Submissions by Baldwin
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
23rd Apr 2025 1:28pm
23rd Apr 2025 1:28pm
Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal
A father stands embracing now
his broken suplicating son,
embodying within his grace filled
outstretched hands so softly laid upon
the shoulders of his prodigal
an avid wondered welcoming,
his face
a portrait of the speechless joy aroused
at the fulfillment of a fervent hope
too long denied.
Rarely has a fondling touch,
a countenance,
conveyed so much
of full forgiveness of a patriarch’s abandonment.
And all the while
the scowling older brother of the ragged penitent,
then standing,
fingers...
his broken suplicating son,
embodying within his grace filled
outstretched hands so softly laid upon
the shoulders of his prodigal
an avid wondered welcoming,
his face
a portrait of the speechless joy aroused
at the fulfillment of a fervent hope
too long denied.
Rarely has a fondling touch,
a countenance,
conveyed so much
of full forgiveness of a patriarch’s abandonment.
And all the while
the scowling older brother of the ragged penitent,
then standing,
fingers...
#forgiveness
39 reads
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SELF POEM
Published
21st Apr 2025 12:41pm
21st Apr 2025 12:41pm
when will it come?
I fight against succumbing to impatience
for a hard display
of solid buoyant evidence
of glad recovery from my stroke’s
dulling of my limbs
that threatens my composure every day
They are, I feel,
when valuating morning comes
too slight, too far away.
And I am daily left unsatisfied and drained
And so I ask, “How long will I refrain,
sustain my will,
in light of this unsubtle bleakening,
from giving in
and then admitting that I am undone?”.
for a hard display
of solid buoyant evidence
of glad recovery from my stroke’s
dulling of my limbs
that threatens my composure every day
They are, I feel,
when valuating morning comes
too slight, too far away.
And I am daily left unsatisfied and drained
And so I ask, “How long will I refrain,
sustain my will,
in light of this unsubtle bleakening,
from giving in
and then admitting that I am undone?”.
#healing
32 reads
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MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
18th Apr 2025 10:39pm
18th Apr 2025 10:39pm
ekphrasis on ecce homo
He stands half-naked and unblemished now
dusplayed by Pilate to a hostile crowd
and yet within the hour to come
he’ll bear his weighty stripes
and blood will stain in rising welts his skin.
And seeing this
are we then made
to think upon his innocence
and how he suffered willingly
the brunt of all his nation’s sins?
dusplayed by Pilate to a hostile crowd
and yet within the hour to come
he’ll bear his weighty stripes
and blood will stain in rising welts his skin.
And seeing this
are we then made
to think upon his innocence
and how he suffered willingly
the brunt of all his nation’s sins?
#WritingPoetry
37 reads
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SELF POEM
Published
18th Apr 2025 5:18pm
18th Apr 2025 5:18pm
stroke
I’m angry at my brain
for it allowed the blockages
that rearranged
the agile functionings
of my left side’s
arm and leg
and made me now an invalid.
I’m angry at its hard delay
in summoning repair
in me towards any of the fluid grace
that once and not so long ago
my old sinestered limbs
possessed.
I’m angry at my body, too,
for its acceptance of the lightning bolt
that shot from areas inside my skull
and damaged it
and made my foot and hand
so leadened, dull.
My patience for...
for it allowed the blockages
that rearranged
the agile functionings
of my left side’s
arm and leg
and made me now an invalid.
I’m angry at its hard delay
in summoning repair
in me towards any of the fluid grace
that once and not so long ago
my old sinestered limbs
possessed.
I’m angry at my body, too,
for its acceptance of the lightning bolt
that shot from areas inside my skull
and damaged it
and made my foot and hand
so leadened, dull.
My patience for...
#illness
60 reads
2 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
16th Apr 2025 5:29pm
16th Apr 2025 5:29pm
virgin of the rocks ekphrasis
What was the blessing that this virgin made,
the rhythm and the tenor of her words,
that swayed the infant John to kneel beneath her graceful palm
and pose his hands as if in prayer adoringly
and caused a maidened Uriel
to point the exiled Jesus to be witness to
his cousin’s deed?
Da Vinci leaves this to our vast imaginings
the rhythm and the tenor of her words,
that swayed the infant John to kneel beneath her graceful palm
and pose his hands as if in prayer adoringly
and caused a maidened Uriel
to point the exiled Jesus to be witness to
his cousin’s deed?
Da Vinci leaves this to our vast imaginings
#art
36 reads
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SELF POEM
Published
14th Apr 2025 1:39pm
14th Apr 2025 1:39pm
aftermath
Can you see the grief that’s lined along
my brow, displayed within my eyes,
and seeks relief
like mournful penitent petitioners at prayer?
Awakening from sleep to see how much
at night I may have changed in my recovery
– if whether
any virtued nimbleness has threaded through
my leadened leg and arm,
and in the fingers of my stricken hand --
is now a constant in the rough beginnings of my current days.
Impatience nags me constantly.
my brow, displayed within my eyes,
and seeks relief
like mournful penitent petitioners at prayer?
Awakening from sleep to see how much
at night I may have changed in my recovery
– if whether
any virtued nimbleness has threaded through
my leadened leg and arm,
and in the fingers of my stricken hand --
is now a constant in the rough beginnings of my current days.
Impatience nags me constantly.
#illness
42 reads
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EROTIC POEM
Published
13th Apr 2025 5:13pm
13th Apr 2025 5:13pm
claim
I see again from tallies on my “works”
that if you want
to have your poem read
by those subscribed to DUP
the way to go
is naming what you’ve wrought
as eros filled
yes, even if it’s not.
Look and see the difference between
the number of the reads
submission noted as “erotica” receive
and poems not so classified.
But if you dIsagree
and think my claim is wrong,
do not just make assertions that it’s so.
Provide statistic evidence
that I’m a sounding gong
and hardly in the know.
that if you want
to have your poem read
by those subscribed to DUP
the way to go
is naming what you’ve wrought
as eros filled
yes, even if it’s not.
Look and see the difference between
the number of the reads
submission noted as “erotica” receive
and poems not so classified.
But if you dIsagree
and think my claim is wrong,
do not just make assertions that it’s so.
Provide statistic evidence
that I’m a sounding gong
and hardly in the know.
#honesty
93 reads
0 Comments
EROTIC POEM
Published
13th Apr 2025 3:33pm
13th Apr 2025 3:33pm
lovers past
What within our kiss
belongs to others in our memories,
those from whom we learned
the subtle and the heated ways of pleasuring?
There’s suredly a debt
that’s owed to them for current bliss
And yet the now, the sharpened joy, of you,
surpasses and outlasts all lessons taught
by any lovers from our pasts
belongs to others in our memories,
those from whom we learned
the subtle and the heated ways of pleasuring?
There’s suredly a debt
that’s owed to them for current bliss
And yet the now, the sharpened joy, of you,
surpasses and outlasts all lessons taught
by any lovers from our pasts
#lust
132 reads
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EROTIC POEM
Published
12th Apr 2025 3:58pm
12th Apr 2025 3:58pm
hows and whens and whys
I love your body’s hows and whens
and whys.
They are sublime
your kiss
divine
the way your hold me serpentine
makes starbursts all along
my body’s length and breadth
I say with raptured, gladsom reverence
“Amen” to this.
and whys.
They are sublime
your kiss
divine
the way your hold me serpentine
makes starbursts all along
my body’s length and breadth
I say with raptured, gladsom reverence
“Amen” to this.
#sensual
170 reads
0 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
11th Apr 2025 3:27pm
11th Apr 2025 3:27pm
Stonehenge
I laid my hands upon these stones
some years ago.
I touched an ancient mystery
and felt myself to be
upon the win scoured Wiltshire plane
a small, and insubstantial thing
within immensiites of history
some years ago.
I touched an ancient mystery
and felt myself to be
upon the win scoured Wiltshire plane
a small, and insubstantial thing
within immensiites of history
#memories
51 reads
0 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
10th Apr 2025 4:17pm
10th Apr 2025 4:17pm
pilgrim
I'm now upon a weightless pilgrimage,
disanchored to the gravity of memory.
By petty steps in arrowed time
I”m made to be unstayed
in many of the fondling happenings
that in my past
once shaped my person and my personality.
I’ve lost so many images and memories
of homing places and events,
of faces of past lovers, friends
of books I’ve read,
of titles and the substance
of the movies that I’ve seen,
of what my former teachers said to me,
that in my younger days were unashamedly
and without any effort...
disanchored to the gravity of memory.
By petty steps in arrowed time
I”m made to be unstayed
in many of the fondling happenings
that in my past
once shaped my person and my personality.
I’ve lost so many images and memories
of homing places and events,
of faces of past lovers, friends
of books I’ve read,
of titles and the substance
of the movies that I’ve seen,
of what my former teachers said to me,
that in my younger days were unashamedly
and without any effort...
#grief
47 reads
0 Comments
EROTIC POEM
Published
12th Mar 2025 2:20pm
12th Mar 2025 2:20pm
Touch
I seek
the lightning bolt
within your fingertips
and pray
to be incarnate in
the length and breadth
of all my flesh electrified
consumed
transported by
fulfilled desire
that only you
could bring me
with your touch
your eager lips.
the lightning bolt
within your fingertips
and pray
to be incarnate in
the length and breadth
of all my flesh electrified
consumed
transported by
fulfilled desire
that only you
could bring me
with your touch
your eager lips.
#lust
212 reads
0 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by Baldwin
