The Santa Ana Literary Association will be presenting a new poem by a local poet every week this year. This week’s poem is “I do not write for them” by D.W. Blake.

I do not write for them

D.W. Blake

I do not write for them whom beauty is a matter of form
I do not wish to be rarified, put off, above, or suspended
I spend nights by the counter
I hold close my television
I have squalors in my heart
the squalors: Anime, Batman, Elvis, Nintendo, Batman, Lego Batman, Hermione Granger,
Batman, Bukowski and even more
Batman
but these are a magic kind of squalor
I do not fetishize words, I am not beloved of language
I am enamored of meanings, I raise up the idea
and the idea above all: beauty _
This is not the beauty
of flowers or people
This is not the beauty
of clouds or feelings
This is not the beauty
of bodies or meaning
This is not the beauty
of selves or urns
This is not the beauty
of It or Not
It is not
I feel the beauty of the true sight,
I gush out pilgrims to the cliffs of true knowing
(Ouch) these are no mistakes
This is not the beauty of truth or the truth of beauty
This is a truth of transcendences
This truth can hold flowers or people or clouds or feelings or bodies or meanings or selves or
urns but they are not it
This is the truth from out
This is the truth beyond
(Is this not God?) (This is my God!)

I do not know knowing or touch from sight or hearing from taste or smell from knowing
but this is my God
I do not know Jesus
Maybe this is Jesus
I do not know Buddha
Maybe this is Buddha
I do not know Yog-Sothoth
Maybe this is Yog-Sothoth
I do not know Saturn
Maybe these are aliens
Maybe Jesus worships them too
Maybe god worships this too
I do not know
God
I do not know
God
But I will write them to ask

D.W. Blake is a former resident of Santa Ana. When not attempting to spell he fakes guitar in music organs such as Daryl Blake and Grinning Ghosts. He loves podcasts and enjoys pretending he is a wizard. Last year he self-published a collection of poetry called Bows for Drella.