Grief (Remove filter)
Write for me?
will you write for me?
If I say your words can save me
if I say your art can heal me
will you try?
Will you draw for me?
If I pull my arm apart for you
trim my fingernails, hand a brush to you
should I try?
Where’s your masterpiece?
Empty canvas, left my chest open to you
plunged a needle inside, drained my blood for you
is it dry?
Where’s the lif...
Tuesday 24th December 2019 7:35 am
Unborn
A miracle?
Prevented, unplanned, unknown.
...
2020.
4 years later.
3 years old, I can’t imagine,
life;
what it would be like.
Love,
is what,
I thought it was.
Learned,
you can love and let go.
For a reason, everything happens, they say.
Believed, I believe it.
A miracle.
A lesson.
You were a lesson.
Today,
I would not be who,
I am,
wit...
Tuesday 26th November 2019 6:48 pm
Creased
"I've never had to deal with someone like you," he said.
Deal. As if I'm another hand that is being shuffled.
I've been shuffled. The card with the crease. You know exactly which one. You pretend like you can't see it, so you keep on playin' it.
Do you benefit from continuing to use me? Not all the time. But when you need me? There it is.
You won.
When you don't need me? Just anothe...
Tuesday 26th November 2019 6:26 am
Grandma 1
This is me
Trying to write about you
But there’s too much pain
Too much sadness
I still don’t understand.
The words don’t come
The sounds don’t flow
I just really miss you so.
Backdated 10/8/19
Wednesday 9th October 2019 7:59 pm
Don't Look And It Won't Hurt
Five years of cobwebs
decorate the hallway box
more dust at rest
fills the urn within it
that used to be your father...
Don’t look and it won’t hurt
don’t look and it won’t hurt
Your brother’s been drinking
on a fifteen year bender
so quick to lose his temper
if you ask too many questions
a snake prone upon his shoulder
Don’t look and it won’t hurt
don’t look and it won’t hurt
Tuesday 13th August 2019 5:32 pm
No One Will Be There But Jesus
As friends solemnly told him to call
On them if ever he needed anything,
Only his pastor was candid enough
To tell him Jesus alone would stay.
And so it was as it had always been,
Walking alone on the beach, in town,
Along the highway, and in the upstairs
Hallway with no memory of being carried.
He supposed Jesus was a faithful companion,
But a bit quiet, and not much help when
A fla...
Tuesday 9th July 2019 7:18 am
A New riddle of Induction
This poem will mean more if you are familiar with the work David Hume and Nelson Goodman.
We have such unfounded confidence that
The future will be like the past that
We are constantly disappointed in the
Present. The future betrays us daily.
So I can’t be blamed for thinking you’d
Be here still—as you always were.
Thousands of observations told me
You were a survivor and, besides,
...
Monday 3rd June 2019 10:12 am
A Pattern of Substance Misuse in Rural Texas
You were always object lesson,
Never role model, and I only knew
I should never be like you.
Your death was early and tragic,
As expected, your last conscious
Moments spent reaching for the door
Of a home engulfed in flame.
Through tear-filled eyes,
Those who had nothing but
Criticism for you when alive
Expressed their own shock and
Grief with a final tinge of judgment.
“If it had an...
Thursday 16th May 2019 10:28 am
Elegy For A Ghost
Elegy For A Ghost
Some say ghosts are chilling things
Ethereal and fleeting
But they’re not
They are the empty chair
The pint not bought in a round
The hiss at the end of a telephone line
The deleting of a mobile number
They are the sad spaces
That once held you
On the terraces
At the bar
In the conversation
Ghosts are sad things
They h...
Thursday 18th April 2019 1:58 pm
But for you
But for you
We would be one
But for you
The lack of feeling alone
But for you
The unknowing, not so cold
But for you
More joy in growing old
But for you
My mind might be at rest
But for you
Life, less of a test
But for you
A single race I have run
But for you
There are clouds above the son
But for you
The be...
Thursday 18th April 2019 11:29 am
The Best Way to Grieve for a Child
They never changed that room.
Dolls, teddy bears, trains,
And transformers all hold space,
Lock time in perpetual stasis.
When death comes life stops.
Family said they should pack
Things away. It’s too hard
To be reminded day after day
Of a future lost in the past,
But a room can be a memorial.
It’s a museum of childhood,
Until a child of a later
Generation discovers it with
Glee....
Thursday 18th April 2019 5:47 am
Life, Love, and Leaving in Livingston, Texas
In a previous century my grandfather died
Only weeks after my great uncle.
A few weeks later, my grandmother
Made a quick trip to the grocery store
And returned to find her house in flames.
Having lost her brother, husband, and home
In a matter of weeks, my uncle Skeet
(so known because as a child he was
No bigger than a mosquito or “skeeter")
Tried to comfort his s...
Thursday 11th April 2019 8:14 am
I know why (you cry)
I watch you silently
Tears sparkling in your eyes
I wonder if you want the comfort
When you won’t tell me why (you cry)
You go about the day
As normal as can be
I wonder how you smile
But I know the truth inside (you cry)
Your voice seldom wavers
And your friends never see
But alone you start to lose the mask
And I can see the cracks (you hide)
I ...
Monday 8th April 2019 9:03 pm
My father's gift
I remember hearing my father's voice
from beyond the grave.
No dream—a single, scratchy vinyl
had captured his characteristic
lilting, homiletic style,
that seemed,
in and of itself,
to be the message—
no surprises there,
nor flights,
yet a resonance
that touched
and stays with me
...
Friday 5th April 2019 2:17 am
In Memoriam
In Memoriam
The gravestones in this place are wet with tears
Of children, wives and husbands who have stood
Beside dark holes that swallow up their fears
Replacing ice water where once flowed blood.
November skies are grey and hold no lights,
The flowers flattened in a winter gale
That whips away dark thoughts the widow fights
To keep hidden behind her mourning veil.
...Thursday 4th April 2019 2:17 pm
Player Piano
Player piano in the empty funeral parlor foyer cranks
out old standards with a Dixieland flourish. The old
wooden cross. How great thou art. Take my hand precious
Lord. No one hears it. No one is here to discuss pre-planning.
No one peruses coffins for his aunt who has been sick so long
the family forgot she would die. No one is scooped out
by grief at the accidental death o...
Tuesday 19th February 2019 11:07 pm
A Fine Line between Living and Death
You do not exist anymore
Scientifically speaking,
You are absolutely nothing
Unconscious, intangible, not there.
You exist in my mind,
Poetically speaking,
You live on through that funny anecdote
Or recipe, your legacy, our memory.
You are my tragic backstory,
Therapeutically speaking,
The key to solving why I am the way I am
What you made me w...
Friday 18th January 2019 7:55 pm
Slingshot
it pulls back, tight,
a finger falls away
gone
flung through the air
till it hits
and falls
a heavy stone sunk at the bottom of my stomach
but you’ve left the slingshot on the bench outside
and I don’t know how to leave you on that bed
a cold hand still holds my heart
instead, you’ll stay
a heavy stone sunk in my stomach
I’ll never leave you behind
I swear
I’ll take you everywhere
b...
Wednesday 9th January 2019 9:10 pm
Recent Comments
TobaniNataiella on It`s Out of Control (They All want Revenge)
38 minutes ago
David RL Moore on Holy triptych
39 minutes ago
John Coopey on WOKENESS
43 minutes ago
Yanma Hidayah on The Moonlight in a Peaceful Corner
44 minutes ago
M.C. Newberry on WOKENESS
1 hour ago
Tom Doolan on The Moonlight in a Peaceful Corner
1 hour ago
Manish Singh Rajput on Mutation
2 hours ago
TobaniNataiella on It`s Out of Control (They All want Revenge)
3 hours ago
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh on THREADS
3 hours ago
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh on WOKENESS
4 hours ago