Submissions by Baldwin
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
I Will Kiss You With My Voice
Lady I will kiss you with my voice,
kiss you and kiss you for an hour’s time
until you cannot help
but sigh and groan and let
a sly smile play upon your lips
and wish I’d place my tongue
in circling swirls around your fingertips,
upon the arch of ivory flesh
beneath your chin,
above your eyes
and then down on the calling mound below
to make you cry out inarticulate
for more, and more, and more
as I ensure
it’s softly shaped with care
so you would know
and come to think you had no choice ...
kiss you and kiss you for an hour’s time
until you cannot help
but sigh and groan and let
a sly smile play upon your lips
and wish I’d place my tongue
in circling swirls around your fingertips,
upon the arch of ivory flesh
beneath your chin,
above your eyes
and then down on the calling mound below
to make you cry out inarticulate
for more, and more, and more
as I ensure
it’s softly shaped with care
so you would know
and come to think you had no choice ...
#sensual
511 reads
1 Comment
My new cat
My new guy, Hobbes,
instead of playing with
the branches of my Christmas tree,
now wants to race and dart inside my fridge
right when I open up its door.
He hops inside and won’t come out,
until I, scolding, catch the little fellow
by his scruff
and drag him (gently, never rough)
out from his frosty lair.
And how he’ll mewl and huff a bit,
disliking he’s brought back to warmer air.
He likes to linger up aslant
the tupper-ware and sit
and purr awhile.
This little impish ball of feline fur
desired to be, I must...
instead of playing with
the branches of my Christmas tree,
now wants to race and dart inside my fridge
right when I open up its door.
He hops inside and won’t come out,
until I, scolding, catch the little fellow
by his scruff
and drag him (gently, never rough)
out from his frosty lair.
And how he’ll mewl and huff a bit,
disliking he’s brought back to warmer air.
He likes to linger up aslant
the tupper-ware and sit
and purr awhile.
This little impish ball of feline fur
desired to be, I must...
#cats
394 reads
0 Comments
An Alexandrine Challenge
robert43041 (Viking) has made the claim that if a poster here cannot cast words in "the Alexandrine form" (see below for what this is), he or she should not be considered a good poet or legitimately lay claim to that title. Leaving aside the fact that, so far as I know, he himself has never written anything in this form, but still thinks (even if only implicitly) that he deserves to be called by it, let's take him at his word, and see if those here who have arrogated to themselves that title (J-Z, are you listening?) are able to produce what robert/viking says he or she must be able to...
#WritingPoetry
289 reads
3 Comments
On Yoolis Night
I know, despite the comfort of
the hallowed tale,
there were no angels then
who came aloft upon that ancient Christmas eve
to Bethlehem,
and from on high proclaimed "fear not",
to humbled men,
and spoke of huddled wonderment
new born in David's royal citadel,
and sang in gloried light
God's favours on the world.
And yet if someone were to say
on Yoolis night,
at midnight's stroke
"Let us go out
into the dark and cold,
and stand ourselves
upon the hill
in shepherds' stead
beneath the starry host...
the hallowed tale,
there were no angels then
who came aloft upon that ancient Christmas eve
to Bethlehem,
and from on high proclaimed "fear not",
to humbled men,
and spoke of huddled wonderment
new born in David's royal citadel,
and sang in gloried light
God's favours on the world.
And yet if someone were to say
on Yoolis night,
at midnight's stroke
"Let us go out
into the dark and cold,
and stand ourselves
upon the hill
in shepherds' stead
beneath the starry host...
#Christmas
239 reads
0 Comments
As I decorate my Christmas tree
I wonder sometimes
as I decorate my Christmas tree
with ornaments my parents owned
if I’m engaged in one of what
the scholars Borg and Crossan note
are sacramental acts.
For after all, one reason that I do it
is to bring my boyhood
and the other cherished aspects of my past
alive and present once again
to me.
as I decorate my Christmas tree
with ornaments my parents owned
if I’m engaged in one of what
the scholars Borg and Crossan note
are sacramental acts.
For after all, one reason that I do it
is to bring my boyhood
and the other cherished aspects of my past
alive and present once again
to me.
#Christmas
170 reads
0 Comments
The Bene Elohim at Christmas
Come, you things of fire,
you shining bene elohim
come now in strength,
come here!
Unfurl your wings
and set yourselves
to rive
the cold expanse of space,
from Heaven's gate
down to Judea's hills
and arrow through the night
with majesty and glory in your tiding wake
to make those tending shepherds
huddling now upon the ridge
that rings dark Bethlehem
quake and dance
and sing with you
at your apocalypse
you shining bene elohim
come now in strength,
come here!
Unfurl your wings
and set yourselves
to rive
the cold expanse of space,
from Heaven's gate
down to Judea's hills
and arrow through the night
with majesty and glory in your tiding wake
to make those tending shepherds
huddling now upon the ridge
that rings dark Bethlehem
quake and dance
and sing with you
at your apocalypse
#Christmas
252 reads
10 Comments
Nativity
From the gloried hill they come,
four grizzled men,
song dazed, sky drunk,
their eyes alight with new born stars,
to see their promised sign,
my swaddled son.
Shy, shy,
with pipe and muffled drum
they play for him a shepherd's lullaby.
And to the boy, I know,
their meager music was like a gift of gold,
or a Temple offering.
four grizzled men,
song dazed, sky drunk,
their eyes alight with new born stars,
to see their promised sign,
my swaddled son.
Shy, shy,
with pipe and muffled drum
they play for him a shepherd's lullaby.
And to the boy, I know,
their meager music was like a gift of gold,
or a Temple offering.
#Christmas
171 reads
0 Comments
The Purpose of Prayer
I should not pray
for the attainment of my happiness
or my contentment or subjection to eternal joy
for that’s a hedonistic and self-centered aim;
It's also a denial of the things the master said
that prayer, especially the one that people say
belongs to him, is for.
He expressly said its purpose is to gain
the aid from God
that helps ensure that pray-ers do not stray
from conforming all their public ways
to what the Father has decreed
his chosen ones
are obligated to behaviourally display
if they...
for the attainment of my happiness
or my contentment or subjection to eternal joy
for that’s a hedonistic and self-centered aim;
It's also a denial of the things the master said
that prayer, especially the one that people say
belongs to him, is for.
He expressly said its purpose is to gain
the aid from God
that helps ensure that pray-ers do not stray
from conforming all their public ways
to what the Father has decreed
his chosen ones
are obligated to behaviourally display
if they...
#determination
243 reads
1 Comment
We Stood Outside
We stood outside
the cave where we were told
we’d find
the lady and her tided new born son,
I in my green coat
the others burlapped, furtive, whispering:
Did she bleed heavily?
How red the straw?
How hard the breach?
Does she regret her pangs?
Is she now shivering?
And there, look there – the child!
How eager is the suckling mouth?
Is he content?
O look, his eyes!
Above, a comet carves
a tracery across the gloried sky,
the herald’s song --
a savior’s come, and to be found
in...
the cave where we were told
we’d find
the lady and her tided new born son,
I in my green coat
the others burlapped, furtive, whispering:
Did she bleed heavily?
How red the straw?
How hard the breach?
Does she regret her pangs?
Is she now shivering?
And there, look there – the child!
How eager is the suckling mouth?
Is he content?
O look, his eyes!
Above, a comet carves
a tracery across the gloried sky,
the herald’s song --
a savior’s come, and to be found
in...
#Christmas
205 reads
0 Comments
With apologies to Anacreon
Long-legged coltish girl, why now these darkened sidelong looks
and why this stiffened neck, this hard-set chin?
Do you suppose that I know nothing of defiance and its ways?
How it shows itself in nostrils flared
and how it spurs you on to lift your face all fiery-eyed,
and pause, then dart and shake your head to whiplash back your hair?
Listen, listen to a man who’s been around
the block a time or two and back again.
Your pitched disdain for men will be the fast undoing of your days.
Some sly and lovely boy will slip a bridle on you...
and why this stiffened neck, this hard-set chin?
Do you suppose that I know nothing of defiance and its ways?
How it shows itself in nostrils flared
and how it spurs you on to lift your face all fiery-eyed,
and pause, then dart and shake your head to whiplash back your hair?
Listen, listen to a man who’s been around
the block a time or two and back again.
Your pitched disdain for men will be the fast undoing of your days.
Some sly and lovely boy will slip a bridle on you...
#women
#romantic
195 reads
0 Comments
After the Annunciation
For Jane Schaberg
Mary,
only fourteen now
but done in by Imperium.
Panthera’s seed was planted well
against your will
and now, to your regret, you know
you're swelling with his bastard spawn.
Do you rage against your god
who lets such things occur.
Do you demur?
Assume the blame?
Have you thought how Joseph,
expecting so to bring you undefiled into his home,
will be fraught and darkly shamed
when he comes to know
how much you’re stained,
so doubly occupied,
and want, as is his right,
to put...
Mary,
only fourteen now
but done in by Imperium.
Panthera’s seed was planted well
against your will
and now, to your regret, you know
you're swelling with his bastard spawn.
Do you rage against your god
who lets such things occur.
Do you demur?
Assume the blame?
Have you thought how Joseph,
expecting so to bring you undefiled into his home,
will be fraught and darkly shamed
when he comes to know
how much you’re stained,
so doubly occupied,
and want, as is his right,
to put...
#regret
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Mortality
I am aware that I someday will die.
Should that awareness be a thing
that stops me from delighting in
what God, in all his hesed, foresight, and
his graciousness, has placed within my hands?
Would I, in letting this perception of
my earthly finitude, my fated temporality,
deplete me of enjoyment of this life’s divinely given joys,
not be a person set upon
insulting him?
Is not the using of the fact
that I'm a being trapped in telic entropy
and fleshed within contingency,
a breath filled, clay made body that
is destined...
Should that awareness be a thing
that stops me from delighting in
what God, in all his hesed, foresight, and
his graciousness, has placed within my hands?
Would I, in letting this perception of
my earthly finitude, my fated temporality,
deplete me of enjoyment of this life’s divinely given joys,
not be a person set upon
insulting him?
Is not the using of the fact
that I'm a being trapped in telic entropy
and fleshed within contingency,
a breath filled, clay made body that
is destined...
#TruthOfLife
174 reads
6 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by Baldwin