Tags
Beggar, Captivated by a tune, Content, D'VersePoets Pub, Dark alley, Derelict, Hidden happiness, Hidden message, OpenLinkNight, Poor but satisfied, Shadow, Silhouette, Singing, Singing a silent tune, Spellbound, Tune of a beggar, Wanting nothing more
Image credits: str4y@DeviantArt
His raspy voice
beckoned me to turn
– to get a fleeting glimpse –
of the dead smile
that uncouthly flaunted
his broken incisor
His void eyes
stole my attention
– made me wince –
at the ashen skin
that gaily hung
from his sallow face
His limp gait
made me follow him
– down the deserted alley –
with eerie streetlights
that proudly emboldened
his gaping sore
And yet somehow,
His gaunt fingers
held my breath
– between the tuned strings –
of his greying guitar
that completed a scrawny image
of his receding silhouette…
**Posted for Week 8 of OpenLinkNight at d’VersePoets Pub – the coolest place to be! Check it out! I can bet you won’t regret it! **
How I write, is mine...How you read, is yours 
Spellbound by the sublime…that’s what I hear. You’ve captured the repulsive in your images and I followed you down the lane anyway.
Gee.. thanks for following me follow him down that lane, Joanne! Yes, sometimes it’s the repulsive that’s so captivating, isn’t it? The least expected of things have the ability to arouse our curiosity…
Your words paint a vivid and haunting portrait….almost surreal in tone.
Hope you liked it, Charles..
I have observed that the least expected of people/things arouse my curiosity.. 🙂 I am guessing this man would have been one such…
Very haunting image, loved it.
Your words really showed how the curiousity of it can suck one in and have them follow even though they know they shouldn’t. Great write!
YOU NAILED IT, Pat!! Curiosity will indeed kill that cat… whewww!
Glad you liked this piece, my friend… thanks for the perfect analysis!
I wouldn’t want to meet him down a dark alley…haunting.. 🙂
Oh yea… me neither! I am okay with “meeting him” in my poems… but in real life? I seriously doubt it… that curiosity will certainly kill me! 🙂
Very eerie and the guitar in the last stanza takes it to a whole nother level. I love it when you get dark. The flesh “gaily hanging” from the zombie face is an excellent, killer image. Loved it all.
Ooohh.. such an enthusiastic comment for such a dark-sad poem made me feel AWESOME about this write, Joy!! Thank you so muchhhh!!!! 😀
xxxxx
ooohh, dark, creepy and a little haunting. Great visuals too. I enjoyed the read! Nice write 🙂
heheh.. glad you enjoyed this dark walk down that darker road, Tekia dear…
You are the bestest!!
xoxoox
I read it and thought, it’s someone who isn’t willing to go, to follow yet, can’t resist the lure. Very imaginative, picture filled, scary, yet, dreamy too.
A very good write and read.
Oh.. you read it right, my friend… this one was all about that desire to something even when you know it just ain’t right! whew! Talk about irresistible !
Glad you liked the poem, sweets.. thanks..
xxx
Interesting. It’s like you captured a phantom here and turned him every which way to describe him perfectly. Well done!
Ooohhh… a sorta phantom he was indeed… all in my imagination though (thankfully) 🙂
Glad you enjoyed this one, Elizabeth.. thanks a ton for the nice words about the piece..
Captivating! This is marvelous! I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the horrific. 🙂
hehehe… thanks, Jash.. horrific does arouse one’s curiosity..doesn’t it?! 😉
i am not sure if the guy is creepy or magical…ha…nice use of words to build that feel though…i probably would have followed him as well..at least with my eyes…smiles.
hahaha.. I myself am not if it’s creepy or magical, Brian.. 🙂 .. but my imaginative curious mind decided to follow this fictitious man nonetheless! 😉
Glad you liked the poem, my friend..
suspense filled…I want to know what happens next!
Ooohhh… will see where my crazy mind takes me.. and then I will let you know as well, Laura dear.. 🙂 How ’bout that, eh?
Excellent work here, love the painting as well. Great use of tone and narrative. I really enjoyed the write, thank you
thank YOU, hobgoblin… glad you enjoyed the pic-poem combo… really nice of you to say that!
Such horror in so few words, nicely done. It reminded me of the time my brother was watching a horror movie in the basement and we were talking about how we’d never be curious – we’d just run away. Well, at that moment the door started to rattle and then bam, bam and I could see the handle moving! No one was home, who was trying to open this door in our basement? The girl who was just telling the world how she wasn’t curious was walking to the door scared out of her wits but having to know. It was our cat making a liar out of me.
Ooooohhh… a cat, eh?!? LOLLLL…but really, our curiosity can sometimes get the best of us.. no?
Lucky for you, it was just your cat after all.. whew! 🙂
Music that transports trumps physical beauty every time. Brilliant, this! They say Mozart was quite homely, though he dressed in the latest fashion; his eyes had no luster but were dull and expressionless and put people off a bit, but when he played his compositions he was irresistible.
Play on sweet Kavita. Thanks, G.
Wowww, Gay!! You have made me see the derelict in this poem in a new light altogether! And I cannot thank you enough for that!
Maybe he was/is another Mozart after all… whew! At least I would now like to think of him that way… (smiles)
Beyond kool. This read very well. Gave me the chills. Very discriptive. Would like to hear the dude play. What kind of music I wonder would flow from him. Super job!
http://henryclemmons.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/regret/
Woohoo!! Thanks, Henry! 😀
I too would love to hear what he plays… but I guess my curious mind left it for guesses… grrr… maybe it’ll tell me more in my dreams tonight 🙂
so dark and mesmerizing…creepy and fascinating…love the image as well…and the tuned strings –
of his greying guitar…love it
Yaaaahhooo!! Who else but YOU to appreciate those particular lines, Claudia! As I was writing them, I almost KNEW you would like those lines! Thank youuuuu so much, sweet lady!
xoxoxoox
Hmm so many good/bad/haunting/lovely attributes in one person HIM 🙂
completely on a tangent .. I always wanted ot learn how to play the Guitar .. 🙂
You bet, Bikram!! Too much about him, no?! 🙂
Wanna learn to play a guitar, eh? I started with that thought about the keyboard, and managed to some extent too… yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!!!
Oh, my! Talk about goose bumps and quickened heartbeat, Kavita! Loved every word!
heheheh…. hope you didn’t mind the shivers, Belinda dear… (hugs)!!!!!
I am held fascinated by this character your words have created. i want to follow too! Love that image as well…well done!
Whooaaa… Curiosity – a very powerful motivator.. no? 🙂
Glad you enjoyed this read, Natasha… really sweet of you to say such good things about this poem here… (love)
A very cool write, vivid imagery!
Thanks, BorgPoet.. glad you liked this one! I appreciate your comments here…
xxx
i will be scared to follow him down that dark alley…. but great details here evoking the mystery of the night… maybe in our dreams, he haunts…..
Rightly said, Heaven… too scary for reality.. but maybe in a dream.. 🙂
Scary!!! this one gave me d chills !!! but a great piece of work…
btw long time no see…b4 u ask me…i’l say it…its me Hoiden!!!I’m locked out of my old blog….so heres my new one…havnt started posting much…. how u been???its nice to read ur poetry after soooooooo long 🙂
Yaaaayyy!! It’s sooooo nice to see you here, Vandana… (yes, I remember 🙂 )
You got locked of your own blog? Duhhh…that sucks!
Anyway, I am doing great… and still writing (thankfully)… how have YOU been? I wonder why I haven’t visited your blog in like CENTURIES now! I guess it’s just my laziness.. yea, seriously! 😦
But that spree ends now, and I will be at ur page in a jiffy! 😀
xoxooxox
Its sad .. not dark … my heart goes to the man ..
Oh yes, girl… It is a little sad indeed… Yet, the derelicts of the world have so much to tell us…no ?
A piece well written, engaging – good work… mine is here: http://www.image-verse.com/clown
gee.. thanks, Rob!
between tuned strings – nice – like that dark alley in a way. enjoyed this a lot Kavita. thanks.
wanna follow him yourself, Sheila? I am sure that music will “pull” ya 🙂
Have a great weekend, sweets!
xx
I think I’d want to follow him too. He sounds very intriguing. I bet his songs are full of truth and beauty.
Wonderful poem, thanks, for the images, Kavita.
xo
Intriguing – yes!! That’s what I was looking for ! Glad you enjoyed this suspenseful one, Jannie… yes, I too am sure his songs were lovely… they usually are..
You have a great weekend, lady!
xoxoxo
This is brilliant! I love this line “of his greying guitar”. Very descriptive with great auditory and visual imagery 🙂
Woowwwiiieezz! Thanks a heap, Norma.. I too felt an odd exhilaration as was writing that particular line.. somehow, it felt very “right”, if ya know what I mean… esp. considering the old and haggard guy that he was..
Yes Kavita! Great writing. Felt that cold shiver run up my spine as I decided to “yea, I’l’ go in there..and yea, its not a good idea”
thank you for the journey
and curiosity has killed Dennis more times than not…but it’s just still too tempting to resist and adventure
hehehhe… talk about curiosity, Dennis! It makes us take the most unexpected of steps.. no? 🙂 But like you said, it’s simply too much to resist! 🙂 Been there myself.. (too many times, perhaps..) *sigh*
How awesome… I was thinking “Why on earth would anyone follow that character into an eerie, dark alleyway…” OMG….. but then came the guitar, his fingers on the strings stopping your breath, I’m assuming from the amazing draw of his talent…… At least that’s what I saw dancing around in my mind….. a beautiful tune drowning the physical ailments of an aged artisan…. So I’m curious to know, did you have Keith Richards in mind when you wrote this or did he just pop into my head by coincidence? 🙂 Well written poem, I love the soft descriptive language you use to paint a most vivid picture… I feel like I was standing in that alley just a moment ago listening to some really awesome music…… I particularly liked “dead smile that uncouthly flaunted his broken incisor.”
WOW!! Some imagination you have, John! Naaaahh.. can’t say I was thinking of Keith Richards while I wrote this.. 🙂 that’s probably cuz the character in my poem was indeed fictional… or maybe he existed in some deep ignored part of my subconscious mind, and just came to the surface as I was writing this poem.. whew! Did that make any sense at all? I am sure you’ll understand..
But yes, even in my mind’s eye, this character seemed super worth following – well, guitar and the tunes that came from it did!
And I glad you recognized that too…. thanks a bunch for all the cool things you have written here about this poem.. it means a great deal to me!
(hugs)
Saw your poem again on my “Followed Blogs” page and just had to re-visit it once more….. Oh, btw, I’m following you now… You know it’s funny how sometimes appearance can do the weirdest things to us. If I had seen this gentleman hitchhiking there is little chance I would stop for him. I once spent an afternoon colorizing a photo of Abraham Lincoln, just because I wanted to face the man in living color. After two hours of his magnified beastliness attacking my senses I can rather confidently and with some authority say that he is definitely the single most fiercely homely individual I have ever come to witness in my life. And the amazing thing is that his most endearing nature would have caused him to shake his head, smile, and agree with that. I would have followed him into the depths of hell had he asked, as he did ask so many hundreds of thousands who happily complied with that incredibly wonderful, albeit ugly man.
This was my first week with dVerse poets link-night, and i wasn’t really prepared for the onslaught of intensely well written poetry I found. As a slow reader I’ve spent most of my spare time this week catching up on all of the links and still haven’t quite reached the end of the list. All the while, in the back of my mind I’ve been wondering if I will even get the time to sit and write something myself…. doubtful. I’m preparing a poem that I wrote six months ago for the next link night…. but I have been wondering what the subject of my next poem will be anyway and realized that I have been inspired completely this week by so many sources… The subject you chose in this poem, “Unspoken Message,” inspired me too. I think it’s beautiful how our passions, our love of art like music, can transcend the innate repulsiveness we suffer those who have less than a pristine appearance or who are unable to don the latest fashions…. That’s why Keith Richards popped into my mind while reading your poem. He’s another oddly misshapen little man that I would follow, even into the darkest alley…… I would simply and only need to politely decline whatever substances he might choose to offer me while there!
Again, lovely and very descriptive poem……… And yes, it made perfect sense to me. The little black box in the back of my mind, the one that obligingly writes all of my poetry for me, agrees also….
Indeed unspoken message! … thanks for sharing, I really liked it!
Aww.. thank you so much, Elyas…. it’s very sweet of you to say that!!
xxxx
Fabulous imagery and a great image to go with your poem–great work
deep and thought provoking…
Greetings:
We are celebrating one year anniversary, wish to say thank you for the support in the past year, keep up the excellence!
You Deserve The Best!
Bless Your Tuesday!
Cheers….
Jingle Poetry Community
xoxox
That’s wonderful, jingle!! Congrats on the anniversary!!! I am glad to have been part of it…
Keep up the good work…
And thank you for nice words and generous wishes…
Much love!!!!
❤
Gave me chills!
OUCH!!! That scary, eh?!
Howz you doing, lady?! Hope all’s well with ya…
xxxx
oooo… i like! this is so marvelous!
Weee…thanks, babes!!
Loviez you!!!
Great write!!! 🙂
Aww.. thanks a ton, Mohana.. glad you liked it!
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