Poetry

This is really for myself so I can easily see what poems I’ve thrown up online.  Before I get to them, here are a few links to poetry sites:

tinywords (haiku); dirtpress; Other Voices; Poet Academy; WordPress Poetry.

I usually put up a new poem each Friday if you have come here directly (I really should put the date I added the poems, but I’m too lazy). You can see that I have a really basic layout. You might think this would be easy, but for some reason the software automatically changes it (even if I make the change in html it will sometimes switch it) and sometimes it will change even after it’s been published (it will look fine one day and then not the next)–so if something looks weird (one line that looks like it should be two for instance) blame it on WordPress.

• What should I do
  Run ragged to the world
  Grasp a pearl in my hand
  Or feign indifference?

 

• Where is life
  And to what ends do we go
  To find
  Where is life
  All around us living
  And where is life?
• The person I see is such a stranger
  With such a baleful stare and evil look
  That I get in the mood to kill
  Though I notice it’s a mirror there.
• The walls were crying
  As I walked below them
  To find my other side
  And I wish they’d fall
  So I might drink dying.
• Air sweeping beneath the tides
  Follow my dreams
  The immortality of death
  Intrudes upon the illusion.
• I have no bombast
  For your ears
  I can’t find sparkle
  On your skin
  So I close my mind
  Mouth closed
  Reach out with fingers to
  Find the sky
  But reach only the base
  Of my eyes.
• If you hit me in the head
  I may fall out of my bed
  And break my leg instead
  Of burying the past.
• I dread it coming
  I lie awake at night
  Pushing it away
  What I lose
  The minutes of the day.
• Life the meaning crows cry
  Into an expanse of vellum
  Too wide to be seen
  And too near to be appreciated.
• Breathe the whites of their eyes
  Reject the sounds of violence
  In precepts that conquer
  Violence will not rise above.
• The man clambered atop the fly
  Determined to take a look
  At the rush above its wings
  That never were to fly again.
• I can’t be thinking today
  It’s time to be way away
  Towards the limit of a dream
  Things are not what they be.
• My life leaks
  In and out
  From some to me
  From me to whom?
• Up down flowing wings
  Up down punching the sky
  Nowhen and nowhere
  Admiring thirsting anxious
  A straight line perch
  Away.
• Falling rocks can not save
  Mountains unmade
  A crisis that seems to be
  Doesn’t need legs to stand on.
• I look up and wonder
  With the sky so blue
  Can it get through
  Do I have to worry
  Or can I trust the colors?
• With an ocean behind
  There’s not one in front
  The ache in my soul
  Tells me the middle must go.
• I feel ever in all the need
  To flay my eyes they bleed
  The warmth of love to read
  The mysteries of life to crush.
• When I hear that angel sound
  With spots of light going round
  It fills me so full of dread
  That I drive through yellow.
• Life is just running round the clock
  You go around just to get back
  You go to sleep just to wake up
  And wake up just to make money

Money is made just to get things
Which are meant to make you happy
So you can make it through the day
And you might have time to sleep.  Just. 

• A jump in the dark
  It’s coming after me
  Hope and hurt drown my brain
  As I see the cat.

Can’t you hear it
The doubt in your soul
As myriad life goes by
But seems like none of that.

• Some days it’s better left unsaid
  Who you are and what you did
  You’ll never make it til tomorrow
  With a metal bar aside your head.

• I saw a tree
  And looked again
  It was more
  Than nevermore.

• Pencil me in for Thursday
  The time is right for fireworks
  In never ascending order
  Towards the rink of disaster
  Skating towards oblivion
  With matches in both eyes.

• Ah too much
  Too much too much
  You intrude
  You prevail upon
  You partake
  Of me too much
  I will not
  Bury you into me.

• If you understand the riders in your mind
  You will not see the windows in the land
  Encroaching further between you and what you see
  To keep you safe from dark nature.

• Sometimes I worry
  What will never be
  Gold upon the horizon
  Circles never reached
  And sometimes I worry
  When time slows down
  What will be left.

• Climb the walls of maturity
  Drive back the gods of propriety
  Seldom follow and seldom lead
  Respect believe resent love mistrust all.

• A life walks jauntily
  Through the open rays
  While I watch
  It open up to me.

• A bit of dust
  In your eye
  Means you need
  To cry.

• Is it all
  Meaningless
  Should I write
  Should I die
  Should I wake
  Again.

• Peeling layers one at a time
  Uncovering past and Mortality
  Looking tattered and red
  Do we go further
  Or back?

• Do you feel the east wind
  Blowing out the fires lit
  When inhibitions flowed like wine
  And clouds leaked the sky?

• Throw up arms in surrender
  A lost soul crawls past
  Fraying the edges of insanity
  With memories of flash and thunder.

• The snow glistens in my gaze
  Wishing to be there
  No black or gray to intervene
  As the scene flows.

• What is life
  And what is death
  What is in between
  Nothing and everything
  And let’s forget the rest.

• Life it seems is winding down
  Everything and everything
  Everywhere it has gone out
  A consequence of one piece.

• Venomous snakes cling to the edge
  As people their lines find
  And grasp the scaly things
  And make a sad nature fly.

• The wind shimmers on the road
  I walk along alone
  The distance seems to hang
  I look up for something
  Nothing before or since
  Look down as my feet walk still.

• The lazy breeze plays upon
  The many things I’ve said
  They seemed plastered everywhere
  I wish I was alive.

• Grapes are flying
  Beside my head
  I wander down
  Towards my bed

I grasp the sheets
And pull aside
Me and my dreams
I want to hide

Wine-drenched
I turn instead
Grapes continue
To pelt my head

I walk through walls
And go outside
Floating through fog
Emulsified.

• What will I do in the morning
  What will I do at night
  What will I do when the day breaks
  Leaving no more light.

• Will you carry on
  Will I look the other way
  Will we close the door
  Let’s have lunch.

• In life we walk along a path
  That is made as we go along
  Wandering in separate ways
  Up and down and around inside
  Sometimes our paths happen to cross
  A whisper is heard from somewhere
  But the words can not be made out
  At least by me.

• Mouth open, sound comes out
  Wisdom of the ages, could it be
  Is life itself, the death bell
  Or is it nothing, or a wave?

• With more light
  With less insight
  We see all
  And know nothing.

• Day turns to night
  And asks about the light
  A little mingled conspiracy
  That never reaches the day.

• A fish swims smoothly through the sky
  An archer gapes and swings towards it
  The sun falls quietly into the sea
  But the fish swims on without a glance.

• Feel the breeze blow by
  Never is the same
  Do you  notice
  That the air is changed?

• Looking around I see
  Nothing more than me
  Not blurred by fog
  Inside and out
  I’ll light afire.

• My cat’s eyes are too big
  I can see too much of her
  Can she see too much of me
  Would you close the window if you could?

• The tap runs forgotten
  Flowing into yesterday
  The roots reach out
  Growing into tomorrow.

• The curtain jumps in front of my eyes
  And guides me down the shiny path
  That hides the shadows of the dark
  And make everything black and white.

• I run aground in the sky
  Never to know
  What to believe and die for
  It’s not ground down.

• Crying the wild dog drags
  Today’s catch yesterday’s life
  The promise for a new day
  But first the lights ahead.

• There doesn’t seem time
  To think about the rhyme
  As the world all around
  Crumbles.

• The old post does its best
  To hold up the foundation
  The ants underneath survive
  And hope to undermine it.

• Mushroom clouds running wars
  Profits building hungry children
  And so you see
  I will never climb
  Daffodils in my dream.

• Fried purple raindrops
  Riding past the sky
  Why won’t you ever
  Stop the end is near.

• Believing the eyes glance upward
  To see what the ears proclaim to be
  But nothing overcomes all senses
  For it is black as light.

• The eyes scream
  Unable to see andnot
  Where is the reason
  Where is the logic
  Down into the dark.

• I watch the window
  The sun is rising up
  Its light reaches round to me
  I do not reach back.

• The fish mingle
  Impossible to count
  A living cry
  Moving under my feet.

• Look at me and smile
  The urge to rage has gone wild
  Up and down, in and out
  I feel better already.

• Pieces of you floating before you
  What can be done
  To go before you
  With much beside you
  12:14 in the evening.

• Color bleeds me as I see
  Outside in the middle of me
  Blue and red as if taunting
  One to the other exchanging.

• When I turn the corner
  I get sick to my stomach
  Could I borrow a dollar
  I think I need it.

• I walk through the world and find
  My socks are wet
  How can I complain
  I yell
  How can I complain
  I walk through the world and find.

• My window sees
  Colors waving
  A base rising
  Desktops and me.

• Dive inside
  You will find
  Devils and sheep
  A little behind.

• Open my eyes catch what’s around
  Closed I see what I make
  Darkness visions randomness conceived
  Today I go with light from which.

• I wet the insides of my eyes
  My toes seem so far away
  The world inside seems forever
  Are those folds I see?

• I lie awake at night
  Posturing to myself
  Ambition and dreams
  War with doubt
  I declare I will have
  Everything that matters
  And perhaps believe
  That nothing does.

• I cry
  With one eye
  It must be
  A good day.

• Have you seen me
  I watch from outside
  At the things I used to do
  That I left behind
  And stare at from the sky
  Or perhaps only the corner

People don’t see me
As they walk on by
My voice must be in my head
For everyone to ignore it so
Have you seen me
Or what I’ve left behind. 

• There were some people the other day
  Who lived and breathed and
  Since no one thought to speak
  There were some people.

• The sun rises
  Where have my options gone
  I feel too good
  To go along
  It’s not my way
  To accost the day
  But it just didn’t work.

• The sun glides along the sky
  As time rushes behind
  Then night pushes in
  And the little ones come out.

• I’ve got myself to wondering
  Why the sky never quite reaches
  It embraces the world loosely
  Without letting it know
  That it is jailer not jailed.

• The carpet crawls to me
  Can’t you ever see
  The walls are closing in
  They won’t never let me be
  And through the windows
  The clouds cry for the inside.

• Evermore the nights will strike
  Evermore the gods will fight
  Evermore the things you’ve learned
  Will turn out dead.

• I stay in a square
  To stay positive
  And when I go out
  The outside is in.

• I need glasses
  To see what’s going on
  Or perhaps an interpreter
  Can you tell me
  What’s it all about.

• The little round balls
  With streaks of light
  Push aside sensations
  While a river rolls.

• Ink is leaching through my skin
  Blood and veins
  Light is bleaching my eyes
  And enters my mindless center
  It’s no wonder the entirety
  Is black and white to me.

• If life be life
  Is it the sun rise
  The earth turn
  The seas move.If life be life
  What does it mean
  The point of view
  The change to growIf life be life
  Is birth the start
  We in turn
  Death the end.

• I rise up through the heights
  To war upon the mist
  Make the way to boundaries
  And enter in its midst.

  And then I hear its thunder
  And see its lightning wrath
  For now it has awakened
  To throw down its madness.

  And now comes the rain
  Of dark despair and death
  Don’t try to comfort me
  You’ll only get depressed.

• The gist of the argument
  Without too much ado
  Is that people are born
  And therefore the end is near.

• Don’t you think it’s time to see
  Whatever’s ‘round about
  Don’t you think it’s time to do
  The things that someone’s done.

• See that rusted shadow
  See it on the wind
  See that rusted shadow
  What has it been?

• I see the letters flowing on the air
  Some come up before me winking at my eye
  Others shadow behind the living trees
  But none inside where comprehension grows.

• The numbers sit there lonely
  Words go their own way
  Ignoring the fleeting pictures
  That form on the fishes’ eyes.

• Banana peels, petunia wine
  Molasses waves, sulfur haze
  Or perhaps when I look back
  A gentle dimming of the light.

• Death came to me the other day
  To see how I felt
  It seemed quite concerned
  As I showed it out.

• The man swings in the trees
  And can neither talk or reply
  But that’s what happens
  When you dispense with potables.

• Death is like
  A cover closed tight
  Death is like
  A dreamless night
  Life is as life.

• I sit and stare as time stretches
  The stage appears and the play unfolds
  Time retreats to its normal stance
  As I climb in and play my part.

• When you listen do you hear
  The beating of your heart
  Or do you look for other things
  To satisfy your curiosity.

• Four lines to sum the universe
  Four lines if you look in deep
  Four lines to sum existence
  With nothing left complete. 

• The rivers jump among
  And sail smooth and slow
  To the end beyond
  As they rip the land. 

• An artichoke grows upon my heart
  What it does there, I don’t know
  And when I turn my eyes to look inside
  I see it growing in my mind. 

• Crinkle, crinkle little toe
  Where I wonder will you go
  When I move my foot so fast
  Will you step upon my past.

• This isn’t for public reception
  So don’t look too long
  And now that it offends perception
  It quietly ends.

• As I walk upon the edges
  Of the things that I perceive
  I make out lines put there to divide
  But as things fall upward and away
  The things I see take sharper form
  And the lines together fade.

• It comes to me with lightning speed
  As I look the other way
  And goes on by too shy to wave
  As I glance around too late.

• Visions dance upon fingertips
  Escaping from out and in
  Where they go and who they see
  Is not the end of dreams. 

• The land swept under the burning sun
  As liquid fire strolled by in sweet misery
  Through the very same land and wondering
  Where I sat.

• The walls go by
  The picture stares down
  The ceiling’s down low
  The paint reaches out
  The floor pushes up
  It all goes in
  I’m a bit out of step
  I can’t see a thing
  I go along my way.

• Hey don’t I see me calling
  Methinks I am ignoring
  The interlude that’s in
  And the people that are out.

• I hear the cars come crashing down
  The rats as they crawl along the firmament
  Glance in my direction to stop my ears
  From knowing that it’s almost Tuesday.

• The snow floats down
  As ducks search for food
  Quietly and too loud to see
  That I walk past and stare.

• And the need that was there
  Never quite found me to know
  The why or wherefore of life
  I just seem to know I’m alive
  Celebrate, please?

• ‘And so,’ he said,
  ‘Lo there is nothing
  That we can do
  E=mc² and boom.’

• And then there was other
  But not what it seems to be
  That was not at all clear
  Tell me what it was.

• The way you read the lines
  Was never more than what you saw
  Should I create myself again
  So then you can miss me complete.

• And so it came
  The field of life
  Was nevermore thus-
  That it fled the field
  The win was nothing
  And I lost all
  But never knew more.

• Midnight clangs into the night
  Heavy with dread implications
  Daytime can be smooth and light
  Searing you into submission.

• When you climb upon the sky
  Be careful not to touch
  The gods that might be there
  Who might not like it quite.

• The people stare as at a plague
  They swore they could not see
  That didn’t change the way things were
  But it helped to dull the pain.

• Rolling rocks flow towards nothing
  Glowing green the field remains
  Never knowing the future approaching
  Towards a new day, yesterday.

• The stones rolled on down the highway
  And the snow fell down to me
  As I wait for their arrival
  I know that tomorrow will be too soon
  To know what’s befallen me today.

• Milky white seen beneath the gaze
  Climbing towards the upper rafters
  Above the earth, towards the sky
  Explodes and rains down the night.

• An orange rolls onward
  And captures a highway
  The pavement doesn’t worry
  As the sun bakes the invader.

• A little lightness of the subtle brand
  Fires my imagination and roasts my soul
  As feet calmly screech down the sea
  Too far away to view and too near to black.

• Run across the field my friend
  And eat up every rat
  And then you will be my friend
  Very very fat.

• People wander in the sky
  Blood draining from their mind
  Hear their mouths opening
  And falling down inside.

• And so the man was not here
  But the woods were not gone
  And the gale winds blew
  But the words were lost no more.

• The cat sleeps, claws withdrawn
  A melancholy holds the air
  As the orb is clenched tight
  In word, in print, in deed.

• The green doorbells announce me
  Before I wander down the hall
  And echoes many times behind me
  Before I’m introduced at last.

•  The man in the moon
  Was feeling rather blue
  The tip of his tongue
  Was feeling pained
  The ache inside his head
  Was never quite dead
  To the vacuum out there
  Just inside his reach.

• In simple words, it was explained
  In simple words, do pass it on
  In simple words, I tell it now
  The windows are dirty.

• The man sat on the road that was
  Glaring at the sun and sky that are
  Wishing that all that is was
  Never knowing how long the thought.