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Neon Tiger
The neon tiger creeps
through the twilight jungle
with fierce glowing eyes,
hungry and hunting,
surreptitiously searching
for a chance to pounce
innocent choice creatures,
fulfilling the craving,
gnawing bloody meat
between white teeth
like strong ancient daggers.
I applaud the allusiveness of
I applaud the allusiveness of this poem, as your tiger takes its rightful place with Blake's "toger toger burning bright" and Eliot's "new year's tiger" in "Gerontion" ("us he devours," Gerontion says). I like the three degrees of light with which the poem begins: the neon, the twilight, and the fierce glowing. Wow. I have come to realize that I don't just enjoy your poems and your adroit style . . . I am fascinated by them. And the tremendous compression---so much meaning pressed down among, and through, and upon a few lines and words. Your tiger has an epic career and existence, but you are such a Poet that you need only a few words, a few moments, to tell us about it. Homer could have learned something about brevity from your example. A lot of our contemporaries could learn something about the art of Poetry from studying your poems. Reading your poems is, for me, a personal privilege; and, if my comments gush . . . oh well, that is the fascination pouring through.
Starward
Thank you for the compliment
Thank you for the compliment and also your degree of information. It's a pleasure to gain a little knowing of other similarities found in poetry. You're obviously a wise practiced person.
bananas are the perfect food
for prostitutes
I should have also mentioned
I should have also mentioned that I think your tiger is more successful than either of theirs. Blake's tiger sounds like a nursery rhyme, and Eliot discards his tiger only moments after the mention. You show us the tiger in motion, in various shades of light---like I said, it is really a whole epic in such a short space. Calimachus, Catullus, and Cunningham would applaud your poem; I certainly do.
Starward