After you were gone

My heart fell apart

A jigsaw without structure 

A mess of lonely parts

I think you took me with you

My breath, my life, my soul 

For, all that remained 

Was this deep & vacant hole

One day I fell into its depths 

Without thought of return

Crumbling to a waste of ash

In my own neglected urn

Suddenly, blinking, I awoke 

B...

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And indeed, 

the seasons will shift once again,

Yet,

that one autumn leaf, 

will hold onto the branch,

with all its might,

Awaiting the breeze,

to carry it away.

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Dear Lord of mercy and order,

You who shaped the constellations

and placed every heart upon its rightful path—

hear me.

You have destined me a man,

steady as an oak,

a harbor built for my future.

In him, I find peace,

honor, and the promise of a home.

But another soul tempted my spirit—

a lightning in the dark,

a soul I touched only in passing.

Not min...

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— a Chaucerian Roundel of passion

Our very skin now sings the storm’s refrain

The heavy downpour enters every pore

Naked— we swell into the storm’s full roar

Wind shreds the porch screen; lust can’t contain

Our lips taste like ozone, no world before

Our very skin now sings the storm’s refrain

The heavy downpour enters every pore

Bodies arch—lightning—our dam ...

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The second verse never lived  

up to the first, so  

one clear-eyed morning 

he broke up the band.  

Cites musical differences  

with himself.  

Duets come and go, concepts 

run clean out of notes. 

Down at a crossroads 

some fella suggests solo 

is the only way  

to maintain direction.  

Kick-start his comeback  

to long-standing collabor...

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We’re nighthawks in some moody painting
Haunting stools at a midnight bar
The headlight beams of passing cars
Scan us both as they squeal out of town
You’re telling me of a coming wedding
And asking me to stand beside you both
Well, that deserves another round
To swallow my flattered feelings down
I’ve been chasing love like some wild dog
You’ve been cautious, careful and selective
Look ...

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The rhythm of a train
Rocking hypnotic
Gets me sleepy
I rest my eyes
And how quickly 
My mind’s delivered
Back to the threshold
Of that urge
Back to the beginning
Of starting again

O, if I run away
If I run away...
Would you
Come with me?

This thing, it lures me
And always has done
There’s a persistent calling
A seductive promise
I hear it between the verses
of my favourite ...

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–intimate dizian exploring love's silent language

Wild ferns, we spill across our living-room floor

Wet lips cling to one leaf, our night’s sweet dew

Wandering lights gaze bodies washed ashore

Welcomed streetlights eye stripe our play’s debut

Wishful neighbor-blind gaps-–glimpse—can’t undo

Willow wands, our spines bow beneath soft snow

Wisps—rose-petals, sip our scent’s c...

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Love is amusing
Love is kind.
Love is confusing.
Love is blind.
It's sometimes euphoric
With no words to explain.
It can be such drama.
It can cause such pain.
Love is so fragile
It can fly away.
You can hold on tight.
To try to make it stay.
You can live without it.
And be lonely and blue.
I'd rather be bewildered by it.
Than spend a day without you..

by Marla Deaton Novemb...

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I never learnt my mum's favourite colour.
Maybe it's the shade of maroon that adorned her bridal fingers,
Or the green that has weaseled its way into her dogmatic beliefs,
Or the blue that symbolizes her unrequited pursuit of peace.

I never asked my dad if he wishes he could go fifty years back in time,
Spend his childhood, basking in the privilege of being an only child,
But in a less bro...

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I still wear your jacket
It’s worn and torn
With missing buttons
Your remnant scent
Was lost some time ago

I want to keep your arms
Close around me
Anything to stay warm
In a dim November kitchen
Still haunted by your voice

Around this uneven table
Five chairs untucked
I've moved between them all
I reluctantly accept
The silence of our house

I'm caught in the folds
Of this in...

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I ended up opening our texts again
A pain, My heart can’t explain
Im trying to hold back my tears —
I might drown with them, I fear

But I just want to know —
why?
Why me?
If you liked her,
Why bother even speaking to me?
Why did you pretend feelings?
Why insult me?
And how could you leave so abruptly?

I hate you.
But I don’t.
I like you.
But I don’t.

It was something I believ...

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I met him by the roadside

Standing tall with shoulders wide

He smoked a fag I couldn’t abide

And asked me if I’d come inside

A dull linguistic polymer

A tiresome interlocutor

Who cares when promiscuity

Rears its head, it grins and tempts me

Unknown and hardly trusting

Inside the room we fornicate in

In and out, in and out

Breathing, fucking, no room for doubt

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You know what’s funny? I was never allowed to be angry. Not outside of my head, at least; the only place I could truly be free from you- except I wasn’t. You live there too. You live in the poems I read on stage, you live in boxes of our favorite candy, you live in the echoes of my mother’s voice, and most of all you live in my mirror. The one I look at because of you. The one that you shattered a...

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I feel time passing like nails on my skin

Piercing, commanding, but ephemeral

It floats by while I'm left to singe within

Nursing echoes that ring true like spells

Against the auroral skies my head bows down

But never hangs heavy

Evergreen vinyls, abandoned hometown

You still lurk in the shadows of my periphery

I see you when my hands cradle my head

And when I'...

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Our Hummingbird Nests Of Skin
-a sestina of elemental intimacy

Sun fingers her hidden hummingbird nest of skin,
Each twig, love's unfinished sonnet, found by dawn's light.
My lips echo night’s bare swim’s wild lake water,
Our steam now swirls skyward, sisters with the breeze.
Her breathless wink, a covert quest cloaked as touch,
Then silence—inhales between our lingering drip.

Her drop...

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This autumn is so sweet,

it gives me so many presents,

This autumn is my best award,

This autumn is my golden lord.

I am lost in this warm September,

My love looks like an ember,

but only with a tender touch

it turns into a fire and burns a lot.

Maybe it’s my last flight,

so I will hold it very tight. never 

I will not wait for the spring,

I wo...

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Saudade is a feeling that resists translation. Words like homesickness or wanderlust
capture fragments of it, but never the whole. This poem reaches towards the untranslatable:
the unique fusion of longing and loss, of sorrow and tenderness, of absence and living
memory. A sentiment so layered and elusive that it can only ever be approached, never
fully contained.

It is the echo of a song
...

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—a Sestina of one night shared with our sister moon

Night’s first blush leans low against the tide

that licks the sand; moonlight unhooks the darker seams of our skin.

The air stings sweet, crystalline breath of salt.

A feral moon, she leans close—silent, luminous, wet.

Her breasts dip the water; the water dips us—oh…slow pull

after slow pull—silk unraveling into constellati...

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Electric whispers of 

Intelligence. 

Fires up my filament

Amber Embers,

Ambient,

Welcoming flames.

Teach me something.

Show me everything

Strip your ego of its mask;

Allow me to wear you for a while

Tandem or Random-

Let the thoughts fall where they may

Electric Whispers of

Vulnerability.

My heart considers yours.

Grace and gratitude

Twinkl...

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—A Terza-Rima Nocturne of Swallowed Time

On moon-damp sheets, you slowly open my violet fig, passing halves tongue to tongue,

its seed-pearls, captive minutes embraced by our soft lips,

each velvet pulse a swallowed clock tick, unthreading the night’s camisole—unstrung

Our minutes take root inside our souls, night’s vines in green hour’s gentle grip,

soft pods burst open, ...

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I hated the words "comfortably numb"
I thought what a horrible way to be.
But somewhere in the back of my mind
I knew it could happen to me.
How can you feel comfortable
When part of you is dead?
But life twists and turns
In ways you can't foresee.
How can you go back
To the fullness of life instead
Of being smothered by mediocrity?
 

by Marla Deaton  2011

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(a poem for the hills that remember)

There is a silence the world cannot name—

a silence not born of fear,

but of memory,

and men who have seen too much to speak.

Between the spears,

hung gently on bamboo walls,

something waits.

Not war.

Not peace.

Something older.

The boy in Mon sharpens wood not for battle,

but because his father did.

And his fath...

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She is in ...

I am not always thinking of my Wife

She is in…

 the memories against the wall

painting the pictures of yesteryear

I am not always thinking of my Wife

She is in…

the smell of my coffee

reminds me of our favourite coffee shop

I am not always thinking of my Wife

She is in…

the tune of the song

stealing my mind away from life for a while

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—so I took her to my masters swim meet… a pantoum

Her body swayed, night’s mistress, hips caged in silk’s heat.

I froze—her lioness gaze, her eyes undressed.

A temptress sculpted by shadow, my goddess—complete

She grinned—my name, her voice, a purr—confessed.

I froze—her lioness gaze, her eyes undressed.

She pawed valleys, mounds—denim mines skin.

She grinned—my name...

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As the first light of dawn breaks over the horizon, casting golden hues across the sky, we gather here to witness something just as radiant—the union of {Partner A & Partner B} . Sunrise is a symbol of new beginnings. It reminds us that every day is a fresh start, full of promise and beauty, just like the love these two share.f

[Declaration of Intent]

{Partner A} and {Partner B}, this mornin...

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Pre-dawn’s grey burden lapped at breast and knee,

As stroke on stroke I parted glassy deep,

To wash the burden-webs of sorrow free,

Where silent swells—that voyeur—my bare body keeps.

Then limbs grew light, as floating upon sleep,

I let the cool flood enter where heat hides,

Your fingers—wave on wave—caressed, discreet,

I flipped; twin peaks welcomed dawn’s crisp air, gas...

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She turned to me with a smile and that old spark in her eyes

‘Alexia’ she said. Clearly, in that sing-songy way she always did.

I was stunned.

It’s been years since I heard that word leave her lips.

These days, I’m a different person each time we meet.

Even though it sucks, I roll with it.

A church member, a waitress, or a complete stranger.

She has no recollection of raising ...

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Her thighs, a moonflower opens—inhales the breath of night,

The wind, my hand, slips through the slit of her dress.

I lose the road—chest blooms, buds swell wet, her light—

Miles, a rising tide, lost at sea, her shore I can’t caress.

The wind, my hand, slips through the slit of her dress.

Buttons free her feral chest—rose in full bloom, my trembling fingers—moonlight.

Mile...

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Her gaze meets mine—where winter waits between breaths,

Firelight shadows slowly lick our chilled skin.

A fingertip hovers, trembling near lips—undressed,

Desire coils like a cat, silent—waiting to begin.

Firelight shadows slowly lick our chilled skin.

Explorers, bare as breath, past our door, trembling, new.

Desire coils like a cat, silent—waiting to begin.

Million eyes,...

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Her laugh, rain-soaked, cups creamy heated skin.

Together undress dusk, fingers white as steam.

Cold kissed our thighs—short cotton skirts, oh so thin—

Warm breath finds cold lips, fogged glass between their world and our dream.

Together undress dusk, fingers white as steam.

Our bath—hot, cold breasts-to-back, a drip, within my embrace.

Warm breath finds cold lips, fogged gl...

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LOVE’S A DOING WORD!

VERBS WITHOUT ACTION? ABSURD!

SO, IMPRISON ME!

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i wait for you to be better

softer, like i know you can be

kindness slips through the cracks

but right when i see,

you stuff it back in like it was a dream

you wait for me to be worse

slip up, even the playing field you cursed

but i never sharpen my words

even when it’s deserved

in a few months, or years

when the last straw breaks my heart

i’ll break the sound barr...

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Our moon slips red—eclipse’s voyeur shadow cups her breast.

She lies still, a fawn, beneath my tear-brimmed eyes.

Her breath—dream’s morning dew?—a whispered request?

Light turns slowly, touch between her parted thighs.

She moans a whispered song—arching, “come to me.”

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I first had the idea for this song / poem on hearing the news about the good ship Madleen, setting out for Gaza.

Thunberg and her crewmates were not “deported” from Israel. The Madleen was illegally detained, her crew illegally abducted / kidnapped to Israel, and then released, after the Madleen’s cargo of aid had been stolen.

The so-called “personalities” - several failed “comedia...

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I am Palestine Action

Netanyahu said "jump", so we jumped,

we invaded Iraq, kissed his rump,

now in B.Liar’s Riviera del Blood,

morality’s trod in the mud,

his Majesty’s long streak of piss

makes Britannia a moral Abyss,

Palestine’s babies need Action,

kind words are no longer an option,

so, come and get me, you B.Liarite war monger

whose wea...

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A lone apple blossom clings inside sticky heat.

She blooms too late—her petals ache with desires.

I press my thigh—her fleeting scent, without mine, incomplete.

The mirror knows my hungers, captive by summer briars.

She blooms too late—her petals ache with desires.

I spread for her—hot breath, the mirror’s caress, skin wet as dew.

The mirror knows my hungers, captive by summ...

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I wrote a note in my head,
Folded it inside my ribcage.
It said, “I can’t keep fighting
With a heart that always breaks.”

Mom never stayed,
Dad was just a silhouette.
And I swore I’d never
Repeat all that shit

But I guess I did.

We screamed in courtrooms
Over a child I never got to see grow.
I traced his name in the frost
On my rearview window.

I lost him before
I got the cha...

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Hot summer forest, sweat and dawn’s faint light,

My feet in time with sighs of willow trees,

Bare cheeks and skin, dew-glossed and shining bright,

My breasts sway freely, nipples hard in breeze,

Moss meets my wetness—harmonies, soft lies

Nightbirds perform their final song with ease,

While fireflies blink out their last goodbyes,

Alone, I’m cradled close by nature’s sweet surp...

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Mother Eagle soars, our glistening bodies once dared to lie.

Our spring love, her wing takes flight—hands find sweetness within our thighs.

Mother Eagle, ever watchful, for the day love flies—goodbye.

Your laugh was a fawn, soft-footed and shy,

Caressing my breasts, our fingers explore sweet-shivering highs.

Mother Eagle soars, our glistening bodies once dared to lie.

A...

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She dreamed of Bruce Springsteen at night
But woke to a screen with no sound, no light
Time rolled on like a runaway train
She stood at the station, lost in the rain

The records were scratched, the cassettes were gone
A photo without a frame lingered on
Between Madonna and love that lied
She watched her idols get paperfied

Now it’s just longing for things that missed
Youth trapped in ...

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You've gotten by without it.
Tucked away.
But now,
It's a rainy day.

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Bonnie Madleen

I first had the idea for this song / poem on hearing the news about the good ship Madleen, setting out for Gaza.

Thunberg and her crewmates were not “deported” from Israel, as reported in the biased media, they were released after the Madleen and her crew were illegally abducted to Israel, and her cargo stolen.

The so-called “personalities” - several failed “comedians” amon...

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Wandering slowly down
from Mount Otowa
We’d gotten lost
behind Kiyomizu-dera
in quiet contemplation
of the winding lanes
like night and day
from heaving temple crowds

Rejoining civilisation
the souvenir shops
and chocolate-dipped strawberries
We make our way down
to the Kamo River
with crustless sandwiches
cans of iced coffee
and legs in need of rest

Sitting on the ancient path
...

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Don’t call.
Not today, not tomorrow,
not when longing makes promises.
Don’t wait.
Waiting has teeth
and it bites when you nap.
Don’t write letters.
Paper keeps too much,
and some pains deserve to be forgotten.
Don’t wish for meetings.
They happen at the edges,
where the world can’t reach, and there, everything slips away.
Don’t blame time.
Time just passes.
What remains is you,
with...

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Am I Enough?

Today I didn’t go anywhere

I wallowed in the heat that strangled my home

Took a seat in the spot that I frequent and listened for the changing winds of time

They never arrived.

In fact it was more of the same

‘You Okay?’, ‘Im glad’

Empty words of intricate meaning

Convey both care and solace 

Who cares?

The rain didn’t arrive all the same.

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You said we were a miracle 

Yet here I am so cynical 

Tearing flesh & breaking bones

You said my heart was your home

When all the stars fell from the sky

You never asked the reason why

And here I stand: a mausoleum 

While you're nowhere to be seen

Chimneys burned when we were young

The dust of coal was in our lungs

You said we would escape from here 

Hand...

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I'm walking alone
Through this chaotic road
Through this desolated land
That my senses corrode

The environment is hostile
Full of greed and jealousy
People want everything
While forgetting our legacy

The values from the past
Now seems to have a cost
Honesty lost its meaning
While respect was lost

So I'm searching the darkness
For a sparkle of light
For the motivation I need
To...

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My heart feels like a galaxy,

constantly expanding,

trying to hold all this love for you,

yet still, it overflows.

No words are vast enough,

no universe wide enough,

to contain the way my heart explodes

with love for you.

How do I tell the stars that

my love for you stretches beyond them,

into worlds unseen?

Yet still, I yearn for more to show.

This lo...

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You take my breath away

and awaken my heart

with a single glance

and a soft touch.

Keeping me tethered

on the edge

of life and death.

The reason for my being,

only you can make me undone.

Gladly I shall be 

the Icarus to your radiance

and accept my fate with a smile,

as long as you are

the last sight my ey...

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