OH FOR AN ODE

OH FOR AN ODE

Oh for an ode right now
a long sprawling melodious
poetic artifact

one to rival those
I do know, especially
Shelley’s West Wind
which I guess
is up to its tricks
this night
blowing across
a pitch black Atlantic
making the surface
of those giant waters
most unruly indeed

today
   what is blowing in from
the West shrieks of
chaos and nemesis
breathes an
air of apocalypse bringing
promise of
divinely mandated
horror and fire

and death
let us not forget death
a demanded
death sacrifice
being the death of us all

and with
     death of the word
death of belief, hope
for true transformation
that destroyer
is indeed preserver,

cleansing the heart
as it wipes the slate clean

Oh for an ode right now
ode that
keeps
      writing itself

line after line
strophe, antistrophe,
permutations of
form and expression

radical new
structures

revision after revision
layer upon layer

the wind
    feeding these lines,
giving breath, providing energy

on the page
at my window
no end in sight.