TURN OF A PHRASE
Pivotal Positions in Poetic Prose
by Branch Isole
Copyright © 2010
Smashwords Edition
eBook ISBN 978-0983574514
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher.
Manao Publishing
Hampton, VA 23666
Order copies of this eBook at
www.branchisole.com
Author, Poet and Storyteller Branch Isole observes and comments on the motivations of our world both clothed and bare. Writing of issues and emotions often experienced but not always voiced, his style and presentation cast reflective identity against a backdrop of personal responsibility choice or avoidance. This is ‘Voyeurism Poetry’.
Turn Of A Phrase contains adult themes and language, some of which is erotic or sexual in nature and presentation. Turn Of A Phrase is intended for mature audiences.
Voyeurism Poetry ~ looking out, seeing in
“Many write of things known or experienced, I comment on those seen and heard.”
“Writing is about participating in a world of ideas exchange”
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Contents
21st Century Community
Aged Beauty
Aquarium
Attention Please
Before the Fall
Bliss
Blue Line
Catch and Release
Civic Duty
Clouds
Conundrum
Crying
Cuts
Debt Free
Dog Day Afternoon
Doubts
Equation
Evergreen
Experimental Jabberwocky Reconstructed
Exports
Forgotten
Full Circle
Fundamentalists
Glass Ceiling
Heartache
Impending Arrival
Infallibility
Interval Ownership
Intubated
Kubrickian Orange
Machismo
Masters of Degrees
Matrimonialicide
Millennium Foreplay Thought Balloon
Miracle
Night
O U
Paper Bird
Parenthetically
Peaceful Rest
Pioneer
Poison
PTA
Recognition
Reinvention
Self Revelation
The World’s Nigger
Thinking of You
Tru th True peace
Whiner
Winners and Losers
Worship Questions
Introduction
Never before, have so many depended so heavily upon innuendo, double entendre and verbal camouflage to express, then secondarily to cover up their audacious lies. The only aspect more repugnant than these preposterous acts of repetitious weaving is the speaker who begins to imagine his or her own vacuous fabrications piqued enough to be veracious.
In the past this “spinning” activity was known as double-speak and prior to that simply, doubletalk. Leaping back further still we find such oratory described more poetically as the “turn of a phrase.” Whereby the speaker either eloquently or by wit and mastery of the language, profusely and proficiently moved or ‘spun’ the topic on its axis. Thus guiding the emphasis and direction from one pivotal position to a different point altogether; in this way changing both the complexion and outcome of the discussion.
May these short stories of poetic prose turn upon their phraseology axis’ to reveal slivers of recognition and identity for you.
Branch Isole
the Voyeuristic Poet
“If you can’t annoy someone there is little point in writing.”
~Kingsley Amis
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21st Century Community
Are we truly living
or simply being
Are we growing
becoming empowered
with understanding and compassion,
or are we frustratingly hardened
by cynicism
of a world around us
which we no longer fathom
nor comprehend.
Has the ‘spin’
spun so out of control
that we are centrifugally trapped
Caught between opposing forces
as if bound to the rack
Our limbs being torn from their sockets
disemboweling our sense of wonder
whereby we become stoic passive observers
of other people and events.
Grateful,
the closest we come to community
is from afar, through the media.
Our next door neighbors,
the ones our parents socialized with
and our grandparents sat among
on stoops and porches
discussing important issues
effecting their families
are now as near, or distant
as aboriginal peoples
featured in National Geographic documentaries.
we have as much in common with one group
as with the other,
nothing
and everything.
Aged Beauty
The mental anguish of lust lost
tortures her part of their relationship
as she loves him more, and desires him less
All other things interfere
with energies which were once focused
solely on pleasing him
that she might also be taken
to plateaus of ecstasy
where orgasmic fulfillment roamed free
and readied itself to his beck and call
as tableaus of their love
exhibited in positions
played out for hours
Now a soliloquy
of fantasies whispered
by a mime of giving
they take turns
orchestrating a moment’s release
under the tutelage
of what, in the beginning
were the natural urges and responses
of their bodies
yet has it imploded
from love’s vintage familiarity
to please
Aquarium
Water water everywhere
and not a drop on we
One Walking
One Swimming
Two independent species
each on its visiting stroll
another world to see
Two separate environs
do collide
both dependent on air
Life for all, aerobically sustained
through O2 and its exchange
Oxygen vital
with each next breath
for all who would but be
Part and parcel of water
for every creature
within the boundless sea
Life giving force found parcel and part
for land lubbers such as we
Viewing contained
and divided by
a three inch thick glass crust
Are we watching them?
Or are they watching us?
Attention Please
Artists have four worlds
with which they contend;
First is the physical
surrounding them
The second mental
where inspirations lie in wait
distributed, by trickle or flood
ideas cloistered tight
behind mind’s gate
Third is emotion
which fuels production
that composition might take place
from free flowing farthings of tedium
the hours
the pain
the strain
the years
Frustration
Rejection
blood, sweat and tears
Coalescing,
coming together
held up naked to the world
Last, the artist’s beholden medium
the Avenue of Anticipation
a moment’s hope
for public admiration
Before the Fall
Please don’t extinguish the fire
burning inside me
It is for you alone
my heart’s embers smolder
with passion and desire
If you should follow through
on your threats of leaving
the loneliness will kill
what little life left inside
is already grieving
Although I see you standing there
your back turned in disgust
Is the door completely closed?
Have you moved on from us?
Being without you
thoughts bear down
with untold emotional stress
“You’ll do fine”
you reply,
“As you did before we met”
As always
you are right
and somehow we’ll make it through
but the question still remains for me
Where oh where
will I ever find,
another you?
Bliss
United,
between a compulsion to write
and nothing to say;
blahg blahg blahg