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"Quill of Torture"
by Jeph Johnson
Time begs to set aside the truth while rummaging the past.
It redefines his attitude as stable and steadfast
While prejudicial logic rides the paradox
Assigned by fate, biologically indulged unorthodox...
But who's to say the standard won't be rendered reprobate
By the fictitious grandeur his beguiling mind creates?
A man ruled by his obsessions can appeal to the king
Or continue his expression for no jury's listening...
Instead he must convince a court that won't rest, in his mind,
Virtues, perverted prose purports; absurd verdicts, sane to find.
His overt imagination peers peer through as if stained.
Others, suspect by the condemnation, feel his pain
As agony inflicted by his prose, such depraved perversion
When words come out of hiding they may contrive conversion
And convince even skeptics of provocative restraint,
Contaminate ideals of love, as all epitomes are tainted.
Now everyone around him sees a man misunderstood
Or else a vile, unholy beast unable to be good.
Words bleed over everything as the lifeblood of his art!
Preserving his integrity in spite of Bonaparte...
In spite of madness! In spite of spite! A lunatic! A god!
His quill could not be quieted His will: Marquis de Sade.
Still glad I found this one
Still glad I found this one as a precedent over ten years ago. It still says far more than the surface might imply.
Starward
Wow, what a curious serendipity. I, too, have just seen the movie Quills, and was about to write about the Marquis, and finding your poem was an additional encouragement to begin. Mine will be quite a bit different, expectedly, but I am glad to have found this one as a precedent.
Starward
Oh I liked that. I have this new obsesion with the Marquis de Sade. I'm glad I'm not the only one that enjoys his works ;) keep up the good work