contemporary poetry

It all adds up

POSTED IN contemporary poetry November 30, 2013

time

It all adds up

I am the sum of the past
a past that never went
its momentum travels fast
freighting each precious
moment of this life
like lightening flashes
sometimes a brief glimpse
other times more intense.
A Venezuelan storm
that continuously sheds
unexpected illumination
refracting on the scene
I am the lightning
and the landscape, I am
all the colours of this life .

 

from PoetryZoo Abigael

 

 

Gael Bage

Pass the Blackout

POSTED IN contemporary poetry November 30, 2013

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Pass the Blackout

You should know, sweet sailor,
    that every time the boatswain blows
sleepy taps into the misery pipe,
    a corsage of sea salt
blossoms on the wrists of standby wives
    sequestered in cap sleeves
and hot copper headaches.
    You should know the storm flag
is saluted when thunderclap
    erases the strategy in our smiles
and braids our breath into aiguillettes.
    Fieldstrip the stars like
the cherry of a cigarette,
    watch them fall windward as
gravity warps our chest medals into lifeboats,
    our dress whites into
hospital gowns.
    Goodnight nurse, ghost of Joan,
Before your dreams run aground
    know sweet sailor:
There’s a red phone at the
    bottom of every ocean
there’s a seabag full of sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

Brandon Courtney

Power Grid

POSTED IN contemporary poetry November 29, 2013

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Power Grid

Come down from there.
I can imagine
More clearly your
Wistfulness as sculpture.

I made a painting
Of nothing. It’s
In my hallway. I
Know it’s a tree,

Or rather the soul
Of a tree. The
Wind in it gets caught
In the yellow

Branches. Somewhere deep
In its wood the
Dotted lines of a
Rainstorm. It’s just I’m

Too far away now.
I remember six
Actors in a
Split level white house.

The shower’s turned
On. The shower’s turned
Off. What might I chip
Away? I remember

Distinctly. My middle
Name’s not a name!

A noose dangled from
A rafter in the garage.

I know I was fifteen
Cutting up “death threats”
I’d written at twelve.
One was to Jonny Quest.

Something or nothing,
The sky pours off
Of that canvas.
If the grass spider

Keeps living through
Winter. He tells me
A story. His web
Bubbles up out of

An unused drain.
Paint for the blind,
Tulips. They burn
Until there is no frame.

 

 

 

 

 

David Dodd Lee

The Architect’s Widow

POSTED IN contemporary poetry November 29, 2013

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The Architect’s Widow

Now, you only notice city windows
when thin light warms behind them,

shadows gathering in white pleats
of curtains, foggy as tracing paper,

their billows breaking the rigid frame.
This is what he meant by negative

space: not the domes of the cathedral,
but the places you stand to see

their familiar swell. Still, to watch you
startle at your reflection in the blisters

of his windows, your shoulders sloped
— gentle curve of a wingback chair —

the city’s wind snared between girders,
facades of red brick, the body’s tilt

in a warp of glass, is to know something
of the way light distorts the thing it touches.

Once, he told you that each bend in every
building has as many names as Rochester’s

phonebook: fanlight, oculus, loggia — yet,
no single word for the way rain darkens

the shingles of the steeple or how the roof’s
fixed line dovetails a blurred sky.

 

Brandon Courtney

First love

POSTED IN contemporary poetry November 29, 2013

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First love

An uncommon weakness for gardenia
and certain slow passages of music
repeated till the diamond needle dulled.

And the ruby waste of youth
and the tendency to be duped.
I’d bury

my face in the cotton prints she favored –
whiffs of fried fish, talcum, dust. Her rooms

were numerous, tobacco-stained, pocked
with discarded art, white island of a bed
in a page-curled sea of fact-checked books.

Afterwards, she’d read the cards, the dark
cupped dregs, my scarred yellow palm:
Like a bell

you will love in terror, striking what you love,
loving what you strike.

 
Claudia Burbank

Naked Soul

POSTED IN contemporary poetry November 19, 2013

breath

Naked Soul

Futile winds blow
through a broken heart
the vessel flawed
it’s flow fragmented
cracks wide open

Stark naked
before humanities face
feeling vulnerable
in that dark
and lonely space

self leaks out
in a stream of tears
aimlessly to moon about
in a pool
of excuses and fears.

A dark fascination
this absence of light
Love
spreads diamante’
on the cloak of night

The broken vessel
lets in a new dawn.
The smallest pond
nightly
is creation’s mirror.

 

from Poetryzoo. Abigael

 

 

Gael Bage

Maybe I Might

POSTED IN contemporary poetry November 14, 2013

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Maybe I Might

I may live a thousand lifetimes, 
but remember only one….
I may find some peace in quiet 
when a busy day is done

I might be the other loving half 
of someone else’s whole
In somebody else’s picture 
I might play a leading role

I might take the time to give thanks 
for the things life’s given me
In an indecisive moment 
I may possibly agree

I might make a strong commitment 
to support a worthy cause
I may learn to live each moment 
even those with major flaws 

I might travel with the masses 
but march to a different drum
I may keep forever hoping 
that the best is still to come

Life’s eternally evolving 
and no doubt we’re changing too
So I just might think about those things
I may decide to do.

 

from Wanda’s page Poetry.org.nz

 

 

Wanda Kiel-Rapana

The Stuff Dreams are made on

POSTED IN contemporary poetry November 14, 2013

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The Stuff Dreams are made on

Our journey is wasted
when we hanker for things
that might have been .
With open eyes, the dream
precedes our grit and goal.

No point in nightmares ,
lost in the dusty recesses
of the mind. Life is a one way
street , walk with soul’s dream
in the moonlight and follow

your visions stream.You will be
the first to see the new dawn.
Dreams are born in our heart.
Sometimes I write my dreams
just to discover what I thought.

 

from Poetryzoo Abigael

 

 

 

Gael Bage

Search-light to my Soul

POSTED IN contemporary poetry November 14, 2013

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Search-light to my soul

My words are a search-light
to my Soul
speaking my truth.

Sometimes they glow and shine
shaped by thoughts from others
long ago
yet deeply mine.

Some days my words glisten softly
like pale moonlight or distant stars
A silvery fish, darting out of shadows
dapples of half-light, reflecting
off its scales
flashes of truth from memory’s past.

Some days my words burn bright
I cover my eyes in pain;
there is nowhere to hide.
I take another peek – aha!
Nothing to fear
Just light.

Some days the words won’t come.
I shake my torch, bang it on the ground
So frustrated,
so disappointed.

Useless, empty thoughts
expose old wounds
that I’m not good enough
A lonely void haunts me
deep within

So then I seek Your Word
Your truth, your wisdom.
Love fills my heart
Rekindles that radiant spark
that threatens to glow cold.

And then I remember.
You have given me all I need
Gifted me
my salvation
All I must do, is believe.

“Faith need be only the size
of a mustard seed.”

For you Father, are always here
holding my trembling hand.
As we switch on the light together
And reveal such beauty there.

 

from justwritewithmandy.blogspot.fi

Amanda Edwards

Poetry – My Life

POSTED IN contemporary poetry November 10, 2013


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Poetry – My Life

I’m in a moment on my own, just thinking how the years have flown
I ask myself what have I done – that’s brought a change to anyone

The answer comes in very clear, the one thing that I hold so dear
My friends tell me I have a gift that always gives their lives a lift

I write, and when I’m in that space, there is no other time or place
I live and breathe in poetry, the one true thing that sets me free

I think that I have always known, that depth and passion in a poem
Changes words from ordinary, into extraordinary

Inspires thoughts, expands the mind, word imagery clearly defined 
Emotional, historical, political, rhetorical 

Whilst trying to wax lyrical, some even are hysterical,
The darker side of life is there, tormented souls in deep despair

Some may be borderline insane, through poetry reveals the pain, 
Classical, contemporary, even revolutionary

There’s those who write in torrid verse, to some a blessing, some a curse
However one may view that style, it never fails to bring a smile

Always there is that special part, exclusive to my seeking heart
Those loving verses sweet to me, found in romantic poetry

Poetic friendship never ends, I’ve made some truly lovely friends 
Nurtured by our art with care, those friendships will always be there 

It would be nice to really know when it becomes our time to go
Like poets from another time, we all may live on through our rhyme

My poetry gave me a life, relieved me from all stress and strife
Whatever the future may bring, I owe my poetry everything

 

from Wanda’s Page – Poetry.org.nz

 

 

Wanda Kiel-Rapana

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