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 Nov 2015
SE Reimer
~

there is weeping
in the streets,
a cry heard on
the boulevard,
the place where
lovers meet;
no charge for this
performance,
for cover paid
can never save
the wounding
of this soul;
this act, no lore,
’tis their making...
become their theatre,
this act of war.
as arms outstretched,
awaiting hope
that never comes,
slowly die alone,
losing grip
on life
once clenched;
no more beating,
all lay bleeding
in the street
far below.
this place where
horror falls,
like darkness
'til their bodies,
one by one
are gathered up;
our heart in pieces,
their blood spilled
on the ground,
we lay flowers
here at home,
and on the hillsides
as we weep for you,
here across the sea,
as we watch
your fading light,
oh Paris, where
it's raining tears,
with you we,
the dawn await,  
the coming mourning.

~

*post script.

how is a poet to act, to think, to feel when there is such devastation as this?  we can only bleed in ink on page, as snippets of news, pictures, unedited video, all... paint a picture of horror, leaving behind brokenness and tears that will flow endlessly. oh Paris, we grieve for you... with you... over you!
 Oct 2015
wes parham
We took a drive. I had things to say.
My heart was aching, shattered.
I rehearsed the words throughout the day,
Believing that it mattered.

I met you then but I only saw,
The mask you chose to show.
If you were suffering underneath,
Then how was I to know?

I said,
" Your grey facade hides worlds so vast,
Naked flesh of fruit, beneath the rind.
Your future's informed by its turbulent past,
Full understanding; when you look behind."

You said,
" You try too hard, you think too much.
You never live for now.
Wrapping words around the wrong ideas,
You miss the point somehow."
"Stuck in place, because it's safe,
You're too afraid to grow.
If you had begun to change your fate,
Then how was I to know?"

You saw me within a grey facade.
I saw you within a grey facade.

We could not say more, it seemed sufficient,
That love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love is ignoring all that came before,
Loving only the moment.
That coin of the realm: elusive, bright.
Your grey facade hides
Such a beautiful light.
Love has many names.
Call any one aloud and I will answer.
I will come.
You will see.
You'll see me clearly, even behind this grey facade.
I took on a second spoken word collaboration with a composer in the Netherlands I met through SoundCloud.com.  The track was titled "Grey Facades" and, so, I gravitated toward this theme...  exploring the differences between our outer, public personae and our inner, personal lives. In this case, the mask is harsh but conceals kindness and life.  The speaker, themself, seems to have a thin mask and an analytical nature.  They wear their beauty and darkness right on their sleeve but still remain obscured in other ways.

This is a collage of stanzas written independently over many months, but tending to relate to the one theme.  When I simply stacked them up and read them, cold, against the track, most of it's parts just clicked right with the changes.  I was surprised and really like how it's going.  Will post the final mix when it's done.
Update:   A final mix now exists..  Give a listen:
https://soundcloud.com/flowermouth/grey-facades-feat-warmphase
 Oct 2015
Liam C Calhoun
Your hair –
twilight strands of, “now'd,”
gotten longer and were so silently dreamt of last Tuesday.

Your fingers –
finally allowed, followed to weave my own,
and all that'd been prior washed away;

Dirt, gizzards and blasphemy, along with the boils from my father’s dead hands.

Your hips –
whispered 'morrow and all the jubilance expelled,
so that the same morrow's sun'd show eminence once again.

Your eyes –
said, “baby,” if only, “baby,” and, “baby, it'll be ok,”
it'll always be, “A-OK.”

So when your heart –
let me and finally to cry, appendage etched eyes,
eyes etched the night and sure, summer'd be at end,

but autumn could taste oh so much better.
Sometimes its not how you stand, but more importantly, who stands next to you.
 Oct 2015
Liam C Calhoun
It’s not often I relish the sun,
But did so,
Come one almond eye’d glance –
And “awkward.”

It’s not often I gaze, the stranger,
But did so,
Come the little silk doll, snoring –
Curled upon her back.

It’s not often I hate, putrid,
But did so,
Come man, come companion –
And the trash she’d burrowed.

It’s not often I speak, I only write,
But did so,
Witnessed smug, and a
A smoke, cradled poignant, “husband.”

It’s not often I blush, nor often I fold,
But did so –
Come a mother and son,
Climbing mountains, cursed, and trash.

It’s not often I scamper, tail tucked leg,
But did so –
Come her freckled red ménage,
And the man who’d snapped his fingers.

It’s often, and ought I point a finger,
But to did so –
Never knowing love, never knowing angst,
And never knowing them.
On and for the ******* diggers of Guiyang; the little baby on her back, the splots of soot and refuse wrought her arms - I'd never complain about "me" again, I'd only hope a prosperity for us all.
 Oct 2015
Sia Jane
Do you remember the night
I translated a dream for you?

You agreed and later that night
we began to put your pain into perspective

You're sending me letters
signed, sealed and delivered
from your new home

I'm saving all your letters
where only longing lingers
we've not known each other long
but waves of your scent
are already mapped on my mind

In your stories you write of
an explosion in your chest
bats burst from hibernation
forcing your ribs to break
your skin ripping apart

You tell me of a whistling in your chest
a candles been blown out
smoke rising from a darkened hollow cave

The emptiness feeds off flesh
you're scratching at your skin
the remains tipping into your chest

It's filling-
filling every day

And that is when you wake
choking, gasping for air

Your letters end as abruptly
as your night terrors
bad dreams leaving you breathless
waking up drenched in sweat

Your last lines of this weeks letter read;
When I lift my tired body
from the bed
the bedroom light illuminates
my skin
I see I'm real
I see I've not clawed my flesh
no track marks from my fears


We're sat together with
the letters all telling
the same story, again and again
you voicing your dreams,
dreams spawning nightmares

Do you remember I was going to
translate these dreams for you?

How the bats are actually butterflies
how butterflies are subjected to
a caged darkness before the light
How the whistling in your chest
is fertile ground for growth
How the suffocating filling
is the abundance of love
this world can give us
if,
if we only subject a change
to our perceptions

Love and fear cannot exist
together within us
with fear is suffering
with love is healing.

Do you remember the night
I translated a dream for you?

The night we set fire to the letters
imagining the crimping paper
as the disintegration of
each and every
fear.


© Sia Jane
I missed the last stanza out when I typed this up...
Thanks for all the support guys <3
 Sep 2015
Arcassin B
By Arcassin B , wolf , & soul

AB : staring at the lady in the corner wearing make-up,
Selling flowers to earn money
For her son's college fund,
Take three patterns then reverse it,
Bring them back to reality,
The way people maintain jobs nowadays
It isn't fun,
But a..
..it takes a rose to help
Cure the pain of whats to gain and
What you've lost,
To find a way to piece together a suffering flaws,

SS : /////Electric rose
In all your neon splendor
I touch you and remember
No more

I ***** my thumb
Upon your thorn
And in death
I am reborn

I gaze rapt into your night
I am drawn into the light

Rose of Sharon, petals soft Blood red dreams sent aloft

To your power I will yield
'Til I look once more
On heaven's fields,/////

WS : in fields of Elysium await with gentle memories
and flowers of every hue
reaching into forever
from that street corner in modern blight
where a mother's love was the noblest fight
and she would give her all for one
that worthy offspring, her beloved son
tarry ye not, on that dreadful shore
pennies for Charon to ferry Styx
close thy eyes and weep no more
there's nothing that true love may not fix,

SS : /////Electric rose
In all your neon splendor
I touch you and remember
No more

I ***** my thumb
Upon your thorn
And in death
I am reborn

I gaze rapt into your night
I am drawn into the light

Rose of Sharon, petals soft Blood red dreams sent aloft

To your power I will yield
'Til I look once more
On heaven's fields,///////
Collaboration
 Sep 2015
Roberta Day
Your eyes are rustic in the morning
contrasting your sun-stained skin to
have a glow about it–perhaps it’s nicotine
   Eight a.m looks good on you, for you
   It’s nice not waking up early alone
It’s nice being conscious of the sun rising together
though we’re still tangled in arms under covers
   It’s just nice to not sleep alone
Though there is such a thing as too much heat
  But I miss it when it’s gone
More specifically your heat
and your scent–slightly nicotine
  and natural morning rust
How is your skin so smooth
and your form robust?
Your breath so gentle, along with your touch
which can play the part of rough when
the heat becomes too much
Your front hugging my back
a situational brushing igniting
blood rushings–like nicotine
I’m not quite hooked but I do like
a taste of you in the morning
 Sep 2015
David Ehrgott
Wishing on a smokey evening moon
for all the things I didn't get in june
A warbly glob thing prevented me
from uniting with my ev'ryth'ng
Wishing on a smokey evening moon

Wishing on an independence moon
The fireworks they made an awful boom
Jumped out of seat and moved my feet
But inside all I did was weep
Just missing you on an independence moon

I wished upon the moon that you'd be here
to celebrate the colors and the cheer
You're brave and bold and left me cold
I'm mindfuckt by your science so

I'm wishing you'd be here on
Independence day Mc Chievious
July the fourth in o'nine
Wishing on a smokey evening independence day lit gorgeous twilight moon
 Sep 2015
Liam C Calhoun
“One’s” ok, but “two’s” illegal come a night whispered,

“Run,”
Or so the grass spoke –

     Run like the wind.
     Run,
          But always look back.
     Run,
          So to liberate all you’ve loved.
          So too, awaits a home, only dreamt.

And she ran,
From village to village –

     Blankets wrought pollen.
     Carrots,
          For another’s eyes.
     Our baby,
          The outlaw prior even born;
          Hot on heal, the “department.”

And we ran,
Hopping continents –

     I, so to support.
     Our son,
          So to survive.
     My wife in wait,
          Our second miracle burrowed,
          Just beyond the world I’d promised,

A land, so help me, and shore we’d arrive one day.
The Department of Birth Control's hot on our heals. I've gotten my son away from where we were; but two remain and so help me, four will be reunited soon. So yes, that's where I've been and that's what I've been doing.
 Sep 2015
Sarah Mulqueen
As the tears stream down her solemn face
The curtains fall
The mask drops
She waits
As her 'friends' disappear
 Sep 2015
Em Rose
Sometimes I just want to hide
But he sees me..
Even when no one else does
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