Chasing Desolation

Joseph V. Danoski

I’m always chasing desolation,

Hiking trails of unbroken snow;

Seeking new heights of isolation,

Leaving it all behind, below.

Checking my compass for direction,

And getting closer to my goal;

To reach below-zero perfection,

The northern pole within my soul.

Leaving cabin fever confinement,

Far away from society;

Finding solitary refinement,

The winter world inside of me.

Welcome to my annihilation,

I always knew the day would come;

This icy fever and elation,

Warm embrace of oblivion.

I’m always chasing devastation,

But it finally caught up with me;

Facing this final desolation,

Or some small immortality.

Joseph V. Danoski, Dojonaki05@Netscape.Net and dojonaki05@aim.com, lives happily on the plains of his imagination in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Under the pen name “Jonathan Konrad,” he published his first poetry chap book, Shock Waves: Letters from the Edge, in 1987. It has been favorably reviewed and is available from the poet for $6.95. Many of his poems have also been published in his city newspaper, The Berlin Reporter, and, by request—for the 1997 Berlin Centennial—he delivered his poem “The City Built from Trees” at City Hall. Preferring speculative fiction, the author also loves writing letters and essays, playing music, gardening, and stargazing. Publications have appeared in Penny Dreadful, Pivot, Psychopoetica (UK), The Nocturnal Lyric, The Quest (India) and The Aurorean.