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Nat Lipstadt Jun 2023
(and I cannot live
from with-out)

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a poem in appreciation to Rossella Di Paolo

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I, too:
          - am an embryonic work in progress,
well into my seventh decade, with no ending in sight


                                I too,    
live in the house of poetry, the address likely differs,
but suspect the innards of the houses differs little,
the decor,  quite similar

         - my house shrewdly requests a rethinking,
                                    noting, it lives my artifice,

with in & with out

Then, we are a We:
                                  
          - my cavities house her, She, Poetry is of Ruth (1) born,

          - Poetry, She, reminds me, ”whither thou goest, I will go”


This duality:
          - where the haunting of words providential,
             emanate, both inhabiting & inhibits my breathing
              She, a fearsome creature, a fearful-something,
for it tears me and shreds tears its demands be wrung
from with in to with out

She, Poetry:
          - leaves me gaping, hollow, fills me with
            depressurizing boreholes exposed to the elements  of
            externalities of an admixed atmospheres, that nature demands             be refilled, fresh in, stale out,
for which the artifice trick is knowing which is which

when Poetry’s  birthing:
          - chest pounds, heart-rate beats heavy metal,
            abdomen contracts, there then, no languid in my language,
            no help untangling the alpha-bet jumbling,
            product of the screams of pushing,
squeezing it forth

you’re hoping to quick-catch newly formed combinations,
for if you fail, a poem
noisily crashes to and through the floorboard cracks,
where poetry’s chaotic glinting etes
maliciously glimmer~winks at me
with a sarcastic thank you

“ah, too bad, another creation stillborn,
gone to rest, biting the nether dust,
without hope of resuscitation…”*

just another unfinished work in progress

periodically
a survivor clean caught, transcribed, edited to be finished,
amniotic fluids cleared,
poem resurrected
blessed with eternal life,
readied to be shared and delivered,
affirmed

and you say to no one and to everyone:

this poem will be our poem,
wither it goes, ascending, descending,
all live in the house of poets,
one house,
many apartments,
each poem a god,
and
my God will be our God,
your God, my God,
in the House of Poetry
https://hellopoetry.com/poem/4717212/leave-if-you-can-ii-by-rossella-di-paolo/

(1) And Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.

——
Leave if You Can II


I live in the house of poetry.
I ascend her stairs slowly
and leap back down.
I sit in the chair of poetry,
sleep in her bed, eat from her plate.
Poetry has windows
through which mornings and afternoons
fall, and how well she suspends a teardrop
how well she blows until I tumble / With this
I mean to say that
one basket brings
both wounds and bandages.  
I love poetry so much that sometimes I think
I don’t love her / She looks at me,
inclines her head and keeps knitting
poetry.
As always, I’ll be the bigger person.
But how to say it / How to tell her
I want to leave / honestly I want to
fry my asparagus…
I see her coming near
with her bottle of oil
and crazed skillet.
I see her,
her little bundle of asparagus
slipping out her sleeve.
Ah her freshness / her chaotic glint
and the way she approaches with relentless meter.  
I surrender / I surrender always because I live
in the house of poetry / because I ascend
the stairs of poetry
and also because
I come back down.

    — Translated by Lisa Allen Ortiz & Sara Daniele Rivera
Mental disability what an epigram, it bounds on burried complexity
Titter inside hysterical effectuation
Feeling electrical currents misfiring in my cerebellum
Screaming unremebered prayers in my night terrors at the devils fornication
Remaining in my presence, anticipating my sleep
***** to reverse the dementia
Waking day dreams, lost in unreality
Descry vociferation calling my name
Wanting to claw my etes out against nebulous shadows creeping behind
Wanting a medium to banih apparitions from my space
Paranoid of all establishment
While securing eye contact with others, they could decipher all my thoughts
With binoculars neighbors surveil
Me camouflaged with drawn shades and pale skin
To go outside summoned all my demons
Wanting to battle, rage war to fulfill some morbid desire
Annihilating hordes in my dreams by any means
***** to reverse the madness
OCD for a little control
A million times repeated thoughts flashing in my eyes
Confusion! What day is it? Am I doing something wrong?
Not glancing in mirrors hiding from myself Garbled guttural utterances in my left ear
Hot breath on my neck
Bawling at flexibility and spontaneity
Not in my scheme for the coming confusing hours
Wanting to pull my skull off exposing the insanity
Just wanted it to STOP!!
***** to reverse the derangement
Limbs not answering brain waves crisscrossed as they dwell
On a daily basis surviving hell
On a nightly basis in true hell
Needing to shriek and explode
Afraid to sleep, walking in exhausted dreams
Broken pains in my bones
No peace day or night
My medication saved my life
I penned this down about my Schizoaffective disorder. I dealt with delusions too lengthy to add to this script. Lived this way for twenty long years. It was difficult to relive and put into words, my sickness. There is no rhyme or reason. It's just what it was.....
Amelia Jo Anne Sep 2013
I hate the way her eyes scan me over with jealousy. She's so enviousm but what does she think I have that she doesn't? I'm the diluted image of my mother's beauty, yes, & she wants that. But she doesn't realize that full pouting lips, the large startled etes, the palest coffee-cream skin comes with strings attatched, a think contract she has no idea about, full of clauses & fees. the very last page reads 'Amelia', signed with my blood but written in my mother's decided, sure hand. She doesn't see all the chameleon shades in me, or how I need them just to get by. She has no idea of my longing, my yawning morning yearning for the way she's the same girl every day. I admire he belief in (the lie) that no one can **** with her, while every person I meet makes something in me panic, wondering if they'll be the next to discard me after taking me out & finding that I'm both too much to handle & not enough to stick around for. She can shrug off a punch & barrel through a crowd, moses to any sea, any shore she finds herself at the edge of, while the simple swat of an absent hand creates ripples & gusts that send me tumbling, toppling *** over teakettle. She scans aisles of people, tasting, testing any that are above her minimum standard, but I've never had that kind of freedom; I've always been a sample, appetizer, appease me, please me. babe. She knows as well as I do the desperation for approval, for being desired, but the difference between us is that she refuses to change for anyone but herself while I need people to give me someone to be.
martin Mar 2013
Je suis seule
Je suis enceinte
Le vent me dit
Rentrez, vous n'etes pas assez forte
Je reste ici

Les etoiles seront mes copains
Le ciel mon abri
Je dormirai avec les pierres
La pluie me lave

Mes souvenirs, l'amour
Sont perdus
Je n'ai pas besoin de l'argent
Demain n'existe pas
Seulement le silence
Et un papillon
(corrections welcome)
-Courage-
I am alone
I am with child
The wind tells me
Go home, you are not strong enough
I remain

The stars will be my friends
The sky my shelter
I will sleep with the stones
Washed by the rain

My memories, love
Are lost
I have no need of money
Tomorrow does not exist
Only silence
And a butterfly
Arianna Anderson Dec 2011
I never knew you
Je ne vous connais

I don't know you
Je ne vous connais pas

But you love me
Mais tu m'aimes

Does it break your heart that you're a stranger to me?
Est-il briser votre coeur que vous etes une etrangere pour moi?
Collette Block Apr 2010
J'aime toi...
Il n'y a pas de problem
Tu as sportif et elegant
Et je suis amusant et sympa

J'aime toi...
Parce-que tu et j'etes
Parfait

Pourqoi fais-tu ceci?
J'aime toi
Tu as un singe stupid
Pourqoi aime-je?
Maintenant je n'aime pas toi...

J'aime il.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME!!!
Duke Thompson Aug 2014
An old dull silver tray bought from the thrift store last polished never
Sits between us, holding a half emptied handle of rye, two rock glasses
Adjunct ice bucket and a handful of spansules all neatly lined up in a row
Like candy for the taking
Too late

Existentially snuffed out
'Yes' I thought, there's a good start
But existentialism is so boooooring dear,
such a dry, ******, passe affair, pedantic really
She groans out her words elongated like some big queen of England
Sitting on her royal *** smoking from a long black cigarette holder
I pull her towards me roughly slipping quickly into thick, thickening
Newfound (land) accents
"Listen here missy, you're no Audrey Hepburn"
Brashly kissing bright blooming vermillion lips
"And you're no John Kennedy"

Playing dress up ***; cosplay games de la haute societe
Cruel broken bank account pauvrete down and out facade
Tho this is neither Paris nor London
Nor do we find any satisfaction in our destitution
I am not a plongeur et vous,
Vous etes rien qu'un petit ami du nuit
"I'm not your *****"
All part of the act
Or so I'm told

We've forgotten who we really are behind these vaudeville masks
     The world less lucid, less clear, receding gently tho greatly
         Day by lurid day
Xilhouette Jan 2016
En garde...

At the ready
at the command
unsheathe your blade
prepare where you stand

ahead of you is no man
ahead is fear, anxiety
impatience, dread
but play it right, ahead is victory

Etes-vous prets?

Now the blade is in view
its owner waiting for the foray
its steel waiting for your neck
its danger awaiting the melee

You feel the sweat on your brow,
Tension now reaching your nape
Your arms twitching and shaking
They are aggravated for their escape

Allez!

First there is quiet...
Then your arms bolt!
Your legs dart!
A clash of steel... and now the halt

Again at the ready
En garde...
Prets...
Allez!*

Threatening the enemy
with your edge like gunpoint...
A step... You pounce!
Connect... Point!
© 2016 Xilhouette
Beatriz May 2015
You have issues,
I have established that.

I stared deep into your blue eyes.
You ran your hand through your
blonde, slicked back hair
And stared intensely back

It's there! Undeniably
Felt and proven many times:
The air between us is buzzing
And we didn't need to try

But connection be ******.
I am not going there with you.
You've got issues.
I can. But I won't

I looked away and took a sip
from my copper cup

You've got issues.
She's got a hold on you.

Vous etes fou!

Now, I am not spotless
He's got a hold on me too

I guess I just didn't want to take
the blame for our dysfunction.
So... It's you.
You've got issues.

You aren't my headache,
and I obviously aren't yours.
We're each other's fire escape.

I'd see you when things get stressy,
You'd suggest drinks after work.

We cheered to the night.
To "Asia Asia"
To more laughter
To keeping things as it is
To 4 days in France
To your cozy apartment in Paris...

Allez les bleus!

After one too many copper cups, and a
paid flight to France
I guess the buzz won over the air between us.

And it was the last time we saw each other.
And we didn't need to try either.
And I'm sure I'd miss my flight in December.
Been in my drafts since OCT 2014. Thought I'd publish it anyway.

P.S.
Flight was refunded :)
Travis Green Mar 2023
Being by his side is like a walk in the bright, magical clouds
A vivid, compelling treasure in my dreams, a smooth masculine king
So clean-cut and robust as ****, so lovable and indestructible
I behold his mocha chocolate globes, and I am so bowled
Over by his dope *** smoking machotasticness

Loving him so much that I can’t think straight
I ache for him more than ever, in need of his stalwart
Charming hotness, to be taken into his radiant scintillating mantuary
Where his perfectness captures my queerness
Guides me to the transcendent limits of seamless mind-bending
Ecstasy, I burn with passion for his rare smashing attraction

He sets me afire, makes me burn brighter and hotter
Than a raging radioactive volcano, he stupefies me
He gives me the butterflies, he makes me smile all the while
He demonstrates his greatness to my gayness
I am so completely feverish and blissed out
The more he shrouds me in his uncontainable white-hot desires

He gives me a thousand astounding sensations
The more his stellar silken sexiness blazes through my headspace
I am enamored by the way he stands in my presence
His captivatingly intoxicating fragrance streams all over me
I feen for a chance to sink into his impassioned heart-grabbing
Enchantment, clamp my hands against his phenomenally macho
And wondrous pecs, all lovely and seductive muscles

My sweet saucy brick, his prominent russet etes hypnotize me
A million times more than before, I am absorbed by his gorgeousness
Thoughts of lying next to him, feeling and kissing him
Traveling through time and space, in sheer superlative harmony
I lose myself In the depths of his delectable relishable majesticness
Yearning for him to conquer and ****** my humongous honkers

Lick and twist my stiff glistening peaks with his fingertips
The feel of his bare matchless graspers against my extraordinary ***
Toys with my tight, fuckable warehouse, makes me sweat
As he pleasures me, as he moves his fingers deeper within me
Make me kneel on my knees to go down on his suckable stick shift

Hold him closer to me, let my clutchers rub up and down
His long, macho thighs and legs, put his delicious dangling swingers
In my mouth, peck his belly, caress and taste his treasure trail down to  Lush eye-grabbing rug, dive into the wildness of his liveliness
Steadily working his firmness, arousing the curiosity
Of his top-drawer artistic royalty, fire up his thugness

Have him so carried away as I have my wicked way
With his savage swelling snake, fill the tip with hearty heated kisses
Rap with his mean king-size *******, make him grow harder
Make him moan louder, make his manhood speak to me
While he plunges it deeper into my cakehole

I spectacularly salivate for him, worship his assertive
Immersive muscularity, cherish the way we traverse together
In grandly indelible and poetical harmony
I ******* him harder, faster, causing him to squirt out
Sticky thick milk all around my amorous perfumed lips

So dreamily sensual, so lewd and juicy
I lick it with my tongue and digest it
Look fixedly into his come-hither flickering eyes
Marveling at my magnetic lover man as he  tongue kisses me
Takes me deeper into his bodacious vivacious nation
Of hypersexual high-powered hotness
Tells me that he loves me, tells me that I am everything to him
Takes me in his brutal bulging arms, sends me in endless ecstasies
Ryan O'Leary Sep 2018
Ce matin a la Coustellet Marche
(this morning at the Coustellet market)
Un marchand me donne, une Rose Rouge.
(A stall holder gave me a red rose)
J'ai pensee que c'etait bazaar!
(I thought it was a bit strange)
A cause de ca, je lui demande, expliquer?
(Because of that, I asked him to explain?)
Excusez moi Monsieur, mais pourquoi?
(Excuse me sir, but why did you give it to me?)

"Parce que monsieur, vous etes un vrai Mother-******"
(Because you are a proper *******)

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Mother's Day in 2018 was on Sunday, the 13th of May (13/5/2018)
In France on mothers day, all women
are given a red rose at the markets.

— The End —