Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
2.4k · Jan 2018
who broke the moon?
Rohan P Jan 2018
who broke the moon? its
slivers shatter on tile and you
emptied them in our flowerbeds,
waiting, i think, for the rain.
2.0k · Sep 2018
airport
Rohan P Sep 2018
you ran with me through the terminal, fleeing
the tranquility of geographical association.

it was always the same: a surrender to the overcast;

we watched the sky fill with paper airplanes.
prove my hypotheses: tell me you don't love me.
1.6k · Oct 2018
i, knowing,
Rohan P Oct 2018
i, knowing,
declare you in
manifest—

you're in my
words and worms
and winds.  

i embody you in
relation:

i, as aesthetic expression,
you, as visceral reception.
http://artsites.ucsc.edu/sdaniel/230/Relational%20Aesthetics_entire.pdf
1.5k · Aug 2018
quiet water
Rohan P Aug 2018
silence
flows differently
than quiet —

she trickles
like a spring creek;
he tumbles
like warm sand.
1.5k · Jul 2018
everythingholdseverything
Rohan P Jul 2018
your dress is black (the
smell of summer grass)

and everything holds
everything
    else.
1.4k · Oct 2018
expectation
Rohan P Oct 2018
a million lines make a window:
each suspended,
each digressing in the paleness
of space.

this distance from
you (a blotch of dark ink,
bits of pressed lead)
can never hurt more
than your expectation.
i spent the last weekend waiting in anticipation. each morning i woke up with a hope—a plethora of possibility that faded with the setting sun.

i suppose i wouldn't have it any other way.
1.4k · Aug 2018
3:30 on the train—
Rohan P Aug 2018
3:30 on the train—
it seems so dark these days:

these days
when grass withers
on my footsteps, when thoughts
of you—you, the flame of my lighthouse,
the sail of my ocean—drift and
hang, warily, in the murky air.

3:30 on the train—
another day, rustling through the
dark, without you.
f. ell
1.4k · Aug 2018
nailed open
Rohan P Aug 2018
the body turns
and trembles
and opens

you didn't tell
me that the green
was closing in

but the fence nailed
open
and turns
and trembles.
1.3k · Oct 2018
open inside out
Rohan P Oct 2018
there is no reconciliation.
we're bleeding like paint
in the rain—
wilting flowers
colourless in
our greys.

sometimes your eyes
double, your words
curl my cheek, still lingering
to brush stray strands.

i'm open inside out;
when you turn away
i know the hinges are closing.
i remember your words:

"someday, with someone".
1.3k · Mar 2018
tide
Rohan P Mar 2018
sweetly swimming
in the colder tides of
emptiness—
tidier than the backseat and
your umbrellas; tidier
than the rolling crests of
suburbia;
tidied by the frayed smoothness
of sea.
not so much the shoreline, i think
1.3k · Sep 2018
these sunken hills
Rohan P Sep 2018
you have taken
me to these sunken hills
to stare at the cold
stone bunker
leaning against the dawn.

you have bruised me
in faraway places: my peripheral
vision was never
as finely attuned.

askew with your thoughts—
leaning against my shoulder,
leaning against the dawn.
Here's a brief analysis of my own work...

We depend on that which is faraway—and we become cold for the wanting of it.

While you are physically "leaning against my shoulder", you feel to be leaning against the "dawn": leaning against something remote and faraway. That's what's hindering our relationship; we've lost our closeness.

That's why the hills are "sunken". That's why it's a "bunker", not a cottage or cabin.

Hence my injuries. Hence my lack of "peripheral vision": I could never quite make out what you were reaching for.
1.2k · Nov 2018
evergreen
Rohan P Nov 2018
you're scrawled in the faint wood,
aren't you? i don't smell
your pine and heather,

an evergreen finality—
not evergreen, anymore.
1.1k · Aug 2018
forell-
Rohan P Aug 2018
wildfires or
wildflowers? i wake
when the sun's setting.

burning, burning:
she's out there, somewhere.
I just read Woody's poem (https://hellopoetry.com/poem/2582994/blunt-ed-beaks-and-clip-ped-wings-or-the-ugly-blackbirds-who-always-know-better-than-the-rest/ ) and realised that Vicki, a dear friend and constant supporter of mine, was compelled to delete her HP account as a result of harassment. I am terribly saddened by this occurrence, especially seeing as this site has been a wonderful environment for me to grow as a poet and post my work. I would like to respectfully ask Eliot and the moderators of HP to look into this and prevent any such events from ever happening on this site again. It's also the responsibility of us community members to help keep this a safe, supportive, and loving space. We must exercise our joint responsibility: stop harassment and bullying; stand up for what's right. And Vicki: I miss you.
1.0k · Oct 2018
four layers
Rohan P Oct 2018
requiem, black
ink, darkened pencil-
tips paint the air.

lethargy is a
green that defies
autumn.

its darkened
palms (once open,
once layering you in

cold) gently remind:
we'll all ensconce
in ground.
you wore four layers today.

i have only one: but it opens up, unleashing my heart, every time you stop by.
1.0k · Aug 2018
doves
Rohan P Aug 2018
how do you
fade? doves
sink into a red sun

pale,
aberrant in a sky of
memory.
f. ell (always)
974 · Aug 2018
concert
Rohan P Aug 2018
orchestral
rows, fading
one by one
into higher and higher
blankness. it's an impossibility
that you'll look up there and meet
my eye. we're not starlight, after
all; you don't look at us with wonder.
ellie?
924 · Aug 2018
her
Rohan P Aug 2018
her
'her' as whispered praxis:

her
stormy
hair

her
highland
shoulders

brush me in
wind.
nature is just an expression of her.
(f. ellie)
902 · Apr 2019
The Straits of Georgia
Rohan P Apr 2019
Blue amorphous tones
waxing darkly.
Her lunge, a vaporous sigh.

And down poured the Pacific:
   callous, immutable, wild.
846 · Nov 2018
stars (dearest)
Rohan P Nov 2018
tender,
you trail stars,
wake to your
stars

still starry, dearest,
starry-eyed,
you outshine me.
for m.f.
842 · Aug 2018
touch
Rohan P Aug 2018
silken
your touch

she moved closer
to the fireside
    to feel
(here i
e.r.
you-opened-my-heart-i-folded-the-page-with-your-name
818 · May 2018
out/inside
Rohan P May 2018
i sat in a corner,
eyes darting to the
cracks on the ceiling—

then to her: huddled
in solitude, snow falling
around her neck

snow falling inside my mind.
808 · May 2018
sun-thread
Rohan P May 2018
the morning was threadbare,
loosed on a string.

we watched
the rising sinew; watched
the morning as it knotted and
coiled. the forest
trembled slightly.
Rohan P Sep 2018
every time you
come around i think
the sun rises just a little

as if to see a little further over
the low-hanging horizon

as if to cast another green over
our shoulders, draping us in
timelessness

then hesitates—
then falls to the depth
of earth:

and you're leaving.
Rohan P Dec 2017
light rain on these shaking hands,
shower the earth below,
ease the darkness of our heartland
repose—if only to forgo.
773 · Apr 2018
moonlight, moonflight
Rohan P Apr 2018
aspirations beget
lucid, sea-struck moonlight;
emanate your kind regret—
soar with the painted moonflight.
751 · Jan 2019
Skies Unreachable
Rohan P Jan 2019
Believe—
how skies are
folding blankets: theirs
to mock the solidity of material form.

Believe—
what skies are
gesturing to bloodless hurricanes.

Believe—
why skies are

Yours.
I structurally designed this poem so the first line of each stanza is the shortest, and each successive line gets longer. The stanza lengths also decrease by one each time.
739 · Jul 2019
Navigation
Rohan P Jul 2019
I'm sailing static across
new surfaces—
soft waves, soft gusts behind me.

It is giving in.
It is an osmotic tickle on my
skin, a fervor
that flows like water:
high to low.

I'm feeling mute heartbeats
at the passage, feeling it must be
larger than this.
Rohan P Sep 2018
red-breasted swallows chase
love on our
grave. She piles the earth, spoonful
by spoonful—

I see a torrent of brown
in her hair,
I see her dancing in the early
morning light.
i found something when we were apart.
Rohan P Nov 2018
It’s old and weathered,
the texture, she said.

You’ll find yourself, she said;
I see the wooden beams hanging low:
the outline of a doorway, shutting
out the closeness of night.
for m.f.
655 · Sep 2018
what little you
Rohan P Sep 2018
we'll feel-
as collegiate corners
are filling the pages of
our tragedies.

i attempt to seek
next century's repose:
the motion of a thousand
spinning conjectures.

your restlessness holds
junction and duration,
consciously screaming of our
former years.

i'll seek-
you in oscillations
and what little you
left of memory.
she'll show you the answers

I'm tired of time
624 · Apr 2018
lemongrass
Rohan P Apr 2018
yesterday, she
woke to the waving of
the grass

—bitter, golden,
lovable—

and she swept
the ridges and crests with
sunsets and understanding

like a feeling
of waving, waving
away.
on a rainy day, the smell of lemongrass is like the warmth of your memory.
601 · Aug 2018
f. ell. (al
Rohan P Aug 2018
i don't
know you anymore; i

i am

pink sky,
     red-tipped flames
i cut the forest in
you.
ways)
600 · Jan 2019
On Solace.
Rohan P Jan 2019
maybe to hold
      darkly

that which loves you warm;
that which loves you warm and
     sundry.

Flesh to blade, as skin to lips.

love is a pressed handle—
love's pressed handle
        as reddish

florals.

As flush: what you
mean to hold me.
For Nori, a dog, a sister.

(I don't like to say "my dog" because that connotes a power hierarchy with necessary roles of ownership and possession. I'd rather conceive of her in egalitarian terms).

Anyway, she always finds me when I'm down; she knows when I'm not feeling right, and she's always there for me. She's the only love I ever need.
593 · Aug 2018
should that i—
Rohan P Aug 2018
should that i—
fall from being nowhere

and time: so restless
to leave your purple
and blue, spattering,

echoing spring
rain.
i wrote this as a progression: from a jumble of words to a depiction of an image. Rather like the rain itself, I think.

and ellie: I imagine you as a patch of colour in the rain.
591 · Aug 2018
room with no windows
Rohan P Aug 2018
you always worked
blue

into your patterns—
always molded the

colour and feeling
with darker shades, like

paint splattered
in a room with no
windows.
"sunlight through the leaves" ♥
Rohan P Apr 2018
her
tulips bloomed in the night,
       softer
than the paling
moon/       beams

darker silhouettes
—hers—lined the u’s
and i’s of turning. the headlights
skimmed the road, petalled
like ice.
578 · Apr 2018
a stellar colossus
Rohan P Apr 2018
stellar masses collide
beyond you; they silhouette
your ethos, slip loose your
hair—
they pattern your fingertips
and colour your
sigh

their flame:
a colossus
in your eyes.
Rohan P Sep 2018
we left behind
gated, frosting footsteps:

a pulsing night, pulling
in and out of colour:

you were an
outlined track on our
palms: a myriad of
our voices tangling
as rubber wires:

a crystal in our cloudless breath,
an art i couldn't limn.

you were brittle
and warm: i still

shivered as i brushed
your shoulder.
I think I realise something for the first time:

you're a person I've never met,
but whom I've seen a thousand times.
571 · Dec 2018
the crossroads
Rohan P Dec 2018
Expressions lax at the crossroads.

Their worn tracks are like
little smiles (stained, muddied,
darkened) on evening's
soft purchase.

— I'm clutching dry lips
on these bleeding
little mouths.

— I'm remembering
to be as stars:

so closely far away from you.
the crossroads is where i kept my composure.

where you—oh, sweet you—looked up at me.
#m
Rohan P Jan 2018
three years and the wild severed
her heart from mine—

and she told me that “the air
had the brittle scent of October”

dreams parallel dreams in the shortest of hours;
we listened together for the advent of rain,
for the unfurling of flowers.

time and time lost held the fragility of her eyes;
now woven, now frayed, her caress
wondered of the fabric that holds the current
of the world…of the crisp delicacy of
tomorrow.

“love is held only by the greyest of skies” softly i replied,
for i knew
that three years and the wild had enjoined
her heart to mine.
550 · Feb 2019
worn wooden beam
Rohan P Feb 2019
worn wooden beam

flaking paint in places where
you held me.

hollow in its solidity,

wearied by your caress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOWDq-g5Tto
547 · Jan 2019
Pretext
Rohan P Jan 2019
Poetry is not often a
Circle. More a snare.
Noose in my hands.
Chiasmus is thorough:
I am locked in.
"I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in".

'Circle' as a symbol for balanced aesthetic reflection, dispassionate observation—in Woolf's jargon, the state of the "incandescent" mind.

'Circle' as a symbol for everything that poetry can never be. Everything that I can never embody.

I'm sorry, Virginia. You're not as embittered as I am.

This is a feeble attempt at reconciliation.
546 · Nov 2018
not-self
Rohan P Nov 2018
light-rings:
they're double-rings,
they're doubled in light.

shadow-rings:

i'm thinking of Saturn,
i'm thinking it must be nice, to have colour.

i'm trying to breathe it in,
trying to let it settle in the
back of my mind, but i can't find a place

any place
no place

that's empty of me.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/notself2.html
545 · Jul 2018
cream and aster
Rohan P Jul 2018
we sailed on cream
and aster—

where bluejays
toss
air into air;

where frogs
curdle
mud into milk;

where blackberry
roots
skyline into horizon—

(we sailed)
543 · Feb 2018
the sky was lilac and
Rohan P Feb 2018
the sky was lilac and
blurred with the
pale obfuscations of
clouds;

opaque and formless, you sharpened
the horizon
and i thought of remembering.
535 · Feb 2019
On Romance.
Rohan P Feb 2019
late to the dusk of her
hands: dazzle me,
love,
a loneliness
best left unsaid.

tipping towards new dawn

her heavy eyes
   collecting ashes.
it's nice to think of loving you again
525 · Jan 2018
like winter releasing
Rohan P Jan 2018
you contour
into imaginations and fold (like spring
creasing)

swimming through the
amalgamations and
smiling (like summer
ceasing)

wandering the paths of
lilac, lily layering—
a feeling (like winter
releasing).
516 · Sep 2018
when the wind hits
Rohan P Sep 2018
when the wind hits in
gusts, it bleeds through my
jacket. we splatter to the soil,
churning towards an
unforgiving
sea.
a feeling i get after a walk with melody and leaves.
511 · Jul 2018
trains can hold (can let
Rohan P Jul 2018
i think trains roll
like tires, at night.

their rubber arms can
hold—

can let go.
happy belated canada day
Rohan P Apr 2019
Remember the headrest—muted
and pasted to your arms.
How it felt to smother in voicelessness.

Remember hair stains, decade-weary leather.
Remember the revolutions around ourselves.

Remember as inky sky purples from sunlight;
Confront the oppressive curls of memory.
Next page