One Poem - Colin Dardis

Dead Men Wait For Us

 

Dead men wait for us,

camera shutter eyes breeding patience.

Their wait is one of longevity and longing,

the fox waiting to ensnare failure,

the lioness camping down in salt mine plains.

 

In our magnificence

we produce eternal marvels of unwieldy whimsy,

secure in shared communion, only bowing down

to each other in fleeting moments of recognition

until the mirror purrs against our egos.

 

We shall never die

as energy is never relinquished from this world,

our infinities measured out in uncountable decades;

we control the sun, never caring to see dawn,

tomorrow dying in the promise of today.

--

Born at the tail end of the seventies in Northern Ireland , Colin Dardis is a poet, artist, and sometimes musician. He edits Speech Therapy, an online zine focusing on poetry from Ireland and beyond. His first collection, 'left of soul' is available via lulu.com. His work has been previously published in 34^th Parallel, Fire, Stimulus Respond, Fuselit, Decanto, Revival, Blazevox, Gutter Eloquence and elsewhere. His poem 'Perhaps', won the EditRed.Com 2006 Writer’s Choice Award for Poetry

Two Poems - Colin Dardis

The Warmth of Ice



No carving, chip of chisel knocking.
Cool smooth curls of fresh skin
brush pass me as autumn air,
a fabric weaved to perfection.

My kisses skate
over the frozen lake cheeks,
soft ice warmed with beauty.

Oh angel in my bed,
come flatten out
the creases between us
and let our love be
as calm and peaceful
as your image is
with candescent lips, bedtime cheeks.


On Mistakes In Drawings



I make my drawings
in pen, permanent marker;
no HB graphite shit for me,
that’s stuff for the fakers
and the patient.

I draw fast,
lopping arcs of pendulum ink
swing across the page.
More often than not,
a line goes out of orbit
and I cannot erase.

You work with your mistakes,
blend them into the whole,
another word in the silent poetry.

If art reflects life
then there should be no chances
for corrections.
Hold the artist accountable
and let the canvas be his guilt.
---

Colin Dardis is a writer and artist based in Belfast, Northern Ireland . He helps run a monthly open mic poetry night called Make Yourself Heard, and edits a small poetry journal called Speech Therapy.