Aya Baker: Favorites

Sep 2013 Aya Baker

In Concert

Sep 2013 Aya Baker

Nat Lipstadt

In Concert

From the cold bathroom floor
Under bath robe, on top of the bath towel
She says weakly,
I've undressed,
My tummy, messed,
You go to the concert,
By yourself.

I smile and say,
The only thing I will attend this eve is
To you.

We will be,
Just the two of us,
In concert.

Sep 2013 Aya Baker

Why do poets write?

Sep 2013 Aya Baker

Richard Jones

Why do poets write?

My wife, a psychiatrist, sleeps
through my reading and writing in bed,
the half-whispered lines,
manuscripts piled between us,

but in the deep part of night
when her beeper sounds
she bolts awake to return the page
of a patient afraid he'll **** himself.

She sits in her robe in the kitchen,
listening to the anguished voice
on the phone. She becomes
the vessel that contains his fear,

someone he can trust to tell
things I would tell to a poem.

Sep 2013 Aya Baker

Shades of Pain

Sep 2013 Aya Baker

Pradip Chattopadhyay

Shades of Pain

She sobbed ceaseless, her pretty face, was such pitiful a sight
It moved the stars, to think what curse, had befallen the night.
On her empty cot, left with her thought, pillow wetted in tears’ stain
Moon felt morose, stopped on its course, at her pain’s sad refrain.
In that moment, in agony spent, she hadn’t a comforting arm
To smooth her hairs, soothe her tears, ask what had caused her harm.
Was it her love that deserted her, some cruel blow of fate?
Loss of dear one, untimely gone or treated ill by her mate.
None knew what it was, why her eyes were awash, with steadily flowing stream
Did her man abandon her, moved away afar, shattering her heart’s all dream?
Her lips didn’t tell, what her befell, not a soul was there to know
Unbridled rain, spoke of her pain, she couldn’t rein the flow.

At that instance, as if by chance, a man stood on her door
Said ‘quickly take, the pill for toothache, don’t you cry anymore’.

Sep 2013 Aya Baker

castle of sand

Sep 2013 Aya Baker

mark john junor

castle of sand

and that shadow passes
like shadows do
and i drift awake to find your smile waiting for me
grab up whats left of our castle of sand
and explode onto the road
cause tomorrow never shines as bright
as that special yesterday
like a penny that gets tossed
like a shinny piece of rain
it just keeps fallin and flying
keeps the heart going
and your smile is all i really need
don't know where we going but we going in style
you wrapped in your Tye-dye blanket
and me in
my Walt Whitman hat
we gonna dance on distant beaches
we gonna tickle eachother on far off mountain tops
we gonna cheer the world on
from our armchairs
and smile for all the beautiful things we can find
cause shadows always come to an end
and that shadow has nearly passed us by
so lets grab up our bits and pieces
and see where that road takes us
see who we can find
baby lets dance on distant beaches
tickle each-other on far away mountaintops
and sleep in the forgiving arms of foreign lush forest

there is some nineteen twenty's blues
playin far too loud on the turntable
and there in the distance
a train horn lends itself to the moment
i run off a few lines
that are just as empty

looks like heaven
but its not
the world is no different
here than it is in your silent room
i would give anything to be there
in your room
perhaps we could talk till dawn
bout George Sanders
Charles Butterworth
and all the big ones
pills
he shot himself
pills
car accident
pills

jez left this morning
she said she needed some time
that relationships are too complex
and she needs to think
and didn't like the idea that
i don't want to marry her
i think
i just no longer have enough faith
that she or anyone could stay
not trade me in for a needle full of drugs
not trade me in for something faster newer
a better model

there is no magic left
i can still dance on the sand till the tide comes in
but there's no magic
shopping carts chase
but its just a lone set of strings
played slow
and deep
like tears

there is some nineteen twenty's blues
playing far too loud on the turntable
but even the five bottles of wine
haven't set the past out to sea
think i should go now
before i say something foolish