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Brent Hamilton Aug 2014
Needlepoint threadbare caucus with an instant Kodak box camera filled nitrite
Like the sun-kissed barely lit beaches over Normandy
Stormed into the kitchen with a missile and an avalanche to overpower the pirates
With their long-forgotten and ill begotten flagship armada
The flowers hang low and the nooses lower with ever-present danger of going over
The needle hits skin puncture left right down touch your toes uplift like the cross
Arms hung low over the alabaster sky with a long trench-coat and wary eyes
Cloud cover start to blow the cover and touch the roller coaster coffee cup sitting
With an eye to the glass and the telescope lens flare catch like the door latch
Down to the basement with the worn out sofa sit alone like the bedraggled soldier
With his dog tags hanging like a sign of the times down to where his feet locked
To the floor in an instant with the bombshells all around and a seductive twist
The ring and fling the pin out count down begins to the gravity shift consciousness
Like the cancer patient under the knife the tumor’s removed the chemo begun
With the bulb burning down over a hospital bedside and the white sheets lingering
Smell of a machine gone bad turned tail like the redcoats running down the chute
With the mail to the end of the day the laundry’s out to dry on the steel clothesline
Their bolt cutters damage the elderly couple hanging from the tree with the cymbal
Underneath like the gong of the undertaker the dam’s release
The water runs down to cleanse the disease and carries the pathogens to find their caprice and restraint held back on the man in the chair with vacant eyes and half
Muttered prayers to an unknown God with long white beard
Sitting alone under a payphone like the cold-dead wires of a long gone bee hive
Mind pictures play off the words on my tongue like an over-told rhyme
The nursery songs and bells and whistles come together to form an indignant sound
Like the steel clap trap of the boot black against the pale white walls of the by-gone
Era with a viscosity of ancient monolithic capacity
Sourdough rising like the falling red sun over the horizon sit and contemplate the weather-worn-battle-torn visage of man remembered yet never met
Till death and earth turn and burn in the ascending light of the pale moon
Wolf-howl over the distant city lights like the mournful wail of a banished soul
Away from home for ever so long with a comb to the palace in the heart of the beast
It sings for summer and faraway places of the corporeal magic in an elemental fashion show sip the martini glasses ***** and break and shatter like popcorn
In the kettle boil over the levee let it sink down into the visage of a man in the underground coat around the tails of the whipped dogs running like hell.
Brent Hamilton Dec 2013
Suspended in mid-air, hung like symbol in a square
The vines encrust and entangle
Symmetry defined: just a touch of mastermind
Near enough to be made out
Yet so far, far and away.
Step out to affix the eyes, gears turn amid the cries
Of morals gone and others come
The day has turned upon the one.
Warrior and sage accrue the wealth of none
But their own; forgotten, and alone.
Fallen upon the grass, the leaves they shield at last
The warrior and sage from cannon blast.
We hung suspended in mid air, angels and tears
Our arms linked as though we, one.
The illusion of unity was cast
Like a die cast upon chessboard
The pieces all awry
There's no chance at play here, either win or die.
The light hung like spent shells
Crackle and pop and fall to earth.
Aid the cries of doom and despair
Impending end chills the air.
Though were your plan to cheat the gods there really is no need
Eye divine sees all, even undone deed.
Clandestine eyes espied the crimes
Before ever crafted in a mind.
Brent Hamilton Nov 2013
If I pour my heart into my poetry, will you actually take the time to listen to me?
Or will you attack it with the copy/paste button to fuel your cyber-based altruism.
Living vicariously through others you have shut the door to freedom of expression This isn’t a safe place any more; you’re not going to listen, just look for quotes
Because if this poem doesn’t explain itself in a few bars you won’t tune in
You want the poet to explain his art; the poet just wants you to turn on your brain
He wants you to feel the world not hear it explained in a few simple words
That sound good to your ears, and fuel your own opinion.
Stop looking for validation through quotes taken out of context, if you actually listen, you might actually learn.
I’ve had enough of false friends who want to stab me in the back any chance they get
To them I’m only acceptable if I sound just like them
A speaker on repeat is not what I want to be; the desire for truth burns within
Through conformity art dies if it’s not able to express its authentic self
But it’s alive in the pages of imagination written somewhere deep in your brain
It may be hard to see but I just want to believe that someone will listen
Long enough to hear the struggle in what I’m saying
I have doubts about God and the universe and whether I’m really sitting here
If creation is possible or if I am really just a manipulator
Of pre-existing realities; do you see my dilemma? Am I really a poet or just a fraud?

If I’m an artist I hope to be an arsonist because deconstruction
Is the only real form of creation; I can never be all I hope and dream
The iridescence of your face does not lend clarity
It just leaves me feeling like a disgrace.  
If I strike the match and let it burn like a resemblance of what’s within
Birthed in fire, strong enough to melt stone but contained in a few words
But what good are words when reality’s fleeting?
My questions they writhe like serpents within me
Fear it wells at the sight of your nearness; I want to hold you away
Keep the feelings and emotions safely at bay
Thank you very much this wardrobe is closed; do not open this door
It is shut for a reason, not just a season.
Brent Hamilton Oct 2013
The lonely wolf raised nose to the sky and decried his terrible plight
He let out a sound to pierce the night, a sound both frigid and yet bright
This paradox alone can tell the tale of one who’ll never say
To friend or foe, how do you do, dear sir?
His soliloquy freed to assault the air, a sound not despicable, no, nor fair
Roam alone dear wolf and find that solace which will free your mind
Ever lonely, yet never alone, his sound decries his mortal life
A timeline drawn as through the sand to tell his tale, his life, his woe
Brother lend me your ear, your eye doth not shed its tears
Hear the sound, hear it anon; it calls upon a lonely hour
Tales that wander the misty woods, to prey upon dear children’s fears
Lonesome meander, tooth and claw, hear the raven’s mournful caw
Yet by the by on the wind blown vales, another’s voice catches the tale
Drawn by the winds the sands of time, beat back the advance of the years
Catch the quarry, sustenance bring, or malice cut within the groove
The jowl low, the sneer held high, the mournful sound carried on the tide
Of morning come with its sweet light, breaking the wolf’s call at last on fright
Flee for darkness, flee for shade, the wolf’s call must at last abate
Or so it seemed on that bleak morn, that night’s reign had died in light
When basked the morning’s light, the wolf’s dark coat did shine so bright
With a yelp he leapt about and saw, the dew turned to steam, an end of night
The light it crept up and briefly illumined the wolf’s brethren ‘pon a distant hill
Nor more was he the lonely wolf, his charade exposed, his howl, choked
The rabbit ran, the hound dogs bayed, the wolf gave chase, the farmer dismayed
For this great sound carried away, to the ship docked in its lonely bay
The captain heard this wolf’s dark howl, but did not know it from visions on the hay
Tossed and turn by wind’s fancy, this his plea in his dark hour
The sun advanced, it’s onslaught indomitable, give light to this fell day
The captain rang his bell, hung high, the yardarms above to shade the deck
Wolf, rabbit and at last hound, all advanced in their own way, came at last to wreck
One and all upon the shore, they all fell to the ocean floor
Tumbled forth from o’er the cliff, they cascaded down amid the drift
Mixed with falls from the river bend, they calls mingled to one great sound
Carried over the morning winds, this sound the captain did not comprehend
The lonely wolf raised his head, surrounded by his quarry and his hunter
What more friends could be wished to have surround on this the end
Then these he found himself with here, he shed one joyful tear
Not the cry of sorrow before heard but a new sound he raised that morn
A call to all at last to see, you’re never alone, not you nor me.
Brent Hamilton Oct 2013
Perched beneath the weeping tree
to signify the things that be
Left alone on a moonless night
the branches here have caused a fright
To shadow flee, and darkness wrought
here, and hither I am brought
Weeping on my knees at last
turned careless as it’s come to pass
Still here I lie beneath the day
seeking to unwind the fray
Of troubled thoughts housed within
my secrets crossed my body thin
Here I lie my soul held high
I pray the Lord will let me die
For here to death what graver day
what blessed respite, what truer way
Than to lay my cares all here,
but it’s death alone that I fear
Solace fleeting catch here nigh
but soul it seems at last will fly
Here at this tree i tarry still
the branches swaying, my body nil
For here I am condemned to be
ever pupil, never free
Till death at last his cold embrace
seeks one day my tired face
And then he will draw more nigh
no more, no more will I decry
I do not wish this upon another
my lot is here, I will go now, under
To bear the burden for a friend
his thoughts, not mine my soul is weighed
A burdened path i do now tread
seeking to find a weary thread
Woven through my pages thin
death here no more taunts me with sin
For i lie here, no noise, no din
your shadowy form is on the tin
Where the lattice & the fountain sweat
the fish dance in their own way
The aimless turn, turn and sway.
the red light high, the shadow falls
The anger swept, the raven calls.
Each feathered wing, from tip to tip
the candle wax begins to drip
A patterned verse all carefully crafted
this shadow falls, unmasked and tattered.
It seems to follow, despair and dismay
the light it fades with every passing day.
Each tear you cry it freezes in time
for the days go on, but this place is mine.
I cry aloud to find some solace
from this quicksand I would fly.
To wave my hand, wave it goodbye,
I must at last, I lie, I lie.
The shadow still, it stands and stares
I know not why, it harshly glares.
But ere I despair my gaze it shifted
And from the dust, my eyes I lifted
and saw a light though dimly burning
and my eyes again, again are turning.
Each feather falls, like eagles soar,
we scream at the clouds, they drop no rain
will nothing now ease this pain?
I saw a light, I know tis true,
I’m not alone, I won’t stay for you.
Fell shadow my fear you no longer own
for this dim light at last has shown
you for what you really are,
cast and crown you’ve fallen far.
Yet to show with compass rose,
where these shadows their road they chose.
But sinners still continue on,
I lie here, now and anon.  
Shadows torment and follow still
but they cannot my Light ****.
For ever since I caught a glimpse
I know my savior will draw nigh.
The light has come the shadow past
I will not stop ere day is cast.
For darkness hides and tides they break,
but nothing can my soul take
for here I lie, my mind’s made up;
I’ve seen the light the shadow’s cup
at last has dried, no more to fill
until the day has drawn at last
for me to lie here, the die is cast
I lie and dream no more to seem
a wanderer or a cloudy morn.
From me you flee, I carry the light
Through your fear I never shall be put to flight
For you have chosen, marred and crippled
to sit upon this floor, and listen
to my screams my agonized wails
and feed off my hunger, my scorn, my travail.
Seemingly no more to ride,
I travel on, through speedy decline.
Your mount is here, though fixed I am not
I move around like a twig torn down
Blown about by winds and tides,  
Shall I ever see the waking bride?
Or am I doomed at last to flee,
seeking for the blessed shores of eternity
finding no rest in mortal man
no friend to call brother, no place to bed
For if you my darling I shall wed,
fair Light you always were the prize.
You and I were made to be
One, and One in eternity.
How far we’ve fallen you and I,
still from these dark shadows I will hide
as the courage swells within
I know who I am called to be
my skin still stretched tight upon my bones
my teeth chatter, my nose it scorns
Though from behind I see the sneer
it follows still, ever near.
Oh blessed Light, come and shine
you make the darkness blind.
For in you there is none of it
at last in you I find my niche
for here no more need I fear
You ever, ever draw me near
and here I’ve found, no more to flee
I can rest my soul in Thee.

— The End —