For National Poetry Month in April, KWBU is highlighting four local poets to share what influences their work as well as how they entered into the medium.
Our fourth poet is Christopher Danysh.
Danysh is a student at Tarleton State University majoring in Psychology with a minor in English. His poetry has been published in Stone Circle, MCC’s Student Literary Magazine, and exhibited in the Central Texas Artist Collective’s Annual Ekphrasis Exhibit.
You can read and listen to more of Danysh's poetry below.
'Lotus' by Christopher Danysh
Tedious tasks
are barking madness
in a slot of my awareness
hideous pasts
never last
upon this shore
of evolving casts
shine on, shine on
THE END IS NEAR
SOOTHSAYERS PLEAD INTO MY EAR
THEY FLEE ME
IN THIS VERY HOUR
FOUND IN SOLITUDE
FILLED WITH POWER
MISERY HAS A WAY
TO FREE ME FROM MY CHAINS
AND KEEP ME FROM THESE PAINS
ALONG I CONTINUE TO STEP
EVER HIGHER UPON THE LADDER
INTO A BLOSSOMING BLUE LOTUS FLOWER
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'Holy Art Thou' by Christopher Danysh
I would sing if my voice was that of the sweet nectar, but instead I write.
I write to feel Your divinity, for it is all encompassing.
This I write to You, Thou who art Holy, Thou who art whole.
You; whose presence vibrates every atom in its dance of expression.
If only I could accurately express this deep appreciation of your divine presence… a realization strikes me here in this moment.
My life can be my tribute to You. My existence is Your triumph, my suffering is Your finding, and my breath is Yours.
My breath is fulfilled without a thought because I’m naturally inclined to participate in Your holy gift.
Yes, perhaps our lovers here and there will manifest Thy presence. Or perhaps we need to manifest our attention here in the present. Maybe we need to stop ignoring, yet it seems ignoring is to be human. Ignorance is a condition. Misery is the product of this self-induced condition.
This human condition comes before a panel, and You are there.
My cries come before the panel, and You’re there.
My anguish, my torment, my success, my life comes before this panel of I, me, and my, and yet somehow, I know Thy presence is here.
For You are the foundation,
You are my strength.
You are everything to me, and I am Yours.
Empower the panel to align upon a new crowning height, to reach ever closer, and to know that You can be known through any experience.
This scope is limited; our sight maimed. However, in the end, beauty shall reign.
You are my foundation, you are my strength.
Grant me the serenity to relentlessly act according to Thy Will, may Your grace bestow wisdom of Your True Will, of the True Self.
Alpha, Omega, foundation, strength, reality, and Love. You are all of these and more.
Yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory;
For You are the foundation,
You are my strength,
forever unto the ages.
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'Relentless Discernment' By Christopher Danysh
Flow...
and row along with this ripple of complexities growing so rapidly around me.
The very air seems to proclaim this honest peace.
Air shudders in this space.
How could such a measly task force this upon me?
How did I find this road where no path was there before me?
Embracing this melody, I collapse within the flexible mold.
Arriving at the limit of the conscious.
Beyond any before
Shuddering and thundering electricity, so sound.
Falling in deep silence, so bound.
The blood falls to a steady metronome of a pendulum.
The heart beats...
beats.
beats.
just a beat more
as undeniable peace is claimed, as my will is known.
These happenings are merely a search for truth;
A process of discerning my will
Until discenment is found
Revealed is Thy discernment; my truth is known
These Rosicrucians will not stop beatin on this throne.
It seems I cannot seek when passions run amok.
I cannot manipulate luck when nothing is such.
Nothing is something, and so it perplexes.
A psychically extracurricular study of molecular interaction.
While I work on extraction
While I toil to claim
an undeniably
worthwhile
peace that soon I shall attain.
Ever long retained
In a multitude of forays
we are soon to be
in a euphoric mold
of Entropy balanced within;
outside; sideways; underway to enter the way; a highway; some roadway; no way but in
and everything escalating outward toward
the true way.
As if an exploding tetrahedron explores the plance of relativity.
Relation is to exist and the awareness is relative.
Speak and be proud.
Be hollow, be ground.
Be hallowed, be crowned.
All That can be is here when discernment is found.
Yes, everything from the coals to the clouds.
From the electromagnetism to the sound
Live to understand your own.
Discernment guides, but it is the truth found that gives the euphoric melody of the self.
So, pursue and chase
Relentlessly
Until true Will is found.
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