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Zead Jun 2014
i now realize
that all of my art will
eventually mean nothing to me
in the end

the mountains were valleys at one point
just can't explain
Ariel Baptista Jun 2014
An Ode to the sweet Northwest that I once called my home:
I have loved you, from the first time I opened my infant eyes, I have loved you.
You gave me my childhood, you taught me and you raised me the only way you knew how.
And blinded by your beauty, I did as you told me, but things are different now.
Within the boundaries of your boarders I grew tall and strong
And I thought that you could teach me everything I would ever need to know,
But I was wrong.
Because just as snow covers dirt and makes it look white,
So did you, you lied to me.
But I know your deception was not of spite,
It was of shame,
Because my whole life you had lied
and told me that perfection was your name,
It’s easier to see now from on top of this mountain,
Than it was from between your trees.
I know you never meant to hurt me,
But the lies you spoke brought me to my knees.
When I was young I never questioned you,
Your lead I would follow,
My identity I found in you,
But that life I lived was hollow
And in leaving you, my love did grow,
Because I only ever saw the snow
I forgot about the dirt that lay under
And as I grew, I idolized you,
But never once did I stop to wonder
If maybe it wasn’t all true.
As the years went by,
I held you close in the back of my mind
You were still my home, my love, my future and
my past,
You were the place I would one day return;
You were my first and my last.
But one summer I excitedly ran back to you
And found dirt instead of snow
It hurt me more than I can say,
I have to admit, it was a low blow.
Because little did I suspect,
When I was far away,
That day, by day, by day
The snow had slowly melted where it lay.
So upon my return,
There was nothing left for me
And I felt disappointment
But honestly, also a bit of relieve.
Because from you I was finally free
And I could be whoever I wanted to be.
And I do still love you,
Despite it all, I know you did the best you could,
For what it’s worth, I think you’re beautiful,
The bad and the good.
Ariel Baptista Jun 2014
We sat, in a row,
on the couch.
They spoke
And we listened, but without complete comprehension
And I laughed, slightly, to relieve some tension.
But in a moment,
we were gone
Far away.
And I tried to understand how we got to where we were,
Because the passing from there to here was all a blur.
I looked around and saw nothing I knew,
Unfamiliar,
This, would take some getting used to.
I
Years and years of yearning
Dreams and dreams depressing
I fly back, back on the wings of memory
And time my pilot be
For  time's grey hands yet swings
Ticking away behind sturdy wings
Backwards i journey humming like the bird
Past-ward to scenes
And sounds once seen
Once heard

Tearful laughter, painful joys
Youthful blunders - silent noise

Over and over, the flames rise
Over and over, storms in our eyes
Blue nights that once upon were
Who was there, what was fair

I write of a past once veiled
Lonesome,
        dark memories i reveal
I will speak of choking,
        muffled yells
Pain. Depression. Fear - Hell

II
"Ah, say berries taste sweeter red
Their juices free as more they bled
"

But who taught the kid to feed?
Nanny dumb; he nipped the ****
More so, as like a log she lay
Dogs shall school your kid to play

Yet should we upon mores lay blame
Cholerous slight culture's game
Slay her players with a Poisoned Placard
Aces. Queens. Kings. Protesters. Playing card

No, i shall not cheer my own fall - come
Sit with me, give me your hand, come -
Though you are broken, hold -
Proud. Resilient. Bold.
I call to you, "come father,
Tell me what house fire make the kites gather,
What color, the smoke of marijuana?
Your girlfriend - is she really from Ghana?
Will you have stone if i gave you meat,
Tell me, what is it you do in corners of dark streets!?"
Alex Vice Jun 2014
Sometimes i am carried by the wind
Floating along throughout this place,
It carries me and whatever i bring
My hopes and dreams floating through space,
And of the *****-ups i might be the king
Every crime committed, every vice has been sinned,
This is my transition
From waste to gold
Pain to cheer
A place neither new or old,
A place not far away there or close to here,
A place not restricted to any one nation

I'm on the edge but that's where the winds have taken me.
Jayanta May 2014
Childhood** – a splendid mirror with delight
Adolescent- a turn-off in the way for experimentation  
Youth – an unsettled spout with wave for new
Middle age – thrash about to balance and maintained
Old age - dissipate between old and new with game of recall!
In the memories of interaction with Chakrovorty Sir of Arikuchi, Hajo ,Kamrup, Assam,India in 2012
Chano Williams Apr 2014
I drive away
and you come along
I suggest you stay,
but you sing the song,
drowning out my voice
with your own
We played this same game
at your home
Our lives are set
on the same path
Neither one of us
are willing to go last
Together we discover
what lies beneath
Open like the ocean,
swimming so deep

We can't leave
these shared memories
They don't belong to you
They don't belong to me
We are so right
We are so strong
We are so weak
We are so wrong

You move away
I move with you
Why do we stay?
We haven't a clue
So many chances we had
to disconnect,
but all those times
we weren't ready yet
Now that we're older
things have turned around
I fell off the cloud
and I'm coming down
down-to-earth
is what you've been
Now I'm ready
to be a friend

We can't leave
these shared memories
They don't belong to you
They don't belong to me
We are so right
We are so strong
We are so weak
We are so wrong

We try so hard
to grow apart
without a clue
of where to start
Nothing can change
unless we let it
We can't drive away
until we get in
We're letting go
at our own pace
Allowing a chance
to create space
When we depart
I know we'll understand
It's just the cards
dealt from our hands
High school poem
Sean Flaherty Apr 2014
Mouths open, Angel's back with friends.
A chorus of the celestial,
Wings tucked, halos blazing.
(Deaf, and you'd swear they're screaming)
Melody simple, beautiful, and toxic,
Blasting insanity back this way:
"They can't take that away from me."

Cheap Whiskey is still angry,
Writing about your arms, and your eyes.
Stuck in the rhythm of the Jazz Insatiable.
Voices, in harmony,
On the way to death's cousin
The "not - quiet - enough"

It feels nothing short of genius loving you.
Any notions, thought in such volume,
With such swiftness, should be going
Somewhere important, or to some
Great End.
Yet, all imagined here, stuck, throwing, with my own lungs.
Rings of smoke, and
Red sound. 

The Lines draw themselves,
If the dirt leaves a history,
If the wings help them fly,
If her car's still ******* running,
If the knife slipped a different way,
And the blood didn't stain. 

But what should I do when the voices get louder?
When it's all I can do, to give each
Frequency its face, how do I put her
Back in focus?
Humming, and a hot mind,
My teeth break,
And I sing back.

Difficult deciding that you'll
Never be so sure,
If you faked it so she'd want you,
Or if you faked it for that smile. 
Wings, splayed out across 
My open torso, begging for a story,
Maroon eyes, that tell furious truth. 

(There is something to be said for my future.
I'd hope it would be: The city I 
Resolve myself in, might rise and
Fall with the air in
My chest. We might inhale, 
Together, the streetlight dreams,
Before choking on stale air,
And hurling, in unison.)

Clotted outside, rushing throughout,
Stains don't bleed. But the scars do
Leave marks. The Lines 
Draw themselves. 
Despite my best efforts to 
Stop them.
The Lines get their name, despite showing up incessantly.

The sequel to "Angel." The continuation of the suicidal struggle.
Sean Flaherty Apr 2014
I'm sick of being told that I'm 
"Not Charles Bukowski." Because, 
I never said I was.
But also, and more, because, every time,
(And I suppose I've told myself plenty too)
It's a let down. 

I want to believe
(And not in that X-Files sort of 
(I Want to Believe sort of
(way) 
That we're all Bukowski. 
We're all at least poets. 
At least we're all ***** poets,
In one way or another. 
"I'm too ****** for this *******."

But this is starting to feel like
The part in the film when I'm 
Talking to the old girl, and she says, 
"What I've said up to this point is
Pointless. Now you decide."
I'm at the part of the book 
When he finally finds her.
And yes she still loves him,
Or at least. She's loved him the whole time. 

I can turn a leather recliner
Into a throne, if need be. 
I'll tape a crown of paper together
To prove a point. 
I just happen to think
The kid getting high in my kitchen
Has a real chance at the presidency. 

(Grab this, draw a circle on the floor
With it. Fill the circle up with
Everything you know, the words
The love, the colors, the mended,
And the still open. Watch that light up
At least a universe.)

I'd hope our kingdoms
Could co-exist peacefully,
But my respect for you,
As a fellow ruler,
Would never waiver

Because you can make your crown
Of staples and business cards
And be King Bukowski if you wanted,
But at least you'd be special. 
And (at the very least),
You'd be king.
An attempt to articulate the feelings of a "transitionary period" while still holding on to "who I think I am."
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