The Thoughts of Mad Jack

I was twittering away today, when @ABrit96 inspired me to think about some of my old poetry, and I decided that it was probably a good time to share one of my poems from way back when I was still young and intelligent and hopeful that there was a possible future in writing rhymes and iambic pentameter. (Not that this poem is in IP! :) )

So here's one of the poems I wrote that means more to me than I can say. An insight into what was, and what might have been.  

Enjoy!

The Thoughts of Mad Jack

Don’t bother me, I'm insane.

Your thoughts I see and read.

I know they're not your true thoughts, but,

They are the thoughts I need!

So now you laugh at my remark,

But little do you know

That I am saner than you think;

No madder man you’ll know!

And how I wish the voices that

Within my head call still,

Would cease the tumult of their war.

The screams!  They are so shrill!

And which to follow?  What to do?

Believe or doubt their word?

And still the "Jack, come back!  Come back!”

Within my ears is heard.

Forgotten in the Night I live

While you all live in day,

And when my midnight hour comes

You dream you life away.

And in Forgotten Night I walk,

The stars glisten and shine,

And, if they liv’d, they'd wink and say,

"How's tricks, young Jack?  All fine?"

But, fool, how can they wink

When they are not alive to see

You wander in your misery?  

You should be free, like me!

Aah!  Ha ha!  Ha ha!

Now see him look up from his friends

And glance his eye at I.

A thought from tiny mind commands -

For fun, or else to die!

"You see," says he, "that young man there?

No brighter man could be,

And yet," he laughs, and claps his hands.

“No madder man you'll see!"

They laugh and laugh, and what can I

But laugh among them too?

The fools!  Their bliss is ignorance!

Yet if they only knew...

That after Midnight’s bell has rung,

Sleepless, I leave my bed

And travel through the misty gloom

Into the Lands of Dead,

And there I see their families past,

How bored they are with peace:

A cloying, sickly sweetness that,

For them, shall never cease.

Aah!  Ha ha!  Ha ha!

I their father’s father's father

Watch while making love

Unto his mother’s mother's niece,

For this is life above!

 

No difference between the age

Of every life-lost soul.

I see men with their sisters love.

Oh what a heaven-hole!

And see one woman to The Man

Say, "This is not my son!

I made love to him yesterday.

He cannot be the one."

But he is!

Aah.  Ha ha!  Ha ha!

Yes, in an endless Vale of Night

I walk, blocked off by trees.

Yet what is that?  A monster there?

I'm quaking at the knees!

Fool!  ‘Tis your shadow in the night

Your wits that frighten so!

And yet, within the Night, you there,

There’s things you’ll never know.

You could not study long enough

To know the truth, my man.

But, Oh - If you could catch a glimpse,

You'd know how mad I am!

For you would see the Void of Life

That Night-time really is.

A lost, forgotten hallowing;

Where lonely people live.

The gods themselves (or what they are)

Would never venture there.

For even they are scared of Night

And whatever lurks there.

For deep in Night I find the time

To live without your chat.

You forgot me when I was young,

And I remember that,

And when you leave your Daylight world

To travel through the dark

In search of that illustrious place;

His Mansion in the Park,

You’ll find it easy until when,

Within His Golden Chair

You'll see a face you recognise

And wish that you weren't there.

For there sits upon that throne,

The mighty King of Kings,

While unto him, the Night God,

An Angel Choir sings.

And there you'll look, and there you'll see.

How mad you thought I was!

But now the truth I'll tell to you -

That face is mine because

I wandered in the fruitless Night,

With monsters gruesome walked,

While you by day about “Mad Jack”

Just sat and talked and talked.

Aah!  Ha ha!  Ha ha!

But Mad Jack showed ya!  Didn’t he, son?

I know you won’t forget.

The face that you see laughing there

Will keep you laughing yet!

(“And they all said I was mad you know!”  Jack.)