Discarded Wings
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
ANCIENT FUTURE
In the perfect picture of summertime,
we ride our bikes while the
blue skies flow like water into forever.
Stopping to explore a park in some far-off neighborhood,
we scout the area like rebel raiders about to
plunder a Federal depot.
We stand straight and tall like
young, fresh hills, trying to be mountains.
When the sun reaches the afternoon
melting point, our bare feet begin to
burn on the rocks, sand and sidewalks.
So we race back to our bikes
where our shoes dangle from our handle bars
like magic amulets or scalps, and we
ride off like wild Indians on a buffalo hunt.
Finding a creek, we follow it with the
passion of Lewis & Clark.
We wade in this new, cool heaven, in this
small, secret river with almost a waterfall
where a white mist
floats in my heart
like the perfume of innocence.
IN SEARCH OF THE RIVER
In search of the river, I
step away from the campfire, and
light releases its tender hold on me.
Seven steps into the wood,
night wraps me in a cocoon as dark as
sleep without dreams.
Beneath my timid, trespassing
feet, time crunches like fragile twigs into forgotten dust.
In my blindness, I stumble, and all the stars
thickly spread over the trees, spin like a roulette wheel.
I am lost. Marooned in a wild darkness
where death is
only a breath away.
My skin unravels, surrendering the centuries within me,
where the mysteries are as close as
whispers without wind.
“Halt!” cries a confederate picket,
pointing his fifty caliber madness in my direction.
I thrash through the brambles and the ethers.
In between thickets, I morph into a Viking,
thirsting for treasures and blood.
I am now in search of the river of my life,
&
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
This is a collection of poems with an autobiographical slant. It’s my intention to show how life is art and poetry. I would like to state for those with a critical view that it is not my intent to be self indulgent, but rather to express an intimate, personal view of my life. I’ve discovered that the more personal one becomes the more universal an audience one can reach. In the dance of words that poetry is, I have created some new words here and there. Just enjoy. You don’t have to try to contact me to tell me about it.
About the Author
With the soul of a writer, James Collins has survived the twists and tragic turns that come with this wild ride of life. Along with the wisdom earned, he shares his most intimate and joyful moments in his collection of poems.
Like most of us, he’s made this journey ‘mostly unconscious and sleepwalking’, yet he puts a common touch to the uncommon process of becoming spiritually awake in the present moment.
He has earned a variety of writing credits. Since living in
He’s worked as a copywriter in advertising with national print, radio and TV ads, and had his own small business, The Write Touch.
With several poems in various publications, he was an artist-in-education, teaching poetry in the public schools of both
As a cultural arts specialist for the City of
As a freelancer, he has written articles for the St. Petersburg Times and Creative Loafing. He’s written articles on music and reviewed CD’s. He has also written construction training and sales videos.
While he attended Florida State School of Music for four years, studying musical education and composition, his degree is in Mass Communications, TV/Radio Production from the