Tender ears, hear the quiet.
Enjoy the sound of nothing.
Let it surround your heart and
soothe your soul.
Swim within its peace –
drown within it if you like –
and avoid the din of this hateful world.
Blackness take me,
void this life and memory –
Pray thee God, oh thou great,
my Lord, my Master,
my Tormentor –
Release my soul from this cocoon!
This cacophony of evil!
And I will repent forever more,
for whatever it is that brought me here.
Except that to suffer fools….
For those who suckle the witch’s breast,
should stay here forever –
In this Purgatory we call life….
johnallenrichter 
September 19th, 2016 at 2:27 pm
“IN this Purgatory we call life”. Sometimes it seems like that. Hello, John! Havn’t heard from you in a long time. Hope you are well. Good that you are writing poetry. Need more to do so. “this world is a world of dew, …and yet, and yet..:” (Issa) There is always hope for better and better behavior in THIS one. Good to read you, John. My best. Jane
September 19th, 2016 at 7:45 pm
John, thank you so much for reading the different pieces on my blog. Especially thank you for reading “Letter From Madame Gormosy”….she’s a scream. Many don’t understand this sort of writing…but it was great fun to do so. The novel, “Devil’s Revenge” expands on this fun, but it also is long and tiring to the author! LOL!’
So glad to get back in touch with you. My best. Jane
September 20th, 2016 at 4:37 am
John, your reply on my Kaepernick Clerifew was spot-on. You expressed exactly my view, even to the fact that my father was KIA in WWII when I was 3 months old. Kaepernick is a huge disappointment to me…he was QB at UNR and I followed his career from his first college game. I even have a signed 49ers helmet…maybe I should put it on ebay.
This poem is great. We create our own hell and purgatory. The latter means that hopefully we can do better and learn from the past.
September 21st, 2016 at 2:41 pm
I LOVE these lines:
“Tender ears, hear the quiet.”
“For those who suckle the witch’s breast”
October 8th, 2016 at 7:12 pm
This is a very good poem. I wrote one with the title that was different, but I think held similar sentiments: Am I being punished? Will there ever be peace?