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THE ROSE GARDEN
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
