Submissions by whale
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
seek and you will find when you search with all your heart
DEPARTURE
Out foul smoke you cigarette stall outpouring
Of pall born smokers coughing and laughing
Wall backed cross legged buddhas
Ruddy northerners easy smile southerners
My stomach rumbling with airport pizza
The shaven tanned Scands how they hitchhike
Cape Town to Addis on forty rand a day in
Converse in conversation with ebony Somalis
Natty Nigerians Zimbos and Kenyans in lurid
Polo Tees hot to trot to Guangzhou to trade
The crowds thin then grow/thin again
Informal groupings of nervous words
Nervous worlds in wonder of...
Of pall born smokers coughing and laughing
Wall backed cross legged buddhas
Ruddy northerners easy smile southerners
My stomach rumbling with airport pizza
The shaven tanned Scands how they hitchhike
Cape Town to Addis on forty rand a day in
Converse in conversation with ebony Somalis
Natty Nigerians Zimbos and Kenyans in lurid
Polo Tees hot to trot to Guangzhou to trade
The crowds thin then grow/thin again
Informal groupings of nervous words
Nervous worlds in wonder of...
874 reads
12 Comments
ORIGINS
Above bats the dark green palm
As blue smoke slithers the damned
An infernal flame fan
Spun in eternity's wheel
Awaiting the day they explode
Into a ray
The absence of love is suffering
And love's absence illusion's reel
And in the seraphim was the fire
And here it was that I burned
And in the cherubim was the light
And here it was I saw
And in the ophanim was the wheel
Born to spin us all
For these are the servants three
And they work just as we
Holy Holy Holy
Just like the...
As blue smoke slithers the damned
An infernal flame fan
Spun in eternity's wheel
Awaiting the day they explode
Into a ray
The absence of love is suffering
And love's absence illusion's reel
And in the seraphim was the fire
And here it was that I burned
And in the cherubim was the light
And here it was I saw
And in the ophanim was the wheel
Born to spin us all
For these are the servants three
And they work just as we
Holy Holy Holy
Just like the...
756 reads
11 Comments
VALENT
My security detail welcomes me
Sound of aircon and a country heartbreak
On the radio my heart's as low
As only a woman knows
They wish me Happy Valentine
And ask about you
Your voice has become a memory
Not your phone voice but your real voice
As if I'm forgetting what you meant
Your voice dies
I want to charge the phone
When I do we lose reception
Any desire here upsets the equilibrium
Its better to want nothing
The red bus on the red road
Has painted in blue on the back
GOD...
Sound of aircon and a country heartbreak
On the radio my heart's as low
As only a woman knows
They wish me Happy Valentine
And ask about you
Your voice has become a memory
Not your phone voice but your real voice
As if I'm forgetting what you meant
Your voice dies
I want to charge the phone
When I do we lose reception
Any desire here upsets the equilibrium
Its better to want nothing
The red bus on the red road
Has painted in blue on the back
GOD...
883 reads
18 Comments
HUNGER
Alluvial flesh silts from the rill
The river bolsters then let's go
Leaping the falls
Drops that no longer
Can stay together
And I will find the brook
Of spinning drops
And cup my hands
And sup
It is not the tree whispering
Nor the wind whispering
The whisper is my invention
Vent in waiting
For words
A wax man faces the sun
Pulled by north and south
Flesh melts from rib and spine
Fire in rain rainbow woven
Spinning magnets
And I will find his bones
And...
The river bolsters then let's go
Leaping the falls
Drops that no longer
Can stay together
And I will find the brook
Of spinning drops
And cup my hands
And sup
It is not the tree whispering
Nor the wind whispering
The whisper is my invention
Vent in waiting
For words
A wax man faces the sun
Pulled by north and south
Flesh melts from rib and spine
Fire in rain rainbow woven
Spinning magnets
And I will find his bones
And...
864 reads
17 Comments
CLOSER
We became puppets of an antiChrist
Punch and Judy in a playground of hate
As we mimicked each other's anger
Grabbing pulling codependents
A complicit compact cloaked consensus
Spinning faster faster faster
Spinning faster faster faster
Squander karma to pay snake charmers
Sleep wandering deadman marcher
Marching from the promised land
To the end of days
At day's end
Praise touch befriend each other
Recognise the one you hate's a brother
Soul awake love spoken needs no broker
Hugging closer close...
Punch and Judy in a playground of hate
As we mimicked each other's anger
Grabbing pulling codependents
A complicit compact cloaked consensus
Spinning faster faster faster
Spinning faster faster faster
Squander karma to pay snake charmers
Sleep wandering deadman marcher
Marching from the promised land
To the end of days
At day's end
Praise touch befriend each other
Recognise the one you hate's a brother
Soul awake love spoken needs no broker
Hugging closer close...
717 reads
24 Comments
FEET
We are walking through fields
Your feet go where mine go
And the cornflowers wave with the wind
We were the first walkers and word makers
And our voices were defined not by the sound
Of our voices but their vibrations
Waves that were carried in the aeons of silence
So be careful of words
Our children and the angels bear them witness
Just as footprints fall so those fallen may rise
Pray our feet fall on hallowed ground
And We watch the earth from the moon
An Earth spinning majestic
Not from fire or oil
But from a...
Your feet go where mine go
And the cornflowers wave with the wind
We were the first walkers and word makers
And our voices were defined not by the sound
Of our voices but their vibrations
Waves that were carried in the aeons of silence
So be careful of words
Our children and the angels bear them witness
Just as footprints fall so those fallen may rise
Pray our feet fall on hallowed ground
And We watch the earth from the moon
An Earth spinning majestic
Not from fire or oil
But from a...
877 reads
16 Comments
DOG
Derelict on a temple floor
Ether earth surrounded
By the rich and the poor
And their half born prayers confounded
And all that he saw remained the same
With everything round him changing
Staring into space all day
They wondered is he holy
Wondered what he's staring at
And decided he was crazy
One day a girl pitied him
This fresh fruit pit of stone
With invite to her blessed home
To bathe to rest and eat
And all he saw remained the same
With everything round him changing
...
Ether earth surrounded
By the rich and the poor
And their half born prayers confounded
And all that he saw remained the same
With everything round him changing
Staring into space all day
They wondered is he holy
Wondered what he's staring at
And decided he was crazy
One day a girl pitied him
This fresh fruit pit of stone
With invite to her blessed home
To bathe to rest and eat
And all he saw remained the same
With everything round him changing
...
701 reads
8 Comments
SOMETHING
I want to show you something
But there is nothing of the old lake left
Nothing of the neolithic river that ran to it
Nothing of a something
That seemed to lead to somewhere
Cut to
My father in his panama
The sunlight halo
His face in obscurity
Cut to
My ex-wife stepping down
To where neon flickers
We had made a child
Losing the baby unravelled us
Unmade all meaning
As if meaning was something
And something was needed
We made two children more
I felt unworthy of them all...
But there is nothing of the old lake left
Nothing of the neolithic river that ran to it
Nothing of a something
That seemed to lead to somewhere
Cut to
My father in his panama
The sunlight halo
His face in obscurity
Cut to
My ex-wife stepping down
To where neon flickers
We had made a child
Losing the baby unravelled us
Unmade all meaning
As if meaning was something
And something was needed
We made two children more
I felt unworthy of them all...
915 reads
32 Comments
KNIFE
Born into violence and spite
Your nightmare was my morning
And this fear my air
And this my last meal
Chewed slowly and slower
So every bite explodes
The wine blooms heady
The boys sip noiselessly
Eating without sound
Listening for a chair
Scrape above the squeak
Of knife scrape first
Against plate
That electricity or spirit that enlivened them
I shared
Our organs our mothers the same
Yet our naked differences
This confluence of coincidence
Had led us to this...
Your nightmare was my morning
And this fear my air
And this my last meal
Chewed slowly and slower
So every bite explodes
The wine blooms heady
The boys sip noiselessly
Eating without sound
Listening for a chair
Scrape above the squeak
Of knife scrape first
Against plate
That electricity or spirit that enlivened them
I shared
Our organs our mothers the same
Yet our naked differences
This confluence of coincidence
Had led us to this...
1024 reads
12 Comments
PROMISE
Let me grow grandsons ground nuts and old
And tell tale of a promise untold
Purer than mild dew that decayed to mildew
A mould on a trail left cold
Let this paper be my body
And this ink my blood
My matter my ether
My words my thoughts
Red wine and the grail
The beloved and twin
The Mary and Thomas
Chalice Well Chennai
The blood and the bone
The cup and the grail
Drink from it eat from it
And in spirit and mind
Let it combine
And come true this time
Let the...
And tell tale of a promise untold
Purer than mild dew that decayed to mildew
A mould on a trail left cold
Let this paper be my body
And this ink my blood
My matter my ether
My words my thoughts
Red wine and the grail
The beloved and twin
The Mary and Thomas
Chalice Well Chennai
The blood and the bone
The cup and the grail
Drink from it eat from it
And in spirit and mind
Let it combine
And come true this time
Let the...
685 reads
10 Comments
STOP
Once young
Long is the wait to be wise
Once old
We're strong no longer
And slow to rise
Yon hill before another
Once moon hunted me
Made haste through black armed trees
Hounded by the many armed trees
With one word before the dawn
Shrill before horizon dawn
STOP
But I did not
.
.
To ask what chased the moon
Made wild by night
Yet mild before the morn
Long is the wait to be wise
Once old
We're strong no longer
And slow to rise
Yon hill before another
Once moon hunted me
Made haste through black armed trees
Hounded by the many armed trees
With one word before the dawn
Shrill before horizon dawn
STOP
But I did not
.
.
To ask what chased the moon
Made wild by night
Yet mild before the morn
702 reads
16 Comments
LIGHT
Light exploding and coalescing
Ever changing even this night
Look up and be struck
Not by shooting stars
But by the existence of so many stars
Than our Earth has clocked seconds
3.5 billion earth years
Times 365 days
Times 60 minutes
Multiplied by 24 hours
Times 60 seconds
Plus years that leap
And each star we find we name
With names older than our forefathers
With names our ancestors gave them
Each a guide and each a fate...
Ever changing even this night
Look up and be struck
Not by shooting stars
But by the existence of so many stars
Than our Earth has clocked seconds
3.5 billion earth years
Times 365 days
Times 60 minutes
Multiplied by 24 hours
Times 60 seconds
Plus years that leap
And each star we find we name
With names older than our forefathers
With names our ancestors gave them
Each a guide and each a fate...
740 reads
17 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by whale