BEST of your Reading List

We all have writers here on DUP we adore and admire for their craft; consequently we've all created Reading Lists.

Choose that ONE piece you couldn't see yourself parting with ... you'd get it tattooed into your skin if you could.

To make judging this reasonably sane for myself, I'm asking you only nominate writers who's pen names start with the letters A - I for now (the name that appears in Online Now).  Subsequent comps will follow for J - Q, and R - Z.  

If you see a writer has been nominated twice - then pick another.

Also the nominee must offer a critique of the piece and why it's your best of best .. Noting it's strength in style - structure and content (aka why it's so freaking good)

Copy and paste the poem as well as the link.  My great hope is we can all discover some new ink in all this.

I'll contact the mods about awarding two trophies - one for the nominee and one for their sponsor.

artist's proposal

by anna grin


he wants to draw the fear in my eyes
and frame it over his bed
so he can jerk off at his own work
without having to see the rest of my face
as if im wearing the biggest hijab
it covers all the room and my fat ass too
he wants me naked on his album cover
with a censorship sticker on my mouth
 
he wants to practise his tattoos on me
with dotted lines marking the best cuts
wants me holdin on to his dick while he flips tricks on his bike
he wants me to need stitches if he leaves me
and get them if i stay
he wants to shoot me up in my sleep
so i get addicted and suck harder
let my hair grow and tear it out
beat me up for my passport photo
break my toes and buy me beautiful shoes
get me pregnant
start to make coat hanger sculptures to scare me
i know he would do it
he's never drunk enough to justify
but he blames it on the pain in his heart
he wants me to know what to say by the growth of his stubble
and when i break down he wants me to lean into
his arms and let him fuck me
crying and clinging
because i am owned

http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/129056-artists-proposal/

Impending
by Atakti
http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/152663-impending/


I am the moon and the tides.
I am the storm, the battered sea,
raging, raging, until the waters whirl,
deliquesce to droplets, dried in torrid heat…


I am creatures reposed to salty bones,
and I am the undulating desert gorging on them.
I am the Aeolian winds grinding mountains to sand,
blowing away my own dust to bare rock.


I am the tremors, unrelenting shockwaves, collapsing cliffs.
I am the molten lava flows, undermining tectonics.
Beyond the caldera, the release withheld…
The intensity is high, I bleed diamonds…  


Shear and tensile cracks throughout,
upwards and downwards;
unpeeling the mantle, liquid substrata, shaken core.
This world is crumbling... I am crumbling.


I am the imploding planet, spinning off axis,
out of orbit planetary collisions, the space flak.
I am the unfathomable supernova, cluster detonation
white nuclear, radioactive fusion.


I am the fading neutron stars, the star dust...


the black hole...


v   o   i   d

http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/125696-bilge/

Well I tried copying it, but the format gets skewed every time.

The poem in the link above is a moment of clarity but it leads to a more sudden moment. Almost mortifying. The poem is a trick, and probably not intentionally as Mr. Kozak oozes 'em out, but just what came naturally. Any good poem is a trick; can't trick the reader into feeling, seeing, hearing or smelling then you can't write, but this is more intricate than them simple deceptions. It's not about —not just— how big and fucked up the world is, or how small we are, but for me, it was that swift wonder and devastation that every single moment, image, emotion, object, etc., is in a constant, mass immolation to our created time, through our own eyes. It's about this. Describing something as incomprehensible as the universe, and getting away with it.

LSP, this is a cool idea for a comp. I do have one suggestion, perhaps make the nominator work for their trophy and get everyone to write a short critique or reason why the poem is the BEST of their Reading List.

8 weeks not dead

By Deathproof

http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/151219-8-weeks-not-dead/


at the start of this year    
the morning after new years eve    
I lay on a hotel bed    
next to a beautiful woman I have always loved    
who has never loved me, could never love me    
feeling the kind of loneliness you can only feel    
lying next to someone like that    
   
the white hotel sheets were stained with shit and cum    
from taking her in her most unlovable place    
after more hard liquor than anything good ever needed    
   
out the window a container port hummed and revved and banged    
and I lay staring at the ceiling feeling nothing but dying    
or dead    
and somewhere in the back of my very old brain my own voice spoke    
not in words, but in truth    
this idea as honest as iron;    
change or die    
   
so I stopped everything;    
porn    
wanking    
chewing my nails    
smoking    
drinking    
drugs    
lying    
sugar    
salt    
name it I quit it    
   
ground my own life under my heel    
and did it with love    
   
knocked ‘em all down in eight epic weeks of hard training    
and heavy weights    
went old school    
trained like strongmen did on the '30's    
pick heavy shit up    
put heavy shit down    
sweat every last shit-fuck-cunt onto my garage floor    
cried to sleep when I had to    
went walking when I wanted to run    
got angry    
got sad    
got sadder    
got angry again    
   
anger is the thing    
anger is the seed    
I was hiding from    
   
no hiding now    
   
got anger all the way in and anger all the way out    
   
don’t care about that    
cos at least it’s honest    
and eight endless empty aching weeks in    
weaker and stronger than ever I was    
not sure I'm better    
sure I'm not worse    
I do know    
that to feel this fuckin' caught    
in the glare of solid reality    
sober morning after sober night after sober morning    
to feel this fuckin' bare and skinless and grey    
whatever else I am
I can't be fuckin' dead  


Critique


I love the raw reality of this poem.. it's balls to the wall real not fantasy mixed with partial truths.. no pretenses about prettying up anal sex he tells how messy it can be at times.. he tells a true story in vivid and gritty detail.. I can only wish that I had the fortitude he has with going head to head with himself and giving up his vices.. This write has a lot of strength and character something I admire and long for in myself.. This poem hit me in the gut and smacked me around a bit for the lack in me.. I'm sure it hits home with many.. with respect for this man Deathproof.. Crim

She is morning.I am night

Written by John Feddeler

the dawn & dusk can never meet
She is morning. I am night
I chant my dirges in the shadows
She weaves her wonders in the light

tortured lovers, fate has made us
heartbreak lingers, dispelling bliss
equators separate our hearts
we’re never close enough to kiss

somnolent lord, that rules my day
how can She ever find me?
I worship under the druid moon –
nocturnal chains that bind me

to crash the gates, that love, deny
to flee my prison, rise in flight!
and hold Her for the sweetest moment…

but She is morning. I am night        


http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/140218-she-is-morning-i-am-night/

As to WHY, this tops my list...
as with all of us it's just a matter of taste/ mood, and how it hits us!!!
John is one whom Writes easily between styles...being equal in power of delivery of which style he chooses, this is no mean feat...romance and emotive Writes for me tend to be My personal favourites.
This lends to me "Quiet" Beauty...that to me represents Depth
in conveyance of emotion.
"feeling" a Write to me is given when the Writers have the  ability to Write universal, where the heart of them is
shared so the reader connects...knowing and placing it as their own thoughts and feelings.
I am a fan of anything that smacks of the past as well...and too me it's style of delivery does just that-has the air of classic.
I am not one who knows form ...do's and don'ts...
But I feel emotion- and myself understands perfect delivery when something is offered.
To me it is Masterpiece!!!

case28 said:LSP, this is a cool idea for a comp. I do have one suggestion, perhaps make the nominator work for their trophy and get everyone to write a short critique or reason why the poem is the BEST of their Reading List.

I do like this suggestion Mr. Case and will amend accordingly.

http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/2768-a-small-bag/

A Small Bag

Written by Abra (Abracadabra)

She was as crazy as someone saying
Coca Cola gives you cancer
an impossible person to deal with
and after that beer bottle incident on Main Street
I could never trust my own judgment
when she was around.

The night the knife went whistling
past my left ear and stuck in the door
behind me
I knew what I had to do.

Thinking with your head is easy
but only when your heart's not in the way
I knew she would never let me go quietly
and if I'm honest
that may have been part of the attraction
plus a man's priorities never seem to change
she was an expert in some departments after all.

But all that white anger raging around her head
for reasons known only to her
couldn't help but spill out and over
usually over me
so one day with that choking feeling
higher than my nose
wordlessly I slipped away and out of her life
for I hope what turns into forever.

But to this day I keep a small bag
packed and ready by the door
just in case she picks up the scent
and gets on my trail.

(after a great deal of consideration and contemplation this poem by Abra really rose to the top of my reading list because of the honesty of it, almost everyone guys and girls alike has either been with someone just that crazy or known someone who has and that feeling of always looking over your shoulder never really fades which I thought was really well captured in this poem.)

Sorry, jumped the gun, gotta wait for my poet's letter to come up... Apologies...

oops...went over the A-I...

Apologies Atakti and all. It's coming.  Just came home from a funeral. Still digesting.

http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/137832-the-winemaker/

the Winemaker  by Alexander Case
 
 
the vines have prevailed dry blistering frosts  
and ripened fruit, fraught with sleepless nights  
of looming rain, threatening fungal bloom  
 
pulped forbidden fruit from caressing groves  
plucked tender harvest of my pressing soul  
encapsulated sensations fulfil my glass heart  
 
this offering, my essence bottled in lead crystal  
spells unbound with the romantic rite of cork  
unleashing the flow from my jugular jinni  
 
in velvet plume I bleed and I am blissfully absolved  
outpouring into the sacred chalice with gentle kiss  
of fragile mouths gulping air in pulsating chant  
 
hands held precious flow swirled for an eternity  
arousing scent of passion with every breath  
and taste… the blood of life from lush tannin lips



Chosen points:
This is one of those poems which can be interpreted in so many ways and at first glance one might think it's an ode to the beautiful fruit, the ancient aperitif which is as old as scriptures, the soothing elixir for lonely hearts and the floodgates for celebrations in life through every stage and every breath.

It draws the reader in with beautiful woven imagery.  We feel the turbulence of this love; the commitment and the joy of fruits of labor nourishing this fragile and yet resilient life.  The writer encompasses in metaphors of a woman who bears her devotion, her gift by immortalizing as the passion of his life with every essence of pulsations, feeding and nourishing his soul.

Metaphors which elevate a piece and speak in highly sophisticated language aren't easy to pull but I believe he surpassed with this poem, giving us that 'aha' moment where we realize it's more than just about a glass of wine.

The language is exquisite and extremely well crafted, the details are superb.  
The originality of the topic with the use of consonants very pleasing aurally.
A timeless piece and on top of my list because of the beautiful metaphors.


Critique:
The structure very pleasing to the eye, the flow is effortless.
The meter is well balanced.

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Thank you all for your submissions thus far ... I'm going to have to bookmark this thread bc it's the only way I can add these gems to my Reading List.