Denunciation (Of Joseph Brodsky)
by Michael Doyle

No longer the young poet, but grown older
He remained the lyric voice of his generation
A social parasite who lived ever bolder
As an involuntary exile held in veneration

Told he was pornographic and destroyed by an anxiety
Not his, but belonging to short sighted guardians of society
That held him as contemptible in his velveteen pants
Gray breakers marched in turn, in a truth no one recants

Joseph Brodsky was imbued in his sense of clarity
Writing lyrics reflective of life with intensity
Praising  the best of the western literary tradition
His words passed on through metaphysical transmission

Writing in languages is the highest degree of maturity
It was troubling as a crime to find it inappropriately
Kept from the lonely and weary lost in the cold night
When the roots of Mother Russia sought his guiding light

In the breadth of time and in the endless space
Treated as a sluggish schizophrenic in the Soviet embrace
Condemned for daring to be a poet in his honest guise
The authorities never understood their reality was his disguise

(c) January 15, 2021   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved