by Darryl Price
and floated along with
us like it was attached
with a string. I thought that
meant we had a boat in
case of emergencies
but she said it was sad
to see it following
in our wake like a cork.
I still think it looked every
bit the stylish silver-
capped swimmer doing
the backhanded tango.
There was no noticeable
splash,ever, but it
did come apart in several
glowing pieces
whenever it hit the
tallest trees, only to
pull itself back into
an almost perfect circle,
albeit a mostly
wobbly one, instantly,
upon clearing
the branches. By midnight
we were the ones dangling
beneath magnetized toes
and being borne along
like a couple of hair
pins. I had to laugh. Your
scarf was covered in dust.
071310
Bonus Poems:
Only You Can See Me
by Darryl Price
by Darryl Price
Someday
by Darryl Price
It's not near the end. It never is. This
moment is just what we know now. They are
always running a monstrous war against
the very stars. How far do you think they
can take that evil prejudice? The stars
have never lost a battle. Someday they
just might. Someday we might remember what
it is that we liked so much about each
other. Someday we won't be living our
fresh new story with all the beautiful
possibilities at our disposal.
I've never been a big fan of equal lies.
They may get you something you don't really
deserve, but like little devils they may
also eat a part of your soul, which could
be lost forever. I could go on. Like
someday we'll have to get rid of you know
everything. It won't matter anymore.
Someday our true and false words will be dried
on the page. All the poets will have gone
home to their tomorrow beds. I get a
weird prickling in my head when I think of
living life fearing life. I reject the
culture of a Fascist Christ. How dare you?
A weird prickling for the poor Japanese-
American citizens rounded up
into concentration camps, for profiled
African-American citizens
shot with their empty hands flung in the air,
female-American citizens told
by old white men in gated suits their peer
health care counseling is a crime, gentle,
misunderstood lovely children whose tough
gender identity issues make them
a target for dumb bullies, immigrant
families torn apart by war behind
them and official cruelty in front. I
suppose I could go on. Well then, let me
condemn the actual paranoia of
hate. In machinegun hands. Your mad campaign
to outlaw compassion, misrepresent
kindness. Your mad threat to kill us all. Your
equally mad campaign to deny all
further understanding, misrepresent
hope. Your mad campaign to outlaw peace on
earth, misrepresent masculinity,
dreamers, anything you disagree with.
Your literal love of death over an
organic, flexible way. Your love of
death over humanity. Your love of
death over poetry. Your love of death
over joy. I reject your offer. I
stand by all good men and women as much
as I can, long as luck and grace allow.
Sudden Window
by Darryl Price
Want my Heartbeat
by Darryl Price
to return to its joyful center with a new thumpity thump.
I want all robots off my back. I want the
empire to forget my name ever happened in their calculating way. I
want this emptiness to fall like scales from all our eyes.
I want the poem to always matter more than the bags full of
money. I want us off of our knees. I want
to unplug. I want to feel your soft connection. I want
to know your connection as my own. Want to open petals all on
my own time. I want to enjoy everything. I want both
the sun and the moon in my window. I want the greed behind
the guns to be melted into the ground all over
the world today. I want peace made with the animals. I
want those who dirty our minds to be stripped of
their power to influence our level of violence. I want
freedom to be obvious to all. I want the electric
hoses to be turned off. I want the love for
one another to be turned back on. I want you.
I want the oceans to stop being used as an
outdoor toilet. I want to bring back the idea of
a bookstore where everything is represented together. I want to paint
my masterpiece. I want to make good common sense. I want God
to either go away or join the fight. I want
to amaze you and your friends into helping to tear
down the walls that keep us prisoners of our own
fear of one another. I want to make you laugh.
I want to laugh with you. I want you to
take me seriously. I want you to help me to
lighten up. I want to express my love in a
way that also expresses your love, too. I want to
be brave in my own unsure fashion. I want to
be for something good not against anything bad. I want
to see the poem through to the bitter end. I
want to go on to the next thing. I want
to get unstuck. I want to be here now. I
want us to understand the need for compassion. I want
to vote with my life. I want to live on
purpose. I want to dream big or go home. I
want to be your fool. I want to reappear. I
want to leave an interesting noise inside your head. I
want to shake your cold houses to the ground. I
want to be in an original boat. Want to be
glad at least in all my best dreams. I want to ride out
one last moment. I want to stop being so tired.
I want to untie all the fucking ropes and knots. I want
to make a new world for you to change. I
want to fly again in your eyes. I want to
set things free. I want friendship's charity to be the
order of the tenderest day. Want always to be
on your side. I want to say hello. I want
to say yes. I want you to take this hat.Here.
Big Escape
Oh nothing's wrong. Everything
walks its own immanent brand
of magic through each new day's
front doors. But that doesn't mean
a heart isn't sliced down the
middle by some remembered
sunset. We're all clothes inside
the washing machine. And still
you see people acting like
sharks, just like animals with
poisonous barbs for fingers
looking for something to spear
just for the hell of it. They
take the most beautiful thing
they can find and break it. So,
no, nothing's wrong. Amidst all
this idiot carnage I
have you pretending to have
all the time in the world to
find and give love. You think that
those stars don't ever lie, but
of course they are becoming
the bells that will toll your sleep.
There you go again turning
me out, living a life while
I'm breaking down in my strides
becoming nothing more than
a vanishing cloud of dreams.
DP
25
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Forthcoming in Leopardskin & Limes thanks to Jane Flett.
Also The Big Escape po
em is forthcoming in THIS Literary magazine...May/June 2011 issue. Thanks to everyone involved with choosing this particular one Much appreciated..
Very nice. Loved the concluding lines.
Hi Darryl, glad I saw this a lovely poem
Enjoyed that very much, Darryl.
I feel so bouncy after reading this! Great adjectives!
A marvelous piece, DP. Great mix of form and phrasing. And what a marvelous title. The closing is very effective.
“I had to laugh. Your
scarf was covered in dust.”
Fav.
Wonderful sweet poem and great images.
Terrific lines in here! The last stanza pulls me right along! Magic, magic ending. He's got the chops!
Great, great work, Darryl. We're all clothes inside the washing machine - Wisdom is a choice you make not to be an asshole.
YES! *!
Darryl, this came across with a lot of thought, and more than a little pain.
Oh, Darryl, your best work ever!! and the other poems you have written are awesome so that is saying something.
The first poem deals with the vagaries of the moon, such imagery - the next two poems deal with living life to the full and to our best ability! Horace Greeley said character is the only thing that endures and you have that in spades, it is evident in your words. Well, well done, Darryl!
fav
Agree that these are strong as a group. Love the way you go with such a unique thought, the title of the first one,just marvelous that,and bring it to a close with that equally great image. I also think these three & the first especially have perfect form and breaks to keep the meter seemless.
I think the full force of the moon poem is weakened by the two that follow and I think they should be cut. I like the moon poem because it stays with its central conceit throughout and it draws a line of wonderful sense, literally and figuratively, as well as conjuring night magic magically. Could have been recited by Puck. I'd love to see a DP poem without the ubiquitous "you" and I'd love to see an angle of address that alters the poet's stance and attack.
Good poetry, enjoyed reading all three. Interesting discussion, enjoyed reading that, too.
So full of life and ecstasy
One of your best yet!
*
very wonderful, DP
The moon poem is full of mystery and mischief, and so very lovely. Someone said s/he could hear it recited by Puck, and that is such a perfect compliment. Peace...
LOVE the title ("the moon rose up on its tinfoil bed") and all that follows. Excellent poem, Darryl! It navigates a twisting path and never loses its step.
Thank you so much for your support--all of you.Poetry isn't just one moment, one wink, one nod, one squeeze. It's an expansion, a progression, a happening that foretells other happenings. It's a connection not a phonecall. It's a field of flowers even when represented by one single stem in a vase. It's a blanket of stars, not a coat. It's never one shoe even if it looks to be. It's certainly someone touching a body of water with their palm and outstretched fingers, but this isn't meant to be captured in a jar. It's meant to create ripples and for those ripples to run back and forth between the earth and the sky creating musics upon musics. It's a beacon but the light isn't meant for one lonely ship only. Lastly, if I may, it's a sign, a hand print on the universal wall, but it doesn't just mean me, it means you, too. dp
"animal mythologies turning like keys."
If you just wrote these five words and stopped then posted this, I'd be gushing about the power, the talent, saying how craft like this is why we keep trying.
Love these two poems together, DP, but the first one really knocked me out - the simplicity of it, the one long bright image, sometimes flickering and breaking up but always pulling itself back together. It is simple and strong and powerful. And the words on the page are beautiful, too.
I love the first piece. Great flavors that I remember from a long ago love, even years later.
Yes, yes.
Thanks, Tracy. Actually BIG ESCAPE is a love poem, too. One of my personal favorites because it speaks of having to love, not wanting to love, and sometimes being the only witness to it. That's painful, but that's life.Thanks so much for the read.
liked the first one and can't tell you why, which I suppose is consistent with the poems-should-not-mean-but-be school of thought.
Loved the imagery, the language, and the shift in perspective between the poet seeing the moon as a balloon, and the companion seeing it as a cork in the wake.
Really loved the closing stanza. "I had to laugh. Your scarf was covered in dust." Well done.
The comments you have received above say more together than I can alone. However, I will say that every line carried a magnificent and quiet image of a voyage that seems to be headed nowhere, and having arrived, simultaneously.
Beautiful imagery. I love the last stanza.
This seems almost a prose poem, but cut apart and pasted into the framework of verse... an interested dichotomy. I liked the line "there was no noticeable splash."
I love the line about being like hair pins. The analogy is whimsical yet mysterious.
Loved this when I read it as a submission, and I still do.
Loved the moon, and enjoyed the bonuses. Thanks.
Wow. This is gleaming. And has the most perfect title. I adore it. *
These are all enjoyable. I like the first poem best. It has a nice Oriental quality, a bit like Kenko if he were put into poetry.