Submissions by Strangeways_Rob
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
The son and heir of nothing in particular
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
8th Nov 2021 2:56pm
8th Nov 2021 2:56pm
Northern Lights, Tea & Cigarettes
vizz
#universe
#LifeCycle
703 reads
3 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
2nd Nov 2021 8:24pm
2nd Nov 2021 8:24pm
Graveyard of Gypsies
Washed in sleep at morning’s edge
Tender hands tuck a corpse into the day.
Baptismal breath
Of a pearl-petal mist,
Ghosts
Oak bones
Into brittle creels.
Harbour lights sweep
Rain across the fading
Lily-field of stars;
An umbrella hangs
At the school gates,
The crayoned sky was always blue.
Tread carefully on the underwater staircase,
They creak from the burden of mercy.
Grace of the earth saves us from drowning…..
Afloat
Swimming
...
Tender hands tuck a corpse into the day.
Baptismal breath
Of a pearl-petal mist,
Ghosts
Oak bones
Into brittle creels.
Harbour lights sweep
Rain across the fading
Lily-field of stars;
An umbrella hangs
At the school gates,
The crayoned sky was always blue.
Tread carefully on the underwater staircase,
They creak from the burden of mercy.
Grace of the earth saves us from drowning…..
Afloat
Swimming
...
#mother
#death
#universe #LifeCycle
#universe #LifeCycle
318 reads
5 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
22nd Oct 2021 8:06pm
22nd Oct 2021 8:06pm
Feeding Time at the Bone Factory
There is a crack, a crack in everything,
That’s how the light gets in.
from Anthem. Leonard Cohen
No Mum,
You won’t be coming homing today.
Plastic spoon ferries mush
To tea-bruised lips; her palms
Feebly pull my finger:
Spider-web hands thread herstory thru
Bone ridge of mountain stream,
Songstress, seamstress, undresses
Treacherous ice from cold days.
The dementia mist fell as final curtain
Shakes the Gods’ spears to fade the lights
Out with Romany again
Travel lightly….
Tell me what the...
That’s how the light gets in.
from Anthem. Leonard Cohen
No Mum,
You won’t be coming homing today.
Plastic spoon ferries mush
To tea-bruised lips; her palms
Feebly pull my finger:
Spider-web hands thread herstory thru
Bone ridge of mountain stream,
Songstress, seamstress, undresses
Treacherous ice from cold days.
The dementia mist fell as final curtain
Shakes the Gods’ spears to fade the lights
Out with Romany again
Travel lightly….
Tell me what the...
#love
#death
#universe #LifeCycle
#universe #LifeCycle
326 reads
4 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
8th Oct 2021 10:47pm
8th Oct 2021 10:47pm
I'd Love To
https://youtu.be/oL85yzDJ4Q0
Tidal cells of my heart, (im)part
Fine-tuned comb made of
Ceramic skin and bone ankle
Of lovers birthed in marbled seas.
The sing of the shore
Shales breath,
Froths a mountain mizzle
Astride the lips of desolate ports,
Where timbre’d sea shanties
Heave waves aboard to raise-the-dead.
In the galley are dead deer, my dear,
Shroud wrapped for tender flesh.
If you should ever walk the plank
I will be there to catch you.
A life wasted in Heimlich embrace:
Stumble in...
Tidal cells of my heart, (im)part
Fine-tuned comb made of
Ceramic skin and bone ankle
Of lovers birthed in marbled seas.
The sing of the shore
Shales breath,
Froths a mountain mizzle
Astride the lips of desolate ports,
Where timbre’d sea shanties
Heave waves aboard to raise-the-dead.
In the galley are dead deer, my dear,
Shroud wrapped for tender flesh.
If you should ever walk the plank
I will be there to catch you.
A life wasted in Heimlich embrace:
Stumble in...
#universe
#nature
#music #lyrics
#music #lyrics
245 reads
6 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
30th Sep 2021 10:53pm
30th Sep 2021 10:53pm
Closing Time at the Maternity Museum
There is a man from these parts, who claims to have been born twice. His Mother went into labour at home and his head began to emerge. The ambulance carrying her to Hospital ran over a road ramp and his head popped back in again.
(i)
Scent of
A distantly spilled
{womb} perfume,
Tastes copper on m(y)other tongue
Inhale language & burn yourself
On your own blue breath.
Each birth curates
A pentimento of primitive painting,
Peels back the hands of the clock
Like a moth’s wings unlaced &
Crushed in the leaves...
(i)
Scent of
A distantly spilled
{womb} perfume,
Tastes copper on m(y)other tongue
Inhale language & burn yourself
On your own blue breath.
Each birth curates
A pentimento of primitive painting,
Peels back the hands of the clock
Like a moth’s wings unlaced &
Crushed in the leaves...
#children
#family
#universe #nature
#universe #nature
269 reads
2 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
1st Sep 2021 9:41pm
1st Sep 2021 9:41pm
flowers in broken vases
Drunk from
Drinking the ink of your poetry,
The wingspan of my breath
Feather edges of the rising sky.
On edge of my waking dreams
I become a tree in Blue Mountains,
Through malevolent winters
My leaves are pressed into your mind-library.
Chiselled by the wind and collapsing rain
An owl beats in me like a thunderous heart,
My roots are in the five fields
Five oceans and seven continents.
Climb into my branches & consider only this:
I am on the horizon when you look back.
Sometimes, when ...
Drinking the ink of your poetry,
The wingspan of my breath
Feather edges of the rising sky.
On edge of my waking dreams
I become a tree in Blue Mountains,
Through malevolent winters
My leaves are pressed into your mind-library.
Chiselled by the wind and collapsing rain
An owl beats in me like a thunderous heart,
My roots are in the five fields
Five oceans and seven continents.
Climb into my branches & consider only this:
I am on the horizon when you look back.
Sometimes, when ...
#love
#universe
#nature
415 reads
2 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
30th Aug 2021 11:34pm
30th Aug 2021 11:34pm
Framed [The Loneliness of the Soul]
As for me. I am a watercolor. I wash off.” Anne Sexton
Knuckled strokes
Wrest wine from skies.
Seeds of light, palimpsest
On the white maps before creation,
That grew here and gave being
In remote corner of the universe
To a suggestion of God’s palette.
Hopper’s triangle of lights dissect
dust bowl__ rail road__phantom house__
Curtain-veiled silhouettes seduce the sun:
Skinned as raw deer wounds
To open and invite passing strangers.
In this theatre of drowned clowns
Every waiting moment is a...
Knuckled strokes
Wrest wine from skies.
Seeds of light, palimpsest
On the white maps before creation,
That grew here and gave being
In remote corner of the universe
To a suggestion of God’s palette.
Hopper’s triangle of lights dissect
dust bowl__ rail road__phantom house__
Curtain-veiled silhouettes seduce the sun:
Skinned as raw deer wounds
To open and invite passing strangers.
In this theatre of drowned clowns
Every waiting moment is a...
#death
#universe
#art
332 reads
2 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
11th Jul 2021 7:29pm
11th Jul 2021 7:29pm
Spilling’s of Childhood Summers
We teased bees to sting peaches
Collecting stingers in a jam jar.
By winter, string of needle suicide
Festered a glassed bloodsmell,
Entombed beside tins of peaches.
We are never far from the hiraeth hive.
***
In the Land of Her Many Fathers
Siobhan begged her Nain to
Teach her how to smile.
‘We smile from here,’ she replied -
Pointing at her nicotine stained heart.
Their Bible, always open, smelt of
Tobacco and bacon grease.
***
Shade stung, old man in Panama hat
Brimmed his non-returning...
Collecting stingers in a jam jar.
By winter, string of needle suicide
Festered a glassed bloodsmell,
Entombed beside tins of peaches.
We are never far from the hiraeth hive.
***
In the Land of Her Many Fathers
Siobhan begged her Nain to
Teach her how to smile.
‘We smile from here,’ she replied -
Pointing at her nicotine stained heart.
Their Bible, always open, smelt of
Tobacco and bacon grease.
***
Shade stung, old man in Panama hat
Brimmed his non-returning...
#love
#universe
#LifeCycle #nostalgia
#LifeCycle #nostalgia
269 reads
2 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
26th Jun 2021 7:50pm
26th Jun 2021 7:50pm
Strange Fishes
fishes viz
#LifeCycle
371 reads
2 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
16th Jun 2021 9:36pm
16th Jun 2021 9:36pm
if love be the ocean, then let me drown
Time.
No clocks.
A breath of wind.
From four-walled chapters
Of solitary confinement,
The poet exhales
I loved you before we were born.
Below the eye-lid waves
Soap suds become babbling
Brook of small intentions,
Limb cutlery spread-eagle
Drama to the kitchen sink.
You are the sun stripping the curtain.
Universe sifts memories
Through shredded shroud;
Unbuttoned to the waist
Fever clings to skin as ice upon bath tap.
In room 121 drank cheap wine alone
Guests @ Breakdown Hotel...
No clocks.
A breath of wind.
From four-walled chapters
Of solitary confinement,
The poet exhales
I loved you before we were born.
Below the eye-lid waves
Soap suds become babbling
Brook of small intentions,
Limb cutlery spread-eagle
Drama to the kitchen sink.
You are the sun stripping the curtain.
Universe sifts memories
Through shredded shroud;
Unbuttoned to the waist
Fever clings to skin as ice upon bath tap.
In room 121 drank cheap wine alone
Guests @ Breakdown Hotel...
#love
#universe
#LifeCycle
316 reads
2 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
4th Jun 2021 7:48pm
4th Jun 2021 7:48pm
and then the canary stopped singing......
Noon-stone shrapnel
Bang / slung at lungs
Firedamp breath s(t)inks
As an anaemic sunset doused
There is no coal in mine s(tr)eams here
(Only another year)
Ring-a-ring-a belladonna
Nurse pockets full o’ poison
(Only another hospital)
Snow on fingertips from my first winter trace
Honeycomb whorls on summer’s last hive -
The man who sells rain plucks
Broken ribs of the skies
If such deaths appear to be small
Tall
Stands the conscripted remembrance
//
Upon slumber
Armies alert to...
Bang / slung at lungs
Firedamp breath s(t)inks
As an anaemic sunset doused
There is no coal in mine s(tr)eams here
(Only another year)
Ring-a-ring-a belladonna
Nurse pockets full o’ poison
(Only another hospital)
Snow on fingertips from my first winter trace
Honeycomb whorls on summer’s last hive -
The man who sells rain plucks
Broken ribs of the skies
If such deaths appear to be small
Tall
Stands the conscripted remembrance
//
Upon slumber
Armies alert to...
#universe
#faith
#pandemic
263 reads
2 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
13th May 2021 10:04pm
13th May 2021 10:04pm
'in the midst of life we are in debt' etc etc
The skies are everything.
Constellation of branches
Mark the dialling suns that pass.
Severely, spokes of Ashoka Chakra
Break & scatter along Chembra Peak
As Vishnu’s ribs ripped by
Cro-magnon butcher.
Meadow scarecrows
Unfurl hands downwards
As sunflowers spiral
Against breath of death.
Darling, I must whisper this:
Words are laid out against white sky
Banked on the porous pile of rocks.
At the river’s jaw, eyelids creak open,
In craters of corpse-hollows
...
Constellation of branches
Mark the dialling suns that pass.
Severely, spokes of Ashoka Chakra
Break & scatter along Chembra Peak
As Vishnu’s ribs ripped by
Cro-magnon butcher.
Meadow scarecrows
Unfurl hands downwards
As sunflowers spiral
Against breath of death.
Darling, I must whisper this:
Words are laid out against white sky
Banked on the porous pile of rocks.
At the river’s jaw, eyelids creak open,
In craters of corpse-hollows
...
#love
#death
#universe
#nature
#pandemic
322 reads
1 Comment
DU Poetry : Submissions by Strangeways_Rob
