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Nat Lipstadt Aug 2018
a poem I didn’t plan: but a foot upon my shoulder
gave me no choice

if perfection came along regularly
we would not take note of this August Sunday

the breeze looks steady, blowing a firm few knots
making the waves rulers of the bay
without the necessity of troublesome whitecap shoutouts,
the sailboats muttering ‘thankee’

the kids dock jumping into the water so warm
they shiver running in the chill of a warm summer day, 
 to home, where they do the coverup thing
with hoodies and their Great Aunts white haired cozy blankets
which appear in untold numbers,
one for everyone and don’t drip the cherry frozen sticks
stains from your tongue and lips!

the sun temp modulated and moderate, a summer kiss farewell,
after weekend of thunderstorms and house shakings, it is sad for now
we recount the costly lost days unretrievable and
sky watching
for  naught

the waters inviting again come walk-upon me Island Poet,
to  see my new sea bottom treasures that the heavens,
abetted by foolish men and children
have added to my storehouses of grains and pains

decline and recline for
Oh! have I not got one more weekend, to
close out that Melville tale^
and that is something one need not rush to complete

let me clarify -
!I am a Summer Man!^^
and the summers sunsetting
is a ring around my chest that sings ever louder
nearer my god than thee;
now at the age where one only counts down to zero at double time
marching, eye straight

in this place where we - god and me -
have sung and battled together
like good friend and peer,^^^
college roommate permanent enemies,
he keeps his teary rains in abeyance to remind
that the coming of his schooner is
inevitable and to pack my poems in
plastic for the journey
finale

Oh! how can perfect be so saddening but it is...

my perfection days are minimizing and should not complain
for wrote many poems to day, unable to refuse my traveling muses
who summer with me, one upon each shoulder
until god kicks them off, with a bossy look of
he’s more mine than yours

to make sure his presence acknowledged he
makes Pandora play Billie Holiday singing:
“I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way

I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you”


subtle, right?

but who am I to complain
the razor thin difference tween
blessings and curses so thin
sometimes are they not the same thing

ne sont-ils pas les mêmes?


an unplanned poem
naturally

part of the plan
Lorraine Sep 2016
Seven years ago, I knew you.

Present day, now I don't.

Gaps in time.

Never retrievable, unbelievable

nearly how much passes by.  


But here we are, so transfixed again.

Seven years later, and yet,

it doesn't seem to matter.

Feelings rise back like the sun rises in the east.

Simple, yet meaningful chatter.


We met in our youth,

whimsically and pure.

Two young souls, we lust;

in a splendidly serendipitous summer.


We met again without intention,

without mention of something greater: fate.

Memories of you wash over me, your name resurfaces.

Hypnotized by the pull, you reach out for me.


We truly met in adulthood,

filled with newfound awareness.

Two souls, we fell in love;

laughing about silly arbitrary things

like swiss miss hot chocolate,

bonobos, salad dressing and coated spinach. (I want whip)

Sharing stories of our crazy college days;

Together, getting caught with our clothes off,

to watching love birds in a courting ritual.

Recalling conversations - "what about a mastodon?"

through intense concentration.

Walking along the unsalted deep blue,

I wish we could have stood there forever,

side by side, hand in hand...


We couldn't of course, not pragmatic;

the bitter cold became problematic.

Gusts of frustrating winds, a hail of bullets.

Misty eyes and whirlwind romance.


I reached back too far, arched and overextended.

Agreements altered and amended.

Haunting words of imperfection,

and collection of unretrievable memories.


We met in our youth,

whimsically and pure.

Two souls, we lust;

Seven years, I'll see you later.
April 28, 2016
Dishes Mar 2016
As each grain slips through my fingers, carrying with it a frame of my life,
The sound of each one joining its already rained and unretrievable brethren forces an epiphany to the front of my mind.
Open your hands, let them fall, let each one be where it will and know that it is the perfect spot for it.
The stresses of our day to days seem dwarfed by these grains of chronology,
When in essence they are the same and quite the opposite.
Life has come to a bottleneck,
Thick and thin has gone past analogy into religious symbolism for me.
The things we do in the next months, will decide our immediate future.
The things we do during our immediate future will decide everything.
But that could be a blessing, we were never very decisive people.
What is happening
There are worse things than
being alone
And it's been a tough ride
but I'm starting to believe
Bukowski is right
and all this time
I've spent on trying to retrieve
the unretrievable
was a waste of some life
But, *******
at the very least
you're such a pretty sight
susan Oct 2015
i watch time
slip through my fingers
congealing on the floor
beneath my feet
a mass of viscous matter
   unretrievable
     unsalvageable
gone forever
passed so quickly
leaving nothing remarkable
on my heart
   nor brain
but the unending cycle
of retrievable time
continues
giving me relentless chances
   to make things better
     to make things good

to become remarkable.
Roisin Duffy Dec 2018
I want so much
to give in to temptation,
and come undone,
to hit and hurl
with fist and tongue,
to have no thought of consequence,
or afterwards.

I would give so much
to lie on the ground
like a child can,
and wave my fists
and drum my feet,
and blubber and cry and moan,
poor me.

I would loose much
though, to open my mouth
and flap it like a red rag
for quick release,
for my own
wants, needs, selfishness,
my traitor tongue.

I must close so much
my dangerous mouth,
and still so much
my coiled anger,
that no drop of fury
will leak, spill, burn, pour,
unretrievable.

If I so much
as breathe too soon,
rage will take me
under, and summoned anger bubble,
so I close the battened hatches,
and very, very quietly;
I moan.
Onoma Aug 2020
a headless elephant of blue-pearled lightning

walks the thunderclap of millennia...

gone across the bridge of quintessence.

where there is not even space for

The Word to speak of--the trishul is raised!

crown, fount and head-wave of an ocean's will

curls, and all its  behemoths roll over like

obedient dogs.

constellated to salt--bitterly sweet as water sees itself.

last radiations of unretrievable grace pried from

form...Shivoham~
Cole Jul 2021
Up in my head.
Floating in the clouds.
Nowhere to go.
Nowhere to be.
Wish I could just be let free.
Eleven years later I’m thinking it’s still the easiest way out.
Easily misplaced and replaced.
Misunderstood.
Just trying to find a place to hide in this hood.
Home isn’t a familiar term.
What is home?
A safe place to hide.
I’m dying inside.
Unretrievable.
Completely deceivable.
There ain’t no place to hide from this.
Can’t even mentally escape myself.
Not unless I choose the unsober path.
It’s an unbreakable cycle.
Ocean rises above me.
There’s no stopping the current from taking me under.
Let the ocean take me
Or swim into it to find an escape?

— The End —