meanwhile
\nbeneath and above
\nthem
\nI take
\na sip of beer
\nand study my
\nsunburnt skin,
\ntheir sunburnt wings,
\nthink probably
\nthey’re only here
\nbecause I’m not.<\/p>\n

Li Po’s Boat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me
\ndrift upon
\nLi Po’s boat
\nbetween
\nwet-trees
\nand gibbons
\nclung to banks<\/p>\n

let me
\nhear
\ntheir howls
\nembraced
\nand torn
\nby a low hung moon<\/p>\n

let me
\nsee
\nthe sounds
\nof slow worn time
\nsifting through
\nmountains<\/p>\n

let me
\nbe a breeze
\nheld aloft
\nby dreams
\nof butterflies,
\nghosts of men<\/p>\n

we are
\nall trapped
\nspirits on
\nLi Po’s ocean
\nsearching
\nto be lost.<\/p>\n

Drifting<\/strong><\/p>\n

age
\nblossoms
\ninto
\nyouth<\/p>\n

the dead thoughts
\nof sycophants in echo
\nsurround me
\ndrifting
\nlike
\ndry
\nleaves
\nin a summer
\nsadness<\/p>\n

drifting is the truest
\nstate of things<\/p>\n

thoughts, lives, words<\/p>\n

all just
\ncircles
\nsinking
\ninto suns
\nbreaking
\nto smiles
\nand whirlpools<\/p>\n

all things go through time
\nand on into the mystery of silence<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

Henry\u00a0C.\u00a0Smith\u00a0is 27 years old and lives in\u00a0London\u00a0with his beautiful, little wife. He has a few poems in the upcoming Evergreen Review, and a couple of others dotted around. Anyone wanting to contact him can do so at\u00a0henrycsmith@hotmail.com<\/a>. He describes the preceding poems as, \u201c\u2026loosely about starting with a lot, ending with a little; the drifting passage through time of thoughts and men, and just where writing and poetry fit into that… hope you enjoy \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soaring Angels \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Baudelaire peers into my vain effort, his blood filled seering Paris days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,223,219,199,220],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1997"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3233,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions\/3233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}