Random Poetry Thread III

[j4lackey]

CALM BEFORE THE MORN

 

The wind has died,

Our misery has become

Someone else's dread,

Someone else's locomotive.

 

The gutter dangles like an earring

From the confused house

While planes hustle and roar

To make up for lost time.

 

Time is money,

Money will never fill up

This hole we're in,

But time,

 

Time will smooth the edges,

Time will fill in the gaps

With invasive grasses

And Japanese Honeysuckle,

 

And maybe from that,

We can start over,

Start a garden,

Call it even.

[a.miller]

It started with two

Now it takes ten

I just can't wait til

I can do it again

[bobbob1313]

I had to write a poem for my creative writing class, so here it is...

 

What if?

 

What if this is all we have

All of our love and our fights

Are no more significant than the tiniest bee?

 

What if there isn't anything

Above us but stars?

When this life ends, there isn't another to follow it?

 

Would you be scared?

Would you live hidden from the world,

Hiding your scars and scabs, to ugly to see?

 

Or would you go out

And make this one chance count.

And make damn sure you don't play a supporting role in your own life.

[j4lackey]

Not bad, Chris. I liked the Andy Warhol one much better, though. Keep writing them.

 

 

 

 

COUNTDOWN (HARD TO BELIEVE IN)

 

It's hard to believe

I'm happy to be leaving

But I think it's true

I'm happy to be leaving

Leaving soon.

 

I fall from the night,

So dark and frightening,

I dream a dream,

A place I've never been.

 

I call from the night

We had a slight

Misunderstanding,

 

We tie up things that

Came loose in the wind.

 

I'm happy to believe in you.

[bobbob1313]

Not bad, Chris. I liked the Andy Warhol one much better, though. Keep writing them.

COUNTDOWN (HARD TO BELIEVE IN)

 

It's hard to believe

I'm happy to be leaving

But I think it's true

I'm happy to be leaving

Leaving soon.

 

I fall from the night,

So dark and frightening,

I dream a dream,

A place I've never been.

 

I call from the night

We had a slight

Misunderstanding,

 

We tie up things that

Came loose in the wind.

 

I'm happy to believe in you.

 

Yeah, I didn't like that one, it felt unfinished to me.

 

But I love yours. Thats some seriously good stuff (maybe it's just because I like the "Believe/be leaving" part. Thats great!)

[tapmyglass]

I dont like it when this thread dies.

heres one that I wrote you will note the similarity in the title to a wilco track, they are unrelated.

 

shake it off

 

the lightning

in your teeth

is showing

 

and probably because

of me

 

but smiles and hugs

aren't all that important

and I let them go

shake off whatever you show me

 

its easy to hide late at night

street lights can only reveal

what's right below them

so when you stand to the side

I'm lost

 

and I know you don't

mean to taunt me from there

 

ghost-like eyes

can pull me in

and you do it well

 

but rain can speak its seductive sounds

and you can keep standing right out of my gaze

I don't want to go inside

[Fritz]

Photos

 

Tempted as I would be

to flick through shirts in someone else's wardrobe

I'd sit instead

supine on the setee

turning the black cardboard pages

revealing Pat's eye

for the colour of Europe.

Lamps, mosques, polluted Russian skylines.

Why did I find that CD today

and then imagine an afternoon

in his house flipping through photographs?

Why was I asked to produce this poem

and imagine airports at dusk?

 

I've come to the conclusion

that airports always look better

at the beginning

or end of the day.

When you left for Europe

was your family there to farewell you?

And when the plane finally took off

did they shuffle off sadly for breakfast

after fervently waving

at the beast that had scooped you from them,

to console each other at your leaving

and to firm up their plans

to get out of the city

after they had filled their bellies?

[Fritz]

I dont like it when this thread dies.

 

Agreed.

 

End of Autumn

 

So what are we headed for here?

I kiss my wife

by the last embers of the fireplace

the ones that refuse

to warm us

and once again collect a pile

of crumpled clothes

to take with me

down to the music room

to sleep another cold night

alone beneath my pump organ.

 

Smoking before bed

on the steps

where I made the first phone call

to my parents -

Can I come stay?

You see, we're having

these problems.

 

I'm trying for something here

for some clarity

in the events that have

brought me here

to these steps

in autumn tonight.

 

My father gee-whizzed

my mother fretting,

"We always thought,

'never you two.'"

 

But it's all too clear.

Yes. Of course "us two".

The cover up went back

longer than I knew.

Mine too.

 

I joked with someone

quite somberly

that my birthday,

being the final day before winter,

was on the eve

of the darkest months.

 

I turn 35 a week from today

and tonight

I no longer laugh.

[j4lackey]

DAWN ON ME (THIRTY YEARS ON)

 

This conversation

Can sink like a stone,

But sunken stones are deep,

And impervious to hungry seabirds.

 

These words we know,

These words we keep,

A little slow on the drawl,

Sleeping, alone on the beach.

 

Foggy, ghost on the prowl,

Just before dawn, just before

High tide, running beside the

Foaming white waves,

 

Invented, to crawl to the

Sand, and sink in,

Reinvented, to serve

No master, save the

 

Novice surfer, awaiting

The perfect reinvention,

Measuring the slack horizon,

Squinting, the sun and the breeze.

[j4lackey]

UPON FINISHING THE ROAD AT MIDNIGHT

 

This big black book

I read before I sleep,

Stirs the soul like ashes

Where flames can do no harm.

I bar the door against dreams,

And hide from troubled slumber,

Bury all I hold dear

Beyond my sad subconscious,

And listen for them when they come,

I'll wake at a moment's notice,

I'll run and lead them chasing,

Double back and hide my feelings,

Read your messages till dawn,

Then straighten and carry on.

[tapmyglass]

the deer

 

how do you think away someone who

[Fritz]

I see you, watching me

on golf courses and country roads

I know who you are

 

Oh, man. Yes!

[j4lackey]

SEARCHLIGHT HOUSE

 

Barracuda shiny silvery depths

Right at the edge of the seagrass

Ivy covered base of the tower

Light shining out in the night

Twisted invention only the mad sees

Only the unknown world knows

Medieval laser cutting like a diamond

Out of the mind of one who's spent

His life outside in his mind.

 

What is the good if nobody knows?

What is the good if nobody sees?

Diseases and cures and sacred equations,

A magic hat, invincible bones,

Salisbury, he changes his way,

Therefore, I think that I am.

[tapmyglass]

roof swing

 

when they first met

she would sit in his room

and crave the sunset out his window

 

and he spent every minute

going against his mind

waiting until something happened

 

she pulled him outside

sitting on the roof

disappointed at first

 

then he asked her to dance

pulled her up

and took her hand

 

they could feel music from inside

pulsing towards them

and every touch felt electric

 

a slow waltz sunset

just the two of them

[SarahC]

Secrets disolve...

like medicine

When you hold them under

your tounge.

 

Shake me later

Awaken my soul

Telephone rings

But I am too old

To reach

 

2am goodnights are

the good nights

I miss.

[tapmyglass]

I really wish you would play

that one kings of leon song

 

tonight real loud

after a few beers

 

we could throw out

other plans

and strap on some guitars

 

I really wish you would play

That one kings of leon song

 

I dunno why

but you sound good

singing about impotence

[j4lackey]

WHAT SIGNS DON'T MEAN

 

It's the twisted little signs

In the shimmering periphery

Make me smile.

 

A winding shiver of leaves

Reveals the snake's path

In front of me.

 

The grinding of my wife's jaw

Predicts the storm coming

In the summer predawn.

 

The sad, wise little Japanese garden

In the God-forsaken suburb

Speaks a quiet awareness.

 

An old friend on indy radio

For better or worse

Plays a song no one else dares.

 

An artist has an epiphany

Just in time to slam on the brakes,

That could have been it.

 

Talking softly to herself,

She wrangles a life out of

The cards she's been dealt.

 

The window she passes

Holds a light too delicate

To be noticed on the fly.

 

The preacher, awake and alone,

Lights up a candle,

And curses the dark anyway.

 

We all take a breath,

And think better of it,

For one more long day.

 

And we're all better for it,

In the new morning glow,

The snake slides out of sight.

[Fritz]

The Light Always Changing

 

The sadness

of a Friday afternoon

can be so deep -

Woody Guthrie photo sad.

I saw Christ

this afternoon.

He was

a mechanic

crossing the street

and he watched

my car go by him

but he saw

right into me

and when I passed

him

I looked

in the rearview mirror.

And there he was

looking right back at me.

Christ can be anyone

you see

as you look back

over your shoulder

and find that figure

crossing a road

in the cold afternoon

looking to you

and your face -

the one that has

rivers of hurt

running through it.

I'm still driving

on that road

where conditions are

best at night.

Thin clouds will part

on seldom travelled backroads

and all I can do

is file these reports

from dark fields

where the light

is startlingly different

come morning.

[tapmyglass]

home alone

 

at first it

[j4lackey]

SUNDAY SIDEWALK (SAVING THE WORLD)

 

She said

This is hard won

Blood and sweat,

And I ain't gonna just

Give it away,

Except to the hungry

And the pure.

 

I show you my best places.

I show you

The tip of a secret

In a dream.

 

Just enough

To wanna keep going.

Just enough

To show you

What you and I mean.

 

Just enough

For something as frivolous

As saving the world,

A glimpse of your heart.

 

I wrap myself in these leaves,

Beside this barred window,

Behind this old dumpster

Beyond your steep stares.

 

I say that I'll see you

And I start it all over.

The sands await me,

And I will see what they say

(in their voice of small deer).

[Hi my name is Lee]

Allow me to share some of the subject lines in my junk email box, arranged into a poem.

 

You prune of preemption are santa a proficient

The or banana, new moon dimple, Gorilla of smartphones

gorgeous teens tasting lesbian love

 

this is amazing, thanks for sharing.

[j4lackey]

PERFECT TIMING

 

The rhythym of the dog snoring,

Pulling in and out of breath,

Like the ocean at night,

Waves building and subsiding

At their own grand pace,

Marks off a small chunk of time

In just the perfect way,

While the sun is still just a theory,

While all possibility fills the dream

Of the day.

[tapmyglass]

cold cold water

early morning aurora borealis

(hello)

lure the easy tiger and feel good lost

(can you hear me)

ruby just being there

 

long distance

I call you in reverse

(freakout)

when you don

[Guest Alan]

Bobby D.

 

slimming seas

eye see in trees

frozen forks

of foolish thieves

 

slick as wax

turntable lax

fresh disease

in a land of tax

[Lammycat]

I've got crickets

or rather a

cricket

Biding his time

Eyeballing my wine

In the basement

 

Thank God it's not rickets

or rather a

thicket

Of snakes with daggers

All cocky with swagger

In my brain