Marking out a pentacle we conjure a passionate ghost
and, with semantic chains, contain its rage.
Then, as it bruises itself against our runes,
conduct our friends and lovers round its cage,
and as its flesh becomes our words, we watch it die.
I only wish I had the faith to set it free
to enter my fearful heart, break sinew and bone,
and make an end of poetry.
The Poets.
Oh, no, Petronius, I'm happy to see the end of the ghost, otherwise your poem may have never bloomed. Wonderful ideas behind this. Liked it throughout. 
Nice one. What is the significance of the pentacle? I really enjoy the idea of the poetry as being the death of something ineffable. I have to ask though, do poems really cage in these feelings/ideas, or just point to them and highlight their intangibility?
A pentacle has nothing to do with five. One of its meanings is a circle marked on the floor whicn will confine the devil or other spirit when it is conjured. I don't usually explain a poem but at least one thing in my mind when I wrote it was, that a poem always seeks to communicate and always fails and, of course, many others. A poem is set forth in the world and different readers will have different reactions; reactions I cannot predict. In other words " a poem is a poem is a poem etc."
I am glad you liked it.;
I am glad you liked it.;
I thought this was really accomplished, Petronius. Well written and imaginative.
I know what you're saying about poems relating to people in different ways, but really good ones say something universal that strike the same chord in different readers, don't they? Obviously how that chord reverberates will be unique and individual, but the chord's the same...the ghost doesn't have to die, I think I'm trying to say. Even though the emaciated phantoms I'm currently summoning up haven't got a chance of pulling through...haha!
Enjoyed the poem; thanks,
Stephen
(as far as I'm aware, a pentacle is a five-sided star with a circle drawn around it...).
I know what you're saying about poems relating to people in different ways, but really good ones say something universal that strike the same chord in different readers, don't they? Obviously how that chord reverberates will be unique and individual, but the chord's the same...the ghost doesn't have to die, I think I'm trying to say. Even though the emaciated phantoms I'm currently summoning up haven't got a chance of pulling through...haha!
Enjoyed the poem; thanks,
Stephen
(as far as I'm aware, a pentacle is a five-sided star with a circle drawn around it...).
Stephen
Glad you liked the poem. The most famous pentacle is known a Solomon's pentacle which is a star within a circle surrounded by gnomic signs. I think I'm right but just to make sure I'll put my robe and pointed hat on and consult my grimoire. A pentacle can also be a magic sign etc. The way I used it was that it could contain a poetic idea, image etc in words which slip and slide and change even as you try to use them and always, always unsatisfactory.
Glad you liked the poem. The most famous pentacle is known a Solomon's pentacle which is a star within a circle surrounded by gnomic signs. I think I'm right but just to make sure I'll put my robe and pointed hat on and consult my grimoire. A pentacle can also be a magic sign etc. The way I used it was that it could contain a poetic idea, image etc in words which slip and slide and change even as you try to use them and always, always unsatisfactory.