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Nov 2013 · 719
Heads, Tales, Etc.
Riq Schwartz Nov 2013
Putting on high heels is
not the same as growth.
Bending over backwards is
not always dancing.
Extending a hand is
only occasionally a kindness.
Whenever we speak, I know
the coin toss is airborne
as soon as the first words fly.
Nov 2013 · 1.4k
Granite Sky
Riq Schwartz Nov 2013
The bleak, unbridled 
fury of a granite sky
bids me, Welcome Home
Nov 2013 · 1.9k
The Casualty of Causality
Riq Schwartz Nov 2013
Seldom am I so direct,
Like Wayne, Parker, Kent,
I prefer my subterfuge.
But these words are penned
     (figuratively speaking)
by the penultimate,
              tumultuous,
and often callous wordjockey
yours truly.

As I've said, I'm seldom
more than the sum
of my company kept
[let slip,
reacquainted,
self-righteous reconciliation,
          regret, repeat]

And today, I find
myself
writing thrice,
twice toward pride,
once of consequence.
Que sera sera.

I'm lead like a horse
who had to drink -
or perhaps imbibe?
your softly streaming sentences,
words which kicked like a mule.
Remember, I was hoarse,
parched.

On that parchment, I find these words:

I am a cause...



Truth at last, truth at last,
Thank God almighty...

     ...you know the rest.


I stand on this principle -
that I cannot stand at all
sin ustedes
your words the salve,
my words the therapy.
"Progress."
Just Cause.

Now, waxing on
toward the triumphant,
anthemic Aye!
If you are the cause and the casualty,
then each daily account
of what might be made martyrdom
should be cannon.
Am I eliciting allusions and assumptions?
Inadvertently, but then precariously so.
So the pieces fall,
the causality, literary
the eventuality, progressive.

Aye, we are naught but what
we are made of by others.
So each concussive consonant chips and chisels
off the ol' block.

To a good Mister John Henry,
my gratitude.
Written as acknowledgement to everyone who contributes to my muse and helps me along the way. Title and theme inspired by someone who's stopped coming around.
Nov 2013 · 506
A Greatful Psalm
Riq Schwartz Nov 2013
The best of you
I find
are writing words
my mind
is taking them
away
and molding them
as clay
responsively
inspired
when all my thoughts
are tired
I lean on you
and start
to feel myself,
my heart.
Quickly cranked out before work; I'll likely revisit later, to pay proper homage.
Nov 2013 · 431
The Sonnet Haiku
Riq Schwartz Nov 2013
A picture is worth
Iambic pentameter
Just fourteen lines long
Riq Schwartz Oct 2013
You, my dear, are dead, I said.

I am not so, she told me.

You are, checked out, moved on, deceased!

Then why so tightly hold me?

[Inhale...]

I feel the way your body flakes
Like chipping bits of bone
I see the way your fingers quake
Whenever you're alone
I tell you that I love you, and
you always say it back
But you never lend a hand
Whenever I'm about to crack
You say that talk is wasted
Because words are so ****** cheap,
But jealousy is tasted
When I'm talking in my sleep

For fear of letting go, and so
admitting that you're dead.**

But she was done responding
to the voices in her head.
Oct 2013 · 481
Sonnet 2.5
Riq Schwartz Oct 2013
I've braved the life of living in the past,
Of caring for what never cared for me.
I've watched a hundred thousand days be flashed
like glints of sun across a choppy sea.
I've never taken tea with foreign kings,
but I could tell you tales of how I have,
and in those fleeting moments, fickle things,
my words would be your melancholy's salve.
I read my tales and stories with a head
that sits upon a swivel and a lie,
and every word I've written, thought, or said
will follow you until the day you die.
A greater sun as never shone on me
Than when I found my immortality.
Oct 2013 · 620
What is Poetry, If Not Love
Riq Schwartz Oct 2013
They tell me I know what I'm doing.

I'm a master stumbler.

I record the sounds of my steps
along the cobblestones of thoughts
tracing me through mere minutes of my day.

I'm no predator of words,
hungrily snatching them from their sound slumber.
I've never slain a thought for
the sake of hanging its trophy on my page.

I have no brush at the ready,
no photographic,
impressionistic mind
gathering the sights and sounds
like a gambler collecting her winnings.

I could not, at gunpoint,
fire off the words to save my life,
no eloquent please,
no well turned phrases,
no sycophantic soliloquy.

I am the shell of my experiences,
my hide made only
of the ones that have hardened me.
     This is no way to love.
And what is poetry if not love?
Riq Schwartz Oct 2013
I'm slipping,

stepping silently through
mountains of air
wind
whipping this clay shod body
earth and sod and
stones to small to see


I'm stuck,

this pen wedged within
my corpus callosum,
not big enough to handle the task
not up not *****,
doesn't have the stuff.

I'm all.

Honest, to the tip of each hair on my head
cut and styled, and put into place;

truth bubbling out
from behind crimson painted lips;

but so that I may not mince words, / there is nothing straight about me
save the razor's edge / with which I detail my semantics,
my words cut with conveniences / resilient as talcum powder

you / we have so much to look forward to
Oct 2013 · 786
Ashes to Ashes to Ashes
Riq Schwartz Oct 2013
stone faced, sand blasted,
cemented
and half-assed,
sleeping soundly
like Pompeii
dreamless,
uninspired,
uncorrupted,
unavailable for comment.


You see, there are bones
inside of me.
Bones embracing each other,
in tired poses
laying in the dirt,
uncovered by the studious,
                                   curious,
                                   fastidious, and
                                  woefully unlucky.

Good luck cataloging your finds.
I wouldn't buy it.

meanwhile,
i am petrified
in perfect fashion
filling my space
filing my cells
and ever.  so.   ****.    slowly.
i am whole again,
rock hard abs
and chiseled jaw
Adonis
in slate stone
with chipping lungs
stand **** for the world
in demonstration of man
"This is what I was,"
     i will say,
"Proud never to change."
pigeon **** on my shoulder
and no one knows what color my eyes were
Sep 2013 · 565
Art, Working
Riq Schwartz Sep 2013
His eyes glazed over
          her art
      and missed the nuances
          small sounds
          measured movements
     Never saw it coming


Her eyes were blue
        and black
    defending him
          against her better judgment
     her face brushed
          in natural blushes
          and smokey greys
     that made me yell FIRE


They were a pristine model,
     he, a snapshot of time
     she, the painted portrait
               Je t'embrasse,
                        Marie A.


She was beautiful, and
he was happy
     to leave her hanging
     on a wall
Riq Schwartz Sep 2013
Call me stricken
by her
          my favorite color.

I want to fill my ears with static
to give my thoughts some room to move
and my eyes monochromatic
with an artistic side to prove


She writes
like shes giving
Noah Webster a *******,
her labyrinthine constructions
of consonants and vowels,
leading in circles
obliterating disbelief,
and I
          AM

the words.


She tastes like ***
and nostalgia
nauseating my pages,
wearing thin over keystrokes,
repetition,
               the mother of decrepitude
so my muse
               decimates my thoughts
          one in ten
     one in ten
one in ten
*CRACK
Riq Schwartz Sep 2013
It's just like life
to send us here --
a world away
from what we know.
We feel our eyes
absorb the light,
but nothing makes
a solid shape.
The words we say
inside our heads
are distant sounds
we want to hear.

When people take
a look at us,
I wonder if
they see us where
we truly are:

beside ourselves.
Number four doing my Top Words shtick. This list of words taken from Brycical, who has been writing some truly fantastic pieces lately.
Aug 2013 · 949
Girl Called Spiral
Riq Schwartz Aug 2013
Every room has a din.
You just have to listen
hard enough.

This din was a spoken one,
like where actors mutter
"...rhubarb, rhubarb..."


Her steps made a percussive
clacking sound
that echoed from
wall       to       wall,
pervasive and acute.

But what truly stuck out
                                                             ­                 did so from only one side.

Her, the weird one.
  Her, accident prone.
   Her, the girl with
            one wing.

In a room full of faeries,
                       she stuck out.
                   An entire people
who hid themselves by day,
                           and she
was sequestered.


Everything
twisted          
down          
in a

s    
p      
i    
r
  a
      l
      i
    n
g

d  
e    
s    
  c  
    e
     n
    t

But what would you expect
     from a girl with one wing?
Aug 2013 · 1.5k
antithesis
Riq Schwartz Aug 2013
I'm putting on my flowing cape
to contrast against these
skin tight words,
delivering truth, freedom,
beauty, hope,
love, joy, ***, war
hate, passion,
and emotional genocide

I'm flaunting my anatomy
in mis-measured feet,
peculiar textual bulges
with evidence of discrepancies,
and wondering why
the mayor won't call me back.
I don't have any answers to anyone's problems.

Sometimes I like to think I do.

In those moments, I'm sure I seem this stupid.
Aug 2013 · 607
Vice.
Riq Schwartz Aug 2013
She was 19, he was dead.
She took his heart and gave her bed.
No softer things were ever said.
They were together nightly.

He told her how her words could make
his voice to shudder, knees to shake.
She said it was a nice mistake.
She said so quite contritely.

She left him there to reminisce
of how they'd speak, of how she'd kiss,
then momentarily remiss,
his manners grew unsightly.

They say he took her by the hand
and brushed aside her hair of sand.
He spoke aloud the words he'd planned.
His eyes were shining brightly.

He told her she would never leave
his mind to wallow, heart to grieve,
that she would be the one bereaved,
his fingers gripping tightly.

Her bones were breaking, face was pale,
her eyes had formed a stormy gale
that sent her makeup setting sail.
She spoke to him forthrightly:

"You are the devil, you my doubts,
you are the hope I live without.
You'd have me cry and scream and shout,
but I'll say this politely.

I'll take my chances, starting now,
and set my heart to disavow
my head to take another bow."
Her words so sharp and sprightly,

she broke his heart, his hand, his hold,
and at his weakest, he was told,
"I'm not the type to be controlled.
Don't **** with me so lightly."
I once wrote a song about an abusive relationship, the whole thing being a metaphor for the struggle I was having with lust, and where I was the victim in the relationship. This is kind of along those lines, only with more abstract divisions between the literal and metaphorical elements. Take this however you see fit.
Aug 2013 · 835
Photo Negative
Riq Schwartz Aug 2013
Your skin laid out
in shades of blue and teal,
the brilliant white streaks
of wind tossed hair.
Your backdrop, a sky
painted in a noontime orange
as dark wisps of cloud
paint the fluorescent atmosphere.
With everything in
perfect opposites
I wonder
if that is why you seem
so happy.
Jul 2013 · 874
Dreamer
Riq Schwartz Jul 2013
I had four dreams last night.                                                           ­                                                                 ­          

In my dream
there was a man
alone in a room
surrounded by frames without pictures,
walls without windows,
faces without voices,
living another man's life
exactly as he was told he should.
He did not feel sad
because he thought
there was no point to feeling.
So he thought he was happy.


In my dream                                                            ­                                    
I saw a woman                                                            ­                                    
laying alone in bed.                                                             ­                                   
She had watched her life                                                             ­                                   
slipping past                                                             ­                                           
day by day.                                                             ­                                             
Her children had                                                              ­                                  
grown and gone,                                                            ­                                    
and her lovers                                                           ­                                     
forgot her name.                                                            ­                                    
She fell asleep each night                                                            ­                                    
embraced only by the cold.                                                            ­                                    


                          ­                                                                 ­                                             In my dream
                                                                ­                                                                 ­           was a boy
                                                             ­                                   who sat and watched his friends
                                                         ­                                       running and laughing.        
                                               ­                                                   He wished that he was beautiful
                                                       ­                                         and that everyone else would like
                                                            ­                                                              loo­king at him,          
                                                                ­                                                   his hair and his makeup.
                                                         ­                                                         But they dressed him up
                                                              ­                                                       in a suit and tie          
                                                                ­                                   and they cut his hair short
                                                           ­                                     and everyone thought he was just
                                                            ­                                    bad at being a boy. Disappointment.


In my dream, I was a city.
My streets were filled with dreams
and the dreams were filled with ***
                                   and greed
                             and pain
                         and lust
          and loneliness.
My buildings ached
like weathered bones
and I felt myself being torn
            at the seams
because no one cared
to hold me together.
And as they died,
they never knew
that they
      were me,
          and I,
I was immortal.
Jul 2013 · 1.3k
[M]obey
Riq Schwartz Jul 2013
you may watch me crest the icy black
surface of your minds wide ocean
with moonlight catching brilliant spray
and casting shadows of doubt
follow me down
     and listen to me
   singing you to sleep
a pacifist lullaby
of malcontent
and lonliness

your breath is as level as the choppy seas
and your thoughts will follow wherever I please

I know that you have reservations
keeping your heart bound
safely to the shore,
your hopes lapping loosely around your feet
receding,
returning,
remitting,
refreshing,
and all the while you know
that the whitecaps
     are the faces of regret
     are the voices of dissent
     are forces to be reckoned
and that stormy seas are only a problem
if you're trying to stay afloat

each night as you dream, your thoughts set sail
and I will be your great white whale
Jul 2013 · 855
Poets
Riq Schwartz Jul 2013
I do not much care for poets
We're a touchy bunch indeed
How we validate our feelings
By what other people read
How we dive into our writing
Like a swine into its mud
And we savor every sentence
Like a ruminating cud
How we strike upon the heartstrings
Of the others like ourselves
But we feel so violated
When we're pulled out of our shells
How we make such grand investments
With our twenty dollar words
Toward the inevitability
That our voice will be heard
And we slather on the sentiment
With metaphoric verse
Vindication in our imagery
So beautiful and terse
And I sometimes have to wonder
If the reason we create
Is exclusively attracting
Someone else who can relate
No, I don't much care for poets
Though the blame is not on you
As the simple truth about it
Is that I'm a poet too
Jul 2013 · 420
scrutiny
Riq Schwartz Jul 2013
its been hours and days
and weeks and
months
and people are
watching me nightly
with my music and
bottles, my
words and my makeup
and dried blood
so very unsightly
i'm sitting and musing
and writing
so
slowly
and
watching
the minutes
go bye
but time is a place
and each second i ****
is another small
void in the sky
May 2013 · 530
to be renamed later
Riq Schwartz May 2013
this is a new place
a new time for me
and ive never been here before
not here like this
maybe once before,
but that was on the cycle down

sometimes i need to move
to make sure that im in control
of my own reflection

im watching him looking
back at me
and i just know
that that ******
is up to something.

all the while
things are moving
just on the edge
as im watching
a movie about sounds
and wishing that
someone would talk to me
that way

and now that i am in the throes
ill tell you something else
a secret everybody knows
a secret nonetheless
ive never truly been a one
for free or spoken word
the things i do and speak and write
are better seen than heard
i write instead in flashing rhyme
that catches unawares
not flowery, but in its time
a fuller meaning shares

then tired of this back and forth
we contemplate our honest worth
and ever lonely on this earth,
we pray that someone, somewhere
trapped in the confines of their
time served here
reads our humble verse.
Apr 2013 · 2.4k
Thermodynamics: Part II
Riq Schwartz Apr 2013
I'm cracking up
Like rotten eggs
Like seven years
Of ****** luck
Like old mosaics
Losing tiles
Spiderwebs
Across my windshield
Sending thoughts
Into the ether
Each one taking
Part of me
I'm cracking up
Like cheap ceramics
Broken, scrapped,
And then replaced.
Riq Schwartz Mar 2013
I punched the volume ****
like Tyson and Holyfield,
plunged us into silence,
our heads swimming in
phantom sounds.
The sun was a muffled glare,
but you squinted at me
and broke the silent virginity
with a cough.

The planet whirled
like an exotic dancer,
stars screamed how beautiful they are,
but were outmatched by our sun
just because of how
close it is.

The stars never go away.
Not really.
We just stop expecting them to be there.

We sat still.

And me, with all my
hypodermic words
unable to scratch the surface.

And you, with all your
delicate features
unable to soften the blow.

Because at night, we exchange
one star for millions,
though none of them
can keep us warm,
and all we want
is to see where we're going.
Mar 2013 · 1.2k
Carpool
Riq Schwartz Mar 2013
We cannot get to
Happiness if we are not
in the carpool lane
Feb 2013 · 1.6k
This May Be Mildly Offensive
Riq Schwartz Feb 2013
ten cent poems
hiding in numbers
a shotgun blast
of ink and paper
hoping that one slug
strikes true.

knick an artery,
crack the bone
call yourself
a marksman wordsmith

im sorry i saw
through the muzzle flash
im sorry i told

but to be fair..

you lied first.
and im not sorry.
This probably isn't about you.
Oct 2012 · 1.6k
Moment
Riq Schwartz Oct 2012
STOP.

Don't move.

Don't you know?
A moment is too small to exist
in very much space at all.

Haven't you heard that time is like a bird?
It can't fly backwards,
and moreover, it will
NEVER.
Let.
You.
Catch it.

So please. I'm begging you.
Don't move.

You'll scare the moment away.

Because you see, I was thinking

we could just live here,
you and I.
Stay forever trapped
in this time and place,
silent and still
as the grave,
until eventually,
the world would forget about us.

Our moment has no place in the world, you see.

We would be expelled
and left behind.
We would be a satellite,
around and outside of time.
We would be a trail of exhaust
left lingering as time drove past.

We would be a feather
left on the ground
as time flew away.

But I wouldn't mind.
And something tells me
that you wouldn't, either.

Because moments as rich as these
are wealthy enough to support
not just one soul, but several.
These moments are banquets
for life
and love,
fear, pain,
sorrow, passion.
Again I say, life.

And this moment is a feast.

So I propose that we stay.
I propose that if we do blink,
that we are ever so cautious
when we open our eyes,
because the breeze from our lashes
could blow it away.

I propose that if we do eat,
we make like faeries
and feast on time and not space,
so that we'll never need their mortal food again.

I propose that if we need to smile,
that we instead choose to glow.
We could be like a star,
seen from so far off
and with such beautiful intensity
that people forget that,
that light is not the light of that star,
but the light of a star
that was so
very long ago.

I could be that.
And something tells me
that you could, too.


Don't move.
Don't say anything.
Don't tell me you love me --
I already know.
Don't tell me you're happy --
we will never be happier.
Don't ask me to kiss you --
our hearts are so entwined,
like vines of ivy
up an old brick wall,
that if we move,
they might break.

Now remember this.

Moments like these cannot be created;
they are found.

Surround yourself with beauty,
so that when you find one,
you can live forever.

And do not EVER
move so fast
that you would scare it away
before it lands.
Oct 2012 · 7.4k
forgive
Riq Schwartz Oct 2012
Belief is never sweeter

than to those who can't believe.

Reconciliation is for

those without relief.

Forgiveness comes in times and places
farthest from our expectations.

But ultimately,

we're the ones

who must forgive

ourselves.
Sep 2012 · 524
Spite
Riq Schwartz Sep 2012
She said to me,
"Just take a breath
so you don't lose your head."

So I stood still
and drew in air,
then exhaled fumes instead.
Had a bad experience at work today.
Riq Schwartz Aug 2012
Step one,
choose your topic.
Likely yourself.
Because what greater
subject could there be?
None
surely.

Step two,
choose an image.
Find something
that can serve
as a metaphor
for you.
Find the rain forest
for instance.
Or perhaps a pond
frozen over in winter.

Yes,
these should serve nicely.

Step three,
place yourself
somewhere in the midst of these things.
Let you be
the trunks of the trees
supporting the lush, green canopy.
You, poor, tired,
supporting the thick boughs
that are the real life
meters
and
meters
and
meters
above you.
Or is your face
the ice of the pond.
All that people ever notice
is how much you can take
before you break.
But there is so much more
just beneath the surface.
So much
teeming with life.
No one knows
how deep you go.
No one will know
until the ice thaws
     (which is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
          but the metaphor was never meant to extend that far.)

Step four,
write yourself in
to the piece
in such a way that no one else
will be able to identify you.
     (Unless they're **** cunning.)
Perhaps disguise your identity
within the purpose of the piece
or the flowing imagery
seeping through the spacious cracks
in your technique.
Riddle the work
with subtle ins and outs
and minute complexities
that vex the reader
away from your intentions.

Nicely done.

Step five,
ruminate.
contemplate
your reflection
as it appears
in your monitor.
Not the image of your face
bouncing off the glass
but the snapshot
of your thoughts
so opaquely back-lit.
Remind yourself
that this is for you
and no one else.
Proofread.
This is just for you
and no one else.
Revise.
This is just for you
and no one else.
Justify
this is just for you.

Step six,
post to a public forum.

*Check back in an hour.
Surprise! The poem is about me!
See? It's satirical.
Sorry it was so long.
Aug 2012 · 828
Rain
Riq Schwartz Aug 2012
I don't want to sleep tonight
so we can hear the rain,
and watch our memories slowly spin
like whispers in my brain.
You say forever feels like love
and death is but a day.
But little help that offers me
when you're a world away.

So I don't want to hear the rain
if it will wash you out.
But someday soon we'll find the tune
our life can sing about.
Number three of Project Rewrite - taking other users' top words, whatever they may be, and reconstructing them into a coherent piece. Special thanks to Pandora for the inspiration this time around. Your words are always beautiful.
Aug 2012 · 729
Acquiesce
Riq Schwartz Aug 2012
Don't tell me that you love me
'Till you find a way to hate me
And still like me all the same
Aug 2012 · 1.2k
Cafe
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.
Aug 2012 · 469
Listen up, kid
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.
Apr 2012 · 1.1k
wanderlust
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.
Apr 2012 · 641
Oceanic Chasm
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.
Mar 2012 · 727
Sandwitch
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...
Mar 2012 · 573
Live With Me
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
Mar 2012 · 989
useless
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.
Riq Schwartz Mar 2012
Beware of armour
that shines too bright. Who knows if
it's never been used?
Mar 2012 · 571
14
Riq Schwartz Mar 2012
14
It's your sunday best
that no one ever sees again.
When its written down in stone,
well no ones questioning it then.
But when you stand confronted
with the parents, brother, friends,
how can you say:
I never really liked him anyway.
Mar 2012 · 705
She Is Dreams
Riq Schwartz Mar 2012
She took a hundred candles
and burned them all to stubs
to watch the life go burning out
of each and every one.

And once she took a person,
and meant to light their heart.
She missed and lit their lungs, instead.
Now they speak flaming darts.

One time she took to drowning
in oceans vast and deep.
But she is dreams, and dreams don't die,
so she just fell asleep.

When she would sit up lonely
and watch while all the rest
would lay, and dream, and breathe, and stay,
then, gorgeous she was left.

As she would search for beauty
from uglies, odds, or couths,
she oftentimes would find herself
and still not know the truth.

I watched her light a candle
and burn it to the ground,
then say that hers was not the hand
that scattered flames around.

I watched her light a candle,
then try to blow it out.
But she inhaled, and now instead
shes left with burning lungs of red.
Her words, still burning in my head,
I recognize when late, in bed
my candle won't go out.
Riq Schwartz Mar 2012
apologies like stones in homes of glass
i watch you sleeping, drowning all the while
a sad array of closets stuffed with bones
veneer release -- a desecrated smile

i take my leave of life devoid of love
and turn it to the mountain precipice
a metaphor of solidarity
where Aphrodite earns no sacrifice

i leave you laying in the urban sprawl
a pearl among the sands of broken dreams
where i cannot articulate my fear
that everything may wind up as it seems

and so i prematurely take my leave
and so i leave your life as love leaves mine
i write upon the walls of this, my cave,
"a tribute to the death of life divine"
Mar 2012 · 588
Conversations With Crazy
Riq Schwartz Mar 2012
im slowly slipping into crazy.
im laying down with lunacy
and asking her to lie close.

because i cant lie with myself
     if i expect to sleep,
and i cant lie with others
     if i expect to hope.

so ill call up crazy at two A.M.
and tell him i depend on our talks
and ask for him to sing me to sleep
again.

and lunacy will keep me warm,
and when the birds sing the morning in,
i will finally fall asleep beside myself.
Mar 2012 · 1.4k
Unhappy Endings
Riq Schwartz Mar 2012
All my friends keep dying--
I buried one today.
All this time we're buying
all gets whisked away.
All these words defying
what I want to say
as all my friends keep dying,
and all their corpses stay.
Mar 2012 · 8.4k
Sins of Thieves
Riq Schwartz Mar 2012
sins of thieves are born
of patience, care, courage, strength
virtues every one
Mar 2012 · 1.1k
Heart Attack
Riq Schwartz Mar 2012
I come to you tonight because
your heart was never yours to love,
and so I wage this heart attack
to give your heart a sample of
the pulse your heartbeat seems to lack
in darkest nights, when corners, black,
send racing chills throughout your bones,
while palms perspire, mind is racked
as thoughts that you are not alone
break up the deaf'ning silent drone
that is your heart against your chest.
The only thing that you can't own;
the only thing that you can't rest;
the only one to know you best
would tell you simply, "do not fear,"
and this command, the simplest,
is coupled with, "cause I am here."
And with these words spake in your ear,
the corners soften as your eyes
begin to pierce the the all-too-sheer,
now lifted veil, and with its rise,
so lifts your heart, my unseen prize,
and settles down as shadows start
to dissipate as cloudless skies.
So proven is my point of start:
my love, it never was your heart.
Riq Schwartz Feb 2012
every shot a sedative
every memory a ghost
every day a way to live
every one is one i lost

never drown my memory
never match me stride for stride
never see what i can see
never look for what i hide

feelings take a dusty shade
breathing gives me what i need
thinking of the way we're made
makes me out a mongrel breed

ever feel a twinge of doubt?
ever wonder if you wont?
ever feel your hearbeats clout?
ever sorry that i dont?
Feb 2012 · 3.7k
[untitled 1]
Riq Schwartz Feb 2012
i love alliteration
like kings love living
like lions love killing
like love lost leaves aching
and wonder
wide wonder
where we were, when we were
we were
so...
alive.

awesome.

some sleep. others dream.
fetch fire from fire
blaze
blaze and black
opposites. awesome opposites.

still not us.

some sleep. some slip away.
slippery like fish.
i dont like fish very much.
live late. love long.
life
if it is life
lives
lest life linger, sub-par
sub-average

far more fitting.
(the former phrase, of course, following "fish"
sans "sub-" sentences)


some sleep, some dream.
others, oddly enough, bother both
both worlds, which while one works without what one would supply
(some sleepers dont dream)
dreamers, sometimes, seldom sleep.
rather, wrestle restlessly, fervently
futile fights
fighting fear, hate, hardship, hardly having strength to share their ideas.
folly.
does it seem, slightly
that they need both?
sleep and strength?
brains and brawn?

take teamwork, temporarily.
you and i...
we
we would win.
we wish,
we wonder,
we wander wherever.
we watch,
we would, whatever,
win.
because we live.
like lines long for letters
which would whittle words from whiteness
we would work with one another
and,
so,
we could rule the world.

would you rule with me?
please?

because i love alliteration
like lines and letters love leading listless eyes
lacking lids
courses carved across canvas
craving closure.
craving cause.
point.
place a period.

pause.

pax. peace.

pretty please?
Feb 2012 · 501
Sonnet 2.4
Riq Schwartz Feb 2012
Beloved, I swear to you to make my life
a testimony of my love to you,
to live with you as wedded man and wife,
to stand with you in everything you do.
I swear to give my love to you alone,
to stand with you in triumph and in grief,
in valleys where the sun has never shown
and mountaintops of hope and of relief.
I swear to stand beside you, should our days
be darkened with the promises of loss,
and with you, I will never shy away
from any task or trial life may toss.
I swear to keep these things with all my heart
until the day that death shall do us part.
These were my honest wedding vows. Evidently I didn't articulate at the time, but she knew what I was saying. Her vows were similarly poetic, but in her own particular idiom (as they should be).
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