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Kurt Kanawa Aug 2014
he made her                love letters,  composed               wordless love songs
because that is what           they would do in         movies nobody has seen
paradise was once         the home he built                   out of cells and sinew
to whom they could do    whenever they wanted   everything one wanted
love: to become             two star-crossed lovers            is not what he wants
indivisible but       invisible, faceless conversations                  no, he wants
unique souls                      across a sea of                        infinitely many stars
to whom                       unintelligible vowels             love wisdom and truth
she, in turn,                     the goddess of love,                 he kneels and prays
could do the same              unbound by ***                would love him again
left poem: lovers loving an idealized version of the other aka "paradise"

middle poem: an LGBT poem

right poem: a man seeking truth

combined poem: a man who wants another chance at love
544 · May 2014
Mother's Day
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
To our teacher, our friend, our cook, our nurse...
To the greatest mom in the universe,
Please accept this humble dedication
(A sign of our pure appreciation)
To all the good things you do and have done.
We love you, mom! Love, your daughter and son.
my sister made the card while i made the poem. she loved it.
541 · May 2014
Hold On
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
When your world crumbles apart—
And you're dragged back to the start—

     Hold on.

When all your candles have died—
And all your teachers have lied—

     Hold on.

When your heart gives away—
And your bones turn to clay—

      Hold on.

Hold on to the seams that bind you—
Hold on to what you know to be true—

Hold on to the ones you love---
And know that that will be enough---

      Hold on tightly
      and never let go—

      Hold on tightly
      until you finally know—

Hold on.
hang in there, buddy.
534 · Apr 2014
blink (10w)
Kurt Kanawa Apr 2014
for a millisecond,
where they see nothing,
i see *infinity
531 · May 2014
On "Crushes"
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
it's a long-distance relationship
so far that i can't hear
your obvious rejection
so far that i can only hear
the endless echo of my voice:
the lovebuzz
of a hopeless romantic
525 · May 2014
Gradeschool Crush
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
She is beautiful
Like a dancing flame

With eyes as enticing
As her name

She is a shooting star
In the dark of the night

Flying so far away
To an unreachable height

Twinkling, shining
While someone makes a wish

Indeed there is an ocean
But there is only one fish
serendipitously found in a jar of love poems i wrote long ago.
524 · Jun 2016
iii/x
Kurt Kanawa Jun 2016
if i ever thought
i thought of you

if i ever dreamt
i dreamt of you

if i ever sang
i sang of you

if i ever prayed
i prayed of you

if i ever swam
i swam of you

if i ever breathed
i breathed of you

if i ever wondered
i wondered of you

if i ever awed
i awed of you

if i ever howled
i howled of you

if i ever waited
i waited of you

if i ever laughed
i laughed of you

if i ever cried
i cried of you

if i ever walked
i walked of you

if i ever spoke
i spoke of you

if i ever dreamt
i dreamt of you

if i ever thought
i thought of you
iii/x
Kurt Kanawa Apr 2014
this silence is evil. my demons don’t scratch, ****, or tempt. they place a sickly old finger to my lips with one hand and clutch my throat with the other, draining my face blue.

i suffocate in silence.

my voice, once big, is shrinking to a whimper. barely anyone hears me – barely anyone knows i'm here. i'm just someone to sit with, someone with a history, someone to feel sorry for for a few seconds, someone who'll shut up and listen to them talk about themselves all day, someone you brush off in a few words, someone not worth your breath.

and the worst part is, you don’t know me. no one does. and all my candles slowly die, one by one. darkness consuming the light, wretched invisible eyes smiling at me from the abyss.

and nobody cares. nobody listens. nobody asks why.

i'm terrified to the bone. i'm turning into someone i don’t want to. this cancer is eating me up, and it will eat until there is nothing left but empty thoughts and crushing regret. this pent-up anger, this introverted angst, not to others but to myself – i just wanna break something. rip it to pieces, burn it and throw it in a lake. punch it until my fist draws blood – until my fist becomes my ****** heart and my ****** heart becomes my ****** fist.

i am holden caulfield, but i don’t want to be.
who will catch me in the rye?
513 · May 2014
Z
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
Z
they came like a                     hurricane
wave after wave of         unceasing rain
each drop a smeared               false    reflection of
faces of friends          of family      we once did love

and as the torrential rain         spilled
more         of our people were killed
and the world we knew              quickly eroded
the iron in our bones broke     brittle    and corroded

drenched in this forsaken        diseased   sea
we become more of what     we feared  to be
as cold and      dead       as the death around us
losing all sense of        what was     right    and just

yet still   we fight endlessly         to survive
yet    still our hope    is still     stubbornly    alive
the dead walk.
511 · Apr 2014
night-mare
Kurt Kanawa Apr 2014
the sun shot with an arrow, bleeds out
blotting the sky with red

running up the blood-stained stairs
hairs raising, hell-raising
your feet racing
a stampede, a cacophony of undead
crazing, blazing
groans groping your tail
fire-breathing zombies

a glitch in the matrix
déjà vu

me behind you
in a floor of mutants
high up in the tower
they overun, overpower
i'm hit, bit
i die on the ground
and watch you crash into the glass
and freefall
explosions on your back
supernova attack
you, a reverse icarus,
the sun on your back
falling, a comet,
destination certain,
curtain of darkness

a dream within a dream
gigantic war machines on the horizon
indigo sky, devil angels cry
it's the end of the world

awakening, i see
ancient swampland ruin
trudging through the green river
i see kids skipping on stones
and they lead me to a fountain of bones
and a black horse in its reflection

i see you behind the doric column
i reach out and call your name
but you walk right through me

and so i weep in the fountain
and from the blackened waters
i find an arrow
which i place in my bow
to bleed out the sun
i hope dreams don't mean anything, because i know exactly what they're telling me.
507 · May 2014
Rain
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
Drops and drips—
They bring me back,
Back when I touched your lips
And you smiled, with me
But then cried, weakly
Tears lost in the rain
Eyes veiled by the drizzle
Because you said
We could never be together
And then cities fell
And the moon crumbled to dust
You left me in the rain
Drops and drips—
They bring me back
found serendipitously in a jar of love poems i wrote long ago.
Kurt Kanawa Aug 2014
have you         seen everything
ever felt      everything at once
a blackout                   from hell
'cause that's         heaven's fear
how it                          feels real
feels to                           be alive
be without                      fear or
you or                      truly know
your love                       i've felt
can be read left, right, or all together.
487 · May 2014
Unforgiven
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
Sometimes I wish
I still believed in God.

Maybe He could forgive you,
because I can't.

I can only
Forget.
not normally this bitter. this is just a phase, i'll probably love you back in the morning, for better or worse.
479 · Jul 2014
My Life in Six Words
Kurt Kanawa Jul 2014
A wolf raised by sheep.
Waiting.
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
Thank you, I needed that.
Because now, more than ever,
I burn
With the horsepower
Of a hundred suns,
Aching to prove you wrong.

For I am the dwarf star
That will reborn itself
Into a red giant.

And though the coldness of your words
And the void of your superficial gaze
Rip my heart apart like entropy,
I will not atrophy.

No,
I will eat
And work
And push
And grow
And burn
Bright, blinding light.

And I will gather your gaseous glances and metallic spite
And like a solar system forming from cosmic dirt,
From chaos,
I will stand.

Through the searing pain,
Through the soul-******* cold,
Through the craters you leave on my skin,
I will stand.

Even if it takes me a thousand,
A million, a billion years,
I will stand.

Little by little, inch by inch,
I will stand.

As certain as the stars,
I will stand.
I will stand.

Now,
I stand.
"That which does not **** us makes us stronger." Nietzche.
456 · Jun 2016
ii/x
Kurt Kanawa Jun 2016
when god made a sun
brighter than the sun
the sun was the brightest
(and the sun was you)

when god made a sea
deeper than the sea
the sea was the deepest
(and the sea was you)

when god made a sky
higher than the sky
the sky was the highest
(and the sky was you)

if god made you
greater than you
you would be no one
(and god would be you)
ii/x
Kurt Kanawa Apr 2014
if i'm rambling because nowadays i find myself thinking the same thoughts over and over – like clockwork that strikes at the midnights of my loneliness – but then they, my thoughts, never really materialize or transcend the barriers of my mind amidst the almost infinite space of opportunity before me, this unnerving vast reservoir of potential that surrounds me like an ocean does an island, like an ocean does a drifting plastic bag – though it may be important to add that salt water cannot be drunk, unless i find madness and thirst to be my choice of sweet self-destruction; but i, as a creature of this world, despite lacking fins or gills, know that salt water can be crossed, perhaps by a ship of my own design: wooden oars and planks, compass and sextant, my eyes on the guiding stars, my hope on the rising dawn.
a continuous sentence.
431 · Apr 2014
a portrait of me
Kurt Kanawa Apr 2014
i found myself
like an old photograph in the attic,
a portrait of me
trapped in time

i discovered the monochrome
light and shadow
that was born and remained
since the blinding white
of the camera flash

i studied my sepia eyes
and saw that, indeed
my eyes never lost
their luster
we are all born, some more times than others. (1/3)
428 · May 2014
Fire and Ice
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
I want you
unbuttoned
your chest bare
for my fingers to caress
like a figure-skater
around a ring of ice

I want to feel
your cold, electric touch
shivering every cell
of my body
making me feel
like a pineapple
turning inside-out

and as pleasure and pain
blend to the same color
I want you
to look into my eyes
and tell me
you burn
on the kiss of my tongue
and cry
on the taste of my skin
There's a pun in there somewhere.
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
"why?"
the question remains, buried in all of us like original sin.
378 · May 2014
FATE
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
i am the bringer of my demise
and by my preparation i meet surprise
by my quest for knowledge i am no longer wise
by my courage to stand i can no longer rise

o! i curse the day i was born
let no one cry, let no one mourn
for everything i fix becomes all the more torn
by reaching for a halo do i grow evil horns

i am the flame that suffocates itself with its own rage
i am the runaway who runs himself into his own cage
by asking for more i lower my wage
by clinging to youth i hasten my age

o! the gods must think it hilarious
to make my every good nefarious
to make my every position precarious
and my only pleasure vicarious!

if anything is to be learned at all
it is that i am boxing with an iron wall:
the harder i punch the harder i fall
for what is a wall compared to a fleshly doll?
Kurt Kanawa Apr 2014
my heart sleeps on a bed of fur
on bodies that snuggle up and purr
the warmth of your leg touching mine
i'm not drunk but i'm blushing wine

and i can hear the red parade
that marching drummer brigade
their warm beat showers and soars
drumming from my chest to yours

and i close my eyes
and see
              a million fireflies
like a million twinkling stars
like a million blinking cars
   little lanterns that decorate the air
like christmas morning

i lay there with you
and enjoy the view in front of us
and i smile
when you tell me
that you see them too
350 · May 2014
Deus Ex
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
I could have saved you.
I wish I did.
I was supposed to be
Your deus ex machina,
God from the Machine.
But apparently
God was not enough
To stop the ambush
And prevent the explosion
That engulfed you in flames and lead-filled smoke.
You roasted alive.
And I watched you die.
Memories lost forever
In an instant.
A voice never to be heard again.
Unless
Somehow
I could turn back time
And have another chance
To save you
Before I saved
myself.

If only everyone
Had a clockwork angel
Guarding their side...
to malik. i didn't know i could save you. i'm sorry.
350 · May 2014
Hate
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
You deserve to be judged
By the story of your roots;
You deserve to be trudged
Upon by our hardened boots;

You deserve to be slaved
By endless toil and grind;
You deserve to be saved
From the thoughts of your mind;

You deserve to be loveless
Until you repent for your sins;
You deserve to be hopeless
Until our clan finally wins;

There can be no joy without pain;
There can be no sky without rain;
There can be no freedom without fate;
There can be no love without hate.
The philosophy of the unwise and fanatical.
337 · May 2014
On "Bestfriendship"
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
it's the way
your left and right hands move
in perfect synchronicity
to play Beethoven

i wish i could hear the music
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
march on the dunes of sand
but don't look at the stars;
walk through the endless land
but never count the hours;

do not shout at the wind:
when you are slashed and shoved,
remember that you have sinned
and do not deserve to be loved;

do not go with a friend
because your pride demands it;
let solitude be your end
as you make your lonely transit;

through the blazing day,
through the chilling night,
follow the invisible way
under the invisible light;

your eyes will fade grey,
your legs will grow weak,
but you shall not stray
and you shall not speak;

and when you find yourself
right where you were before,
just sigh and pat yourself
and go on marching once more...
humans naturally walk in circles, probably because of left/right foot dominance.
283 · Apr 2014
poetry.
Kurt Kanawa Apr 2014
i don't understand it
but i know, i feel
it's beautiful
like a foreign language
where the words dance in your ears
and jive to the music
then at night sneak off to bed
and make love
like how the sun
makes love to the moon
at every eclipse
which never fail to remind me
of the eclipses in your eyes,
twin spheres that brighten under their lids
on those rare, glorious perchance
when you see something
you don't understand
but know
but feel that
it's beautiful
262 · May 2014
On "Sleep"
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
lucky are those...
who can enjoy too much...
or survive...
on so little...
248 · Apr 2014
I have this fantasy.
Kurt Kanawa Apr 2014
I’m in bed, half-asleep with the morning rays seeping through the blue curtains, and I'm holding you in my arms, you who I truly love. We feel warm and touch skins, our legs intertwined, eyes locked to infinity,

And I’ll be thinking to myself. Thinking how I finally made it. How I built myself, my own masterpiece, from the ground-up. How I grew, through the rough weather and poor soil, grew higher than anyone ever imagined – my leaves and petals reaching up to the sky, embracing the sweet, cool rain falling and baptizing me into a new life. And I'd feel truly, fully alive.

And I’d wonder just how lucky I am to have met someone like you who understands me and who I want to understand: I’d be the last actor to leave the stage, and I’d go down to meet you, my audience of one, and we’d remove our masks and see our true selves and we'd talk and fall in love until all the stars die and the cold takes us. And even in the dark, we'd know the other was there. And we’d be the only ones who knew each of our little secrets, and we’d hide them in our secret places: hidden between the wrinkles of our brains, behind our ears, sealed in the spaces between our fingers, and woven into the seams of our palms and knees.

And when our time has finally come, I’d let my ashes mix with yours, so not even death could separate my heart from yours. And we’d fly into a capsule rocket to the moon, and we’d circle the earth and see the stars until everything else has turned to ash.

And I'd slowly get up and make us breakfast – some eggs and coffee, just the way you like it – and I’d hear a precious murmur behind me, whispering, unexpectedly, with a smile:

*I love you.
in an alternate universe, i know this has already happened.
244 · Apr 2014
midnight means freedom
Kurt Kanawa Apr 2014
the stars run away with me
(better than none for company!)
we'll hitch a ride on the last train,
then belt our hearts out in the rain!
we will be as we will be,
we will be as we are free!
at some point in our lives, we all become runaways. (3/3)
235 · May 2014
On "Secrets"
Kurt Kanawa May 2014
lies breed whispers
that creep around your head

it's like Schrödinger's cat
maybe they know
maybe they don't know
maybe it's both

are you curious enough
to find out?
217 · Apr 2014
3:25 AM.
Kurt Kanawa Apr 2014
you find yourself alone
slumped in the corner
your knees to your chest
curtains drawn so not even the dawn can ask you how you're doing

all these years, you've swallowed the tears
as if they were bitter pills that would banish your fears
one more beer, one more hour
three hundred minutes thinking in the shower
your heart racing at the thought that this will all be over

you find yourself in bed
not asleep but drifting in the middle
every word you know becomes a riddle
every motion feels like a chore
drowning in an ocean without a shore

you lie there to your side
nothing to keep
but everything to hide

the silence
is deafening
and you never do get used to it
and you find yourself
talking with the dog
because the dog won't leave your side

and you don't dare look in the mirror
because the mirror would only look back
your only solace is but the cold and black
of sleep
you don't want any dreams
you don't want to weep
you just want the darkness
all day
and only the darkness
you keep

— The End —