RESPONSE POEMS by Jeff Klooger

Two poems by Jeff Klooger written in response to Michael Leunig's poem "You can lead a horse to water...":

You can lead a horse to water
But you can't make it cheerful;
The bucket is full
But the horse is tearful,
So you give it a loving earful:
"What's up, old fellah?" you say.
He looks at you and turns away.
Of course.
The dear old inner horse.

Where We Are Going

Seduction works better than instruction,
better than simple optimism, which was and is as much of a load
as one creature could possibly hope to carry.
Even as we wish otherwise, the future happens,
drawing us into its net of promises, leading us
jaw agape, our whole world trembling in anticipation.
Though we are all broken - hearted, our salty tears
console somehow, and so we cry
all the way into tomorrow. In that darkness
we discover death, a secret beyond us. We glance, longing,
at the source of all questions, then off
to the place where answers are born, so far
and yet close enough to whisper
a thin message, its hot breath tickling our earlobes.
Yes, there is a cause, a thorn we each carry.
In the red room, where it is always night,
familiar monsters play their games of murder,
while we compose confessions, inventing truths
we almost dare to believe, but never really learn.


Bedlam or Parnassus
Deliberate emotions always elude you, leave you
lost and oceanic. You slop around
in that still private tempest, hugging
the surface of things. Self - diagnosis is
like superstition, a necessary evil.
Though tender words can sometimes soothe
they do not heal. Tonight again you know
the wordless sorrow of beasts, ungoverned,
inconsolable, mad. In that kingdom you can never reach
creatures half fish and half fowl
cavort together, devour their own children,
make merry while the earth heaves up its bile.