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Compendium

Compendium

– Poem by Richard-Yves Sitoski –

hand silhouette

apprehension caused by awareness that a crucial detail has been left out fear of putting into words things felt intuitively fear that the only conceivable course of action will be erroneous fear of beauty, especially of its ramifications horror that the consequences of one’s actions cannot be undone, or if so, only by others fear of being upstaged by a person of no discernible ability fear of another’s good intentions panic occasioned by sudden disorientation in a place one knows intimately torment caused when theory cannot be reconciled to practice disquieting sensations of possessing a phantom limb a third hand, perhaps, or a tail fear of places no-one will visit fear of silences, especially of the pauses between breaths concern that one has offended a domestic animal dejection at waking from a dream that is preferable to one’s own life fear of the secret wisdom of newborns awe that not everything in the universe will receive a name anxiety that one is not being thought of sufficiently dread that insomnia will become permanent fear of the emotional impact of certain pieces of music fear that one’s reflection in a mirror is in reality another person fear of being fulfilled by activities others would find objectionable conviction that one’s prime was in childhood fear of what is lost in translation fear that love, like oil, is a finite commodity and that love, like oil, has crested its peak of production certainty that a prayer will go unanswered fear that morning will not bring respite fear that one’s arms will cross and remain crossed forever no longer to spread wide, no longer to admit another soul within their compass


About the Author – Richard-Yves Sitoski
Richard-Yves Sitoski

Richard-Yves Sitoski is originally from Ottawa but asks that you don’t hold that against him. After an abortive attempt at an academic career in Classics, he came to his senses and moved to Owen Sound, where he’s been painting, struggling with the guitar, and writing poetry, fiction and songs ever since. His works have appeared in periodicals in Canada, the United States and Great Britain. He has written two books of verse, brownfields and Downmarket Oldies FM Station Blues, and released Word Salad, a CD of spoken word verse. In 2015 he won the Owen Sound Cultural Award for Emerging Artist. He is a member of the Métissage performance collective, which celebrates lesser-known facets of Owen Sound’s history in story, song and verse. Visit: richardsitoski.wordpress.com.


Did you like this poem by Richard-Yves Sitoski? Then you might also like:

The Body as Poem
Metaplasia and other poems
This is What Death Does
Things I’ve Learned on the Road
Dog Men (A Prison Story)
We grew up on fear and became heroes
Mud Season, Graceless & Violet Abandon
The damsel in distress was not for me
In the Blink of an Eye, Risk Taking, Afterfall
In Time I’ll Thank Shamon
The Space I Take
The Worst Drunk Poem I’ve Ever Written

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