Poem of the Week – Nicholas Gagnier | The World Outside the Window

I have mentioned this to him before but I think Nicholas is one of the most talented poets I have read. I don’t give away this praise glibly, his work is visceral, lyrical, challenging and honest. I admire his work greatly and his commitment to raising awareness about mental health. He is simply one of my favourite modern day poets.

We collaborated a few years back when I turned one of his poems into a song, it remains one of my most rewarding and creative collaborations. As we’ve recently re-connected again I thought I’d share one of his poems and link you to his site.

I encourage you to check it out.

No Idol

There’s lyric in the lament,
sorrows that’ve had a decade and
then some to ferment.

Twenty-one plus
ten, having finally
gained the sense my
parents said God
forgot to give me,
but that gibberish
never affixed itself
to ambivalence,

because all it taught me
was to
worship absence.

There’s some vindication within
inaction, obviously.

Forget it’s only
a fraction of what other fight for;
some just a friend to die
beside, other an armistice with
their
sins,

most their
next of kin

but I’ve been sick,
and I’ve been unsavoury;

I’m guilty of gangrene intentions and emotional fucking slavery.

Wine stains on the rug but no embrace near,
clothes on the
floor
but no sort of bravery naked,
nothing human about the
way I fear
charity.

But I wrench fake smiles from depravity’s depths and light it up like
kerosene, a transparency masking blood, feigning paragons to convince myself there’s still good
within me, God’s genes in
this fugue,

olive branch of beauty in
this venue
of self-made
idols.

Original Poem and other works can be found here –

Free Verse ReVolution – https://freeverserevolution.wordpress.com/2017/06/22/no-idol/