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Ash Slade Jun 2017
Don't ask questions
I don't have answers to.
You'll only get silence if you do.
If that's the game you want to play
---- go ahead I won't stop you
Just be careful how you go.
Every risk you take
Each move you make is
Your own
No one else's.
Games of chance, choice
That's life
Doesn't pay to fight alright.
Form your own interpretations.
Ash Slade Jan 2017
closed eyes


raw
silence.


listening to wails
within. burdened
load,
identity queries


weigh upon
crushed back -


like sacks of heavy rocks.


each pound representing
foreign parts of me.


fragmented splinters

stand apart

from whole.


like white blankets
piled up,


black chalkboard

paved clear,


heaviness is lifted.


inhaling hesitantly
redemptive breaths


exhaling slowly wanting
to hold on.


responding willingly,


these cries show me what I am.


black piece of coal


among polished
diamonds -


you can actually see me


from within
to my surface.


unrefined,
unpolished


am I. am I. am I.
I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am."

Sylvia Plath
Ash Slade Sep 2016
On an autumn night, I gazed out my window,
    fixing my sight on a star stenciled abyss-
wondering if prayers flew, how high they'd go
    or if they could even reach loved ones I miss.


Fixing my sight on a star stenciled abyss-
    Searching night's stillness, seeking answers,
or even if they could reach loved ones I miss.
    Lights sparkling, are twilight's angel dancers.


Searching night's stillness, seeking answers,
      wondering if prayers flew, how high they'd go.
Lights sparkling, are twilight's angel dancers.
      On an autumn night, I gazed out my window
A Pantoum.

I challenge anyone who looks at this poem to two things.

First, leave a comment. It can be good, bad, constructive, whatever...Just offer something.

Second, attempt to write a Pantoum and share it on your profile and send me a link.

How To Write One
http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/pantoum.html
Ash Slade Sep 2016
This place is haunted-
a narrative being told.
Spoken from elder's lips,
passed down rungs of time-
it's more than just a customary legend.

Those with nerve,
are able to travel up-
a crooked, spiral staircase.
Cracked wooden steps,
creak as footsteps ascend
and descend them. Some people
are so weak-stomached-
they fall backwards down
those rickety stairs.

A hutch upstairs-
in cobwebbed hallways,
contains padlocked secrets
of departed eras. Steadier hands-
can play with fire, attempting to push up-
it's entrance.
Their hands are inclined to be
unsteady.

Only those with their sense in check-
should venture up to this home
of "Attic Ghosts." A person must know
what's in store-
prior to freeing those haunted
wanderers. They're known to be tricky,
keeping people on their toes
in tizzies. They're not crummy,
just aiming to give you-
willie nillies.

Let this be a warning-
people who make this trek
might not see morning.
Scared straight out of their skins-
petrified from within,
at things they can't and shouldn't
understand.
Ash Slade Sep 2016
Travels through your bones-
first slowly, then builds up a steadier momentum.

At instances, striking when least expected,
overcoming people as they adapt to the conversion
of seasons.

Shifting from very hot, to a bitter chill,
eventually stepping into a cozy fall breeze.

Absolute balance between, supple winds,
and contented warmness.



Crows cawing, squawking,
uninterrupted-

perched upon black tightropes connecting wooden poles,
that are their homes. Gliding through New England air,

swooping down-
scavenging brown earth in pursuance of nourishment.

Raisin' a ruckus, as sunrise's alarm clock, awakening
us to day's dawning.



Evening enters the scene-

skies with the bluest glow,
encompass our yard with warm
embraces.

Chirping of crickets comes through
screen,

a choir with harmonies so rich,

their melodies sooth the night-
with lullabies writ by nature's own hand.



Ever increasing twilight as daylight fades into night,
blankets tallest trees-

with a soot-colored quilt-

provoking nighttime's celestial sphere,
to appear more rapidly.



As blue converts to darkness,
I'm reassured by a fuzzy green blanket,

wearing an older sweatshirt
with an eagle and town signature on it,

that once belonged to my father.



Autumn nightfall-

unfolds like a prayer,
at each day's close.



Season of serenity,
caressing evening and day.
Ash Slade Sep 2016
I stepped into autumn rain-

it was cold as it wet my feet
near a rusted black mailbox.

Walking a cracked and weather-beaten driveway,
bent down-
smelled odors of dampened pavement.

Fragrances of autumn when rain showers or pours,
reflect stark distinctions-
from when the weather is warm and dry.

Can't stop wondering, if we're headed toward
a rainy season. That wouldn't bother me as long as
rain-
pattering on surfaces of gray and
blackened asphalt roads and country drives,
spoke of new beginnings-
through observant eyes.

Rain on green grass-
cultivates an aroma of roots and earth.

Pounding down-
picking up steadier momentum,
as it splatters ground.

Soil christened,
by millions of clear teardrops-
streaking faces of clouds above,

rolling down-
refreshing and purifying
deepest roots, buried in dirt.

Everything appears so fresh-
seasons of reinvention,
on the surface of sidewalks and blacktops

represent-
slates wiped clean.

I breathe in-
this autumn air, surrendering
sighs of relief-
as I ponder deliberate ruminations

while listening to autumn rains.
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