The Cave Poem by John Stetson

The Cave



O, the language of caves is silence.
It's a tongue that everyone knows.
Cause when the soul's empty, a shout can't get out
Of the Cave of Winds That Can't Blow.

Some seek solace in the mine,
Where the treasure's elusive and clammy's the clime.
But a burial sought, fought, or welcomed in time,
Is a choice (on the surface) that's no choice, it's a sign.

And some of us read them, and some of us weep.
And some mourn the loss of the trove we can't keep.
Whether promise or treasure, we measure the pleasure
And count it the measure of a hole that's too deep.

But what's lost is the cost of the soul as it's tossed.
Whether digging down deeper, or climbing, it's steeper
To take in the measure of chasms we've crossed,

'Tween what lies on the surface,
And, if memory serves us,
What we've chosen that's frozen by choices we've made...
Or buried with ones that we've lost.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Topic(s) of this poem: philosophical
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
This is a lyric written as an exercise for a songwriter's group known as Crooked Crow. Usually I have a melody in mind when I compose a lyric but, since this was written with the assigned words cave, empty, shouting, silence, language, in the style though of Bob Dylan's tune 'To Ramona', that was not the case here.By the time I composed it, I had forgotten the style part of the assignment, and had never listened to this particular Dylan song.I thought the 'clammy's' usage reminiscent of Poe after I had written it. I find it ironic that he's the classic poet of the day today on this site (the first time I've visited this site) . The Poe connection (while writing the verse) may have been subliminal, I certainly wasn't consciously thinking about him and the cave connection, etc. I discovered this site while trying to remember some lines from 'Jabberwocky'.I'm interested in exploring this site now that I've found it.
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