Those who strive for originality:

those
who purpose
to remain vibrant,
or vigorously focused
without succumbing to some
caricature-of-self; resolving
more as a guileless
voice,
reflective
incendiary
(intellectually),
germane, perhaps,
without looping or lapsing
into mannerism or affectations;
a personal challenge to remain original
without contention, or imitating self, or passing off
an old model-of-self; some contrived effort
to be seen with favor, (or)
to relive the
warmth and joy of
past seasons and victories
by re-hashing what once worked

attitude
pulling ideals
out from the ruts,
figuring the perfect-fitness
of what is shared while
defying branching
compromise
(in which)
one's
penned inventions
reflect only the sniveling drivel
of a writers beleaguered life…

…..luminous light
encircling
achievement in a false nimbus
invariably forces the greatest achievers
to their knees (temporarily) to reveal (to them)
(and to all those watching) that no human
is the full-bottle on anything…..

It’s wearying
(at times) finding
health in an art-form
where opinions are like weeds;
where arrogance becomes a shield
(to keep hidden all pecking-insecurities);
where the ceaseless cacophony of ‘me-noise’
refuses to understand why another’s hopeful face,
glowing from within, decays day-after-day,
or why a philosophic (wo)man is
obliged to mull a
lake's health
in winters savagery, or
why faith causes the steadfast to
pause – momentarily - admitting they are
fully content to die in fields of common grass…

Knowing
every epoch
has its makers,
as every masterpiece
has (hidden in its guts) some
awful struggle; or perhaps some loss,
or life-altering circumstance, which
addresses the human-condition
with heedful strength, as
creative-insomnia
bears an ongoing challenge
to palliate human-suffering and – if somehow
blessed to do so – (if only briefly) becomes
more archetypal than all originality
pawned-off
with only
the faded colors
of worn-out dollar bills…

richard lloyd cederberg


“When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.” John Fitzgerald Kennedy

                      Between the Cracks