A Scattering of Poets

[tectak]

Hey tectak,
Some of this poem really works for me. I thoroughly like some of the images and wording you use. However, I do have some questions about your overall meaning and the structure of this piece. I'll go into more detail below:

How fateful comes the end of days; the dust and ash of years
in thinnest layer.... a mica glint, a chalked blurred line upon dark moss. -I like the sound and rhythm of these two lines. "How fateful comes the end of days," sounds a but too generic to me though.
Here dropped the wind, the very air he used to have and hold until
some prodding, pointed purpose drove it up and out of him... -I love these two lines. They fit well with the idea of the tormented/defeated poet.
cream-curdled words, how erudite his prose...to burst upon us all. -Why are the poet's words "cream-curdled"? I like this image and think you should explore it more.
There is a silence on this hill, as deep and high as some inverted lake -I like the simile here. The wording in this line works wonderfully with your main idea.
wherein we weep into our piled up tears, unseen through subterfuge -"unseen through subterfuge" doesn't work for me. How do the tears relate to being deceitful/secretive?
of watered eyes; we feel no runs upon pale cheeks, so drenched are we. -Do you need to mention "watered eyes" when we already know about the crying?
Up swirls one stirring current in the aether that was still, an image -Does aether mean "ether"? I'm not criticizing using that spelling, but I am curious as to why you did spell it that way...
smoked from long-cold flames, alive again against brass-blasted sky. -I love the wording here. The second half of the line sounds wonderful.
It is not him. Some other spirit none of us yet know has claimed him now. -May be I'm not thinking enough about this, but I don't get this ending. What spirit are you talking about here?

tectak
2017

This is more of a question than critique, but why did you choose to write this poem with such long lines? I am a bit bias because of the way I write, but I think this poem would work much better if you broke up and shortened some of your lines. Some of the wonderful images in here get a bit lost in these long lines, and I think they would have more impact if presented in a line of their own. Overall, this poem has some wonderful language in it, and I look forward to seeing where you take it from here.

Cheers,
Richard

Hello rich,
Thank you for your comments. In no particular order, and notwithstanding your suggestions, the title is the clue. This is the scattering of the ashes of a poet attended by others so inclined. Not surprisingly  it is written to be generic to the breed! The lines are long because as a device  long lines read langorously and lugubriously...it is a sad occasion. Short lines are inclined to introduce a staccato rhythm which can tend to gallop along.
Why aether...well, I meant it. I'm so old I remember when physics and chemistry were distinguishable from each other....none of this matter is energy stuff. Ether was a volatile anaesthetic and aether was the all pervading if mythical (or is it?) fluid.
Cream-curdled...hmmm....scanned better than curdled cream hence the hyphen. His poetry was formed (poetic stuff) from liquid cream of words in to the soliidity of prose. Too much, maybe?
I worried about subterfuge and will now change it. I was trying to indicate the deceit of writing in the third person and so swaying others to believe one is truthful..poetry, in other words....but slanted to include the eulogistic things people say about the recently dead." Unseen" is a stretch....you can "see through" deceit...seemed like a good idea at the time.
Oooooops....typo...thanks. Should be "...unseen through subterfuge OF watered eyes...". Thanks again.
Hope that clarifies. Would like your thoughts on the subterfuge use.
Best,
tectak