"inkwells" poems
Enrique,
Emilio,
Lorenzo,
the three of them frozen:
Enrique by the world of beds;
Emilio by the world of eyes and wounded hands;
Lorenzo by the world of roofless universities.
Lorenzo,
Emilio,
Enrique,
the three of them burned:
Lorenzo by the world of leaves and billiard *****
Emilio by the world of blood and white pins;
Enrique by the world of the dead and abandoned newspapers.
Lorenzo,
Emilio,
Enrique,
the three of them buried:
Lorenzo in one of Flora's *******
Emilio in the dead gin forgotten in the glass;
Enrique in the ant, the sea, and the empty eyes of birds.
Lorenzo,
Emilio,
Enrique,
the three in my hands were
three Chinese mountains,
three shadows of a horse,
three landscapes of snow and a cabin of white lilies
by the pigeon coops where the moon lies flat under the rooster.
One
and one
and one,
the three of them mummified,
with the flies of winter,
with the inkwells the dog ****** and the thistle despises,
with the breeze that freezes theh eart of all the mothers,
by the white ruins of Jupiter where drunks snack on death.
Three
and two
and one,
I saw them disappear, crying and singing
into a hen's egg,
into the night that showed its skeleton of tobacco,
into my sorrow full of faces and piercing bone splinters of moon,
into my happiness of whips and notched wheels,
into my breast troubled by pigeons,
into my deserted death with one mistaken wanderer.
I had killed the fifth moon
and the fans and the applause drank water from the fountains.
Hidden away, the warm milk of newborn girls,
shook the roses with a long white sorrow.
Enrique,
Emilio,
Lorenzo,
Diana is hard,
but somtimes she has ******* of clouds.
The white stone can beat in the blood of a deer
and the deer can dream through the eyes of a horse.
When the pure forms sank
under the cri cri of daisies
I understood they had murdered me.
They searched the cafés and the graveyards and churches,
they opened the wine casks and wardrobes,
they destroyed three skeletons to pull out their gold teeth.
Still they couldn't fine me.
They couldn't?
No. They couldn't.
But they learned the sixth moon fled against the torrent,
and the sea remembered, suddenly,
the names of all her drowned.
20.5k
I forced my razor knife down
into an anniversary coffee cup
crammed with pens, pencils,
two pairs of scissors, and one
roll of color film I'm afraid
to develop. I jammed it in blade-
up so I'd have to deal
with the hard part first
like a blank page before
an accidental tongue slip
drips ink and makes the page
pretty. Some tree I've never met
and some pink dye died for me
to cover this pressed pulp
in illegible squiggles;
and I'll be
damned if I let it down.
'cause I'm drawn to things
without opinions. Sketchbooks,
inkwells, rubber band bracelets,
a mixed-nut dragonfly rested
on my trampoline net. // Cut it
free // cut it loose.
Find a brick behind the shed
and smash it dead,—preteen me—
young Wordsworth me.
I pulled the sepia tape from Queen
cassettes and finished the glossy
plastic off with a vise grip in Dad's truck.
Old Brucey had mustard pinstripes
down the driver's side, all the way down
to the Germania General Store.
He was a blur to me before I could buy
my own Dreamsicles. Passing the chicken feed
and the resident, caged dachshund couple,
I saw his face for the first time. Seventeen-years-
old, staring at my grandpa through picture
and plate glass panes.
The angels he swore were real—the ones he payed,
praised, and prayed for every Sunday and everyday
the sun shined and everyday it didn't—
were now less deserving of heaven.
Jan 14, 2015
Jan 14, 2015 at 1:00 AM UTC
.
Oh! Fragile martyr man--
your word play is so electric.
Therapy pulses magnetic
power
to your malignant
deformities.
Death becomes
your golden ticket
to enchantment.
The freedom revolution
evolves
from a badly broken,
bleeding humanity.
Certain
faces simply
whisper power
which question the spilled--
blood of thousands
on a daily
basis-
Another cliche war is
refilling the inkwells
of the blank page,
starving artist.
Delicate tragic fairy tales remembered--
Layers of rust
encrust the tick and the tock
all throughout the grinding
gears of the clock.
Paintings of the Thinker
sit thinking in the
keenest calculable clarity.
The dreamers of darkness
bathe in the cold,
blinding sparks
of falling starlight.
.
Jan 30, 2010
Jan 30, 2010 at 9:51 PM UTC
She bowed before her porcelain throne
Queen of twisted sickness
Deceit prisms cradling between her clavicles
Her marigold eyes swimming in it flood
Her honeycomb heart dripping
With sweet tasting diamonds
Floating in the middle of her ocean belly
A moon growing within
She played with the cadence of her pulsing blood
Her liquid skin melting inside lava worlds
Her Italian tongue dipped in silver language
Her life divided into minerals
Spilling inside the Sky's water
Lady Light with her body
Embroidered into golden and turquoise thread
Stitched inside glowing stars
Mornings stuck to her lips
Like sunset lipstick
While shadows braid sunshine into her hair
"There are spirals in my throat as I bend myself from out of my pupils into this life."
She whispers to the shadows.
Her words melting inside the sandy wall.
"Reality hurts as much as it heals
You have to unfold yourself from the inkwells of your spine
Listen to the desert wind as it will lead you to its streams."
Replied the shadows
Their patterns dancing above the candlelight
Lady Light sighed
Her thoughts rhythmic against her mind
"There is a trail I need to follow
I want to capture peace and love
Like dreams in a dream-catcher
I want to have the treasures from off the edge of the sunrise
Oh how I wish to have the colors of the sky and sun."
The shadows became still amidst the tilting light
Their form advancing; detaching from the walls chains
"You have to unwound the darkness
From your heart and stitch in its place sea pearls
replace the scales of your memory with forgiveness jewels
When others began to see the painting of your life
Let the grays lighten into color
Let it become an inspiration leading others toward good ground."
The shadows voices turned into psalms
A whisper of a smile shone on Lady Light's lips
She turned to thank the misty figures
But they no longer were graffiti on the wall
They stood before her; wings outstretched
Seven Angels
Unchained
Free
Only because Lady Light finally grew wings
From within her heart
Sep 14, 2014
Sep 14, 2014 at 1:24 AM UTC
Though through the valley
Ran she oft
(The others caused it so)
On occasion
They would be
The staff that for her glows
His father neither
Spoke unkindly
To a soul nor ear
Yet he was needed
Someplace further
Far away from here
And raindrops fell
Through cloudless skies
Until the moon arose
And glist'ning inkwells
Fell to paper
Falling into prose
And we emerged into a life of vivid yellow rose.
Nov 23, 2014
Nov 23, 2014 at 10:50 AM UTC
The rejection episode was brutal;
the broken ceiling fan screaming
in horrible sounds, stretching in hardened
syllables, red-rusted consonants
crashing off course, double-spaced
nouns and pronouns dull, drifting
in shallow chambers as I sat in the
rocking chair in the living room
watching the flaming clouds converge
into each other. Sunken equations
outdated and bladed, slated songs
unfolding in the blackened sky, inhaling
the smoky atmosphere, unclear gerunds
lining the foggy mountains – my chests
crumbling in inner inkwells, slouched arms
disproportioned, wandering in unknown lands.
And as I studied the barren landscape,
my heart sinking a little, meaningless
phonetics whirling in the air, voiceless
rhetoric straining, twisting, freezing
in crumpled positions, my soul was
dividing in useless square roots.
And as I thought about the one
I loved, how I could feel his beautiful
existence on my skin, his smooth cheeks
pressed on my lips, dreamy eyes staring
at mine, my inner chamber was shutting
down, drowned, lingering within his
stunning soul system. I was in love
with him, but he was shifting on the
other side of various spectrums,
separate vowels half-dead, scattered
across the horizon. He knew I was
falling for his world, the lustrous stars
shining like bright love songs within
his crowned light, shimmery saxophones
jamming in his thighs, boundless drums
rattling in his glistening abs – the core
so crisp to the touch, hypnotizing
my creation, brightening serene
Jupiter inside my bloodstream.
I wanted to travel through his grassland,
feel sweet harmonies circle the air,
embracing exuberant tunes, thrilling
dreams, dazzling scenery surrounding
his wonderland wave. But his palace
of passion was diverging from my universe,
sleek perimeters splitting apart, confused,
bruised, centimeters charred, scarred,
pulsating meters exploded, yelling yards
exposed, shattered, swarming in shapeless
seas. And as I attempted to breathe
in his scintillating nation, the balcony
of his luminous bridges, the vivid angles
running through his muscles, brilliant
veins reaching out to me in the midnight,
his soul calling me overseas, I could
see his shadowed surface pulling away
from me in the steel gray cityscape,
every part of me searching for a missing love.
Aug 23, 2019
Aug 23, 2019 at 10:00 AM UTC
As I stare into thoughts unknown,
Perchance for Millennia have these thoughts been hidden.
How many lives have been sacrificed for these lines that have been penned,
Wrought forth from the hands of women and men?
I ask myself as I stare deeper,
Will I open my soul & truly experience what is written inside?
Questions, answers, propositions, mathematical formulae,
Stamped on pages in prose, poetry and the notation of symphony,
When bound together between two covers, they are given life,
As they stand tall & proud upon spines of twine and glue.
So what are these books, where are they from, what do they do?
They are treasure troves of information,
Some may well be useless yet some do indeed cause perturbation,
due to their profundity, symmetry or, dare I say it?
Their deep ringing harmony, nay symphony with the truth of creation.
For deep within the belly of our souls writhes a beast with a limitless craving,
& her name is desire.
Silence her cries and take only that which you require,
Place the crown of creation into a state of physical and spiritual prostration,
Search out the knowledge so that you may acquire,
The epiphany of wisdom and the freedom from desire,
For in the end,
Despite what we might covet and admire,
Knowledge is rootless without sincerity,
And sincerity is fruitless without guidance.
Jun 15, 2016
Jun 15, 2016 at 8:55 PM UTC
In the inbetween space
Of what I am told to believe and the immense possibilities of this lying life
I converse with the devil and the god who are all the same
And the room is orange with inkwells in my mind
As the birds who do not only challenge me but may not exist
How do I know if a room is there when I am not in it
What is life but a divine lie
While death is a white void
How do I know what is real and what is made
When the skin boils like meat
When humans are indestructible
Are we living
May 17, 2014
May 17, 2014 at 2:26 PM UTC
Deep under ground
Through these channels
Communication of a life
Longing led
Bleeding out this medication
Permutation of the rain
Water ever flowing
Through eroded cisterns
Joy and pain
Ever dimmer
And the nowhere this is going
Through the ground i did arise
Only to find the blackest night
And through the clouds i did escape
Only to find the void of space
Back at the start
Plans demolished
Polishing my motive
Over drawers
Filled with empty inkwells
And words on paper jotted
This nightmare slowly rises
Feeling uninspired
Quiet, new horizons
Bleed out into an open sky
This earth feels far away
This is all I have to say
Simplicity, this final right
Long awaiting, this endless night
Aug 17, 2017
Aug 17, 2017 at 4:30 PM UTC
praxinoscope-théatres and chatelaines
vinaigrettes and salt sets
strawberry grabbers and victorian dress lifters
inkwells and i
how foolish of of us
to believe we would
have a purpose
how foolish of us
to believe that we would
ever be of use again
Mar 1, 2019
Mar 1, 2019 at 9:32 PM UTC
some days i feel that
despite the weight of legends
that behold our names
in the light of golden inkwells
and the pull of the tide
that had ****** us together
with the inevitability of a crashing wave
that we are not so much like
the sun and the moon
for the eclipse is a collision of epic proportions
for the eclipse is a parting of a thousand red seas
the eclipse, explosively desperate, and as rare as can be
no, i find myself
something much closer to earth
deep in the ground and deep in the dirt
for you meet me like a blue sky
meets the planet below
and you kiss me at the horizon line
all-enveloping, steady, constant, sweet
sometimes in the dancing hues
of some celestial body
but most days,
yes, most days
you are the photo in the locket
that my soul has always carried
and you are the peace
in always arriving home
though you may follow me to the ocean
and its raging waters,
to be held by you
is to be held by the shore
Dec 4, 2019
Dec 4, 2019 at 3:24 AM UTC
today it is love that i have redrafted
today it is a feeling that i have re-envisioned
and let myself for the first time to feel and fill
today it is slowly filling inkwells, going backwards somehow
to refill, to have voice once more
today it is being enveloped, today it is being postmarked
today it is being posted
and let so gently go
Nov 4, 2017
Nov 4, 2017 at 1:48 PM UTC
The problem with writer's block
Is that it isn't some mystical thing,
Some boogeyman hiding in our inkwells
And under our notepads.
It is simply one term
Encompassing a number of ailments.
Writer's block is being incapable of settling on a topic.
It is incessant song stuck in our head,
Preventing us from thinking up our own verse.
It is the checklist of errands and responsibilities
We may have forgotten that day.
Writer's block is remembering we forgot to turn off the oven,
Or the TV
Or the lights in the kitchen,
Just as we sat down with a pen.
It is the ominous cloud of self-doubt
That chases away an semblance of a first line
Or a second
Or a conclusion.
It is the sticky, complacent boredom,
Or the absence of motivation.
And sometimes it is the lack of desire,
Like a fire dying down
No flames here, but the embers still hot with potential
We wait for new wood to burn.
It is the fear of criticism,
The self-loathing that we discredit ourselves with,
And it manifests is all forms
Or just one.
It is a gift,
The mark of a writer,
Like the calluses from our pens
And it is also our curse.
Literature's hazing technique,
Weeding out those that would give up on her
At first signs of resistance.
Persist,
And call yourself a true writer at heart.
Feb 23, 2017
Feb 23, 2017 at 1:41 AM UTC
our nature is not inkwells
our tongues are pens
our will's to live
Mar 4, 2021
Mar 4, 2021 at 1:13 PM UTC
Outwitting,
out-writing
the days
defeats.
Snatching
victory
from the
inkwells
of the
mind.
Spelling
out
half-truths
and lies
in equal
measure.
The eye
of the
beholder
is blind.
Every other
word is
a treasure.
Not gold
or silver,
but thoughts
fraught with
flailing,
failings,
soaring
in spite
of
broken
wings.
Sailing
past lonely
hearts and
thoughts
of loved
ones left
behind.
Smeared
pen strokes,
notebooks,
spines bent
full of sins
or loves
confessed
obsessed,
depressed.
We are,
all of us,
roses,
between pages
pressed.
***
-JBClaywell
© P&ZPublications
Nov 22, 2017
Nov 22, 2017 at 5:22 PM UTC
I think it’s gold– your feeling
surrounding, warming–
Like comfort dipped in inkwells
of truth and I-was-thinking-of-you–
washed and dotted and brushed gently.
I feel the texture of your care,
breathe the hues of your worry–
greens of calm, blues for fingertips,
like tiny droplets creating impossible waves
in this vast ocean we call Us. And then–
gold. Gold for you and gold for me
beneath skies ablaze with cosmic bearings.
Maybe I was caste in iron, but you
gilded me in starlight– give me reason
to paint my world
in colors of your love.
Mar 11, 2019
Mar 11, 2019 at 12:51 PM UTC
There’s a pipe from one ear to the other
It hides behind a smile
It is made of lead
Poisoning thoughtful waters
Killing the wisdom and love I have heard
In one end out the other
Empty handed and barren
Only an echo.
“Unlovable”
That is all my deaf ears can hear
**** the constant ringing
The message is lost in knowledge
What a miracle
Proven o’er and o’er
A poet with disregard for his own self
Yet writing about his inner struggle
My verses flow from inkwells
That give what even I have not received
I’m naked in my birth from ashes
To the dust I shall return
Alone, but left with room enough to write a few more words
Aug 16, 2018
Aug 16, 2018 at 11:28 AM UTC
Sabers cross and steel rattles into the heat of battle we go. Back and forth we ****** and withdraw. Dodging sideways and ducking thusly as cannon fire erupts around us. From side to side we see our ally and foe. Causing havoc and destruction we gouge each other with poison and place all that is dear in peril. Slashing at each other, we draw indefensible lines, back and forth we go. While the war is an illusion, the causalities are real as we duel with tongue and pen. Our war of words inflicts damage and creates division. How can such a war end, when our hearts and inkwells supply our ammunition and what we can contrive is unlimited, from the heart of the human soul.
Nov 4, 2015
Nov 4, 2015 at 11:24 PM UTC
I never imagined that falling in love
could shatter your heart, brick rusted
dreams scraped and dragging, slashed
metaphors scattered and scanning
the skyline in search of serenity, the heavy
momentum shifting in unbroken worlds,
the spinning weight of various kingdoms
converging towards one another, the filthy
snippets stomping inside my brain repeatedly,
nasty rhythms gray and grinning, a soiled
heartbreak bruised and bladed, as I stared at
the blackened glass ceiling inside my living
room, the way its shadowed existence hovered
in ****** directions, raged, maddened,
a stabbed hall of bleeding diction upturned in
chaos. The grief was drifting me away from
outer Saturn, more like snarling Mars, hissing
and cussing, shuffling and twisting, an empty
bitchless nation slamming shut in loud beats,
as my dull dry eyes swelled in inkwells,
slippery dungeons, rusted brown shells,
split cheeks suffering syntax, whitewashed
shoulders beneath a sludge of helpless seas,
compounded muscles, crumbled earlobes,
every smashed bone fast falling
in splintering tunnels.
Oct 25, 2018
Oct 25, 2018 at 12:32 PM UTC
Inkwells were filled
by Janice; she was
the ink monitor for
the week. I was never
chosen for the task,
much to my relief,
but there were those
who raised their hands
enthusiastically for
the job, but I kept mine
firmly out of sight
beneath the desk.
Janice did the job
with dedication and
a serious mien; her
fair hair tied back by
ribbons; her slim fingers
engaged at the task
of filling the inkwells,
her tongue poking out
the side of her mouth
in deep concentration.
Last week Fred Pratt
did the job; I didnt
watch him at all.
Dec 20, 2018
Dec 20, 2018 at 5:51 PM UTC