Out Of The Depths Poem by Laurence Overmire

In the creative clash
Wit and inspiration
Desperadoes of the soul
Struggling
Hand-to-eye, knife-to-throat
Illusion and fact head-locked
Aesthetics sucker-punched with
Second-guessing
A blur in the clutch of
Tunnel vision
Head pounding on closing wall
Hour upon hour
Day upon night
Caffeine and cigarette, sweat and blood
Stain the solitude
Paid in sacrifice of bread and clay
Hell’s black fire
Char the midnight silence
A gash of moon for
Penance.

In the end
Beaten raw
Exhausted on torn sheet
In unmade bed, collapsed
Light streaming through pulled curtain
Something breathes
Out of the depths, life—

Emerge.


(Previously published in Apollo's Lyre, Spring 2007 Issue)