and we just dissolved
into our own ways how
bad it felt
but to hear you did what you did
I saw you as a most logical *****
happy until the bourbon had you
spinning around
I recall when you gave me that smile
working behind the counter
at the bbq joint and we met eyes
and I saw a very nice girl
a sane partier
like me
never in my wildest dreams
would I have imagined you
being anywhere as demoned as much
as you were actually
we shared laughs
nights in arms and you told me
how he had done things to you
and I thought you had dealt
with all that,
I wish I had spent more time
while you were drunk finding things out
about you,
but,
it is too late now,
Stacy , you beautiful angel now,
blew your own brains out.
God help you.

delicious, where new words roam
along starlit alleys and country roads
balconies at the theater
backseats
to become like the kiss with tongue
the soft touch of flesh in the loam
flecks of dew or sweat and hope
falling like electric spasms into the calm
neck her nape
his strong arms her breast
her legs soft his beard rough
the arms of lovers intertwined
like reeds in the cool mist waving
to the tune of majesty
with every breath
a new word escapes
never discovered like this
a gasp  the wry utterance of
indecipherably delicious

to picture him in I would say
he is **** and pusher womanizer
comedian streetwise
strong genius parachute 1st Airborne
Korea and Vietnam
black and white and all religions
player extraordinaire
but, if he likes you he has your back
he is like the Devil the Saint
the best **** man I ever knew.

desire I find I have developed for
nice people and saints and givers
for those who live their lives
content and are good examples
I have this friend
you see who met all those criteria
if I was in need
no questions asked he was there
like a father he was
no questions asked
he gave what I asked for
even knowing at times
I was asking for wrong reasons
he just gave and said I was like a son to him
he is my benefactor
because by his example
I have come full circle
to where I am the one some people come to
when in need and it is all because of him
when they ask for help
I try to give
no questions
ever

the panther eats a poor bunny,
the panther gets sat on a by a hippo
the hippo swallows a tortoise and chokes
the vulture gets fed

the tress grow and the grass grows and eggs hatch and get ate by tortoises

which the panther loves and the hippo tromps on
and still
the vultures feast

which fertilizes the grasses the trees
which makes them grow and the tortoises
fall in love a nd **** and climb onto beaches
hatch thousands of eggs that the panther eats and the hippo
wallowing blindly fat through the fertilized long grass munching
steps on the panther again
then breaks her leg in the muck and dies
again the vultures
feast.


and the smart bunny, who noticed, had run away to the country
where Brer Rabbit had founded a commune for poor about to be eaten Rabbits. There they raised together carrots in a field in a country where there were no panthers tortoises or hippos.
Only to find this place had foxes who feasted on well fed rabbits.
And the Fox found there were quick bears who loved a nibble of fox. And men, great men with guns that could take down many number of bears in one day. And the vultures feasted.

ferociously needy a time or two amongst
the tall solemn weeping willow trees like guards
awaiting like mums
to stifle any running
vines from climbing
the ancient brick spires
and soiling their breeches knees
with god awful grass stains
and the toes of their
polished cordovans  so decadently
like wanton orphans
here we are brought up
in castles with desires
not met by brick or mortar
or examples,
tell me pa ,
with your grappling of the maid Helen,
in the parlor, were
not of a mind as I, all I ask ,
Sir, is to run wild one day of the month,
not forever,
like you, and mum,
always stern
like a Catholic Nun
on guard to ensure
no one ever smiles
or has fun,
is that our ruling obligatory
commitment?
Fun is catch and hide and seek and roses growing a little
wild outside their containments,
once in the while?
Or shall I stifle my creativity
my wants, and just grab ***
the help
every chance I get?

never has nature blessed on any one face
so sublime the treasures men seek
never ever has since a thousand ships
were launched has the world
seen beauty abound as fair
and uncommon;
Where nature has been harsh
to so many I see,
she was storing up all
her wonders
to bestow on you, my dear,
there " 'bout your dimples
those pursed ruby red lips
eyes deeper that any sea's depth",
but she , nature, may have stopped skin deep,
for I thinks, thou doth know
and enchant your own self
more than any man,
therefore the saying of
beauty is more
than skin deep.
Oh, oh how  I know, now,
oh fair, fair fairest
of all!

were I to merely conject
ills just transribe
but not plan society
in a drama of written verse
but not propose the cause nor solution
in my mind's eye
thereby definition I
with all true thought and admonitions
to my being misguided
take second reason the upper berth
on this waylaid  train
running wild over tracks
through woods runaway
wild verily
ask me anything
I shall proposition you
with causes and admonitions
lay your faults on the parallel tracks
like penelope strapped
awaiting the next freight
as I waltz off swaying
to and fro
certain in my cause and dizzy
destination, a circular straight line I have focused on
that changes day to minute to
second, with my fuzzy
harsh breath I take
and nearly pass out,
certain
to wit I have what to
where I need to hash out and brevity
is not my best attribute,
nor is humility.

everyone has it against me
and in the morning hours
they are outside
creeping
My whole life is their fault
and I blame them for
all my woes
the power bill not paid,
their bad, i sit in the dark,
I can't get a loan,
a conspiracy,
no one plusses my poetry,
the forces have me blocked,
THE Force is you,
sit and blame and
continue your ways
and nothing will EVER change.
Blame others
instead of looking within
and the same clouds that dim your light
will follow your days eternal.
It is not them , nor they
that blocks you from success.
It is you, in
the end.

strive for no reason but your own good
righteously proud
of your own being
get small when that is called for
be one among the many
yet call out your
meanings
loud from the
alleys the towers
wherever it stands
tall like an *******
close and warm as any
******
soft as any breast
hard as a man can get
be all take it in your mind
take it like your last breath
make it original heartfelt
not commodity
not salt and pepper
but your life on the line
your progeny
your life
your destiny
you
are it
try

all of a sudden
kung fu you and karate chops
I like more the martial arts of thought
like  confucianism
I throw words around
and that isn't always innocent
yet I hear people
being brought down by words and take
a second look at
my words and
I am not an innocent
god , either

a what if, not a certainty,
that is what you thought of what you thought you saw,
that was perhaps your mind and your uncertainties
painting horizons like death filled fields,
corn rows shorn,
trees toppled endlessly ,
the vastness of  the devastation,
are you sure,
was not imagination?
I have been there ,
on the warpath where
the arrows must fly
the scalps need severed,
I have also tasted peace,
and calm and love from my presumed enemy,
my war goes on,
in my head now judging
reality and futures good,
inside a head full of prejudice.

had words
had thought or do they?
how do I know?
I don't.
Perhaps , in there
deep down when they feed
their queen
they chant Chaucer . or
their equivalent-
I tend to underestimate
the estimable qualities of all but me,
how do I do that?
very stupidly.

or a good plot rhyme or theme
make me see something
I might have taken for granted
give me words that *******
make me drunk high intoxicated
or stupid
in retrospect
make me say ****
now that is unique
that is a new way of saying what I felt and
could not, I speak to the mountains the mole hills
the largest and the small
the powered the weak
say something strong! Strong !!
Make a simile smile a
metaphor dance in my eyes dreamy.
Take my imagination to the edge of denial
then push me over into believing,
into that daydream that
fantasy we all need.
*** me up with words like I am
naked among a world of mermaids,
swimming in bays of
green
island
make believe
talk me to the limits, love;
for their is no other heaven
but what you make
no other hell in which you make
no world spinning but this, let's us
get heart
and give back and swirl and fly
because we
might  be human
and need to, after all.

long clouds the puffy ones
the jet vapors the transient work into the
atmosphere and disappear
the dark ones the threatening
the clown like  
cartoon things
work the wills
and the imagining
long suffered hopes
of all of us
quite the vaporous
puffy memory of dreams
and hopes
vapid
with liquid moist
molecular transpiration and lust
just soft water dispersed into air
like hopes and love
floating above the
atmosphere where
we long desire to be a
tiny thing interspersed
with all
and free

needs to be rearranged
I went to the the strip show
the other day and didn't even get a ******
the same girls and ****
and barely there shoestrings
hiding ******
but, I think I was
more cerebral somehow
thinking how nice it might be
somehow,
if I talked to someone sane and not
tainted by family
like those girls, who almost to a tee
had an uncle or granddad or god forbid
a father's hand down her ******* at ten years old,
and I got shamed, though , I had done none of it,
I got shamed for humanity,
and how
economics
and skin are so related,
how the sins of society
somehow come back to me
and I wonder, then think,
optimistically (with tongue in cheek)about
evolution
so harsh so long  a thing
that it takes
generations
and centuries
to change.

sans regret full of hope
then sleep reigns peaceful and deep
I close eyes thinking of
those things we as a human
might dream of
be it real
be it sane
be it but
a dream.
For without
our imagination our
seeing things
that are not
and positing our faith
above our reasoning
life would dully be
a hell on here ,
I get not all of our dreams
come true, so far
very few, but,
I take the optimists  
view,
that without
dreaming
life would be useless,
so I close my eyes
with a fair thought of someone
I hope to know,
and one of the lady
that glows always
when my eyes are closed ,
my lady dream imaginative beautiful
like sunsets and
the best stars glow.

there locked inside a dream cage
breaths breathed rebound off the walls
no need to feel anything but rage
bouncing thought things all
around
nearly now I caught up
with reality fought it off
fell back down where I was something
came a little and came back down
into the the the back reasons
the echoes of past
the the the last remnants
just sittin' now
behind those bars again,
****,
I nearly escaped.
It was so simple
when I was young,
knowing for certain,
how did that dissolve?

It comes in colored leaves
temperatures
frosty winter's snowflakes
and spring blossom wakes
summer's bounty
fall festivals
and an old man's testimonial;
I was once a dumb bud
tempestuous
flighty sinner *******
and grew to know fakes
of my own bounty
half hearted
efforts thinking I knew
it all best;
now I have grown to
only see myself as
the fault
and the fix
and the season's
nor temperatures
nor outsides influence me.
I see it as change
for the better
and am the same, now,
with this religion,
no matter
the seasons.

oxygen water and food or is that all
to make us living beings
I look into the skies often and question
the reasons we have
desires
and fascinations with fireworks
enjoy so much the arts
sigh when seeing a Monet
cry when listening to a sonata
make connections with a poem
strive so hard to describe creation
like comedies watch tragedies
make stories up
like Santa
have holidays and count our
time here
religions believe in more,
is the calendar
the clock
the heartbeat more
than  breathing
drinking
eating?

all twisting around corners
dirt paved and bumpy
around snaking corners
turning which way and that
and to believe hopefully
it will straighten and get smooth
is like hoping the moon rises at dawn and the
dark is light
but, if you are like me
you like country roads
and bumps and
a different path from others
the long way around is most
often the hard way and the most
profound.

the spirit of holidays
the smell of turkey and dressing
pumpkin pie and a chardonnais chaser,
a sniffer of expensive scotch, and a good conversation,
around the dinner table
pervade through every home in America
better yet around the world
this Thursday,
and every day
from this one
forward.
I wish the whole world
a happy Thanksgiving!

on toes right round
conversing with god
the edge very close
almost falling down
when the strawberry
lips of the betweens
came and I came and
all was frozen in the
true sense of the word
she called me  by my
name at the time
superman

wive's tales and home cures
for maladies like heart sickness
include burying the hair of the beloved
and toenail clippings under
the biggest oak tree under the full moon
with a dollar bill
and I found it too hard the dirt
under an oak and dug a hole
under a pecan tree
it came back to bite me in the nut
for she not only came back
to me but brought her mom and gramma
brother sister and grandad and her sister's two kids

and it is beautiful
the snow fall making a winter blanket
for all the trees
meanwhile
on the other side of the world
a child in his bed gets his leg blown off
or just dies with nothing but hunger and pain
so I went about hanging lights on the
two evergreens in my yard
and the fake plywood santa
in his sleigh and all eight tiny reindeer
and had a realization again
of a boy and a ******* the streets of downtown Atlanta, Chicago
Detroit, or New York or Daleville
with no home, trying to live out of a small chevy or Ford or
Dodge , while Chevy and Dodge, got government help?
And they have no books , and their mom has bruises and
a broke arm and tries to care for them and cries while they sleep in the backseat and knows she could have done better and
is against the windshield in her hating herself
ashamed with not a bit of hope,
and I sit the star on top of the Tree and the glow lights the lawn and santa
winks in a pattern and Rudolph's nose glows red,
and it is all so beautiful

in the week when I fell in love
once every night
I rolled sevens like eleven times

seemed like my luck
was rabbit's footed  
and four leaf clover abundant

seven years bad luck ended
with a breakfast of
hog jowls and black eyed peas

and the garden grew fine
untended tall corn turnips
sunflowers like

a Van Gogh painting
that suddenly had
a door to the church

open , and two white irises
in a field of  purple
amazed flowers

such was the week the
dalliance of harvest moon
early in November

there it is in my hindsight post now brain
all the things that haunt me like  
they are hidden but aren't
times and incidences
that I might have been
out of touch with reality
and
I had thought I had
tucked them all away neatly to
forever go unknown
to be just times that don't
have anything to do with theme that is now
and
I found I can tuck and fold and hide things
from myself for a minute
quite well
but in the end it all comes forward
to the forefront
eventually
and that is where I am
right between facing and
running again

my boots stand in the  corner
my socks stuffed in their throats
and my work jeans crusted with dried thin-set
rubbing a hole in my leg,
my fingers red and scarred
I am not wanting to touch even the remote
it hurts to pet my dogs or you kitty,
I ate two awesome sour cream tacos
on the ride home
and walked to the beer store
Mohammed finally had restocked
the Olde English,
Missy , my Lab freshly spayed,
and all different,
like a pup,
full of energy nearly knocked me down but
did tip over my makeshift coffee table
spilling last nights Bud
and the ashtray and the last three month's
unopened mail and spoons and forks all here to there.
the  three kitty's hide when I come home now.
Missy all jumping and full of verve.
scares them but I pulled out a bag
and rustled it and all three
came running , I gave them all hotdogs.
Opened the top of the Malt Liquor can
and said, for the hundreth time,
as I turned my computer on,
now this is life!

I have noticed your ways with people,
the way your dimples turn people's heads
and you are not even trying to.
The way you blink your eyes automatic
with blushed cheeks and red rosy inviting smiling lips,
I am but commentating.
Don't think for one minute,
I have noticed the curve of your ample *****,
the way your back arches
or the smooth fairness of your shoulder when  
you bend down,
or have ever entertained my hand on
the round of your bottom.
I am a learned man with principle
and the pleasures of the flesh don't
bind me nor change my desires
Miss N Chantment
for god's sake you know I am lying!!

I am wanting to thank some very incredible people.
I also am hoping others will , also.
With that in mind I would like to list
ten poets here I feel people need to read.
My list consists of poets who are always active and generous ,
have good humor and sense.
I would like others to add their ten to my list.
And hopefully everyone eventually gets a shout out.
In the comments list ten poets you admire and would like to see
others appreciate. I will add  them to this list.
If you would like to list more feel free , the more the merrier, and the more
poets get a shout out and their name shared. I will add as many as you can type!
After all , this is goodwill and spirit and sharing and I feel good .


Vicki
Mark Cleavenger
Terry Collett
Ja
Sally Bayan
Emily Burns
Jules Winerose
Lady RF
Sukanya Sinha Roy
Valsa George
(Bill Hughes contributed the following)
Mary Winslow
Randolph L. Wilson
Elizabeth J
Bex
Ezra Warhol
my dearest reno
Wordvango
Jeff Stier
taia iverson
Dave Hewitt
Kristy Renae Dalton
(added by Eric W)
SPT
Doug Potter
Lola Park
SoulSurvivor
Inevitably Raised By Ducks
(added by Vicki)
Shawna Michele
Spygrandson
r
Woody
Pradip Chattopadhyay
SJR 1000
the seatbelt effect
Sonja Benskin Mesher
Don't Call Me Johnny
nivek
WL Winter
K Mae
Liz Balize
patty m
Pamela Rae
Sean Tierney
William Poppen
Michael Kagan
Biche
Irinia
Mikeccc
Paul Gaffney
Karina Norris Viers
Dawn
Brother Jimmy
Anthony
Phil Roberts
David Ehrgott
Jason Clarke
Angstrom
Jamadhi Verse
born
Weeping Willow
Terry Jordan
Traveler
Tonya Maria
CA Guilfoyle
elizabeth j
Grumpy Thumb
David Patrick O'C
f
(added by Sukanya Sinha Roy)
Eli N
Poetryjournal
Traveller
The Dead Sea
Zero
Nishu Mathur
James Michael Hail
Nagi
Angstorm
(Added by Sjr 1000)
Wardha
nagi
PoetryJournal
My Dystopia
Life's Jump
Bala
Nat Lipstad
Melissa
Ded Poet
Denel
Bex
Luiz Machado
(added by Jamadhi Verse)
Lora Lee
Wild is the Wind
Lalin
Akira Chen
R k
Onoma
Mydystopia
Stephanie
Stephan
Pradip :)
Karishna
(added by elizabeth j)
NB.
Lonely Soldier
Lily Mae
Thomas P Owens Sr
Sir WCA
Midnight Rain
Melissa S.
( added by Lori Jones McCaffery?
James
Kim Johanna Baker
Demonatachick
Elizabeth J
Yasaman Johari
Jean Lin
Lawrence Hall
Landon Miller
Chris Neilson
Pagan Paul
Sun Princess
Elizabeth Squires
Keith Wilson

I roam upon her beautiful magnificent hills and valleys
that truly are all ours not mine or yours
take in moons meant for all of us
and stars that one cannot claim to be his
climb a tree seemingly meant for me only
her limbs and leaves and flowering
specially meant for me
when I see they are for us
and I blush
in my singularity
like the rose I plucked
put in my
pocket was meant more for
the bees and hummingbirds
so my pretty planet is
for everything and sacred
and I get
down and worship her
and buried
the rose petals all frayed
like I could make amends
and maybe I did

Nothing is in me tonight
not fear nor excitement
nor joy or shame
just empty
shambles trying
to make something appear
out of the emptiness
like sitting at the laundromat
watching the dryer spin
and an old woman sits down
with her knitting needles and bright colored
yarns and begins
knit one pearl twos
with determination
and I adore her

two years from now I just feel will be the one
the year when I find peace and the world stops revolving
around me
I will become fully mature and total
I will finally grow up
I will be
with no wants or needs  
no storms or seeds to sow
no fight left no war
no scars and issues
just tissue
just flesh and blood
just sinew
and then may I become
and then melt into
and then be one with all
or feel hurt without getting angry
or be honorable without needing praise
or be charitable just because
I am new
and I am calm
and I am better
and I have grown
it is 2018 when this all might become
or rather 2017
December 31
my resolution

it was there when I got up useful
as ever a bit of usual
and I may have
took it for granted for it was
habit
then it was not there and gone
as ever a bit of unusual
and I may have
took it for a sign for it was
habit
Then I stood standing and alone
as ever a bit of casual
and I may have
took it for design for I blamed
chance
and I may have blamed God
**** it

this echo will only confuse
put your fingers in your ears
yell or hum
try to think of baseball games
concentrate on geometric figures
recall sunny days
picnics in the park
rev that hemi engine
neigh like a stallion
turn Led up
smoke a blunt
snort something
position yourself with a concrete wall
between us
think of gramma
whatever it takes
to not hear
or face it
write a poem
a novel
read the dictionary
just close it off
it won't do anything
but make one think
and that is painful

some kittens
just like me I guess
they don't purr
they say
brrrrrrrcrap!

to just be real and human
to be empathetic is quite enough
to feel
the emotions
put your mind
into open
to make space out of the closed box
like you are a child first
seeing the world with awe
and newness
recall and
then go back into that box and break hell out of
everything including the hard concrete
beliefs you were surrounded
in
despair no more
for there are no limits no
judgements weighing you
or society down
start brand new fresh
clean
awoken
like you were meant to be:
no your uncle did touch you
and your cousin made you mad
and the bully down the street did that
and girls don't like you
and you grew up in poverty
the street your elementary school
your teacher
the dude riding on twenty-fours with that clean
ride and all the girls
and you slinging sing rap
hoping for that break
you know you the best
and nothing gonna keep you from it
but
look
we humans
all us
it takes a change to make it better
dude
and whenever you take  that bullet
will you
see your little boy or girl
smile again?
And does it matter
if they are condemned to grow up like you did?
Let us all change .
It don't take understanding.
Except for the part
where we are all human.

there in the light lives whatever you want to see
imagine experience
once a captive mind
a bird caged
was released on the eye skies of the world
turned loose like a scream of free
ten billion years ago
and we through survival
instinct came to be
unfeeling animals
this is the moment
our purpose comes to fruition
with our minds our hearts become
melded
as one being
we seek now truth and peace
and love
like the sixties
give a flower
a second look
take a trip
hallucinate on life
ride a magic bus
into the future
make tomorrow
beautiful

I say I said I spoke
trying to enunciate
how things change

anything and all
adapt to seasons
that is obvious

for nothing
remains with
the ticking clock

untouched
nor can tocks be undone
or seconds stopped

immutable are
only the hours and second hands
mine are dust

that touched you
long ago with sweetness
when

the clock did seem to
pause
take a break

or was that too-
all in my head?

It's only six-twenty three
it seems way later
like at least six-twenty four

I was still young
it's like I have aged ten years
the past two

time is relative
Einstein mathematically
proposed

but I am beginning
to wonder these times
might they be

exponential?

together we could read each other
fairy tales
turn off the television
watch people from the balcony
sipping champagne
and wonder
on distant lights and dream
you say so beautiful and I listen
reading your lips and eyes
in the passing cars headlights
reflections
like menageries of
my heart
my meaning,
or might we just  grab a twelve pack
and light candles and run a
bubble bath,
either fairy tale makes
me happy.

his face ain't been slimmer
since that winter
the traces of white snow came all
falling 'round his toes tickling
and all woes seemed to vanish in the mirror
he has been so worn out
now 'days with
nostrils flared when he is awake
fighting the battles
his eros and ethos between
made gain seem like failures
trying to eat the remnants
like a self cannibal
and doubt , doubting all
especially how the hell could
he have gotten
so much thinner.

you start me off winter cold
as shivers then good as golden sundrops warm
me up as tea leaves swirl me as I used to laugh
good as staying under warm covers all afternoons
what day can be as this besides what I have
with tearing through the tv guide  when
the sun is low in the distance and the day begins
early and ends about five
not time to drive around nor time to save you

when it came time to become a worshipping man
I sought the word between the meanings
saw spaces as the time I wandered long
returns like the zip of a typewriter carriage
returning
tip and type and sit and wonder
with no meanings
far off in memory land a few novels
and the Bible and Koran
and Bodhisatva
the poems of long lost men who died with no paper
before those wise men
How much I ask
has been lost of wiser things
that no more exist but
in the ether?

there were a way to make
piano sounds with words
bass drum beats  with ink
in tune vocals with consonants
vowels be melodies
adjectives the three part harmony
verbs the cymbal
nouns the guitar riff
commas loud
I am a lucky man
with song in my heart
both in spirit
and my ears hearing things
others might
not.

they don't believe it was love
in the laundry room
when all us
washer dryer slackers sit
awaiting loads of clean clothes
discuss love lives and romances
most of us hungover
red eyed bright noses
boast of fevered conquests
with movie star quality *******
taking a big pocket filled with
quarters
in our pants pocket and
still bragging?

so home is where the heart is
so it follows me to work
home is the people's houses I get
on my knees to perfect
so the heart is where it resides
I got into laying vinyl in a  house today
I guess it was like next
to getting drunk
my favorite thing
getting paid to do something
I know well
making someone else's house home and
beautiful
my home has been built
with my muscles and reasoning
I guess
the saying was right!
It follows me everywhere.

can you see it in my eyes
or hear it in my sighs
somewhere someone sees
listens
cries

is there anything to it
this life our being
here near to death
as life
sighs

I sigh again thinking
about the things
I have experienced
people
near

when for once clearness  became
tall fervent
suddenly
right on hand
clear

as the bell rings Sunday morn
and the skies bluer
after a storm
and rainbows
appear

hold my hand please anyone
let us go to where
this life  is calmer clearer
peace is norm
and the seas
near

let us walk among other men
with similar
dreams
among the
gods of
mortality

sing

elegant
you can hear the fingers slide over the cello
strings
low
deeper than any river
appears
in the rhythm
a riverboat and the slapping
of water like skin
as a bobber rows along
the current tame and mellow

when lows seem all around
mountains are somewhere
I saw them when I was young
they loomed large and inviting
like treasures

may they be around this bend
hidden by tall trees
I am so small
smaller than

when trying again to find my
way out the valleys
the depressions
life seems to have given me

but I saw them when ago
last time
was near about twenty four
years hence

like a birth of Jesus it was
when he cried
and she broke my hand
it was enormous

the tallest mountain
the highest high ever
seen

so yes
there are highs
among the lows
you just have to discover
how to make them
appear