wb :

i have created a monster behind my eyes
she is on the brink between sleep
and horrible awakeness, aware
of the old skin
crevasses crossed with age.
the toothless face,
terrible! Terrible.

In the air between us are words
none of us want to say
None of us want to look.
we turn away -
avoiding each others'
narrow, harrowed eyes
that are pink with the ghost of tears
and the premonition of anguish.

is this a worm
curled asleep,
as if hiding a phoenix
chasing the wind.

What do we think?

There is a woman there dying and I love her.
She is my grandmother.

Labels: poetry

i removed the tagboard. tagboards worldwide seem to be nonfunctional nowadays, and link instead to cPanel. which prompts for an irritating login everytime i visit. so i removed the tagboard. twice, just to make sure.

Labels: admin

each line is supposed to be nine iambs, but blogger doesn't format it properly that way, so i've broken them into two sub-lines each.

-~-

at mountain's edge i had my birth-
        a nature-born emissary of rain
and for my water-bringing worth
        was always hearing praising songs, refrains
but past the hills and vales of time,
        no praise i heard from any land i saw
and no more did the stormy clime
        inspire human songs of dread and awe.

in ancient times, far i could see,
        they worshipped day and rightly feared the night
across the plains, and to the sea,
        the gods they had were sun and fire bright
but i begrudged them not the fact-
        the day and dark are nature, my own kin
and they, when by fierce droughts were wracked
        would once again welcome my darkened grin.

but now i drift across the skies,
        and see beneath no longer greenlands home
beneath the realm of stormclouds lies
        vast edifices built of deathly stone
and people shuffle aimlessly,
        while spires strike the god-forsaken sky
and whether rain or not, they flee,
        and leave the grey-grown world outside to die.

and though i am the storm-born wrath-
        i shake with all the might of thundrous zeus-
when men fear not my lightning staff,
        then in this world i know i have no use.

Labels: poetry

love on the wind
laughter in the air

you can tell, can't you?
that i'm from a rich country
because i can romanticize

why else would i
laugh and dance! sing and play!
dance away the dullsome day!
never walk the lonely way!
lose myself, and run away!

so many men, so much wealth
any more
and we'd all be poor

but now while i have the time
to

name things that i cannot see
feel things that i cannot name
imagine things i cannot feel
believe in things i cannot imagine
trust in things i cannot believe
see things i cannot trust

emotion
is a rich man's toy

Labels: poetry

evolution
natural selection
divine intervention
id ego superego
DNA and how you grow
walking upright
spine straight
carved a club
slayed a beast
painted names into rock
held the burning branch
ploughed the land
built a wall
reined the horses
charted the stars
sailed the seas
tamed the hissing steam
harnessed the thunderbolt
split the elements
trapped the sun

why, why why?
why ask what turned monkeys into men

why not ask instead
what turns men into monkeys?

loosed the fury
dropped the bomb
shocked the continents
steelclad monsters of war
pillage and plunder
plotted by omens
ramapged across the plains
besieged and conquered
broke the earth
torched men and homes
painted faces for war
slayed the animal
carved a club
spine straight
walking upright
DNA and how you grow
id ego superego
divine intervention
natural selection
revolution

Labels: poetry

i am as a kite, in the swirlstreams a windwaltzing rover
a mothlike destruction- attracted and drawn to my tether
a lord and a master of all that i flit and fly over
but held to the earth by a string of the fates from land under

i am as a fish, in the ocean of purest of azure
dimensionless seas to a naked and natural swimmer
but swimming above, wanly watching the water's edge waver
and looking at shimmering surfaces, filled full of wonder

i am as a man when he tramples and crushes a clover
uncertain if luck will forsake him for his misdemeanour
though while deep in thought, the question i press and i ponder
i stare at the leaves, while ignoring the fresh-blooming flower

if fate is my mistress, then irony must be my lover-
for i cannot love one and not be seduced by the other.

Labels: poetry

coffee in brown spattered trails,
scribbles in ice lemon tea;
lost when inspiration fails,
oh my muse, come back to me.

Labels: poetry

I look for a disc.
it is a round CD
it hides under the tables, in
the drawers like a thief
with me in tow
an alchemist after silver

it is not in the living room, but I am
on the couch, gazing through the doors
at the summer sun of '93
it is evening,

the evening through the dusk-tinted windows draws me out
the moon perched on the housetops
(upon the red roof-tiles)
is adroit the scene of me
on a grassy garden, over
fences; under
gate swings wide open to
reveal a dog and her owner

and the sign of the neighbour which says 'FOR SALE'
and tugs at my arbitrary capacity for unhappiness.

those long ago nights.
long ago-nights. I knew no simple pleasures
only pleasures
only the treasures of beneath the neighbour-trees.
Those long ago-nights.

Too much, i step back in - search again.
My disc if i find it not,
i shall not be so unhappy.



adam

Labels: poetry

has anyone seen a missing muse?
i lost her when i had to leave
my crayon doodlings behind
along with my stuffed dog
and my imaginary friend
i think i threw her into the box
of all the old stuff

but then i didn't know what i had done
and tried instead to have some grownup fun
with things like metaphors and run-on lines
instead of blankly spitting useless rhymes
but in the end- i was unsatisfied
with what those forms had given me to write
so- onwards! to the land of anapest
and there perhaps desire could find some rest

but the fates are ironic and never will give
to a man any feeling of rest or reprieve
so i wrote and i smote and i broke on the shores
the old waves of inspiring had muffled their roars
by the lure of harsh order my heart was deceived
through a strainer of smoke my desires were sieved
so the rain did no longer with torrentous pours
and the flame did no longer consume with its force

but now it's late to mourn my missing muse
i made a choice when i was forced to choose
although, at times, i look and sadly see
the child i was, and could have chose to be.

Labels: poetry

what mean i say when love upon my lips
and through thin air the strings of open hearts
proclaim light music faintly harmony
but hearing only feeling does not make
when what is how and everything between
is nothing then behold it as it seems
amidst all noise a signal in the dark
a through the madness paper number guide
show you its purpose to decipher white
and nothing own themselves can tell of things
play tunes and fury blind and rhyme but sound
means what we mean to nothing mean it else
the word no more it means than what it was

Labels: poetry

// A Writer's Blog special

Welcome! Welcome! to the hall of dreams
Behold, where nothing is as it seems!
Here, where time is a capricious thing,
And nothing's impossible to every extreme
Have a go! have fun! by all means, have a fling!
Watch, watch, and wow at the exhibits-
They're sure to keep you in the highest spirits!

Now, ladies and gentlemen, as we advance
Throw to your sinister a curious glance!
Here, a fine specimen- caught at his desk
Reading obsessedly, as though in a trance-
Look at him go! isn't it grotesque
To spend one's life in a flight of fantasy!
I think we'll all agree, 'tis a travesty!

We feed him on stories of unrequited love,
And marvel as he cries to a "Dear God Above"
At times, he's melancholic, at others ablaze,
But never too far from a push to a shove!
Watch! as his spirit nothing can faze!
He'll gnarl and he'll gnash at the slightest provocation
Then fall at a touch into deepest depression-

Welcome! Welcome! to the hall of dreams
Behold, where nothing is as it seems!
Here, where time is a capricious thing
And nothing's impossible to every extreme
Have a go! have fun! by all means, have a fling!
Marvel at the monkeys- but for all of their antics
Please, ladies and germs: don't feed the romantics.

Labels: poetry

The waters here are clearer than the skies are at home. Walking down an unfamiliar beach, I am faced with the sudden realization that I am alone. Behind me, the crashing surf drags my footprints from the sand and drowns them in the ocean. The breeze blows across the silent sea and echoes in the farthest reaches of the sky beyond. Love seems too big for this little planet; there is no room for it between the sand and the sea. I am alone, and there is no one else on these lonely shores. I have left them all behind.

Labels: drabble, prose

I wrote this solely for the purpose of infuriating Ryan David.
Inspired muchly by Zhuoyi's 'How to write a poem'. Despite tongue firmly embedded inside cheek, please comment.

Not a Haiku 01

Nothing means
anything


-adam

Labels: poetry

It's fashionable to be
    An insomniac.
To have glowering eyes
That speak not
With dancing joy
Or burning hate
But with resentment
Of the rested.

It's fashionable to be
    An insomniac.
To not answer,
To maintain
A cryptic
    enigmatic
        exquisite
            silence.
A silence cries out for an answer.
A silence stings the ears.

It's fashionable to be
    An insomniac.
To be a mind
Trapped in
The body of
A slug.
Wading in
Thick sludge.

It's fashionable to be
    An insomniac
'Cos no one
Can look into
An insomniac's eyes
To see an
Insomniac's soul.

-- 10th July --

Labels: poetry

I remember a time, not long ago
when water wasn't yet H2O
the air we breathed was clean and bright
and no-one worried about carbon monoxide
oh, it wasn't all too long ago
when grass needn't photosynthesize to grow
"hard" was anything that stubbed your toe
and "accurate" was a master's arrow
but then, things turned to the photon-less side
and once-sweet sugar was acidified
NaCl was the stuff that I cried
for forever was my old playground destroyed.

Labels: poetry

Were i but a butterfly,
Fluttering in the breeze,
I'd be an angsty butterfly,
emo, if you'd please.

Were i but a chunk of cheese,
all marbled, green and white,
I'd be a crumbly chunk of cheese,
consumed with wine at night.

Were i but a little kite,
Flying, high and sure,
I'd be a diamond-coloured kite,
They ARE forever, my dear.

Labels: poetry

I stand in the sea.
Wave after wave of irredeemable sadness breaks over me,
washing me clean,
Washing my clean, washed corpse to the sand.

I lie on the sand,
and gust after gust of unremiting sand scours my flesh,
leaving my bones clean;
leaving nothing, but clean, white bones.

There i am, There's me,
nothing more than a skeleton of clean, white bones in the sun.

If a little girl were to pick through my bones, i would tell her,
Watch where you step. That's my ribcage.
That's my heart.

Labels: poetry

Life's just another play,
another telling of each day,
but that doesn't mean there's nothing to say
or nothing to listen to-
You're just another part,
another tale about to start,
just one more easily broken heart,
but you're still you;
Oh, just because it's old,
just because it's all been told,
just because it's always been the same round world
doesn't mean it has to be,
Even though it's all concluded,
just because everything's decided,
doesn't mean that one more of the deluded
has to be me.

It's all a play, nothing more than words and lines,
and the only good actors are the stagehands and the mimes!
It's all a show, another dreamin' swimmin' show
so leave a bang behind before you go!

Everything's a-funny,
the lighting's all screwy,
the big red curtain's gone all awry
hanging by a thread,
But it's still a ways before
the curtain's gonna fall-
and you'd wish you knew whatever's in store
before you're dead!
It's a brimming, bursting,
bubbling boiling brewing,
absolutely revoltingly boring,
but it's the only one-
There's none other like it,
the audience hisses and spits,
all the cast can't fit into their outfits,
but the show goes on!

It's all a game, nothing more than icing on the cake,
nothing more than ripples floating on a lake!
It's all a comedy, this infernal tragedy,
so get on stage and make your big mistake!

-~-

Can someone write a tune to this?