"humanize" poems
*for T.M.R.
our "fellow" southern friend*
the southern way,
she-poet
teaches me
via long distance
breaking of the
braking neural inhibitions of
the loudest silences
that only humans can
mistress
photos, stories,
Facebook posts
how the earth rebirths
taking unasked
unwitting but wisely
both of us
to be refreshed,
so verily
the southern way
sharing worldly
southern words
betraying a
more than
passing
(how I hate that word)
expertise
in spring colors
glorious to every sense,
best described
as nature's way to humanize what we wordily call
hopeful,
self-betraying herself by the
she -poets
innate
southern ways
calls me
northern boy
in a
true voice,
raconteuring,
quick retorting
always in the midst of
d r a wling stories,
about all crazy frogs
of Columbia County,
jumping multiple courses
all about
she-poets navigating
life erratic,
half ecstatic
yet singularity colored,
characteristic of a
ninety percent southern
Tennessee whiskey blues
hear clear
she-poets
welcoming swirling
undertow undertones
lying just above the calmest
morning water surface glistening
words betraying nothing,
yet saying
all in
between, in
pauses of
speckling sun drops spectacular
she-poet
has her places
in woods, knolls and
rarely visited mountains
where cold brooks and cold beers
southern sooth
in ways
I will likely,
wanting but unable,
never learn
to hear clear
the southern way
is never flex,
nerve never
never bend, smile,
still fighting
the prior lost cause
ignore the
cracks coverup
until and when
the afternoon sun
ceases to warm
the orchard porch
daylighting no longer
when no one is around
she-poet
weeps out loud alone
in the
southern way
and I,
northern boy,
student witness,
having obtained
a learner's permit
for her teachings
re
the southern wayfaring ways
of living life
weep along side
in my unsatisfactory
northern way,
learning that,
who knew,
tears are also
glue
anywhere
Apr 12, 2015
Apr 12, 2015 at 8:08 AM UTC
Thatcher vacuum seals nicotine
Slurps cigarette like mosquito
Ravenous lungs gnaw and grind for the slow pander,
Thatcher’s just another name for the labeling
We plaster and pine for an out,
Stitch that finite lie beneath squeamish child skin,
Thatcher’s the black lung paradise,
******* infancy coddling cigarette stifle,
The caloric crack of his canines fletching out lust and sickly groove
As he’s scopes out fiend and vexed vandals,
Clutches the sick theistic **********
Cuddle those bruise licked hips
Give God the gross percent,
Cause heaven’s in those greenbacks
and God’s in the ******* kick,
Suckling bout the American tip
The Christian capitol,
Seething on shadow puppet ****** and American dream,
Gods got nothing to do with the slickened crinkle of gain and glamour,
Thatcher’s just the candy man give and cult,
Cough the crutch of contagion greed
And clutch the cuff of your porcelain sleeve,
Thatcher gleans your blackest suite tight,
Struts raven blade shoulders perched on American made spine,
Thatcher does as Thatcher please,
Thatcher thinks as Thatcher bleeds,
And Thatcher bleeds venereal blend,
Gout with the American veneer of broken girl and scabbed moral traumatic,
Trauma tastes as the hollow pixies give out the get out,
Bandaged baby girls,
The teenage horror show,
Just another blazoned hit of one two take the hand me down generic give away,
Desensitize the humanize,
Girls got to get the days glossy puff and sniff,
Thatcher’s content to satisfy,
Callous coroner a spectator suckling Marlboro lick,
Lodging thick smoke and toxin between spittle slick lips,
Albino plumes clotting and unfolding,
Thatcher clicks back the cartridge
Filter and cigarette,
Thatcher gulps back the need because brain’s got a favoring kink for the buzz,
Thatcher sings with the screaming in his straggling lungs,
Hums the western creed
Laughs fickle with God at his need,
Thatcher’s the true American dream
Apr 23, 2013
Apr 23, 2013 at 5:17 PM UTC
Find the LOVE
In your heart
Let it be your LIGHT
It will shine from your eyes
The rays will BURST within you
Explode
A nova burning brighter than
The sun
Flares in your mind
The stars bow before you
Highlight of creation
Glory radiating around you
Express yourself
Pick up the pen
Let it take wing
Fly to the outer reaches
Down starlanes
And garden paths
Roses
Color of burgundy wine
Glittering
Glistening
Gleaming
Sunlight on the petals
Dewdrops on emerald leaves
Reflections of scattered points of light
Butterfly emerging
Cocoon erupting
Revealing starchild destiny
Metamorphosis
From roots of earthiness
Free to tumble and glide
In cloudless azure skies
The chains fall away
Taste winged freedom as you soar
Capture the moments
The way you were meant to stride
As a giant
across the firmament
Golden gate spread wide
The road opens before you, beckoning
Starting in the dusk
Through twilight
Into the dawn of your new day
Set a torch to coals of joy
Banking the flame of your essence
This instant in time was made for you
To seize all that was poured into you
Like wine
Drink from the cup and...
Humanize yourself
Sep 1, 2018
Sep 1, 2018 at 4:50 PM UTC
Twenty-three and coming from my teens
I’ve developed along already categorized genes,
By those who think they know me,
When I’m only twenty-three with a molding mentality
I was once vicariously raised through parentally guided means
Socially slit by those that promised me prosperity if I was studious,
Taught the importance of individuality,
Yet forced to be obedient
Then indoctrinated with an educator’s prescription,
An addiction they picked up in a higher institution
I’m finding it hard to follow your lead, when you found nourishment in my youthful innocence,
Socially stitched through generationally fostered fixes
Notions that you could promise me providence,
I’ve been cradled in a crib riddled with termites
Time shows little sympathy for those who have yet to comprehend the promise of a six foot end,
Yet you trained me to believe you didn’t domesticate me
Despite being conceived in a place I was not well received,
You taught the importance of obedience
Yet I’m finding it hard to accept your ancestral credence,
When this place has been passed along bloodlines,
When my generationally guided grandparents' felt the final close of their eyes,
And left me a world pieced together by both atrocities and glimpses of humanity
I’m finding it hard to speak in a world with such narcissistic sympathies of the traditionally raised
Yet I’m socially sutured by the fact that I still breathe,
While being born in a place that once found stability through a slave trade,
A middle passage that led to a devious democracy
I’m so grateful we can mend what barbarians once began,
I’ve had time to age, enough to take the reins,
Though before we build our shrines of this age,
You can still pray for something beyond the grave,
Yet never forget how we've been stranded, left here to continue, or to fray,
To humanize a species that earth derived,
Or to let the braids of life untwine and give way,
During our generations' stay.
Apr 24, 2012
Apr 24, 2012 at 9:25 AM UTC
I mistreated you
I cheated you of a freedom needed for us to mend.
I was wading, waiting just to swim again.
against the tides is where I’ll find the path to pave the space needed
to make way for every ounce I couldnt appreciate
Never sing a song to a woman who wants to leave
I’ve turned into a madman, I think that’s enough for me
Will I make it to the end we’ll just have to wait and see
I ain’t Think that far yet but there’s no time to be
The one to hold you in his arms when your heart bleeds
I can’t humanize my **** disguise we’ve parted ways
My soul and I Parlay
prequels fondly pondered I’ve tread onward
focus was astray
Ive taken bigger bites than one can chew
Without a stain
I’ve seen it through
I came to play with aftermaths
And whatever’s left of sanity
don't know it all and won't pretend i Am saint
To me, imposing my beliefs would be deceit
Can’t captivate
man who has refused to see
Reduce the heat, don’t slave away for poverty
Its uncommon to solve problems with commodities
You’ll have to seek beneath the skin
My best attempt was making peace with the friends ship
allowed to sink
I keep the channel open, hoping that we meet before it ends.
I'm finding new approaches to the dreams I will transcend.
Now with all I know I can make sense of the events, a toast to the amends .
May 11, 2024
May 11, 2024 at 3:40 PM UTC
Texas: The Grand Facade
“All my instincts, they return, and the grand facade, so soon will burn”. Songwriter: Peter Gabriel, In Your Eyes
§§§§§
and so nature does it best to humanize the arrogance,
“can’t happen here, can’t happen to me,
I’m too young, a brave Alamo Texan,”
forgot Gabriel’s admonition, the grand facade, is exactly that,
a coverup, and skin is not deep enough, even your tough hide,
cannot keep out what you
cannot see, is stronger than you,
did you weigh the scales,
do a cost/benefit analysis,
write down the pros & cons?
**think of coronavirus like love and ***
——————
good love is a treasured blessing, a live long song,
wine to be pleasured sipped, you get drunk on beer, and
hookup *** give yourself ****** aids, and/or the clap,
a bad decision, a haunting, a hangover that is marked on you face,
that you’ll testify to
every day for the rest of your sad, sad, existence,
in the bathroom mirror
a facade always gets revealed,
too bad you chose the
wrong thing to believe in...
you unmasked yourself!
Jun 29, 2020
Jun 29, 2020 at 10:29 AM UTC
We all got stories.
Stories are life's language;
language impacts perception - our
own, others, and nations.
"Stories dispossess, stories malign,
stories empower, stories humanize,
stories rob and break dignity,
stories repair whats broken..."
Single stories are scanty.
All stories, stitched together,
complete the composition of you.
Many stories matter - yours.
If your life were a book,
what would people read about?
We all got stories.
Share them. All of them.
[they MATTER]
Dec 5, 2018
Dec 5, 2018 at 6:47 PM UTC
To the human who bears the marks of an angry partner, the young adult who struggles to humanize the body that others have objectified for so long, and the child whose mind bears the seeds of poisonous hatred waiting with baited breath to burst with life as the offhand comments increase in number. Take the sharpened blade with conviction and place it far from your traitorous fingers. Believe my words, blood pulses through your throbbing veins, not the black ooze of hatred. Your skin will never be a canvas to taint with red. The red will collide with the peaceful cells, and the violence will not be a masterpiece. You are not just a number, you are a ******* gorgeous universe encompassed in mere atoms that strive to do your essence justice. Gather your soldiers and prepare to fight the enemies that make your body an anomaly or your struggle commonplace. Those horrible nights, where only the moon bore witness to the horrors you carved, are not “typical” and should not be a widespread ritual. You are beauty incarnate. I implore you to lace this statements around each particle in your body until your cells sing with conviction, and fight those who have brought you to your knees. You do not belong there.
May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013 at 6:51 PM UTC
Only poets read poetry
Only liberals watch msnbc
Only conservatives watch fox
Everybody is entrenched
In their own sound proof bubbles
A perpetual echo chamber
Where lies are repeated
Until they turn into truths
There are no debates only battles
One preconceived notion
Forever pitted against
Another preconceived notion
It is the duty of poets to humanize
To use our pens as swords
To burst our bubbles
To show that we are all humans
But only poets read poetry
Jan 27, 2016
Jan 27, 2016 at 2:50 PM UTC
Last night I read a poem about God, and
it sounded so good I almost believed it.
God, hands out the window and hair blowing,
God, smoking a cigarette in a passenger's seat.
Even when you humanize all of your fears,
You can still
Spit them out in the middle.
God, moving her lips with the music and the hot sun,
God, breaking the law with that look.
God, being small enough to cower over and close
Enough to stare in the face,
Where do you take someone like that when they ask?
All the way, I suppose.
The seat next to me is godless, and I almost believed it.
I imagine someone being strong enough to
Cleanse me just by looking at me,
I imagine holding onto something that feels holy and
Not having to deal with burnt palms.
If I could take God anywhere, I would take her to
My grandfathers grave. I would take her to my
Best friends grave, I would take her to the site of
My life changing and,
I would watch her chain smoke cigarettes and cough it all out.
God, with her sharp teeth and quiet tongue and
God, with her hair pulled back and her gaze removed.
If God was in my passenger seat, I would take her to
All of my hurt and ask her to pick it up.
I would ask her to take it all back,
And she would laugh.
God, that laugh.
Aug 17, 2018
Aug 17, 2018 at 4:08 PM UTC
Gauze on your arm –
reddening, the skin a shadow you
call after and summon home.
Like sunrises, the big half-moon
has its purple flab melted.
I humanize everything.
I make it all warm
even death piercing a door hinge –
where children hide safely.
Ink is the blood of another being
not like us, but you write
with your own on a pillowy peel.
Mar 11, 2013
Mar 11, 2013 at 6:28 PM UTC
Death looks at his reflection in the mirror
Weeping tears of sulfuric ash
"You were never given a childhood old boy!"
I suppose
They are right
Humanize one's worst and only true fear
The release
After the storm
A place where sanity can only be reached
Through this work
And the work after that
And hopefully
The work after that and that
Plays are written for the penny loafers of penny pinchers
And a step is memorized
For its imbalance
And blasphemy
When I hear the church bells ringing
And the organs echoing like light missiles
I know the stuff
Is getting worse
How many heads are within this place?
How many mad men truly have a case?
The windows are chuckling for they have seen all
Even the pictures blush as they hang upon the wall
Meek
&
Maneuvering
For their own
******
Sake
Tables are cleaned for the next round
Of grub shovers
When her mouth voices love
I try to believe
That it is
Enough
Enough to satisfy
The greedy game
Of feigned liberty
We try
And we'll try
Again and again
And
So on
Sep 24, 2011
Sep 24, 2011 at 1:09 AM UTC
The sky is not crying, neither is it blessing you
The trees do not dance, neither do they feed you
God does not curse you, neither is He watching you
The predator salivating death doesn't know its prey
We want to connect everything to us, humanize the unfeeling
We name the stars, the children, the earth
It doesn't matter, because they will always be what they always were
The storm comes, regardless of what we call it
We perish, regardless of whether we praised life
We live, regardless of whether we worshipped death
This is why we are crumbling, if and only we remember to stay unnamed
If we unmask our humanity, underneath is nature, waiting
Underneath is where all we know is existing
Mar 7, 2011
Mar 7, 2011 at 5:32 PM UTC
The spirit of time
lies upon your cheeks
Here we are
with the sweet search for a remedy
While the lights get dimmed
It is getting so dark here
Cutting of all information
that is there to seek
because time is born in the moment
that you follow the hint
Senses whistle like the wind
After the rain has fallen
I can hear them calling
Night owls eyes sense changing skies
He is coming
you are ready within
to cry, fly alive and humanize
You got to be ready every day to begin
when the call goes out for you
There is nothing left to think
Watching you, waiting for you to get through and deal with the zone that is all opened up to you right in front of your own two feet
If you can see.
Sep 25, 2017
Sep 25, 2017 at 11:35 AM UTC
It was a sunny afternoon
You identify what is new with me,
I was in puzzle, unable to internalize
“What new you talks about”?
Then you underline on my notebook ‘
Put a margin remarks,
It is different here
Appreciate ‘humanize dimension of nature’
Be careful
“Do not replaced nature from the frame
Never forget about identity of culture rooted in nature! “
That’s you are, a curator of younger
And Pater for many one!
I know you become tired
In the long journey of loving and living!
I know you become aide-de-camp
By rapturing of your beloved one!
I know you want to go for a long sleep
Please take rest in peace!
We will run-through the practices of curatorship for young
But not for incubation!
Apr 2, 2020
Apr 2, 2020 at 2:05 PM UTC
So what is it that brings you to my words...
To stack them and pluck them into your life like little bricks
To grind them and hold them and mold them until they work for you
What is it that I say that you need to hear...
To extrapolate my intent and humanize your fear
Why should it be me whom lay naked my soul...
So you can clothe bareness in your life and once again feel whole.
Why must I eviscerate experience and gut my past...
So you’ll have meaning in yours and love that might last
Why must I shake and tremble and grind my teeth...
And shed tears over someone I’m still waiting to meet
Why can’t I now lean upon you...
And hide behind your walls and bury my truth
And will you be there when I can’t hold on...
And I need someone else’s words to help me along
Dec 16, 2012
Dec 16, 2012 at 7:01 AM UTC
I'm trying to humanize you
Rip you off
That stupid little pedestal
That I put you on
Make myself realize
How ****** up you can be
How mortal you really are
How ridiculous I am
For thinking
Your anything more than
Human.
I'm trying to deconstruct you
Tear to pieces
Your squalid crown
That I placed on your head
Understand
That your heart
Can be cracked too
That I'm not the only one
That gets hurt
I'm trying to objectify you
Stop building you up
In my mind
To where you're a queen
A goddess
On a throne above me
Ruling me
My thoughts
My actions
Attempting to perceive
The reality
That you don't own me
My mind
Or my body
I'm trying to humanize you
Fight against
Your stereotypical perfection
And acknowledge
Your flaws
Your weaknesses
Your mistakes
Your problems
Your defects
Your cracks
Your brokenness
Your ****
To finally appreciate
That you're nothing more than
Human.
Jun 11, 2017
Jun 11, 2017 at 11:20 AM UTC
come out of your grief
there's no crime in life ;
this signature
these beliefs
you'll be sought out
by the weave in your manner
found you chasing a hollow banner
show us all
a snapshot of your soul
there's no sleight of hand
just your self divorce
welcome to design
chalk it up to our crude behaviour
can't sanitize mother nature
feed us all
the habits of your soul
wasted time
entombed in your glamour
clapping in delight
camera chronicles
out go the lights
and out goes the kindness too
so mad at the way you're treated
so ugly as the pressure beats you down
hand us over
the very shame of your soul
let us know your final decision
sat flickering
before your television
grant us access
to your broken soul
address your face in the mirror
ask it's advice like you are its wearer
let us in
the burrow of your soul
fess up
the officials have the room
open wide
and humanize your role
we
shall
clock
the
degradation
of
your
wilted soul
May 30, 2020
May 30, 2020 at 12:08 PM UTC
You were once my dear friend
But never again
I feel so used
Violated
The victim of your lies
Your rumors
I am no fool
And I refuse to be walked on
You say I have medical problems
Just to get attention
Because I'm just jealous
That you have similar issues
But people actually show up at your hospital bed
While I lie there alone
I've NEVER been the jealous type
Nor am I a fake
You've known me sense we were children
I thought you'd understand me better by now
I wouldn't lose my job over illness
If I had a choice
Because no one will pay my bills for me the way they do for you
I've been on my own sense I was 17
And your mom still does everything for you
I wish a single person would even look in my direction, let alone show they care
I never asked for this
And I dont get attention and it's fine with me
I'm just tired of how you mock and de-humanize me
I'd much rather fight instead of roll over and die
That seems to be the difference between you and I
Aug 8, 2018
Aug 8, 2018 at 12:33 AM UTC
Forgiveness unfelt
Like a snake stuck in your throat
Forever to squirm where you feel it
Looking into the eyes of an iceberg
Desperate to humanize her but
Deep down I find no faith
I cannot feel that golden grain
In the pit of her stomach
I do not sense the gentle pull of
Fragile humanity solty sweat
Too cold
To get naked soled in front of this
Shell limited by self-protection
Yet I feel her deeply so I can't even hate
Jun 14, 2016
Jun 14, 2016 at 12:19 AM UTC
u trapped ur ***** rags inside the windows
of a **********
windows that you won’t open
so u can decently humanize
so the breeze can oxidize your ****
the breathless words of a woman
are the chalk outlines of death
Jul 28, 2015
Jul 28, 2015 at 12:40 PM UTC
(oh yeah)
(right)
thats what feels bad
(not right)
(that the bone has been eaten away)
(i'm feeling where the bone has been eaten away)
all of a sudden i'm back in my body
disease has so much personality
(when (once) you humanize it)
(you just have to humanize it)
i thought i learned that before
Mar 21, 2016
Mar 21, 2016 at 2:40 AM UTC
(oh yeah)
(right)
thats what feels bad
(that the bone has been eaten away)
(i'm feeling where the bone has been eaten away)
all of a sudden i'm back in my body
disease has so much personality
(such trajectory)
(once you get to know it)
(you just have to get to know it)
(when (once) you humanize it)
(you just have to humanize it)
(floss so hard you (i, we) get out the familial grief in between your teeth)
i thought i learned that before
Mar 22, 2016
Mar 22, 2016 at 3:27 AM UTC
Pandering thought, meander through my essence.
Set my skin on fire, flush me in both flesh,
and genitalia; but redeeming release remains
improbable if not teetering on impossible.
Soundlessly, or so I would like to believe. I
push back the carnal, making desire much more
rabid, and I repeat idioms simply to distract.
"Victimless!" I'm reminded by the operatic
symphony of memories playing in perfect pitch,
on time each grouping strokes my psyche
with feathery simplicity.
Aching, throbbing words so frenetic, to
annunciate them would make this fantastic
pain I seethe for incredibly real.
Maybe I'd rather save the pent up ferocity
for divine intent, but the beast is hungry, and
my resolve grows weary.
Weathering impulse for me, is torture beyond
obscene. Heated breath would be fingertips
upon this urge filled flesh, would be pursed lips
against the nape of my neck, would be fingernails
digging in with malicious intent.
Fervent this pen isn't enough fluid, but watching
it move across these blue lines allows me to
imagine tracing the elegant hairs along her stomach.
All of which without a word muttered.
"The silence is perfect."
How do you not hear the cacophony, the almost
fiendish delicate devil begging for freedom, if not
a chance to lick her leg.
Would it make her toes curl?
Would it make my back ache in effort?
Only thoughts now, my God where is the
silence!?
"The silence you ask? Sweet release."
When it abates I sorrowfully await it again.
Held within its grasp the moments seem cruel.
Once gone, like an addict, I want it more
and more.
Is this a mind-gasm? A well orchestrated plot
to humanize my animalistic thoughts?
I wish for the perfect ending, but happiness
is just as brutal.
Now I reside in my weakening resolve,
coaching it up, if not myself.
I've never stood this close before, I can almost
hear her thinking,
of me, maybe?
Sep 17, 2018
Sep 17, 2018 at 4:04 AM UTC