Hello Poetry
Submit your work and get some sparkles! Create free account
"outskirts" poems
I found you in the cracks of winter. On our first date, we drank tea from cups bigger than our faces. You also told me you wrote poetry. I noticed how every time you would lick your lips before you would speak. The first time you read me a poem your window was open and it was raining. Your voice cracked and you cleared your throat six times. I was smitten. After our third date, I showed you my favorite place in the world. I took you to a bay on the outskirts of town. I told you the stories I carved into the sand a long time ago. I told you I came here every time the world kept turning but I felt as though I've fallen off, waiting for a guitar solo crash or a midnight knock on my window. I wanted to tell you, you were my midnight knock. You let me hold your book of poems that night. There were bite marks in them from when you said you climbed up in trees back when you were as tall as the kitchen counter. We had conversations of Bon Iver and soccer as we laid on the sandy bay. I realized that night I wanted to be there with you when the clock swallows up your time and watch indie movies on Netflix when there is nothing good on TV. I turned to look into space and swallowed all my feelings. I felt hollow when I looked at you and noticed your skin was old and tired. But you looked at me like you were young. You said I was the first to make you feel this way. I was smitten. At first, I looked at you like a star but ended up seeing the whole solar system.
0
Jul 30, 2013
Jul 30, 2013 at 8:55 PM UTC
I Guess I'm Floating
I sit at the bar of life Looking forward to happy hour Another beer A solicited romance Something Even a bowl of peanuts that never came How I yearn for conversation Warmth I can only dream Seated a few chairs away Is a rainbow haired hillbilly Backpacking possums Gees Can you imagine He said he lives under The outskirts of ****** land He smiles I smile I catch a bee from behind As the bartendress walk by My eyes look at her behind And catch honey My claim to fame Oh how I wish I were a bee And had somebody Like the rainbow haired hillbilly That tends under the outskirts of ****** land I look over at him He's always smiling Maybe it has something to do With playing a fiddle and finding music, finding new paths Goats and milk And backpacking possums Or maybe its sublime Oh, how I wish I could smile Feel warmth Sunshine And look into her peering eyes Logan Robertson 7/16/18
0
Jul 18, 2018
Jul 18, 2018 at 12:16 AM UTC
He Sits Alone At the Bar of Life
Manila, Manila, Your bustling streets vibrate with the rumbling of the jeepneys and the hollers of the drivers as they say, “Pasahero diyan, kasya pa, kasya pa!”; (Any passenger there, some seats are still free!) Your nights twinkle with the Christmas lights that surround every tree around the Meralco building when September begins; Your endless traffic jams keep McDonald’s and KFC alive twenty-four by seven where traffic enforcers dodge cars and vans trucks and tricycles and jeepneys and bicycles while dancing to the rhythm beating in their own ears with a smile and a salute to all the drivers from dawn to dusk; The noise awakens the outskirts of your city filled with people who never fails to smile even when the storm pirouettes like a tempestuous ballerina, where children watch the roads transform into this ocean of black water and small wooden boats become the means of transportation; paddling in between houses as the adults try to go to work; where chickens waddling upon roofs and cats chasing rats become the best forms of entertainment but Manila, your lingering smell of cancer comes with the dark blue starless sky telling people to grip their bags until it merges with their bodies. Manila, say good night while they hold it tight protecting it from the dark humid air where thieves come out to thumb down unscrutinised objects from shallow pockets by the flickering lamps across the blazing red and emerald green lights you see less and less and less faces as the Sun sinks and says good bye. Stop and try to tranquilise yourself. Your city is now lead by a blood-thirsty leader. Apologies from gunshots overpower the cries of help from your people. Manila, ignore them and sleep well. Let the truth decay while lives burn and vanish. Prayers cannot save your mutinous ignominy. Halcyon days are over but Manila, you are still a beautiful city. Your resilient people overflows with hospitable hearts. Their faces plastered with big smiles as they welcome us for you and say, “Mabuhay!” (Long live!) proud and mighty. Offering their minds on banana leaf plates to everyone who visits, Giving away their hearts in small loot bags to everyone who leaves, The Pearl of the Orient Seas was my hood. Manila, despite your lack of snow and intense weather swings, You are and will always be my home.
0
Apr 7, 2017
Apr 7, 2017 at 4:54 PM UTC
Pearl of the Orient
Manila, Manila, Your bustling streets vibrate with the rumbling of the jeepneys and the hollers of the drivers as they say, “Pasahero diyan, kasya pa, kasya pa!”; (Any passenger there, some seats are still free!) Your nights twinkle with the Christmas lights that surround every tree around the Meralco building when September begins; Your endless traffic jams keep McDonald’s and KFC alive twenty-four by seven where traffic enforcers dodge cars and vans trucks and tricycles and jeepneys and bicycles while dancing to the rhythm beating in their own ears with a smile and a salute to all the drivers from dawn to dusk; The noise awakens the outskirts of your city filled with people who never fails to smile even when the storm pirouettes like a tempestuous ballerina, where children watch the roads transform into this ocean of black water and small wooden boats become the means of transportation; paddling in between houses as the adults try to go to work; where chickens waddling upon roofs and cats chasing rats become the best forms of entertainment but Manila, your lingering smell of cancer comes with the dark blue starless sky telling people to grip their bags until it merges with their bodies. Manila, say good night while they hold it tight protecting it from the dark humid air where thieves come out to thumb down unscrutinised objects from shallow pockets by the flickering lamps across the blazing red and emerald green lights you see less and less and less faces as the Sun sinks and says good bye. Stop and try to tranquilise yourself. Your city is now lead by a blood-thirsty leader. Apologies from gunshots overpower the cries of help from your people. Manila, ignore them and sleep well. Let the truth decay while lives burn and vanish. Prayers cannot save your mutinous ignominy. Halcyon days are over but Manila, you are still a beautiful city. Your resilient people overflows with hospitable hearts. Their faces plastered with big smiles as they welcome us for you and say, “Mabuhay!” (Long live!) proud and mighty. Offering their minds on banana leaf plates to everyone who visits, Giving away their hearts in small loot bags to everyone who leaves, The Pearl of the Orient Seas was my hood. Manila, despite your lack of snow and intense weather swings, You are and will always be my home.
Continue reading...
76
My mentor spoke to me of two rivals, Once, they had been friends in some distant past. But the years have eaten their love and made grudges manifest. |The two shattered into broken glass To my wise master I asked only one, One question... In all my range. One question I asked: “What changed?” In the outskirts, at the home of my daughter Where you can stare at the stars or passing cars None more brighter than the other, We share memories of my grandmother. In the photographs, she looks so much younger. Not frail, but a fighter, lover and saintly| To me, she asks plainly, One question, and one question only. Sifting through the ages of years past: “What Changed?” At the kitchen table, feeling inadequate, My lover screaming and frustrated, I recall memories when we had been intimate. Times when movement was made for desire and not duty |A calendar of nights left in confused abstinence I interrupt. She delays rage. I beg, “What Changed?” _ In the last few hours of night The dawn reaches me at last. I had locked moments- Literal seconds of time as the truth. But it was always changing In flux and morphing. Turning into something new Just for a moment, and then on again “What Changed?” Everything. Always.
0
Jul 20, 2015
Jul 20, 2015 at 7:36 AM UTC
What Changed?
son spreads knee blood into ******* &/or sidewalk chalk. mixes reds to pinks with head cracking asphalt. of god & country. of soggy bread in a lunch-bag; snackpack readied. he skates. the concussed ****** of booming youth. omega he: to the wolf pack outers. breathing love of summer, he is the son drunk on hi-c & burping. watching teenaged supersoakers yodel on a bridge. florida. son sneaks out late to rationalize the city’s features under strange light & love of nightly people. boy sculpts body out of beast, turned dark corners. arrives swollen. his father erects a roofed flattop in the backyard slab with flood light electronics taught to worship the shred. mother rattles the blender on the kitchen outskirts, ***** breathed & nearing with hugs. blister-itched. glossed folds of scar tissue. those days on summer-beyond when the neighborhood pulsates. with satellite dishes tuneforking high-frequency vibrations from outerspace & pigeons explode. son’s ears bleed, & the television goes unwatched. he snaps plank & ankle protein, refurbishing his legs into iron-rods or wands of summer anthem. cold war. he empties sugar-sweat & toxins into the storm-drain. essence of wet heat, skin pinched, & friend of ghosts. a three legged dog lay in the shade leisurely watching the boy skate on endless.
0
Apr 1, 2014
Apr 1, 2014 at 1:11 AM UTC
skateboard gothic
to exonerate the clippings they took the back road to oswega the tudor house rabbits had long lost their heads (presumably to the ***** and what remained of the landscape was dead and dry and orange that happy home on the brink of cattle loop was now gull grey the needles and stragglers from shady bay remained (in growing numbers) on the outskirts of the driven back park the once fabled town of horse drawn tours and dignitaries was stone washed ~ on the back of it's government docks sat decrepit toppers set against the high tide beside the lighthouse and its measured song flutes and fiddlers and acoustic sitars ride the accompaniment nose rings and signage in the hands of staged protesters the sickly spit strewn with tidal run and ocean bags hedgerows trimmed along the sea side rolling hills fade adjacent the chuck mint juleps and flop hats peak on the parade clydesdales and royals blinded in the back
0
Apr 2, 2017
Apr 2, 2017 at 2:41 PM UTC
beacon hill pass
Samantha Fox Was a panther In a previous life As well as an ox. Not to mention The wife of a 17th century cobbler On the outskirts Of Gillingham. Which is unusual As those who remember Past incarnations Are usually the wives Of Heads of Nations Or helped build pyramids. Actually said Samantha I forgot to mention I was also the transistor In Euclid's protractor. Can you get anachronisticer? Oh reincarnation The rebirthing Mother of invention.
0
Apr 25, 2014
Apr 25, 2014 at 3:12 PM UTC
Samantha Fox And Euclid's Protractor
When shall we learn, what should be clear as day, We cannot choose what we are free to love? Although the mouse we banished yesterday Is an enraged rhinoceros today, Our value is more threatened than we know: Shabby objections to our present day Go snooping round its outskirts; night and day Faces, orations, battles, bait our will As questionable forms and noises will; Whole phyla of resentments every day Give status to the wild men of the world Who rule the absent-minded and this world. We are created from and with the world To suffer with and from it day by day: Whether we meet in a majestic world Of solid measurements or a dream world Of swans and gold, we are required to love All homeless objects that require a world. Our claim to own our bodies and our world Is our catastrophe. What can we know But panic and caprice until we know Our dreadful appetite demands a world Whose order, origin, and purpose will Be fluent satisfaction of our will? Drift, Autumn, drift; fall, colours, where you will: Bald melancholia minces through the world. Regret, cold oceans, the lymphatic will Caught in reflection on the right to will: While violent dogs excite their dying day To bacchic fury; snarl, though, as they will, Their teeth are not a triumph for the will But utter hesitation. What we love Ourselves for is our power not to love, To shrink to nothing or explode at will, To ruin and remember that we know What ruins and hyaenas cannot know. If in this dark now I less often know That spiral staircase where the haunted will Hunts for its stolen luggage, who should know Better than you, beloved, how I know What gives security to any world. Or in whose mirror I begin to know The chaos of the heart as merchants know Their coins and cities, genius its own day? For through our lively traffic all the day, In my own person I am forced to know How much must be forgotten out of love, How much must be forgiven, even love. Dear flesh, dear mind, dear spirit, O dear love, In the depths of myself blind monsters know Your presence and are angry, dreading Love That asks its image for more than love; The hot rampageous horses of my will, Catching the scent of Heaven, whinny: Love Gives no excuse to evil done for love, Neither in you, nor me, nor armies, nor the world Of words and wheels, nor any other world. Dear fellow-creature, praise our God of Love That we are so admonished, that no day Of conscious trial be a wasted day. Or else we make a scarecrow of the day, Loose ends and jumble of our common world, And stuff and nonsense of our own free will; Or else our changing flesh may never know There must be sorrow if there can be love.
0
5.1k
Canzone
When shall we learn, what should be clear as day, We cannot choose what we are free to love? Although the mouse we banished yesterday Is an enraged rhinoceros today, Our value is more threatened than we know: Shabby objections to our present day Go snooping round its outskirts; night and day Faces, orations, battles, bait our will As questionable forms and noises will; Whole phyla of resentments every day Give status to the wild men of the world Who rule the absent-minded and this world. We are created from and with the world To suffer with and from it day by day: Whether we meet in a majestic world Of solid measurements or a dream world Of swans and gold, we are required to love All homeless objects that require a world. Our claim to own our bodies and our world Is our catastrophe. What can we know But panic and caprice until we know Our dreadful appetite demands a world Whose order, origin, and purpose will Be fluent satisfaction of our will? Drift, Autumn, drift; fall, colours, where you will: Bald melancholia minces through the world. Regret, cold oceans, the lymphatic will Caught in reflection on the right to will: While violent dogs excite their dying day To bacchic fury; snarl, though, as they will, Their teeth are not a triumph for the will But utter hesitation. What we love Ourselves for is our power not to love, To shrink to nothing or explode at will, To ruin and remember that we know What ruins and hyaenas cannot know. If in this dark now I less often know That spiral staircase where the haunted will Hunts for its stolen luggage, who should know Better than you, beloved, how I know What gives security to any world. Or in whose mirror I begin to know The chaos of the heart as merchants know Their coins and cities, genius its own day? For through our lively traffic all the day, In my own person I am forced to know How much must be forgotten out of love, How much must be forgiven, even love. Dear flesh, dear mind, dear spirit, O dear love, In the depths of myself blind monsters know Your presence and are angry, dreading Love That asks its image for more than love; The hot rampageous horses of my will, Catching the scent of Heaven, whinny: Love Gives no excuse to evil done for love, Neither in you, nor me, nor armies, nor the world Of words and wheels, nor any other world. Dear fellow-creature, praise our God of Love That we are so admonished, that no day Of conscious trial be a wasted day. Or else we make a scarecrow of the day, Loose ends and jumble of our common world, And stuff and nonsense of our own free will; Or else our changing flesh may never know There must be sorrow if there can be love.
Continue reading...
65
O as I watch, waiting, wondering.  What has spawned this plague?  The mephitic clouds rise, all day,  joining the atmosphere.  A disease unleashed, let out of the cage.  Allowed to frolic and rage, bringing thoughts to those already afraid.  Spreading further into the outskirts of the desolate plains.  Rapidly growing an apocalypse like a **** unable to pull from the root.  Only solution seem fit.  To continue to change our ways, and never quit, or allow ourselves to fall into another mesolithic age.
0
May 26, 2014
May 26, 2014 at 10:50 PM UTC
Global Warning Parade
Of all things, She opened my mouth and built a bridge only we knew existed. She arranged pillar upon pillar Of steel beams. I struggled understanding what To do with the left over bolts. She grabbed my hand Taking turns throwing them on the outskirts of where we stood. We stood between the beams, An incline of sights seldomly seen. Afraid of heights she rarely looked down. She'd bury her head in my chest Very rarely she looked down. Spoken words clustered in steel beams Without fear of plunging below.
0
Oct 17, 2016
Oct 17, 2016 at 3:58 AM UTC
Bridges
You were born with a garden of flowers reigning in your heart Every flower bloomed at the right season You caltivated your garden You pruned your flowers You watered your flowers You loved your flowers and couldn't wait to share them You gave the key to your garden to wrong people They stole your flowers They didn't help you water your flowers They cut your flowers Your garden was now ruined What am I gonna do now? You asked yourself You covered your head with blankets crying. Your flowers are in ruins You have fresh seeds now Seeds to start a new garden With tears running on your face , you revive the old flowers and plant new You patiently build your garden again The dead flowers are on the outskirts The new flowers are hidden where no one can see them You love your new garden more than before More intensely that you are hidding it away You dont want people to see your flowers You don't want to give them the keys You show them the old dead flowers when they come to view Knowing very well that no one likes dead flowers
0
Sep 13, 2018
Sep 13, 2018 at 4:27 AM UTC
Misused love - A tale of Stolen Flowers
Slick grass glistened heavy After summer showers fell before a sun That trickled veiled toward transcendent trees Towered on the outskirts of the demesne - It unsheathed A pearlescent canvas for a dreamer who paints ideals; A reader finding signs in smiles and glances Strolling paths free of fear to free imagination; Summoning hopes against a fresh red/orange Backdrop, and ignoring perilous heights to cast A thought to moments yet unlived - This fool's masterpiece.
0
Aug 9, 2015
Aug 9, 2015 at 8:07 AM UTC
Brushstrokes
Here I sit In this basement of some other house In the core of the city- I'm almost on my own... This January's night Flashes frozen- As I adicite, light I see all that I've chosen: perturbation, and frustration, Entwine in all my fascination Stinging- they whip my body & paint on lacerations What you've chosen I cannot see And the light I catch redefines me Shadows ignite That December's day Reminds me I'm not alone. In the outskirts of Toronto- In my Parents home- My room, my bed - my life's in The basement its there; I cry.
0
Jan 20, 2024
Jan 20, 2024 at 2:38 AM UTC
Hopelessness
Today, suddenly, I reached an absurd but unerring conclusion. In a moment of enlightenment, I realized that I'm nobody, absolutely nobody. When the lightning flashed, I saw that what I had thought to be a city was in fact a deserted plain and, in the same sinister light that revealed me to myself, there seemed to be no sky above it. I was robbed of any possibility of having existed before the world. If I was ever reincarnated, I must have done so without myself, without a self to reincarnate. I am the outskirts of some non-existent town, the long-winded prologue to an unwritten book. I'm nobody, nobody. I don't know how to feel or think or love. I'm a character in a novel as yet unwritten, hovering in the air and undone before I've even existed, amongst the dreams of someone who never quite managed to breathe life into me. I'm always thinking, always feeling, but my thoughts lack all reason, my emotions all feeling. I'm falling through a trapdoor, through infinite, infinitous space, in a directionless, empty fall. My soul is a black maelstrom, a great madness spinning about a vacuum, the swirling of a vast ocean around a hole in the void, and in the waters, more like whirlwinds than waters, float images of all I ever saw or heard in the world: houses, faces, books, boxes, snatches of music and fragments of voices, all caught up in a sinister, bottomless whirlpool. And I, I myself, am the centre that exists only because the geometry of the abyss demands it; I am the nothing around which all this spins, I exist so that it can spin, I am a centre that exists only because every circle has one. I, I myself, am the well in which the walls have fallen away to leave only viscous slime. I am the centre of everything surrounded by the great nothing. And it is as if hell itself were laughing within me but, instead of the human touch of diabolical laughter, there's the mad croak of the dead universe, the circling cadaver of physical space, the end of all worlds drifting blackly in the wind, misshapen, anachronistic, without the God who created it, without God himself who spins in the dark of darks, impossible, unique, everything. If only I could think! If only I could feel!
0
Oct 20, 2013
Oct 20, 2013 at 9:58 PM UTC
Today
Today, suddenly, I reached an absurd but unerring conclusion. In a moment of enlightenment, I realized that I'm nobody, absolutely nobody. When the lightning flashed, I saw that what I had thought to be a city was in fact a deserted plain and, in the same sinister light that revealed me to myself, there seemed to be no sky above it. I was robbed of any possibility of having existed before the world. If I was ever reincarnated, I must have done so without myself, without a self to reincarnate. I am the outskirts of some non-existent town, the long-winded prologue to an unwritten book. I'm nobody, nobody. I don't know how to feel or think or love. I'm a character in a novel as yet unwritten, hovering in the air and undone before I've even existed, amongst the dreams of someone who never quite managed to breathe life into me. I'm always thinking, always feeling, but my thoughts lack all reason, my emotions all feeling. I'm falling through a trapdoor, through infinite, infinitous space, in a directionless, empty fall. My soul is a black maelstrom, a great madness spinning about a vacuum, the swirling of a vast ocean around a hole in the void, and in the waters, more like whirlwinds than waters, float images of all I ever saw or heard in the world: houses, faces, books, boxes, snatches of music and fragments of voices, all caught up in a sinister, bottomless whirlpool. And I, I myself, am the centre that exists only because the geometry of the abyss demands it; I am the nothing around which all this spins, I exist so that it can spin, I am a centre that exists only because every circle has one. I, I myself, am the well in which the walls have fallen away to leave only viscous slime. I am the centre of everything surrounded by the great nothing. And it is as if hell itself were laughing within me but, instead of the human touch of diabolical laughter, there's the mad croak of the dead universe, the circling cadaver of physical space, the end of all worlds drifting blackly in the wind, misshapen, anachronistic, without the God who created it, without God himself who spins in the dark of darks, impossible, unique, everything. If only I could think! If only I could feel!
Continue reading...
6
Fireworks were cool. Framed metal chairs with woven nylon Americana on watered lawns on the outskirts of the edge of Los Angeles. Hairy neighbors, Miller Drafts and dog **** Sally ****** Jim on the corner, and Jim drank, or started again and wouldn’t stop, but was good with a flat tire and chain adjustment. His kid had a glove like a vacuum. His daughter was a ***** Sally afforded a Mexican gardener. Tim always had fireworks. He had gasoline and willed fireworks into his driveway. He had rope and a keg. Schatzky keep her cool. She had to. She worked the 5th and taught everyone’s kids. She taught their parents too, 10 years ago. Her son Donavan and her husband Keith lived for the 4th. Little pink houses and Jack and Diane kind of **** So they watched fireworks on flag hill while their neighbors ****** and got ********* and burnt their eyebrows. Donavan was ecstatic. Each year the hill was gilded in gold for Donavan and Keith and and Schatzky, because each 4th brought fire and explosives in a way they could never afford. Keith was more patriotic than most. He waited and enlisted and became a hero. Donavan watched on TV. Schatzky watched too. We won the first gulf war and everyone knew it: https://youtu.be/4gNhs2SRacs?t=1m10... They celebrated the fourth in baseball stadiums. They celebrated life and heroism and purpose, and they celebrated with F16s and the best explosives the peacetime nation offered. And Keith celebrated and embraced purpose. He even became a leader in the 2nd gulf war. Sally stopped ******* Jim. Jim wasn’t married anymore. His kid lowered Tim’s basement and didn’t steal the copper. Tim’s house was worth a fortune but it had a radon problem. Schatsky was accused of drowning her dog, but she didn’t do it. Jim still drinks; he’s smarter now. They all meet on flag hill every 4th. The fireworks aren’t as good. A lot of build up for a finale that feels like an accident. Water seeps through my jeans and no one can see my face as I limp home with a broken rubber sandal and a bucket of ice, a dog tied around my legs, and a kid face first on the grass, a wife whose friend drank our last beer an hour ago, a phone with  two-percent battery left and my mom wants to show me what fireworks look like in California.
0
Jul 5, 2016
Jul 5, 2016 at 2:12 AM UTC
Fireworks
Fireworks were cool. Framed metal chairs with woven nylon Americana on watered lawns on the outskirts of the edge of Los Angeles. Hairy neighbors, Miller Drafts and dog **** Sally ****** Jim on the corner, and Jim drank, or started again and wouldn’t stop, but was good with a flat tire and chain adjustment. His kid had a glove like a vacuum. His daughter was a ***** Sally afforded a Mexican gardener. Tim always had fireworks. He had gasoline and willed fireworks into his driveway. He had rope and a keg. Schatzky keep her cool. She had to. She worked the 5th and taught everyone’s kids. She taught their parents too, 10 years ago. Her son Donavan and her husband Keith lived for the 4th. Little pink houses and Jack and Diane kind of **** So they watched fireworks on flag hill while their neighbors ****** and got ********* and burnt their eyebrows. Donavan was ecstatic. Each year the hill was gilded in gold for Donavan and Keith and and Schatzky, because each 4th brought fire and explosives in a way they could never afford. Keith was more patriotic than most. He waited and enlisted and became a hero. Donavan watched on TV. Schatzky watched too. We won the first gulf war and everyone knew it: https://youtu.be/4gNhs2SRacs?t=1m10... They celebrated the fourth in baseball stadiums. They celebrated life and heroism and purpose, and they celebrated with F16s and the best explosives the peacetime nation offered. And Keith celebrated and embraced purpose. He even became a leader in the 2nd gulf war. Sally stopped ******* Jim. Jim wasn’t married anymore. His kid lowered Tim’s basement and didn’t steal the copper. Tim’s house was worth a fortune but it had a radon problem. Schatsky was accused of drowning her dog, but she didn’t do it. Jim still drinks; he’s smarter now. They all meet on flag hill every 4th. The fireworks aren’t as good. A lot of build up for a finale that feels like an accident. Water seeps through my jeans and no one can see my face as I limp home with a broken rubber sandal and a bucket of ice, a dog tied around my legs, and a kid face first on the grass, a wife whose friend drank our last beer an hour ago, a phone with  two-percent battery left and my mom wants to show me what fireworks look like in California.
Continue reading...
14
Of course the two of us                                                                                 want to get away from here                                                             We were so innocent  Running                                                             Hand in hand To the outskirts of this                                                              Upside – down  town  Where  were  we  going?                                                          To  the  mansion  we  had  built  with  daddy                                                High in the sky of the     towering sycamore tree                                                      But now going back           walking the dirt trail that supposedly                                             brought us to        dreams             Kicking aside pebbles we pushed                                                                with        all our           might       to                                                                 to        escape              from        the                                                                   Monsters                chasing    us                                                                    Seeing                              the                                                                        Wimpy                   vines                                                                            That                      were                                                                               once               chains                                                                               and       shackles                                                                               intertwined                                                                              imprisoning                                                                            all of the trunk                                                                           seemed   unreal                                                                          But  I  had  made                                                                         Peace   with   it   all                                                                    When I saw our shanty hut                                                            Atop the mangled, dwarfed skeleton tree
0
Mar 24, 2012
Mar 24, 2012 at 8:52 PM UTC
Treehouse
Of course the two of us                                                                                 want to get away from here                                                             We were so innocent  Running                                                             Hand in hand To the outskirts of this                                                              Upside – down  town  Where  were  we  going?                                                          To  the  mansion  we  had  built  with  daddy                                                High in the sky of the     towering sycamore tree                                                      But now going back           walking the dirt trail that supposedly                                             brought us to        dreams             Kicking aside pebbles we pushed                                                                with        all our           might       to                                                                 to        escape              from        the                                                                   Monsters                chasing    us                                                                    Seeing                              the                                                                        Wimpy                   vines                                                                            That                      were                                                                               once               chains                                                                               and       shackles                                                                               intertwined                                                                              imprisoning                                                                            all of the trunk                                                                           seemed   unreal                                                                          But  I  had  made                                                                         Peace   with   it   all                                                                    When I saw our shanty hut                                                            Atop the mangled, dwarfed skeleton tree
Continue reading...
25
Below are eleven Buson haiku beginning with the phrase 'The short night--' The short night-- on the hairy caterpillar beads of dew. The short night-- patrolmen washing in the river. The short night-- bubbles of crab froth among the river reeds. The short night-- a broom thrown away on the beach. The short night-- the Oi River has sunk two feet. The short night-- on the outskirts of the village a small shop opening. The short night-- broken, in the shallows, a crescent moon. The short night-- the peony has opened. The short night-- waves beating in, an abandoned fire. The short night-- near the pillow a screen turning silver. The short night-- shallow footprints on the beach at Yui. User Submitted "The short night--" Haiku Submit your own haiku beginning with the line "The short night--" and we'll post the best ones below! Just dash off an e-mail to: [email protected] The short night- a watery moon stands alone over the hill Maggie The short night-- just as I'm falling asleep my wife's waking up Larry Bole
0
3.4k
Variations on 'The short night
I heard her thoughts breathe. said, she needed something with Redwood patience to understand why her mind traveled with butterflies searching for Eden. Said, she felt ants inside her dreams carrying away the dead. wondered if there was no limits to how her heart could grow or communicate with anything. I saw her quaking eyes search for a place to land back before the first words that God said. She felt the masterpiece come alive at midnight it spoke beyond all languages, treaded outside of logic, flew outside of time, connected itself with everything alive and spoke to her with a simple grace. Everything is already yours. Your heart is the doorway home. She took a piece of me when she left, left an ice pick for me to play with. Her sensitive nature understood why roots dug down in a quest for warm solace. My heart almost closed forever, I felt the final straw detour me to wasteland. I ran emerald frontiers in her eyes, butterflies landing on my hands their wings stained my eyelids I can't go to sleep without flying through her. my heart headed to the outskirts of Eden imagining how she is Loving her from behind bars Her butterflies never seeking my garden. It almost wilted. Windy wrath almost destroyed it all. I had to search the silence Try to understand myself through a tortured past, I had to tame your tyrant that grew inside my head. I had to bear the weight of impatient voices that I could not repeat to anybody here but the dead already know it, Ones that died by their own hand. I heard her thoughts breathe said, our roots go past the stars hidden in our beating blood is the whisper and light of God.
0
May 8, 2017
May 8, 2017 at 3:57 PM UTC
Redwood Patience
I heard her thoughts breathe. said, she needed something with Redwood patience to understand why her mind traveled with butterflies searching for Eden. Said, she felt ants inside her dreams carrying away the dead. wondered if there was no limits to how her heart could grow or communicate with anything. I saw her quaking eyes search for a place to land back before the first words that God said. She felt the masterpiece come alive at midnight it spoke beyond all languages, treaded outside of logic, flew outside of time, connected itself with everything alive and spoke to her with a simple grace. Everything is already yours. Your heart is the doorway home. She took a piece of me when she left, left an ice pick for me to play with. Her sensitive nature understood why roots dug down in a quest for warm solace. My heart almost closed forever, I felt the final straw detour me to wasteland. I ran emerald frontiers in her eyes, butterflies landing on my hands their wings stained my eyelids I can't go to sleep without flying through her. my heart headed to the outskirts of Eden imagining how she is Loving her from behind bars Her butterflies never seeking my garden. It almost wilted. Windy wrath almost destroyed it all. I had to search the silence Try to understand myself through a tortured past, I had to tame your tyrant that grew inside my head. I had to bear the weight of impatient voices that I could not repeat to anybody here but the dead already know it, Ones that died by their own hand. I heard her thoughts breathe said, our roots go past the stars hidden in our beating blood is the whisper and light of God.
Continue reading...
33
*Many legends there be back in days of old; Legends of bold knights upon their noble steeds. This be a tale starring a knight and his steed As one and the same. 'Twas in the Renaissance city of Poitiers The prodigy of a holy knight was born; Sir Nathanëal of the Salomon bloodline, Lineage of victors. He bore the heart and voice of an archangel And the loyalty of a priest to his God. No other horse he rode but his first and last; Dear "Divinitus." Alas, his loyalty had cost him dearly In the midst of the Battle of Moncontour. Thus came the end of Nathanëal Salomon. Or so it had seemed. By the hands of benevolent sorcery, Nathanëal and Divinitus lived again, This time sharing a peculiar physique Of both man and horse. Thus, blessed with fur of white and a mane of gold, Well-equipped with lightweight armour and claymore, He walked the outskirts of France slaying evil As both knight and steed.*
0
May 26, 2014
May 26, 2014 at 7:35 AM UTC
As Both Knight and Steed
the grating voices of neighbors unsuccessfully singing Celine Dion ballads the monotonous mechanical humming of the metal factory the squealing of housewives watching an afternoon soap opera the blaring siren of a firetruck racing with tragedy the clunks and clangs of a nearby construction site the roaring of the engine of an overloaded jeepney the chiming of laughter from kids playing in the streets the calls of the street vendor peddling sugary cotton candy the whining of the dog begging to run around outside this is the music of life in the outskirts of the city
0
Jun 24, 2014
Jun 24, 2014 at 3:45 AM UTC
suburban music
From the outskirts of the town, Where of old the mile-stone stood, Now a stranger, looking down I behold the shadowy crown Of the dark and haunted wood. Is it changed, or am I changed? Ah! the oaks are fresh and green, But the friends with whom I ranged Through their thickets are estranged By the years that intervene. Bright as ever flows the sea, Bright as ever shines the sun, But alas! they seem to me Not the sun that used to be, Not the tides that used to run.
0
3.2k
Changed
Is it my priestly duty to be denied? love—time and all else, at all cost! while he went home alone to watch a movie? Another victim   sacrificed having squandered all my pieces in his game? Trudging home along the river slow, in snow I parse my losses At the outskirts of a homeless camp I pause below a viaduct hauling passion by a leash warming hands avoiding hovel-eyes Flames flicker on our faces receiving absolution over embers of a burning embrace There trace in glowing holocaust of skids in human bleatings and crumblings our smoke rises— pure   obscure Appease with boozy-blur the icy, stinging God of winter stars... G’nights inaudible as blessing Am I derelict enough to be worthy? Fallen far enough? from the porches of prosperity? to escape it all? That wedding white the newborn’s head that numbing denial of decay? Am I depraved enough to make it? to the pages of your tragedy— minus poetry? But the angel said “The poetry’s more!” Than leaving me—beyond you ...in the shambles of my words
0
Dec 8, 2016
Dec 8, 2016 at 10:16 PM UTC
Holocaust of the Skids
Oh what is that country And where can it be, Not mine own country, But dearer far to me? Yet mine own country, If I one day may see Its spices and cedars, Its gold and ivory. As I lie dreaming It rises, that land; There rises before me Its green golden strand, With the bowing cedars And the shining sand; It sparkles and flashes Like a shaken brand. Do angels lean nearer While I lie and long? I see their soft plumage And catch their windy song, Like the rise of a high tide Sweeping full and strong; I mark the outskirts Of their reverend throng. Oh what is a king here, Or what is a boor? Here all starve together, All dwarfed and poor; Here Death's hand knocketh At door after door, He thins the dancers From the festal floor. Oh what is a handmaid, Or what is a queen? All must lie down together Where the turf is green, The foulest face hidden, The fairest not seen; Gone as if never They had breathed or been. Gone from sweet sunshine Underneath the sod, Turned from warm flesh and blood To senseless clod; Gone as if never They had toiled or trod, Gone out of sight of all Except our God. Shut into silence From the accustomed song Shut into solitude From all earth's throng, Run down though swift of foot, Thrust down though strong; Life made an end of, Seemed it short or long. Life made an end of, Life but just begun; Life finished yesterday, Its last sand run; Life new-born with the morrow Fresh as the sun: While done is done for ever; Undone, undone. And if that life is life, This is but a breath, The passage of a dream And the shadow of death; But a vain shadow If one considereth; Vanity of vanities, As the Preacher saith.
0
3.2k
Mother Country
Oh what is that country And where can it be, Not mine own country, But dearer far to me? Yet mine own country, If I one day may see Its spices and cedars, Its gold and ivory. As I lie dreaming It rises, that land; There rises before me Its green golden strand, With the bowing cedars And the shining sand; It sparkles and flashes Like a shaken brand. Do angels lean nearer While I lie and long? I see their soft plumage And catch their windy song, Like the rise of a high tide Sweeping full and strong; I mark the outskirts Of their reverend throng. Oh what is a king here, Or what is a boor? Here all starve together, All dwarfed and poor; Here Death's hand knocketh At door after door, He thins the dancers From the festal floor. Oh what is a handmaid, Or what is a queen? All must lie down together Where the turf is green, The foulest face hidden, The fairest not seen; Gone as if never They had breathed or been. Gone from sweet sunshine Underneath the sod, Turned from warm flesh and blood To senseless clod; Gone as if never They had toiled or trod, Gone out of sight of all Except our God. Shut into silence From the accustomed song Shut into solitude From all earth's throng, Run down though swift of foot, Thrust down though strong; Life made an end of, Seemed it short or long. Life made an end of, Life but just begun; Life finished yesterday, Its last sand run; Life new-born with the morrow Fresh as the sun: While done is done for ever; Undone, undone. And if that life is life, This is but a breath, The passage of a dream And the shadow of death; But a vain shadow If one considereth; Vanity of vanities, As the Preacher saith.
Continue reading...
72
Can you run, Your softened fingers, Along the outskirts, Of my brittle bones. Push them down, Until they jut out, And pierce through, My cracking skin. Can you hold, My head under, The murky depts, Of darkened water. Sew my bleeding, Lips together, And make sure, I cannot breathe.
0
Apr 7, 2014
Apr 7, 2014 at 6:33 PM UTC
Wasting
An aqua-marine dragonfly hovers in the clarified light of dusk, I walk slowly the risen earth pathway through the vibrant green fields on the outskirts of the village. A bell tolls once, arresting in silence the moment of foot-fall, making real the careful route along the trodden path to my house.
0
Mar 28, 2017
Mar 28, 2017 at 9:55 AM UTC
Anjuna Beach, Goa 1976