Poem – Carnival (By David Russell)

Carnival

That peacock opulence,

Swarming on strutting grime;

That massed ecstasy, squeezing itself,

Short-breathed, near suffocation;

That sound-abandonment, seeming to plunge

To deafness’s peace;

Yet keeping those maimed faculties alive,

Ever denying their last fulfilment.

 

Maybe it’s only I and it,

I, starting in the middle

And it, commensurate with my idea

Of my own size?

 

Maybe I didn’t grow

To match its quarter million,

Or maybe I didn’t shrink that far.

 

Yet never could I mar

That general bliss,

For truth is in strong feeling

And critics never bring their rules

To taboos’ strength.

 

Author Bio:

David Russell was born in 1940. Resident in the UK. Writer of poetry, literary criticism, speculative fiction and romance. Main poetry collection Prickling Counterpoints (1998); poems published in online International Times. Main speculative works High Wired On (2002); Rock Bottom (2005). Translation of Spanish epic La Araucana, Amazon 2013. Romances: Self’s Blossom; Explorations; Further Explorations; Therapy Rapture; Darlene, An Ecstatic Rendezvous (all pub Extasy (Devine Destinies). Singer-songwriter/guitarist. Main CD albums Bacteria Shrapnel and Kaleidoscope Concentrate. Many tracks on You Tube.



This poem is part of the complete collection; Speculum: Collected Poetry and Prose, by David Russell.

View or Download the complete collection here in PDF format.

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