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The Restoration

—for SJB

Words sometimes fail. How best explain
That life can seem eternal rain?
That though friends care they cannot see
Or grasp this wilderness of pain?

Is this in truth how life must be?
This drowning in a silent sea?
This rack and screw, this raw negation
Which threatens hope and sanity?

It’s time to end this tribulation,
The loneliness, the desolation,
The woes of this stained world of men—
And, like lost kings, find Restoration:

To see some beauty now and then;
To sing out a renewed “amen;”
To heed the Muse—to take a pen
And grab the chance to live again.

.

.

Quo Vadis?

a rondeau

I want to go where hope’s restored —-
Where searing hate is not adored;
Some haven from the vicious woe
Inflicted by Man’s ancient foe.
O, let me hide behind the Lord!

My former friends warn I’m abhorred
And now should flee their savage horde.
Such pain! Where peace like rivers flow
__I want to go.

But comfort is a false reward
When Heaven bids me “Raise your sword
At devils, though they bray and crow!”
Where souls and strength and valor grow—
Where righteous angels have long soared—
__I want to go.

.

.

Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals.  He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel  Bleeding Stone.  He lives in Wimauma, Florida.

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16 Responses

  1. Russel Winick

    Brian – These are both hauntingly good. You are a terrific poet. Do us all a favor, and keep them coming!

    Reply
  2. Patricia Redfern

    Brian, adored.p…..
    Such a magical write, the rondeau!
    Your rondeau, touched me,
    A favorite!

    Reply
  3. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Brian, these are two great poems of sentiment and deep feelings you chose to share with us and we are the better for it. The rhyme scheme of picking up the third line rhyme and using it in triplicate in the next verse in “The Restoration” is masterful and memorable. It seems to me you found your own soulful restoration in writing poetry as indicated by the concluding lines, “To heed the Muse—to take a pen–And grab the chance to live again.” Similarly, in “Quo Vadis,” I detect an undercurrent of someone whose former friends have vented wrath upon them for some stance or circumstance while the writer (which I infer from the Sword in the poem) refuses to bow before their hatred and takes a stand for their beliefs.

    Reply
  5. Mark Stellinga

    As you succinctly convey with these 2 excellent pieces, Brian, our lives today are well past the point where begging the bully to ‘please quit beating us up’ manages to clear the path to where those who share such sentiments ‘want to go’. I’m a devout ‘sword-raiser’, as are both you and SJB – and as countless poetry connoisseurs know, Susan – who’s as good as it gets in this department, has provided far more than her share of kindling for our fire. Well done.

    Reply
  6. Joseph S. Salemi

    When Russel Winick says that these are “hauntingly good,” he pre-empts any praise that I could give. I sense in them deep pain and longing, but also a furious determination to hang on and fight.

    The poems make a wonderful pair — the first calling for a restoration of order and sanity in a world gone mad, and the second rejecting the natural tendency to run and hide, calling instead for combat.

    The first, dedicated to our own Susan Bryant, talks of the need to work for restoration via the creation of beautiful and well-crafted poems, as Susan has always done. The rondeau calls for confronting the forces of evil with the sword. I think what we have here is Brian’s answer to the old saying “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Taken as a pair, these poems argue that those two instruments are equal. We need them both.

    Brian (like all of us in this polarized country) has suffered from the loss of friends and colleagues infected with left-liberalism and wokeness. There is no denying that this is unpleasant and sometimes shattering. But as long as we have pens and swords, we can fight back effectively.

    Reply
  7. Mike Bryant

    Brian, these are really beautiful. They work together to show the things that we are all fighting against, along with the answer to the anguish. Keep working and keep telling the truth.

    “Quo Vadis” reminded me of something I’ve almost forgotten. Fifty some odd years ago in South, South Texas, a friend of mine spotted me and asked, ‘Hey, ¿Dónde vas?’
    I said, ‘To see a play at the high school.’
    He said, ‘What play?’
    I said, ‘Quo Vadis, man’
    He said, ‘Huh?’
    I said, ‘It means, Where Ya Going?’
    He said, ‘I guess I’ll go to the play with you.’

    Reply
  8. LAURA R. SCHWARTZ

    Brian, your Friends and Admirers will always hold high an umbrella to praise and protect you from life’s “eternal rain”.
    Your passion for truth, wrapped in words of beauty, never fails us. May your pen as righteous sword always prevail.
    Bravo.

    Reply
  9. Adam Sedia

    “The Restoration” offers words of encouragement to us all, and reminds us why we write in the first place. I forget which author said it, but a writers writes because he must write — he was made for it. That’s what I think you touch on in your piece; we are incomplete if we fail to do what we were made for.

    I like the rondeau form because of its haunting, echo-like repeated coda. You’ve done the form justice with your coda in “Quo vadis?” — “I want to go.” Indeed. It is at once hopeful and longing, almost death-seeking (which, in a sense, it is — though it seeks eternity, not death per se).

    Thank you for sharing these.

    Reply
    • Julian D. Woodruff

      As Schoenberg put it: “Art arises not from ability, but from necessity.” (“Die Kunst stammt nicht von Koennen, sondern von Muessen.”)

      Reply
  10. Robin Trombino

    Brian, you have a beautiful way with words. In “The Restoration” where you write that life can seem eternal rain, reminded me of life’s cycle of ups and downs. I really appreciate your creativity and talent. Those were lovely poems, thank you for sharing them!

    Reply
  11. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Brian, these admirably and beautifully crafted poems stand alone magnificently (and what a gift it is to have the first one in my honor) but as a pair they shine. I love the way you depict a tough journey in very different tones. “Restoration” feels more personal, “Quo Vadis” more spiritual. Yet both lead to an oh so satisfying conclusion.

    I am taken with the descriptions of suffering in the first – “eternal rain”, “drowning in a silent sea” “rack and screw”, “raw negation” – all sum up the cruelty of pain vividly… and I love the contrast after the turn, “It’s time to end this tribulation” – a firm and determined turn. The poem goes from despair to beauty in the last stanza – a beauty that shimmers with hope and encouragement. I especially love the closing couplet. What better way to mend one’s broken days than creating something of beauty, just as you have in this poem. This is a poem that speaks of pushing through the pain to a path of purpose and renewal, and it sings to me loudly, clearly, and gloriously. Brian – thank you so very much.

    “Quo Vadis” sings to my heart too, in one of my favorite forms no less – a form which really suits the message. The repeating line is especially effective – it emphasizes that yearning to break free from a soul-destroying situation to a place of hope and fairness, a place where “searing hate is not adored” (a great line!). I can relate to that inner battle “Such pain! Where peace like rivers flow / I want to go” contrasting starkly with, “But comfort is a false reward / When Heaven bids me “Raise your sword / At devils, though they bray and crow!”” speaks directly to my heart, and the glory of the closing three lines lets me know exactly why.

    Brian, both poems (in their unique way) make me realize the significance of expressing ourselves to the very best of our ability – and for poets, that is their calling. It’s very easy to slip into silence when one is in pain (physically, mentally, or both). Your heartfelt, beautiful, and encouraging words make me want to pick up my pen and slay the demons, and for that I thank you wholeheartedly. Brian, keep on doing what you do – it makes a difference – a much-needed difference in a wicked world, especially to those who have lost “friends” simply because they have minds and hearts of their own.

    Reply
  12. Mike Bryant

    Hey Brian, as I was rereading these two beauties, I was reminded of this:
    He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy. – Socrates

    Reply
  13. Julian D. Woodruff

    2 to remember, for sure. They are by Brian, and bear the stamp of his expertise and polish. But even more, they are of Brian: while universal in appeal, they personal and immediate–and powerful.
    Thank you, Brian.

    Reply
  14. Yael

    This is marvelous word art, congratulations Brian on your beautiful poems which are a joy to read. I like the hope which is expressed, even though the trials of life are neither whitewashed nor diminished in each poem.

    Reply

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