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John Casey • Novelist and Poet Exploring The Human Condition

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Poetry By John Casey

John Casey's RAW THOUGHTS: A Mindful Fusion of Poetic and Photographic Art was nominated for the National Book Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize. The sequel, MERIDIAN: A Raw Thoughts Book was released by PHiR Publishing in 2021. His latest poetry title, Things of Little Consequence, is a philosophical exploration of sentiment, musings, and circumstance that poetically suggests the human condition is less complex than it is complicated—that life is not as enigmatic or indecipherable as we often prefer to believe.


John's Casey's poetry has been published in numerous literary journals and magazines.


** Nominated for the PUSHCART PRIZE


Am I

Carpe Diem

Deference for Despair

Discriminating Taste

Dominion

** Listen

Ne Plus Ultra

Perfect Day

** Real

Reflection

Reminiscence

Rot in Camouflage

Spring

Stellar

Stigma

Sweet Nothings

Terminal

That Thing That Was Missing

The Lightness of Time

This

Unicorn

Why


FOREWORD to THINGS OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE


I was told it may only have worth

when it is written in a very circumlocutory manner.

Or enveloped in obscurity.


Or laced with impossibly complex analogies,

and with words that don’t belong

together together.


Singularly weird and nearly incomprehensible

are what appear to make it most valuable,

to them.


Better to describe love as

“adventitious candy corn”

than ethereal sunshine.


Better to say someone in despair is

“an obfuscated polecat”

than a wintered soul.

  

Obfuscated polecat—

now that baby right there

might just win you some kinda golden trophy…


I was told, in fact, it is best not to attempt to philosophize

about love or loss, about challenge or struggle.

As if the elements of existence are beyond grasp for most.


…Unless, of course, you are prepared to twist them

in such alluringly demiurgic fashion

that there is barely a spider-silk thread of a connection left


between your conclusion

&

the original thought.


However,

they are not necessarily looking for

what I am looking for.


Many develop an aversion to the beauty of plain logic,

lost in a zealous quest for overly esoteric truisms

and seemingly sophisticated philosophies.

  

It somehow becomes easier to adhere

to the mystical, to the cryptic and the Kafkaesque

when confronted with a thousand disparate pieces of life


because we sense it would be impossible to comprehend

the grand sum of it all or how those pieces even interconnect.

Consequently, we cannot understand the individual parts.


The truth is, we can.

Life is much simpler than most believe.

Things are not so confusing as they seem. 

LOVE SONG

 John Casey commissioned Love Song, a poem from his book RAW THΦUGHTS, to be composed into a song by Susan Bell. This piano version, also played by Susan, is without lyrics.

© 2017 JOHN CASEY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Love Song

From there on to eternity,

rare palette of notes in my mind.

A herald of love’s prophecy

that’s there to hear, yet hard to find

Sustained by a refrain so strong,

the melody, too real to fade.

A whispered, emotional song,

every hour and day, always played

A distant place not long ago,

born of love, a symphony there.

Yearning for a sweet crescendo,

in time, I pray, somehow, somewhere 

Love Song by John Casey, a poem (and composition) from his book Raw Thoughts, music by Susan Bell

Love Song by John Casey, a poem (and composition) from his book Raw Thoughts, music by Susan Bell

Copyright © 2024 John Casey  •  Novelist & Poet  •  All Rights Reserved

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