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Jun 2021 · 64
This is a Bad Poem
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
This is a bad poem
but it still needs a home
it's one of those
i couldn't leave alone
I typed it in chrome
Do you know Jerome?
Jun 2021 · 76
Don't Speak
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
I've been thinking about you
so hard
in my simulations

you always meet my needs
there

And then I wait
I don't know for what

while you and the rest seem to do
independent self directed actions

this isn't why I subscribe to this
course of life

which made me wonder
about your motivation here

and I know what you're after
don't I
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
I'm just trying to feel better about myself here
by earning your good opinion
I'm just reluctant to put on pants
count syllables or rewrite much
past now's solidification
of this imaginary ink

I like meaning's own rhythms
and now's own sweetness

for some form brings freedom
not me

this white pretend page
and this limited alphabet
and these meager words
are already too big of constraints
for the vibe
'at wants out of me now
******

some great wave of life
crests leaving an arrangement
of sand and pebbles
descriptions, not even photographs
maybe a spare sense
of something beautiful
slipping past

There goes, here comes, this'n' here
and another one are never done
so on with the fun
wave to the particles will ya
Jun 2021 · 99
Quantum of Verse
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
I am the entangler
the wrangler of nows
never thens
I am at an action
a spooky distance
away from really
near to you
and elsewhere too
all at different times
that were undistinguishable
and we went round and
another shape              
I've never seen
encompassed it better
than these poor words
collecting
Jun 2021 · 65
Condition
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
This thing I face
a condition
of seeing myself
always at risk

its this fight
to not be
at risk
that drives

I reread
these lines
am bored
with my
Jun 2021 · 116
Izzat?
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
...Three horns
...You
Say sumpem

The matches are gone

it's this wicked wind
carrying away
every last moment

Today's rocky outcrop
burnished at sunset
with a coppery light

I rub my chest
and stomach
calming them

warming them
between coughs
I've inhaled

I took out my edge
and carved up that
time of ours

seeing endings
everywhere
I start trippin'
Jun 2021 · 472
So Here
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
I open this
opening
to you

every night
sneezing and
expostulating

verbs I often think
and sounds
for which

I can't find
any meaning
for you

I just have them
in my hand
right now

and don't know
what to do
with them
Jun 2021 · 48
Nerg y
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
Another skint knee
as I clamber
these rocky flows

seconds separate
this assertion
and your apprehension

just not clear
in what
direction

care
doesn't flow
where I want

where I imagine
as I imagined
I earned it

does it for you
flow easily
home
Jun 2021 · 423
Then Admit
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
In Poetic News Today'
Nothing rhymed
with anything
alliteration and consonance
got confused counting
and accenting this and that
and decided a nice cup of tea
with brandy and a nap
among dusty books I imagine
in a square of sun from a high window
like a lesson in perspective
you find interesting and turn past
would be nice this afternoon
and tonight and even well we'll see
about a poet's tomorrow
when you're more somber
and know better so you can
Jun 2021 · 89
R Anon
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
You have to follow because
it follows
Of course I made this up
and that's ok these days
R wants you to know
there are people eating poets
and things even less nice
are going on with short story writers
(just had to)
and nobody and I mean

is paying attention
or talking about this
and it's a conspiracy
affecting many many
there must be dozens
wolfed down like
whiny popcorn

oh the indemnity
of being earless
and mundane
and I'm running
thataway
Jun 2021 · 61
Daft
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
I won't even try
to make what you want
I must exceed that
Jun 2021 · 59
Since I've Made You Up
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
Things I will do with you
Can I get you a drink
Are you hungry
If I make you attractive
there may be some off's
to be had (and then this collapse)

I want you to be into something
something delicious
that leans your head back
and involuntarily you deeply breathe
this coalescing of all thrills
like you've got it all right

I'm not selling your story
nothing has to happen
to send things careening
life is just saying things
whilst skin and nerves
watch our [inaudible] spasm
Jun 2021 · 54
Dolls
Dennis Willis Jun 2021
What is with me
what is us
maybe

Us is the will to live
I am one effort

what in the dickens
is a will to live

a foray into darkness
because hunger

I am so hungry
tonight

in sewing together
this

i've included you
as batting
May 2021 · 54
While I Run
Dennis Willis May 2021
Nothing hangs in the balance
though I want something
to hold my breath over
so as not to upset
everything

Don't want to do that

Might as well
squeeze the rain dry

Each of us alone
in our thoughts

Mine running to edges
and choices

that I make up
in hunger

that I imagine
eat at me
May 2021 · 57
Yang
Dennis Willis May 2021
I don't have to be entertaining
I don't have to be excelling
I don't have to be achieving
I don't have to be inging anying
May 2021 · 59
Before After
Dennis Willis May 2021
Who are you
doesn't want to know
where or even when
how this came about
is all that can be
unraveled here
despite your best
which you may
have never seen
May 2021 · 55
Warm Day
Dennis Willis May 2021
I sat here all eve
just for this breeze
I thought
as it cooly arrived
around my skin
like lotion
of forest night air
Dennis Willis May 2021
Funny, that.
Getting it Right
burns up the universe
faster
the force of seeing
Albert's gift
ablating away now

the subsurface
of the bottom of things
hates a calendar
knows a pattern on time's
a prison to chance
a lid to capricious eye

laughing at 2:30 pm
on Thursday
poetry at 3
falling in love
is next week
just after
i see epiphany
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/clock-time-accuracy-entropy-disorder
May 2021 · 100
And Does It Matter
Dennis Willis May 2021
There's more here
but where are you?
May 2021 · 98
Taught
Dennis Willis May 2021
Globs of protoplasm
walk about freely

Engage in seemingly
meaningful behavior

Seemingly meaningful
people like me

Bridge something
maybe no more  than that

the rest
"sound and fury"

is funny when taken
so seriously

a weld in time
holding then to now
May 2021 · 132
Closer
Dennis Willis May 2021
This is to the
rest of me
not you since
let me restate that
you and your crowd
are welcome to watch

This is to the rest of me
most of me
all the me beneath me
as if I were a bird
soaring of course
over my own landscape

that seems to not perturb
well me
that this writer is okay
with being seen
as a gull perhaps
working wind

the speech I want to give
to me
is too mundane to write
it's ok to be alone
or is that
just me

that being a crowd
which is ok now
look it up
ikr
what does this make
of alone

other at my highest level
requires letting go of us
do you see the level of kidding
of myself is going on here
to disguise clumsy being
hurt while looking out
May 2021 · 49
Death Chuckles
Dennis Willis May 2021
Men with guns
seem to think
they are necessary
to life
May 2021 · 65
There
Dennis Willis May 2021
This alone contains stillness
its in that corner
keeping the room
from being taken
by the usual wind

play into me it says
opening darkness up
i smell hot dogs
and potting soil
and taffy being pulled

I've landed alone at an airfield
on sore wheels and mixed fuels
I just know I've landed that's all
and you must be here somewhere
light something so I can see you
May 2021 · 147
OLder
Dennis Willis May 2021
Degree of dominance
Is yours higher than mine
Yawn
May 2021 · 74
Readers
Dennis Willis May 2021
uncertain as to who you are
i picture pirates
with red pens
would be nuns
May 2021 · 53
Locating Me
Dennis Willis May 2021
I'm in here
somewheres
I don't look like
you imagine

I"ve tickled
the sugar coated skin
of my closest friend
so he knows

I'm pushing the field
that thinks its the thing
that is the instrument
holding the wave

in case i stop zap here
and i am reconstituted
as a line of *******
like poetry you snort
May 2021 · 112
Me Again
Dennis Willis May 2021
This is not the time for poetry
I say
not the time for balled fists of words
meant to smack you into now

This is a mundane hour of finding
socks and coffee, forgots and oh-nos
followed by dart-aways 'n' I suppose
so's

yet here the fingers are poised
and soul draining
last night's too much abrading
by love's rough leaving
May 2021 · 89
Threat
Dennis Willis May 2021
I keep thinking about you
I believe I love you
May 2021 · 317
Lettuce
Dennis Willis May 2021
What if I trusted you
I asked myself
and not my fear
or my idea
of you

Can you be
trusted
if I tell you
my truth?

Or will you
snigger or
opine
on mine

Wher e is
that line
I can never
fine
I'll return
May 2021 · 69
I Wish
Dennis Willis May 2021
I wish humans were
actually human
I wish I did not see
children die
on tv
How do you
yes you
allow men
to play
these deadly

And I stop
I wish
for less
testosterone
for less
how dare you
for less
serious belief

Blend me from the blood
or I will attack
something
anything different
I am poised

I wish
I wasn't
May 2021 · 151
502 Bad Gateway
Dennis Willis May 2021
The Muse spicy tonight
May 2021 · 152
Wow
Dennis Willis May 2021
Wow
Welcome to high energy poetry
well that didn't last
May 2021 · 227
Boam
Dennis Willis May 2021
I want to write a poem
I want to take you home
I just make you groan
An' I just sit here alone
May 2021 · 36
This One
Dennis Willis May 2021
This one
you won't like
This one
isn't even

I sip from the wine
I sip from the water
and then the wine
again
what does that
tell you

Seconds and I
raise my hand

as if I am part
of something now

whilst typing
in this quiet room

is there sand
where you are

is there danger
there to you

I pull up on my comfort
consider

doing my very best
carrier wave listening

i am ignorant
and innocent

of your muscular
knowing scalds

and that part
of you waiting
to read ahh

I left a sandwich
out for you
May 2021 · 92
Gravel
Dennis Willis May 2021
The crushing I permit
the crushing I admit
the crushing crushed
I have a shirt I say do you
May 2021 · 48
Grip
Dennis Willis May 2021
So I must not care
The grip is tight
the might wanders
along a river
as if hunting
only wanting
to be seen
as if hunting
don't i look like
i'm hunting
say yes please
say yes
May 2021 · 46
Yeah
Dennis Willis May 2021
These costly Thursdays add up
three shot Thursday wants four
heartbreak and a toothache and a
ground-shake and i'm in a lake
of not knots what knots heart knots
and snots like you


Friendly forgetfulness
has slain me the forgotten
so i must move on
to more memorable
being me somewhere
else
again
May 2021 · 94
Missing
Dennis Willis May 2021
I sit back
when did i
become this
when did i
become that
when did i
slouch into my soul
over you and you
and even you
and how could you
you knew
how i felt
you knew didn't you
what you were doing to me
this relentless discontinuance
of love
May 2021 · 95
Branching
Dennis Willis May 2021
Some of you are soldiers
of dying thoughts
of Persephone
languid and alone

Asking always for bullets
and to know where to find
me the enemy the unkind
of whom we'll be better off

I can't know I say
and that strap holding
against my brow breaks
turning and turning away
May 2021 · 298
It's So Loud
Dennis Willis May 2021
I keep wanting to describe a sound
its this big and this wide and it
makes me go oh drawn out
does this convey that to you

Look my way, yes that's right
how did you know to look here
you think you can't see me
its as if your eyes are knives

When were you here before
was i here too did we talk
i can never remember almost
I can hear you whisper to come

solipsist popsicle in time
cool as james bond stirred
not shaken by this revelation
oh do turn that volume down
May 2021 · 178
Still
Dennis Willis May 2021
The water talks for me
it hopes so much
to be held
May 2021 · 105
What Would I Teach a Poet?
Dennis Willis May 2021
What would I teach a poet?
to write with your feet
so you won't miss a beat
to keep the page neat
and pretend to be sweet
that rhyming all the lines
is poetry dressed to the 9's
that reading it aloud
always makes you proud
to not pretend and let
the **** thing end
Wut would you teach a poet Kevin?
May 2021 · 326
Right?
Dennis Willis May 2021
These self actuated
"bags of mostly salt water"
imagine some really
astonishing things
you, for example
imagine me, writing
and I'm not anymore
imagine me, writhing

and I am anymore
'gainst what I imagine
plays these daily tricks
wherein I keep finding
its still me here 'gain
sayin' the same crazy
discolored things
to not be crazy
the same again
May 2021 · 71
Lightly
Dennis Willis May 2021
So I ran into this moment of clarity
and, of course, I ran like hell

I got this glimpse, see, of making
and what is this pull away from light

if i am a candle do i wish to be lit
light me is always on my waxy lips

time huffs on me like an ember
i'm backing into what is still solid

i don't mean to set it afire again
i say grinning at the sun
May 2021 · 86
What Is it?
Dennis Willis May 2021
this juvenalistic probalistic
stream with no oil or butter
scalds no one
doesn't smell like breakfast
does it
sneak away from
that thought
'for your caught
with
Apr 2021 · 66
Willy
Dennis Willis Apr 2021
so i saw a lilly
and grabbed it
for a filly
she said that
was so silly
then things went
***** nilly
Apr 2021 · 55
Dear Reader
Dennis Willis Apr 2021
I'm left gasping
my false
version of you
shocks me
in new ways

All my versions
of you
scrawled hard
in my ink
on my fog

Attenuated
as dim
as possible
to avoid
more crying

Grooves scrape dark
'cross day
I go to bed
take a nap
sleep past you

And no one reads
my line
mouth open
clothes off
next to me
Apr 2021 · 123
Am I Ok
Dennis Willis Apr 2021
Once I take everything
out of my head
the world's put between
me and my own smell
the world's put between
me and my own smile

then I can see you clear

I know
we need such stories
to explain the game
so we know how to play

it's just
we forget our stories
are stories
we forget our games
are games
we forget other players
are us playing

listen I'm serious
my way is the way
it's no game
you better
watch
what you say
it's just you
that's on your
imaginary way
Apr 2021 · 196
The Objective
Dennis Willis Apr 2021
the objective, I've discovered
is to make it all play
it's the thing
you must admit
to be eloquent
there it went
Apr 2021 · 63
On My Tongue
Dennis Willis Apr 2021
I'm sure this is the last apple
or maybe it is the first
I bit and wow it just burst
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