Jason Morgan: ‘Compulsion’, ‘To future poets’ and ‘Mystery’

Compulsion

A bird is trapped in a cage.
It sings for the beauty of yesteryear.
A bird trapped in a cage
flies in circles and kills tomorrow.
A bird trapped in a cage
measures its world with sorrow.
A bird trapped in a cage,
rides the imagined air,
for though it’s never seen worm or fruit,
the worm and fruit, it knows, are somewhere.

Jason Morgan

To future poets

One day you shall rise,
from the canker of earth
to write the future of men
with words of blood.
You will fill pages
with the fire of your words
that will fall like honey
from the lips of scholars.

The noises of cities
will not drown you, nor the tides
of change, drown you.
The arms of proud mothers
cradle and sway you,
preparing you for the ocean
of experience. In the grass you play on,
the sun shines its welcome.

And you shall peer from mountains
pondering meanness
and sterility while
butterflies crown
your curly hair.
And you shall rise dazzling
as the sun,
before gleaming like a star at nightfall.

Jason Morgan

Mystery

Mystery spurs the future,
and ignites Apollo’s torch.
And mystery pushes the blood
through your chest
like a tide never ceasing.
It is the night sky
guiding the sailor home
and the dreaming sun
at the horizon.
Mystery never wearies.
Hear its boundless ocean leap,
a shadow more humble and real
than all the sunlight of knowledge.

Jason Morgan