Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Ottar Aug 2013
I

Gut drawn across history, reaching to this day and a time,
                                               teaching to play the sublime,
hourglass.
Where no grain has gone through that passage, unchanged
           And some wait at the threshold, not ready, unsteady.
There is a tug o'war back and forth,
till time always wins.
Time or forgiveness erases my straight forward sins.
All that bends lined up just so,
timeless,
fast or slow,
no one alive knows!
Just how it was meant to be
so let it...


II

Can you catch them, the leaves of fall,
is there chase enough in you to play with them all,
as the sounds of Autumn, have the pace,
which invites you play face to face with
what you hold, end of the rainbow,
Summers gold, treasured,
with subtle pleasure.

Where is your wisdom, where is the care, you leave behind
to find some solemn place of peace,
in a world that won't let you practice your passion,
it is after all out of fashion,
so bow a little more
and I will listen for the wind,
which may blow your notes like leaves and sheetmusic,
like laundry on the lines,
which you have to memorize or read,
in the cold
until the sun sets, the lights dim and the candle wick
is extinguished.
Still you dream of summer.


III

Sitting in the outdoors on a chair built for two,
I sit alone, so much to see and to hear,
as there is music playing, but I do not know from where,
the bees buzz and travel like they can feel the vibrations,
dragonflies dance in pairs, wingtips touching the sky and clouds,
hummingbirds find the flowers sweeter than before,
is that a cello out of doors?,
but the traffic on the street, fails to compete,
and the music goes on and I am replete,
but I listen still, to drink in more,
I would rather be no other place than where I am now
I close my eyes, and keep them that way as
I fear surprises among other things,
but this music is filled with the comfort it brings
the empty space beside me in this double chair,
if the empty space were to leave what would I have?,
feed me in my loneliness,
fill me, though I may be alone,
I will be able to share,
the Joy of caring,
with any who come near and love what I love best,
but my emptiness moves with me,
when music, like love, is a test of trust.

IV

The rocks meant to trip me up make my feet find footing,
as to step on the wrong rock means to fall
on my face
or land displaced,
oh the hard, hard heart-ed rocks,
my fingers lose skin,
don't trust my eyes
alone
don't trust my feet
alone
don't trust my memory,
to get me home,
I have to forget where I was so I can know to keep
going, because I need to go,
to the water,
the clear water,
it gives me credence,
when the water runs clear,
I drink it in and I am revived,
so pour this rocky music into me and
when I wake up, I will take up where life
has left off. And give it another day on the rocky slopes
that rocks my hopes,
there is no easy life.

V

Are your days dragged on for many hours past twenty four?
They at work want you to work more for less,
you walk in the door to change your dress,
and out you go again, so you pack you wallet with
cash, credit and disdain,
you walk slow as to shuffle not to be resistant,
so you actually see something near or distant
that resembles life in the normal lane,
instead your ups take you down,
from there all you do is look up,
up and away.
The music mocks your life
of strife,
your significant other half,
is more than you will ever be,
there is no end to the mockery,
so pick up your bow,
and reach not for an arrow,
but strike your muscles and your nerves,
to see if you are alive after all,
well...?
Beware
Beware
for only fools imitate the wolves by
howling at the blood moon.
Or jaywalk without looking,
or stay on the treadmill from hour one beyond twenty four.
Time, the monotone and remains the same,
it us who fill the hours, for shame, at the pace.  


VI

Oh jump and run and hide as it has all been a dream,
the ogres are in the hills and trolls are under every bridge,
the master walks the fence line banging his club every twenty paces,
to see if any faces peek out from the shrubs which need trimming
and he sends his dogs to ferret out the weasel faced boys,
and the pink pigs with pigtails,
while we hid in the oak on the hill watching the sun stand
stock still and the tall trees dust the sky as they move in the breeze,
making room for the heart shaped moon,
for my love, my love...
we will soon be apart and no glue will hold us
together,
and once we will be together again it will
be like we never parted,
but you left me so soon at a terrible cost, on my heart strings
each butterfly that goes by lightly
reminds me of you,
each single cotton ball cloud,
that floats my way,
I wait for it to come over-head,
no, I run to where it is so,
I
can see your face gently in the shadows
and contours but you are playing at hiding while
I
seek your beauty in all things,
all things,
all things,
that we said were ours and did not possess,
because it all belongs to God.
As do you.

Sadly I must wait here for my time,
I will listen to this music, as I am by myself
lone cellist playing
while I hold it all in,
please come close before he plays the last staff,
the last bar, the last note,
then I will rest, sleep, dream and float,
on the notes he has played as they
carry me as close to you,
so I am sure to catch your tears.



Final Thoughts (Incomplete)
The measure of the flesh is found in six pieces, of these cello suites.
The measure of the heart for music is opened in these six pieces of mystery.
They that sound, from time to time, that they were composed yesterday.


©DWE29082013
Inspired by listening to Cello Suites No. 1 through No. 6 by JS Bach by Various artists, especially Pau (Pablo) Casals and reading the Cello Suites by Eric Siblin, great read, if you like that sort of thing.  
I think, I know that this poem will be in progress for a long time, until I find some understanding, of music theory or learn to play the violoncello. Started 20130825 finished 20130829
Birthday a celebration
Of anticipation
Of being born
Not yet alive
Every New Years
A resolution
“This will be the year of my birth”

Step off a moving bus
Jaywalk
Speed
A lover
With unrequited love
Hair color green
Drink blood
In anticipation of being born

Tattoo the skin
Put a red cross
In the middle.
Along the spine
Endless riddles
Shave all hair
A **** for the tongue
Do a million lines
Call it fun
In anticipation of being born

Be apathetic
Pretend you are free
No responsibilities
Claim “I will always be me”
Watch others live
Not believing in death
Obsessed with rebirth
Waste time
lots of ***
In anticipation of being born

Pine away in depression
Get bullied
Slit wrists
Drink a bottle of ***
Bleed out in the tub
Death
In anticipation of being born
heather leather Dec 2014
we used to jaywalk on the streets and
play hide and seek in the rain
we would laugh about first kisses in
Central Park
and mimic people as they walked by
and the entire time it was you

I know that I am not beautiful
I know that when other people see me
they see the girl with the thin-and-very-awkward frame with
glasses that always seem to fall
I had just somehow convinced myself that
you saw more than that

When people ask me about you
I like to say that I don't know about you and that
it had been awhile since we talked
because it had
and
when they ask me if I'm okay
I smile and say of course
because I am
I should be
I'm not

tell me
am I now apart of your forgotten club
that is shoved to the back of you mind
will you tell your new friends about me
and will you say that you miss me and
will you make it seem inevitable

will you create a blank canvas of loneliness for
the next girl to find and try to paint on
will you whisper my name to her as if talking about
a shadow that shouldn't have existed

sometimes I find myself wondering if you were just some cruel
nightmare that my mind had conjured up to torture me but then I remember that
my imagination isn't creative nor beautiful enough to create someone like you

and now it rains like hurricanes but when I hide, I don't try to find myself, it's better that way
em Dec 2014
Jaywalk with me
On the search of
what we are and
what we need.
We will travel to
Rosy gardens and
Religious mountains.
Lost will feel right
With you.
Juan Cahue May 2014
We're from a city where we hear sirens when we're in bed sleeping. Where some go to sleep happy while others go to sleep weeping. Home to the nicest people, and the worst criminals. Where we get messages, both clear and subliminal. The city of wind even on a warm summer day. Where it randomly rains or it snows, but after all it's okay. The town where people leave and promise to return. Where roads lead to success and everything we have is earned. A place so beautiful we wouldn't trade it for the world. A location of joy, for all boys and girls. The home of the Bulls, Cubs, Sox, Bears and Hawks. The city where no one crosses at lights, they just jaywalk. Where we hop on our bikes and ride to lake shore. And as the time passes, we wish we had more. Where we've made memories and friends for a lifetime. Where we can go back and trace every event on our timeline. Where we feel free as a bird often, and then trapped as if we were in a dome. A city named Chicago is what we call home.
Chicago, where else?
SS Jan 2014
I jaywalk,
Hoping a car will hit me.

I take one extra painkiller,
Hoping to overdose.

I shave my legs a little too hard,
Hoping to get cut.

I sit in the front seat,
Hoping to be the victim of a car crash.

I wish for city riots,
Hoping to get shot.

I try getting sick,
Hoping to end up in the hospital.

I use electrical appliances with wet hands,
Hoping to get electrocuted.

I pray for an earthquake,
Hoping to get caught under the rubble.

I want to get dumped,
Hoping to die of heartbreak.

I hope for all of this,
So when I say it was an accident,
I won't be lying.
Jack Apr 2019
Down the block
You coerced with sweet talk
Steady like a hawk
Taking your time as you walk
It’s past 1 on the clock
You knock
Wish I could say I’m shocked
My hearts blocked
Lost somewhere along the boardwalk
I’d jaywalk but I see the night hawk
It creates a road block
I’m stuck on the sidewalk

(C)
God or not
His light burned so bright
I knew in my heart
This was who I follow.

Never a question of my souls
Innocence
What have I
If he be all
Then paradise is surely
Attainable.
But unlike those sayings of theirs...
I found a natural suffering in the center of the purity
A beautiful masochism
Begging to continue on
And the purity allowed it
For this was the result of change
And change is ever pending
Cycles moving circles.

Change was the desire
Fear was for the innate pain of life
And the temptation was genetic coding of many generations of mind gathering thought In non prosperous ways.

How incredible your prescence when you consider the survival of consciousness connected to humanity.
How large
Could perspective
Become.
daniela Dec 2015
when my words don't start as twelve point font
they tend to come out all wrong.
you said you're no good at words but you’re a liar
you said you’re no good at words, i'm no good at saying them.
the air was always heavy between my heart and my mouth.
and sick to say, i’m coughing up a confession
i pretend every poem you’ve ever written is about me
and i know it’s not.
but you make every line i write make sense, every clumsy lyric
in my head into a symphony
while i still feel like cacophony of contradictions:  
i like liquor that doesn’t taste like liquor
and love that doesn’t love like love,
i am scared of love and i am obsessed with it.
i think i could have everything i ever wanted
and it still wouldn't mean **** without you.
now my head is so cluttered, gutted out from missing you
and when i said give me something to remember i didn't mean a scar.
but i could never hate you
how could you hate somebody who bared their soul to you,
told your 2 AM confessions to?
i ran out of way to write you down poetically,
and now when i talk about you it’s just pathetically.
always kissed me hello like you were saying goodbye
and this poem is not about love, this poem about leaving.
go on, jaywalk your way right out of my heart.
because poets don’t know how
say i love you and writing is remembering
but living is forgetting.
so brand it in my memory, poetry is always cheaper than therapy.
all my friends took psychology, rooted around in their heads,
but i took anatomy; cut myself up and open.
some people pick scabs and some people buy band-aids.
guess which one i am?
i am terrible, i do not want a love that’s good for me.
i want a love that takes me over
and turns me inside out.
i want you even when you want nothing to do with me.
you know me, just tryna kick that writer's block with some cliche angst
Alek Mielnikow Jun 2019
A Lazarus body litters the sidewalk
outside a well-lit, desolate lobby.

On the left is a mexican restaurant,
with a line reaching to the
entrance. They should stamp
the grey and scratched up
plexiglass with a light and
dark purple neon:
Welcome To America.
It would be reinforced
by every delicious crunch
one hears on the way out as
cheap crumbs garnish concrete.

On the right, there’s a bar
alive on a Friday night.
Friends share hearty laughs
and pats on the back.
The bitter and the perishing
pretend they want this
when they should be
somewhere or someone else.
And mingling singles look for
compliments and numbers,
or maybe just someone to
take back and **** the **** out of.

But in the midst sits
a throne for ghosts.
Ceiling fluorescent reflects
off porcelain, paler than a farmer tan.
There are no other colors besides
the receptionist, bored to death,
leaning on the wall behind
the porcelain reception desk,
reading a copy of Ebony.
No ottomans or chesterfields
or benches. No consoles or cocktail
tables. Nothing adorning the walls.
Not even a stain.
Just a white hole, a bright
***** in an otherwise colorful
street on gray canvas.

I rise from my slumber
and mosey on out the lobby
in my purple linen suit.
The impoverished scrag,
his dog lapping his sores, asks
if I’d spare some change.

“Sorry, I only have card tonight.”

“That’s alright, sir. God bless.”

And I walk on, aware of the
Abrahams rubbing up against
a ****** in my wallet. I take a sip
of whiskey hidden in my empty
can of a drink that can never
satiate me. I wait for traffic to pass,
and then I jaywalk across Sticks St.


-
by Aleksander Mielnikow
Luke 16:19-31
Isaac Dec 2019
i thought you were my star in the sky

but apparently

you were just an amber traffic light

and you’ve turned red

and I can’t even jaywalk.
let me cross.
Jordyn LaRaye Dec 2019
Little silver button,
Placebo for impatience
In the cross walk waiting room,
You are every negative coping mechanism
For every season that can’t go fast enough.
I’ll jaywalk this time.
kain Feb 2020
This is an ode to us
Our elbows that brush
When we're walking down the hall
Our feet as we kicked each other
At a football game
Arms interlocked
On a walk through the school yard
And fingers reaching, grasping
Sliding over arms and bodies and sides
Finally intertwined
In the street lit night

This is an ode to our memories
Good and bad
The conversations between classes
When I told you I was suicidal
When you told me you were abused
When I realized that I loved you
Making small talk on a swing set
Knelt down in a library
Snapping under electric bonds
Thinking about you all night long

This is an ode to the things
That stay between you and me
I was the first one
To ever use your name
I waited for you at the stoplight
When you refused to jaywalk
Or run around the other way
We looked across the road
Through drifting car fumes
In our small home town
I remembered your arms
Just a few hours ago
They didn't feel like home
But God, were they close

This is an ode to us
To this teenage love
To the rain that fell
And cleansed the downtown buildings
Washed out the streets
Leaving everything out in the open
All our secrets and mistakes
Silly conversations and inside jokes
And hurt, the things I'll never quite get over
The times you didn't look at me
And the times that you
The times when it was just
You
And me
Alone in our feelings
Your blue eyes locked on mine
Free

— The End —