Tag: Poetry

• NaPoWriMo 1

  I wish I could say
  that when this is all over
  we will know that it is over
  
  that all our friends will be
  back together if not
  gainfully employed
  
  that when we cross the street
  it will be because we want
  to get to the other side
  
  that we will realize we were
  going wrong in so many ways we will
  never make the same mistakes again
  
  that a new skin will develop
  over the old scars
  even the new scars will heal
  
  that realistically speaking
  even one life lost is too much
  in the face of the avoidable
  
  that we will have flattened
  not the globe but the curve
  and the earth is still standing
  
  that the air will not just seem
  cleaner or the grass greener
  here on the other side
  
  not just because it turns out
  we have burned out and burned out
  and burned out and burned out
  
  and now even the bridges are
  collapsing all around us
  see this plume of dust rising
  
  and as the sun breaks behind
  an approximation of a cloud
  and as we weather the storm
  
  if not the changes we will
  be able to say I wish these were
  the things I did not have to say
  
  because they have all been said
  and repeated again and into
  the silence over and done
  
  even in the face of the camera
  we never noticed before
  reflecting the light no one ever sees
  
  until there is nothing
  unprecedented
  left to say
  
  I wish I could say this but I can not

  April 1, 2020

  Poetry

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• Octpowrimo 2

  I can only hope
  That when I said I love you
  After you said if you walked 
  Into the church
  It would burn to the ground
  That when you took the needle
  And your consciousness left you
  That love was waiting there
  To embrace you in their arms 
  Like I barely could
  You seemed so distant
  The last time I saw you 
  And the pictures they post 
  With smiles so frozen and static
  I have to believe
  That love breaks through
  And burns all our frailties 
  Along with everything else
  That breathes goodbye
  To the ground of our being
  Which is love—

  October 2, 2019

  Poetry

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• Octpowrimo 1

  When the heat dissipates as it almost surely never will
  On this gutted broken blasted out shell of what we used to call the earth
  When the last humans stop torturing the soil with leaf blowers and rakes alike
  In this understated oversaturated season of mellow fruitfulness
  When all life is reduced to dust that might accumulate after millennia
  Into tangled pillars of bioluminescent gas never resolving itself to sun
  When all pinpricks of light staining the black dome above our heads
  Out of the mouths of babes restrained in nylon belts on hospital beds
  When you wake up and everyone knows you are mad with Ativan delusions
  In the spaceship you inhabit alone forsaken at the end of the universe 
  When all hope left in memory is erased waking up scared she committed suicide
  Only to find a text years later knowing she’s dead and you’re alone
  When you find words you never realized you committed only just months ago
  In that moment you begin writing a poem again

  October 1, 2019

  Poetry

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• Napowrimo 13

  When I thought
  Or when my mind was thinking 
  That every single living
  Human being was immortal 
  And perishing because 
  Of my sin my grievous sin
  My most heinous grievous sin
  Like teaching the Beat Generation
  Instead of coherent thesis statements
  And not correctly patrolling 
  The Russian computer hacking
  In the back of my empty classrooms 
  I never could remotely imagine 
  That the worst loss was still to come
  That my hallucinating your suicide 
  Would come to pass within a year 
  Of the fever breaking or that 
  We would come to know each other’s flesh
  In the meantime all that I ever wanted 
  I wanted to return to the spirit of your flesh 
  To turn in bed and find my face 
  Kissing your neck your ear until 
  All our clothes displaced we came 
  Together but flaccid and exhausted 
  We retired to the porch to smoke 
  And I told you I loved you in your ear 
  And you said you hardly know me 
  But I knew that I loved the you 
  I didn’t know you fast asleep in the bathroom 
  Maybe dead only a few weeks later 
  And you were dead and my insides 
  Turned inside out all the paranoia 
  Of six months on seroquel and fear 
  And apocalyptic doubts redoubled their efforts 
  To pull me away from the love I knew in you 
  That I knew you imparted your daughter 
  That I knew outlives us in death 
  When I placed the dirt on your grave 
  I knew I would see you again 
  And now every day I do again in different ways 
  Just that love continues on and on 
  Though you cannot could not hear me say it 
  I love you and will to the end of time 
  Which happened so many times 
  Only I wish I could have prevented it
  Happening in you I love you Rachel I do 
  And god loves you too god loves you I love you
  I love you Rachel I love you I love you

  April 18, 2019

  Poetry

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• Napowrimo 12

  The hardest thing I ever did
  Was taking the stage after you died
  As an immortal impish spirit 
  Flirting between two fictions
  Yearning for the ephemerality
  Of physical metaphysical love
  It was all I could do to keep myself
  Together with a straight crooked face
  Twirling around until a straight line
  Appeared tearing the fabric of
  Her dress as the curtain falls called
  Us out onto the stage to accept 
  That we will never immortal be
  But players upon the stage singing
  The sound of no note not one iota
  Could bring the idea of me back to you
  Because you are immortal now aren’t you
  And I face immortality alone and then some
  Other face if I were not upon the stage
  I would let you let me enter exit through me
  And all that is through our revels ended
  And midnight came all too soon and late

  April 15, 2019

  Poetry

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• Napowrimo 11

  The pictures from Paris
  Slowly turning red
  
  Obscured by plumes of smoke
  Accompanying catastrophe 
  
  I opened the camera by mistake
  In the cathedral 
  
  Overexposing all memories
  Until all were tinged
  
  With the tint of never remembering 
  What prompted the capture 
  
  Of light and color 
  When my eyes darted in the dark
  
  Hoping to save what 
  Never could be saved 

  April 15, 2019

  Poetry

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• Napowrimo 10

  Psalm 31
  
  Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
     my eye wastes away from grief,
     my soul and body also. 
  For my life is spent with sorrow,
     and my years with sighing;
  my strength fails because of my misery,
     and my bones waste away. 
  
  I am the scorn of all my adversaries,
     a horror to my neighbours,
  an object of dread to my acquaintances;
     those who see me in the street flee from me. 
  I have passed out of mind like one who is dead;
     I have become like a broken vessel. 
  For I hear the whispering of many—
     terror all around!—
  as they scheme together against me,
     as they plot to take my life. 
  
  But I trust in you, O Lord;
     I say, ‘You are my God.’ 
  My times are in your hand;
     deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors. 
  Let your face shine upon your servant;
     save me in your steadfast love. 
  Do not let me be put to shame, O Lord,
     for I call on you;
  let the wicked be put to shame;
     let them go dumbfounded to Sheol. 
  Let the lying lips be stilled
     that speak insolently against the righteous
     with pride and contempt. 

  April 14, 2019

  Poetry

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• Napowrimo 9

  Although you are no longer here
  Meaning today is no longer your birthday
  It is still your birthday
  As we celebrate others waving palms
  Heralding the entrance to the city
  Where all will take their place
  Placing branches and coats along the road 
  Although he is no longer here
  We still sing Hosanna a little too loud 
  And we will be together and alone
  On the road to the hill where you rest
  Waiting for redemption from the dust
  So raise palms in honor of this day
  Your birthday even though you are gone

  April 14, 2019

  Poetry

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• Napowrimo 8

  But when we seemingly escape the asylum
  But the grass is too green for December fluorescent green unnatural and atomic
  But the meat tastes too grisly and mammalian
  But the television people are still speaking at me before taking their guests offscreen to slaughter 
  But David Bowie and George Martin dead they are killing all the music you will never hear again
  But the visit to the psychiatrist re-enacts the coming flood where all the art is washed away
  But the psychiatrist is one of them and only you know it best stay silent nothing to betray
  But everyone is being erased and uploaded the candidates manipulated and animatronic on the Sunday morning shows
  But the world is growing barren the trees lifeless the color orange
  But the earth is hurtling into the sun off course of kilter 
  But you cannot escape the doorway the threshold on the other side is the void of eternity
  But the books are changing languages before your eyes so much lost in translation
  But the Bible is absolutely true everything happened in history and metaphor
  But we are infinite beings being laid low by infernal devices subject to time transplant dying slowly in the year of our lord 2016 when everything ended

  April 10, 2019

  Poetry

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• Napowrimo 7

  Set me as a seal
  Upon your heart
  As a seal upon your arms
  Love is strong as death
  
  Many waters 
  Cannot quench love
  Many waters
  Even as the flood drowns it
  
  Set me as a seal
  Upon your heart
  As a seal upon your arms
  Love is stronger than death
  
  Love is stronger than death

  April 8, 2019

  Poetry

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