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 0° 
Michael Shave
It is good to be proud of your service,
Remembering what you have done;
The trials and the tribulations,
The telling of which is such fun.
But time tends your memories to alter,
Contextual fogs shroud the fact.
Thus, sometimes your tales tend to falter
And your audiences cease to react
In ways that you were expecting,
And on Facebook persuasion’s perverse.
So that often when saying the one thing
We broadcast to all the reverse.
 0° 
Bryan
my most toxic trait is thinking

     everything will work out.


haven't died yet

     must be doing something right or

getting very lucky.
Epilepsy

Of some oncoming seizures,
Auras make us aware:
We're ready and expecting,
So they're easier to bear.

EEGs appear at times,
As they're like the Richter scale:
When there is a big seizure,                  
The lines might seem like a whale.

A brain electrical fire,
Times can get out of control:
When there's a grand mal seizure,
Get on the ground and then roll.

In hectic epileptic times,
When seizures finally end:
We feel our lives regain strength.
Bit by bit we feel them mend.
 0° 
DKDK
When all parts of a system,
Tainted by corruption’s blight,
Begin to devour themselves,
And shatter the organs of
The system, the wounded rise,
And forge a new system’s birth
You have to let go and not hold on
When life's past has cut you to the bone
Cast away the anchors
grasp
Cut the ropes , drop sails on the mast
Check the weather that the sunrise casts
Let go , Let go ,
. . . the ugly past
I made a thing from weeds and bark
and called the thing I made--a heart.
I wrapped it 'round with wire and twine
and crossed it, kept it--called it mine.

Love my heart, love it much
despite the rot and wasps and such
and when you're done--I'll love you back
to see what nightmares come from that.
 0° 
touka
You found it meandering


                                                    ­            I walked it alone.


You said the Phoenix rises


                                                         ­        I am stuck in the stone.



    A common bird —
      With two wings,
     now



                   Tinged



                       That same old color

of the rock burnt out

                   of absence

                                                      of­ nothing —




of silence.
for a critic
 0° 
Moonflower
Trying to see,
why ever me?

Forcing (me) to be,
what they want to see..
 0° 
lizie
i like to believe that everything happens for a reason.
not in a way that makes sense,
not in a way that makes anything okay.

i don’t believe it when bad things happen to other people.
but when they happen to me,
i need to.

i don’t ask for proof.
i just ask to get through it.

maybe it’s just a story i tell myself
so i don’t fall apart.

but some days,
that story
is all i’ve got.
 0° 
C Jakes
Words veiled, thief in night,
Hidden meanings softly creep,
Truth now seeks the light.
 0° 
CyRhen Sohngs
There are pieces of me
Floating around
Disjointed
Unidentified
Nameless
Faceless
Singular

And I can't seem to recall
If they ever had names
or
If I was just so familiar with them
that they weren't needed.

But now
that I need them
I know not what to call out to
I can't call them back home.
They feel foreign and unfamiliar.

They feel like they were never a part of me
Mine.
 0° 
Blue Sapphire
Your eyes are
the mirror
of your heart.  

They reveal
what your heart
tries to conceal.

Silence of your
eyes spoke
what your lips
failed to say.
 0° 
León de Greiff
Velay! Velay! Melusina,
velay! Melusina de oro
-en el cabello y en el vello leve 1
que el labio te sombrea y las mejillas-. 2

Velay! Melusina de aciano
-palpitantes, azúreos, lientos ojos-.

Velay! Melusina la blonda
-los sonrosados labios, el cuello sonrosado,
sonrosados tesoros escondidos...-

Velay! Velay! Melusina,
velay! Melusina de oro:
¿cuándo reventarán los azahares?
¿cuándo el sabor caliente de tus llenos
labios golosos gustará mi gula?
¿cuándo aquellos tesoros escondidos
que -apenas- vislumbrará el ojo hambriento
(bastión bicupulado -diminutas
cúpulas desafiantes- que decora
sangriento par de diminutas fresas;
nemorosos retiros bajo los tibios brazos;
nemoros retiros...?)
¿cuándo aquéllos tesoros recatados
golosamente gustará mi gula?
¿cuándo reventarán los azahares?

Velay! Velay! Melusina,
velay! Melusina de oro
-en el cabello y en el vello leve... 3

Velay! Melusina de aciano,
velay! Melusina la blonda,
velay! velay! Melusina...
We are wolds apart
Yet we are so close
 0° 
renseksderf
"Murmur of Whiskers”





In pre–dawn hush
you pad across linoleum—
soft paws tracing the map
              of my half–dreams.

                Your quiet breath
becomes a tethered prayer,
stitching ragged edges
of my nightly fears.

              No need for words:
your calm is the benediction
       that steadies my pulse
before the world awakes.






.
 0° 
DKN
I am lost in the sea of your tears
My heart beats to the banking of its waves upon my life raft
I lie, strung across the frame, wishing the sea would quench me
but I remain parched, longing for you
The seagulls call your name into the sunset
Your touch exists  in the wind--It ruffles my hair and brushes my cheek
Your glance is a diamond shimmer in the horizon--at world's end
 0° 
Sacrelicious
Just lay me down
In your bed of lies.
Look me deep into my bedroom eyes
and off the lights.
So I can wear my disguise.

The truth never comes out in the dark.
That's why we've chosen to be blind.
We're content,
paying no mind.

And we're not okay.
Okay?
 0° 
M Vogel

Sitting here in front of this screen
my Artist Peppino, across my thigh—
(the greater, for the time being,
giving way to the lesser)

One day, I will be able to breathe life
into your strings, my love…
the way I do words onto paper.

And on that fine, glorious day
I will no longer need these cheese-****,
stupid ******* online poetry sites
to bring forth the music of my soul.

Nor will I continually need to wade through
this never-ending barrage of classic hiders
and their bastardization-like misuse of poetry—
in order to hide behind the very words
that should be given the permission to make them become,
truly known.

There are those who thrive on this..
this currency of curated words,
seduction dressed as scripture,
all twisted into the soft ropes of poetry
to bind the vulnerable,
to rob the soul of its own infusion..

the self from the soul,
the soul from the self..

--until all that remains
is the quiet, starving shell
of a heart displaced,
an identity diluted,
left wandering inside
the sociopathic intent
to truly bastardize poetry’s
life-giving potentiality
into nothing more than self-indulgent gain--

always at the cost of the reader,
who, starving for something real,
somehow falls for their twisted game.


****.

eh..
There is no alone-ness within the magnificent resonations
of the perfectly plucked string
of the most perfect, of guitars.

Like this one, sitting right here
in my lap.


excuse me while I lose my lunch onto this bluescreen now.


"And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.  
For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.

Therefore I speak to them--
(they that twist the beautiful Potentiality of poetry into that of their own gain)
in parables;

Because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,

‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand;
You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;
For the heart of this people has become dull,
With their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes,

Otherwise they would see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart and return,
And I would heal them.’"

"In other words, *******."
~Jebs
 0° 
hannah
you told me you could never be a poet
but
my eyes are like cats eye marbles
and
im a reminder of flower fields
at night
fireflies dancing between
strands of grass
and
dandelions
you used to write me poetry
with verses of
"i love you"
and
"see you tomorrow"
but
you told me you could never be a poet
 0° 
Laura
A new day dawn's.
My heart is ablaze.
I've made it.
I've made it.
I'm still here.
In appreciation.
 0° 
alex
Much like you
I feel pain
when I am wounded

I cry
when my heart
shatters quietly

I begin to doubt
when silence
lingers too long

And I light like fire
when I feel
seen by you

because, much like you,
I want to be truly loved
even if it’s the last thing I do.
We carry different sorrows but dream alike
 0° 
Rob Rutledge
Sometimes In summer
When the weather smothers
I wonder whether the garden knows.
The shape of the hand that mothers
Or the fist that brings the hose.
Flowers wilt and bow in worship,
Begging palms to bring the rain.
Fruit given up in offering
To exchange and then obtain.
 0° 
Renee C
Fever with criminal agency
Baldly paws at suggestible woods
Cursed by the rain’s contingency
Patina crawls south of crabbed roots

Bean-coiled muscle exposed as barely
Adequate plugs in a shallow basin
Beach-boiled slugs dilate and quiver
For summer bathing fairly by the river
 0° 
onlylovepoetry
Friday night immodesty

theater on East 4th street @ 8:00pm,
so the girlie stuff commences on schedule
90 minuets a-priori and the medley music
(adele+amy+alicia+ pink bach for some zing)
a harbinger, a pioneer Greek heralding of
Friday night immodesty

the clothes laid out upon the bed, the shoes,
pumps selected and already on,
(always a puzzler to me,)
the subdued lower east side jewelry possibilities,
on the dresser drawer,
indifferently hoping for selection, but
casually beaming quietly,
like those kids waiting for interviews in the waiting room
of the college Admissions Dean’s office,
all with serious smiles
and tiny tearing eyes

aside:
helloooooo, I am in a poetry polo with my best jeans ready to go
2 hours before the curtain calls out,
hellooooooo

she sits at the makeup mirrored desk,
clad in only her underneath garments of varying utility,
when I sweep in imperially
and with one hand twist gentle her hair upwards,
betraying
her neck nape which is again
the sujet of a poem aborning

lips,
like a Greek lyre strings, pluck, the tiny hid hairs never seen,
her instant moans at the never fully expected motion poem,
beg more mercy but no quarter given despite repeated cries
of you’ll mess my makeup,
the best defense known to a lady!

god gave men two thumbs to lift up,
simultaneously stimulating,
slide down each of the thin black brasserie strap invitations,
upon each, a writ,
upon her flesh colored shoulders,
stating
“what was she thinking!”

my lips,
now polar explorers, those power (filled) poles side by side,
(east/west for the designer was a smart
bipolar guy-person);
the lips play silent night progressive jazz,
tinkling with higher noted keys,
nape to shoulders moving down to the back’s prefrontal lobe,
the small of her back, the body’s quivering,
a con-federate flag of surrender

her last defense swept aside, we drink honey and milk,
celebrate the week’s mellifluous finish with immodest touching,
the lower east side will belong tonite
to only the hipsters, the millennials,
as our hips are milling and  otherwise
pre-theater and post, occupado

some hours later, watching TV and eating delivered Chinese,
she laterally and literally arm punches my arm
intensely to mark her discontent,
still annoyed,
for I

1) messed up her makeup,
2) best blouse to the dry cleaner and
3) the tickets wasted, and worse,
hits me again!

after I laugh and giggle upon proffering
most modestly, most assuredly,
seconds of
onlylovepoetry

9.21am Saturday
thank you all who liked this tale of
the poetry in the details
of our lives.
olp
 0° 
ahintofpoetry
And as you kissed me I silenty wept,
I wept for me because it was not you I wanted,
And I wept for you because you were the victim.
Your love was only met with my desire.
I really need to tell you something S.
 0° 
neth jones
beautiful morning
    amber filtered . . .
                      with the forest fire smog
it's fine   don't worry
    it's been carried a great distance
                 to reach our city
a slight itchiness to the eyes
a slight betrayal      with breathing being
                                    a little harsh for some
beautiful morning
        teased branches
                       their tinsel shadows
               and a warm rustle
01/08/25version above
NOTES FROM 22/07/25 :
beautiful morning shadows/of teased branches/tinsel shadows/and warm rustle

Haiku version :
an amber morning
teased branches  tinsel shadows
                           a warm rustling
 0° 
Salmabanu Hatim
For you has blossomed,
I know you are not ready yet,
But if you can cherish even a single petal of my love in your heart,
I pray its fragrance may awaken and
blossom your love for me,
I await patiently always by your side.
31/7/ 2025
 0° 
the dirty poet
Rami Malek is radioactively brilliant
as the most alienated soul on earth
in the mindblowing first season--
nostalgia for Occupy Wall Street
when the evil overlords
were under the radar
not flying AirForce One--
and hackers were omnipotent rock stars
 0° 
Jay Jelly
IN TODAY'S RUSH WE ALL THINK TOO MUCH, SEEK TOO MUCH, WANT TOO MUCH,
AND FORGET ABOUT THE JOY OF JUST BEING
-ECKHART TOLLE
Cendal flotante de leve bruma,
rizada cinta de blanca espuma,
rumor sonoro
de arpa de oro,
beso del aura, onda de luz:
    eso eres tú.

Tú, sombra aérea, que cuantas veces
voy a tocarte te desvaneces
¡como la llama, como el sonido,
como la niebla, como el gemido
    del lago azul!

En mar sin playas onda sonante,
en el vacío cometa errante,
largo lamento
del ronco viento,
ansia perpetua de algo mejor,
    ¡eso soy yo!

Yo, que a tus ojos, en mi agonía,
los ojos vuelvo de noche y día;
yo, que incansable corro y demente
¡tras una sombra, tras la hija ardiente
    de una visión!.
 0° 
Blue Sapphire
It's not the fall,
but how you rise
after the fall
that defines you.
 0° 
Eric M Hale
Under the flickering street light,
we wished each other a good night.
Words we may have wanted to say
could always wait another day.
There would always be enough time,
we were kids, alive, in our prime,
never thinking we would grow old,
or maybe we did, but never told.
Then one night, the corner was bare,
and then the next, still no one there.
An old man, musing on the past,
(when any day could be my last):
Tomorrows are not imminent,
but our yesterdays, infinite
I felt my wandering spirit kick up a dust that rattled in my bones.
Spirit speak, hungry as you are...  

-Rhia Clay
 0° 
Shadows
Your chair stays untouched
I still set a second plate
Grief eats next to me.
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