"gravelly" poems
Watch out for power,
for its avalanche can bury you,
snow, snow, snow, smothering your mountain.
Watch out for hate,
it can open its mouth and you'll fling yourself out
to eat off your leg, an instant *****
Watch out for friends,
because when you betray them,
as you will,
they will bury their heads in the toilet
and flush themselves away.
Watch out for intellect,
because it knows so much it knows nothing
and leaves you hanging upside down,
mouthing knowledge as your heart
falls out of your mouth.
Watch out for games, the actor's part,
the speech planned, known, given,
for they will give you away
and you will stand like a naked little boy,
******* on your own child-bed.
Watch out for love
(unless it is true,
and every part of you says yes including the toes),
it will wrap you up like a mummy,
and your scream won't be heard
and none of your running will end.
Love? Be it man. Be it woman.
It must be a wave you want to glide in on,
give your body to it, give your laugh to it,
give, when the gravelly sand takes you,
your tears to the land. To love another is something
like prayer and can't be planned, you just fall
into its arms because your belief undoes your disbelief.
Special person,
if I were you I'd pay no attention
to admonitions from me,
made somewhat out of your words
and somewhat out of mine.
A collaboration.
I do not believe a word I have said,
except some, except I think of you like a young tree
with pasted-on leaves and know you'll root
and the real green thing will come.
Let go. Let go.
Oh special person,
possible leaves,
this typewriter likes you on the way to them,
but wants to break crystal glasses
in celebration,
for you,
when the dark crust is thrown off
and you float all around
like a happened balloon.
11.7k
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pin rest; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the ***** sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining **** among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a *****
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no ***** to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.
6.6k
She is sleek , a little battered
scar across her back
but in her silver dress
whoa, never had a girl like that
long legs propel her fast
in any direction I turn her head
She lets me press her buttons
she lets me turn her on
just one flick and she'll be roaring
or one twist and she sits
motionless
When she breaks down
I pick her up, fix her up
god bless
She's hot in summer
frigid in winter and
always in that dress
She soothes me when I'm stressed
blares out my worries when
I've got them on my chest
She yells out songs at
the top of her gravelly voice
or she whispers lullabies
it's my choice
loud, quite, she doesn't care
I could be rich, or broke
she'd still take me anywhere
I've cried in her arms
I've loved in her lap
I even let her wear
my favorite baseball cap
and see my feet
Once she kept me warm
during my sleep
watched my eyes shifting
underneath my lids
If she lasts long enough
someday she could hold my,
my kids
Nov 7, 2012
Nov 7, 2012 at 1:45 AM UTC
I take flight
With all my might
To be your kite
Following you wherever you go
To be part of your ebb and flow
People think I ingested the wrong pill
Because up here I can't see the roadkill
And float over the pitch black oil spills
From the end of your string
I become king
There is an approaching storm
As you deviate from the norm
And discontinue acting warm
Your lightning strikes
My metal pike
Electricity tears through my thin fabric
As I dream of a tranquil casket
And you want to grant me my death wish
I guess that's why they call me Icarish
For flying to close to the rain
Only to constantly feel pain
To distract me from the shame
From those with unknown names
But familiar bigoted flames
To me you both are the same
Once I go against the grain
You tell me to stay in my lane
High above the gravelly ground
Where you can't hear my sounds
Of impaling wailing
Because you're bailing
Letting go of the string
You become king
I am a kite floating
Spending night noting
All my many mistakes
That caused these breaks
But despite trying my very best
The wind provides a difficult test
After I am battered into tatters
My hopes couldn't be flatter
So I start to feel it doesn't matter
When my dreams came true then shattered
The wind solemnly sings
Of distant powerful kings
But I cannot fly anymore
In my broken kite form
Nov 25, 2017
Nov 25, 2017 at 3:17 AM UTC
I poured myself out onto you, ink on vellum, your
skin gravelly, your alluring purr as smooth as silk and
soft as velvet, but as you folded me in your arms, my words
were lost like cries in the wind. For once, in a long time, I looked
at you, truly looked at you. I looked past the thin sheen of sweat at your
brow, like the dew on the blades of brown grass in the hot summer mornings.
I looked past the spray of freckles that dusted the tops of your cheeks and the bridge
of your nose, the freckles you loathed so much when you were just a boy because they
reminded you of flecks of glitter. I looked past the blonde locks that ringed your face like a
golden halo. Your hair is longer now, than it was, when we were kids, but I doubt that even
now, you’d let me braid it. I looked past all the little details I’d noticed about you
when we were growing up, and now, I saw a man with amethyst eyes and a
longing washed over me like a wave, pulling me down with the undertow.
I long to know this you as I once knew you, so well, like the back
of my own hand. So, with salt and foam, sweat and ink and in
every sweeping wave, drag me into those lovely amethyst
eyes. If the eyes truly are the windows to the soul,
pour in like a light and flood on the floor. Show me
what you’ve become, because, while I easily
recognize your flesh and outer
appearance, I long to know
you deeper than looks
could ever go.
Sink me,
show
me.
Feb 24, 2021
Feb 24, 2021 at 8:23 PM UTC
This hand which moves and rides some voice is not mine.
I have given it over to you, young boy.
This is what makes it fly so, traveling out,
tripping along in dance of shape and sound.
I acknowledge your presence in this fashion.
You tell me by messages,
beaming out the back of your head,
you are the very boy who has waited an eternity
at some upper railing.
You sit and peer through the spaces,
down the twisted stair.
Your hands, they grip the vertical rail.
Silent. Silent. Waiting you.
Let this right hand of mine be your secret voice.
Let this scrawl and scratch be your gravelly tongue—
ick-nicking, ga-chooing, click and stutter.
What language may I shape for our sake?
With you, may I follow, setting trail markers just so.
Will others come mistaking their ways for yours?
My hand is opening and opens wide.
I remember you. I am returning.
Let it be.
Jul 1, 2013
Jul 1, 2013 at 6:29 PM UTC
On the other side of the pumpkin patch there lies a narrow path.
Just a dent in the woods it seems, until getting closer you can see
The ground worn smooth by those who know to use it.
A short, dimly lit way through the thick brush opens out
And suddenly you find yourself on the gravelly bank of a railroad track.
The track cuts a swath through the dense forest that leans over it
As if jealous of the ground taken from its midst.
In each direction the track finally loses itself in a tunnel of trees,
Curving out of sight to reach some distant and unknown end.
When the train comes through, robbing the woods of the solace of silence,
I wonder where it’s bound, and how long it will take to get there.
The rhythmic clacking of the wheels, the endless line of boxcars,
The power and speed of the thing arrogantly announces itself to all--
Blind to any purpose or direction other than its own inarticulate need.
As the trains moves out of sight, I look again at the empty track
And wonder about the choices I have made.
Jan 31, 2012
Jan 31, 2012 at 2:09 PM UTC
Where best to hide?
Where shall darkness and death abide?
Where to curl up and die alone?
To close my eyes,
Feel now.....more.
Dance as darkness embraces,
Spin the golden thread,
O’ thin despair.
Gravelly moans, pain streaked face,
Can I hide from this dance?
Backbones slowly bending,
Growing to earth,
Crawling soul,
Dread’s painful prance.
Sliver of flame,
Enveloped me, as a wreath,
Cries muffled,
Murmurs:
“Close eyes,
Feel now.....more,
Take this rite,
Bleed, feed me forevermore”
Overwhelmed, I close my eyes,
Overwhelmed, by that second,
That second my heart bursts and bleed,
That second my last, perfect breath is freed.
My crooked jaw,
Hangs free,
Sinister smiling,
At dread’s painful prance,
Thin despair,
Now this is how I dance.
-Firefly
Sep 12, 2014
Sep 12, 2014 at 6:38 PM UTC
I love the smell of gasoline
Blue flowers, and green neon lettering
Embarrassing-honest people
The words nocturnal, cavalier, and arable
Reading, reading is my second-best to humans,
Greek mythology, all mythology
Solving math equations, being surprised
The soft waves of my mother’s hair
All kinds of clouds and rain
Smooth fabrics, sharpened-pointy pencil-tips
Gravelly voices
and exploring
Feb 1, 2012
Feb 1, 2012 at 9:06 AM UTC
Hello again, raven, I’m glad that you’re here,
It’s been far too long since you came.
I missed your black feathers, your gravelly call,
Becomes music when speaking my name.
Lean close, my bird, and tell me a secret,
Any, if yours, will do.
I’m too long alone, and the world is too guarded,
I’m pinning my hopes all on you.
Lean again, bird, and tell me some more,
Black feathers cantilevered,
Away and Away.
Drink of me,
And Drink of you,
As we think all the night into day.
May 25, 2014
May 25, 2014 at 3:09 PM UTC
I'm a mineral who thinks it's a miner
even if I can't tell coal from gold
I offer my excavated treasures to the public
only to be told they're rocks
by obsidian hearted pebbles
so I quietly return to my quarry
and get on DraftKings Sportsbook
who pays me for saying the Nuggets will win
pulling validation from the gravelly depths
and showing promising riches to be unearthed
appealing to my **** and wallet
to subvert my brain
but I can't just switch off and call it
considering what could be attained
digging deeper and deeper down
people call down from the ground
but they never cared when I was around
and I'd rather get gems for the **** in my mind
than get **** for the gems in my mind
so I continue my decline
until rock bottom is mined.
Feb 4, 2024
Feb 4, 2024 at 9:23 PM UTC
The static havoc
In my attic
Is automatic
And so emphatic
Excruciating pain
Roosting in rain
Boosting the grain
But flooding my lane
While playing cosmic roulette
I'm charged a clockwise debt
Paid by traveling to my death
Like anthrax on Amtrak
The FBI can't track
So the decay stacks
Turning everything black
Something's amiss
In this blinding abyss
That grabs my wrist
And drains my bliss
So I seek shelter
But get peltered
Helter skelter
By the belters
Tired of lies
Afraid I'll die
I see your eyes
As a sweet surprise
Then watch paint dry
Unlike the tears I cry
From the fear inside
You'll hurt my pride
Honestly
You harvest me
Until you're part of me
Making it hard to see
Where I'll be
If you flee
From my plea
And just leave
So I continue wheeling
To my glass ceiling
In need of timely healing
I forget my frightened feeling
And turn to hope
Until you say nope
A slippery slope
With which I can't cope
I thought I was saved
Instead I feel shame
From this disgraceful game
Called you don't feel the same
Which has gotten me lost
Frozen in frost
The coldest cost
As garbage tossed
You kindly offer your friendship
Unable to kiss my friend's lips
Unable to grab my friend's hips
Unable to let myself slip
I find something profound
Traveling on ground
With you around
Safe and sound
You offer insight
Increasing my might
By seeing the light
When you are right
You help me fight
My perilous plight
By making pain slight
Removing my fright
My perception of you is traveling
On this road that is gravelly
I once desired you madly
Now others have had me
But that doesn't change when I'm lonely
I wish you would hold me
Unable to forsake the old me
I just continue traveling coldly
Jul 26, 2018
Jul 26, 2018 at 7:22 PM UTC
I don't ask for much
-- or maybe I do.
Ok, so, I ask for a lot.
-- or sometimes not enough.
I ask for the in-betweens,
the flecks of desire in your eyes,
your hand squeezing into mine.
I beg for the silent promises,
the i-love-you's without words,
the I've-waited-so-long kisses,
and the laughter that falls within.
I seek out, instinctively, the warmth of your hugs,
The gravelly smooth low quality of your voice,
And that darling half smile I hold so dear.
I ask for nothing,
and yet I ask everything of you.
I coax it from you with a simple slip of the tongue.
I ache and need and want..
to give and to take;
I ask for too much and say nothing at all,
I just lie here in bed, and continue to fall.
Sep 4, 2013
Sep 4, 2013 at 10:13 PM UTC
his voice was gravelly
my world was falling apart
g chords played to perfection
walls colliding with each other
he screamed 2 *******
people ran for cover
the devil to the microphone
they called him up
someone dialed 911
he started singing
gravelly voice
and people were transfixed
Jul 22, 2011
Jul 22, 2011 at 8:04 PM UTC
~~~a Requiem for the DedPoet~~~
*the air we breathe
and its best accompanist,
a good life, well cherished,
that's a symphonic harvest reaped,
knowing the magma of countless blessed times daily
fill it with the glee of children,
raw joy, still unfermented, unpasteurized,
by the sour vinegar candies of life
inevitable to be delivered,
mouth puckering and ill tasting
bring good skills to all you do,
the wisdom to lean forward,
admiring it in a satisfied manner,
best work leads to best content,
now is the time to witness the value all about us
remind me to set aside,
the sidebars of grief, struggle,
pause me in minute minutes,
to grasp the pleasure of the
joys this world provides so easy freely
you come early time to me,
early, as I search for your words,
finding none, to begin this day,
but your gravelly voice intimate initiates,
you remain for me as alive as ever
reminding an old poem writer,
that the best is to come,
if one allows, if one allows,
this is my un-sad requiem~song for you,
hoping that the joy of living and
remembering
is a bond tween us, unbreakable*
~~~
(NOTE: Since posting, the details of this item may have changed due to fluctuating market prices, federal regulations, currency rates, drought, pestilence, bandits, rush hour traffic, filibusters, clowns, zombie apocalypse, punctilious poem~developments, death, and breathing life and lives, well remembered
Nov 1, 2015
Nov 1, 2015 at 9:56 AM UTC
Densely fogged
under caked make-up from yesterday's tears
fakely disguised beneath the crowd
of masochists and nonbelievers
Hearts plead and bleed as one
based upon no one at all
seething fear pounded through fists of rage
anguish of lost hopes and lost causes
Where do I go
for whom do I show
should I grieve
for a land that is no more than make believe?
Despairing and looking for cheap cigarettes
they gather on their gravelly haven
spurning the world and hating
what it's become
nothing but **** and ***
Those who came before us
naive double standards fearing our new status
the putrid stench of change clings to our chains
burdened by the nonbelievers
Where do I go
for whom do I show
should I make believe
in the world we grieve
Jul 9, 2010
Jul 9, 2010 at 10:12 AM UTC
I fear the thought of failure
my name written in the dirt
spat upon
Standing in line
picked out
like a painting
framed,
ashamed of what..
of who I've become
The mistakes
the bad things
Horrible
Unkind
I look back down
at my name in the dirt
a gravelly scribble
I grab a stick,
Strikethrough.
May 5, 2017
May 5, 2017 at 1:04 PM UTC
Trying to avoid the routes everyone else travels
I take remote side roads and superfluous detours
seeing sights unseen and grass that’s green
until gravelly roads are met by tired tires
breaking down in the middle of nowhere
with nobody around to help
I can see the freeway from here
where cars flock together
while getting to where they want to go.
Oct 18, 2021
Oct 18, 2021 at 4:02 AM UTC
Heavy gray clouds battle for control of the supple trees,
which bend under the will of the wind,
leaves whipping and flickering their bright undersides,
like the dresses of frantic Spanish dancers;
pale pulp squishes between her toes,
the grapes bursting under the weight of
eighteen-year-old feet - both the fruit
and the flesh are soft and ripe
and smell of sugar in the sun;
the gray sea licks wildly at the gravelly shore,
while her fire-red locks twist and tangle in the wind.
May 15, 2013
May 15, 2013 at 4:51 PM UTC
do the bad days outweigh the good
when you speak into the corner of my collarbone?
"sometimes it hurts to be this damaged."
could i whisk you up in the Kwanzan cherry blooms
though your body still feels imbued with winter?
"i've never met someone so afraid to be open."
must i crave the insatiable taste of salt,
gravelly crumbles of your encumbrance?
"i love this moment, with you and me, right here."
(in the morning, i am still syrupy stuck
and the sequestering sun washes me off.
clean from the ***** taste
that slipped off my sordid soliloquies
into submissively diffident lobes.
emotional adiposity
i'd love to turn myself off
whenever you're near)
May 1, 2013
May 1, 2013 at 9:32 PM UTC
*Boasting coffins thick and cushiony as wombs,
Pay last respects; their waxen image so
Still, reprimands against motion – their tombs.
Pirouette darkly against the moon, on we go.*
Penny Leavitt, 2013
She walked and talked the boards – a gravelly
Voice chasing the arts among the vagaries of
Melody and meter and the colors of balloons.
Penelope Marguerite – seven syllables to sway
The boldest of characters in the most honored
Stories to be seen and heard on stage.
The little Shorewood house – known to groups,
Nay herds of neighborhood critters and their
Off-spring – where Penny dwells.
“I hear the pulse of you,” she wrote, “solemn-
Sweet pipes of the ***** – and abruptly shook
Herself up and got on with it.
That unmistakable pony-tail in strands of gray
Marched with precision through grocery aisles –
Cat food in cart and lottery ticket in hand.
In the class notebook, she penned with care
The tales of a teenaged temptress, “sauntering
Sexily, swinging svelte lissome *****
Co-poets often thought her lost – she travelling
Unannounced to Montreal or Chicago – but
She bore the title of grandmother proudly.
Penny gave her heart to whoever needed it –
Not that she lost it – as snippets of amazement
And humility took their places elsewhere.
“This is what grandmas hope for," she wished
For the face of nature to reveal its magical
qualities to her grandson.
Age and its surprises were not immune to
Penny’s pen; she was an uncanny student of
The human story.
“We pass those who have gone before us;”
She wrote. “We become the lassoed souls
Of a younger, more agile dream.”
Pope said to act well our parts; there all the
Honour lies – Penny did so, and then some –
“We hold our faltering shadows high.”
There once was a poet named Benny,
Who could write a limerick like any.
It might have a word,
Unique or absurd,
But could not match those of our Penny!
© Lewis Bosworth, April 2017
Apr 7, 2017
Apr 7, 2017 at 11:27 AM UTC
bring her an ensemble,
brioche and cafe au lait
'À la manière des Français'
an unexpected surprise,
on a weekend
Sunday-in-bed-celebration
the messenger, me,
recommends le dunkin',
insertion of the bread into
the morning liqueur pre-sipping
"I don't like wet bread"
she states officially,
in tone strident and reproving,
even gravelly gravitas-aly,
and to me-self, inside thinking,
softee softee...
*what other dark secrets doth this ***** harbor?*
march 26 2017 10:11 am
Mar 26, 2017
Mar 26, 2017 at 10:27 AM UTC
a sharp blade
carving
shaving
after shaving
from a gnarled wooden
stick
or is it the sound
of your gravelly singing
and the many guitars
you've owned and played
or the feel of stubble
or the smell of cologne
I don't know
but I'll can and will say
at the risk of selfishness
is your day is
mine too
and a day
will never be enough
Jun 16, 2024
Jun 16, 2024 at 9:53 AM UTC
There once we're two princess
Fire and Ice
And in one another
They found their vice
And they decided
As goes the lore
To see which side
Would win a two-person war
So they met in the city
Right on the bay
And with a bow, crouch, and lunge
They started the day
They began in the capital
A grand skyscraper
By the end of the fight
There was only a crater
The ground quakes and split
So Fire jumped in
With her use of the magma
She was sure she would win
Then Ice jumped back
And in her dismay
Slipped into the waters
Of the capitol bay
She had an idea
Right then, very quick
She cooled down the bay
Into ice thirteen feet thick
And as the magma-ice storm
Raged on on that beach
The city and earth
Started to breach
By the end of the fight
Neither princess prevailed
No victory was won
No winner was hailed
The city was destroyed
And the bay, too
The fire, ice, and rubble
Left only a gravelly slough
The princesses both died
Of exaustion that night
For they thought the other's end
Proved their might
But when white meets black
It mixes in grey
Much like the fire and ice
And the water that day
For when two equal forces
Opposing collide
No one prevails
There are left no sides
Yin-yang turns to grey
When the world collides
May 3, 2016
May 3, 2016 at 8:39 AM UTC