Ben Nardolilli

Shaking Out of Frame

Trying to keep things Platonic with the philosophers,
and maintaining a safe distance with every kind of legacy

It’s difficult to be disinterested and still keep reading,
cultivating an attitude of detachment mixed with study

I’m not looking for a new God, or even a new guide,
this phase is just to gain the basic outlines of knowledge

Their views, their arguments, the commentary on them,
I have to get through it all before I find who to be ardent for

Yet how am I supposed to reach that point in studies
if I’m also trying to cast a lukewarm eye on their words?

They’re so many of them, and so little time to read,
freed of passion, I’m extremely rational, but everything blurs

 

 

Too Many Notes and Such Small Portions

Intermission or Intermezzo? No, I want to go back
to when the overture was playing, in fact,
way before the prelude, before the main piece set sail
and it was too late to see where the music was going

I want to dwell in the vibrations of that time,
when there was an opening,
a beginning, a fresh start and anticipation building,
before the curtains went up and the drama started

Yet that overture only brought with it
premonitions of the future, the rise and fall,
the drama and the comedy both leading to tragedy,
no, take me back further, to the silence before it all

 

 

About the Author

Ben Nardolilli currently lives in New York City. His work has appeared in Perigee Magazine, Red Fez, Danse Macabre, The 22 Magazine, Quail Bell Magazine, Elimae, The Northampton Review, Local Train Magazine, The Minetta Review, and Yes Poetry. He blogs at mirrorsponge.blogspot.com and is trying to publish his novels.