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Robert Ronnow Mar 2019
Off the train I hit the streets
and start laughing. This is ridiculous,
incomprehensible. How can innumerable bipeds
have individual inner lives. Why are they doing
what they’re doing? I have no answer
New York City but to also go about my business
in this case prepare for surgery, survival.

But why survive with so many exact replicas
to replace me? A swarm of ants or hive of bees,
social organisms they’re called, climbing
over each other, avoiding bumping and amazingly
making way, anticipating the sudden turns
and straight paths of others, strangers but brothers,
sisters incubating, the cells of a small
*****, nodes of a single semi-conscious organism.

The concept of a higher power that cares
for me is also risible yet how else
can I explain the surgeon and his team,
robots and magnetic resonance imaging machines,
all primed and trained to save my life.
They are not particularly interested in what
I do with my time. I am immediately
in love with the Irish brogue of the head nurse,

the Indian skin of the physician’s assistant.
The long extraordinarily thin
fingers of the famous surgeon. All
mine to savor (and the other cancer patients).
Back on the streets, rush to the train.
So many women to choose from! One
in fishnet stockings stands out, tall
calm, still, graceful. No cell, no hair, no hurry.

Yesterday’s suicidal thoughts: the mind
is a clever servant, insufferable master. Therefore,
meditate on this: absolute need, dependence on the Other.
I still like Hombre, The Shootist and Ulzana’s Raid
but realize those dead heroes
were subordinate to society: the gun manufacturers who armed them.
Thus, I go for cancer tests, accepting, not predicting results.
Hero accepting help.

A torrential rain following five days of flooding,
tornadoes out west busting up wooden towns
all because too many of us are hoarding plastic, herding electrons.
None of us know how it will end, what the outcome will be
(of our surgery). The best that can be said
is Don’t forget to breathe. And you might
as well believe in that higher power.
www.ronnowpoetry.com

--title from a tune by Billy Strayhorn
Jake Espinoza Sep 2012
Write something about nothing, call it poetry.
Quiet jet-engine speed turmoil indecision on the topic.
Silent bodies, screaming minds, communication desired and avoided
Chance glances, glimpses. Hoofing it.
Write poetry about nothing, call it something, but only in whispers to yourself, pretend to hope to be heard, have interest feigned or genuine directed your way.
        Confusion. Mingled strings of internal conversation.
        Misdirected. I can’t think crooked, focalisation se présente sideways. Self-expression in non-poetic terms seems likely. Saw girls, one on Detroit street, summer clothes and quiet face, scampered inside from the yard littered. Saw her again in the street next to a minor catastrophe, passed her by and looked.
        Let’s take a second to breathe, introduce a silence to the mind so that everything that comes can be better heard. So much background noise, minor thoughts mingle into static, almost impossible to interpret the bemused psychobabble. Empty it out, slow down, relax, and maybe you’ll begin to recognize coherent thoughts; organize the jumble of words fighting to be understood all out of order and as yet meaningless. Thoughts keep revolving, recycling; the girl, she reminded you of Melissa. Same style, a girl whose mood is always a grateful summer to your wintry perspective. Refreshing reminder, easy on the eyes. This girl’s likeness and your friend the poet, separated; his utensils. The paintbrushes he flourished about to create were not wooden and sable but liquid and smoke. That small ******* secret voice suggesting unwholesome things, acts unbefitting of brotherly conduct. He is my true brother, my family; an extension of my own soul. I went to treatment, they broke me down, whittled away at my rough hewn surface to make sculpture, a replica of others, manufactured to meet requirements and specifications deemed necessary for target successes. This talk of will, sacrificing my own, force-fed trust and mantras begetting themselves in circular fashion, turning in sync with the earth’s rotation upon its axis in its course of necessary revolution.
        Expended effort and time saved or served, goals impossible until forgotten, let go empty space ellipsis let god. Self-supplanted in unpredictable incomprehensible present, trying to avoid thoughts of crumpled papers in paper bags serving as receptacles for things undesired or abandoned or too truthful, I’m forgetting what it is to hide from myself which makes it possible to disappear. Tune in to the present, your train of thought – a queue – crowding, crowds rushed and frantic me first says everyone impatiently awaiting their turn for attention. Starved but forgotten proper nutrition. Self-criticism equating to self-analysis – spontaneity – uncontrollable, unforeseeable in the present aromatic mixture of mason jars swarmed with colored lights beautiful dim in darkness in which beer was swilled, time spent in unkempt kitchens nervous, standing walking evading settlement peace or rest, this is excitable discomfort, anything to slow down or feel a surrogate thereof. Forgotten words remembered, past rooms beautiful dim in darkness, proper illumination – see everything just right, not too brightly though not too dark. Living in this room for now, seeing as though immersed, submerged in memory of smiling faces easy laughter, cold-eyes Vera and well-at-ease. There is a wealth of self-acceptance. These people, their faces shine contentment, comfort, and mine is manufactured. I’ve become a factory where everything is sought after and nothing is attained because my goals are intangible, comprehensible but beyond aid, sorry, it’s just the way you are, maybe you’ll know one day, but we can’t help. We don’t waste our time with questions of absurdity, we live in this present moment, and that’s how we do it – no plans until plans come. No thoughts until thoughts come. Easy transitions in conversations, we don’t think of how to be ourselves, we just do it because we slow down, we know we are breathing, and it is not in our nature to forget it. It is not in our nature to live in our heads, to flail in a swell of questions less dense than water, we attend. We simply are.
        This is contentment. This is their seamless skin where mine corresponds to scars and rabid suspicious scratches dug deep. They were content with their surfaces; I was convinced of malice subcutaneous hence the scars and blood breathing open air. It is this suspicion that draws a line, places me on one side, them on another; it is this curiosity intrinsic and ironically unquestioned that digs the trenches in shape of graves. This fatal imaginary need for understanding where there is nothing to be understood. Questions are my poison, self-manufacturing, self-sufficient destruction, coming hot off the assembly line in my skull. Questions incubating further questions error: implement infinite loop, killall. Find the bug, recompile, run. Sit still, learn from the wind and atmosphere you’ve learned to sense which makes you an outsider only because you wanted this somehow. Uncertainty, confused reflection, arbitrary comments; coincidences, conspiracy, breakpoint. Programs running in smooth operation.
        Radiohead blaring, self-conscious self-care, these people enjoy themselves with unconscious grace, they let themselves be and immediately I tear my mind in two to understand what they understand without understanding. It is the nature of love and music that displays the closest correlation. These people are my idealized notion of grace, rendered more so by speed of processing, depth of analysis so that they appear not only graceful creatures, but with grace amplified as if observing them in slow-motion. So much contingent on understanding, contingency notwithstanding if I was comfortable with ignorance, if questions did not occur. These people are appropriate; balanced, no need for brutal introspection, no need to stir up sand composing the sea bed. These people, they understand certain things I cannot as of yet. They understand, they know without knowing that things are the way they are because things are the way they are and that’s ok, we’re ok, and everything is and will always be ok as long as we know well enough to leave well enough alone. We are each other, serving compliments to sainthood.
        ...let go, and be one with us, for love is in our hearts.
It took a few lines to get into it. Also, this is meant to be read aloud, somewhat intensely.
Auroleus Sep 2012
The place was dangerous as hell; we had no business being there. It was a complex, composed of four immense structures, looming on the bluffs between Lake Michigan and a ghost town. I'm not sure which side of the fence brought forth more eeriness - the sight of four massive industrial skeletons was indeed an eerie one, but within the village that must endure it's haunting presence persists a dwindling heartbeat... and together they produced a heightened effect of slow decay - and that was what drew me in.

The place was magnificent day or night.

By day, we'd explore the groundworks while the light allowed us to admire the massive machinery, which by then had accumulated copious amounts of corrosion. All those dead giants, never to function again. In the spring time, beams of light would penetrate the ceiling above, caving in from years of stress sans stress tests. Even when the light was not shining through, one could make out where the beams have been because in their wake they left a trail of life. Up to that point in my life I thought that was the most beautiful scene I had ever seen - a thousand tons of old machinery, and a stubborn sunbeam poking through, incubating it's au natural industrialized chia pet.

By night, we would ascend to the rooftops of these four story horror stories and gaze up at the stars. Sometimes, when our ***** were feeling particularly swelled, we'd venture across the rooftops as if in some post-apocalyptic videogame. And sometimes when we were feeling a bit rebellious and artistic, we'd bring along some cans of spray paint and redecorate to our desire. Oh, and another reason the place reeked of death was surely due to it being a glue factory... wherein horses were killed in order to gain access to their foot-stuff. I was told by an unfortunate local that they'd bury the unwanted horse parts in big pits back behind the place... this man had told me that he fell into one while wandering around back there - nearly died trying to get out.

We knew the place was soon to be leveled, but we did not know when. Eventually I ended up moving out of state for a while, and alas, upon my return my childhood fascination was no more. shrugs... So it goes.
Alex Hoffman Aug 2015
In Algonquin, before the dawn
before they’re clouds, the fog rises
tucked under the echoing loons
above the fat smell of wet soil
before the day becomes day
before you are a person
and the light of day breaks
the green sky casts a hue
incubating the lake
until life becomes life
until you become human
Written about a canoe trip in algonquin park
Chimera melons Mar 2010
Eats the lovers head after coitus
Something tells me a black widow is better
Dogs get stuck together
is that a style?
Pigs can ****** for 30 minutes
little corkscrews
mules can't reproduce do they have fun?
seahorse males carry the pregnancy to term
penguins take turns incubating
in extreme conditions
humans get joint custody
Terry Jordan Oct 2018
I used to have 4 brothers
And loved them all the same
The eldest used us siblings
For where to lay the blame

Hoping reincarnation
Proves true after a while
Dan said his fondest wish was
Return an only child

Soon I arrived, his sister
Right after Dan turned 2
He fed me peanut butter
Until my face turned blue

Dan denied that he loved me
As kids did, once or twice
But he jumped in to save me
When I fell through the ice

Surviving eighteen months then
My baby crib moved on
I moved to the bottom bunk
My next brother was born

Named for our dad’s Commander
World War II not fearing
Ted was sent to Vietnam
Where he would lose his hearing

Neighbors once thought we were twins
Blond hair and Dad’s blue eyes
Family strife split us apart
Though close in age and size

He can’t hear but does read lips
That bomb, it took its toll
Seems no single moment’s joy
PTSD took hold

Next came Bill when I was 6
AKA “Sweet William”
Boundless joy and endless love
His broad smiles worth millions

When I loved chocolate ice-cream
That was his favorite, too
He is my son’s Godfather
His wise words helped me through

I have no clue what ended
Brotherly affection
Before 2 brothers died he
Cut off real connection

Sam was born prematurely
When I was twelve years old
Spent 5 months incubating
Before we took him home

Our father’s disappointment
Sam never went to college
Didn’t want to play football
Was seeking other knowledge

Sam learned how engines functioned
By disassembling cars
Made candles in the basement
An Eagle Scout-golf star

A heart of gold he suffered
Much doggerel and strife
Alcohol’s what dogged him till
Tragically took his life

Divided family members
I’m actor and spectator
Seeking to forge connections
Reunion instigator

Some gather for funerals
A wedding now and then
I mourn, alone, Dan and Sam
Lament what might have been

Hadn’t been able to finish this piece until I took a long vacation. I still have 2 living brothers, but neither responds to my overtures. One can't hear me, and the other is not speaking.  New Englanders are known for denial and take-it- to-the-grave-grudges.  I guess I really don't want to know why.
I chased the first rays
of an autumn morning

but to my sorrow
when I arrived at
the urgent place
the sun had
already
risen

breathing a
crowning glory of a
seasons brilliant
splendor

alighting
the glowing amber
of golden woods
shining like gleaming
constellations of
dazzling morning
stars...

though I
desired to find
ascendent beauty
the ubiquitous glow of
transfigured leaves
immersed me in
a divine chrome...

as I traversed
the woods, my
solitary steps found
companionship
with a sullen
mistress singing
a sad rustle
of dry fallen leaves

and as the drone
of cars faded from the
receding road

I searched myself
for courage and
found resolve

I pondered truth
and discovered
the wisdom
of resolution...

yearning  to
realize a
deeper faith

I hiked
further up
the wooded hill,
visiting the gay
playfields
of my youth

and received
an epiphany
of wholesome
closure
opening
new
timeless
doors...

still questing
for more light

a prophetic wren
whirred a pliant
secret into my ear

she bespoke
a symphony
of avian
improvisations

conversing in
a thousand
luminous tongues,
relating a sonorous
elegy teaming with
the brightest
joys of life

raising bold
proclamations

celebrating a
seasons radiance

imploring me
to join the chorus...

though the canopy
of the woods still
boasted boughs
of green

the
infant hues
of spring had
run its course

the glory of an
expiring season
strewn on the
forest floor

covering the
mouldering stags
inching back into
the compost of life

breeding blankets
of furry moss

feeding on the
primal organica

of seemingly
expired flora

here, in this
darkened moment
I realized
the transcendent
miracle

the loam of life
incubating
churning  
in concert with
the turn of
seasons...

to my sorrow
I missed the first
rays of the morning

the first
peeks of light
a breaking day
gracefully bespeaks
upon a sleeping earth
awoken in new light

yet I am filled

I am transcendent

I am the first ray
of an eternal light

I am the first ray
of my earthen
gloaming...

on the morrow
the best of me
is in the marrow
of all who loved me
and all whom I loved

these rays of me
will forever rise
in an eternity
of dawnings

For Joey
Godspeed Beloved

Vaughan Williams:
Lark Ascending

Oakland
101313
jbm
Molly Greenhood Jun 2012
consuming cigarettes like candy at a theme park
shoveling, inhaling
before mom takes it away
incubating cool concrete
to hatch eggs of non-conformist
thoughts, theories, therapy
Costello glasses fog
with skinny-jeaned laughter and flannel
bellows only audible within the confines
of claustrophobic, humid basements
spilled with beer out of sun-lit
fear.
stay ******, ****** up and disconnected
feigning parental disregard and lacked motivation, except
to pet cats to the tune of vinyl
manicured with dust
seeping with lust
for the past
when rainbow-striped sweaters were cool.
pound the drums too loud for ears
sweating out anger and distrust
stuck to reconstruct or fit in
become the grey, the void, the in-between
the one thing you don't want.
Zoe Sue Mar 2017
You've been hiding out inside of me for six weeks now
Playing dormant
While I played dumb
Bean sized bundle
Cells,
I tell myself
Cells
I tell my cells
I'm sorry
I don't know
If you would be benign
Or cancerous
To the me that does exist
Call it selfish
(At 19 years, I'm no philanthropist)
I know
Bean cell bundle
You are a part of me
But
Now it seems
Loss lurks at either exit
For if you stay
A part of me goes
The young heart that yearned for the harbors of far shores
You would possess it instead
The mind
Imagining futures brimmed with possibility
Unstoppability
Would then fumble with responsibility
(There are days I slide alongside time
Up hours past the alarm
Don't feed myself till supper
Bean bundle
I could offer you existence
But I can't say it would be any good)
What if I offered your existence up?
Stats say 8 years would go along before someone would call you their own
8 years
Old enough
To wonder what could've been
And why
Your life looked nothing like the tv sitcom smiles
Feeling a heaviness in your heart
They say
If you see a suffering animal you have to put it out of its misery
Well you haven't had the chance to suffer yet
For the quarter inch of you cannot feel pain
Preemptive maybe presumptive
Fate may have fondled you with joy
But
The world is not often this kind
And
Though a part of me will go with you
Crying,
Bleeding
A corner of my heart away
I'll do my time
wondering,
what could've been,
And why
But
I can't bring you into this world
If I know
It may serve you only strain
Bean sized bundle
Of cells
My cells
Whatever part of me you may have come to be,
I choose me
I'm sorry
Disclaimer: This did not actually happen to me just a hypothetical thought process. No offense meant to any I respect any woman's choice
Stephen Parker Oct 2011
Dormant aspirations lie in winter's fallow ground
Burgeoning freedom furrowed in shallow soil; sovereign elements do pound
Infertile seeds in barren hearths tightly wound
A cold wind from on high scourges each, desolate mound
A dreary drizzle from hovering, satin crowns seeps deep; hopes are drowned
Nutrients for spawning growth are leached; blighting tentacles surround
Ambition suppressed, inactive period of malaise doth abound

In due season, warming rays of light shine thawing frozen hearts
Incubating innate desire to fulfill individual destinies, from chained depth departs
In destitute minds, a burgeoning sprout of liberty starts
Branching forth into fertile souls, intestinal fiber imparts
Taking root, it spreads deep, penetrating shielded ramparts
A fragile frond from each wavering limb darts 
Triumphing in tyrannous environment, a fruitful future charts
Connor Reid Apr 2014
The Assignment
The stitched gauze blistering upwards
Warts & ***** matter slithering up the arm
An enigmatic stench of mortality
Solomon in scrubs
A Djinn infected with humility
Wandering for what
Digging up a severe lack of confidence
Entombed with proprietary nuance
Dressed for an exodus
To undermine the decadence
Content, maggots wrapped in hair
Showering the idea of significance
Coiling comparatively, larvae in womb
Tetragrammaton, the seal of metatron
Electroencephalograms, gloved hands and air dripping
Formless in essence, an opaque blur

You are a child, you have no right
No right to reject prophecy, no right
No right to lead us with ink on hand
A town alive
Ushering in sinusoid delirium
The rapture will commence the rebirth
Those who seek utopia
Nor good or evil
Ordo ad chao
Consequential matrice of paradise
Lattices vibrate in sympathy
Sacrament, a doppelganger of truth
Embodied in a pool of white noise
Partials of static, collected
Rotting on my tongue like heaven's night
Standing figures of choked brimstone
******* skin into a wounded mouth
A wish house inhabited with flesh
Reflections to nowhere incubating adolescence
Jack-knifing a model of self
Into an abstract quartz of emotion
Faltering into fog, electric supplements of truth
Journals to which I find delusion

We belong here
Torturing an empty casket
Looking for acceptance, emptied happiness
Drowning in a temporary penance
Cubic zealots anchoring abhorrance
Undermine an attempt at the vessel
Wilting morbidly toward surfeiting iron
Lashed off walls like flaked skin
Encapsulating ***** in infection
meandering amongst godflesh
Bones torn from sockets
The lens to see the chandelier
Climbing into unlocked houses
Settling in amongst the precious

The smashed memories
Porcelain teeth
Pruned fingers & moulded hands
Halo of the sun
An alternative to consciousness
Stumble around the alphabet
Introduce geometry
And let madness interfere
Beothuks & Wynn
Clawing at my mind
Chapels magic, sacred
Symmetry, gentle effortless life
Rogue, effortless entanglement
Mansions painted in nostalgia
Dripping with molluscs
Heralding the other circles
Drawn in red, repulsion

Blue, reversal and probing in my mind
You're not here
Tender sugar, sacred salt
Gyromancy of soaking light
Slaves to perdition
Fingernails dipped in platelets
Haemorrhaging tension
An autumn in fog
Caution is caustic
Melting through your cheek
Revelation, concentrate spectrum
Palace hated acetate in youth
Wanderer Dec 2013
You went to that place
                         Where her flowers used to grow
Spilling hot, salty tears countless times
                    Left the air always smelling like the sea
Even years later
                       You can still hear her mermaid laughter
                   Echoing through the trees
Grown over with weeds now
                                      Sweet memories resting place
Much like the aching hollows of your heart
                   Anger rushes through the quiet solitude
           Urging your knees to buckle
Digging your hands into rich, wet earth
Sobbing great hiccuping gulps through mournful wails
                        True pain is that of loss
A circle is finally cleared
       Exhaustion floods the moment
Head heavily laid where she rests
                   Clouds hum by above the canopy
Digging into your pocket
Smiling softly now
            Grasping at incubating bleeding heart seeds
A hole here, a hole there
                                   She'll grow again

*For the dead never truly leave us
Em E Jul 2017
I closed my eyes,
lids down against the fire of the afternoon sun,
and through those new curtains I could no longer penetrate.
And so I turned inward instead
seeing the fire within my head,
the glowing embers radiating
out in a spinning, shifting, turning
series of wheels and tiles, burning
a deep glowing red,
then cycling through to hottest white
And the purple and blue
of deoxygenated blood
Returning to my lungs for another breath,
To gather the elements to delay my death
Working with my heart
To keep me vibrating
Every part in tune,
Each cell cradling me within
A billion tiny wombs comprising my skin, my flesh,
Incubating every spark of me that is
(my spirit).
That fire that burns within those spiralling rainbow hues,
that welcoming tapestry of space connecting me to you
and everything.
I saw this only when I closed my eyes
and let the sunlight filter through.
irinia May 2023
there was a time when
I used to love your shadow
even in my dreams
and daylight was a blessing
cause I caught your screams
incubating in my left shoulder
beyond the doors
much was still possible
-sexus plexus nexus-
in the trenches where
your silence had died
carefully I cradled the garden seeds
depositing them in the incubating
warmth of the earth's black womb
then buried my heavy heart there for a season
I thought of my cousin Roger who had just
relinquished the magical breath that animates
all living beings in this universe
it didn't matter that he had abused his body and
was an emotional wreck most of his brief life
more like a brother, fond memories of innocent play,
mischievous fun and a generous, loving persona
poked through fresh and green
like tender infant shoots
these were the perennials, the lasting bouquets
that could never be laid to rest
the fluffy double orange hoop skirts of the hibiscus
dancing in the corner
and the African daisies laughing purple faces
make me smile
I could feel my cousin's Spirit whispering in
the gentle Florida breeze
"hey, cuz, life goes on.......forever!"
Claire Waters Oct 2013
you never fully unpacked your clothes
the whole time you live in there

and now i know things that make my mind bulge
feeling like whenever i come back to reality
it's too vivid through my eyes
and that's why i never noticed that you hadn't
until someone mentioned it
too much for my stomach
it turns so easily

it's amazing what the human brain can prevent, form getting in
if you really try, if you fight for it
i'm sorry i'm so frightened
or i'd send this in a letter
but i know that they'd derhyme it
and figure out
we all love you, and you love us
and we love heaven, and heaven loves you

they've had us chasing death for so long
extinction for redemption as if that makes any sense
heaven is freedom, heaven is your eyes when the stars are out
heaven is all the battle scars on your worn hands because
you survived and today's breath is sweeter to your lungs
than any breath before, because unlike you, it has forgotten all of them
it just follows your patterns and hopes that you love it
you love it, the circuits do you remember how they
widened your eyes, the branches of trees can be limbs chopped off
but remember you told me, and i know it to be true;
they always grow back. they always grow back.
you will grow back. don't fall so fast that you can't catch you in a year or two
you are your worst enemy and your best friend
and you know better than anyone how to be your own best friend
your inner child is safe in this letter
your inner child is stamped into the fabric of my mind like a siren of eyes
your inner child is deep below the concrete floor,
incubating inside the earth with your name
don't let them take your name, god why don't i have the guts to send you this letter
i guess i'm afraid you'll never get it
i wish that i could help you, i know you're not crazy
and you, last month, i know you're not crazy
and you, last year, i know you're not crazy
and you, still on the inside, i know that it's scary
you know everything that i want to tell you already
in your gut, in your instinct of instincts, it's just being barred
your eyes are not black, they are shadowed
but i still see a gleaming inside you
a glow that snaps it's neck back into place
when no one's listening
this world is such a distressing illusion
and yet look at me afraid of becoming
if i speak clearly enough to be felt i guess that's all i can offer
i'm trying,
i don't want to die
you are hearing things, and they're not in your mind
this world is hazy now,
it's hard to believe, but don't fall just yet,
create your own vibrational frequency
they know us well. you are worthy of respect
you are worthy of love, happiness, kindness
you are everything and everything is you
and we can't lose something so precious
Nik Bland Sep 2018
Ramshackled dream
Held together with glue and string
And prayers
Floating as a feather
Yet easily the heaviest of things

What tapestries you inspire
Yet not strong enough the exit my mind
Keeping you hidden
Incubating long term
Until you’re almost over cooked

Make I take a glimpse of you
Never to touch, in fear of the break
Complexly understated
A warming flame
Flickering in this empty cold world

Ramshackled dream
Pretty to most, breathtaking to me
Sitting ever fervent
Waiting to shine
Wait to breathe the air
JupiterGirl Mar 2012
theres always
Tomorrow
procrastinating
day a wastin'
contemplating
incubating
fat *** waiting
tee vee baiting
big mouth craving
fuel for raving
dazing
Blazing....
Shin Jun 2014
Looking at you I see a lifelong flicker
incubating my heart with its warmth
zeppelins fall before this beauty.

You look at me, and I see our friendship grow
onwards into the night sky, and our time is
unending yielding the fruit of mechanical bliss.

Arriving at our destination I see you now.
Rocking back and forth; your heart in your hands.
Enchanting the room with your spiritual show.

Actually perhaps my feelings were premature,
maybe we'll be friends forever
and I can call your name from my dark light house.
Zapping to life the bitterness held
inside of my sad and miserable little chest.
Now, I close this poem with one last line.
Goodnight, and thank you for being you.
Writing is so close to making love:
That sometimes, you can't tell the difference at all;
If I ask if you want to make love this afternoon
You look out the window, at the sky, and mention the fineness of the weather
Or whether it is gloomy and maybe looks like rain,
As there is never, no weather, to comment about
If I ask if you want to make love this evening
You check your calendar then, as if perpetually finding it too full
To squeeze in a lover's tryst, at the full height of the moon,
And then might mention other nights, when unexpected guests arrived,
To while away the incubating hours of darkness, with glasses of wine
And well worn jokes; the *** jokes ever popular, with maybe a game of cards
If I ask if you might want to make love in the morning
You are sure to be busy then; what with breakfast to get, picking up clothes
From the night before; all the interminable household chores
Which seem to lead from one to another, almost seamlessly
While still finding the time, to watch birds through the window and wonder
What they are about, and if they have nests of eggs yet,
And about how two birds kept hiding, beneath the bush yesterday, to copulate
And if even birds have their preference, about such activities, performed together as a couple
And if the neighbors are not stirring, because they have slept in
After a night of continuous *******; and if they are not too old for that sort of thing yet-
It seems very clear, that the only way to write a poem
Is just to begin it, and to let all that other nonsense stuff of life
Fall away; to know that the right words will come when needed,
Just like the right moment finally arrives
And I take your hand, and go toward the smiling twilight
And you finally acquiesce, in the form of a silent acceptance,
That 'no' is not any longer an option,
Because for some things, the answer should always be, 'yes'
And so we write that poem, then
The one I have been thinking about, for so long
And I carefully leave out of it, weather and visitors and busy birds and neighbors;
And all of them are quiet and good, while the poem creates itself capriciously,
Born on only the whim of a moment, and some pulsing memories;
Our bodies merely the vehicle, which pushes it forth
Out of a rich milk of pastures and time;
And in which the whole of history, since mankind first appeared
Is all somehow condensed down
Into one line, of purest potency.
D.T. Lethe Jun 2010
I should lie to tell you the stars shine
to catch a glimpse of her eyes.
That they wake million year dreams
to gaze for brief time, dreams of
never waking up to never
vividly see.
I should yell to
grandfather light warming closer
moving steps incubating fetal
positions inside feet splashing cracks
across arching pavement ways.  
Intentionally broken back, Mothers’
spinal chord seeps ***** through
cracked nerves,
solicitous beads fornicating
under lamps flaming orange
currents.  

Your saliva spins images of
laughter for me to see in cloudless
nights over rivers swimming
oceans’ way.  Capillaries open
across my eyes crawling towards the ground,
fractured concrete
searching nurture, natural born life steeping
into my blood stream upon sleeping.  
Legs carry dallying moments,
lagging steps tripping closer to
never missing cracks in stone encrusted
fallopian tubes.  

I want to touch your skin,
fingers pulling back layered
wind sharpened capsules
reach sprouting seedling under
shoes bouncing soul to
toe and back again.  Our words
feed;
sketches of moon-tide engravings
upon carbon traces, molecular hair
catching my eyes.  
We smile at each other.
joanna dibble Apr 2012
Soul settled deep in this nest of solitude, incubating Self
Mayah Seals Dec 2014
The night is around me
Surrounds me
Encompasses me in its arms
It hides me
Guides me
Holds me close to its heart

The night so defiant
So infrangible
So thrilling
It holds my head up high
Supports me
Disciplines me
It's infatuated with this heart of mine

The night so dark outside
So atramentous
So incubating
It teaches me how to be
Alluring in my eye
Unquenchable in my desire
The night, so bright, is where I aspire
of blissbrick meanderings
smacks straight into
purpose, full

don't number
nameless incubating
prior to hatch

unimaginable unknowns
may yet manifest

one potential alteration:
me, singer in this
ambiguously yay rap duo

Vernacular Spectacular
Spitshit Linguistic
or maybe Prolix Helixed

first album:
Straight Outta Whoville

you may know
but you never
quite know

the One is THE
ultimate storyspinner
weaving all our tiny threads
into tapestry bigger
than grey matter
can muster

let it
let go
Auroleus Aug 2012
I had a talk with a fetus today.  
A mind talk.  
I wasn’t aware of such an ability
Until I encountered this incubating sapient sapien.  
We talked in a language consisting of feelings and emotions –
No trace of an actual language;
No words.  
He conveyed warmth.  
Mind numbing warmth and happiness.  
Mind enhancing.
Mind glowing.  
Life glowing.  
Radiant joy ran down my legs
And down through my feet,
Straight into the ground.  
Into the Earth.  
The planet then sighed a mighty sigh of great relief,
Somehow knowing that this child had been born.
Finished the chapter
The one in the middle
Careful not to peek at the ending
Curious to review the beginning
Started out so nicely, sweet, enticingly
Teased me into thinking it would never end
Crooked finger wags & summons
Points to unknown, mysterious terrain ahead

Glancing back over my shoulder
Quick review but cannot fix, it remains the same
Only I am different fixed in this place
The next chapter incubating
Without my outworn point of reference
I am truly free
Happy Birthday to me
Tony Luxton Nov 2015
At least five a day! Stop smoking!
Enough messages to fatten a
health  freak, sprinkling my consciousness
like drizzle pimpling a window pane.

On Dali time - I wander
a nightmare hall of mirrors.
My watch slow, slow - marching
past the appointment hour.

Incubating my ***** sample,
I watch a young man bending forward
like a scribe studying his text.
Someone silently mouthing
her missal or her shopping list.

Ping! Will William Shaw
please go to room five.
Back to the slow march.
Please let me be next.

— The End —