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"buoyant" poems
The joyful heart is the buoyant heart— empowered to rise above its circumstances, unweighted, unburdened, unbound, tied only to that which would lift it higher, untethered from anything which would pull it down, pull it under or suffocate it. It's the free heart, quiet and at rest yet jubilant and uncontained, the celebrating heart, the praising heart, the thankful heart, the heart set on pilgrimage, bent on adventure, journey and romance. All the while it's a waiting heart because it's a yielded, led heart— a heart which doesn't run ahead of the LORD but willingly, quickly to the LORD— a heart that though eagerly anticipating each twisting turn, next horizon and changing path keeps its eyes fixed not on the scenery but forever on the Shepherd because it's a heart persuaded that He alone is the Great Reward for which it has always been looking. True joy is only ours when we find an endless source of satisfaction, and of these I know only One! The secret to all joy is to crave Him above all else. The joyful heart is the one addicted fully to Him, desperate for Him to the expense of all else, willing to sacrifice everything to have that craving satisfied. Joy and idols, I have learned, do not easily reside together in the same heart. So if I find that joy is chased away the most likely culprits are my own desires. What am I wanting more than Jesus? For if intimacy with Him is the supreme goal of my life then nothing can arise which I'm not enabled to bear with joy. There is, I suppose, nothing so reliable as suffering and loss to expose all of the hidden idols within me. It's surely those who have suffered the greatest and most frequent losses for Christ who are also most capable of knowing the deepest and most abiding joy. For it's when we've been stripped bare of everything else that we begin to know for certain that our joy is based not on the temporary blessings of our circumstances but only on the presence of the Eternal Blesser Himself. Sometimes He offers to us all that is in His right hand, but for any with eyes truly opened to see the most precious of times may be those when He offers to us only the intimacy of His right hand. Rivers of sadness can open up into wide gulfs of endless delight and are often the very courses needed to carry us there. When all is lost, we find to our amazement that, even so, we still have ALL and no one can rob us of it. When He takes everything from us He proves Himself to be EVERYTHING to us.
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Jul 26, 2017
Jul 26, 2017 at 4:11 PM UTC
~ The Joyful Heart ~
The joyful heart is the buoyant heart— empowered to rise above its circumstances, unweighted, unburdened, unbound, tied only to that which would lift it higher, untethered from anything which would pull it down, pull it under or suffocate it. It's the free heart, quiet and at rest yet jubilant and uncontained, the celebrating heart, the praising heart, the thankful heart, the heart set on pilgrimage, bent on adventure, journey and romance. All the while it's a waiting heart because it's a yielded, led heart— a heart which doesn't run ahead of the LORD but willingly, quickly to the LORD— a heart that though eagerly anticipating each twisting turn, next horizon and changing path keeps its eyes fixed not on the scenery but forever on the Shepherd because it's a heart persuaded that He alone is the Great Reward for which it has always been looking. True joy is only ours when we find an endless source of satisfaction, and of these I know only One! The secret to all joy is to crave Him above all else. The joyful heart is the one addicted fully to Him, desperate for Him to the expense of all else, willing to sacrifice everything to have that craving satisfied. Joy and idols, I have learned, do not easily reside together in the same heart. So if I find that joy is chased away the most likely culprits are my own desires. What am I wanting more than Jesus? For if intimacy with Him is the supreme goal of my life then nothing can arise which I'm not enabled to bear with joy. There is, I suppose, nothing so reliable as suffering and loss to expose all of the hidden idols within me. It's surely those who have suffered the greatest and most frequent losses for Christ who are also most capable of knowing the deepest and most abiding joy. For it's when we've been stripped bare of everything else that we begin to know for certain that our joy is based not on the temporary blessings of our circumstances but only on the presence of the Eternal Blesser Himself. Sometimes He offers to us all that is in His right hand, but for any with eyes truly opened to see the most precious of times may be those when He offers to us only the intimacy of His right hand. Rivers of sadness can open up into wide gulfs of endless delight and are often the very courses needed to carry us there. When all is lost, we find to our amazement that, even so, we still have ALL and no one can rob us of it. When He takes everything from us He proves Himself to be EVERYTHING to us.
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56
it was a dark dance of an immovable body as she was taken by the throat, death, causing stupendous distortions and entrancements of lunar landscapes she reeled pirouettes between smothering and seeing through a miraculous inner eye deepening her sense of nothingness as if pickled in a jar,  suspended in formaldehyde held buoyant where there is no reason for anything moveless in a veiled corridor inhabiting innerness, a raven fog her ******* wet with the scent of fear and *** she fell through the earth into the infernal arms of Hades his tremulous kisses a thousand glittering eyes she could see through
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Jul 9, 2018
Jul 9, 2018 at 10:35 AM UTC
Persephone
Drifting back to the ocean like it never even happened unraveled dreams washed clean crystalline renaissance bestowed     by wind mountain spring waters rising from the heart of mother earth A remnant light glows deeply of one love's untamed wonders an unfastened feather glides abandoned rushing waters floating alighting pilgrim blissfully sails on stranded without wings a fallen wild feather free as bird wanting a place to be let free Sun in the summer air wind in buoyant feathered hair softly dancing upon wild river restless ripples to feel the love of holding on adrift asunder whence it touched on destiny's far-reaching journey yonder holding onto flowing rivers rolling towards the sea The incoming tidal waters blossom surge to greet wind river's gentle saunter converging slackening passage salt on feral feathered fragments arousing currents babbling swirl imbibed by the impassioned sea Wild rivers' born intentions a different kind of drifting passage to kiss the distant horizon where the sown sunlight settles submerged in shoreless ocean waters     to be free all at sea at last someone you used to know  2017
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Aug 31, 2017
Aug 31, 2017 at 1:58 PM UTC
It's only water
i felt like talking that night reciting poetry to your big blue eyes and raw pink mouth smiling high as a wind whipped kite discussing art, ontology, and existentialism sitting like lotus at the Cafe Figaro on McDougall st in the west village belly of a ghost lost in a vagrant memory afterwards we went to a little one bedroom flat in the east village haunted by the vapors of its history a slight stench of **** and dingo tongue dripping toilet all peeling walls intimating births, cheer and squalor after a hot bath of lathered torsos we followrd each other naked winding around a table into a swaying bed that beckoned **** here my darlings and i licked and drank out of your drenched rose red blossom for hours it licking back I salvaged the loneliness of my soul between your thighs like a desolate dog whimpering thanking God with every graze and ****** of your all supple shifting limbs your company your company your sweet droplets of company in moon rise summer balm we looked in the mirror reflecting on my glistening face all red raspberry my lips like blood hydras laughing our ***** off at how artsy we looked smeared with your rouge painted thighs appearing as if half eaten you growled swallowed and licked big butter piggy till your nose ran like the Ganges gagging eyes bloodshot pools of fire cooing and oowing driving me maniacal with every ****** of your wild flicking tongue we poured our selves into each other viscous creels gushing coursing like slime silver radiating and finally used to the marrow we found ourselves drooping sails our eyelids  leaden the night mist fell upon us   muttering shadows and our *** shriveled like cast-off umbilici and we fell to sleep steep steep buoyant like two buttermilk clouds adrift your company your company your sweet droplets of company in moon rise summer balm
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Nov 28, 2017
Nov 28, 2017 at 1:50 PM UTC
CAFE FIGARO
i felt like talking that night reciting poetry to your big blue eyes and raw pink mouth smiling high as a wind whipped kite discussing art, ontology, and existentialism sitting like lotus at the Cafe Figaro on McDougall st in the west village belly of a ghost lost in a vagrant memory afterwards we went to a little one bedroom flat in the east village haunted by the vapors of its history a slight stench of **** and dingo tongue dripping toilet all peeling walls intimating births, cheer and squalor after a hot bath of lathered torsos we followrd each other naked winding around a table into a swaying bed that beckoned **** here my darlings and i licked and drank out of your drenched rose red blossom for hours it licking back I salvaged the loneliness of my soul between your thighs like a desolate dog whimpering thanking God with every graze and ****** of your all supple shifting limbs your company your company your sweet droplets of company in moon rise summer balm we looked in the mirror reflecting on my glistening face all red raspberry my lips like blood hydras laughing our ***** off at how artsy we looked smeared with your rouge painted thighs appearing as if half eaten you growled swallowed and licked big butter piggy till your nose ran like the Ganges gagging eyes bloodshot pools of fire cooing and oowing driving me maniacal with every ****** of your wild flicking tongue we poured our selves into each other viscous creels gushing coursing like slime silver radiating and finally used to the marrow we found ourselves drooping sails our eyelids  leaden the night mist fell upon us   muttering shadows and our *** shriveled like cast-off umbilici and we fell to sleep steep steep buoyant like two buttermilk clouds adrift your company your company your sweet droplets of company in moon rise summer balm
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80
With the peak of spring in the month of May In the early hours of a pleasantly sunlit day Two kids sat cuddled on a swing Feeling as though they were taking on wing Swinging in the air, they began to sing Their sweet lay breaking the silence with its ring They kicked their legs in rising delight And felt like thistledowns ever so light Up and down on the swing was fun They closed their eyes on being face to face with the sun Felt the swish and sway of the buoyant air And knew the light tug of breeze on their curly hair As the air got caught in the frills of their frock Their eyes gleamed bright in delightful spark Imagining themselves to be astronauts in space, An ebullient excitement lit up their face From a raised angle, they saw the Earth in green folds lie Watched the surrounding hills standing awfully high Saw a small stream flowing as a slow moving train With trees lined up on its banks in unbroken chain Longingly I watched these children free of all worry and pain Also their aerial feats, not tainted by any melancholy stain How I miss these childhood days of innocent fun As my hours, towards the sunset, quickly run
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May 6, 2016
May 6, 2016 at 12:38 PM UTC
Swings of Life
Let's think about this, before we do it. Let's think about this. Let's do it. You can tell me I've failed. My lungs are hot. My breath is useless, like my rescue. If you close a door, I open a wound. I made plans to steal you from yourself. I wanted sunlight for you, roots and crawling ants, pyramids of help and hope. I wanted. I wanted them to be mine, my contribution. Well. The self wants a shadow. A shield. A soul. The -I- falls apart when the skin does. There was a moment when you became who you always were: alone, surviving against a sea of black, and I could not help you. Could not swim against the dark surf your arms themselves made. And how am I now to make you some craft to come home on. How am I now to give knots and knowledge to your drowning. I cannot brave the isles that break you from the strings of sand that wait beyond the waves dying, still, to give you home and breath. I want your bedding. Your body. I want your terrible soul, your bait and switch, your milk, your cave, the meat of your isolation, the heart you hid in the Pacific. All I ever find at sea: tired arms, a head full of wishes. (Not exactly buoyant.) And the flashing fins of fish who sank and died.
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Aug 24, 2012
Aug 24, 2012 at 3:24 AM UTC
Surf, Surf, Surf
*as winter acquiesces to the blazing sun a soothing breeze softly grazes tips of aspen gently shedding past liaisons a perfect panacea allowing wild freedom for summer’s dawn healing from the ominous night a flower gingerly releases its grasp leaning into golden rays of summertime keenly aware of newfound vulnerability it yawns into the light a rousing essence induces a silhouette of life once thought lost prodding river’s rigid ice blue crystals to melt and flow with buoyant wonder kaleidoscopic-like waves having weathered near annihilation a sculptured consciousness remains painting summer clouds with soft-hued wisdom all awakens from the dream and should the cold return once more the sun will shine again ©2016janetaylor
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Apr 30, 2016
Apr 30, 2016 at 3:23 AM UTC
a perfect panacea
Looks I was given, words received Sunk in deep I felt as much use as a chocolate teapot As resilient as a glass hammer Looking much like a dogs dinner As fragrant as a refuse truck. Insightful as a blind guide dog Buoyant as a lead balloon I sank deep My bounce lost, like a concrete trampoline Lost my grip like a fumbling toothless vampire bat Feeling as welcome as a fur coat worn In a vegan cafe. Now resurfacing I know that there's no use in contriving to feel bad. I'm going to either line my chocolate teapot to make it work or savour every bite of it!
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Apr 9, 2014
Apr 9, 2014 at 5:29 PM UTC
Chocolate teapot
Sailboat on a purple sea Yellow skies are all she sees Lonely Captain at the helm Lord o’er all her ocean realm. Sailboat on a purple sea Sailing through Eternity The yellow skies reveal her ardor Searching for inlet or harbor. Where she can safely drop her anchor Without hostility or rancor Stay forever, or a day If on a whim she sails away. To search again for other shores Unmindful of the ocean’s mores. Sometimes storms impede her course Fill her journey with remorse Thunder sounds a deaf’ning roar Through driving rain, can’t see the shore Lightning bolts around her flash As if to call the Captain brash For thinking that she has control Over purple ocean’s vitriol. If ever she regrets her plight When yellow skies turn dark at night And midnight storms have lead to loss She rights the ship and bears the cross And waits for morning dawn to break Sun through last night’s rain will make A rainbow reaching far away Certainly it will show the way To steer her sailboat that day. Sailboat on a purple sea Yellow skies are all she sees Buoyant Captain at the helm Lord o’er all her ocean realm. PwL 04/21/15
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Apr 22, 2015
Apr 22, 2015 at 10:56 PM UTC
Sailboat on a Purple Sea
On the southwest side of Capri we found a little unknown grotto where no people were and we entered it completely and let our bodies lose all their loneliness. All the fish in us had escaped for a minute. The real fish did not mind. We did not disturb their personal life. We calmly trailed over them and under them, shedding air bubbles, little white balloons that drifted up into the sun by the boat where the Italian boatman slept with his hat over his face. Water so clear you could read a book through it. Water so buoyant you could float on your elbow. I lay on it as on a divan. I lay on it just like Matisse's Red Odalisque. Water was my strange flower, one must picture a woman without a toga or a scarf on a couch as deep as a tomb. The walls of that grotto were everycolor blue and you said, "Look! Your eyes are seacolor. Look! Your eyes are skycolor." And my eyes shut down as if they were suddenly ashamed.
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4.3k
The **** Swim
Gravity is not my friend. It forgets from time to time To do its job and keep my two feet Planted firmly on the ground. I can’t seem to get around Invisible stumbling blocks, Tripping over my own two feet, Knocking into things just by Walking in a straight line. Gravity is lazy, Wanting only to do the bare minimum. It makes my chest feel heavy when I lay down but if I close my eyes I feel my own untethered soul Float up into the ceiling And hide amongst the water pipes. Sometimes, I think gravity gets scared When I wish myself into something Scattered brain and disconnected Disassociation, depersonalization, Derealization—these side effects on the bottle They’re all taunting gravity And gravity runs to hide, Knocking me off balance and Up the stairs and skinning my knees And sometimes I don’t even know I’m bleeding But sometimes gravity fights back And my feet are stuck to the ground My limbs can’t seem to move, my Head feels like a hundred pounds My body aches until I lay down And sink into the carpet. Sometimes I wonder if you feel it too If gravity and you are on the odds as well With all your liquid confidence And substances to keep you happy And your tales of falling down stairs— You fall down, I fall up. We bob together in a sea of regret And change and past and Present and future and lust And hate but most of all love Nursing our wounds through Self medication until a very fed up gravity Pushes us down, down down down. Sometimes I think if gravity Were a little more benevolent We’d never have hit These bumps in the road. I could stay grounded, Feet planted firmly. You could stay buoyant Far above the surface. But no, Gravity is a very fickle beast. And as you’re leading me Back to my room For one last goodnight kiss I trip And float away.
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Nov 19, 2011
Nov 19, 2011 at 11:51 PM UTC
The one where I fall up the stairs.
Gravity is not my friend. It forgets from time to time To do its job and keep my two feet Planted firmly on the ground. I can’t seem to get around Invisible stumbling blocks, Tripping over my own two feet, Knocking into things just by Walking in a straight line. Gravity is lazy, Wanting only to do the bare minimum. It makes my chest feel heavy when I lay down but if I close my eyes I feel my own untethered soul Float up into the ceiling And hide amongst the water pipes. Sometimes, I think gravity gets scared When I wish myself into something Scattered brain and disconnected Disassociation, depersonalization, Derealization—these side effects on the bottle They’re all taunting gravity And gravity runs to hide, Knocking me off balance and Up the stairs and skinning my knees And sometimes I don’t even know I’m bleeding But sometimes gravity fights back And my feet are stuck to the ground My limbs can’t seem to move, my Head feels like a hundred pounds My body aches until I lay down And sink into the carpet. Sometimes I wonder if you feel it too If gravity and you are on the odds as well With all your liquid confidence And substances to keep you happy And your tales of falling down stairs— You fall down, I fall up. We bob together in a sea of regret And change and past and Present and future and lust And hate but most of all love Nursing our wounds through Self medication until a very fed up gravity Pushes us down, down down down. Sometimes I think if gravity Were a little more benevolent We’d never have hit These bumps in the road. I could stay grounded, Feet planted firmly. You could stay buoyant Far above the surface. But no, Gravity is a very fickle beast. And as you’re leading me Back to my room For one last goodnight kiss I trip And float away.
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60
You are an artifact, chiseled alabaster,        I am just molded plaster of Paris, You remain rich shiny white,       irrespective of seasonal changes, I need frequent  involvement of hands       that know their craft well, to be seen as an object of art, that barely survives,     but still brittle, would easily turn to dust. Men and women are different, inside out     I was told, I see it myself now and delighted! Over and over again I ask you to be aware of       the limitations that tie me down and forgive but you won't accept, go on with your life quietly        caring so much to keep my sinking heart buoyant.
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Jan 17, 2016
Jan 17, 2016 at 1:29 PM UTC
Placid feminine
Contemptuous of his home beyond The village and the village pond, A large-souled Frog who spurned each byeway, Hopped along the imperial highway. Nor grunting pig nor barking dog Could disconcert so great a frog. The morning dew was lingering yet His sides to cool, his tongue to wet; The night dew when the night should come A travelled frog would send him home. Not so, alas! the wayside grass Sees him no more:--not so, alas! A broadwheeled waggon unawares Ran him down, his joys, his cares. From dying choke one feeble croak The Frog's perpetual silence broke: "Ye buoyant Frogs, ye great and small, Even I am mortal after all. My road to Fame turns out a wry way: I perish on this hideous highway,- Oh for my old familiar byeway!" The choking Frog sobbed and was gone: The waggoner strode whistling on. Unconscious of the carnage done, Whistling that waggoner strode on, Whistling (it may have happened so) "A Froggy would a-wooing go:" A hypothetic frog trolled he Obtuse to a reality. O rich and poor, O great and small, Such oversights beset us all: The mangled frog abides incog, The uninteresting actual frog; The hypothetic frog alone Is the one frog we dwell upon.
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3.7k
The Frog
Silence. That’s the First thing you Can hear. The sil Ence is just so loud, So real, so close, so true, What everyone needs sometimes. That’s my favourite part of being there, Underwater. The world passes away, and You can hear yourself thinking again. You can just simply: Be. For once. The feeling of oblivion, the pressure of Unreleased air, the escaping Bubbles to the top Of the pool, ocean, lake, The clear water with sunlight Shining through the depths till it Reaches you, the feeling of Oneness with the world Its past, its present Its uncertain future, the Feeling that everything will be okay No matter how hard it seems now. The Feeling of weightlessness as your hair undulates Through the clear water, your body buoyant, your mind Finally clear. The stillness that overtakes your very Soul as you stay at the bottom, holding on with All your might, not wanting the moment To ever pass, knowing it has to even As you hope you can breathe, Impossible as it seems. The stillness Permeating every aspect of your being, from Your previously weighed down limbs to your dancing Hair to your stressed mind to your frazzled soul, giving the Much needed calm from a busy day. Pushing off the Depths, feeling the sunlight get stronger, the sur Face grow closer, feeling the nostalgia to your Second home where you can see clearly, Even with your eyes shut tight, your Breath held. Where you are you. Underwater.
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May 17, 2012
May 17, 2012 at 9:42 PM UTC
Underwater
*the state or quality of being elastic. flexibility; resilience; adaptability: a statement with a great elasticity of meaning. buoyancy; ability to resist or overcome depression. Physics. the property of a substance that enables it to change its length, volume, or shape in direct response to a force effecting such a change and to recover its original form upon the removal of the force.* are you ready? here it comes! Slap! having slapped you with, to kind attention, you may now recover your original form, when there was no grief, no distress, the great clarity of eying the day's birth, sweetly and innocently. once again, you are buoyant, molecules of polluted memories, erased. wind scattered, gone, blackboard erased, whiteboard replaced. you have been reminded, even reprimanded, for forgetting your elasticity. life, what ever that be, is constant motion, a reshaping of the heart, for the heart has no unique shape. it's adaptation, it's elasticity, it's genetic forgive and forget ability, is legend, is you, you are legend, You are elastic. the human hallmark impressed in the palms of your hands, that cannot be erased by time, fatigue, failure, or anger, the hands that mold, re-form for every need, for every handhold, for different are: The hands that open closed fists The hands that wave hi The hands that are first to touch and the last to leave, waving goodbye, elastic - tender when tender needed, strong when strength essences. so be elastic, remember to be ecstatic remember when you do, you need show proofs. Prove it to me. Prove it to yourself. shake, kiss, dare hug, the one who needs reminding that life is elastic, even more than you.
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Dec 26, 2013
Dec 26, 2013 at 5:07 AM UTC
The Elasticity of Life
*the state or quality of being elastic. flexibility; resilience; adaptability: a statement with a great elasticity of meaning. buoyancy; ability to resist or overcome depression. Physics. the property of a substance that enables it to change its length, volume, or shape in direct response to a force effecting such a change and to recover its original form upon the removal of the force.* are you ready? here it comes! Slap! having slapped you with, to kind attention, you may now recover your original form, when there was no grief, no distress, the great clarity of eying the day's birth, sweetly and innocently. once again, you are buoyant, molecules of polluted memories, erased. wind scattered, gone, blackboard erased, whiteboard replaced. you have been reminded, even reprimanded, for forgetting your elasticity. life, what ever that be, is constant motion, a reshaping of the heart, for the heart has no unique shape. it's adaptation, it's elasticity, it's genetic forgive and forget ability, is legend, is you, you are legend, You are elastic. the human hallmark impressed in the palms of your hands, that cannot be erased by time, fatigue, failure, or anger, the hands that mold, re-form for every need, for every handhold, for different are: The hands that open closed fists The hands that wave hi The hands that are first to touch and the last to leave, waving goodbye, elastic - tender when tender needed, strong when strength essences. so be elastic, remember to be ecstatic remember when you do, you need show proofs. Prove it to me. Prove it to yourself. shake, kiss, dare hug, the one who needs reminding that life is elastic, even more than you.
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65
Let me imply that if I'm to die, it will be on my own terms. I insist, need be even with my fist, that I tie the noose myself. My foot will give its input to the bucket. And for a single moment I will be buoyant among atoms of air. In the next I will fall, with my shadow against the wall. My feet will never again touch the floor. The rope whispers one last twang as I hang. Eyes loose luster. My life has burnt like Magnesium. Fast and bright, like the speed of light.
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Feb 12, 2013
Feb 12, 2013 at 7:44 PM UTC
For the last time
On occasion, I dream about drowning at least once a week And when I drown I always expect to choke under the pressure of the ocean That the salt stings my eyes shut But I am always surprised at how easily my body sinks And how buoyant it can be under water And it makes me think of all the slaves Who threw themselves overboard How they thought themselves fish before slave Did they grow gills? Were they grateful for the mercy of erosion Under salt instead of whips Did they backs bend like dolphins do? Did they build an underwater city untouched By brutal hands Do they know, that I see them sometimes The ancestors who chose water over land And they are not bone and marrow stacked At the bottom of the ocean They are not corpses who chose the easy way out I see them They have built an underwater world from their bare hands They laugh and bubbles exit out their mouths Even now my family would not mourn my departure If I were to be called by the waves For the water has a language that some Of us have an ear for It is not the place of mortals to tear up When one of us africans drown Because to sink is to find new life Is to be in the hands of those who control their own destiny I know them, the water people They call me during the night And i don't fight anymore I laugh with them, and live And wake angry that oxygen can suffocate me That I suddenly become flailing fish That my home is not this land That I find comfort in ocean floor That is where my ancestors speak to me Console me Teach me the ways of spiritual healer At the bottom of the sea And it is not a dream although I wake from it It is a reality that is bestowed upon The xhosa shamans from birth The western world does not have a reality like that So they will argue it does not exist They will be quick to diagnose my mental health Call the act of reuniting with my own An episode, a stress indicator A sleeping pill prescription These are the same people who believe in Three day resurrection for death But cannot fathom an african never dying And we don’t die We do not die. There is life for us elsewhere. And when we are ready The waves will welcome us home.
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Apr 29, 2016
Apr 29, 2016 at 5:50 PM UTC
Emanzini (In The Water)
On occasion, I dream about drowning at least once a week And when I drown I always expect to choke under the pressure of the ocean That the salt stings my eyes shut But I am always surprised at how easily my body sinks And how buoyant it can be under water And it makes me think of all the slaves Who threw themselves overboard How they thought themselves fish before slave Did they grow gills? Were they grateful for the mercy of erosion Under salt instead of whips Did they backs bend like dolphins do? Did they build an underwater city untouched By brutal hands Do they know, that I see them sometimes The ancestors who chose water over land And they are not bone and marrow stacked At the bottom of the ocean They are not corpses who chose the easy way out I see them They have built an underwater world from their bare hands They laugh and bubbles exit out their mouths Even now my family would not mourn my departure If I were to be called by the waves For the water has a language that some Of us have an ear for It is not the place of mortals to tear up When one of us africans drown Because to sink is to find new life Is to be in the hands of those who control their own destiny I know them, the water people They call me during the night And i don't fight anymore I laugh with them, and live And wake angry that oxygen can suffocate me That I suddenly become flailing fish That my home is not this land That I find comfort in ocean floor That is where my ancestors speak to me Console me Teach me the ways of spiritual healer At the bottom of the sea And it is not a dream although I wake from it It is a reality that is bestowed upon The xhosa shamans from birth The western world does not have a reality like that So they will argue it does not exist They will be quick to diagnose my mental health Call the act of reuniting with my own An episode, a stress indicator A sleeping pill prescription These are the same people who believe in Three day resurrection for death But cannot fathom an african never dying And we don’t die We do not die. There is life for us elsewhere. And when we are ready The waves will welcome us home.
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61
pure as the moon on darkening nights radiant as the stars and growing, growing bright as sunshine, gold, gleeful warm warm warm crisp and fresh as a spring breeze full of life, deep roots gaining strength gentle, gentle buoyant as a bird's wing, joyous freedom freedom freedom / Messy as an unkempt room scattered and complicated desolate as the drying desert burning burning burning lost and mewling, blind as a cub clumsy and careless volatile as active volcanoes destruction destruction destruction cold as rain and tough as hail harming, harming Beyond the sun there is violence, violence
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Jun 22, 2016
Jun 22, 2016 at 9:46 AM UTC
Similes of the Soul
Your smile dawned on me As the moon rose and you walked out Into the night to sing . . .   . . . And then return later With the glow of music on your cheeks To sit and talk sharing your day Between slices of Jarlsberg   Grateful beyond words That this could be so I kept bringing you to me To confirm that you were really you   Buoyant with Vivaldi you climb The steep stairs to your attic room And there sitting on the bed Take this carved wooden box In your hands and with joy open to me your childhood your adolescence your young womanhood bookmarked With precious paper tokens Cards letters drawings certificates of membership Ephemera of memories Every piece a jigsaw of your early years   I see you twelve fourteen twenty A dear girl bright eyed so alert to life Gathering its mysteries to herself in Trophies of love and experience Still and more so and more so still
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Sep 10, 2012
Sep 10, 2012 at 1:40 AM UTC
Your smile dawned on me
Foreboding in the Green Wet cobbled cobwebs Circumference hemmed in All-out hampering threads And stones that missed Mary Magdalene *** Oh, and so luscious and lush is the green Dewy petals weeping they can’t caress my skin Wrapped up in rushing hopes, buoyant buds exploding Fluffy breezes prance, ignorant of the foreboding *** Sticky sharp spiders’ snare Circumference hemmed in A cut-out smile shrouding the glare Icicles that missed Mary Magdalene
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Nov 9, 2014
Nov 9, 2014 at 5:26 PM UTC
Foreboding In The Green
They tell me to lay down and to please look at the fish. Notice how they glide in-and-out of the cool-blue water; how they don't have a care in the world -- they're fish: one out of millions; mindless; alone in packed tanks; alone, jammed in metal cans full of corpses and low-quality mustard. Putting the mask over my perfect nostrils, my straight teeth, they say Don't be afraid; listen to my humming; how it will blend with the high-pitch screech you hear, now; becoming an equilibrium of torture and fantastical strangeness, unbound by Gods, by Persons, by Loves. Inside this perfect dark, you cannot think beyond the giant broad strokes that is the world sweeping by -- and it is marvelous, the buoyant miseries floating above your head; my head of ambivalent visions; the Earth's core, a furiously violent brilliance, ablaze beneath my feet, under layers of confounded deathly masquerade; a mask much like mine: an egotistical reflection brought out by one's feeling of gigantic import- -ance, despite hanging from the vastest of ceilings; a wannabe church in the sway of jungle mind; primitive instinct. ********* You know you can wake up   at this point, or so they say. What does it all mean, to which I murmur, I don't know. It's hard to say what I know; if anything, all I have is doubts. All I can muster are regrets; I wish I could return to that perfect dark, confused and semi-philosophical; all- pretentious: a feeling of being bound by brokenness. They tell me to chill out; you use semi-colons like they're heartbeats. Focus on whether your chest holds validity.
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May 14, 2017
May 14, 2017 at 3:00 PM UTC
28. Giant; Degenerates
They tell me to lay down and to please look at the fish. Notice how they glide in-and-out of the cool-blue water; how they don't have a care in the world -- they're fish: one out of millions; mindless; alone in packed tanks; alone, jammed in metal cans full of corpses and low-quality mustard. Putting the mask over my perfect nostrils, my straight teeth, they say Don't be afraid; listen to my humming; how it will blend with the high-pitch screech you hear, now; becoming an equilibrium of torture and fantastical strangeness, unbound by Gods, by Persons, by Loves. Inside this perfect dark, you cannot think beyond the giant broad strokes that is the world sweeping by -- and it is marvelous, the buoyant miseries floating above your head; my head of ambivalent visions; the Earth's core, a furiously violent brilliance, ablaze beneath my feet, under layers of confounded deathly masquerade; a mask much like mine: an egotistical reflection brought out by one's feeling of gigantic import- -ance, despite hanging from the vastest of ceilings; a wannabe church in the sway of jungle mind; primitive instinct. ********* You know you can wake up   at this point, or so they say. What does it all mean, to which I murmur, I don't know. It's hard to say what I know; if anything, all I have is doubts. All I can muster are regrets; I wish I could return to that perfect dark, confused and semi-philosophical; all- pretentious: a feeling of being bound by brokenness. They tell me to chill out; you use semi-colons like they're heartbeats. Focus on whether your chest holds validity.
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59
*Claw beneath your ribs Hold down wild you Just for a little while Feel the anguished flutter Begging these gruff hands . . .* 1. Fear takes commotive hold Makes wooden legs Delayed dance…..so delayed Causing silent attendance of synchrony No use stepping out for flight just yet, if alone Will meantime practise wing-span                            iron out brittle energy                            attempt to fortify links                            .. 2. Careless snubs to fragile sapling Did absolutely nothing To the course set out Only hypocrites squander even half-truths and wallow in obsequious words rendering paralysis and decay I will continue to claw beneath your ribs Covert trove awaits us In the tormented form of Crashing waves on a broken coast Hacked to near-distraction by potent searching 3. Loss is not wasted unseen by its absence: evocative presence felt …with penniless eyes I challenge you to visualise our melting:                  perched on fate’s right shoulder                  re-sent to this basic arena as buoyant token                  summoned by that primordial, blue light                  .. *the sun may well baulk and melt at the ruddy sight of such intense clawing beneath your ribs (like your customary digging into my bristling blades) To find my foetal place within the calling drumbeats of imperative you . . .* S T, sunsday . . . 21 July 2013
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Jul 21, 2013
Jul 21, 2013 at 4:50 AM UTC
C L A W
*Claw beneath your ribs Hold down wild you Just for a little while Feel the anguished flutter Begging these gruff hands . . .* 1. Fear takes commotive hold Makes wooden legs Delayed dance…..so delayed Causing silent attendance of synchrony No use stepping out for flight just yet, if alone Will meantime practise wing-span                            iron out brittle energy                            attempt to fortify links                            .. 2. Careless snubs to fragile sapling Did absolutely nothing To the course set out Only hypocrites squander even half-truths and wallow in obsequious words rendering paralysis and decay I will continue to claw beneath your ribs Covert trove awaits us In the tormented form of Crashing waves on a broken coast Hacked to near-distraction by potent searching 3. Loss is not wasted unseen by its absence: evocative presence felt …with penniless eyes I challenge you to visualise our melting:                  perched on fate’s right shoulder                  re-sent to this basic arena as buoyant token                  summoned by that primordial, blue light                  .. *the sun may well baulk and melt at the ruddy sight of such intense clawing beneath your ribs (like your customary digging into my bristling blades) To find my foetal place within the calling drumbeats of imperative you . . .* S T, sunsday . . . 21 July 2013
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44
Banked up against a terraced mountainside photogenic pristine rows of blasting green rows of manicured waterways with two buffaloes treading ballet-like between squelching mud and green shoots the paddy fields stayed buoyant all season through. Come harvesting time and thrashing the sunburied ripe tendrils of husk and seed along threshing traffic wheels the husk sought divorce from the long tongued long grained wives -and parted ways. Soon the pudding spent its silky smooth sexiness on a plate of punchy aromatic costumes that invaded the senses and palate in sensual smoothness. Oh my! Ricebowl pudding of the worlds staple. Author Notes Gluttony beckons just now! © Marshall Gass. All rights reserved.
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Apr 2, 2014
Apr 2, 2014 at 6:45 PM UTC
Rice Pudding
comely, maybe but not beautiful my features are as round as vowels and I carry the moon in my hips I am an unpolished beauty smooth pebbles resting at the bottom of a cold clear stream with an empty purse imagination my only currency in this world I am a shrinking violet occasionally a rose february-white caught in your button-loop long-stemmed red roses stalk runways hollywood bombshells are bubbly as champagne and full of flesh and light but *** sans love is still an empty bathtub whatever happened to pin-up girls long cigarette holders and muted photographs? I am distorted in the fish-eye view of the modern lens in my fantasies I am no longer sand and loam I glow like a tall slim candle though I am often numb and dumb and my girls are as absent as long lost unicorns I am the bohemian princess I travel through foreign lands clothed in exotic costume a jewelled headdress, and indian pyjamas coloured sapphire, turquoise and cayenne-red my feet are near bare and my hippie hair is a mass of blonde curls I take a sojourn in southern california warm desert air soft against my skin I surf in the salty sea held buoyant by the waves a sunset stains the sky tangerine the palm trees black against the orange light click teasingly in the breeze
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Oct 19, 2016
Oct 19, 2016 at 9:27 AM UTC
In My Fantasies