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664 · Oct 2012
oh my, I
Richard j Heby Oct 2012
Oh my,
I
could hold you

Safe
in heavy arms,
against my strong
chest pressed with aroma;

and there you could press gentle lips,
show me weakness
and strength
in myself.

Oh my
what I
would trade to hold you
would never let me hold you as I can.
Richard j Heby Sep 2012
it could not be sin
to love the beautiful on
earth – but these women,

spontaneous spawn
sprung of wonderful flowers,
make me double take

and heed to powers
beyond strength for curious sake –
when i look again

i ask, why nature
is teasing slow-moving men
with a halting cure

to hopeless ails of seeing kind
with flowers walking through my mind
647 · Aug 2016
i bet
Richard j Heby Aug 2016
i bet i can make you sweat
if you let me inside, i won't come out
rejection stumps me
feeling simultaneously
empty and full of rocks
there is no happiness in
hens and *****
maybe in eggs,
but it's not worth the negs
poetry is cheap, so is whiskey
and so are those who say
"whisk me away on a boat"
i thought this came down to a vote
646 · Aug 2016
it's over – haibun
Richard j Heby Aug 2016
three years and it's over in an instant, i can't face the reality of my reality growing so different. I used to look over to the empty couch and think you would be there, but you often weren't, you were somewhere else and now you won't be there at all anymore

froglet
hiding shy until –
the passing train
641 · Feb 2013
envy
Richard j Heby Feb 2013
Ah, envy
that sits on your shoulders
and wraps itself,
like a scarf, around your neck

until it steals some magic
from moses’ staff
and whispers(as
eden's serpent)

“eat from that tree.”
638 · May 2012
October
Richard j Heby May 2012
a waiting affair*
I could not hold my breath for quite that long
awaiting your arrival at my door.
My wife is out and though I know it's wrong,
the wrongness only makes me want you more.

I cannot help but wonder what you're wearing,
and if you think about me like I do.
I wonder if our spouses are as daring;
or if they maybe know of me and you.

I rake the leaves and hope you'll soon arrive.
I put away the pictures of my wife
and stare intently at the empty drive;
then that roaring engine brings me to life.

Your car drives by; I cannot help but grin
the bright red leaves are whirling in the wind.
633 · Sep 2012
a wonderful thing (7/3)
Richard j Heby Sep 2012
This thing i’ve found is wonderful
although i don’t know what it does;
it sort of makes a funny buzz
on every time i push or pull.
It’s stringed, and latched with purple fuzz
which smells like dripping, mildewed wool
which makes me think of when it was

appropriate to run around with kites
on beaches and to throw down bikes,
and not to care, and not to write.
a bit of nonsense.
Richard j Heby Jul 2012
all form is ugly
all human form is ugly
humans are ugly

all that’s terrible
is man’s inability
born from vanity
623 · Sep 2012
Another Brain
Richard j Heby Sep 2012
As men we are afflicted with two heads,
with one of logic, one of sordid lust,
with one we shoudld obey, and one we must,
for one is physical in thought, one not –
thus each reacts when love appears ahead;
both heads will grow, but one will fill with thought,
and though this head may seem in one's mind grown
it's rather love has logic overthrown.

The other head is true to feel and size;
it fills with blood and reaches open-eyed;
it hopes to join a lovely place: to fit,
and makes it known by pointing towards her..."it."

While one regards 'made love' as one to find,
the other is emotionally inclined.
And sometimes, I don't know which one is thinking.
620 · Oct 2012
Romance (a sonnet)
Richard j Heby Oct 2012
Of withered petals just and nearly red
which falling from my hairy hands to bed –
these flower pieces can’t make up a whole
but soon enthrall your drunk and curious head,
and puff as fervent, brisk i lay you down;
upon the busy spread soft, scattered soles
of four (some sockless) feet, one evening gown,
and fresh-laid drying petals bounce around.

It seems your innocence that this night stole
but ****** ties were freed as we were wed
the Stolen are the flowers from the ground
now serving us as petals in a bowl.

Our Romance culminates in quickly dying,
you, sitting on the now-red petals, crying.
I would appreciate any feedback on this poem. The words I have in bold are those that I believe need work. The first one because I believe there can be something better than and, the second because i want to imply something ******, but quiver is not quite right and dance doesn't really make sense, the last because I believe (partly) there is too much sappiness involved in this couple being wed.

Also, I am looking for a word that can mean both, "cut" and "tie" or "tie" and "untie," as I am looking to imply that her virginity was freed when she was married, but they each assume a sort of piety, or virginity in the sanctity of  marriage which is somewhat chaste – compared to unmarried ***. I guess the word I am looking to replace is "freed" or even to change the metaphor of tied virginity.
618 · Nov 2015
sand on that dune
Richard j Heby Nov 2015
We are always running
late
to something but slow on the road to love,
although caring,
in the form of sharing
i-s un-
-equal

my things are bent and *****,
a mangled man, and burly

when you, my things, return me
they smell faintly of perfume
flowers in June,
and the ever-moving
sand on that dune
from april 2013
615 · Mar 2016
evil at hand
Richard j Heby Mar 2016
yule tide outside, an
arsonist alights
a dead evergreen, and the
cunning fox trots
tirelessly to the fire-
man who gathers the
ipish pipsqueak.

You laugh far away, much
later.
#acrostic
610 · Sep 2012
haiku
Richard j Heby Sep 2012
who the **** cares how
you look? beautiful, to me,
you're unparalleled.
608 · Aug 2015
Life on Spin Cycle
Richard j Heby Aug 2015
i'd like to be a small ocean every day
ebbing, flowing

with a few tumultuous tidal waves.

Instead, the dishwasher, laundry machine
washing over
every second
with routine.
Find it here: http://www.rawdogpress.freesite2you.com/web_images/spin_cycle_heby_sept.jpg
Richard j Heby Sep 2012
I found a bud,
among nothing but grass
in my garden mud,
which has not been tended as
it should.
But to pass
and awe in this flower’s beauty
is the sentient’s only duty:

to stop and to admire
as we do
with a house on fire;
and you
who bring my being to a place higher
than anywhere a thought can to –
but still you are a notion,
a sight with which my mind is in motion:

a controlled
chaos, that causes
speech slowed,
implausibly placed words, and losses
of thought. I mowed
the grasses
where I found the budding flower,
and no longer think of beauty’s deep power.
605 · Oct 2015
everyone is ill
Richard j Heby Oct 2015
in the head.
go to bed,
wake up and wed,
have some kids,
then you're dead.
603 · May 2014
trust me not
Richard j Heby May 2014
Trust me not forgotten flower ought
Having heard cried heated left and pleated
Pants havent had a dance to rain with drought
Ladies and gentleman please be seated

I have nightmares hysterical naked
Eyes under dark and just dried of wetness
Here is my word with a whipe so take it
With a kiss and a side of bacon let us

Now at lunch after tearing We eat meat
I haven't seen your gentle feet today
You're sick of breaking bread, and eating wheat
Gives you hives. Like the sky these seats are gray

Maybe years after tears dress in trust fears
You'll drive with me gears grind on yelling ears
Richard j Heby Jan 2017
There are a few things i might say
knowing i would pass today;
though fewer things that i would do
those things are all important too.
But living in the moment we
transcend our world of cruelty,
and past events of tragic loss
the world spins, the trees grow moss.
There is no single thing you’ll find
that can imprison your own mind,
but one thing you should know for sure:
your mind’s a prison, you’re the door.
The key is to stop questioning.
The door’s not locked, you’ll let you in,
for consciousness is all of us
and living, knowing, we’re all dust
is such a happy thought to think,
but sweeter still, a thought to ink.
581 · Jan 2016
Cold on
Richard j Heby Jan 2016
Cold on my neck
I like feeling
The caw, the
Buzz in the heater
Still buzzing
577 · Feb 2015
Silent Passing
Richard j Heby Feb 2015
It is of note that the crow did not caw
and no one saw the raven.
And yet, the sparrow conked out
feasting on beauty
: spring berries,
alive
with food poisoning.
567 · Feb 2016
i'm not afraid of death
Richard j Heby Feb 2016
i'm not afraid of death,
no but
dying, dyeing
my hair
is different.

Change and pain scare me.

Deathbtwndust:nothing
but dying is rust,
something
going
away.
Richard j Heby Sep 2014
An hour editing
dashes to comma splices, and back
leaves turn

the red world
sits on apostrophes’ or Atlas’
mote of Earth

choosing
the right word
wet trousers

i rake
frail pages of my novel
after strong wind
564 · Dec 2012
beasting
Richard j Heby Dec 2012
Apathy untangled
with a disgu sting sticking to my
mouth(
probably from the alcohol)stinging my throat
which wants to sing, and no no no no I won’t
punctuate, fluctuate, or be
bee be-
cause i’ve already been
stung, wrung, and hung
and I’m still not dry.
564 · Jan 2015
awaiting results
Richard j Heby Jan 2015
Out on the cold
The radiator hums
Awaiting results
560 · Oct 2016
something immediate
Richard j Heby Oct 2016
taking a back, taken a back
wishing, working, living is that
which bounds us to wishes with kisses
and misses, everyone is this,
the mr. and mrs.
the shotgun just missed
the cat is now ******
the fever is high
let me know why
you won't won't why how
or keep a kiss now,
let's whisper just lower
559 · Jan 2014
haiku01
Richard j Heby Jan 2014
My New York City feet
run too fast up subway stairs
for my haiku mind
558 · Dec 2016
sonnet dec 16 16
Richard j Heby Dec 2016
Awaiting wakened words to weep, I find
my cheery voice will speak of suckitash
and other sense, non, recumpense, let’s dance
take off our hands all obligated cash
transactions, work and play, now pay for drinks.
we “pay” for ***, go out on dates, remind,
each other of our names, then fly to France
forget how one another speaks and sinks

into a stew. I add your mother’s salt,
all of it, for the hell of it, with poise
and grace, and the memory of your face.
we make our own breaks, and foot faults, put faults
on others, you always loved tennis and boys
we both said “I love” – having parted ways.
556 · Feb 2014
sonnet 02-11-14
Richard j Heby Feb 2014
The hopeless flower on the sidewalk grows
like any other hopeful flower would.
For those who pass, this hopeless flower shows
a sprig of hope in grey cement. She stood

on every corner waiting for love. He,
before he left, had whispered that she’d find
his love on the first corner she could see.
But she did not see love, so never mind

his lies. Are all just ploys of love truly
fair? The woman turned to stone still waiting
there for love to come to her. It crudely
sprouted on the sidewalk green and greying.

Though lonely, flowers on the street will yield
more looks of love than flowers in a field.
552 · Oct 2017
AWKWARD
Richard j Heby Oct 2017
silence doesn’t have a sister to sit with,
alone on an island all of us
want recognition and none of us give it
or give a ****, then all of a sudden all of us
giving a ****
552 · Oct 2012
and neither should be art
Richard j Heby Oct 2012
boom!

volcano,

i do not trust gold
that is hard to sift through –

**and neither should be art.
545 · Aug 2018
code poem #4
Richard j Heby Aug 2018
If I revealed, in genuine, the depths of my desire,

I’d understand your hesitance, you likely would be shyer.

So I should lie wholeheartedly. But should I? Would I try,

if knowing that there’s one way through – by seeing eye to eye –

and we misstep. There’s nothing left, but dignity. Why lie

when dominance, incontinence are falling rather flat

(just like you) is pretty now at least you aren’t fat.
541 · Jan 2014
Haiku
Richard j Heby Jan 2014
in late morning
a man on the subway
in a light coat
Richard j Heby Feb 2013
Had I held this flower long enough to love
it, it
would have wilted,
dried, and died
by now
,

I                      sometimes see
it
breathing                                               in the garden,
flourishing

so
                                                                in the garden
I                      will leave
it.
537 · Feb 2017
will you
Richard j Heby Feb 2017
will you wrap me gently
tell me that we're meant to be, but
no not you, who wants to
it's true no1 wants the 1 who wants
apathy is ****
caring an affront
535 · May 2013
musing
Richard j Heby May 2013
My muse must be a jokester or a ****,
who’s starving at my fluffy luscious words.
My musing is so sensitively sick
I doubt my muse has ever talked to birds.

But when my muse is gone they sing to me
and he returns to tell me what they’ve said,
but makes no sense and speaks predictably
of seasons, love, the grief for long-lost dead.

I guess my muse is old and out of touch;
for everything he says is nothing new
and where the secrets are, there aren’t much,
with him i win the hearts of just a few.

I love to blame my muse, though i’ve come short
or quickly come, his unrevised cohort.
530 · Aug 2016
How do i kill this?
Richard j Heby Aug 2016
How do i **** this
without killing
you? You
willing to try
or lay down and die? I
don't know if I can be either
but I'm willing to meet her,
probably even eat her. Out
on the balcony, lipstick
stained cigs in the ashtray, sticks
on the ground, and the sound
of water coming from all the
******* cars on those New
York City streets.

Although I'm not a ******* car
I am a ******* person, in that
I'm a person who *****, who *****
up relationships, and the kind of
******* who pulls out the chocolate chips
from cookies. You took me to your
cousin's house in France.
Last weekend, for the first time we danced
and loved it, then again, and again
it all went to ****.
526 · Aug 2014
five haiku of spring
Richard j Heby Aug 2014
energy is(
cracking knuckles, popping joints
)alive in the body

my back pops
as the wind floats a
seedling

tree! tree!
how do flowering trees
spread their seeds?

flight
before man, the earth and sky
anemochory*

the leaf learned to fly: a butterfly
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_dispersal#Allochory
526 · Sep 2012
You are like the sunset:
Richard j Heby Sep 2012
You are like the sunset:
everyone wants a moment with you.
But I am not jealous
because I have you at sunrise.
524 · Oct 2012
used to it.
Richard j Heby Oct 2012
i meant to apologize
but before i could
you didn’t care

you're used to it
that *****
i don’t

want to
lose you
or let you loose to it

but how else
can i
not lose you?
514 · Jan 2014
haiku02
Richard j Heby Jan 2014
The fat sparrow sits
on a sparsely-leaved branch
behind a parking sign
513 · Aug 2018
Code poem #3
Richard j Heby Aug 2018
How

when knowing,

understanding my faults and redresses my halfhearted heart and weak regresses

do you insist on everything, and make sure I’m all right, and sing a stinging song, wrong

why

do you want to cry, every time I write, I lie?
510 · Feb 2016
before
Richard j Heby Feb 2016
Before it strikes, Life, sing.
Life, live right wing, left wing,
anything. Let a leaf
fall furiously slow,
don't let an old friend go
without an "ohhello!"

Oh, hell, no you don't
exist, except twist-
edly. Feeling bed-
ly: badly, bed-rid
another madley

of garbage.
Richard j Heby Feb 2013
I’m starting to like you so
I’ll go fulfill my self with other girls so
when I really like you I’ll convince myself not to fall for you and
that won’t work,
because it never works,

and when i fall i’ll try to grab onto something, no
i won’t.
it will not be in a place or pit.

the falling is a somewhat pleasing surprise into dreaming,
but your fragility awakens me.

Still
, I enjoyed that fearful falling.
i'd love suggestions or advice on this one
498 · Jun 2012
I wonder
Richard j Heby Jun 2012
who loves me the boy
who spoke about wonder
in front of all my graduates

i wonder
who thought i was lying
when i was lying about my story
and i wonder who thought i did well
well, because i guess i did

i wonder who thought i messed up
and who thought i did not
probably all on the first
besides my grandmother
493 · Feb 2015
feb-5 haiku
Richard j Heby Feb 2015
Non stop ringing
The hum drum dryer
life is fluff
haiku of the day (prompt "nonstop")
493 · Jan 2013
a schedule
Richard j Heby Jan 2013
Tomorrow you will be my lover.
Tuesday I will love you.
Wednesday you will love me.
Thursday I will not love you.
Friday you will know.
Saturday you will leave me.
Sunday you will love me.
Monday I will love you.
492 · Jul 2016
a secret
Richard j Heby Jul 2016
there's a secret unspoken and we both know it
's broken
it's the burning in your ears, or ringing tinnitus
responds a bird singing to invite us
to recall who we are, each
meant for the beach, better together,
in troublesome weather,
and when you said forever i got scared and left and fared
worse off, until i got caught
just kidding i did not
490 · Oct 2012
staring at the sidewalk
Richard j Heby Oct 2012
all my friends, goodbye
i am not going, but
staying here, and why
must you go so fast, what
are you looking for
on the sidewalk:
something, or
so it seems as you walk – talk
to me while you run
away – be gone
and your voice will fade to one
sound of every drone

staring at the sidewalk not
smiling, working, naught.
485 · May 2012
drunk haiku
Richard j Heby May 2012
i hope i see you
tonight. drunk and randomly
you pass through my thoughts
483 · Sep 2012
1990-
Richard j Heby Sep 2012
I added my date of birth to my profile.
It updated.
Next to the numbers is a "-" reminding me it could be over in a dash.
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