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Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. Leonard Cohen

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Tiger Swallowtail



source

Darkness and light lie 
side by side
Lovers
Making each other stronger by opposition

You are composed of dichotomies:
Fragile wings 
the colors of a killer
Soaring born of crawling
Beauty and grace from lowliness

You are a stringless kite
Dipping and diving
to escape your earthbound origins

You inspire awe, envy
Desire
You are free
You are imperiled
from those who seek to kill
what they can not possess.

submitted for Poetry Jam, Your Stripes, My Stripes

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Shine

source
Ten?

Twenty?

How many

Do you need?

Fifty?  Sixty?  Is that enough?

You count friends like a cashier counts coins

You jingle them in your pocket to make sure they are still there

You like to sort them by value, put them in neat piles, admire your fabulous collection - oh, how it has grown!

Never mind the dust, chokingly thick, as they sit on your book shelf; you know that underneath the layers of neglect, they will always shine brilliantly at your gaze, won’t they?

submitted for Poets United, Verse First, Fibonacci Poems (mine is in increasing word number/line)

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The Agent

This room is
where you name stuffed animals
This room is
where you try on Mom’s lipstick
This room is
where you have first kisses
This room is
where you dream of the future
while your first love fucks your best friend.

Monday, February 18, 2013

YES

by Jim Chines

The Hollowness of Time



source
Time stole in
lighthanded as a pickpocket
Took her youth
quick as a gasp
Passing by the glass, she glimpsed 
fissures at the fault lines of her surface
saw her structure sinking
She hadn’t noticed
this slow decay of her self
until the instant it caught her 
off guard

She wondered
whether Venetians perceived their city sinking
little by little or
Would they find themselves one day
knee deep in water and ask
“When did this happen?”

She once had been called a rock
Sturdy, stable, strong
and grew to embrace this image
But even rocks erode over time
crumbling to gravel
then dust
What would she be
if she fractured?
She imagined herself a geode
delicate, crystalline beauty at her core
But she suspected
that under the exterior

Friday, February 15, 2013

Nothing Sweet

source


Sweet nothings whispered in my ear
Are nothing more than air
And declarations of devotion
Feel just like a prayer

Words
Won’t get me there
Don’t
Get on your knees for me

Your touch can tease, can please, so please
Give me a love that’s bold
And  take me, break me, make me love
With passion uncontrolled.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Love


Eternal Love Locks, Pont de l’Archevêché,  photo by Susan

Forgiveness is a part of
Love
Pushing through after the mistakes-
A branch breaks
In time, corrects the wrong
And still grows strong
You and I will always belong
Together, like autumn and spring
Whatever the fates may bring
love: a branch breaks and still grows strong.