mikejewett Posted July 18, 2022 Posted July 18, 2022 Let's go crazy. -- Nor'Easter (fade in shaved-headed Texan girl with the piercing blue eyes whimsy fade out) * * * * * It would have been tragic like July lightning storms tragic like car bombs exploding past our lips the way foxglove stops your heart (and it did) and tragic I think I could have lived with this once. * * * * * Dear Buddha, please, oh please let the scents dirty dance their way to my nose, an anticipation. (fade in darkness slowly gaining a reddish tint; fuzzy we hear a click then a sigh fade out) * * * * * Dear Vishnu, Florida on my mind. Briny scent of saltmarshes amarylis purple phallic almost almost ready to explode waxy a prettier cattail making sense of the beeps behind the lawn's old growth the tri-section garage one part toolshed slash haunted bathroom doesn't work a toilet for spiders center part storage full of baby items plastic bins and periphery last the workshop old books sawdust palmetto bugs cracking dry shells and stinking wings blueprints in my father-in-law's architect handwriting ps and ds and as unmistakable as prayers recollections of swimming in you like swimming in floridan coldsprings manatees fat under our bellies wide-eyed juncos and blue cranes meh meh meh of frogs filling the space with sound at night firelight haunting howling loons cry swimming in each other our bodies a ghost town but sincere a couple of lust-filled dead-eyed juncos * * * * * Woody's Liquors Pizza some snowstorm drowning in wormwood "Excuse me amigo! a green bridge?" Thataway. (he took off on his bicycle.) some snowstorm. Home now this house is death row bottles of beer what are you waiting for? O Canada My Canada somethings with silverwings shushing hushing tiptoe noise mustn't wake terrible bedmates almost live stonefaced carvings build up the wood tear it down believe the non-believers traintracks arumble electrified live revere copper move over telephoto lenses zoom zoom some snow storm. * * * * * She gets naked for a different point of view, icicles falling a glittering crash some zildjian cymbals ride ride ride crash in four-four time, nothing special lingering just the same clothes are falling, daylight falling, opossum waddling south to north eking a living of scraps a thanksgiving feast for one maybe babies washington apple under snow phlox waiting for bloom green sparkly fingernails holding a lighter one hand a cigarette other hand faraway roads meet at the end of perspective on the table chicken pot pie a heart carved into it it means it's love, love we stop to eat it naked dear buddha we thank you for more than the thrill of lumps in our throats and distended bellies go now, sweet massacre go dredge your tears it's been miles of walks and miles of years. (fade in banks of the Charles waterwashed colors seen on rowboats a shadow underwater yellow sunken rowboat glare of a foghorn bleating for 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 fade out) * * * * * In those Maine woods lovely dark and deep there is no cure for ticks breakup season's over seven new planets smile light years away we drink at the bar gansetts and tecates legs attracting legs ever so hot damn! close feel rain on our skin wet taste sun on each's lips hot see smoke on the breezeway lips so hot damn! close that first kiss- (that was after our legs finally crossed the ever-so- important feeling-out barrier phase and oh! hot damn!) that kiss. * * * * * Finding old letters (which are burned metaphorically) and ephemera in dresser drawers, figments dancing wearing tattered ballet shoes a black and white childhood dreams and skeletons wishes and greys faraway anatomies wondering which way was west which way the sun wanted to set beliefs contradicting every sting of wasp entire oceans of fish cuttings of leaves from various trees oil paintings aflame tarmac spawning our bodiless youth frenetic, frenetic seasonal disorders sometimes penniless copper under the tarmac moonlight never touches. * * * * * Marble beds and marbled meat asking about the mouthfeel and I find inside you bodies, viscera, a curve the salt of the seas subjugation rank and file movement thousands of ants working as one, as one. Compasses drawing circles, compasses facing north northwest, my pocket, my last ten dollars heart drawn on the bill brash soliloquies brass bulls, tying red strings around the children's wrists throwing chicken guts on the roof pouring boiling water on the threshold by demons be driven. * * * * * Dear Buddha, I only want one thing that's sacred. I ask this thinking of her, her eyes, while thinking of how light shines through prisms, apple blossoms, Stolichnaya bottles, stained glass her eyes. Here we are, dog barks punching the air, both swollen, quenched, doggerel. Outside the open window petals spread blooming pink inside, nectar and pollen, the perfect place to find honey. Judas Priest! we say sink swaths of honeycomb between those thighs, libran and aquarian stars aligned, I suppose, with a spritz of vermouth. * * * * * All (you can do is cry all you can do is cry all you . can do is cry all you can do is cry all you can do is cry ! ) for your son. * * * * * i have found the psychopomp * * * * * Waterbugs skitting the surface of a lake sunfish leaping spraying sedimenty lake odors inside wooden oak barrels aged like fine wine. Yellow dance breath of fire of Julius Caesar eleven loaves of sourdough for every Roman yellow dance arabesque soylent green for mayflys when it isn't yet May. Milfoil choking the snakes, the snappers, shells propellor- scarred cameras don't lie. * * * * * lime juice — the summer between her legs * * * * * One too many solar eclipses - staring at sunspots is the same as staring at solar flares, Mercury in retrograde, Jupiter's great red spot, collisions in the Kuiper belt, Oort cloud manifestations, a piebald Laniakea, transcendental meditation, materials in the spirit world, paramilitary exercises, muthafuckin' snakes on muthafuckin' planes, there's plovers in them thar hills(!), Jock Jams spinning on vinyl (gaze at the center), flat-eathers. Take my hand encapsulate let us prey night is ours callipygian wandering one. * * * * * Kafka on the Autobahn doing an oily 85 - nobody moves the egges of 10,000 ovaries blushe at the thought Nor'easter: one dance with her an act of contrition * * * * * We're digging for horcruxes soil mounds - dark magic - terroir hold tight (each other) for dear life string theory predicted this peonies and vinegar set aflame behind a circle of salt a centrifuge, my love seven leg bones set aside seven skulls to be found I've only found yours, love a gilted phrenology, love seven doe pelts for cover seven ruddy bucktails for our nest five fathoms deep breaks this curse hold tight (each other) for dear love all our dirt must go back must return to the start raised heads howling winds concatenation baobab trees repent pray repent * * * * * Dear Vishnu in camphor, in honey seething with bees honeycomb its pits as abysses our apostasy * * * * * The past exists so rapidly. I beg all for forgiveness. * * * * * (fade in The great-xth-granddaughter of Jesus Christ (yes) pounding shots of Beam puts a Camel in her lips and asks me for a light [sic] She has her great xth- grandfather's eyes fade out) * * * * * I read you like a Murakami lay your hallelujah down holding the warm embrace of your manifesto. I wanna go home, Nahuatl girl. Take me home- smokestack serenade. This is home, the place you'll learn about her dying everyday- whippoorwill song reliving that grief, late-term bloom each hurricane morning- wild blueberries; wild Alzheimer's making such hard, deep, goddamn love to the cinéma vérité of your brain. * * * * * Fuck. * * * * * Live rounds between us, babe, bullets arcing racing keeping some separation; we won't win, lollipops at our lips rather than words. Such golden embraces falter in the limelight. A grass snake at your feet; an adder at mine; between us a constrictor. Womb dripping honey just to be washed away by acid rain; live rounds as raindrops fan some sort of discontent too inconsequential to be called flames. Take your body past wild hills to recover from the wreck of our dream. Weave snakes into baskets of venom; present them to your _____. Trading one small something for one giant nothing. * * * * * This shame is repeated mistakes and habits. Hewn. Hew. He. I hang my drooping dandelion head. Hide my eyes. Hide my face. Zoom, zoom. Some snow storm. Quote
Tinker Posted July 20, 2022 Posted July 20, 2022 Hi Mike, Wow! Long poems usually turn me off, my attention span can't hang. But this, Wow! Admittedly, I scanned, then focused on a few sections, but I was compelled to read on. I will be back to read again and absorb more. But for now, fascinating piece of writing, the change in cadence is what kept me fixed. ~~Tink 1 Quote ~~ © ~~ Poems by Judi Van Gorder ~~ For permission to use this work you can write to Tinker1111@icloud.com
mikejewett Posted July 29, 2022 Author Posted July 29, 2022 (edited) Thank you so very much Tink! Most poetry I write comes out immediately in its final form. Maybe a small revision or two, but somehow most pieces are finished as soon as I write the last line. I've had 2 poems to date, this being one of them, that went through countless revisions, rewrites, edits, and workshopped to the bone. This one took me well over a year for me to be happy with the way it turned out. All that being said, as this poem took the longest to finish, I appreciate your kind words that much more! Thanks again 😁 Mike Edited July 31, 2022 by mikejewett Verbiage 1 Quote
tonyv Posted August 28, 2022 Posted August 28, 2022 Mike, like Judi, I usually don't favor long poems, but I read this back when you posted it and loved it. It kept my attention all the way to the end. I will absolutely read and enjoy this again. On 7/29/2022 at 7:43 PM, mikejewett said: I've had 2 poems to date, this being one of them, that went through countless revisions, rewrites, edits, and workshopped to the bone. This one took me well over a year for me to be happy with the way it turned out. This is very inspiring. Though you make it look easy, it's encouraging to know that there can be hard work taking place behind the scenes. Tony Quote Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic
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