dark am i, yet lovely, a lily among thorns, majestic as stars in procession

dark am i, yet lovely, a lily among thorns, majestic as stars in procession
WHY DESTROY YOURSELF? WHY DIE BEFORE YOUR TIME? THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE TREMBLE. DESIRE IS NO LONGER STIRRED. DO NOT CONFORM ANY LONGER TO THE PATTERN OF THIS WORLD.

Sunday 27 May 2012

Sean Donoher

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THE ROSE GARDEN
By Sean Donoher, HM Prison Garth


Ampitheatre of aroma.
Burning dew, intoxicating vapour.
Offering to sensations,
Floral breakfast.



Paranoid bench seats one.
Angst ridden heavy coat.
Pocket Lao Tzu mocking.
Eden with personal serpent.

Guardians on natural valium.
Motes in sun, dance.
Birds hushed by cathedral.
Worlds breaks through in whispers.

Busy bees enter brain,
Designing interior nightmares.
Sunburnt mark of Cain.
Bootlace redemption screaming.

Mist filled sunken garden,
Memory an ethereal see-saw.
Nirvana stained with monsters.
Karma offers knife or cloud

The blog just realised that this year’s best Koestler artwork (and still my screensaver) had an accompanying poem of the same title in the written works category. Sean Donoher really owned this year’s competition, and although this effort was kinda overlooked, it had probably the best line of all: Paranoid bench seats one. Alicia Stubbersfield (poet and judge) had no time for this though, saying he should have started the poem from there. Garth is a lifer’s prison by the way, so that’s quite sad, but take nothing away from his talent. He’s been man enough to put his name on his work publicly. Anonymous rings alarm bells. Personally, anyone going by the name anonymous should not win. And a poem should not win over prose. But there you go. ATD don’t make the rules. I just [try] to judge. Sean, at time of writing, has no idea he is featured here. Much like an author has no idea when someone reads his or her book when he or she is brown bread (dead).

Below is verse from a long and disturbing poem done 5½ years ago. See the similarity between Donegan and Donoher? Writing like this is where it all began. Quick-fire ideas, three-word lines, 4 word verses, bam.

At market stalls
In shopping malls
Upheavals in cathedrals
Demons wonder medieval 

Easily defeated
From inside unseated
A single word ‘Nooo!’
Conquers it so

But once in its grip
The balance is tipped
Foreseeing years ago
Our destiny’s flow

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