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Riq Schwartz Aug 2012
I so wish that I could see you
In a dimly lit cafe
Treating your spiced chai like an injured bird
And your face like the exhibits
Of local art on the walls around you

I thought I saw you there once
But it was too smokey
The air thick with conversations
And reunions after 24 hours or less
I'm so sorry that I missed you

But I know that later on I'll find you
Like I always tend to do
Sitting in your usual spot
Exactly like I would expect
On our couch
At home
I love my wife. She is my joy and my muse. Happy anniversary.
Riq Schwartz Aug 2012
Listen up, kid.
Here's the story.
Everyone is
gone to stay.
No one else can
hear you pouring
words to paper
day by day.
No ones reading,
no ones laughing.
No one follows
story lines.
All this time you
think you're passing,
shining colors
to the blind.
God is dead and
so is writing.
Only fools
enlist your cause.
There's no point to
all this fighting,
Nor's there money
In your flaws.
Listen up, kid.
Here's the truth now.
Every day is
One too late.
Sure you dream, but
Whats the use now,
When youre lifes
An empty slate?
I wrote this ironically/facetiously a while ago and just let it sit, but more and more it's been reflecting how I've started feeling. Kinda depressingly prophetic. Here's to a comeback.
Riq Schwartz Apr 2012
We are lost in the tide
just a few feet from shore.
We are swamped by the size of the sky.
We are fickle and frail
and I've never felt more
like it won't matter how much we try.

I am lonely and loved
and exhaustedly glad
for a few simple minutes of rest,
so I looked to you with
what small fervor I had,
while I stood with my conscience undressed.

You were so full of hope
that we might get away,
but as time passes, so do our dreams.
There I saw in your eyes
all the fear and dismay,
with your heart torn apart at the seams.

It was so cold that day,
sitting still in our home.
It was early as midnight could be.
But the wanderlust shrieks
as the memories roam,
with the mind drifting out to the sea.

I was swept with the tide
washing out from the land,
and it carried me into the deep.
When I got there, I found
there was nowhere to stand,
so I laid down and drifted to sleep.

You were lost in the stars
looking down at the world
with the moon passing by overhead.
You were ground to a halt
as the whole planet twirled,
and you missed everything that I said.
Riq Schwartz Apr 2012
I know what's real won't end until we start
ignoring what we want within our heart.
But deeper lines will never score
the bottom of the ocean floor
more than I feel whenever we're apart.
Second stab at the Top Words' Adaptation collection. I'm beginning to wonder if I should credit the original word base.
Riq Schwartz Mar 2012
Songs like shadows softly lift
the light from darkened, tainted lips,
cursed with memories from which
the lighter tones withhold their gifts.

Brighter beams, meanwhile, tell
the shadows where they're meant to dwell.
All contained within the swell
of one small voice's silent shell.

Stories told of artifacts
in hands of greed with hearts of black,
laying in curses, spreading that
which sticks, and stays, and wont hold back.

Hardly living, all alone
within the house she built of bones,
memorizing muted tones
that speak of light theyve never known.

And wandering from place to place,
the sands of time erode, erase
from this world's ever-changing face.
And so is gone without a trace.
I'm starting a new project with this. Taking groups of popularly used words from other poets that seem striking and medially congruent, then free-writing until something manifests. This is my first attempt. Just something quirky I whipped up. Next I should contrive a name for the project. All good projects have names...
Riq Schwartz Mar 2012
similies like crazy
at the end of every day
when we sit and watch and wonder
where we throw our lives away
when we throw our lives away

we're smiling like crazy
at the people walking by
hope that they dont hear us talking
as we laugh and then we sigh
then we laugh, and then we sigh

its similar to falling
yet exceptional at best
when we're standing up together
when we're sitting down to rest
when we're laying down to rest

as simply as i see you
its as easy then to say
that i see us intertwining
in a convoluted way
such a transcendental way



as disentegrating phrases
meet our pierced and weary ears
will we try to patch together
all our long and weary years
oh such long and weary years


but i know when we lay morbid
and we close our heavy lids
we will hand in hand be living
loving life as we were kids
living life when we were kids
Riq Schwartz Mar 2012
I wrote a book called "Useless"
a thousand pages long,
and every page is useless
a thousand letters strong.
And each disjointed sentence
on each disjointed page
makes up another chapter
that I could call a day.

And in this book called "Useless,"
each task I was assigned
took up another hour
I wanted to call mine.
But in this useless novel
where nothing lasts for good,
it made such little difference.
I wish they understood.

It seems most of my pages
were writ without my words
by many other people.
Oh, had I only heard
the voices of the others
who told me not to write
unless I was the author,
and never stand contrite.

The creases in these pages
were put there not by me,
but by the "Learned" people
who thought it best to be
the leaders of my charges!
The heroins and kings
that lead me on to vic'try --
the "freedom" that it brings.

And so they tore those pages,
divided from the spine
of that old book called "Useless."
I loathe to call it mine.
There each and every paper,
now added to their own
collection of these useless
thoughts, was ne'er made known.

'Till dust began collecting
upon the golden leaf
that read the title "Useless"
so powerful and brief,
until I dared to read it
and so lament each time
I had no say in rhythm,
in meter or in rhyme.

And there spread out before me,
each letter cold and black,
contained my very life, still
no life was reading back.
I wanted so to burn it
and send it to its grave.
'Till, better or for worse, I saw
this book is all I have.

I quietly replaced it
between the other books,
now something less embarrassed
by all the space it took,
and realized there with reverence
I needed a new page,
to change my manuscript and
above all else, engage.

And so I keep old "Useless"
so that they might believe
that I write in these pages
for them and not for me.
And here I write another.
It does not have a name
since only time will dictate
the nature of my game.

Now tired of that story,
monotonous and prose,
I altered my technique. now,
it, something like this, goes:
I wrote a poem called useless
though I dont think it is.
You see, it is a prologue.
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