Your Collection

Write a poem (any style, length, no collabs) about something you collect.  Do you have a nice stash of sea shells?  Baseball cards?  Concert memorabilia, dust even?  Or do you collect something more abstract, like broken hearts, or something sinister like shrunken voodoo heads, or worse.... souls.....

Lots of stuff to "collect".... have fun!

    romance for the inept


they say if you love something let it go.
if it was meant to be, it will return.
evey time i let something go
i never see it again.

some things i want to keep
but they escape on their own
& i never see them again.
that happened with a birthday wish & 2, no 3 secrets...
oh, & a prayer with crippled wings.

now i have 1 dream left.
i keep her in a parakeet cage.
she's quiet & doesn't eat much.
she has a black cape that she
wraps around herself completely.

i can't remember her face or
how she came to be or
even what i'm supposed to accomplish with her.
but i'm keeping her in the cage.
even if it's wrong it's better than being
completely alone.

This mask is saving grace
In the face of an apocalypse.
This mask is for saving face
Should we be graced with an apocalypse.
Et voici est le crème de le crop,
c'est mon masquer de le pantalone.

(my collection is still short, but it's growing ._.)

Thanks for starting this off!

Okay ML, I have a collection, but I am embarrassed about it. I hate my own insecurities. So if I enter, please don't read my poem and be like, "sw9618 has weird taste."

Disappointments for sale (inclusive of despair)

It consists of this,
all of it and none
I found solace in that
which I could not hold
but only cherish as fond memoirs
of a terrible moment in time

Never full, never empty
it turned into an addiction
derogation of the unwise, with no premise
bawls and shrieks have no place here
this is silent lucidity capsized
hundreds of expressions explaining one thing
one thing that explains it all

Destination: lost
with no means to propel the self
into a promising new day,
pray tell, what will break down the wall
self loathing and misanthropy creates?
alone in a crowd, here, but far away
none of it is that important anyway

The smile stealer, grin eater
mood killer, running short of edification
It's never alone; in bed with misery
the smallest things distress
the grandest of thoughts
wanting reprieve, searching escape
as if you could
die and stain pride?

No

Cowardice is lower than this
not worse, just pathetic
but please, ignore my terrible advocacy,
everything is half off today
I'm feeling generous.

http://media.tumblr.com/56c873f2ea401c21e42e8051984afa09/tumblr_inline_mvcd01bp6A1qa5dqw.png
-Image http://disappointmentsforsale.com/

http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/133430-disappointments-for-sale-inclusive-of/

It started with a dragon from my sister

When I found that I had Crohn's
the same as she.
She sent me a small pewter dragon
saying he would give me some control
of the fire within my guts

He was a small but wise fellow
and because it was from her,
I loved him
And soon I gathered more

European dragons with
folded wings
Asian dragons with
no wings at all

But all dragons of wisdom
and strength
No vicious mindless things

Dragons of earth
dragons of air
dragons of water
dragons of fire

All the elements collected
all sharing strength and wisdom
and beauty
I have more than 100 dragons captive
along with books of lore ...

But one day, a young girl
a daughter of a friend
sent me a picture she had drawn
just for me

A dragon in flight, and a wish
that the dragon would bring me joy
And I realized that these
were all captive hopes
and dreams and wishes

I sent her that very first dragon
from my sister
as a thank you

for helping me realize that
things are not reality
that wishes are not truths
that only by striving
spreading our wings,
and working and believing
can we make our dreams
become true vision...

and although I love my dragons, still
I don't collect them anymore ...

... but the vision of flight
     still remains

Cold Metal, Smooth Lips

 
He'd die  
again and again  
 
Played out in my head  
it's set on repeat.
Thankfully I suspended my care.
 
I'd escape  
For a little while.  
Drink  
and sing  
to drown him out.  
 
Louder,  
he screams.  
Softer,  
I sing.  
I cannot ignore,  
I drink again.  
 
I walk  
through the dark  
to a point where I stop  
this point,  
here.  
A tribute,  
to a death set in stone.  
 
Tracing my fingertips  
I caress a jagged piece of metal  
Its coolness, indifference.  
Its jagged edge, hardly eager.
 
Too loud for me here  
the streets bustle  
individual lives  
do they see  
know  
or understand  
 
That I have found their humanity  
in a cold,  
jagged piece of metal.  
With her rigid edge enticing  
glistening as hot pink lips would..

She wants to kiss me,
taste me.
And bleed me dry.

Dream Fragments

Strike
Roar and rumble, twist and turn,
loose the lightning’s pent-up burn.
Flash and flicker, dance and dive,
for an instant feel alive.

Curiosity
Magnifying glass in hand,
the child basks in the black heat
of his asphalt driveway, enamoured
by the implicit unity of the
ant colony at his feet.

Northern Stillness
Well north of the bustling city
before the crackle of night’s winter fire,
hard hats, black backs and frozen fingers
shiver starkly in time with their iron picks
sharp strikes upon the icy earth,
shattering the frozen northern stillness.

Mental Gymnastics
Bend your mind a little,
loosen up your lungs;
stretch out on the sofa-bed
and flip the TV on.

Alright
Gangrene enthusiasm, parasite smile,
although I seem chipper
I’m wrack with denial.

Country Song
The frost on the wind
met the chill up my spine,
in a cold country inn
with five bottles of wine.

Night Out
I missed the last train
when I stopped to think.
It could have rained but never did.
Sleep on a bench
finished the night.

Great entries everyone!

my collection of garbage pale kids got me started

i collect
toenails
scabs
pill bottles
potato bugs
wishes
bullets
cans of tomato soup i get on father's day
cassete tapes
memories of things that really hurt to obsess over later
i collect painkillers not because the way everything hurts
but more because i hate diarrhea  
loperimide simply will not do
but who would have knew
100mg will get you goin
i have a collection of old skate vids where tony hawk wears a pink helmet
i have a collection of drawings and personal writings no one will see until i die
which may be soon
license plates
a severed toe in the freezer
ibuprofen simply will not do!!!!
will not do!!!!!
i have a gnarly collection of scars
and a badass beard
my x wife got my tools and my tv
but i'll get em back one day
kick down the door
"you can fuck my wife"
"sit on my post modern gothic all black leather furniture"
"drink my 200 dollar columbian coffee"
"but you ain't gonna watch my tv"
i got four firearms
pistols that is
3 rifles 2 machetes
a hell of a buck knife and a sickle
yeh a fuckin sickle
i've got 17 dew rags
146 cell phones
no friends
more then the standard whit boy issue
even after a skinny dipping in march
my favorite dog has a badass tattoo
and plugs
say what you will he fn loves it
i dare you to ask him
666 on my ass
a dead baby on my shoulder
and a hot air balloon to get out of all of hell
i got a few dwi's and a few more restraining orders
they were all well worth it
i got a t shirt that say"your girlfriend fucks like a champ"
i got a gnarly beard
and i can kill a deer with my bare hands
the hoover damn project has been set in motion
i have a collection of everything anna grin has ever written
even when she was jut a number
and a shy name even before that
i have a girlfriend that hates the fact i do
i'm in love with7 different women
every single one of them hates me
i have a lot of damage
a lot of baggage
a lot of vengeance that i better get busy on
getting on

aren't we all jus a collection of mishaps that we best get to fixin?

alright gonna give my best shot. based of tribal beliefs of old:

"Part of me"
I collect you in my vial,
Tearing into your meaty leg,
Now our flesh becomes one,
Red as the crimson in my bottle,
They wanted you gone forever,
I cant let you go away,
We havent gotten our chance at eternity,
So ill consume your warm heart,
To ease the deep pit growing in mine,
That weeps as i devour your mind,
The memories we shared of better times,
I cut strands of your flowing ivory hair,
Weaving them into a bracelets,
With shiny white trinkets of your bones,
Which i will treasure most,
Of my memento mori ive collected on my shelf.

You're right, lots of stuff to collect, I'll have to think about this one though, in abstract, cuz I don't really collect anything... except seashells...

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Congrats to all, great job everyone!