{"id":1649,"date":"2013-11-10T17:36:22","date_gmt":"2013-11-10T17:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=1649"},"modified":"2015-03-27T00:52:01","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T00:52:01","slug":"forsaken-the-carthaginian-quartet-poem-joseph-armstead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/forsaken-the-carthaginian-quartet-poem-joseph-armstead\/","title":{"rendered":"Forsaken, the Carthaginian Quartet. Poem. Joseph Armstead"},"content":{"rendered":"



…the warm waters of the Punic ports stir fitfully…<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
City of Bones, languid and arid, it sleeps, <\/strong>
skeletal ruination of Phoenician dominion,<\/strong>
Hellenistic citadel, on the eastern shores <\/strong>
of Lake Tunis, once a sandy jewel <\/strong>
in the crown of Elissa,<\/strong>
birthplace to Hannibal,<\/strong>
and legends of endless war…<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
the squawking of gulls threatens the silence<\/strong>

1.) Confessio Nunquam<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
— my voice will hide —<\/strong>
the membranous gates <\/strong>
to my secret heart <\/strong>
are stitched shut, sown <\/strong>
of coarse thread, spun of denial,<\/strong>
I let nothing bathe<\/strong>
in the revealing light of day,<\/strong>
hiding nakedness<\/strong>
behind a fragile, <\/strong>
cracked, mirror-mask,<\/strong>
a spiders’ web map, <\/strong>
faultlines of the psyche…<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
— Sssshhhhh—!<\/strong>

2.) A Strange Blindness <\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
History obscured <\/strong>
behind a wall of lucid dreaming,<\/strong>
soft-focus P.O.V.<\/strong>
through the vaseline<\/strong>
smeared over a camera lens,<\/strong>
I clutch the Past to my chest,<\/strong>
cautionary, restrictive,<\/strong>
custodial, prenominal,<\/strong>
let no picture escape, no image<\/strong>
be seen, no tableau unfold,<\/strong>
sub-rosa, clandestine,<\/strong>
none can know the Truth…<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
— cryptic, let sleeping dragons lie —\u00a0 <\/strong>

3.) Sigmund Benedicta<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
…shamed, I camouflage my ferocity…<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
I am struck mute.<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
searing magma of flaming tears<\/strong>
behind eyes swimming <\/strong>
in the memory of damnation, <\/strong>
while shameful denial forms the lyrics<\/strong>
to a song stuck in my throat,<\/strong>
words set to the music of heartbreak<\/strong>
waiting to play <\/strong>
before an audience<\/strong>
eager to judge…<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
chaotic, quixotic, impracticable and dreamy<\/strong>
my anarchy seeks its voice<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
— hush, I will not speak —<\/strong>

4.) The Justinian Variation<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
the dam breaks, the levees are overrun,<\/strong>
the hot stones of the rocky shoreline hiss<\/strong>
as the waters cascade inward from the harbor<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
the necropolis coughs its myths<\/strong>
into the air, fable and folklore<\/strong>
dancing with skeletal ghosts<\/strong>
through the haze of antiquity,<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
and the waters rise yet higher<\/strong>
and the sun-baked ruins grow cool<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
The sound of my voice astonishes me:<\/strong>
bygone phonems, repressed grammar<\/strong>
and disremembered syntax mix <\/strong>
with nostalgia<\/strong>
creating a lullaby <\/strong>
for ravens.<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
Unrestrained, I sing <\/strong>
powerfully <\/strong>
in the City of Bones,<\/strong>
the squawking gulls<\/strong>
my choir…<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BIO<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
Joseph Armstead is a suspense-thriller and horror author living in the United States’\u00a0San Francisco Bay Area.\u00a0\u00a0 Author of a dozen short stories and ten novels, his poetry has been published in a wide range of online journals, webzines and print magazines.\u00a0\u00a0 A mathematician, Futurist\u00a0and computer technologist, Mr. Armstead’s poetry often defies easy description, but frequently includes neo-classical imagery, surrealist viewpoints\u00a0and post-modern themes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/redroom.com\/member\/joseph-armstead<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Condemned-Of-Heaven-Joseph-Armstead\/dp\/0578013665<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nrobin@artvilla.com<\/a><\/p>\n

www.facebook.com\/PoetryLifeTimes<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/strong><\/p>\n

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…the warm waters of the Punic ports stir fitfully…\u00a0City of Bones, languid and arid, it sleeps, skeletal ruination of Phoenician dominion,Hellenistic citadel, on the eastern shores of Lake Tunis, once a sandy jewel in the crown of Elissa,birthplace to Hannibal,and legends of endless war…\u00a0the squawking of gulls threatens the silence1.) Confessio Nunquam\u00a0— my voice will … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,43],"tags":[488,481,485,489,108,240,486,482,483,484],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1649"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3743,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions\/3743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}