"shad" poems
The birches are mad with green points
the wood’s edge is burning with their green,
burning, seething—No, no, no.
The birches are opening their leaves one
by one. Their delicate leaves unfold cold
and separate, one by one. Slender tassels
hang swaying from the delicate branch tips—
Oh, I cannot say it. There is no word.
Black is split at once into flowers. In
every bog and ditch, flares of
small fire, white flowers!—Agh,
the birches are mad, mad with their green.
The world is gone, torn into shreds
with this blessing. What have I left undone
that I should have undertaken?
O my brother, you redfaced, living man
ignorant, stupid whose feet are upon
this same dirt that I touch—and eat.
We are alone in this terror, alone,
face to face on this road, you and I,
wrapped by this flame!
Let the polished plows stay idle,
their gloss already on the black soil.
But that face of yours—!
Answer me. I will clutch you. I
will hug you, grip you. I will poke my face
into your face and force you to see me.
Take me in your arms, tell me the commonest
thing that is in your mind to say,
say anything. I will understand you—!
It is the madness of the birch leaves opening
cold, one by one.
My rooms will receive me. But my rooms
are no longer sweet spaces where comfort
is ready to wait on me with its crumbs.
A darkness has brushed them. The mass
of yellow tulips in the bowl is shrunken.
Every familiar object is changed and dwarfed.
I am shaken, broken against a might
that splits comfort, blows apart
my careful partitions, crushes my house
and leaves me—with shrinking heart
and startled, empty eyes—peering out
into a cold world.
In the spring I would be drunk! In the spring
I would be drunk and lie forgetting all things.
Your face! Give me your face, Yang Kue Fei!
your hands, your lips to drink!
Give me your wrists to drink—
I drag you, I am drowned in you, you
overwhelm me! Drink!
Save me! The shad bush is in the edge
of the clearing. The yards in a fury
of lilac blossoms are driving me mad with terror.
Drink and lie forgetting the world.
And coldly the birch leaves are opening one by one.
Coldly I observe them and wait for the end.
And it ends.
2.5k
a half moon rises
as the sun sets over
a golden Charles
the Fens
luminescence
guide scullers
chasing the days
ebbing light
shimmering
upon near
stillness,
as dancing
black ripples
push silver
splashes of
floating sheens
toward the
gentle slopes of
grassy banks
fisherman cast
the day’s final
hopes upon
gracious waters
as shad fry
breech to
proclaim
a promise
of a dutiful
return to fulfill
a future bounty
this accessible
river, the pulsing
heart conjoining
two cities;
flows as a
democratic spirit
drawing all to its
hospitable shores
my eyes remain
transfixed on
the glowing ember
of a twilight Charles
drifting under darkened
portals of the
Harvard Bridge,
while the rise
of a sunset breeze
whispers a cool
end to the
summers day
I imagine
Luna blowing
a goodnight
kiss to a
yawning Sol,
as she winks to
young *****
lovers embracing
the long shadows
and sweet fragrance
of tall bulrushes
a slight puff of wind
anoints my minds eye
as lazy water rolls
toward me, lapping
my feet, lollygagging
along, slowly strolling
towards the bay
as I salute pilots
navigating this
most friendly
course
Music Selection:
Grant Green, Moon River
Cambridge MA
7/7/91
jbm
Jun 4, 2013
Jun 4, 2013 at 1:33 AM UTC
The birches are mad with green points
the wood’s edge is burning with their green,
burning, seething—No, no, no.
The birches are opening their leaves one
by one. Their delicate leaves unfold cold
and separate, one by one. Slender tassels
hang swaying from the delicate branch tips—
Oh, I cannot say it. There is no word.
Black is split at once into flowers. In
every bog and ditch, flares of
small fire, white flowers!—Agh,
the birches are mad, mad with their green.
The world is gone, torn into shreds
with this blessing. What have I left undone
that I should have undertaken?
O my brother, you redfaced, living man
ignorant, stupid whose feet are upon
this same dirt that I touch—and eat.
We are alone in this terror, alone,
face to face on this road, you and I,
wrapped by this flame!
Let the polished plows stay idle,
their gloss already on the black soil.
But that face of yours—!
Answer me. I will clutch you. I
will hug you, grip you. I will poke my face
into your face and force you to see me.
Take me in your arms, tell me the commonest
thing that is in your mind to say,
say anything. I will understand you—!
It is the madness of the birch leaves opening
cold, one by one.
My rooms will receive me. But my rooms
are no longer sweet spaces where comfort
is ready to wait on me with its crumbs.
A darkness has brushed them. The mass
of yellow tulips in the bowl is shrunken.
Every familiar object is changed and dwarfed.
I am shaken, broken against a might
that splits comfort, blows apart
my careful partitions, crushes my house
and leaves me—with shrinking heart
and startled, empty eyes—peering out
into a cold world.
In the spring I would be drunk! In the spring
I would be drunk and lie forgetting all things.
Your face! Give me your face, Yang Kue Fei!
your hands, your lips to drink!
Give me your wrists to drink—
I drag you, I am drowned in you, you
overwhelm me! Drink!
Save me! The shad bush is in the edge
of the clearing. The yards in a fury
of lilac blossoms are driving me mad with terror.
Drink and lie forgetting the world.
And coldly the birch leaves are opening one by one.
Coldly I observe them and wait for the end.
And it ends.
1.4k
you hand'd me a handful,
you hand'd her a handful,
you retain'd your handful -
done by sight, something
rare to be a good omen.
eyes met collectively
as we contemplated.
dry musty taste, almost retch'd.
the sun shone bright, and
it was too late to turn back.
we giggled a bit at first, and
you found miss'd cap.
pop'd it. commenced vomiting.
your tryp never peak'd.
your chick laid on blue lounge chair
calling me over. commenting:
"it looks like ground beef, doesn't it?"
her finger pointing at
pile of ***** my stomach churning,
vision as well,
collapsed into chair in shade.
-- lapse in space,
it had come on too fast, too hard,
and i went to find more driftwood.
my fire had become sacred,
burning only the long dead.
the brined and dried.
i skid down scree hill on heels
to find snake on my path;
startled, it slid off -
no concern.
drift'd from initial plan to
explore an alter'd world,
saw spider and vomit'd.
cleansed.
and back to collecting my driftwood.
fire raging midday,
lounging in shad;
sun raging midday,
cruising out this end'd tryp;
wondering in constant if that
spider ever had his tryp.
Jan 14, 2013
Jan 14, 2013 at 1:20 PM UTC
Swim along chasing shad
Under docks with shade
Tail walk just for the fun
Sep 16, 2016
Sep 16, 2016 at 10:09 AM UTC
Thick fog breaks across West Point Lake ...
Bass boats and crappie fishermen , tour boats and skiers
skim across her blue looking glass , Wood Ducks test the skies
northbound up the Chattahoochee River , bank anglers anchor poles
along her fortified edges .. White granite boulders visible from the mid-line .. Indigo hope and dreams as starlings silhouette her morning miracle , shad minnows skim the blue mirror , visiting gulls feast along quiet shoreline . A tall Georgia Pine mirage forms in tranquil coves , early day crows call hysterically from the hardwood thickets .. Turtles occupy muddy banks , Whitetails quietly graze worked fields , dragonflies and monarchs incessantly toil beneath the strengthening heat of Summer , baldfaced hornets fortify their paper rampart high atop a lone River Birch ...
Feb 17, 2016
Feb 17, 2016 at 10:36 AM UTC
Crappie running in beds along the lit docks , bridges and abutments .. Flathead catfish bigger than a grown man at the base of the dam , Largemouth bass hitting shad like battering rams , early morning , late afternoon and darkest night .. Hardwood forest brimming colorful shores , stoic Whitetail Bucks dining on acorns , field nuts and sweet moss , Canadian geese and frozen shorebirds working her tributaries and inlets .. Smokey water silhouettes relayed by whippoorwill hymns , the first angelic beam of the morn striking her poetic surface .. Lake Jackson returning to diurnal joy , across reflective , freshwater twirling plains ...
Mar 26, 2016
Mar 26, 2016 at 8:59 PM UTC
Look In My Eyes
My Dark Angel,
Look at what you have done
O why have you made me bled
O look what you have done to me
loves me more then I will ever know
then he kissed me and said
my love is dark
and it will cut deep at your heart
Come and walk with me
and I will show you a part of me
that has been written down in history
the he touched my hand
and given them a kiss
then he lifted me up
and we walked and talked about
a life he once lived
before he was cast down to the darkness
in a crying abbes
then a spell had been cast upon him
and he never known Love again
Until he seen the beauty of me
he told a story about me
why he felt he had to make me see
what it is he felt
when he seen
me fall
he looked deep within my eyes
and he kissed me goodbye
as I had woken up from this dream
he left a mark on me
it was a dark shad of his lips
upon my hand
just to let me know
he is truly real
with time moving along
I feel him wherever I go
I feel his eyes upon me
I know he loves me
because he told me so
But his love hurts so much
all I feel is the pains
and see so much rain
He plays games upon the minds
most of the time
he loves to see the dreamers cry
He tells me to look in his eyes
he will show me all he will bring
his eyes are dark as the sea
his words are painful
that cuts deep within
It's me he wants to take control of
but it is I that could never let it be
I was alone until I met him
now I cry to get away from him
I can't seem to get him out of my head
I could feel the change come over me
I ask God to please forgive me
to please Help me
I pleaded for mercy
to help me to get through this
Dark Angel gave me a life
of true darkness
a reason for change
is like the seasons
where autumn leaves fall
while snow is on the ground
where the sun moves along into the gray
while the moon hangs in gloom
in late June
Is how he changed me
Darkness is all I can see in darken dreams
everything is black and white
this place isn't very nice
it always seems to make me cry
my poor heart bleeds out like the sea
My winter are colder than before
my summers are all gone
I know he loves me
because he told me so
When he takes hold of my arms
he squeeze them tight
just to make me cry
bits my lips just to see them bleed
he loves to see me in pain
to make me scream
then he tells me this is his Love
When he is through with me
he tells me over and over
how much he needs me
how much he Loves me
more then I will ever know
Oh ,how my world has grown cold
I see him wherever I go
His words are like a mystery song
that will go down in history
right along with me
Will anyone miss me
while yesterday pains
gave me so much rain
I cried today I smile tomorrow
but only for a little while
He gave me all his loneliness
He gave me love of his darkness
to make my life worthwhile
only just for a little while
He **** my hand
gave me a spend
and said the words to me
I love you more then you will ever know
can you see all the things I bring
Look in my eyes and I will tell you my story
that holds no end .
Poetic Judy Emery © 1993
The Queen Of Darken Dreams Poetic Lilly Emery
Mar 31, 2017
Mar 31, 2017 at 4:00 PM UTC
Oconee's throwing reflections at Dusk
Heavenly Monarch orange fields with -
Dove and Wood Duck silhouettes
Autumn , cool dreamscapes christened by -
the Evening Star , shadow boat anglers and -
lamp lit docks
The smoky breath of lakeside cabins
Intrinsic , moonlight interpretations -
over the piedmont treetops
The clap of olive turbid water against her granite -
embankments , voices echo over watery nighttime
level , schools of shad decorate and skim the surface
Carolina blue bows to ebony star filled October night
Dark plains teeming with starlight imagination
Apr 18, 2016
Apr 18, 2016 at 8:59 PM UTC
Alone at home busy
Where is she?
Duty is duty
No one around me
Pouring water; plants and lawn
Washing floor with the pump
Blossoming flowers remind me bygone
They used to run and jump
Yellow flowers were eaten by rabbits
Two whites and one black
They forgot missing two, memory habit
Of the rest - brain's bank
Missing one was pragnant, Oh so sad,
Wish you were hidding in burrow
Where you dug near the shad
Not a dog bit it up to hollow
Miss you the everytime I feed
Green fresh water spinach leaves
Only the rest three came to eat
Where do you leave? Where do you leave?
Dec 21, 2018
Dec 21, 2018 at 9:45 AM UTC
Picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Listen to the song of the surly white seagull and enjoy the afternoon air.
Claw your fingers in the carmelised current and gaily gaze at the grinning gondelier.
Ponder the purpose of the imperfect present or savour the slipping scene so excruciatingly sweet.
Shake hands with the shuddering shad, nearly fooled into feeding on the infamous flakes from the fisherman's bait.
Nestle your neck on nurturing maple and close your kaleidoscope eyes.
Dream of your daughters dancing in lillies while your stomach sizzles in the strawberry sun.
Avail the wailing white wolves as they sob their sombre wolf-songs.
Marvel at the marshmallow moon until you've lingered for just too long.
May 21, 2016
May 21, 2016 at 12:14 AM UTC
Your words hurt and scar
The tears I shad are like blood
The words you say are like a knife
When you said that you cut me so deep
The blood shad so thick
The scars are still there always hurting me
Memory's of you is like going insane
******* up my brain
Crying time after time
Finding reason after reason
Dying inside day after day
Maybe someday ill be okay
But I know that day isn't today
Aug 21, 2014
Aug 21, 2014 at 9:00 AM UTC
A guilty heart of a unsteady beat.
Shooting up fire to the ones who couldn’t stand the heat.
Exorcising my own demons,
The ones that creep.
A sorrow so long,
And a pain so deep.
In and out of mischief,
Was a soul to reep.
Praying, crying to God,
‘Please don’t let this be’
Mama talking to me,
Daddy gone.
I felt no love sitting in the passenger side all alone.
Ready to **** something,
High as hell way too gone,
But I have a warm heart,
Just didn’t know when to love,
Or how to start.
I was once taught how to love,
But now reminiscin’ I no longer
Get hugs,
Only a okay, and a shoulder
Shove.
Looking up at the sky one day hoping to be that dove.
In that clear blue sky,
Looking down at this empty world,
That us humans created.
Me and my sins debating,
Rather my anger and pain has truly
Deflated.
I tried to escape it.
Hold the handkerchief mama,
Away with it.
I’ve been up and thru it.
Yes it’s phenomenal.
Hard cold blood,
I’ve been thru the rain and the mud.
So there’s nothing you can really tell me,
At the end of the day I’ll still be-
Me.
Singing my soul away,
I should have been on glee,
Closed casket,
6 feet deep.
Going up the hill but the **** too steep.
Smoking real good,
But it’s too hard too sleep.
It’s too hard to be-
Me.
Deep in the world,
My name is a number.
They recognize me as a number.
Sleeping on the floor in that 2 bedroom house,
Mama you remember?
When shad wasn’t here that and this December,
The sweet scent that lingers,
Tongue rolling and sticky fingers.
My shirt,
My chest,
My heart,
Is where it hurts.
Inflammable, but so sweet,
Is it true?
I can’t be.
Am I?
A CRIMINAL
Marci h.
Apr 1, 2015
Apr 1, 2015 at 8:09 AM UTC
i have crashed in to the middel of the desert. i have lost hope since theres nothing out here to save my words to write my fear of dying. i feel like im spinning in my own memories that fade away. i keep seeing the same patch of rocks. i dont know but i need the cool shad befor i fall over. i could keep walking but theres no chance of sivilization so maybe ill scream and go crazy. i keep walking the sand rocks. but its just the circles that trapme in my own insaine liitle game. the wild greens i ate have mad me additted to rhe barries witch bring a high. the heat grows stronger. i even wonder who i am since theres no name to even know me. the san feels nice on my feet but the sun blisters my patciants its own self. i feel like i am going in cicles when i dont know who the **** i am. my madness has grew and my addition to the barries made time stop.
Nov 19, 2015
Nov 19, 2015 at 6:31 PM UTC
By:D.E.T.
When I leave
Just sleep
But don't bleed
If you feel the pain gain
Just know it'll
Heal
So, there is no big deal
If you feel ill
Just try to heal
When I leave
Don't turn around
And make a sound
With your words
Cuz I'll pretend that those are the birds
Don't face me cuz in this case
You have to find your own place
And space
That you belong
Stay strong
When I'm gone
Cuz I'm done
With this pain
Don't complain
Or try to explain
Cuz it don't mean nothing
I frown
When you drown me
Keep your distance
Cuz I don't want to know about your experience
Cuz you bother to help me
When I bleed
Inside and out
That's what it's about
You not helping me
So, let me flee
So, when I leave I won't shad a tear
Cuz this how it seems to appear
To me
So, know this when I leave
Just know that I don't want to bleed
Jan 10, 2016
Jan 10, 2016 at 10:32 PM UTC
laying wake every night with long never ending thoughts. of the one person who has been your sworn savior that has kept you safe has came stumbling in the door ritteled with bullet hols. holding him with his blood streaming down your arms to the ground. tears start to fall hearing his last words say you are safe now u dont have to keep running. seeing his dark shad of blue eyes slowly fad away that kristal sparkle fade his words slowly say u will be okay? i said how will it bee along with out u? he sai youl see me some day again. never forget i loved you. this world has nothing but danger that hangs over. my tears stream down my face as the rain starts to fall no one can see them! digging a grave to put my savior to rest with just silence that fills my head. nothing matteres any more. my family an every one lost the fight to protect me the shadow creature. now i dont have any one to be with? his last words fell steep and slowly in to silence nothing changes when u can never stop crying
Nov 17, 2015
Nov 17, 2015 at 10:35 AM UTC
A wintertide timid sun shines green along the stacked pine
In myirad hues agin some lonesome fenceline
Sparkle red clay beside the hardwood borders
Keep a writers flicker of thought in apple pie order ...
Pull the bucket mouths to the surface
See shad tremble , darting and nervous
Caste the shadow of a stately heron
Paint the colors of Spring at the behest of Hill Country's
songbird clarion...
Jan 29, 2021
Jan 29, 2021 at 2:16 PM UTC
Fisherman's intro, from "The Floral War."
FISHERMAN
Well well, what have we here? Some field of view:
The turquoise circle of the dazzling sea
Blazes her setting of bright-banded sands,
Where on this first, chill morning of the year,
Our sun arises to peruse his course,
And I, to tease my living from the deeps.
Come, gilded fishes, hither to my net,
You shimmering schools of perch, soft octopi,
White-shingled shad, and jade-scaled terrapins,
Plump, krill-fed dwellers of the pickling brine,
Come now to me. To pray you have no fear
Would shuffle with the truth, as I intend
To angle for your lives, yet spoil me,
For I who come to act unneighbourly
Am poor, and strapped, and only bother you
Compelled by leaky-seamed necessity.
I have my wife’s own hatchery at home,
And you, my friends, must make their maintenance.
So, rush my meshes and forgive my faults.
Whoa there! What vision’s this? Green goddess, say,
What monstrous marvels wander on your face?
This cannot be! I am awake, and sane,
Yet seem to see a wading range of hills,
A chain of dizzy-peaked and scraggy steeps
Whose groundworks bob like buoys in the surf.
Yet now this restless reef flows closer still,
Resolving as spray-freighted citadels,
Wave-buttressed towers romping on the breakers,
Their canvas banners snapping at the breeze,
Whose men wing down from ropes to pace the decks,
And screen their eyes as if to locate me.
I’ll hustle to my chieftains with this news,
And let their cry of ominous novelty
Alert each ear from here to Mexico.
My life thus far was bright and fancy-free.
Oh, why must change then come to quiet me? Exit.
Oct 3, 2016
Oct 3, 2016 at 11:43 PM UTC
Look In My Eyes
My Dark Angel,
Look at what you have done
Oh. why have you made me bled
Oh. look what you have done to me
loves me more then I will ever know
then he kissed me and said
my love is dark
and it will cut deep at your heart
Come and walk with me
and I will show you a part of me
that has been written down in history
the he touched my hand
and given them a kiss
then he lifted me up
and we walked and talked about
a life he once lived
before he was cast down to the darkness
in a crying abbes
then a spell had been cast upon him
and he never known Love again
Until he seen the beauty of me
he told a story about me
why he felt he had to make me see
what it is he felt
when he seen
me fall
he looked deep within my eyes
and he kissed me goodbye
as I had woken up from this dream
he left a mark on me
it was a dark shad of his lips
upon my hand
just to let me know
he is truly real
with time moving along
I feel him wherever I go
I feel his eyes upon me
I know he loves me
because he told me so
But his love hurts so much
all I feel is the pains
and see so much rain
He plays games upon the minds
most of the time
he loves to see the dreamers cry
He tells me to look in his eyes
he will show me all he will bring
his eyes are dark as the sea
his words are painful
that cuts deep within
It's me he wants to take control of
but it is I that could never let it be
I was alone until I met him
now I cry to get away from him
I can't seem to get him out of my head
I could feel the change come over me
I ask God to please forgive me
to please Help me
I pleaded for mercy
to help me to get through this
Dark Angel gave me a life
of true darkness
a reason for change
is like the seasons
where autumn leaves fall
while snow is on the ground
where the sun moves along into the gray
while the moon hangs in gloom
in late June
Is how he changed me
Darkness is all I can see in darken dreams
everything is black and white
this place isn't very nice
it always seems to make me cry
my poor heart bleeds out like the sea
My winter are colder than before
my summers are all gone
I know he loves me
because he told me so
When he takes hold of my arms
he squeeze them tight
just to make me cry
bits my lips just to see them bleed
he loves to see me in pain
to make me scream
then he tells me this is his Love
When he is through with me
he tells me over and over
how much he needs me
how much he Loves me
more then I will ever know
Oh ,how my world has grown cold
I see him wherever I go
His words are like a mystery song
that will go down in history
right along with me
Will anyone miss me
while yesterday pains
gave me so much rain
I cried today I smile tomorrow
but only for a little while
He gave me all his loneliness
He gave me love of his darkness
to make my life worthwhile
only just for a little while
He **** my hand
gave me a spend
and said the words to me
I love you more then you will ever know
can you see all the things I bring
Look in my eyes and I will tell you my story
that holds no end .
Poetic Judy Emery © 1993
The Queen Of Darken Dreams Poetic Lilly Emery
Nov 8, 2016
Nov 8, 2016 at 2:45 AM UTC
The spawning shad
glimmered in the moonlight
below life support
of merely fragile men .
While thunderstorm's
lightning slapped
each other and
grumbled distant
in disgust
Apr 16, 2017
Apr 16, 2017 at 3:50 PM UTC