Submissions by whale
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
seek and you will find when you search with all your heart
DAWN
A camera: a conceit to capture light.
The half light, cow bell, truck horn,
Crow call, dog fight, dark light
The schizophrenia of the dawn.
A morphine mist of meditation
A medication of patient wait
A weight of mind’s hesitation
As if the inevitable could abate.
The piercing light of creation
A herald who’s time has come.
An alchemy of epiphany from elation,
As the earth bows before the sun.
The half light, cow bell, truck horn,
Crow call, dog fight, dark light
The schizophrenia of the dawn.
A morphine mist of meditation
A medication of patient wait
A weight of mind’s hesitation
As if the inevitable could abate.
The piercing light of creation
A herald who’s time has come.
An alchemy of epiphany from elation,
As the earth bows before the sun.
95 reads
4 Comments
RAYS
Ewe, crow, fox, hawk and swallows;
Spit bile, pluck flowers, squeak sorrows.
Rather gather rays from the day's sun dial
And laugh today, tomorrow's smile:
Sun shines, Earth turns, moon follows.
Spit bile, pluck flowers, squeak sorrows.
Rather gather rays from the day's sun dial
And laugh today, tomorrow's smile:
Sun shines, Earth turns, moon follows.
51 reads
4 Comments
SOMEBODY
If you were still,
Not still but still with me,
Still close to me,
Not cold and still
If you were a body
I could not feel you here
Or hear you here
So far from here
Before you were you
You were somewhere
And afterwards
to.
Somebody
With no body
To doubt you
Are you.
Not still but still with me,
Still close to me,
Not cold and still
If you were a body
I could not feel you here
Or hear you here
So far from here
Before you were you
You were somewhere
And afterwards
to.
Somebody
With no body
To doubt you
Are you.
125 reads
17 Comments
ROSEBED
If I could have any future I chews these lips
Pavement cracked, cracked glass, soles worn out.
A walk so tall, I saw you everywhere.
Saw me in half. Saw you whole again.
Saw you on a rose bed, six square of garden,
Lain on a starched sheet stretched to the end
Wrestling the anger of your dead mum out of you
Delicate as deep, this pear so cool and sweet.
This dripping juice runs down my arms to the pits.
Pavement cracked, cracked glass, soles worn out.
A walk so tall, I saw you everywhere.
Saw me in half. Saw you whole again.
Saw you on a rose bed, six square of garden,
Lain on a starched sheet stretched to the end
Wrestling the anger of your dead mum out of you
Delicate as deep, this pear so cool and sweet.
This dripping juice runs down my arms to the pits.
63 reads
6 Comments
LAZARUS
The earth fell away
Leaving a wake of hollowness
Heavier than worlds compressed.
My poles reversed, my hope, my Lazarus, my less hope.
Paralysed by an absence of reason to be;
I cannot pray or shave.
Never laughing, never to cry to shake the night.
I sleep. You don’t. Don’t play. Don’t grow old.
Instead, you grow brittle.
Are we reborn?
Shall I look for your light in other's eyes and sunrise,
In candlelight, spinning tops, corner shadows falling?
Bow lips, eyes shut, small feet; red eyes, dry lips. ...
Leaving a wake of hollowness
Heavier than worlds compressed.
My poles reversed, my hope, my Lazarus, my less hope.
Paralysed by an absence of reason to be;
I cannot pray or shave.
Never laughing, never to cry to shake the night.
I sleep. You don’t. Don’t play. Don’t grow old.
Instead, you grow brittle.
Are we reborn?
Shall I look for your light in other's eyes and sunrise,
In candlelight, spinning tops, corner shadows falling?
Bow lips, eyes shut, small feet; red eyes, dry lips. ...
65 reads
2 Comments
SALT
Then give your cold feet
To my body heat and give my lips
A parting petal in the snow.
Give way to full weight
As hips lift, stars light in dark pits
And hunger surrenders to, to and fro.
And words I mouthed in water
Beat tattoo upon your body
Petals pressed in linen sheets
Pressed against a mirror.
And pestle born of mortar,
Leaves salt upon the snow.
To my body heat and give my lips
A parting petal in the snow.
Give way to full weight
As hips lift, stars light in dark pits
And hunger surrenders to, to and fro.
And words I mouthed in water
Beat tattoo upon your body
Petals pressed in linen sheets
Pressed against a mirror.
And pestle born of mortar,
Leaves salt upon the snow.
91 reads
4 Comments
Screech
Crone on Crack Corner
Beneath the New Yorker
Screeching "Please let me die!"
Though she prayed real hard,
Reaching a dropped Lott’ry card;
She was killed by a cab screeching by.
Beneath the New Yorker
Screeching "Please let me die!"
Though she prayed real hard,
Reaching a dropped Lott’ry card;
She was killed by a cab screeching by.
59 reads
2 Comments
O Madiba
O Madiba! Madiba your ship has finally come to rest
Rest now, now rest, for peace was your bequest.
Humiliated, disgraced, yet in captivity you chose
By embracing your enemy, you learnt and rose.
Insulted, assaulted, assaulting, at fault,
Lover, Soldier, for Justice, for God’s sake!
Stop work, break bread, water and salt
And follow in his wake.
O Madiba! Tata Madiba you who have overcome
A true mandala spun, a Nelson who has won
Overcoming loneliness, cowardice and fear.
Bravery but a blindness brought on by all held dear....
Rest now, now rest, for peace was your bequest.
Humiliated, disgraced, yet in captivity you chose
By embracing your enemy, you learnt and rose.
Insulted, assaulted, assaulting, at fault,
Lover, Soldier, for Justice, for God’s sake!
Stop work, break bread, water and salt
And follow in his wake.
O Madiba! Tata Madiba you who have overcome
A true mandala spun, a Nelson who has won
Overcoming loneliness, cowardice and fear.
Bravery but a blindness brought on by all held dear....
54 reads
2 Comments
TEKLA
A rosary of olive pits
A prayer of Maaloula
One stone, kindness
One stone, love, another grace
Another joy.
A cross: a salvation.
Take me to the grave of St.Tekla
This virgin raped and freshly dead
Tied by a chain,
Now violence, now hatred, stolen,
Now anger, now fear
Cut our tongues.
Creating our martyrs,
To remind us of a peace
Neglected beside us
Reflected in water.
Tih-teh mal-chootukh
Your kingdom is come.
A prayer of Maaloula
One stone, kindness
One stone, love, another grace
Another joy.
A cross: a salvation.
Take me to the grave of St.Tekla
This virgin raped and freshly dead
Tied by a chain,
Now violence, now hatred, stolen,
Now anger, now fear
Cut our tongues.
Creating our martyrs,
To remind us of a peace
Neglected beside us
Reflected in water.
Tih-teh mal-chootukh
Your kingdom is come.
53 reads
0 Comments
DRINK
Bring in the wine
Green shoots on broken trees
A whispering breeze of past glories
On this river sublime.
Sing in the dusk
That brought us together
A table of friends
A shaky hand clasping yours.
Tremble words, lengthen minutes.
A wine of water born
A cask in shadows
Divining these stumbling prayers.
Oh bring the wine
Unravel trammelled rails
A constellation drawn on stars
A verse held in rhyme
When the sea
Beckons a wind in our sails
Green shoots on broken trees
A whispering breeze of past glories
On this river sublime.
Sing in the dusk
That brought us together
A table of friends
A shaky hand clasping yours.
Tremble words, lengthen minutes.
A wine of water born
A cask in shadows
Divining these stumbling prayers.
Oh bring the wine
Unravel trammelled rails
A constellation drawn on stars
A verse held in rhyme
When the sea
Beckons a wind in our sails
122 reads
13 Comments
bamboo
A dust bowl spinning from a bamboo goal
A centre that couldn't hold
A wrapped corpse floating on a bamboo raft
Set loose from a million souls
Atoms broken from worlds
And ink words burning in bamboo smoke
Never again to be heard.
But a heart beats in-out-in
Like breath
And what ends must begin
Like breath
And though a universe may spin
I can sit and sing
And coalesce .
A centre that couldn't hold
A wrapped corpse floating on a bamboo raft
Set loose from a million souls
Atoms broken from worlds
And ink words burning in bamboo smoke
Never again to be heard.
But a heart beats in-out-in
Like breath
And what ends must begin
Like breath
And though a universe may spin
I can sit and sing
And coalesce .
62 reads
5 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by whale