Tag: poetry

Speedy Descent (day 442)

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Perhaps then they would call my name
As I sat there above the clouded peaks
Awaiting the answer to the question
Begging my return
Begging the sweet angels rising up
To hold my hands in speedy descent

But like any searching soul
The answer proves within
No clouds can clutter the footpath
No unruly goat-beast can charge me
From this high scraping crag
Legs and arms holding me fast

Then Zeus, lighting bolts striking close
Leaves in his wake a sharp message
The answer cursing through my veins
No escape now from the brutal truth
No silk crested nymph to calm thy nerves
Returning to the fountain I call

There, and only there, lurches forth tremors
Sent from the deathly legions
Calling spoils to all things left touched
Rotting corpses and swarming flies
Wrenching the senses limp
Twisting and writhing: no escape

Years upon years
And only then in shame
Shall the torment stop
At once its halt
Will leave you dry
Endlessly searching like I once

Clarity (day 439)

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And then as the hope was still stretching high
Like the demons that grab at ankles as night enters
When all of the stars were close at hand
Right then was the point at which the oldest memory flickered clear
The sensation regained and fluttered a moment
Pushing and pulling at the strings that cannot stretch
Yearning for the attention that has forever been
In a moment of lost consciousness that lurches forth
Just as the impending doom seats the fate of hate
Eyes flickered and rolled backwards into a lost realm
Just then was the moment that clarity didn’t matter

On My Breath (day 341)

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Perhaps it was lost that night I lay awake
Stupid with drunk on my breath
I saw what I have never been able to explain
Where the answers are to questions that have never been asked

Then, and only then, I was lost
Amongst my familiar things I was lost
Like the cold sun or the free bird
Before I knew what had happened
The lights had turned out and the morning was to early

I did spend the next 5 days stumbling
There was no equal for time
But there were counterparts that played the role pretty good
However lost my heart was that night

Without a word the silence ended
Out from nowhere the claws began to scratch
Reaching for the little spaces within my armor
To leave me a better man

Dangling Wires (day 340)

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The rain fell and the lady cried
Tomorrows dreams faded away with the sunlight
Opening up new doors to the land beneath
The land beyond the happy thoughts again
Where children sing and dance and laugh
Where horses gallop playfully in the summers heat
Thickets of grass cloud the vision
And the sun sets on a beautiful day

~back to the present~

Desire, long left in the distance beyond
Like the plumage of a peacock
Or the dangling wires splayed out behind the newlyweds car
Crying babies that spit the pacifier
And torn fishnets with bloody knees

Peace, make your entrance to the lovers: stage left
Find the proper Gaussian fit to the troubles on their minds

Abandoned on these Streets (day 336)

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I have remained the faithful servant to the mother who has never opened her eyes
I have crawled along the floor: dark, cold, and badly infested
I have saught the brother who has never heard my name in his sacred corners
I have wondered the forest looking for life

Only to find what it is that I have so saught has always been here
Always been laid at my feet like the washed windows I’ve never looked through

Where I wandered told me this secret as I gazed upon its growth
The same growth that told me of death; subdued long ago to the circle of life
But abandoned on these streets that I now do roam
I have noticed here a presence I myself have never known

Perhaps in time I shall understand it’s precious stone that glares at me so
Cast deeply in the stone condemned to harbour such ghastly cultures
What shall remain, of the perfect letters that match the coloured walls
Only the servants shall know, and only in time shall they be known

Growth (day 330)

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I have reasons upon reasons
To think back to the cold spring days
Frost, covering the grass
Bright sun, sending rainbows across the drips of life
That are found within every dew drop

I remember the grooves in the pavement
The shiny bike I barely knew to ride
I remember the driveway
With a giant pole for separation
From that which was the neighbors

All of it, so long ago now
So much time has passed between
Those cross-velcro shoes and neon shorts
Till now, reserved and patched
Wounded and healed; but still for growth

Port of San Francisco (day 329)

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The year was 1655 and the ivory coloured walls of Pier 1 sat soaked in sun, waiting for the next shipment of pacific salmon and giant tuna to steam into the harbour.

Winter had been long and the patrons anxiously awaited the burning smell of the smokers that would soon be as active as Johnny’s brothel, the cheapest joint in town.

The doors scarcely had a moment of rest, as they sat glistening in the bright sunlight that was disturbed at every random moment one of the hungry linesmen got a call.

But none of the folks seemed to care one bit, as they hurried along on their usual ways, that the ambient energy of the scene had just shifted from blue to green.

Many of the men seemed to grow and inch or two with anticipation, a look upon their faces that spoke a thousand days of hunger, that glint in their eye.

The loud horn from a distance blared and reminded sailors of old, nearly forgotten stories of y’or.

Wives waited impatiently with children in anticipation of the success of the trip, who really knew these days which each passing oar that combed the streets.

Who really believed in the word of mouth anyways when it all turned out the same anyways?

Change really wasn’t common along these streets, same people, same horses, same carts, and the same grievances.

All the same except this months catch: halibut, salmon, tuna.. you know, the usual shit.

This was the situation, as we walked into the doors at the Port of San Francisco.

Sun (day 328)

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I have wandered these busy streets
With nothing but the friends in my head
I’ve screamed out loud
At the top of my lungs
And only the birds do seem to respond
A ghost has come and taken my brother
It’s swept him away from my life
But then, in good faith
Placed back in my path
A soldier of fortune
Upon which I rest
If fills up my smile
It shades in my hair
It lingers around as I walk
Today I smile
Because I am alive
I am a soldier in the mail

Faint Scent (day 325)

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When the traveling troupe rounded the corner
They couldn’t help but thank the good graces of the Lord
They had been walking their weary legs
Forth into the untouched world for many moons
For many moons they had wished that they would one day soon
Find the lost land of their ancestors
Who had so diligently cultivated their land and their hearts
Their souls and their traditions
Forever lasting in the earth that they sow

The travelers stood there in awe
What they had only dreamed of had just opened in front of them
And to help in the majesty
Mother natures golden rays of love
Shone upon their brows like the warm
Souls of their weathered feet
Briskly crossing the untortured path

For now, the gang wars were far away
Faintly whispering amongst the Kentucky Blue grass
Leaving a faint scent in the winds of time
Scaring away the coyotes that howl through the night
With the laughter of their guns
The gang pushed forth, almost at a sprinters pace
The homestead in sight, the chickens within earshot
And the great mother upon the doorstep
Sweeping away the never ending dust
Squinting at the distance where she felt the visitors

Death (day 322)

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Death stalks us around the block
As we shop for groceries
Death watches us sleep
As we dream of unobservable sums
Death clears our doorstep
On a windy fall night
Death finishes off the card game
Late in the early hour of the morning
Death cheers at the finish line
As we develop our muscles
Death encourages us
Standing in line for lunch
Death crosses the street
On our way in to work
Death sings a song
As we lament a bad deed done
Death cries wearily
At the doorstep of our sins
Death dances a fine jig
On the mantle of our success
And death holds our hand
As we march forth into the waking eyes of a new day

[I’ll miss you Ted]