"caveat" poems
Love is a blind *****
And a wicked witch.
She's like a bill collector
And a heartbreaker.
Love is a light
Sometimes she's bright,
Sometimes she's dangerous
And very mysterious.
Love is contentious
Like a strange virus,
She kills at times
At times, she saves.
What's this phenomenon
That moves like the moon?
Love eludes some people
And for her, some will struggle.
To some, she's a white dove
Sent for them from above.
To those not lucky like us,
Love is just like a bad curse.
Love is the bedrock of life
Yet she hurts like a knife.
To few, she works like a lawn mower
And too few she's a lawn blower.
Love to some is like a quick shower
In no time it's all over.
The mystery of love
Is the tale of the black dove.
Love's seed was planted in Heaven
And blossomed in the garden of Eden
A long time ago on this earth,
It was the caveat for Romeo's death.
#IvanBrooksPoetry©
7/22/2018
Jul 21, 2018
Jul 21, 2018 at 8:03 PM UTC
What's this phenomenon called love,
That remains a puzzle no one can solve?
Love is the caveat for many broken hearts,
And the byword for many gracious acts.
Love has the characteristics of a witch
And the coldness of a vindictive *****
Love, the greatest of human emotions
Has many different variations.
The good book talks about agape love,
And Beyonce sings about drunken love.
Its nature nobody really understands
Yet men have worked with their hands and paid bride prices with cows.
Some have proposed to women at the super bowls.
And on talk shows, jumped on couches
leaving a few to walk on crutches.
Nobody knows love's true colors.
Yet many men have spent top dollars
To buy their women cars as gifts.
And later on, end up begging for lifts.
For love, Romeo committed suicide
And Juliet died right by his side.
Love is very irresistible
And unpredictable.
Love has many dimensions
and many complications.
For love, many people have died
And much more has lied.
For love, knots have been tied
many bank accounts emptied,
For love, wars have been fought
And many Diamond rings bought.
Love is a wrecking ball
I call it an emotional hall.
For love, tears have been shed
by many in their lonely beds.
Love is a mystery
But the reality in my poetry.
It's a kinda game in most men lives,
A game played behind their wives.
So what do we know about love?
Is it peaceful as caged doves
Or dangerous as wild wolves?
Is it contagious as a disease,
Or rumpled as a crease?
Is it blind like brother Steve,
Or silent as a grave?
Is it deep like the ocean,
and beautiful like Heaven?
Love can at times be as cold as ice
And at times, twice as nice!
IvanBrooksPoetry©️
21/8/2018
Feb 6, 2018
Feb 6, 2018 at 3:28 PM UTC
She ran into the forest.
They detested her,
even if she just did her best.
She found a spot, under a tree.
Dots of silver teased her,
"Come, see me."
With sweaty hands,
she picked with a swift gesture.
She held, it collapsed,
"What could I've done wrong?"
She took another, this time with caveat.
Still, it fell apart, in a usual format.
"Am I that destructive?"
She asked herself.
"No. Look."
The steady beads of pearls were, dancing?
Piles of rubble lifted to the sky,
like stars in the early morning.
The wind lingered, blew them quite gently
Magnificence is painted around the vivid scene she's seeing.
She inhaled every beauty.
Then, exhaled every shattered dream.
"You're right, whoever you are,
There's still beauty in breaking."
Jan 26, 2015
Jan 26, 2015 at 5:57 AM UTC
You really can do whatever you want, you know.
People who say that aren't just naive optimists.
However, they do leave out a very important caveat:
You really can do whatever in the world that you want...
So long as you want it MORE than anything else in the world.
Like... say you want to leave town.
Maybe you don't do it.
Maybe you sit in your office and dream about getting on a plane but you never do.
Responsibilities, money, family, friends, fear...
Excuses.
Honestly,
Excuses.
The truth that people don't like to face because it makes them uncomfortable is that if you REALLY wanted to leave town,
If you wanted that and only that,
If you wanted it more than anything else in your entire life,
You would do it.
That is the simple truth about... most impossible things.
You want it? You've got it. But you've got to be willing to give up every other thing in your entire life in pursuit of it.
You've got to know yourself well enough to know, absolutely KNOW, that this thing is what you want, what your soul craves, what your dreams revolve around.
You have got to be 100% dead SURE that what you want is what you WANT.
And if you are, if you can know that and face it and understand how selfish it might be to abandon everything else in your life for it, and if somehow it still pulls you towards it like a magnet even with all the rationality and doubt and practical thinking you can throw at it...
Then that is your purpose. Your dream. And you will have it.
That said, anyone who thinks I'm unreasonable, or silly, or naive, or wasteful for going after love...
Quite simply, I know what I want.
I know who I want.
I know what makes me happy.
And since I know it so clearly, so utterly, so inescapably, I couldn't possibly live with myself if I didn't do everything I could to have it.
And it's not an easy path, knowing what you want.
Because when the answer is no, it's no to your deepest dreams, to your heart's most aching desire.
When you have to wait, you have to wait for air to fill your lungs, you have to wait to be born.
When you lose it, you lose the sun, you lose the earth under your feet, you lose the courage to look in the mirror.
But when you have it... when you have it, you have a home.
I know what I want. I want love. I want to be happy.
I want to do what I love doing, and I want to be with who I adore.
And if I know that, and I admit that, and I put everything I can into that...
Well then,
It's not over until I breathe my last breath.
I haven't failed until I've fallen.
And I think I can live with that.
Jun 14, 2014
Jun 14, 2014 at 11:37 PM UTC
I see you
Sweet like candy
But definitely a handful
I don’t want to do anything to you
I don’t want to do anything for you
I would love to experience with you
So the fave color is red
There is beauty behind your eyes – in your head
Brains built of action from your hands and happening in front of your eyes
What a surprise when you spoke to me
Simple yet impressive and something I did not see coming
Love is where you find it
Hot – sour – bitter – slightly messy
Unconditional from the crown at the top of the head to bottom of the feet
Now what ?
I don’t want to do anything to you
I don’t want to do anything for you
I would love to experience with you
Think of making love in a chair
For this to work
Both of us have to be willing and somewhat fair
Are you really sure you want unconditional ?
Can you actually accept my faults and failings ?
I have never been to prison
I believe in feelings
I am an old man with ideas, designs and thoughts in a battle with the Universe
I know how to trust you
Can you hold the word commit when the sky falls ?
I will never let you fall
I promise I’ll never make you cry
When you get scared
I’ll hold you tighter
You do not have to ask
I am your fighter
I would never question the Creator
The thief of air has taken love from me
Several times
Was my heart being prepared for you ?
Now what ?
Can you accept my creative mess process ?
Can you see the fun in how I get things done ?
Are you willing and ready for the ride of a lifetime ?
If your answer leans toward yes, double buckle – it going to be bumpy – but fun
Our daughter will be divine
Will you balk when I beg you to try for a son ?
Your effect on another male can change the world and all humankind
Spirit guides my life now
I can’t explain it
I know it when I see it
Here are my jealousies
Are you willing to grant me your T E A ?
Time – Energy – Attention
Let’s lock this energy in place
I am willing to do – not try – do
Bring me you
I am better than I used to be
Not as good as I will be
Can you love a person like me ?
I do not want your day
I do not want your night
I am a person of commitment
I want your lifetime
I will cherish those days you are mad at me
I will cherish those days you don’t understand me
No matter how sweet
I promise to never cheat
If I have to crawl thru broken glass
I always come home
Can your comfort zone let me share ?
Right or wrong
Will you be there ?
Some things I do very strong
Others start with tender
Madness is not something I accept
Yet, know that I stand
And put all of life in a blender
Here is the warning – the caveat :
Are you a moth or a flame ?
Feet on the ground
Living
The possibilities are all blue sky
Tender ********** makes Angels cry
Jan 12, 2018
Jan 12, 2018 at 1:00 PM UTC
caveat! —bursting out as the fuse fetters away
wafting t'ward oil spills, tranquilized guns
with pace maker minds
and time to ****
sickle celled, graving shores
plead to crawl underground
through cascading bile and sedatives
that sift through these negatives
like bangled thieves
who crawl on broken knees
and lie idle under haunted bridges.
bouldered bones intertwine
or veins cut along a dotted line
caveat! cries the sayer's sooth,
for he says it scours and devours—
the slinking nightmare sleuth.
the tar is interrupted in carved equinoxes
soak in the crippled toxins
as the air becomes as thick as theophany
and tharm like grease in blood that take me in,
through ash and mud and
all the spider webs caving in
like delicate gorges forges beneath
nightmare sleuth reaching zenith
caveat, silhouettes
stretched out like oil in water
and this silicon tomb can hold me no longer
for i must break out before i am a goner
because it's a mistake that i'll never shake
your face turns opaque
and there was nothing in your eyes
but dripping flesh
wring out all your words for me
your jeers and your juries
but go cling to your crutch
your kings and your qualms
and the church that burns
in its hallow vacancy
for none can resist the urge
that thieves its delinquents from catatonic catacombs
and quagmire junctions
where the swamp will **** you in
and festering sweat sticks like guilt to your skin
and hell is a nightclub where every loss is a life
and heaven's a daydream with your neck to the knife
it needs no rhyme or reason
and every slip of your broken lip
just lose your grip and give in to the treason
would you rather burn at the stake
than suffer your cement heart break
with no reason or rhyme
it's just the weight of the season
backdrop collapse
railroads unfolding
and like a cell storm the train
is coming your way
and slinks away like a nightmare sleuth
it just takes one swipe of the claw
or one bite of the tooth
and it drags you in
feel the sidewalk sleeping
and the blinking lights creeping
above the overpass
and the cold wind reeling--
it'll be your last.
Nov 18, 2012
Nov 18, 2012 at 6:36 PM UTC
*in the villages
in days of yore
young men proved
their vigor
by lifting gigantic rocks*
but in 2012 -
the remarkable year of
the French Village of Bugarach
(where many sagacious youths gathered) -
away in Tunisia,
the young man
downs eggs
egg-citedly
in a dare
and he’s up to his esophagus in 28 eggs raw
when something in him cracks
(O poor wasted youth of 20)
and just 2 before winning his bet
he dies;
it’s Armageddon for him in 2012,
though he also gains an epiphany:
*28 raw eggs can ****
caveat
of course
O Ye Olde Sensitive Souls
this is not a yoke -
I mean, this is not a joke
For verily, 28 eggs can ****
Dec 29, 2012
Dec 29, 2012 at 3:52 AM UTC
*Smart phone paranoia, contagious at best
Has the zombies a stumbling the streets without rest
Transfixed to their cellphones, oblivious to all
By the lure of the Tweet and the Facebook’s enthrall
It’s ironically depressing that with all of this spin
When you download the Apps…the Devil walks in.
They access your contacts, Your banking, your loans
Your credit card details, unravel your phones,
Delve into your Facebook and spy on your life,
Check back through your history and peek at the wife.
They sell all your secrets to bidders galore
And when you go bankrupt… they’ll show you the door.
It’s “Caveat Emptor” or Buyer Beware
‘Cos technology’s clawed onto us by the hair,
It’s the Devil you do or the Devil you don’t
It’s progress with the crowd or resist and you won’t
Compulsion is growing by systems in place
By government, banking and big business pace
Through Google and Apple and Microsoft sway
The data is mined and the marketeer’s pay.
Tomorrow is here and we don’t have a choice
Ya live without Smartphone…ya won’t have a voice.
And the dragnet for data accessed by the Apps
And the sensors and whereabouts GPS tracks,
With the malware evolving to beauteous height
Means ya privacy’s shot and ya turn out the light.*
PS: Beneficium accipere liberatum est vendere
(To accept a favour…is to sell one’s freedom!)
Marshalg
Waiting for it all to come back and bite me on the ****
Pukehana
AUCKLAND
21 February 2014
Feb 21, 2014
Feb 21, 2014 at 4:44 PM UTC
A self-arranged route.
Ambitions led me forward.
Every step was to gain my adolescent aspirations.
I was confident.
When life was array,
The goals became my crutch,
My vitality,
The only reason to move, progress.
Idealistic and naive.
Blind and hopeful.
I meandered swiftly,
I gallivanted unsuspecting.
If I was to truly exist, I had to control my haste.
Oblivious to true adversity,
I needed to digest the lesson,
I needed to understand the complications.
Unexpectedly, the caveat stared at me.
I fought and clashed,
To only raise the white flag of surrender.
The battle was lost.
Who I was eluded.
I struggled through a sea of self-impediments.
I allowed myself to drown in the agony.
I did not have the armor to save me.
Through the fog, I heard songs that healed.
I held on to the words as they began to stitch me together.
I started to crawl,
I knew I would never be the same again.
I knew I had to start a crusade,
An onslaught against myself,
An onslaught against the organization.
I knew I would never be the same again.
As I raised armaments,
With the reinforcement in my ears,
I began to evolve.
The person I was became more substantial.
I had further tribulations ahead,
But I was more prepared, more capable.
I was humbled, yet proud.
The person I was became more unobstructed.
Through the misfortune,
My identity became solidified,
I reattained my dreams,
And I made efforts to get a steady hold.
I told myself I will not founder.
I told myself I could not relinquish.
For this was the war that would define me,
And I knew I must persevere.
Mar 6, 2013
Mar 6, 2013 at 3:52 PM UTC
The businessman was on the prowl
that soft night in September.
He was looking for a bit of strange
and a night he would remember.
She need not be a ****** queen
but he didn't like them jaded.
A rose bud opened, deeply blushed,
surpasses one that's faded.
Caveat emptor stills applies
He'd do well to remember-
Curvy vendors lay and lie
to those who seek illegal tender
Apr 6, 2013
Apr 6, 2013 at 9:13 PM UTC
Why are there entire cities to drain,
When Somewhere in my village,
People are dying for a drop of rain
Coming from a cave through a seepage?
Why are many places flooded elsewhere
When the drought there is constant
And People are struggling everywhere
To moisturize the soil just to plant?
Why are young Maasai men digging
For hours Into the patched African soil
Searching way into the humid evening
For a drop of water, they have to toil?
Why did nature leave my playground arid
When she rains down billions of liters in Texas?
Streetlights, no lights, drought at the power grid,
Scolding of nature is the caveat of the water crisis.
Why did God give us diamonds and gold,
How can he bless us with an abundance of minerals?
Then seal up the skies and put the rains on hold?
Turning the crisis to a vulture's feast and human funerals.
#IvanBrooksPoetry©️
Jan 22, 2018
Jan 22, 2018 at 2:27 PM UTC
I've been waiting out these rainy days
with my head down
and my ears waiting eagerly for your call
I had my own whimsical hopes about you
and how maybe we could be
because I liked the way you don't say much
and how you only smile if someone actually deserves it
and when you sit alone in the farthest corner of the gardens
because it's exactly where you wished to be
I was captivated by your mystery
and the possibilities I had told myself were more than a good chance
My hopes built higher after you mentioned one evening alone together
they peaked, and pointed to a plateau of so much fantasy I could finally see clearly
There is always a caveat in these situations
and mine starts with a but,
but, you rarely look at me when I speak
but, you never even held my hand
but, you never ask about me
but, I can hardly get a word in when we're alone
but, I can't be with someone who doesn't value me
I've spent my entire life building up fantastical stories and telling myself that boys liked me because it was the only way that I could feel like I was worth something.
My main objective for as long as I can remember has been changing myself to make it easier for people to receive me,
but i'm not a ******* package waiting to be delivered to price charming's doorstep just so he can open me up, use me, and throw me aside.
No longer will I pretend that I am not a whole being.
The parts of me that are not soft and pink are still worth something.
I have baggage and rough patches but I think those scars are beautiful.
My thoughts may come out scattered but they're still worth hearing,
and I cannot go chasing down the love of someone who doesn't care to understand that I am more than just a sum of a few pretty parts.
Oct 7, 2014
Oct 7, 2014 at 11:45 PM UTC
from what we have heard she is senile
she will smile and the sun will rise.
take her out to pink pasture, do not heed her caveat,
from what we have heard she is senile and
it is all for naught.
the war did her in, she still bathes there,
in the clouds,
in the tepid spring of father's rigorwater
the dewdrops are full of gas, they must have made her this way
(or, retrospectively, the bombs)
the old war did her in
the sun is risen over pink pasture and i can hear her seizure scream
the clear air fills with smoke and the curtain closes.
Feb 27, 2017
Feb 27, 2017 at 7:24 PM UTC
I’m sick of having to put a caveat on my weight.
It’s the asterisk that follows my body
that I can never seem to get rid of.
It says "Caution:
she may be beautiful and witty and smart
but her worth is negated by the size of her waistline."
I write that I am a large person in my online dating profile,
as if it were a trigger warning for men that otherwise might find me
Beautiful.
I don’t want to catch them off guard
I want to at least give them
the courtesy of knowing
that there is more to me then what will ever fit
on a 16 inch computer screen.
At least if I am the one to say it,
To judge my own worth,
I won’t be the punch line of their jokes.
Their blows won't land if I refuse
to step into the ring.
Even this though is dishonest.
If I were to really put myself out there,
My profile picture would be of my belly
Of my stretch marks,
Of the half moon curves of my stomach
that rest above my hips.
But I’m not sure that I’m ready to look,
to Honestly look
at myself for that long.
I used to avoid nakedness.
I hated being on top whenever I made love.
And I was always so aware
Of how malleable I really am.
I am soft of body and of heart
But now I like to think that means
That it's easier to melt into other people
To connect and hold and treasure and comfort
All at once.
There may be more of me
but there is more of me to give
After all, what is an asterisk but a star?
Sep 30, 2015
Sep 30, 2015 at 11:04 PM UTC
slithered
harangue,
crow's nest's
caveat:
quo warranto,
Echo,
obliquity weaver...
Apr 18, 2017
Apr 18, 2017 at 12:17 PM UTC
With each step I take,
I seek to move closer,
because you are the linchpin of ultimate knowledge and wisdom,
but each step has its own caveat,
So excuse me for all past, present and future missteps.
I am a victim of my own vices,
and the sources of my action or inaction,
scares me deep inside,
because I know what they perpetuate,
So I ask of you,
Provide me a right step for each right step,
and forgive me for each wrong step,
despite the judgement of others,
because I yearn to return home,
just like all the other travelers.
Jun 6, 2015
Jun 6, 2015 at 2:11 PM UTC
Caveat emptor, buyer beware
Not everything is the way it seems-
You stole an assumption from me
Caveat emptor, buyer beware
My Innocence had gotten the best of me-
Countless imaginations about you, countless dreams
Caveat emptor, buyer beware
I felt betrayed even without commitment
I don’t know why but I thought you’d be an exception
Caveat emptor, buyer beware
A kiss on my cheek and venom on your lips
Vulnerability at its finest
Caveat emptor, buyer beware
I thought you had committed a sin,
But it was me who had wronged for I hadn’t realized-
Caveat emptor, buyer beware
Mar 5, 2014
Mar 5, 2014 at 4:00 PM UTC
An intricate weaving of golden design is silently standing alone
Brace yourself for the imminent shadows to come
A forbidden fruit of the desire of us all
Inhabiting the spirits of the ones who succumb
A sweet anticipation of the secrets held inside the confines
Will mold you into a sculpture of stone
Surround your soul with a fiery thrill so divine
So like a sin, which one could never atone
Deep in the inexplicable chambers of shameless appeal
Lies a revelation one cannot deny
That which you burn for inside of your heart
You cannot hide away from your eyes
When the intricate weaving of golden design silently calls
You best brace yourself for the shadows to come
That which you desire to have and to hold
Has taken the very heart of some
May 31, 2010
May 31, 2010 at 9:50 PM UTC
Fallen down flat,
*** for tat,
Enough of that,
Small as a gnat,
Swept under the Matt,
My back don't pat,
Not but a rat,
Treat me as ****
Fell through the slat,
Next up to bat,
Enough chit chat,
Lost in combat,
Set in format,
Don't copycat,
A spinning laundromat,
Or broken thermostat,
Scared little pussycat,
Decisions arrived at,
Flexible as an acrobat,
Masked aristocrat,
Hiding in a top hat,
Known through Snapchat,
Don't even work at,
Used like a doormat,
Cat calling at,
Filed caveat,
Blind as a bat,
Lost sewer rat,
Fallen down flat.
Aug 3, 2017
Aug 3, 2017 at 8:34 AM UTC
Caveat
by Michael R. Burch
If only we were not so eloquent,
we might sing, and only sing, not to impress,
but only to enjoy, to be enjoyed.
We might inundate the earth with thankfulness
for light, although it dies, and make a song
of night descending on the earth like bliss,
with other lights beyond—not to be known—
but only to be welcomed and enjoyed,
before all worlds and stars are overthrown ...
as a lover’s hands embrace a sleeping face
and find it beautiful for emptiness
of all but joy. There is no thought to love
but love itself. How senseless to redress,
in darkness, such becoming nakedness . . .
Originally published by Clementine Unbound
Keywords/Tags: caveat, eloquent, eloquence, sing, enjoy, enjoyment, inundate, earth, thankfulness, praise, song, light, welcomed, enjoyed, enjoyment, bliss, joy, love
Caveat Spender
by Michael R. Burch
It’s better not to speculate
"continually" on who is great.
Though relentless awe’s
a Célèbre Cause,
please reserve some time for the contemplation
of the perils of EXAGGERATION.
Stephen Spender in his best-known poem wrote: "I think continually of those who were truly great." This near-limerick suggests that Spender may have exaggerated the time he devoted to hero worship. Keywords/Tags: caveat, spender, truly, great, think, continually, hero, worship, exaggeration, contemplation, awe, fawn, fawning
Apr 2, 2020
Apr 2, 2020 at 5:08 AM UTC
that tasted like popcorn
and dirt; warm, and then
Alive.
The grass separates itself into individual blades
that glitter and dance
under the sky
like a million knives
floating
on
the
afternoon
tide.
Friend, I want to grow roots with you.
I want to make a home in you.
I am as raw as a newborn.
All that my body can handle
is the sweet juice of a peach
running
down
my
neck.
I never knew the sky could open as it has,
could fill me with cloud,
and the dust of what the first atoms
have left behind for us.
My body is a torch
to light with the world of your palms.
Use dandelions
as matches.
I am stripped of all pretense, bones
free of caveat and nicety.
Now, it is time to live as an
earthworm does. Softly, naked:
on the cheek of the
earth.
May 9, 2016
May 9, 2016 at 9:58 PM UTC
we are who we'd most like to be
we are what we project
we see but what we want to see
the real becomes suspect
we read a life between the lines
that may/may not exist
confessional or fictional
the reader takes the risks
readers fall in love with words
and think they love the poet
the poet fills a fantasy
and rarely will they know it
the poet seeks a balance 'tween
their lives, their art, their craft
controlling readers' impulses
would drive most writers daft.
so if you think you know someone
by reading line or four
the romans have a line for you
it's "caveat emptor".
Apr 19, 2011
Apr 19, 2011 at 5:21 PM UTC
I came directly from through the ranks
All my dues paid, my homage to life
To my God alone all my humble thanks
For bread I slice with prayer knife .
I came strictly from my very own hood
All of my dues I paid through my strife
To mama dear for prayers and our food
For all she sacrificed to save my life .
I came humbly from a very blessed home
All my dues are paid through my chores
To charity, that says take and share some
For all I learned , I am beyond my shores .
I came strongly ready to join the hustle
My dues paid with my years of readiness
To poverty, a real caveat for my struggle
For I've persevered through steadfastness .
#Vanguard-poetry
Jan 14, 2018
Jan 14, 2018 at 11:32 AM UTC