No windows in my small house where the birds had been made of faint shadow and the rivers are laughing with tears. Our windy December has destroyed everything even my soul so I am now just a soulless apparition. Look at our trees; they are kneeling; the wind has stolen their dreams. I am a man from the south where everything is soft and bland, but the rigid hands of this windy December have scattered our girls’ woolgathering.
Here the streets are so raging, do you know why? I think you won’t know the story. These streets have been made by the rough fingers of our December where the nights are weepy, and the moons are colorless. You can’t see anything here in December just violent and shameless faces. Yes, our December has a veil but its stormy soul destroying our dreams. Our stormy December is strange and reckless, but we love it because we are strange and reckless like it.
Yes, December is not my friend, but I see its footprints and follow them. It fills my lung with wild air; yes, our December is crazy and has so attractive eastern eyes. You may see that bough, that leaf and that very small bird; you may see them but you wont know anything about their wild souls. Our wild December is unbelievable, and it can make amazing fairies from our vanished tales.

Shattered glass on marble sand,
I feel heat spread on my palm.
Like tiger stripes to the beat of a,
Foreboding distant death psalm.
Enforcement of an oblivious executioner,
Unloving of a careful dawn.
My heart, my soul, my love isn't for me,
It's for something I can't act upon.

I saw a photo
of a plain little farmhouse;
I imagined us
kissing in the bright kitchen
and lilacs in jelly jars.

Its length is known as “one year” by realists,
Also referred to as “anniversary” by idealists,
But “four seasons” is how I would like to call it
As with the passing of time I learn him bit by bit.

We met in front of Record Hall
On a rainy night and boy did I fall
For this one man named Timothy
Who approached me differently.

We first found each other online
But he was unlike the other swine
Looking for a body and easy ***,
Trying to buy me with their checks.

Plus, he did not follow the ordinary formula
Like “coffee sometime?” which is just so blah;
Rather, he proved that he had read my profile
Attentively, so I imagined he must not be vile.

He did not mention or imply anything ******,
So I started to credit him some trust accrual;
He opened us up by relating to my stories
And spoke smoothly with sarcastic ease.

I fell for his chivalry and charm
As well as his unstinted smarm,
His passion for engines and parts,
Never giving up until it all starts.

He won me over with his corny memes,
Matching weirdness, and future schemes;
His unfaltering boldness and fearlessness,
Manliness, and, in due course, closeness.

A spontaneous boy who does puzzles with me,
A romantic gentleman who invites me to the sea,
A free-spirited dude who is a spirits connoisseur,
An audacious chap who is a cooking amateur –

He has a nerdy side as he likes to figure things out.
He has a masculine side as he enjoys working out.
He has a brave side as he goes off-roading in his Jeep.
He has a sweet side as he pulls me closer in his sleep.

He slyly squeezes out my personal info
From myself and makes me go “Woah,”
As he discreetly plans adventurous trips
Which makes me want to ****** his lips.  

He is not afraid or disinclined to reveal his worries.
He is not abashed to update me on his **** stories.
He was not nervous about exposing his cover letter.
He was not anxious about taking me to his mother.

Weight? He does not ask me to gain any or lose.
Change? He needs not fix or loosen my screws.
He takes me as I am, not as a mechanical robot.
He finds sufficiency in all that I do and have got.

He does not care that I wear makeup or look like a dude.
He does not complain that I take long to finish my food.
He disregards that I do not adhere to societal standards.
He discounts that I occasionally think and act backwards.

He makes me relax and loosen up in his presence;
He emits a homely atmosphere and is my defense.  
Hell, we even start doing ***** lovey-dovey acts
Such as calling each other’s names in several packs.

He uses his witty senses to title my works,
Which, to other people, may stir up smirks,
But he does not give two ***** about them;
As long as we represent to each other, a gem.

We are compatible and agree in many manners;
We are avid Android users, not iOS supporters,
We take pleasure in dallying under the covers,
We enjoy mysteries and psychological thrillers.

We follow a handful of seasonal anime together
And we tend to swiftly marathon them altogether.
We even have our own convenient organization
In times when we watch anime together in elation.

He asks, “wanna watch” when there is an update
And picks a title; I agree and say “ready” and wait;
He says “go,” I thumb him, we watch simultaneously;
Then, whoever finishes first sends a thumb amiably.

He tries to pass time with me after work so demanding
So he sometimes falls asleep and leaves me hanging.
However, he impresses me in still choosing to be dutiful
All the while exhibiting humanness, which is beautiful.

I am pleased that we have similar likes and interests,
Glad that both tally with “real love will stand any tests,”
Blessed that both are open to expressing affection,
Thankful that we are looking in the same direction.

Even apart, I admire his strong patience,
Extending over many hours and nations!
Oh, I almost forgot – he is also tall and fit;
The more I think, he has it all – you name it!

The list of what I love about him keeps growing,
With things to cherish constantly overflowing;
I cannot expect more or imagine anyone better,
So I find myself dedicating to him this love letter.

Gosh, how I miss our sessions of wine and cheese,
Cinematic baths and interlacing, candlelit bodies,
Our woolgathering moaning and perspiring mess,
Many nameless moments and silent togetherness!

April 6, 2015, on OkCupid, he gave me a look;
April 11, 2015, he “friended” me on Facebook;
April 15, 2015, he suggested meeting up to study;
April 18, 2015, he dated me and became cuddly.

All this from last year… one year forward, today,
We are still together and have not gone astray –
As long-term and long-distance partners, we are
In the hardest, yet happiest, relationship by far!

Within the aches of the times between dreams  
Hobbling on
With a dour countenance
Hanging in the prevailing north wind
Someone old yet  hardly wise
Whistles an eerie hymn
In reply to native birdsongs
Cardinals and sparrows
An occasional red-tailed hawk scream
The lively menagerie joins
Into a taunting laughter

Within the cold threat of a life uncertain
Bounding on
With the sun running in
And sliding down the bedroom wall
A young man in his young armor
Walks out shining toward the day
To find clouds approaching
And beneath a thin mist
He walks his trenchant walk
Metal splashes through viscous puddled earth
And rust grows in the creases

Within the rain hurdling down
Scampering on
With a dream thundering from gray skies
Into a drab living room
A child loses himself in himself
To find a more colorful world
Where the booms are but drums
And drops of rain are chipper visitors
When the lights go out and darkness comes
He marvels at the waltzing candlelight
And nothing can touch him

Watt's Woolgatherings



woolgathering ~indulgence in idle fancies and in daydreaming; absentmindedness


Watt? Watt you say?

these words of yours,
they are mine own,
but in uterine conceived by you,
yet, birthed canal'd in my mouth,
when spoken aloud

call them the shared
jubilatio of the alleluia,
drink them as gospel bittersweet,
cups of AM coffee,
after midnight dregs

you know that coffee, where

love lies quiet
within the mute caresses
of skin to skin embrace.
the smile of a satisfied lover
and the smell of coffee brewing

for me.

so many of us birth poems in their java,
but only you taste

hints at the totality,
experiencing, rarified, extracted,
dramatic, lofty, brief insights
of being born every morning

with first day's breath,
by dawn's first light hints are provided,
thereafter, homebound, o yeah, mine now,
anew, renewed, kept reheated inside me

Watt? Watt you say?

beware those
the warts, bruises,
pus filled excretions,
(the chamber music accompaniments)
of a complete life?

always the spoilt milk,
reminders of the condition human,
have you not me charged
be thy union
am I not good enough to be
at least this,
at least a confederate,
guardian of your magnificent solitude?

but you are not always alone,
sleep with Jesus, kick him out of bed,
early coffee for him,
he needs to be alert,
finding the next day's
Mary Magdelene...

There are times when you jump a gust flings you into weightlessness and you float in the moment, forgetting about the fall. We all live for those moments; yearn for weightlessness when our souls don’t feel the captured form of our brief, earthbound existence.

Everyone bounces, right?

I chose to jump.
Again.

Watt, please take my small hand,
I want to jump,
fall and rise up,
be resurrected by the holiness of your words,
that you cannot see, self-blinded,
only the-needy-for-saving can

Like children
every poem is unique
I don't choose favorites.

but I am a sinner,
another amputated elephant
forced to choose,
I choose my poets carefully,
particularly the visionaries
in sidewalk cafés, notebook scribblers

Why Watt, Watt you remind me why

I will never be as goodly a poet as you,
but I will try, my birth's condition,
a man needing your permission to be
Resurrected, reimagined, because,

God as ocean deep
takes all, gives all,
caresses the fevered forehead
of brand new earth.

God as dark distance between
holds the lamp in the doorway
providing hope of a return home

God as the fragrant fecund flower
waits in innocent attraction
giving pollen to all who would receive.

God as woman born
took care to adorn the alter in pleasing raiment
exposed enough of the hidden treats
Enticements for the restless wanderer
to stay awhile and tend the hearth
raising a blazing fire.

God as woman born
endured the fear, the pain, the eternal longing helpless wait
mercifully forgotten at the first suckling sound.

God as woman born
slew Cain not
nor the others ever after.

God as woman born
removed the fruit from the soil with a tenderness
that wrung a universal sob
from the heart of creation.

so if woman must be,
resurrected as son of a woman poet,
let it be so,
beside you, you shear
wooly words,
from and for us,
gathering, gathering

~~~~~~~~~~~

This poem is dedicated to, inspired by the compositions here of Harriet Tecumsah Watt
She is one of the best writer and poets on this site, vastly under-appreciated. I proudly accept the title of her follower.  Read her and be infatuated, angry, enthralled and challenged. The words in italics are excerpts from her poems and messages.

Because of the asphyxiation
Of the inebriation caused by another soul,
Perhaps she is the half to complete your whole.
Spending your time in reverie
Woolgathering the next time you’re fortunate enough to see
Her smile.

Overthinking comes naturally
So Plans are fabricated tactfully to meet with her again,
Thoughts of her consuming you like some euphoric sin.
The infatuation only brief
Ends usually with demoralizing grief
So they call it a crush

i open the wound to see the reason i would want to see that.
and keep eating my ham and cheese. woolgathering in the hemisphere of my own paleolithic emotional diet.
i brought the nuts.

A broken timepiece in my heart ticks away, but has fallen out of rhythm, out of place; and I know that I will go on feeling this way, perhaps on and on like an eternal flame, or the dream notion of a perpetual motion machine.

Yet still, I shall dwell, woolgathering, if you will, as the days and weeks that go by in this ghost town where I reside, do go on and on, under the stars, under the daytime sun   --and into the void that I see drain.

Ardor
broken
cut off
dismissed
erupting
fever
gnawing
hating
imploring
joking
kick­ing
lovingly
mulling
nothing, no one
only
praying
quietly
roaring
silvery
triumph
unanimous
vim
wo­olgathering
x-rays
yielding
zen, zest

Ineffable.

As I dive deep into woolgathering, all I have is blind neural hearing
Answers only my mind filled with void won't suffice.

challenging a numb skull," isn't that just dull"
embody a soul that could never be full

hold on tight
breathe in, breathe out, breathe light

divert attention, to a dimension for another temptation,
coming to an end with zero homily, pretty uncommonly

only wizards could turn us into beautiful lizards

By: Zoulaikha

flaunting verbiage,
with a monkish tint,
hungry and spent.
a mild breath scent, emanating herb and taciturnity.
trundling forthward, draped in a certain verdancy,
certainly burdened with this flirtatiously unhinged uncertainty.
no longer careening, bundling kindling,
suffering kinship, indexing my woolgathering,
to begin the inner mending, expenditure now dwindling.
ontologically building, a great garden in sentience, ascending,
extentless, heaven, now, then, ever present.