Men by Maya Angelou
When I was young, I used to Watch behind the curtains As men walked up and down the street. Wino men, old men. Young men sharp as mustard. See them. Men are always Going somewhere. They knew I was there. Fifteen Years old and starving for them. Under my window, they would pause, Their shoulders […]
Little Clock by T. Wignesan
for Gertrud Widmayer, my landlady at Heidelberg Why in pensive ticking, silent thoughts You wile your time away When all around huge swelling bells Toll the days away! Every hour that announced may go Your silent hands take hold And though the ages chimed in ears Yours they never behold. If all the clocks the […]
Let me Count the Poets Left by Michael K. Shiu
You must not assume what I assume You must not hold the sun between your eyes You must not face the rapture alone The waves of the future sink us You will become obsolete Can you endure that? In fact, inject giraffes into your poems? It will not be enough As writers we skirt the […]
Last Turn Of The Morning Carousel/Forever Turn The Midnight Carousel by Matthew Abuelo
Last Turn Of The Morning Carousel/Forever Turn The Midnight Carousel by Matthew Abuelo Am I just another antiquity An artist who finds a natural home Among the paupers whose graves are marked with serial numbers Instead of headstones? I hate gimmicks and dismiss them Like any other moment of mediocrity. The truth is that I […]
kaleidoscopic whorled wide web. by matthew scott harris
against light source well crafted tubular structure appended with eyepiece gazing offers viewer eye-opening, mindboggling instantaneously birthing then vanishing resplendent myriad colorful geometric awesome shifting shapes hypnotizing sight seer into a whirling gigolo where multifaceted fractals display pin-wheeling arithmetically perfect triangulate squarely with proportionate arcs astounding with blind faith on microscopic scale analogous to cosmic […]
Kailangan ko’y Yakap by Melissa Sazon Flores
Ang kailangan ko ay yakap At yakap mo..ang aking pangarap.. Kung sayo ba ako ay lalapit- Pangarap na yakap kaya- aking makakamit? Ang kailangan koy yakap mo.. Ngiti mo, ang syang papawi sa..mga luha ko.. Kapag ako ba ay umasa- Ako kaya ay iyong mapupuna? Buhay pag yakap ka,ay nais alamin- Kaya’t pag ibig na […]
It Asked a Crumb of Me by Michael K. Shiu
Hope is the thing that catches you When you have children It perches in your soul like A quiet song, you cannot explain it Faith has feathers without words It’s simple, profound And has a quality that never stops Its flight traverses dawns Hope is a quality of purpose To have a future is enough […]
Insomniac by Maya Angelou
There are some nights when sleep plays coy, aloof and disdainful. And all the wiles that I employ to win its service to my side are useless as wounded pride, and much more painful. End of the poem 15 random poems Poetry by subject Some external links: The Bat’s Own Poetry Cave Talking Writing […]
initial mother’s day eve by matthew scott harris
within womb per universe’s birth sans nebulous placenta housed seeds of life and white lily within billions of years in future mid-wifed lady gaia which cosmic amniotic fluid sans infinitesimal kernel unknowingly intimated mother earth giver of extant flora and fauna released after big bang cosmic explosion released galactic matter ala Jackson Pollack across void […]
In the Park by Maxine Kumin
In the Park by Maxine Kumin You have forty-nine days between death and rebirth if you’re a Buddhist. Even the smallest soul could swim the English Channel in that time or climb, like a ten-month-old child, every step of the Washington Monument to travel across, up, down, over or through –you won’t know till you […]
Illusion by Mercedes Madrigal
What if life was just this one big illusion? This one big dream that we had to experience just to prepare us for the real thing? We had to experience all the heartache and all the happiness, all for what? Just to wait to experience it all over again? Maybe that’s what it means to […]
I Know From my Bed by Michael Lee Johnson
I Know From my Bed by Michael Lee Johnson Sometimes I feel like a sad sack- a worn out old man with clown facial wrinkles. I know when I reflect, stare out my window at the snow falling from my bed, my back to yours, reflecting on my pain- ignoring yours- I isolate your love, […]
Humankind – How Limitless In Genius by Michael Levy
Playful inspirations kindle, figments of a baby’s first hello, Ripening, in a flawless cosmos, that only purity and virtue know, Picturesque clarity grace the minds vivid insightful rainbow, As time fashions, just a brief, but fascinating finite show. Indeed, even if every new beginning develops sadness, True joy will adjourn the sorrow, to replace it, […]
How Am I? by Matt Bohart
So my lady! you’ve asked me how I am. Oh (yawn), I’m fine. But just as important (perhaps even more): How is our friend Life feeling about life these days? Forgive the audacity, but I think I know. Life has kindly let me see the tragedy inscribed in All of It The gently swaying, slowly […]
Haunted by you by Melissa Skelton
Haunted by you every day Always trapped never allowed to stray Underneath my clothes, the mark of you shows No-one else knows, it’s just the way it goes Telling someone is not an option, because I’m afraid of you concoction Everlasting love is what we had; I never knew you would change that Deception and […]
Forced by Mayank Sharma
Today I sit thinking what I shall do, Staring at the walls and the boards alike, Puzzled completely in my mind. O God! I make a question why? Is it that you maketh us things we do not like, That too to the extent of sheer dislike, I ask myself why; At the same time […]
Forbidden Fruit by Michael Lally
Forbidden Fruit by Michael Lally all the forbidden fruit I ever dreamt of–or was taught to resist and fear–ripens and blossoms under the palms of my hands as they uncover and explore you–and in the most secret corners of my heart as it discovers and adores you–the forbidden fruit of forgiveness–the forbidden fruit of finally […]
Follies of War by Michael Levy
Silken wraps on finite form, Relax in the lull before the storm, Stately warriors hear…wars dreaded call, Lions of war…animals maul. The proud…the brave, No one could save, Battlefields of blood, Human dust…without a grave, It’s just a game, Folly, but no crime, Who will take the blame? For the warmongers son’s still shine. The […]
Eve- Song by Mary Gilmore
Eve- Song by Mary Gilmore Unfortunately this poem has been removed from our archives at the insistence of the copyright holder. End of the poem 15 random poems Poetry by subject Some external links: The Bat’s Own Poetry Cave Talking Writing Monster. Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US Quant.com – a search engine […]
Coal-Truck by T. Wignesan
for Gertrud Widmayer I am a coal-truck Carrying gold dust. Someone threw some Coal-dust upon My gold-dust. I am a coal-truck In a gold mine. Someone struck a coal vein And piled me full in vain. I am a coal-truck Covered in subterranean dust. Someone shovelled my soil And found an ancient bone All coiled. […]
Cinderella by Roald Dahl
I guess you think you know this story. You don’t. The real one’s much more gory. The phoney one, the one you know, Was cooked up years and years ago, And made to sound all soft and sappy just to keep the children happy. Mind you, they got the first bit right, The bit where, […]
blessing for sound health by matthew scott harris
upon waking every morning I offer silent benediction for the ability to revel with full faculty of this aging body still going strong where ability sans enjoying the simple pleasures available thru bodily senses plus cavorting with teenage daughters in my nonsensical mien worth more than money can buy yet of course if I did […]
Black Lake by Memphis Knight
Suprisingly she laid her hand on his chest… All the pain was forgiven Lone, burdensome was an uplifted crest The man’s soul was bedridden Dire was the conclude of this fantasy In which beast and beauty had endured ‘My love’ in which he spoke in constancy Was to end…forever As the car sank deeper into […]
Before The Law by Michael Major
My curiosity had brought me …to the gates of The Law But all progress was halted… I could venture no more A Gatekeeper there stood… who obstructed my path With his menacing demeanour …and a soul filled with wrath Warning not to continue… on my journey ahead For more frightening will face me: The thought […]
A Conceit by Maya Angelou
Give me your hand Make room for me to lead and follow you beyond this rage of poetry. Let others have the privacy of touching words and love of loss of love. For me Give me your hand. End of the poem 15 random poems Poetry by subject Some external links: The Bat’s Own […]
A Rythm Upon Our Trusts by Michael McGovern
This country is o’erran by trusts And each within its sphere adjusts Production and the price of that Which it controls, not caring what The people it plucks may say For trusts possess the right of way On all our great commercial trails To crush the slow industrial snails The trusts economy is seen In […]
Your Poems on My Patio by Martina Reisz Newberry
Your Poems on My Patio by Martina Reisz Newberry for Djelloul Marbrook The mountains are perfect this morning so I re-read your perfect poems. Knit two, purl three, knit two, purl two and there on the page is a scarf in hearty woolen adverbs and adjectives. I would do nearly anything to know that someone […]
Yesterday’s Mishaps by Mary Etta Metcalf
i become who i am through my experiences what happeded yesterday…deleloped into who i am today how i perceive events…will be how i think who we are today was shaped by yesterdays mishaps this is what life is all about…good or bad it is how mankind had grown through the eons it is also how […]
Yes Dear by Mary Etta Metcalf
i chitter…i chatter… words…ideas come from my mouth changes i want to make…things i want to do together he sits…a befuddled look upon his face then says… yes dear our usual response now to keeping peace…yes dear his time approaches when he thinks i need a change in my life this should go here…that should […]
Words Unspoken by Mark Olynyk
Words Unspoken by Mark Olynyk the art of words unspoken on the stage composing paper statements. poetic speculation selling dreams to paradise. a waxing moon passing over seasons witches hold a séance summoning ghosts. Atlas is sagging weighed down with regret. the joy of heroes diminished by sorrow a telling commentary on quixotic quests and […]
Woman With Parasol by Martin Willitts Jr.
Woman With Parasol by Martin Willitts Jr. (Based on Claude Monet’s painting, “Woman with Parasol”) (The models for this painting were Camille Monet and Her Son Jean) I.The artist There is no hurry here. She has been standing like this, a parasol shading her from the sun so her skin does not turn leathery from […]
Why Write? by Mark Olynyk
Why Write? by Mark Olynyk it is written writing is the great escape a craft of the intangible writing is a compulsion like a disease writing is free but still costs something writing is inhuman a necessary evil writing is fun the sum of all thought the writer in the social sense does not exist […]
Where Have We All Gone by Mary Etta Metcalf
climbing the hill i reach the top…the view is so desolate i sit here contemplating the plight we all ignored to the end the demise occured when we took our surroundings for granted then i wonder where have we all gone i look around the empty skies and wonder…where are the birds the ones who […]
What is Poetry? by Mark Olynyk
What is Poetry? by Mark Olynyk poetry is like a fish trying to break the surface of the conscious. poetry is the language of the primitive speaking in tongues. a poetic philosophy is a belief in illusion and the power of poems. he had a history of poetry like an affliction or a virtue. a […]
Wednesday by Marvin Bell
Wednesday by Marvin Bell Gray rainwater lay on the grass in the late afternoon. The carp lay on the bottom, resting, while dusk took shape in the form of the first stirrings of his hunger, and the trees, shorter and heavier, breathed heavily upward. Into this sodden, nourishing afternoon I emerged, partway toward a paycheck, […]
To Sea by Martin Zakovski
Out at sea on a sailboat as winds stop to blow the small craft ceases to move and in the deserted expanse fishes provide us company they listen to our serious chatter and understand something is wrong unlike humans who are ignorant to all our tears and agonies I think I’ll spend my life here […]
To Dorothy by Marvin Bell
To Dorothy by Marvin Bell You are not beautiful, exactly. You are beautiful, inexactly. You let a weed grow by the mulberry And a mulberry grow by the house. So close, in the personal quiet Of a windy night, it brushes the wall And sweeps away the day till we sleep. A child said it, […]
They Thought Her Crazy by Mary Etta Metcalf
she danced around the room…a lonely figure in the dark dancing to a tune only she heard…only she wished for people would enter the room…shake their heads…then walk away they thought her crazy…only she knew it was them she had suffered much throughout her life…yet she was happy her world was full of kindness and […]
These Green-Going-to-Yellow by Marvin Bell
These Green-Going-to-Yellow by Marvin Bell This year, I’m raising the emotional ante, putting my face in the leaves to be stepped on, seeing myself among them, that is; that is, likening leaf-vein to artery, leaf to flesh, the passage of a leaf in autumn to the passage of autumn, branch-tip and winter spaces to possibilities, […]
The Story Of Our Lives by Mark Strand
1 We are reading the story of our lives which takes place in a room. The room looks out on a street. There is no one there, no sound of anything. The tress are heavy with leaves, the parked cars never move. We keep turning the pages, hoping for something, something like mercy or change, […]