Archive for October, 2008
Only a Few Days Left
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
Election news is more than I can handle,
staying up and watching talking heads
dissect the latest politician’s scandal—
election news. It’s more than I can handle.
I may turn into some anarchic vandal,
smashing TV screens. I’ve come to dread
election news. It’s more than I can handle,
staying up late, watching [...]
Outlook
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Average Poet Blog
What a beautiful day to die
with skies as blue as they’ve ever been
the sun so bright and high
reminding me of summers when
we didn’t have to cry
or wish a last goodbye
to one who suffers yet again
a pain they could never deny.
I state once more from my own pen:
what [...]
The Amy Winehouse Riff
Rating 4.33 out of 5
[?]Submitted by The Orchid Room
She pinches the hem
crushed satin tacked
secured with a single
Gordian knot,
a safeguard that fumbled
stitches won’t unravel
and reveal
that black line drawn
with kohl;
some vain attempt
to sexualise this naïve form,
this pretence that reluctantly
demands attention.
She pulls it, pinches,
drags it up revealing
porcelain skin and
catholic guilts
as the drummer
teases and rolls
her slight dip,
head bowed with [...]
Children in the Wolf’s Belly
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Alcoholic Poet Blog
The spider was counting. The strands of its web. Imaging it full with errant flies. The spider doesn’t have to explain why it kills. It’s obvious.
Because it can.
She was using her eyes to measure the moon. Pupils wide. Chemicals the catalyst. Time always a culprit. [...]
Cosmetic Advice
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
Skull courtesy of Mark Schweizer
Afterwards
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
The orchard is littered with debris
and half-ripened apples. Mud rinses away
from red-green marbled skins.
The witch passed through here early
on her way to some meddling mission.
She took one apple and left the rest
to rot. No-one gleans windfalls
in the royal groves. The air smells
of cider and lightning, but [...]
Monday Poetry Train
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
The Monday Poetry Train is rolling again from Monday Poetry Train Revisited: engineer in charge, Gautami.
This is my attempt at creating a button for it.
Trial
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Average Poet Blog
I shiver from the cold October rain
as seagulls soar serenely through the air
confusion pumps through every single vein
I fumble to recite a feeble prayer
my cool facade a challenge to maintain
because this test called life is so unfair.
I plead for her redemption as I kneel
and hope, for once, [...]
On Slam Poetry
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Ted Burke Blog
By Ted Burke
Slam poetry gets tedious quickly, the reason for which is that it’s a style that knows one style, one attack, one speed, which is staccato, in your face, and angry. This isn’t to say that there isn’t a good slam poet here and there, but [...]
Critical Obscurantism
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Ted Burke Blog
By Ted Burke
Bob Dylan mania is upon us like so much hard wind blowing off an hot and angry sea, and the scrutiny, in the form of documentaries and a wave of yet more books on the songwriter , focuses almost exclusively on six years in the [...]
Some blues harmonica
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Ted Burke Blog
By Ted Burke
Book news, or lack of news
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
It looks like my next book won’t be with Ecstatic Exchange: Sidi Moore is re-evaluating the publishing business. These aren’t good times for it.
Which means I’m looking for a new publisher. Oh, well. When I workshopped with Vern Rutsala through Mountain Writers, he said that every [...]
Sun-Bright Eye
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
The ocean is a sun-bright eye, blinking with raised fists of cumulus.
–for Poefusion’s prompt Blinking with Fists, a book by Billy Corgan. My very first American Sentence.
Danger
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
For 3 Word Wednesday: Corpse. Damage. Knife.
wood knife, plastic corpse
building with fake fire damage
no life or death here
Gardener’s Compassion
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Raven’s Shadow
I raked leaves
with my bare hands,
not to burn,
(cremation is so cold),
but to place around younglings
for the coming winter,
to warm and nourish
as they melt into the soil
from which they were born.
Numb
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Average Poet Blog
It’s difficult to get a wink of rest
after witnessing a piece of Kingsford’s best
that ere the valiant firemen could smother
was the person you remember as your mother—
too toasted to be woken by the flame
she finally found the peace she longed to claim
and now that she is free [...]
Haunting
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
You don’t have to be a ghost to haunt a house–
just try it. When midnight strikes
on the grandfather clock in the front hall
listen at your chamber door.
There’s not a whisper. The house is still.
Slink out into the hallway.
Soft creaks under your feet
and in the wainscot where [...]
Winter Sports
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
It’s coming to the season when there’s snow
on snowboard runs and sleigh-ride tracks and ski
trails, downhill and cross-country. Ski-slope lifts
and trams are gearing up to get the paying
customers to where they need to go.
The lucky folks have paid the season-fee
or got a snow-pass in last-Christmas gifts
and [...]
An Ancient Tale #135 (part 3)
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by hfurness Blog
It had been rainy and lonely those first few nights
With only some cold grains to eat
Chasing him out with stones
Sending him out of the walls into the wilderness
Bidding him to never return
Driven out like that first couple from their maternal grounds
Uris felt that the people had stolen the [...]
Usury
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Average Poet Blog
Unlimited credit’s as bad as coke
corrupting with it’s perilous pull
thank goodness I’ve always been blissfully broke
cause I can’t bear the bull.
Retreat
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Average Poet Blog
***Well don’t ask me why but every winter my little home town is blessed by a gathering of noisy old crows on vacation I guess, maybe they need to get away from the hustle of big city life, and I can’t help but write about it [...]
’nuff said
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
Words in Wood
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
Rime Isle
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Knocking from Inside Blog
Rime Isle was a place invented by Fritz Lieber; several of the later stories about Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser take place there. This poem doesn’t refer directly to any events in those stories, but it has some of the feel of Newhon, a world that’s [...]
Felix Dennis - multimillionaire, poet and killer?
Rating 3.50 out of 5
[?]Written by Michael Vass
You know what you don’t see very often? Poetry and modern advertising being combined.
Then again I’m in America and the poet that I am thinking of is in Britian. That may be the reason why the combination works. Or it could just be the wine. It’s free did [...]