“Nearly everything we are taught is false except how to read”
Jim Harrison (Songs of Unreason)
Like a hound dog I followed the first letters
into words into chapters of life is elsewhere
then with nose fatigue, too saturated to sniff out another
fiction filtered into factual and the holy grail of truth
a hopeless task which took in topsy-turvy travels
digging truffle-like into the trail of words
digesting sounds, losing the meaning
listening to a troubadour Jew from Montreal
engaging Eliot at his most enigmatic
I was taught that nearly creates quite a big reservation
bears down on how close the missile misses the plane
how far from the winning line was our sure-fire cert
someone was nearly married but when the affianced vanished
her insides turned out , a red-head went white
mostly what I learned was almost right
except how to read the signs, to know some held court
under a false flag, could send semaphor by subliminal means
silently weigh anchor and disappear as the Dutchman
Am enjoying joining Jilly and her Jim Harrison picks for prompts on this Day 11 of 28 Days of Unreason
PoetryPix 
I always look for and happily find the alliterations!! Love the quote and the nose fatigue..so relevant to our times!
you’ve been nosing out those alliterations! oh yes those sounds slip in so easily to my writings…mainly they are somewhat solipsistic so am surprised there is resonance with the outside world
Your word choices are wonderful and I love the metaphor of the dog (very Harrisonian – he was a dog love, himself). So glad you sniffed out this poem today, Laura!
did not know that Jilly – must have picked up the scent in the old collective unconscious! This was not an easy prompt to follow on from but that makes all the difference!
In and out of understanding with this one… caught the Cohen reference and, of course Eliot (then, being too literal, I got bogged down about shouldn’t it be Dylan, not Cohen…? Or maybe I’m on the wrong scent. Democracy?), so now I’ll have to be revisiting once my head stops spinning. Deep poetry… or my roots are too shallow.
appreciate the up-frontness Charley – yes it dips into Dylan without me being full aware of that in 2nd verse – guess its about learning to unread and wishing I’d learnt body language instead. Also playing with the word ‘nearly’ which I nearly missed in the quote as my eye caught by the totality of ‘everything’ – the adjective allows so many ways of seeing it
p.s. there are no shallow roots in Charley
Thank you! I say more than I know…
You wrote what I felt…. reading the signs. It’s a whole different language. I love your write on this.
Lovely comment Vivian – much appreciation!
😊
Terrific rolling flow. “nose fatigue” was wonderful. Loved the Leonard Cohen reference.
Glad to hear it flowed – wanted to keep that sense of following a scent p.s. Yep He’s my man!