Submissions by hgnichols (Harry Nichols)
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
I have casually written poems for years and have felt the need lately to share them with others. #Dadlife and gigs often prevent me from reading them in person, so here I am.
SELF POEM
Published
18th Oct 2024 00:13am
18th Oct 2024 00:13am
New York Supplication
#alcohol
#depression
#sex #suicide
#sex #suicide
54 reads
3 Comments
STORY POEM
Published
4th Aug 2024 4:01am
4th Aug 2024 4:01am
III. Seeds
I took him by the hand, my sense restored
and fleeing, led him to a ditch beneath
a shed’s foundation, where the dead were stored.
The opening was scarce enough to squeeze
in his emaciated state, but still
it served-- best chance to slip the guard
which soon with fury searched the barren grounds.
Myself, forgotten, in the wake of it,
the vengeful guard instead like wolves did hunt
the murderer of their beloved chief,
who on them showered spoils at our expense.
For thirty days I brought the boy his food
and stood in watch...
and fleeing, led him to a ditch beneath
a shed’s foundation, where the dead were stored.
The opening was scarce enough to squeeze
in his emaciated state, but still
it served-- best chance to slip the guard
which soon with fury searched the barren grounds.
Myself, forgotten, in the wake of it,
the vengeful guard instead like wolves did hunt
the murderer of their beloved chief,
who on them showered spoils at our expense.
For thirty days I brought the boy his food
and stood in watch...
#courage
#epic
#friendship #narrative
#friendship #narrative
103 reads
1 Comment
STORY POEM
Published
6th Jun 2024 2:35pm
6th Jun 2024 2:35pm
II. Origin of Friendship (CW: Child abuse)
Liquor in his hand, the drunkard sat
and listened as she told it from the start:
In the final days of that most recent flood
when all of us, displaced, corralled, encamped
felt the force of hunger in our pits,
when also was the White Plague freed from ice,
I first met Hul, the boy who trailed The Man.
Though monstrous was The Man, who cained and beat
as though we poor were mongrels, groveling
at supper-time, embarrassing the master,
young Hul would look upon his master’s works
with pangs of empathy behind big eyes ...
and listened as she told it from the start:
In the final days of that most recent flood
when all of us, displaced, corralled, encamped
felt the force of hunger in our pits,
when also was the White Plague freed from ice,
I first met Hul, the boy who trailed The Man.
Though monstrous was The Man, who cained and beat
as though we poor were mongrels, groveling
at supper-time, embarrassing the master,
young Hul would look upon his master’s works
with pangs of empathy behind big eyes ...
#epic
#friendship
#illness
#love
#mythology
113 reads
1 Comment
STORY POEM
Published
31st May 2024 4:37pm
31st May 2024 4:37pm
I. Appeal
Said the poet in his desperate hour:
A supplication to the gods who feast
upon the pain-varietals of man;
An entertaining tease to pass the time
as ages wilt and rot eternally.
I sing a song that you may slake the thirst,
or rather, give you cause to let it slip
your mind, a willed omission. In return,
confer upon you something to be told
when you, your greatest cravings cannot sate.
Thus is what I offer greater still
than any fleeting bliss you may derive
from all my fleeting mortal agony.
Though well you know the...
A supplication to the gods who feast
upon the pain-varietals of man;
An entertaining tease to pass the time
as ages wilt and rot eternally.
I sing a song that you may slake the thirst,
or rather, give you cause to let it slip
your mind, a willed omission. In return,
confer upon you something to be told
when you, your greatest cravings cannot sate.
Thus is what I offer greater still
than any fleeting bliss you may derive
from all my fleeting mortal agony.
Though well you know the...
#epic
#friendship
#illness
#love
#mythology
89 reads
1 Comment
DRUGS POEM
Published
13th Apr 2023 10:00pm
13th Apr 2023 10:00pm
Supplication
I share your orgy blood, king Dionysus,
and from your ashes raise a thousand revelries.
Oh let me taste the honey-cakes of sin;
let me subsist on surfeit long enough.
I cannot long contain my burgeoning,
my holy light that would drink and eat and love
embracing fullness
praising pleasure
breaking bread
dying young but free.
and from your ashes raise a thousand revelries.
Oh let me taste the honey-cakes of sin;
let me subsist on surfeit long enough.
I cannot long contain my burgeoning,
my holy light that would drink and eat and love
embracing fullness
praising pleasure
breaking bread
dying young but free.
#love
#identity
#alcohol
#food
#passion
235 reads
2 Comments
UPBEAT INSPIRATIONAL POEM
Published
13th Apr 2023 4:33am
13th Apr 2023 4:33am
Embrace the Sun
Embrace the Sun's bitter sweet morning;
soaking in at pores,
conferring upon you, in darkening shades,
its wholesale consent.
Rise to the pain in back, in legs, in thighs,
and feel them fully.
Understand the dancing dust celebrate
their bygone lives, the sweetness of forgetting
in her golden kiss.
Savor the muscles' strain,
the pangs before breakfast,
the cold of silent, storied rooms:
these are her arms outstretched,
inviting you to infinite vitality.
soaking in at pores,
conferring upon you, in darkening shades,
its wholesale consent.
Rise to the pain in back, in legs, in thighs,
and feel them fully.
Understand the dancing dust celebrate
their bygone lives, the sweetness of forgetting
in her golden kiss.
Savor the muscles' strain,
the pangs before breakfast,
the cold of silent, storied rooms:
these are her arms outstretched,
inviting you to infinite vitality.
#morning
#dawn
244 reads
4 Comments
DRUGS POEM
Published
8th Feb 2023 6:48pm
8th Feb 2023 6:48pm
Mortal Kombat, Hungover
Can't you see my swivel head spin,
orbiting a concussion sun?
Breathless, beaten blue
thoughtless, head metal-racket
feet disconnected from heart, mind
disjointed thinking
how can I be so helpless?
It's Mortal Kombat,
so I should have known the possibility;
seen the eventuality--
Even the best sometimes succumb
to pissants spamming "punch."
Cheap shots, cheap shots,
the idiot luck of the game
hastily constructed, ad hoc pixels slapped together
accidental death trap.
Here I am,
queezy, broken...
orbiting a concussion sun?
Breathless, beaten blue
thoughtless, head metal-racket
feet disconnected from heart, mind
disjointed thinking
how can I be so helpless?
It's Mortal Kombat,
so I should have known the possibility;
seen the eventuality--
Even the best sometimes succumb
to pissants spamming "punch."
Cheap shots, cheap shots,
the idiot luck of the game
hastily constructed, ad hoc pixels slapped together
accidental death trap.
Here I am,
queezy, broken...
#alcohol
#despair
286 reads
3 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
23rd Nov 2022 1:46am
23rd Nov 2022 1:46am
For Yiannis
I sat beneath your crow heavy limbs
And contemplated the incomprehensible,
Trying, there, to swallow the sun,
To understand dark like your prison,
Your bark shackles.
You did not groan a reply.
The wind left no stick-scratch whisper.
It’s funny; despite your changed form,
You remain the mystery you always have been.
And contemplated the incomprehensible,
Trying, there, to swallow the sun,
To understand dark like your prison,
Your bark shackles.
You did not groan a reply.
The wind left no stick-scratch whisper.
It’s funny; despite your changed form,
You remain the mystery you always have been.
#grief
#suicide
508 reads
2 Comments
ANGER POEM
Published
27th May 2022 8:31pm
27th May 2022 8:31pm
Listen to Brother
Listen because I am the only grown up left.
Listen because this house’s bones are bending,
load-bearing wall,
sagging, groaning, hungry.
Listen because the rust-water comes,
leaky piped, bile pools,
streaking nursery walls,
baby waking wet.
Listen because Mother and Father will not wake,
try as we have to rouse them
From opulent slumber.
Listen because daylight has dwindled and night is long.
Because the boil-man is calling at the front door.
Because the kitchen is barren,
bereft over bygone revelry
and nostalgia...
Listen because this house’s bones are bending,
load-bearing wall,
sagging, groaning, hungry.
Listen because the rust-water comes,
leaky piped, bile pools,
streaking nursery walls,
baby waking wet.
Listen because Mother and Father will not wake,
try as we have to rouse them
From opulent slumber.
Listen because daylight has dwindled and night is long.
Because the boil-man is calling at the front door.
Because the kitchen is barren,
bereft over bygone revelry
and nostalgia...
#anger
#grief
#GunControl
431 reads
6 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
19th Nov 2021 3:14pm
19th Nov 2021 3:14pm
Ephemera I
This is somebody's wasted light
its record in mindless unthought scrawl.
How many exposures are burned this way?
Little scraps lining workplace floors,
How high a pile can be made with sweeping?
What desolate dunes? What funeral fires?
Countless lives in service of nothing,
counting down to death.
its record in mindless unthought scrawl.
How many exposures are burned this way?
Little scraps lining workplace floors,
How high a pile can be made with sweeping?
What desolate dunes? What funeral fires?
Countless lives in service of nothing,
counting down to death.
#death
417 reads
3 Comments
SONG LYRICS
Published
4th Sep 2020 3:29pm
4th Sep 2020 3:29pm
Ready as I'll Ever Be
#anxiety
#pandemic
912 reads
3 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
17th Aug 2020 1:56am
17th Aug 2020 1:56am
Morning Walk
When I was a voyeur,
I stole out into unpeopled calm.
There was innocent dawn and her choir,
sounding her half dreaming tongue,
stretching cool fingers to touch guiltless earth;
trusting, naked.
I do not know how long I marveled in beauty’s wake,
Or what ticks I laid hidden in the grass on my return.
I stole out into unpeopled calm.
There was innocent dawn and her choir,
sounding her half dreaming tongue,
stretching cool fingers to touch guiltless earth;
trusting, naked.
I do not know how long I marveled in beauty’s wake,
Or what ticks I laid hidden in the grass on my return.
#lust
#evil
#nature #mythology
#nature #mythology
554 reads
7 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by hgnichols (Harry Nichols)
