Tag: poetry
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Embrace the lightning of surrender
Don’t love once and question your heart Embrace the lightning of surrender I had fun with this Fridge Poetry page (works best on desktop) where you can play with the provided words and even add your own. I assembled the above phrase using words that were already lying there, and I like how it turned…
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Seagulls patrol the shoreline
A poem ⁂ Seagulls patrol the shoreline, murmurating against the gusts and peeking down for fish beneath the surf. We patrol for rocks in the sand and swoop down for skipping stonesthat soon will join the fish.
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The Actor’s Vow
“The Actor’s Vow” by Elia Kazan (via The Last Movie Stars on HBO Max): I will take my rightful place on stageand I will be myself.I am not a cosmic orphan.I have no reason to be timid.I will respond as I feel;awkwardly, vulgarly,but respond. I will have my throat open,I will have my heart open,I…
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On a beach waiting to witness
A poem ⁂ On a beach waiting to witnessworks of fire thundering forth for the Fourth of July,sparklers burst against a cloudy sunset—the flames of liberty burning out fast. Darkness descendsand the main event announces itselfwith flash-bangs against the firmament:Declarations of incandescence,self-evident in their light, loudness, and pursuit of happy viewers. United they fall,a coterie…
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Feet stuck in the muck and eyes trained to the sky
I’d never heard of the poet Timothy Murphy until reading about him in the Prufrock newsletter that mentioned him after his passing. He specialized in poetry about hunting, something I’ve accumulated an amateur’s worth of experience in over the years. Intrigued, I checked out his book of poetry Hunter’s Log: Field Notes, 1988-2011 from the…
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For when you want to live again
A poem A half-deaf star with promise, next always to the one who grew into a supernova and left to shine brightly, shrinks and stares at the cold abyss. Then the supernova returns with its light, to its small town in the universe. A eucatastrophe to save a life, For when you want to live…
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Folks, I’m Telling You
I don’t remember where I got the idea, but recently I’ve started memorizing poems and posting recordings of me reciting them on Instagram. They’ve been mostly short thus far, 10 to 15 lines. But I aim to take on longer ones as I get more under my belt and feel more adventurous. Part of this…
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The sunrise, it comes to me
A poem The sunrise, it comes to meA rippled grace bound for the trees.Coming and coming, it comes,sent from the yonder colors, that arebillowed in atmosphere.What is otherwise clear must contendwith a cloudy obstruction thatgets the best view of all:A panopticon dawn,but for me, the mere morning. The melange, elementalin joining sky and water into…
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Betide Me
A poem Betide me,O titanous waves,that subsume vesselsto watery graves(we benthic slaves). Beclothe me,O swathing light,a star-quantum boundfor earthen delight(paradox in flight). Befall me,O radiant wind,and topple the proudmightly with(your aeolian din). Bewilder me,O god of the sky,as I gaze upon youand wonder why(with my elysian eye).
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The Shepherd’s Life
Really enjoyed James Rebanks’ The Shepherd’s Life: Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape, a memoir of a sheep farmer told season by season. I followed his Twitter account for a while and enjoyed the seeming simplicity the stream of sheep pics depicted. Reading this memoir, however, disabused me of any assumptions I’d made about the life…
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What sends the human heart dreaming?
A poem ⁂ A girl, little with frizzy hair, asked sweetly,Did he have to put a knife in his heart?Her mother said no,and that was all. A woman, grown,hobbled on one crutch to the swing setand cast her crutch to the ground.She sat on one of the swings and started to and fro,free from it…
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I Ran Here for the Sunrise
A poem I ran here for the sunrise. I ran here straight down a concrete corridor, a road slippened by snow, past a corner store where coffee and pie rise to life in manifest alchemy. With my breath steaming in locomotion I approach the boulderow, a stone sluice of Sisyphean resolve—bulwark against the lacustrine, but this morn like poppy…
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The Plutonium Plot: An Ode to Doc Brown
Remember, remember, the fifth of November, When Doc bumped his head and made it so tender; He could not recall his singular sight: Capacitors fluxing and time circuits alight. Calvin the sailor with life jacket steady Inquired, ‘Hey Doc, are you now ready To freeze space-time in the tower-clock? Banish the thought of paradox. Not…
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I Kill with the Earth
A poem in prose I kill with the earth, that with which I line the walls of my room. With a paint brush choked with white diatomaceous earth-powder, I dab and fluff along the crack where the walls meet the floor to discourage the passage of bedbugs into my abode. The powder floats up and down through…
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At the shore on a Monday
A poem At the shore on a Mondayseagulls with orange beaks,fighting against the wind,whip up and down the line,a boustrophedon parade—the waves shoving their way to shore.Jimmy Eat World’s “Futures” beckons themto me,scoring the ever-forward push of all creation. It is all connected.It is all connected now. Whatever reigns over this moment,I am a witness.…
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Get Open And Wait
A poem Get open and wait—And suddenly the world becomes clear.Like a sunbeam across a prairieThe atmosphere cracks and shouts a violent hello.A burning yellow rainbow—light itself enlightened.We seek illumination in our days;we crowd them still with noble desiresof seeing the sunset once again.Just one more time.
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The Cold Is A Sharpener
A poem The cold is a sharpener. A whetstone on the world. It makes the sky stronger, like marble, more vivid in its crepuscular color. It makes the air thicker: the crunch of my boots on the sidewalk’s new coat of snow slices through it, so clean and clear. It makes my body taut, every…
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those three words… part 2
A poem Those words Those three words The end all of every phone call The start of every time apart from you The definition of what we are Together apart, either one is better than before Sitting in neutral, afraid to say more Those words Those three words They flow like a wave away Crashing…
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those three words…
A poem Those wordsThose three wordsThe bane of my existenceThe thesis of the paper I’ve never writtenThe end of the date I never went onThe kiss goodbye I never got or gave Those wordsThose three wordsThey end every phone callEvery birthday card, every letter homeExcept mineI can’t send these three little wordsFrom my head to…
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tension and release…
Intro. The weather is music to my ears. Crescendos and decrescendos, tension and release. Today started out without a cloud in sight. Pianissimo. It was hot, but things were moving along fine. As the day went on, the clouds appeared. Then a few more. Then a bigger batch arrives. The orchestra builds on harmonies and…