David Selzer is a writer of poetry, prose fiction, screenplays and stage plays. He embraces digital platforms to share his work of more than fifty years… READ MORE


  • THE MATTER OF THE HEART

    A cardio-vascular consultant

    told me I had subtle abnormalities

    of the heart: a tendency, possibly,

    to soften too readily, be swayed

    too easily, feed on fantasy, harden

    like the Pharaoh’s; be of kings, of lead, of oak,

    of darkness;  bleed for my country, belong

    to Daddy; be a lonely hunter;

    be displayed on my sleeve; be in my mouth,

    in the Highlands, left in ‘Frisco, buried

    at Wounded Knee; like Luther’s, who feared his

    was like a ship upon a stormy sea

    driven by winds from heaven’s four corners.


    3 responses to “THE MATTER OF THE HEART”


    1. arthur kemelman Avatar
      arthur kemelman

      I very much enjoyed this poem, if for no other reason than the attitude it displays towards doctors and specialists and their too frequently pompous pronouncements.

    2. Tim Ellis Avatar

      A witty appropriation of common expressions. Nothing wrong with using cliches if you can twist them to an original purpose like this!

    3. Howard Gardener Avatar
      Howard Gardener

      What’s even better is that I suspect this would go over the heads of most cardio-vascular consultants. Their territory is the purely physical, as opposed to your own – the lyrical.

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