Eric the Red: Poems

163 · Apr 2018

In the Garden of Good and Evil

Eric the Red Apr 2018

In the Garden of Good and Evil

Only god & the devil know how much
I love you

I only believe in one of them...

163 · Mar 2018

My Moon is Gone

Eric the Red Mar 2018

My Moon is Gone

It’s hard to care about the night
When your moon is gone
I miss you
My moon
...sun

160 · Feb 2018

...the imparted

Eric the Red Feb 2018

...the imparted

...there’s a quieter version
...of you
...that you rarely show
...to others
...but show to
...me
...each & every day
...your silhouette on Sunday
...mornings looking out the window
...you’ve made us coffee
....and your love notes
....clash with the person
....you show to everyone else
...I thank you for giving
...that side
....I shall guard it like treasure
...always on the watch
...never to be relieved
How could I ever use such beautiful words
Against
You
My fortress in the forest
Of evergreen emerald

160 · Feb 2018

Reveille

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Reveille

And if I had one day
That would be okay
With you
I
Would just ask
For the sun to never set
Nor the moon to never rise
&
Just get lost in eternal seconds
Press against your immortal skin
&
Get back all the time
Lost between us

159 · Mar 2018

The Midnight Mermaid

Eric the Red Mar 2018

The Midnight Mermaid

Return to me at night
As I was drifting
Foot of my bed
Blankets
Sheets
Turn to water

Your hands
Ripple
Currents towards me
Scales
Along my legs
Across my chest
Can’t move
Can’t resist
Gentle kiss
Holding onto me
By your lips
‘I can’t swim’
I say
‘I’ll swim for both of us...’
You say
As you pull me under

‘It’s time for both of us to be wet’
Whisper
Succumb
Drown
Inside
Of
You
..............
..........
.....
...
..
.

159 · Feb 2018

The Lawyers

Eric the Red Feb 2018

The Lawyers

They’re like the wife you didn’t see coming, and now you have to divorce them too
‘Mr Red when can we expect payment?’
‘If I give blood today, plasma tomorrow...I can send $30 the day after that but won’t eat till Friday.’

Bloodsuckers
Parasites
I would’ve stayed with my ex if I knew it was gonna run $10k!

$27 for a phone call with client
$37 to reply to an email from opposing counsel
$135.67 for 30 minutes of preparing documents
$78.63 for filing documents with courts

Yep...I should’ve been a **** lawyer
And folks wonder why nobody ever wants to marry again...
It was cheaper to keep secrets

‘Yes, I’ll send the $30 by Thursday...’

158 · Feb 2018

Absence of Light

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Absence of Light

Just because we are friends with
Darkness
Doesn’t mean it wants to be
Friends
With us...

158 · Feb 2018

The Ghost

Eric the Red Feb 2018

The Ghost

Loved
How she slept
How she laughs
How she looks at herself
Her words that she writes
How she dances by herself
Sometimes
With music
Sometimes
With tears
So I’ll stand guard
Unrelieved watch
Over her
Until she joins me
Hear her whisper
Each and everynight
Before turning off the light
‘I miss you my love...I know you are there. I feel you.’
‘I miss you too...
I’m the Ghost
And she haunts me...

157 · Dec 2020

Indelible...

Eric the Red Dec 2020

Indelible...

For my remembrance
Insistence
All the paths I’ve gone down
Many paved
A few bamboo
Cuts here...there
Trampled downtrodden
To overwhelming guilt
Sadness
Painful as it is...
I can still turn it to something
Else
Much like when the earth needs
Sun...
It just rotates
To grow
Water
Sunlight
But when earth is tired
It gives moon
Sleep
Dreams
Love...
Forever
Indelible

156 · Mar 2018

The Gift of Your Thirties

Eric the Red Mar 2018

The Gift of Your Thirties

Once
In my 20s
I acquired things
Material Possessions
A
Wife
Kids
Mild success
Church goer
Do gooder
I cared about parent teacher conferences and great
School districts

In my thirties
It vanquished
Revealed its disguise
&
Lost it all
But that’s ok

Now in my 40s
I know all the
Happy Hour
Bars
&
Liquor Stores
Nearby
&
10 percent off Tuesdays
For wine
En vino veritas
Finally got the truth
I deserved
Had to lose everything
To get it
Thank you
Thirties

154 · Apr 2018

The 1st & 2nd Glances

Eric the Red Apr 2018

The 1st & 2nd Glances

At 1st Glance of Her
I heard my father’s voice
From when I was a boy

Don't start a fire you don’t know how to put out

At 2nd Glance of Her
She pierced my heart & soul
With a forlorn smile
&
I knew my ship would
Go down in flames sometime
In the middle of the night

But I didn’t care

153 · Apr 2018

The Tears of Angels

Eric the Red Apr 2018

The Tears of Angels

One day your angel & my angel
Met in the clouds

The day that we met

The day one of us had the courage
To say

hello

The 1st page of our Love Story

The angels knew...

it has begun

One must’ve said...

153 · Feb 2018

Dear Writer

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Dear Writer

Someone you’ve never met is waking in this universe
Under the same stars as
You
Ready to appreciate
The beautiful
Words
You write

153 · Feb 2018

Today’s Man (His Daily Schedule)

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Today’s Man (His Daily Schedule)

Wake
Coffee
Make sure she’s asleep
Download apps
Toilet
Swipe left
Swipe right
Pay a bill
Go to work
Email
Make eyes with that new girl
Check apps
Match
‘Nice to meet you...’
Send msg to that one 500 miles away
Lunch
‘I work long hours so I’m just looking for a physical thing right now’
Text Mrs.
‘I love you too...I’ll get wine on way home.’
Check msgs
‘I’d like that...’
Send selfie to new stranger
Keep that long distance one dangling
‘Missing you...’
Txt missus
‘On my way...’
‘Hurry...dinner almost ready.’
‘HAHA...LOVE YOU LOVE’
kiss
Check app
Quick swipe right
Match
‘Nice to meet you...’
Wine
Delete apps
Delete pics
Key turns to front door
She runs over wraps arms around
kiss
‘I’ve missed you today...’
‘You have no idea how much I’ve missed you today.’
Thinks to himself if he put that one number on block or
Do Not Disturb

153 · Mar 2018

Ephermal

Eric the Red Mar 2018

Ephermal

If you think you’re having a
Bad day
Bad life

There are soldiers coming home
From a deployment
That consider it a success
Because they didn’t ****
Any children
This time

Remember that...

152 · Jul 2021

Older Not Wiser

Eric the Red Jul 2021

Older Not Wiser

I can shoot pool like I’m 19
Bowl a 159 if I hav e to
Pitcher after pitcher
One two many mixed drink
$78 bar tab
Just to go home alone
And tell my self
‘I could’ve just got drunk here for $12..’

151 · Feb 2018

From the Dream I had last night

Eric the Red Feb 2018

From the Dream I had last night

Alone
Cold
In the dark
Unable to see
You whisper
Whisper to me
‘Did you hear...hear me call
‘Out to thee?’
‘Oh yes...this is our spot...
‘The place we have to build...
‘If we can’t be together...
‘Right now you & me...
‘Our Love is fragile...
‘Needs a forest...
‘Needs a sea...
‘Your lovely voice
‘My love I heard it...
‘Calling out to me...
Leaving
You have your back to me
Stoking the fire
‘Don’t forget about us...
‘And what we can be...
Alone
Dark
Cold

151 · Feb 2018

New York City...1959

Eric the Red Feb 2018

New York City...1959

I’d caught your eye off Broadway
One evening
Your hair pulled back
The sweat from the streets

Followed you up to
Washington Square
In Autumn leaves
You turned around and smiled

That upright bass was pumping
Crowds were swaying in
Harlem
I had my best gray suit on
Polished Florsheim wingtips
Electric maroon tie

That lipstick of yours
Made your eyes
Glitter so much goodness
The floral print of that dress
Forever
Tattooed
Upon my memory

‘It’s nice to meet you...’
And we couldn’t take our eyes
Off each other
That first night
Jazz trumpets
Trane hitting that sax
Moonshine
To go with
Moonlight

3am
Walking back south
Through the park
Your hand disappeared in mine

‘I want to see you tomorrow...
I say
‘I want to stay with you today...
You say

‘I’ll never kiss another...’

148 · Mar 2018

Hope

Eric the Red Mar 2018

Hope

You’re the reason why
At the beginning of
Revolutions
They drag the poets
Into the streets
&
Have them shot

Poets
With their ideals
Compassion
Courage
Inflicting the masses

They always shoot the
Poets
Not the pastors
Teachers
Laborers
Politicians
Press

Poets give hope
Even when they
Themselves
Have none...

146 · Feb 2018

Mercy for the Rotting

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Mercy for the Rotting

There will soon be 12 dead flowers in millions of homes all across the world...
Have mercy for them

144 · Jan 16

Pouring Through

Eric the Red Jan 16

Pouring Through

The world is so sad without you in it…
I say to nothing
And receive nothing back

Easy to say
Harder to comprehend
Nothing can be worse than rejection

This is all your fault
Anyway

Thinking you can have it all
Only to throw it away
Not measuring the pain of a future staring into an empty wall and saying

‘The world is so sad without you in it…’

144 · Dec 2020

Ships in the Night

Eric the Red Dec 2020

Ships in the Night

Maybe
Once again
You’ll hear my familiar
Bell
Ringing
Portside
213am
Calm waters
Black
Lifeless
Ragged
Torn
Flag
Listing to one
Side
Passing
You
Once
More
In the night...

143 · Feb 2018

Just Like the Lost

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Just Like the Lost

Seconds tick away time
Time away from you
I
See you in the corners of my
Eyes
Waiting for me
In my time away from you

Isn’t easy
For me
Waking from dreams of you
Even there you walk away
‘I want to tell you everything...’
‘Stop...’
And I walk along the sand
Hand in hand
With nobody
Just like the lost...

142 · Mar 2018

What’s Considered a Date?

Eric the Red Mar 2018

What’s Considered a Date?

In today’s instant Hookup Society
Where everybody gets laid
&
Played
The *** can be free
&
Anonymous

She was the only one
The only one
I’d throw my phone away
For
&
Communicate with smoke signals
If I had to
&
Call her from a pay phone
Just to hear her lovely
Voice

142 · Mar 2018

Summer of 1995

Eric the Red Mar 2018

Summer of 1995

Back in those days
All we had to do was
Scrape together $46
For a Friday night room
Two combo meals
A joint
&
A 12 pack of some ****** beer
$46
Got me a hand to hold
A naked body to lay next to
And try to decipher what
She’d say in her sleep
Sometimes she would laugh
Sometimes she would cry
Sometimes she slept all
Through the night
$46
To watch her **** silhouette
Against the window
To have a cigarette
$46
To get to say
‘I love you’
And
Hear it back
And sometimes we’d laugh
And sometimes we’d cry
And sometimes we’d fall asleep
In each other’s arms
All through the night
All for
$46

I felt like a millionaire
Back then
Love was simple

The summer of
1995

142 · Feb 2018

Cleaning out the storage

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Cleaning out the storage

Found that orange pillow that you’d bring to our Saturday nights
On my couch
And like a dummy
I smelled it
And somehow
Someway
The gods remembered
How much I loved you
Because the smell of your
Hair was still upon it
After years
And
Years

142 · Jan 2018

Duke Ellington

Eric the Red Jan 2018

Duke Ellington

Do you remember the 3:14am train
From across town growing up?
I’d turn on the radio and someone
Had changed it
Those mornings would play some AM station out of North Dakota
Fuzzy
But it would come in
The horn of the train would
Blast
One last time five minutes
Later
And I’d drift off to sleep again
Wake
To find the radio was turned off
Attic
Cleaned it out when I was 12
Plastic Flowers
Had no dust upon them
In that attic
It’s when I saw the ghost
Of her
Put it all together as an
Adult
She
Was the one who changed
The station and turned off
My radio after I fell back asleep
She loved her jazz
Her
Duke Ellington

140 · Jan 3

Old Coffee Can

Eric the Red Jan 3

Old Coffee Can

High on a shelf
Where you’re at
Garage
Utility room
Full of screws, dimes, paper clips
And your messages to me
That I pull out when I feel like
Reaching out
To tell you how much you’re missed

But there you are old coffee can
Your ‘don’t tell someone to jump if you’re not ready to catch her…’
Mixed in with the nails
The voicemails
The ‘my love’
Echoing so plain
As day

Old coffee can
Put you back where you belong
High on a shelf
My love…

140 · Feb 2018

Howling

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Howling

Good medicine or bad medicine
You protected me
Like a mother would
Shielding me
Even if my clouds were dark
My eyes red
My skin made of scales

You still made something
From me
Saw the good
Even when I didn’t want to be

138 · Feb 2018

Part of my Constellation

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Part of my Constellation

I see you in the distance
My star

I’m here too
Never touching
But constant

You’re not alone
And I don’t feel alone
Knowing you’re there

So bright
So beautiful
We are part of the same
Constellation
For millions of years to come

Come closer to me...

*

135 · Nov 2020

Your Voice

Eric the Red Nov 2020

Your Voice

Just as lovely as I remember...
Erasing a thousand days with it...
Making 46 minutes seem like 2...
This spell you have over me
Will never wilt
Will never know a winter
Will always have a sunrise
Rising from out of an ocean
Your voice
Beautiful woman
Spell over me...

135 · Feb 2018

Incinerated Forest

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Incinerated Forest

She took her gasoline can
Emptied it on my branches
My leaves
My outer bark
Covered me
Doused me
And stood on the edge
Of my forests
My green
She knew what she was doing
It had been 3 long months
Without her
Without a word
4am Monday morning
I saw the match
Drop
‘You haven’t written in a while
‘Are you okay?’
Let this fire consume us
I don’t ever want
To put it out

135 · Mar 2018

The Reoccurring

Eric the Red Mar 2018

The Reoccurring

I run into the
Terminal
Hoping it’s not too late
You’re nowhere
To be found

Searching
Looking into crowds
Your flight has left
It’s too late
All the things
‘I wanted to tell you...’

‘I’m right here...’

And there you are
Behind me
And I hold onto you
Like I’m pulling you
From a sinking ship
And kiss you
And kiss you
Like I’m saying goodbye
&
All around us
People are putting their phones
Down to watch us
&
Clap afterwards

It’s a beautiful dream
Some nights I can’t wait
To go to sleep
Because I know I’m
Going to be with you

134 · Feb 2018

Dream Traveler

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Dream Traveler

Rolling over to find you
Snuggled into my back
Trying to find warmth
‘Did you miss me?’
‘You know I did...’
‘I’ve missed this...’
Kissing me
Scent of your body
Giving off radiance
Your hips in the moonlight
Opening
Lip trembling
Opened eyes in desire
Then coming in for more

Awake
Clock reads
3:14am
Smell of your hair
In my nose
The place next to me warm
Desperately
Get back to sleep
Back to you

134 · Feb 2018

Lit

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Lit

You’ve set fire to the wilderness of my soul as I sit & laugh at the flames that stretch into the heavens ...

134 · Feb 2018

Faces

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Faces

Saw 847 faces
Driving 847 cars
Traffic in
Traffic out
Passed by 49 faces
Walking 49 different ways
Made eyes with
1
And she still
Wasn’t you
Why couldn’t
1
Of them be
U

134 · Feb 2018

...if...

Eric the Red Feb 2018

...if...

If
You’re gonna run from the cops
Do it when you’re young
Young enough for them
To release you to your parents
But do it once
If
You’re gonna fall in love
Do it when you’re old
Old enough for you
To forget all the loves before her
Let her be the last woman you love
If

134 · Feb 2018

If F. Scott Fitzgerald lived in these times

Eric the Red Feb 2018

If F. Scott Fitzgerald lived in these times

For what it’s worth
You’re never too old
To start a Facebook account
I hope you live a life worth
Posting up
With a face that doesn’t need a filter
A life filled
&
Full of Likes
Retweets
&
Comments
And if you find that you don’t
I hope you find the strength
To start a fake account

134 · Feb 2018

I Just Know

Eric the Red Feb 2018

I Just Know

If I were to ask her when she cried today, before she’d answer I’d say
‘9:22’
&
She’d say
‘How did you ...

I just know
I just know

133 · Feb 2018

The Scarred Heart

Eric the Red Feb 2018

The Scarred Heart

If you opened me up
To reveal my beating
You’d find the lacerations
Of years
Of lovers
Crushes
Heartbreaks
Goodbye to my grandmother
Friends I’ve lost
The ones
Who said they’d stay
The Scarred Heart
‘There’s a bandaid on a part...
‘Of your heart....
You say
‘That’
I say
‘Is you healing it...’

133 · May 2020

Sky Full of Stars

Eric the Red May 2020

Sky Full of Stars

The truth is out there
Always has been...
Always will be...
Sometimes the truth
Is hidden in the seas
Mired in the dense forest
Asleep in deserts
..........
And sometimes the truth
Is in a campfire cup of coffee,
A sky full of stars,
And no cell phone service for
2 to 3 days...

131 · Feb 2018

The Fear

Eric the Red Feb 2018

The Fear

I have this fear that one day when your hair has turned silver that I’ll come up in one of your conversations ‘I knew a Poet once...’
And you’ll keep the next thought to yourself...
‘He loved me like no other before or since...’

131 · Feb 2018

Wonderment

Eric the Red Feb 2018

Wonderment

I wonder
If she ever
Looks
At my words
&
Says
‘Oh my...I love that man. Yes I do...yes I do...’

130 · Nov 2020

...living in fear

Eric the Red Nov 2020

...living in fear

...so difficult to muster
...one more day
...shall confront it
...walk out of my cage
...look it in the eye
...filled with anger
...malcontent
...tell it off
...set myself free
...find some peace
...let the days
...pile up between me
And the Fear
..................
...........
.....
..
.
Tomorrow, I promise
Close my cage
On your way out

130 · Mar 2018

Vice & Versa

Eric the Red Mar 2018

Vice & Versa

Those without vices will bore you to death with their virtues

Stay the hell away from these people...

130 · Nov 2020

Too Many People in the World

Eric the Red Nov 2020

Too Many People in the World

There’s just too many people
In the world..
15 minutes to get to work
An hour to get home
Bumper to bumper
Neverending lines
Outside grocery stores
Fighting for the last of the paper
Too many people
Too many cars
Not enough time to fall in love
12-14 hour days
With the same people
Same problems
Piling up
There’s just too many people in the world
And yet when there is a love story
Their first inclination is to bring
More people in the world
More addicts
More drunks
More argumentative people
More folks to put into coffins on wheels
Trying to get home
So they can
Go to bed
Alone...

128 · Nov 2020

Love is...

Eric the Red Nov 2020

Love is...

Love is...
Light where there was none
Endless rivers flowing
Lime dense forest alive
Sweet everlasting kisses
Memory lasting years
Decades...forever
Love is...
‘This is my pain, this is where it hurts...’
‘Give it to me...this is where your pain ends’
Holding you once again
Love is...
Dreams within dreams
First thoughts after nightmares
‘Are you okay?’
Love is...
An empty canvas
An Italian wedding
Soldiers coming home from war
A shooting star only you saw
Their song
Only you can hear
Playing every single day
Every word they ever spoke
Now a burning poem in your head
With an endless wick
Love is...
I will be here forever for you
Time means nothing
Find you first in the next life
Watch over you if I’m befallen before
Endless wick
Burning
Embers
Long
Into
The
Night
Love is...
...you

127 · Mar 2018

What’s Needed is a Good Cold Rain

Eric the Red Mar 2018

What’s Needed is a Good Cold Rain

What’s needed is a good cold rain
Wash away the winter
Wash away the day
Wash away the inevitable
Alleviate the pain

What’s needed is a good cold rain
Submit to the stream
Submit do not go against the grain
Submit all night
Submit all day

What’s needed is a good cold rain
Mix with the leaves of yesterday
Mix today with springtime vein
Mix muddy with sunny
Sometime today

What’s needed is a good cold rain
Say goodbye to the winter
Say hello to the splinters
Say my name just once more
And I’ll
Wash myself away
Submit to going away
Mix tears in moonlight
Say you’ll miss me
‘See you again...someday’

127 · Mar 2018

Outer Bands

Eric the Red Mar 2018

Outer Bands

People always ask me what I’m running from

I tell them I’m not running from anything

I’m simply standing up straight
In the storm

And what you see is the storm passing over me

I don’t care about the storm
&
The storm don’t care about me
Simple

126 · Jun 21

June 21st

Eric the Red Jun 21

June 21st

You showed up on a hot day in June
Said you were in town
Looked into your eyes for the first time
The toothpaste had already been out for awhile
Couldn’t put it back in
Put up or shut up time
And it just clicked. There it was in some 7-11 parking lot off Havana St
I could tell how much you loved me
And how much I ruined it for us
I wrote a book and released it on June 21st
Sending pings out into the galaxy
Well dressed words that I’d hoped would act as a comet
Hoping you’d come back with them…