The Illusionist

By Echoes of Orpheus


Entrance entrancement,
three shattersteps, a spin,
and a top-hat triple tip.
Home-run hit with a bat
of eyelash entropy;
The crowd already captiv.ated
by this phantasmal fantasy of a man.

This self-titled illusionist of intents
calls to stage the fairest woman in the crowd,
stands before her deliberately delving
through the theory of her eyes.
Six heart beats pass and three are heard,
Four breaths as two and she smells the sand verbena
and sassafras that must somehow cultivate
his lungs.

He whispers gracefully in Gaelic;
and she says that
she loves him too.

Minus her fiance, the crowd
is full of enthralled & envious men
who see this power
for exactly what it is not.

He sighs.

He has her now,
in such a way that to break eye contact
would also break her heart.

He could have her
in many other ways as well
but releases and returns her
to the illusions
not of his doing.

The show finishes and he,
as always, takes no credit for the illusions.
He merely draws attention to those which were
already existent.

The illusion is the words that the woman
so comfortably says to him
every time he says in another tongue
that he cannot love anyone
who loves him without bothering to see
what and who
he truly is.





At home he writes a poem
to the woman he has not
yet found.

He falls asleep hoping that
soul-mates are merely elusive


and not illusive.








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© 2009 Echoes of Orpheus
Published on Sunday, May 24, 2009.     Filed under: "Poetry"
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Comments on "The Illusionist"

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  • A former member wrote: "He can not love anyone who loves him with out bothering to know who or what he really is."Simply fantastic. That realty stuck out to me,because I think people rush to quick into love and other things without seeing the bigger picture.

  • A former member wrote: an embodiment of conflicted love. very appealing. well written.

  • A former member wrote: it has an amazingly powerful meaning.

  • Dreaming in Stanzas On Tuesday, September 25, 2012, Dreaming in Stanzas (293)By person wrote:

    I can't put into emotions why or just how very much I loved this poem. I felt like I left reality for a moment and I could explain the strange scene it painted in my head but it'd make no sense. This is so worthy of being Poem of the Day. Thank you for writing this poem.

  • PoetessDarkly On Tuesday, September 25, 2012, PoetessDarkly (693)By person wrote:

    all life is an illusion and people are the illusionists. lovely verse.

  • A former member wrote: Amazing work! The illusory nature of entrancement indeed!

  • A former member wrote: Gaelic. Illusions...love...a circus? A crowd. Amazing.

  • A former member wrote: Gaelic. Illusions. Souls. Did you perchance steal my heritage and weaknesses along with my thought process? As my teacher likes to say, you took the top off of my head. Absolutely astounding work.

  • Ladyhawke On Wednesday, March 16, 2011, Ladyhawke (392)By person wrote:

    Oh. My. God. This was so amazing! It was so, so. . .i dont kno how to explain it. It just had a flow to it that made you want to read it over and over. I love the way you expressed his felings as well as hers. It just made this piece alive, made it real. Definelty one of my favorites. Great job, bravo!!!

  • Mylissa On Sunday, May 24, 2009, Mylissa (825)By person wrote:

    This was a very beautiful ride, I enjoyed it tremendously. I feel the need to find the lover that is out there but where? Finding, wanting, needing, yearning, they are such lush emotions. so pretty.

  • Narcissa On Sunday, May 24, 2009, Narcissa (391)By person wrote:

    ...I'd hate to hear that you thought this wasn't a good poem b/c it is...as always...your pieces grow stronger with each new write...and as always.... a pleasure to read :)

  • A former member wrote: amen; on the loving without knwoing first. . .. . its a travesty of teh faithless kind; loving for self.love's sake. . and the illusion is so tricky. so fragile. what we define as love comapred to the real of it....love sees not only through us, but sees us through....or should. this was a reverse faerie tale. spun deftly [and aemen to the Gaelic phrase--my grandfather spoke Gaelic].

  • Echoes of Orpheus On Monday, May 25, 2009, Echoes of Orpheus (357)By person wrote:

    It seems strange because nearly no one speaks it anymore, but I always wanted to learn it myself; I have a dictionary for it but progression is very very slow thus far :P

  • ALBATROSS On Sunday, May 24, 2009, ALBATROSS (194)By person wrote:

    I actually quite enjoyed this little narrative piece. It's a new twist on the love topic that I generally read from you. Normally, it is full of passion and concludes pleasant thoughts or has a happy ending in your narrative style poems. This one left me with feelings of doubt through a poem of effective word usage and imagery. And it's a good burn. You may be busy these days but you still know how to write a poem!

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