"incrementally" poems
For Al, who left us
With each passing poem,
The degree of difficulty of diving ever higher,
Bar incrementally niched, inched, raised,
Domain, the association of words, ever lesser,
Repetition verboten, crime against pride.
Al,
You ask me when the words come:
With each passing year,
In the wee hours of
Ever diminishing time snatches,
The hours between midnight and rising,
Shrinkage, once six, now four hours,
Meant for body restoration,
Transpositional for poetic creation,
Only one body notes the new mark,
The digital, numerical clock of
Trillion hour sleep deficit, most taxing.
Al, you ask me from where do the words come:
Each of the five senses compete,
Pick me, Pick me, they shout,
The eyes see the tall grasses
Framing the ferry's to and fro life.
Waving bye bye to the
End of day harbor activities,
Putting your babies to sleep.
The ears hear the boat horns
Deep voiced, demanding pay attention,
I am now docking, I am important,
The sound lingers, long after
They are no longer important.
The tongue tastes the cooling
Italian prosecco merging victoriously
With its ally, the modestly warming rays
Of a September setting sun,
finally declaring, without stuttering,
Peace on Earth.
The odoriferous bay breezes,
A new for that second only smell,
But yet, very old bartender's recipe,
Salt, cooking oil, barbecue sauce, gasoline
And the winning new ingredient, freshly minted,
Stacked in ascending circumference order, onion rings.
These four senses all recombinant,
On the cheek, on the tongue,
Wafting, tickling, blasting, visioning
Merging into a single touch
That my pointer finger, by force majeure,
Declares, here,
poem aborning!
Contract with this moment,
now satisfied!
Al, what you did not ask was this:
With each passing poem,
I am lessened within, expurgated,
In a sense part of me, expunged,
Part of me, passing too,
Every poems birth diminishes me.
_________________________________
(this poem more than most,
for its birth celebrates
my loss, your loss,
which cannot be exonerated 8/7/18)
_________________________________
written at 4:38 AM
September 8th, 2012
Greenport Harbor, Long Island
May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013 at 7:07 AM UTC
I have been told that a love left untouched will never disappear; that because the corrosive oils from our fingertips have not dissolved its coloring, it will, theoretically, endure perpetually. This love, left in its shrink-wrap casing, looming over the heads of the meek and the caustic feels like a scarlet letter hidden behind the robe, a feeling so foul none are to know but, Oh, what if it begins to fester, there in the moist dark?
This worry had been sitting in my stomach, churning with the bile and swallowed blood, coming up acid in my throat; I could feel it radiating out. Thought: it must be nuclear, must be radioactive and glowing, eating through me one layer at a time, but love –this uranium longing– has a half-life.
When first the reaction began it boiled and popped like lye on skin, singed off my eyelids so I could not help but see it there. I found myself woozy from the fumes, a high I had never experienced before so I inhaled, let it torch my lungs and leave me gagging. My hair began to fall out. I was soggy from the chemotherapy, tried pumping this bitterness into my bloodstream to remove the evil that already existed there, unaware that they were the same entity. It could not survive on a diet of itself and obsession, and so it began waning.
An exponential decay, the intensity of this passion varying directly with the frequency of contact and inversely with time, yet it will never be gone, entirely. It will decrease incrementally every time I say good bye, every time I see scarred knuckles, every time I want and he does not. I have counted the days since the day I counted on him and he was accountable and the number is growing larger and getting more difficult to remember. I have scribbled it onto scraps of paper and it has only browned the edges, no longer burns all the way through, and this love –this radium affair– has been losing its toxicity.
Apr 13, 2015
Apr 13, 2015 at 7:54 PM UTC
Growth
In any
Worthwhile endeavour
Takes time.
But
When managed
Incrementally
The result is
Enduring
And
Enjoyable.
Consistency
Is the
Key.
The Master
Of consistency is
Mother Nature.
Just take a leaf from
Her Book.
Consistency
Needs no talent
Consistency
Needs no skill
Consistency
Needs no money.
All it needs is
A commitment
To
Show up
And
Do the work
Wholeheartedly
Each
and
Every
Day.
Consistency
Costs
Much
But
Pays
Well
Every time!
Jan 23, 2019
Jan 23, 2019 at 1:53 AM UTC
With each passing poem,
The degree of difficulty of diving ever higher,
Bar incrementally niched, inched, raised,
Domain, the association of words, ever lesser,
Repetition verboten, crime against pride.
Al,
You ask me when the words come:
With each passing year,
In the wee hours of
Ever diminishing time snatches,
The hours between midnight and rising,
Shrinkage, once six, now four hours,
Meant for for restoration,
Transpositional for creation,
Only one body notes the new mark,
The digital, numerical clock of
Trillion hour sleep deficit, most taxing.
Al, you ask me from where do the words come:
Each of the five senses compete,
Pick me, Pick me, they shout,
The eyes see the tall grasses
Framing the ferry's to and fro life.
Waving bye bye to the
End of day harbor activities,
Putting your babies to sleep.
The ears hear the boat horns
Deep voiced, demanding pay attention,
I am now docking, I am important,
The sound lingers, long after
They are no longer important.
The tongue tastes the cooling
Italian prosecco merging victoriously
With its ally, the modestly warming rays
Of a September setting sun,
finally declaring, without stuttering,
Peace on Earth.
The odoriferous bay breezes,
A new for that second only smell,
But yet, very old bartender's recipe,
Salt, cooking oil, barbecue sauce, gasoline
And the winning new ingredient, freshly minted,
Stacked in ascending circumference order, onion rings.
These four senses all recombinant,
On the cheek, on the tongue,
Wafting, tickling, blasting, visioning
Merging into a single touch
That my pointer finger, by force majeure,
Declares, here, poem aborning,
Contract with this moment, now satisfied.
Al, what you did not ask was this:
With each passing poem,
I am lessened within, expurgated,
In a sense part of me, expunged,
Part of me, passing too,
Every poems birth diminishes me.
___________
4:38 AM
September 8th, 2012
Greenport Harbor, N.Y.
Mar 26, 2014
Mar 26, 2014 at 5:06 PM UTC
It looks like I’m soaring
Riding the updraft of traffic below
Never going up..just incrementally gliding down
But I’m in a slow-motion flat-spin
The only control coming from gravity and momentum
I’m not scared or frantic
Just observing, knowing I should be feeling more
I am trying to live with my faith
Not gone and not here
I long for passion that would force me from my trance
Of swirling
The passion of a fierce fight
Of hungry ***
Of unexpected joy
But there is no color or music
There is no scent; floral or putrid
I miss the smell of God
My God
Jan 26, 2013
Jan 26, 2013 at 10:53 AM UTC
I am a
plenipotentiary
of your heart
but not your tongue
Which whips
with shout
Inflicting
all this
doubt
--
Try not to see my glaring mistakes
when uncaring I am trumpeting arrogant aches.
--
I became lost in channels of the self and now-
I have smoothed out my spikes,
inverted my aversions, diluted my delusions-
I have incrementally expanded my positive mentality.
I am the Xenolith within the conglomerate
uncomfortable with chafing sand.
Displaying dependability with the straightening of back,
gone is lithe youth's unbecoming stand.
I shall trust inappropriately and love exponentially.
I shall treat you, The Stranger-
even stranger
like family.
Apr 5, 2011
Apr 5, 2011 at 5:51 PM UTC
I feel the essence of you, and I ache inside,
As you infiltrate my being to the very core,
There is no place for me, unwilling to hide,
Forgive me; I’m unable, to suffer anymore.
Our palpable charisma echoes, who we are,
Shaping us incrementally, acquiring a hold,
We cannot turn back, we’ve come too far,
Our friendship has allowed, love to unfold.
Stranded at crossroads, unable to proceed,
Am I just a dreamer, and you just a dream?
Accepting choices, until I started to bleed,
Fond memories weep, drifting downstream.
So what now, precious love, what do I do?
I’m alone, oh but I feel, the essence of you.
©Paul M Chafer 2016
Apr 21, 2016
Apr 21, 2016 at 4:44 AM UTC
I'm so tired, but I can't get no sleep.
My deep thought slope incrementally steep.
I keep getting visions like I have a disease.
My life expects so much, I just don't have what she needs.
I'm caught up in a moment where I'm lost in my mind.
Kinda ***** a bit because I'm alone all the time.
I'm always stressed about it, there's no others of my kind.
Rhyming feelings, I find is healing, at the present I am fine.
Jul 21, 2013
Jul 21, 2013 at 4:35 AM UTC
With each passing poem,
The degree of difficulty of diving ever higher,
Bar incrementally niched, inched, raised,
Domain, the association of words, ever lesser,
Repetition verboten, crime against pride.
Al,
You ask me when the words come:
With each passing year,
In the wee hours of
Ever diminishing time snatches,
The hours between midnight and rising,
Shrinkage, once six, now four hours,
Meant for for restoration,
Transpositional for creation,
Only one body notes the new mark,
The digital, numerical clock of
Trillion hour sleep deficit, most taxing.
Al, you ask me from where do the words come:
Each of the five senses compete,
Pick me, Pick me, they shout,
The eyes see the tall grasses
Framing the ferry's to and fro life.
Waving bye bye to the
End of day harbor activities,
Putting your babies to sleep.
The ears hear the boat horns
Deep voiced, demanding pay attention,
I am now docking, I am important,
The sound lingers, long after
They are no longer important.
The tongue tastes the cooling
Italian prosecco merging victoriously
With its ally, the modestly warming rays
Of a September setting sun,
finally declaring, without stuttering,
Peace on Earth.
The odoriferous bay breezes,
A new for that second only smell,
But yet, very old bartender's recipe,
Salt, cooking oil, barbecue sauce, gasoline
And the winning new ingredient, freshly minted,
Stacked in ascending circumference order, onion rings.
These four senses all recombinant,
On the cheek, on the tongue,
Wafting, tickling, blasting, visioning
Merging into a single touch
That my pointer finger, by force majeure,
Declares, here, poem aborning,
Contract with this moment, now satisfied.
Al, what you did not ask was this:
With each passing poem,
I am lessened within, expurgated,
In a sense part of me, expunged,
Part of me, passing too,
Every poems birth diminishes me.
_________________________________
4:38 AM
September 8th, 2012
Greenport Harbor, N.Y.
May 20, 2015
May 20, 2015 at 4:49 PM UTC
There's a small vice on my heart
that you turned incrementally since the day we kissed
Always there was space to manoeuvre
wriggle
a gap to shift around in and say, 'That's better'
to comfortably fool myself that I was not caught.
But now, my dear....
Now the grip leaves me gasping
and that metal feels cold
and I cannot ignore it.
The trouble is
I kissed your elegant, beautiful face
and I guided your hand to that vice in my chest
and enveloped your fingers with mine
We turned those keys together.
I was so enamoured
and I wanted your love.
I told myself I could get out at any time.
Too late, my love
It was always too late
For we're kindred souls across lifestyles
and lifetimes
and my body knows yours like the taste of my tears.
I resign myself, then, to bleeding.
I resign thee to Fate and what she may decide
knowing only that never shall I be your jailor.
I refuse to allow
that wild tempest soul to be anything but free.
I am happy to be caught.
Though I writhe with this pain
and slumber eludes me in my misery.
For one thing I have realised
is the depth of my cowardice.
Although yours came out as tenored and trembling
you still had the bravery to speak the words emblazoned on your heart
the ones that threatened to fall from your lips
as my head lay perfectly in situ against your collarbone
and my heartbeat and breathing lined up with yours
in our quiet symbiosis at 3 a.m.
I danced around the words
flitted lightly, noncommittal
and said 'I think I'm falling in love with you',
which was a lie.
You are far braver than I
and to this day I've run
but you deserve far greater than that which I have meted out to you.
You deserve honesty.
You deserve the breadth and depth of what my heart aches to tell you
though I am frightened beyond words that the vice can go no tighter.
I love you.
May 25, 2013
May 25, 2013 at 9:30 AM UTC
It's a confession of being;
of living; of dying incrementally;
cigarette smoke choking, winter coats aflutter;
the way you laughed, listening to your mother's jokes.
It's ego, pure: supreme;
deciding, "Mine is the voice from which you will derive-"
"-and none may lessen, none may deride."
For these, our words, have worth for true.
It's the cruelty inherent to love:
infinity, bound.
Sep 23, 2025
Sep 23, 2025 at 11:58 PM UTC
I wish I had a typewriter
That a blue jay liked to rest on
Like power lines in pretty paintings
I wish I had a typewriter
That dispensed music notes
Incrementally
Like leafs from their trees
on an Autumn's evening
I wish I had a typewriter
who's letters shifted spaces
Rearranging themselves
into poetic little phrases
I wish I had a typewriter
that grew from a bud
And blossomed like a poppy flower
I wish I had a typewriter
that collected dust in its place
atop an old piano
In my faded pink guest bedroom
I don't have a faded pink guest bedroom
I don't have a guest bedroom
I don't have an old piano
I don't have a piano
I wish I had a piano
To grow old with
And a typewriter
To keep us company
In a faded pink guest bedroom
Aug 1, 2013
Aug 1, 2013 at 12:54 AM UTC
A poem not yet written
Is like a genie incarcerated in its bottle,
Waiting for the gentle strokes
Of its poet’s liberating quill.
An image here, an alliteration there
Send emergent clouds of verbal magic
Floating into the aether,
Demanding to be crafted into
A tapestry of finest weave and hue.
It will be what it must
And not even the hope-filled poet
Can foretell its destiny.
But like all expectant parents,
Quaking in the throes of labor,
The poet hopes his or her newborn child
Will leave the world
An incrementally better place.
Jun 1, 2025
Jun 1, 2025 at 4:28 PM UTC
I'm a biochemical construct
mechanical of flesh and bone
software-infused hardware being,
another release,
an incrementally updated
version of humanity;
all off my data cells
come with prerequisites
I had no knowledge of;
the veins of my dreams
were blueprints and schemes
in my mother’s blood
in my father’s skin;
I scribble but cannot rewrite
the me, the I,
procedurally generated,
processed by algorithms;
and the purpose is clear
perpetuate and iterate,
move on with baby steps
not merely in time and distance,
but beyond existence
Jul 28, 2017
Jul 28, 2017 at 12:38 PM UTC
Tis sad
*To know or not the whys
What difference does it make
Looking back at all the unnecessities*
***To see and feel so clearly
And just cry***
For a true moment awake
*You believe so much it all matters
You can change the future with all your nows
Incrementally believing into every one
Whatever such is but a heart hard matter*
One where yes you do battle
***You do it right on
You do it in the face of obstinate ruses***
*Of any and every justification
of the little hells we normalize
and try to stay straight with our cultish*
***Philosophies
Cultural comforts
Reverenant misguidances***
*Why call this life
When, when clearly*
One can see our daily deathly ploys
*How fun twas musical chairs
Little children run in dancing circles
Till each is beset with the planned failures*
For one and one only
Shall be on top
*While the other
Shall be*
The bottom
Tis not so much the Wild Kingdom
Tis the Wilds of Civilized Being
May 26, 2013
May 26, 2013 at 11:18 AM UTC
The stepchildren of passion
bear the selfsame fruit of their
parentage...disowned by their own volition,
till becoming...incrementally dying
aspirants of dispassion.
I think of St. Francis, St. Francis
I think of you often.
Aug 2, 2015
Aug 2, 2015 at 11:34 PM UTC
Electronic karma spills unnoticed,
neon in the streets of concrete and oil
only to be dissected by the ********** legs.
I see streams of soil eroding
whereas you live free from worry
because we view time differently and
incur incrementally
indifferent sins
assuredly.
I am
eschewing violence with the slow quiet chewing of cheek
and a slight
leak at the seams
like violet light creeping from the night club,
a signal for the heated rubbing hub of energy
to come from behind the heavy door,
and skin deep what is my steady humming roar.
Mar 19, 2011
Mar 19, 2011 at 11:24 PM UTC
I was assembled 33 years ago
From a piece of genetic code
My firmware was updated incrementally
The errors didn’t happen accidentally
And the glitches carried
Hidden features, secretly;
Surprisingly,
You’d come across a stowaway
A smuggled possibility for change
Deviation from the norms
With incalculable vector
Even if you have direction
There’s no way to know the destination
My main mistakes were
Having lust for knowledge and
The infinite supply of patience
While my time was running out of sand
Oct 6, 2017
Oct 6, 2017 at 9:40 PM UTC
hey, hey whatta you say!
THEY ALREADY TOOK YOUR GULF OF MEXICO AWAY
an we the the "type" don't like to blame!
(unless, of course, that person's ..........weak)
hey hey what gonna be next?
PERHAPS GONNA BE YOUR........ VERY BREATH
writin poetry,,,,,"so slick"
today seems ..."meaningless"
AN IT GONNA MAKE YOU ........SICK!
hey hey whatta you say
THEY ALREADY TOOK YOUR GULF OF MEXICO AWAY
THEY ALREADY TOOK YOUR GULF OF MEXICO AWAY
Jul 20, 2010
Jul 20, 2010 at 11:16 AM UTC
Earth is becoming something different, something more.
For millions of years proto-humans strode its bounties until
**** sapiens arrived. Once here, humans took millennia
incrementally building improving its lot in life. Step by step,
developing new ways of improving, one change building upon another.
Cooking food, better nutrition, better weapons for hunting and protection.
Hunter-gatherers working as teams for better outcomes,
feeding and enabling larger populations. Development of farming, enabling villages to take root.
More improvement, villages become towns then cities, city states to countries.
Communication develops, improves, writing, printing books for the masses, new ideas, morse code, telephones. The planet communicates.
Medicines, industrial revolution, humankind spans the globe.
Technology improving, quality of life improving, living longer.
Science, ever probing every aspect
pushing the boundaries of capabilities. Traveling further and faster, trains, automobiles, planes
Spacecraft. Computers, internet, global neural net, global mind, artificial intelligence, human cyborgs. The pace of change ever quickens.
Humankind, on the cusp of change
so explosive the consequences of which are unfathomable.
Dec 2, 2016
Dec 2, 2016 at 7:22 PM UTC
My own may dwindle
to a whisper
as a flame in a candle
goes out
only to become
smoke
.....
....
..
But a connection
to The Voice
gives me life
Words of Life
flowing to me
........through me........
Words
which can only come from
The Way
The Truth
The Life
This Voice
gives me
Words of Hope
His Voice
His Words
become
His Life
in me
....
His Voice
....flows through me....
Not of myself
His Voice
becomes mine
incrementally
slowly
I am transformed
nothing
is by my power
or might
only by His Spirit
in me
......
by His Spirit
day by day
.....I am transformed.....
CJ 2016
Dec 7, 2016
Dec 7, 2016 at 1:08 PM UTC
Maybe I have matured,
maybe I have outgrown writing stories,
maybe I have buried even the thought of creative writing
beneath the disgusting idea of education
- so utilitarian, and functional.
I grieve the loss of creativity in my head.
I used to think that it will always be around the corner,
that these skills will probably stick around.
Unfortunately, I have grown enough to realize that incrementally,
what little skills of mine shall soon leave my feeble body
before I even know it,
simply because I have forgotten to use them altogether.
I don't know where to begin from here.
I don't even know what to write next.
Sadly, I don't even know what to write for my fictional characters,
and just like me,
they are stuck in a havoc of confusion and unfinished stories.
Just like me,
they are lost in a fictitious land where there's no way forward
Just like me,
my stories stare at the vast darkness and wonder...
When?
Why?
And just like this poem...
Dec 3, 2016
Dec 3, 2016 at 6:56 AM UTC
Making sure
she kept to the right
of her best misdemeanors,
Rising slowly,
incrementally above her
sub-basement failures
Looking for all
the world like the world
owed her a life
time of favours
Striding unnoticed
past her past
jailers, her angry slavers
Throwing her chains
into the back of her dark
red Daimler
Passing sixty
screaming for privacy
Dying for worthy.
Oct 30, 2021
Oct 30, 2021 at 2:08 PM UTC
When small and simple steps I take
I reach my destination
When focused acts I daily make
I reach my wealthy station
Today I’ll live a perfect day
I’ll create and give and build
With small specific forward steps
My heart and soul are filled
When every single hour I move
Further on my chosen way
Success builds incrementally
Perfect day to perfect day
Jun 11, 2019
Jun 11, 2019 at 1:01 PM UTC