"modestly" 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 wish you detox from drunken heights,
I’m jesus for today until my current shift ends
and the next one begins, after many nights,
in the garden centre of fallen south coast eden.
Shine shine shine
Light of mine
For now everything’s just fine
People’s faces glitter as I go by,
memories of sinless youth,
for my hands blind with nostalgia,
that my being resurrects.
The child Lazarus scurries past my side,
to his home with his future in his hands,
in my hands, cupped wide.
Shine shine shine
Light of mine
For now everything’s just fine
I can love the unfortunate,
for my fortune is golden.
Delivered in letters
from North, West, East.
My trinity circle who join me at my supper,
breaking the garlic bread and sipping the borello,
to top crab ravioli baptised in the stream of sauce.
Shine shine shine
Light of mine
For now everything’s just fine
The gates of heaven are open,
unblocked by the deaths of Keats, Shelley and Williams,
their souls not blocking the exit with an Underground Queue.
I give my blessings to
Livingstone and Charles Gordon
The one native he changed and the others’ sacrifice at Khartoum
Gained me my crown to modestly flaunt.
Shine shine shine
Light of mine
For now everything’s just fine
I float down the hall, to His Mighty Voice,
as my gold becomes a donation on the alter,
to gain the choral hymns of Mercury gilded rock gods
that will brighten my days
for now,
oh glorious moments.
Amen.
Aug 22, 2018
Aug 22, 2018 at 12:22 PM UTC
339
I tend my flowers for thee—
Bright Absentee!
My Fuchsia’s Coral Seams
Rip—while the Sower—dreams—
Geraniums—tint—and spot—
Low Daisies—dot—
My Cactus—splits her Beard
To show her throat—
Carnations—tip their spice—
And Bees—pick up—
A Hyacinth—I hid—
Puts out a Ruffled Head—
And odors fall
From flasks—so small—
You marvel how they held—
Globe Roses—break their satin glake—
Upon my Garden floor—
Yet—thou—not there—
I had as lief they bore
No Crimson—more—
Thy flower—be gay—
Her Lord—away!
It ill becometh me—
I’ll dwell in Calyx—Gray—
How modestly—alway—
Thy Daisy—
Draped for thee!
8.2k
I’m an angry feminist because women are told that their place is in the kitchen
I’m an angry feminist because walking by myself at night is never safe
I’m an angry feminist because men want 4 wives while they can't handle one properly
I’m an angry feminist because I was told to sit right and close my legs
I’m an angry feminist because she was asking for it is still an excuse
I’m an angry feminist because women are killed because they “betrayed” the family honor
I’m an angry feminist because we teach girls how not to get ***** but not boys not to ****
I'm an angry feminist because girls are sexually assaulted no matter how modestly or immodestly they are dressed
I’m an angry feminist because we are told to shut up when a man speaks
I’m an angry feminist because women are still beaten by their partners
I’m an angry feminist because women are still judged by the appearance only
I’m an angry feminist because women are still faking *******
I'm an angry feminist because your sexist jokes are never funny
I’m an angry feminist because we should never say no to a man or he will feel offended...oooh i have pity on them.. poor creatures
I’m an angry feminist because people still don't know what a feminist means
Lesbians who hate men they say
Jan 8, 2015
Jan 8, 2015 at 9:01 AM UTC
Just because the color of my skin
I somehow never fit in
With all of those girls
The ones with the pale skin and springy curls
Whose eyes are brilliant shades of the rainbow
Unlike my natural hair
Eyes dark brown, and skin unfair
I can sit in the mirror and stare
Wondering why people like me aren't on the magazines
That I read
Or on the commercials I see on T.V.
Thinking some days that I'm not pretty
Because I'm not like them
Those girls who I see everyday
Who will never know the way it feels
To be a black girl
Have people say
You're pretty for a dark girl
Like my skin tone affects my beauty
How I am suppose to look
I'd date you if you weren't black
So when did being attractive become a matter of race?
When did I not become enough
All due to the color of my face?
But they don't understand
The one that hurts the most
Worse of all
Worse of all
Is
YOU DON'T ACT LIKE A BLACK GIRL
Oh
Excuse me for having class
Not shaking my ***
Having decorum
And speaking my mind; politely
My mother raised me right
To act right
Showing me that life would
be tough for girls like me
Girls who didn't fit into the stereotypes of our race
Girls who dressed modestly
Talked properly
Girls who didn't fight
Girls who acted white
But I always thought I was just acting right
But no one ever saw
That I was just being me
Because you see
I may be a black girl
But a black girl isn't all I'll ever be
Oct 25, 2015
Oct 25, 2015 at 9:11 AM UTC
Go see the misty place, deep in the woods,
That's where the willow tree's spreading her roots.
Long gentle branches are modestly bowing,
Above the shoot where a river is flowing.
It's been like that for centuries now,
The tree and the river, living in a vow.
The branches are caressing the hair on the surface,
The gesture, however, can't fulfill its purpouse.
Although their bond is strong, love never ending,
All alone, Willow and River are standing.
They're guarding each other, and each other only.
How come they, despite that, always feel lonely?
Every night, the willow tree woefully shivers,
Looking down upon her dark, lonesome river.
Oct 28, 2015
Oct 28, 2015 at 11:17 AM UTC
We were on a 2nd floor garden terrace. The three-quarter moon was doing its best to set a romantic, gin-mood, pouring a soft pastel-blue on the world, that softened hard edges.
A cool breeze wafted jasmine scents from a nearby tea-olive tree. We were alone, the only sounds were far off footsteps and my pounding heart. Wasn’t this romantic?
Fueled twice by desire I had dressed carefully and modestly, with just a subtle, but fancy, hint of sluttiness. My costume, carefully vetted by a company of five, calculating, non-virgins, was designed to be both alluring and as abstruse as Kleenex. I was a doll dressed, painted and scented to ****** Wasn’t I romantic?
We’d never kissed before, and I wanted him to kiss me with an almost moaning force of will. I brushed my skirt down and checked that my hair was in place with quick, fleeting hand motions that could have been butterflies in the reflected light.
We were sitting close together, I could feel his warmth, but nothing was happening and then, as nothing continued to happen, I began to fret, to sag, what was the glitch? Maybe..
I felt a warmth, his breath, I looked up and he kissed me, gently, then moved back a little. I smiled. I wanted to laugh, to shout, to jump around like my team had won the Superbowl, but I was very still, lest I scare him off. Oh, there were butterflies somewhere.
He’s smart. His mind probes the infinite but sometimes neglects the immediate. I wasn’t expecting a smooth move from someone who’s all knees, thumbs and elbows but, hey, I’m capable, and willing, to learn.
Aug 28, 2022
Aug 28, 2022 at 2:15 PM UTC
Natalie!
at present I am present on a small isle,
which is so green genteel
to the eyes and the ayes,
you might include it
among yet unmastered possibilities,
living here forever.
indeed, the crescent beach so welcoming that
francais et l'anglais des anglaise is spoken here,
but actuality
has a way of intruding,
like
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Bleu,
saying I know you,
even if it doesn’t
this breeze bearing load suggests your name
as a candidate for future, honours, an MBE,
a practiced curtsy for a queen,
whatever is he babbling about?
why I am presenting an outline for a screenplay that
will make you a little rich and somewhat fameuse
so you buy a house on the water,
party all night,
write in the miracle wonder of the late afternoon
on a summery isle,
modestly hungover
say!
where is this isle so sheltered,
where nooks are set aside for poets and drunks
to pub crawl, to stand on tables and Irish sing of
those things that poets endlessly babble?
so add :
come here and let us listen to all your possibilities
and cross just this one,
your presence here,
off the list
Jun 22, 2019
Jun 22, 2019 at 3:40 PM UTC
A call goes out to America for
heroes but what they're getting are
modestly dressed professional
women; which is cool, after years
of men in suits & ties; so, soon
the millennial girls coming of age
will go **** & perform *****
graphic real *** up close onscreen;
heroes & heroines are things of
the past; it's all about the money
Jul 22, 2018
Jul 22, 2018 at 6:14 PM UTC
Two strangers in a rickshaw in Varanasi:
Two strangers who never felt like strangers.
Two people lost and alive in the moment,
The same moment
With every sense standing, antennae bristling..
Two in a bubble
Together, held apart.
Caught up in a parade and surrounded by shy , smiling faces
Waving modestly at the fair haired strangers,
Laughing
At their surprise and joy.
Knowing that moment's awe
Delighted to share the festival.
Rickety trucks gaudily decorated blare out the tinny music and
High pitched voices distorted by the tannoy add an urgency
To the motion.
Shimmering saris glisten,
So in tune with the music that trembles with joy.
That joy spills out from the
Scents, the colours, the gleaming grins and the shy waving that marks our welcome,
Till every sense tingles
With life.
And then the sand storm
Swirling and circling the speeding rickshaw
Arrived mysteriously, magically,
Like dry ice in a theatre.
The air now tangible;
Surrounding us like the skin of a bubble
Lifting us out
Of ourselves as the scene comes and goes.
The sand screen clears to reveal
An elephant
A beautiful, smiling elephant
Dressed in splendour
Accompanying us on our magic carpet ride.
Close enough for us to touch his hide.
Bejewelled and glorious
Smiling too
And all is one in that moment
And each looks at the other and feels enchanted and wants the parade to go on forever
Just like this;
With motion
And music
And colour
And smiles
And laughter
And
An elephant.
Sep 14, 2016
Sep 14, 2016 at 4:04 PM UTC
There’s a brilliant world of words and wine
Hidden behind the curtain:
A barrier of stares and smiles
Shyly given, modestly strained.
Each subtle push
Met with an even gaze.
Tell me more about yourself -
Your secrets
Your lies
Your favorite memories
Your darkest times.
There’s much more here
Than society allows we breach
On a first date meeting
In the middle of the week.
Sure, you swiped right
And that means you think I’m cute
But do we have a connection
Deeper than this Champagne flute?
I don’t want to talk about the weather
Or what your roommates do.
This isn’t an ad on craigslist,
You have nothing to prove.
Now you’re checking your phone
At every silence
*** we’re hardwired to our handheld
Asylum.
And if we aren’t leaving together
The night's been a bust.
No gain, no loss, no truths to wrestle -
No point finding a soul
In a hollow vessel.
Feb 20, 2019
Feb 20, 2019 at 3:51 PM UTC
This time last year you had dreads.
Such a labyrinth of biology tied by sweat, salt, and blood.
Laced up in a fashion of infirmity,
held together by fleeting desires.
Promises keep us floating.
Like the oxygen inlaced in driftwood.
We're densities, varying.
Fragile like a molecule, but as durable as atom.
At the mercy of magnetism.
Vibrating deep from the core.
While waiting modestly for…
nature to carry us home.
Follow the coastline.
Mar 19, 2014
Mar 19, 2014 at 12:50 AM UTC
I've hit a wall lately
A wall so tall it seems impassable.
I wake up daily to it encompassing my bed.
Making waking up a test of endurance.
Once I'm passed that, there's just another wall.
Around social interactions, work, moving, and to be honest.
It's all just ******* walls.
Walls I thought I broke down, that are now 10x as big.
Did I mention my fear of heights?
I take pills that are supposed to help,
and they do, but these halflives are nothing compared to these walls.
They're made not of cement but of sentiment and wicked dreams.
Thoughts of all the horrible options that could be.
Thoughts of a depressed self and a depressed spouse.
"You think the kid can tell?" That I'm loosing my grip?
That I'm terrified of the monsters under the bed?
I'm immobilized by my own mind like a car tire boot on my will to try.
Wish someone would tow me off to oblivion.
Or at least a place I could relax.
I'd modestly ask for just a few moments escape.
From all these walls
Jan 22, 2019
Jan 22, 2019 at 9:16 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
Every now and then,
When I'm sitting alone in my
Pajamas, with a cup of hot
Chai tea and a dash of honey
In the morning
I sit against the wall
I breathe in and out
Once, twice, a few more times
And then I let down the
Gate in my mind
And my thoughts
Prance in the field of
Morbid dreams
I imagine my death
And I wonder just who
Would bother to show
And I wonder if
That boy, yeah, that one,
The one I loved for
Five years,
Would anyone even
Tell him?
Or would he be too busy
Shooting up, getting drunk,
Too busy trying to attempt
Inadvertent suicide?
I picture my mother
In her pressed black pants
And her modestly sequined
Funeral blouse that I've only
Seen three times or so
She'd rip the glasses off of her
Head and scream at my father
*Why was she such a *****
Didn't she know I loved her?*
Yeah, Ma, I knew
I knew you loved me when
You grounded me for an A-
I knew you loved me when
You glared at the food on my
Plate,
After I hadn't eaten in a week
And huffed,
*You're going to eat that?
Do you want to be an elephant
Or something?*
I knew when you read my
Diary in seventh grade
And yelled about all of the
Deep secrets I wrote to paper
I knew when you told me
How disappointed you were
When you swore you'd never
Ever
Be proud of me
Then my mind wanders over
To my father
The big teddy bear
Graying scalp, icy eyes
His suit from 1977
That always made me laugh
And I let myself wonder
If he would even
Bother to cry
I skim across my friends
Druggies
Thieves
Liars
Cheaters
They'd miss me, wouldn't they?
Last, I ponder over
Who would show up
That I wouldn't even want
To be there
The people I've crossed
And thrown away
The ones I loved
And wrote off
I'm sure there would
Be plenty of those
Spewing lies about
How I used to be
And it all swirls together
Down Tornado Alley
My ex's lack of interest
My mother's bleeding heart
My father's vacant stare
My friends' misplaced grief
My enemies' back stabbing falsehoods
And I wonder if any
Of these people
Would honestly be able to say
That they knew me at all...
Meanwhile, the Christmas music
My mother loves to blast
Flows down the hallway and
Under my door
*Fa la la la la
La la la la...*
Dec 21, 2010
Dec 21, 2010 at 5:35 AM UTC
Don’t get in my way.
Let’s put it modestly…
I will destroy you.
Apr 19, 2013
Apr 19, 2013 at 11:39 PM UTC
i am proud to be will maybe do a poem about it as well let me know?
btw how many of my dear friends here pn HP are Leo's? if ur not let me pls know what sign you are! thanks........
Leo - The Sign of the Lion
The people of this sign are natural leaders and chiefs. In reality the supervising position is what the majority of people born under the sign of Lion aspires to. They are really intelligent and magnetic people. That fact attracts others, but they should not try to dominate everyone. Lion frequently called "The sign of the kings" according to his intelligence and graceful manners. Their astrological symbol " Lion" is considered to be the king of animals. But, as well as all governors, that people should learn to wear the crown modestly. They should remember their large sin - vanity.
Friends
It isn't always easy to be friends with a these people. They are best in a one-to-one friendship where their ego is less likely to intrude upon the relationship. These people can find their most lasting friendships with people born in their own period or from March 21 to April 19-27 and, strange to say, all those people who were born on the 1st, 10th, 19th, or 28th of any month, for the reason that these numbers accord and have a sympathetic attraction to the number of the Sun which is the number of this period.
Health
People born in this period should have more time to sleep than almost anyone else. They usually overwork their brains, and are inclined to suffer from headache, trouble with the eyes and other things concerned the head. And they are liable to get cuts and wounds in the head, and they usually run danger from fire. Such people usually demand a constant medical attention.
Color
Their most suitable colors are all shades of yellow, orange, pale green, and white.(PURPLE)
Stones
The birth stones for this period are topazes, amber, and rubies.
Mar 22, 2010
Mar 22, 2010 at 12:07 PM UTC
We never listen to albums from beginning to end anymore.
Thanks, Spotify.
Sorry for sinning, Taylor Swift.
And I guess there is an owed apology to ACDC and the Beatles because you aren't on there either.
But guess what.
Today I actually listened to an old favorite from beginning to end.
(not you guys though)
Good News for People Who Love Bad News.
Every song. In order. And it threw me back to ninth grade,
Faster than even my favorite photograph could.
The lyrics made me scream them and the even the (three) interludes made me smile.
And you're right, Taylor,
It was a work of art.
Good thing it was nearly free
(99 cents for three months)
Or else my morning would have not have passed so swiftly. Or so modestly.
Jun 22, 2015
Jun 22, 2015 at 5:28 PM UTC
when words turn into worlds
strange things happen
paragraphs bend into globes
continents grow out of sentences
cultures start talking to each other
clinging to colons and dashes
when words become worlds
these worlds create grammar
and modestly submit to its rules
whereas the real world of worlds
grows ungrammatically
and is more colorful
Mar 4, 2017
Mar 4, 2017 at 5:48 PM UTC
All that reminds
She/He is an Art
Timeless
One of a kind
Modestly unique
Beauty unseen
With sensible smile
Embrace the vibes
A humble delight
Inside out
That enough
To calm the heart
To fuel the thoughts
Twining the souls
Let me explain
In a captive silence
Millions reason
Why to remember
Why not to forget
If you are awake
Aug 25, 2019
Aug 25, 2019 at 11:28 AM UTC
She sits there on a chair
brown eyes
brown hair
where opposites attract
and attacks me with familiarity.
I modestly avert my eyes
her ****** tells me more lies
and I have no reply to this.
But should I kiss and comfort her
the chair that sets a demarcation line would be
but just a simple waste of time
and I in time could come to see
her ****** is not for me
but for her sense of
femininity.
I couldn't care less
my bedroom's in an awful mess
I'm going to strip off to the buff
jump out the window
I've had enough or not enough
stuff this life
I hope out there I find an equilibrium.
Like a wayward sheep I follow her
but does she care?
she doesn't give a hoot
gives me the boot and says I'm just a stalker
but she knows she's trapped me in this baby walker
and if I the baby catch her eye as she wanders slowly by
what does she do?
but ignore me and I abhor that.
She's like a wild cat sometimes between the sheets at bedtimes
but those times are few and far between.
I've seen the writing on the wall
she's calling time
that says it all
I should have jumped
stopped the pumping of my heart
I know I'll never be a part
of her.
She doesn't care
she doesn't give a hoot
I think I'll shoot
myself.
May 16, 2013
May 16, 2013 at 5:21 PM UTC