Kendra R: Favorites

Jun 2013 Kendra R

You Said

Jun 2013 Kendra R

Subconscious on Parade

You Said

HEAR THE COMPLETED SONG HERE:
https://soundcloud.com/nataliejcopeland/you-said*

You said, “Why’d you fold my clothes?
I don’t want anyone
taking care of me.”
You turned back to your razor,
ignoring
the sick-stained sheets.

You said, “Let’s just watch tv.
I don’t know anyone
when I’m asleep.”
You turned back to the wall,
ignoring
the two empty feet.

But that wasn’t where
the worst
pain
was felt,
Cuz I didn’t think
that my warm
heart
could melt
All the icy hands
That her cold heart
had dealt.
But then you said,
“That’s all broken.”
And you said,
“That’s all dead.”

You said “I can’t love again.
I don’t want anyone
wrapped up in my fate.”
Well, we turned back to our peaches,
ignoring
how we knew I would wait.

They said, “Is that your pretty girlfriend?”
And you said, “She’s so pretty…”
And that was the end
Cuz we turned back into clowns,
ignoring
the message we sent.

If you wanna know
the worst
pain
I felt
It’s when I lost hope that
my warm
heart
could melt…
Cuz the final blow
that cracked my world
was dealt
When you said…
When you said..
When you said…
When you said…
…. Nothing.

You said, “I’ll still be your friend
When he comes sweepin’ you
offa your feet.”
You put out your cigarette,
ignoring
my tears on the street.

HEAR THE COMPLETED SONG HERE:
https://soundcloud.com/nataliejcopeland/you-said

Jun 2013 Kendra R

Do not stand at my grave and weep

Jun 2013 Kendra R

Mary Elizabeth Frye

Do not stand at my grave and weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep..
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awake in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft star-shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry..
I am not there. I did not die.

Jun 2013 Kendra R

Ars Poetica

Jun 2013 Kendra R

Archibald MacLeish

Ars Poetica

A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,

Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown—

A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind—

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.

A poem should be equal to:
Not true.

For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—

A poem should not mean
But be.

Jun 2013 Kendra R

Cherrosa

Jun 2013 Kendra R

Brian Sarfati

Cherrosa

Oh I'm coming back home
though I'm sitting still
with Dove and Owl on my windowsill.
They sound, they sing, they're whispering:
The stars keep on spinning.
And the stars keep on spinning.

Peahen to Owl is hiding a scowl;
They don't know each other much anyway.
She's quietly cross
and has nothing to say,
but that's just because
Owl might take Dove away.

Treetrunk is standing
as the steeples are sighing,
for chipmunk is chipping
the hours away.
Oh I will remember today.
How I'll remember today.

The mountains, they smirk
at the secrets that lurk
in plainsight, in view,
but to children are new:
Cherrosa lerosa
fleurisa lilanca.

Nothing never changes:
Ever always will.
Owl is happy; Dove is quite snappy,
but let's not get ahead
and just smile instead.
Let's just smile instead.

Look up and live
and shrug at the skies
because the future is full
of i-don't-know-whys.
Time will yet tell if all turns out well:
Tomorrow is today in disguise.

Starberry summers stuck in my head
skip around and play,
so I just smile instead.
Oh how I'll remember today.
Cherrosa lerosa
fleurisa lilanca.

the stars they keep spinning away.

Jun 2013 Kendra R

First Time Alone (the Mom poem)

Jun 2013 Kendra R

Billie Noakes

First Time Alone (the Mom poem)

I hold your life in my hands:
small squares of time, caught out of context.
Picture this! they say, tempting me to remember.
And I do.

I remember a chubby baby’s face, caught in heavy sepia tones.
My twin, ‘though of another generation.
Years later, Fujicolor would reveal our only real differences
in auburn hair
and emerald eyes
that I loved too well to envy.

An Ava Gardner look-alike,
who looked at me with a mommy’s eyes:
emerald eyes
that cried when I hurt
and sparked with a humor that never faltered.

I remember a strong-willed woman
holding a family together amid shattering dreams,
emerald eyes that grew jaded,
and a humor that colored your pain.

And I remember loving you --
‘though God knows liking you came hard!
Both of us strong-willed women
with nothing but a shade of hair and hue of eye to separate us.

That, and a lifetime of differing opinions.

And I remember holding your life in my hands
watching the light fade from your emerald eyes

and I’d give what’s left of life
to have more than their memory
and small squares of your life
to hold in my hands.

May 2013 Kendra R

I can't say this out loud.

May 2013 Kendra R

Amanda Jerry

I can't say this out loud.

You probably understand. Or maybe you don't, after all. Either way, it is jumping around inside me and if I don't let it out soon all my carbonation will fizz up and run over the side of my glass and I don't want to waste all that sweetness.

I want to kiss you underwater.

I want that kiss to be the only thing keeping us alive. Down there we are foreigners, aliens. Grasping, I want to feel your flesh in stark contrast to the smooth wetness all around me, like a secret.

All that life where we cannot live. Exotic, forbidden, so lovely. I am sick with love.

May 2013 Kendra R

Why'd You Do This To Me

May 2013 Kendra R

Sophie Herzing

Why'd You Do This To Me

Look, I know I don't owe you anything.
But without the casual back talk and the rebuttal of your face in the couch,
beer in the crook of your arm, and bare feet I'll ask you
why'd you sleep with her?
Why'd you do this to me?

I'll slap you so you get up,
lean over the shoulder I sit next to you
and pour your words on my lap as I pretend to sleep.
And as your unknown confession is listened,
between words you won't remember you said
I'll fall sentimental,
and start tucking your secrets with my hand on your head
behind your ears that are sliced with my whispers
that I'll love you even though you broke into me.
That I'll keep staying until I don't remember why I need to leave.

Then you'll roll over and the cut on your lip will awaken my senses,
rustle the belief
as I quietly ask you what happened.
You'll wipe the spit from your chin,
take a breath that smells like bad mornings,
and tell me it's nothing of my concern.
When I beg for the explanation,
put my thumb against the dried blood reminder
that no matter how solemn your soul
you'll never stop hurting me,
you'll turn away and tell me to go.
Tell me you never actually needed me to stay.

I'll stand up with a face painted fury,
and scream at the things I should have come to expect.
The same rage I slammed the door with when I entered,
now races in my heart as I try to lay it down
on the floor so you can see how badly you broke me
when I heard that there was another her.

"She was just a body,"
you'll start to stutter
"I was drunk and it didn't mean a thing."
But your dreary eyes and your half molded chest
waltzing over to me with a lust in your hands,
tell me that your words in the moment I capture you
mean nothing passed the second their said.

Look, I know I don't owe you anything.
But there's something in the way you look at me that begs the question
to be said under the weight of the consequence of never really being the same
I'll ask you
Why is this all the better we'll ever be?
Why'd you have to do this to me?

May 2013 Kendra R

Sehnsucht

May 2013 Kendra R

dj

Sehnsucht

Ever had a teardrop fall out of nowhere?
Like you aren't sad or anything; it's just...

It's almost like
Someone you lived as
In a past life
Still reeling over heartbreak
Or a dredging loss
Breaks thru for a
second.