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 Jun 2016 Paul Butters
Aniseed
I've always thought I loved storms;
Where the rain beats against my window,
Wind wailing, thunder rumbling,
Lightning painting streaks
Across the sky.
There's nothing like standing underneath
The angry clouds
And letting the cold rain
Wash all of your sins away.

I've always thought I was in love
With the sky;
The way it surprises me every day
In its spectrum of
Resplendent colors and soft greys.
Personified in my adoration
As maybe God himself,
If God even exists.
To this day, I'm not so sure,
But I know the sky and that's
Enough.

But as I wonder about these things,
These forces of nature,
I wonder about the circumstances
Surrounding my experiences with them.
I remember that, in the midst of storms,
I always have a home to run into
And a towel waiting for me to dry me off.
I remember that while the sky is
Ever changing,
It always remains there.

So maybe what I've always loved,
What I've always longed for,
Is comfort.

Is... stability.
For lack of a better title.
 Jun 2016 Paul Butters
Aniseed
There is a hunger I can't quench,
An addiction I can't subside.
An itch that burns under my skin
And I've tried scratching it.
I've tried.

I want that pretty silver tongue
To match pretty porcelain hands
Hovering over ink wells
And candle stands
But I can't have that.
I can't salvage
From the depths of my mind
A poem to wrap around words like
"Gossamer",
"Murmurous",
"Erstwhile".

Art is a circle
But I am a line with crumbling architecture,
My thoughts linear and grit;
My prose stuffed with an hour-long process
Of charm and wit.

I write these words to feed you;
Please you;
Fill you with the sense of understanding
That I can't come to.
My art is a lie with a rainbow
And I stand smiling in an empty room,
A vacant audience in a ghost of a show.

I write because I need you.
I write because I want to dance for you.
I write because I want to seem wise.
But all that it amounts to
Is a high that always dies
And a candle that burns out
Far too quickly.

This is not a cry.
This is not goodbye.
This is me.
And I hope, for me,
That this is enough to satisfy.
We are all troubled and we all have our faults.
I'm eager to please you all.

Also, what even is correct punctuation in poetry?
I knew he was a player
So, I didn’t get involved
I stayed there on the side-line
But never touched his *****!

I watched him with his other halves
Advantaged by position
He played the field and tackled
This dude was on a mission!

He's scored his final goal
Set up his final long ball
The flag is up, time has been called
He’s found his final fixture!

No more wins, just ties!
inspiration, the dark soul
deranged, an eagle flowing
with the sky, a poem carving
itself out of oak, everything
surging, everything uncovered,
joys, mad, mad joys.
Check my books www.amazon.com/author/richardratliff
About today

What can I say to you about today
It moves along with slowly rising grace
Leaving all my thoughts of you still in play  
Around and around but still in this place

No matter what other thoughts may arise
You cast a shadow over all others  
They all compete but you are still the prize
That towers above all mental flowers

Come along with me, soar above this fray
Clear your mind and rise, rise as the sun does  
Each and every day without thought this day  
Will be different no matter what was

Each day is always breaking out anew
Aspirations swirling round what you do

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff
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