derick gibbs

derick gibbs May 2014

EGO TRIPPING (there must be a reason why) -- Nikki Giovanni

I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
    the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
    that only glows every one hundred years falls
    into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad
I sat on the throne
    drinking nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
    to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
    the tears from my birth pains
    created the nile
I am a beautiful woman
I gazed on the forest and burned
    out the sahara desert
    with a packet of goat's meat
    and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
    so swift you can't catch me
    For a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
    He gave me rome for mother's day
My strength flows ever on
My son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
    as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
    jesus
    men intone my loving name
    All praises All praises
I am the one who would save
I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
    the filings from my fingernails are
    semi-precious jewels
    On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
    the earth as I went
    The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid
    across three continents
I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended except by my permission
I mean...I...can fly
    like a bird in the sky...

#poetry #classic

May 2014

Sean Critchfield

Mosaic

Give them to me.
All the pieces of your broken heart.
Give them to me.

I'll take them.

All the rough-hewn misshapen bits of your shattered dreams.

Give them to me.
I will take them.

Give them to me.

They are wanted here.

All the parts of your misspent childhood. All the regrets of ticking seconds behind you.

Give them to me.

And we will build a cathedral. A stained glass window of who we are as tall and as beautiful as it should be.

Let me have them.

And we will make a mosaic that stretches as wide as the sky. Showing every color your heart gained from the bits and pieces left on the ground.

I will take them.

And forge a sculpture of how beautiful the ideas are that we cast out in our failings and we will cast it in our failings.

Let me have them.

And we will ***** a monument of all the small things in the shape that you remember them.
Towering. Looming. Striking. Beautiful.

Let me have them so we might bind the words said and regretted, (or worse) left unsaid in leather and call it scripture.

Our Psalms. Our Proverbs:

“The tip of my finger dangles like my tongue. Wanting to touch something beautiful.”

“If it were not for him, it would have been us.”

“You were all my brightest colors.”

“I wish I were more like you.”

“I wish I were less like me.”

“I am sped.”

And we will read them at dawn like litany.

Stretching our voices to the corners of the universe. Asking for the wishes you make when you are scared. Or alone. Or both.

That we may take them.

And make a blanket.

A blanket to cover our childhood and let it rest at last.

I will take them.

All the parts you no longer want.

Give them to me.

Because they are what make us beautiful.

Give them to me.

That I may forge them into pitch and feathers and craft mighty wings.

That I may take flight from your worry. And soar on the updraft of your misconception.

Give them to me.
I will take them.

Because I would rather burn like Icarus than to have never dared to fly.

This was a birthday gift to myself. I am giving it to you.

derick gibbs May 2014

DISTANT LOVER

dear heart...

death is not necessarily a fact of love
but if you trace most drama back to the root...
and where there's a fortune to be had
there will be conmen and back stabbers
out to body your joy
no one ever thinks to break each other off evenly
so if you trace most drama back to the root...
you'll find discolored seeds of greed
that have forgotten to grow
fighting for the most sunshine
but everyone can't have the most
and no one will stop trying
this is usually where you'll find yourself
trying to find yourself

adultery is not necessarily a fact of love
but if you trace most drama back to the root...
study the stem
hasn't it been neglected
a single rose doesn't feel like winning
two was always better than one
but someone will always have one more
a thinking man would follow his heart
and not shy away from the concept of one love
citing public perception
but at the end of the day
you're still whipped
and playas still get lonely
i try to break mine off a piece of everything i feel
and evenly
usually, your flower...
all it needed was any indication
that there was joy in the teardrops
you could have used to saturate the soil
to offset that ugly brown
brittle now
because real love withers away
without the magic in your fingertips
you never wanted it
if you won't keep up your garden
I'm embarrassed
and here comes the pain...

we took one through and through
I've been shot

if 911 can't be dispatched to this block
you're all we got
like it or not
and your beat is still an exclusive
but loves still not as elusive
as a world premiere
I took advantage
when we burn
there's lyrics
simple as that
and love is forgiving because
this is not the first time that I fell
and needed to be caught
two left feet
always looking to land
in the softest spot

dear heart...

artificial affection is good for decoration
but love is not furniture
real love withers away without the kind of sunshine
that energizes your spirit
I did that...
I treated our love buds like fake plant leaves when
there was more than enough joy in the teardrops
you could have used to saturate the soil
I'm a (hu)MAN
I cry too
I have a good heart
I trust you with my life
I should listen harder
I feel the burn
if I keep my eyes closed we spin less
I won't slip away
I don't sleep anyhow
and I've been hit before
but never this close to my lifeline
LOVE
just keeps coming
and her aim is improving
you're all we got
like it or not
we took one through and through
someone called about the shots
someone always does;

911 dispatched stat to a hood love crime scene
we must be something worth saving
but I only just now feel the yearning
more than embarrassed
that I forgot about the fire

#love #heart #pain #loss

derick gibbs May 2014

WEATHERMAN

there's nothing personable about wintry skies above the boston harbor
it gets ugly along the ridgepole of rhode island and providence plantations
this time of year

i ink off the dome
along the varicose veins of these violent streets

we smash more
because life indoors
is the gateway to new manners
or points of psychosis
if your boo doesn't get you
enough to get along

it storms snow where we bump

some think it's fine
or that it's by design lakes freeze over here
and mold mirrors made with angels in mind
but it's a terrific tragedy
the death of colors, inhibitions and innocence
choked away from the branches certain seasons undress

the way no one knows enough to mourn

but mother nature's a chameleon
and new england is the skin that won't keep

it's the backend of the wannabe springtime middays in may
when shorties lose their minds again
a few hours every other day
rock cutoffs and capris
because the sun showed her shine again

but she's so premature
and we've dreamed dreams before this way
against the grain
so we get high to get by like smokeheads do

but i need something sexier to wake up to
like garden birds and backyard bird feeders
american robins and the orioles
that i imagine must use their sugar water to maintain better bongs

because it's a slow burn...
the backside of northeastern calendar months

and my consequent mood swings
are 1 of 2 things that need adjusting
but it is what it is, and too cold anyway
so smiles crack beneath the pressure
like glass poets in poetry slams

#IMUPDREAMIN

#love #poetry #spring

May 2014

Sjr1000

Hallucinations Fixed/ 10W

I
still hear
voices
but now
we all get along.

derick gibbs Apr 2014

HEADS UP

my joints are protective like laminates and coke corner lookouts
they're.. less forgiving, less tolerant
and less inclined to suppress significant emotion
so as much as it might make me no nevermind
you'll be unfairly called out
unfairly because it takes both halves of anything to fulfill a split
and i was so spent; our nonlove had used me up

cross me

and they're.. that much more callous, vindictive
and less likely to fall back and dust you off

is why every drop i co-author will vilify you
i swear on everything relevant
co-author because anyone who's been through anything
is the voice of my writs
and every someone afraid to ink it lives vicariously through rants

my joints won't not be heard

they.. won't be negotiated and can't be bought off
they know how irresponsibly you've loved
and mypoems won't hold their tongues
or your hand, i promise

you should watch your back and wonder no more
if everyone's looking at you or if you're trippin because.. they are

i told you not to **** with me
but you forced my hand
and i've written you up and posted your offenses on poetry boards;
a journal worth of she-love-not and who gives a ****

my readers get it
heartbreak.. that's universal
and everyone wishes they could articulate a dear john or jane
so i supply a public service
pro bono

this here... is the way to the mediator

blink twice. i'll @WriteChaLife. validate or vilify you

#love #lies #poet #heart #pain #lost