in defense of the goat that continues to wander towards the certain doom of the cliff #20

Darren C. Demaree

 

overgrown those who have learned to absorb
the rendering of a philosophy based on reality
being the underlining punch of true wonder
will always remain overconfident that their body
matters that their body in the apprehension
of beauty it’s organic to feel your cells dying
& paint over that idea to make art of the idea
& forge ahead to death’s confrontation remove
that idea the grand result of our discipline is that
there is only the goat standing in the wind while
the plastic chokes off the sea true beauty is when
the problems demand an answer we answer

***

Darren C. Demaree is the author of sixteen poetry collections, most recently a child walks in the dark (Harbor Editions, December 2021). He is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and the Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.