Like Jazz On A Snowy Eve

You walked in as always, someone grand
Full of ego and pride, swagger on display
The tone of my words caused your grin to wane
Releasing myself from you wasn’t planned
But I knew it was right and held my ground

The words once spoken tasted sweet as candy cane
Like summertime as delivered by Coltrane

I know I said goodbye, for that was all left to say
Despite your efforts to get the words all twisted
From the window I watch the receding back of you.
Your snowy footsteps a contrail, as you walk away
Then watched them get erased with a shovel’s scraping

Sometimes letting go is just all you can do
But Miles knows, it’s still just some kind of blue.

And like that it’s as though you never existed
The memory of us already starting to fade
I feel like I should at least want to cry
But my breath on the pane is the only thing misted
And I pour myself a glass, as the witching hour chimes

Snow done falling, staring out at a chilled winter sky
A glass of red ’round midnight, just Thelonious and I

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A little etymology here…

The final couplet (the last two lines), is a direct quote of my Facebook status from Saturday. Those two lines inspired this write. I had also promised myself, since I had tried my pen at David James’ Karousel from last week’s FormForAll | Karoulsels and Weaves, that I would finally tackle his Weave form. However, I really like the final couplet so much that I could not bear to separate the lines that inspired it all to fit the form. So, as I am wont to do with forms, and my apologies to David, I compromised. The result you see is a variation on the Weave form. Think of it as adding two extra strands to the pattern. The rhyme scheme here is: abcad cc befbg ff ehiej ii (and so on).

dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week 81

Distance

Distance makes the heart grow fonder
Even while it tears us through
For all the miles that between us wander
Its just one heart beat between me and you

I lay awake at night staring out the window
Staring at the moon staring back at me
With an odd envy in the knowing
Unlike me, you the moon can see
Holding the telephone ever closer
After our nightly calling
Warm with the comfort of knowing
I am your one and only

The sweetness of your voice so soothing
and so enthralling
That the silence after we hang up
Makes the emptiness all the more lonely

I cry myself to sleep knowing
That my tears are all in vain
For it’s only your warm embrace
Now far too distant to ease this pain

And I am haunted in the night
For the want of your strong touch
My memory taunts me with the ghost
Of that which I desire so much

We’re both so near the breaking point
Of memory’s latest gall
I watch you turn over in frustration
To see me smiling in the moonlight
It takes a full moment to digest
I’m not imagination after all
That I am in fact here with you
As you reach to grasp me tight

My need of your touch pushing me
Past the point of any qualms
Of driving hard through the night
Straight into your loving arms
And like that everything is all right
The heart cannot this joy contain
The pain of parting is nothing
To the joy of meeting again

Distance makes the heart grow fonder
Even while it tears us through
For all the miles that between us wander
Its just one heart beat between me and you

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dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week 80

Carry On Tuesday # 189

Theme Thursday

Don’t Know Why

I’m sitting here, just sitting here, wrapped in your memory
It’s one so deep in my heart and I really know that I should let it be
But it’s like a sad, sad love song stuck on the same sad, sad refrain
I can’t stop myself from feeling this, even though it’s all just pure pain

But here you are locked within my heart
As if we never said goodbye
And I don’t know why

I admit I didn’t think, I’d make it through those first heartbreak days
But much time has passed and I’ve been just fine since we parted ways
I laugh at our past, brush it away, I got over the things I miss
So I do not understand why today I am so deeply feeling this

Because here you are locked within my spirit
As if we never said goodbye
And I don’t know why

I can’t seem
I can’t seem to excise my heart from you
It’s a struggle
It’s a struggle I thought was through
But your smile, our laughter, all we had
Is right here at easy recall
Oh, we sure were worth the rise, baby
But I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t,
No, I just can’t redo that fall

Yet here you are locked within my soul,
As if we never said goodbye
And I just want to cry, feel like I want to die
And I don’t why
No, I don’t know why

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Trying to excise a memory

dVerse ~Poet Pub | OpenLinkNight Week 79

The Longing…

I know your eyes in the morning sun
I feel you touch me in the pouring rain
And the moment that you wander far from me
I want to feel you in my arms again

How Deep Is Your Love – Bee Gees

I feel your skin reflect the flames from the fireside
But it’s no match to heat felt deep inside
And in the fire of your kiss I’m simply undone
It’s a fervor repeated all night long
Like a pleasantly broken record, like a recorded song
Then my alarm breaks through the throes of passion
In the reality of dawn my heart start to sag
Like the air gradually seeping from an airbag
As I awaken to the new day just begun
I know your eyes in the morning sun

I try so hard to hide this – thing it’s so surreal
It asks much more of me than I deign to feel
You are so close and yet so far to attain
There’s far too many years between our ages
No reconcile of which I find assuages
All the emotions I try so hard to refrain
The greenhouse effect when I think of you
And in my heart’s downbeat knowing, you feel this too
Like in ways I simply cannot explain
I feel you touch me in the pouring rain

You have all my desires in a bottleneck
And by taking my lead you’re equally in check
I tell myself that this simply cannot be
But “To hell with convention!” I used to tout
When did this prudish side come about?
Who’s this face in the mirror that I see?
The mandates of the norm are quite daunting
What’s this humbug to deny my inner wanting?
In the moments when we touch accidentally
And the moment that you wander far from me

Behind closed eyes you are my backbone
‘T’is but a number twixt what I can condone
Won’t lie to myself, that’s it beyond my ken
The sway of emotions when you look in my eyes
And I know it’s nothing but a pack of lies
When I say I can live without you, but then
Am I willing to risk you for my pride’s shortfall?
I discover that you are what I want after all
For my eyes are wide open now and I still yen
I want to feel you in my arms again

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Me and my fave poetic form the Glosa , again.

dVerse ~Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week 78

Year’s End Goodbye

drink-and-dream

“…the winter sets its tears upon us” sung real soft
Old records she listens to, when he’s brought her pain
She knows she’s heard these songs now quite too oft

Two hours to midnight, he’s not home yet
A familiar loneliness comes to her again
Except it’s now tinged with open regret

Outside jolly voices hail the season
While inside her heart breaks, slow as the songs she plays
Brittle and on the edges of reason

The door opens as she hears the clock’s chime
Hearing his footsteps click on the cool marble floor
Stops herself from commenting on the time

Knows just what he’ll say when she sees his face
Knows he’s left even though he’s just walked in the door
Knows that goodbye now sits in hello’s place

Pouring herself shots of liquid spirit
With awe he watches her mouthing the words he says
Her world now spinning, she makes herself sit

Words of apology, words of good-bye
Her emotions tumble-down a deep spiraled well
But refuses to let him see her cry

Forcing a smile, much too tired to think,
Without a second look, she bids him a farewell
Already focused, on the next stiff drink

Before the door closes, her drinking has begun
“…the winter sets its tears upon us” lowly sung
Somewhere in the distance, New Year’s Bells are rung
The tightened grip on her tears is slowly unstrung

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dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week 77 – Happy New Year

Le Petite Mort

You take me
With skill,
With strength
With the power of lust

Knowing what you want
And how to get it

To feel the power of your body
Against mine

Head thrown back, body arched
I feel your warm breath
Against my thighs

Just before your lips
Reach the ridge of mine
I watched you
gently blow
Like a too hot cup of coffee

Your hot breath sliding over me
Feeling like soft silk exposed
Making my body respond with abandon

I sense nothing
But you and the promise
Of your body to mine, taunting me
To think of nothing but

The moment

The moment when my body meets yours
In a crashing wave of exquisite pleasure

The kind that rips
The satiated breath from our chests
Sweet reminders
Of all that was said and done

Making us feel so alive
We could die

Le Petite Mort

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dVerse ~ Poets Pub : OpenLinkNight Week 74

 

The Storyteller

He imagines
So many things
Cabbage and kings
Of shoes and ships

And with a wink
Easily slips
Poetic blips
Of the arcane

Rivers auburn
A mind insane
The odd bloodstain
Can sometimes scare

So he spins words
With utmost care
and takes me there
On crescent waves

Triumphant tales
From birth to grave
And each I save
I know their worth

It’s in his sphere
Of cosmic girth
Welkin and earth
The tales he’s had

And more to come
Verbal nomad
I call him Dad
And my hero

Household legend
But he does know
The seeds he sow
It’s my award

Gaze of rapture
He looks forward
To his reward
When it’s my turn

To tell such tales
Old or modern
Aubades, nocturnes
The moods I’ll bring

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Today’s Form? The Pathya Vat

dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week 73

Start Somewhere

 I run my days in such haste
No one thought has time to land
Barely having time to care
I must start somewhere

A still pool of water calls
With a dare to simply glance
A tired me shimmers there
I must start somewhere

Natural needs pushed aside
My all to all but me
For the sake of my welfare
I must start somewhere

I free my mind of clutter
Donate a moment to peace
In awe find a moment spare
I will start with prayer

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Today’s Form:  The Kouta

Kouta – KOH-OU-TA (Japanese: little song) A broad classification for several varieties of short songs from traditional to popular which is most often associated with the songs made popular in the pleasure quarters of Edo (old Tokyo) where they were often composed and sung by geisha to the accompaniment of the shamisen.

Kouta has two forms, both four lines. The first has a syllable count of 7-5-7-5, and the other has a count of 7-7-7-5.

dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week: 71

Big Montana Sky


As I lay on my duster, watching the big Montana sky
Like I have so many nights before, watching the time carve by
I know that this cattle drive, was worth all the time of the run
But on nights likes these, no nights like these are never any fun

The ambiance of a crystal clear night, I cannot deny
As I lay on my duster, watching the big Montana sky
But all my thoughts now turn to you, as I watch the campfire
Each flame a flimsy copy, of you when filled with desire

Those jolts of emerald flashes, which herald your fluid moods
How well I’ve learned to read them, the bad, the ugly  and the good
As I lay on my duster, watching the big Montana sky
My longing for your touch is so deep, I damn well want to cry

I squeak out a prayer to the heavens, that you still feel the same
Upon my return to you, I shall ask you to share my name
In the meantime, the thoughts of your dew soft skin just get me by
As I lay on my duster, watching the big Montana sky

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Welcome students! – Today’s form is the Quartern.

The quatern is yet another French form. It consists of four stanzas of four lines, or sixteen total lines. The quatern is a syllabic form, meaning that there are a required number of syllables per line. Traditionally there are eight (8) syllables per line (or tetrameter, to those who want to get all technical), but it does NOT have to be iambic!!  (Yes, I took very creative license by using fifteen syllables in  my example above.)

The other trait of the quatern is that there is a repeating refrain, similar to a kyrielle. In this case, the refrain is repeated one line lower in the poem in each stanza until in the fourth stanza it’s the fourth line, like below…

Line 1 (refrain)
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4

Line 5
Line 1 again (Line 6)
Line 7
Line 8

Line 9
Line 10
Line 1 again (Line 11)
Line 12

Line 13
Line 14
Line 15
Line 1 again (Line 16)

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dVerse Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week 70

Arlington

I walk the rows of the garden
Whispering voices the only sound
Passing by the stark white blooms
Rising from the hallowed ground

And I gaze upon all the blossoms
Row upon row to infinity unknown
Fingers lightly touch this newest bloom
Here in the garden, garden of stone

Each bloom marking lives young and old
Lives that eventually have stilled
Some blooms have seen many an age
Some are as fresh this grave just tilled

A flag waves softly in the wind
Today at half-mast flown
Standing for the one who no longer can
Here in the garden, garden of stone

Scattered about these many blooms
Are others who are here like me
Honoring their own seeds fallen
Into these blooms for eternity

Hand slanted to brow, we are all together
Hand held over heart, yet each all alone
In laughter and tears and memories
Here in the garden, garden of stone

For they are children far too short
To appreciate their own youth
Their spirits grow old far too fast
To live and die with that cold truth

Thus mourning comes, as sure as dawn
In the 21 guns of honor shone
For we who are left behind still grieve
Here in the garden, garden of stone

Arlington Memorial Day

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dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week 69