Lines Composed a Few Miles above the Cheers & Beers Poetry Reading

by JayeMaru

Another imagined poem Spike composed for his poetry reading in Not Fade Away. It's a reply, of sorts, to Wordsworth's "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey," which meditated on the creativity that a poet rediscovers by finding one's true self. No profit made; no infringement intended. (From the "Undead Poems on Cocktail Napkins" series.)

Not a good man yet
I see that landscape of steep, lofty cliffs,
Above Tintern Abbey that petrels guard
For hearts of saints and sinners
And that outer vision that opens the inner sight of feeling.

The Poet said this place restores the spirit,
While sleep therein restores the soul.
Yet I say neither place nor sleep restore the soul.
It's the grace of the blessed and the fight cleaving to her side.

I see Tintern Abbey 'felt in the blood, and felt along the heart'
So I climb, clawing rock, bleeding evil
In harrowing to redeem my living soul.