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| | Alyosha's poemsPage 1 of 62 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41) | When I started posting here I wasn't aware that the custom was to have a single thread in which to post all one's poems so I began separate threads under the headings "Pummeling" and "Passing the Salt." In future I will post any of my own poems and other favourites of mine here.
To begin with, one that I love & wish I had written:
All of creation is offended by this distress.
It is like the keening sound the moon makes sometimes,
rising. The lovers especially cannot bear it,
it fills them with unspeakable sadness, so that
they close their eyes again and hold each other, each
feeling the mortal singularity of the body
they have enchanted out of death for an hour or so,
and one day, running at sunset, the woman says to the man,
I woke up feeling so sad this morning because I realized
that you could not, as much as I love you,
dear heart, cure my loneliness,
wherewith she touched his cheek to reassure him
that she did not mean to hurt him with this truth.
And the man is not hurt exactly,
he understands that life has limits, that people
die young, fail at love,
fail of their ambitions.
Robert Hass, excerpt from "Privilege of Being," from Human Wishes | |
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| The Heart Knocks
Posted: 8/29/2006 6:29:38 AM | THE HEART KNOCKS
The heart knocks repeatedly
at its own gate, calling
from side to side,
"Come in," and "Come in."
J. Newman Sudden Proclamations copyright 1992 | |
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| Alyosha's poems
Posted: 8/30/2006 3:49:12 AM | MEDITATION
The earth is a beach in space
we cross at an angle to the sea.
There is no walking parallel
with it. Or with ourselves. Spiral
to the root, we travel
crooked at the source. Without
and within, these eyes, this beach,
this skin--the elements puddle
and, for all we know, hold firm.
J. Newman Sudden Proclamations copyright 1992 | |
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| Alyosha's poems
Posted: 8/30/2006 4:40:27 AM | I very much like "Heart Knocks" and "Meditation"
Heart knocks is oh so true
Meditation has a wonderful disjointedness that somehow holds together perfectly
I love it
Thank you | |
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| Thanks, Saltytowers
Posted: 8/30/2006 6:10:21 AM | and since you liked "The Heart Knocks" here's one that was written later but which picks up something of the same theme:
This Is the Land
This is the land where everything we touch
or see or feel we know to be almost real
--this desk, these fingers on these keys,
the kid on the skateboard
outside my window, these twitches
in my mind or groin,
the clatter of my unquiet heart...
We hunger at times for the real:
would kill for it, but even killing,
these days, seems not quite real.
It’s all “collateral damage...”.
We live collateral lives
in collateral houses with
collateral hearts...
My dreams, though, at times
seem to be more real than the bread
I put in my mouth. But the heart
needs more than bread, more,
even, than blood or oxygen.
I do what I need to do or what
I’m compelled to do, try to be
a decent man, give blow for blow
when I am hurt and kindness
for kindness among friends.
But the heart keeps clattering, clattering.
J. Newman copyright 2006 | |
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| Just lovely
Posted: 8/30/2006 6:26:23 AM | It's lovely Alyosha
It's lovely...
.....and it has the rhythm of 'your heart'
I'd love to hear you speaking that one
It needs a voice
I almost heard a voice while reading it
Or did I?
I want to know if it's real
It leaves me feeling I know the voice, the pen, the writer
I leaves me wondering
.....if | |
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| Saltylass...
Posted: 8/30/2006 7:08:13 AM | Down under,
you wonder.
Up here I do too.
If? If?
If wishes were horses
then beggars would ride.
If we're meant to be friends
we've nothing to hide... | |
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| Saltylass...the salt of the .....sea? lol
Posted: 8/30/2006 6:00:24 PM | Sorry to mix threads and responses there.
Fun with overlaps though eh? 
Up yonder
You ponder
Down here I was too
If the 'IF' was an 'if' or an 'If'. Maybe two?
Pedantics, semantics and wordery stuff
If wishes are horses, I cant get enough!
Let me stampede in numbers and roar down that path
With manes and tails flying, and she says with a laugh
I feel naked 
Nothing to hide. hmmmm  oops 
Walk naked in the world and you and I
Will seek to find the answers in that eye
The eye that seeing all and yet is mute
No lips to tell, no song to sing, but resolute
sees on.........
 | |
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| I Want to Let You Know
Posted: 8/31/2006 5:43:21 AM | I want to let you know
that I am here.
If you should want me
I am here.
If you should need me
I am here.
If you wake up in the middle of the night,
trembling, and cannot remember
the time before you were alone,
I am here.
I am always here.
J. Newman copyright 2006 | |
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| Saltylass...Here's to overlaps!
Posted: 8/31/2006 6:22:07 AM |
Up yonder
You ponder
Down here I was too
If the 'IF' was an 'if' or an 'If'. Maybe two?
Could the other of the two
possibly be..... you?
Pedantics, semantics and wordery stuff
If wishes are horses, I cant get enough!
Let me stampede in numbers and roar down that path
With manes and tails flying, and she says with a laugh
I feel naked
Naked is as naked does.
But here it is nothing but our words that go buzz
buzz... If we were together
or each of us with some other,
then feather to feather
there’d be no need for “why” or “because...”
Walk naked in the world and you and I
Will seek to find the answers in that eye
The eye that seeing all and yet is mute
No lips to tell, no song to sing, but resolute
sees on.........
see on and season...
That is all we know or need of reason. | |
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| The song of POF
Posted: 8/31/2006 11:37:12 AM | You know, this site
is one long cry for love:
Give it, get it,
hold it, wreck it.
“Just looking for friends,”
some have posted or “I’m just here
for the Forums” or
“Taking a break...”
DON’T LET THEM FOOL YOU!
DON’T LET THEM FOOL YOU!
We’re all looking for love:
Puppy love, Mommy-love,
Daddy-love, dirty love,
sneaky love, a bit
on the side, or real,
real, really real love
or a one-night stand or
twenty years of one-night stands
with the same woman or man!
Love, love, love, love,
love, love, love, love,
love, love, love, love,
love, love, love, love...
Find me the first word
that ever was posted here
and I’ll betcha that it,
like the last, will be
love!
J. Newman copyright 2006 | |
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| A Loaf of Bread
Posted: 8/31/2006 3:56:45 PM | No lips to tell, no song to sing, but resolute
sees on......... see on and season... That is all we know or need of reason.
I wondered if someone would get that :)
You have to 'hear' the words spoken to pick up on those little subtleties
and so to agnue 'sees on'
On the subject of love...
When shopping in a supermarket one fine day
I happened upon a load of bread
I had come there to buy some soup bones
Nourishing stuff and full of goodness, delicious
And yet here was this loaf of bread
Beckoning, smelling quite delightful
In my mind I could imagine warm toast dripping with butter
Dipped into fresh made soup
The aromas were enticing to say the least
All in my minds eye, or was that minds nose?
Not sure
I reached out to take the bread, and saw a sign
ONE ITEM ONLY CAN YOU BUY
I see
The wonderful filling of senses I had just conjured up
Left me struggling to make a decision
ONE ITEM ONLY CAN YOU BUY
But would the soup now be enjoyed the same?
Rich juices sliding past my tongue and taste buds on their way
Winter's delight sitting by a warming fire
"Just soup" I hear myself say. "No buttered toast"
And so I reached for the bread
ONE ITEM ONLY CAN YOU BUY
ok!
I walked towards the front of store happy in my decision
Then stopped
I had not imagined yet eating ONLY toast or bread
Without the soup
ONE ITEM ONLY CAN YOU BUY
I returned to where the bread had been
Replaced it on the shelf
Saw the sign
ONE ITEM ONLY CAN YOU BUY
And so I wandered off, musing on this quandry
And as I wandered I happened to see
A single pin
ONE ITEM ONLY CAN YOU BUY
It made me think of that hem that needed mending
ONE ITEM ONLY CAN YOU BUY
And so I bought the pin and took us both home
And in doing so....went hungry
So many things upon the shelf to see
All beckoning, pick me pick me
All with valid reasons why
And that sign
ONE ITEM ONLY CAN YOU BUY | |
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| ONE ITEM ONLY CAN YOU BUY
Posted: 8/31/2006 4:10:12 PM |
ONE ITEM ONLY CAN YOU BUY
the sign said, and I knew I was defeated there.
Even if I'd come in with just one item in mind
that sign would make me want, at least, two.
Besides which, I was tired of encountering it everywhere.
ONE RELIGION ONLY CAN YOU HAVE
I'd been told at birth, when I wanted all of them, or none.
ONE GENDER ONLY CAN YOU BE
but without being the other how could I know
which was really me?
ONE IDEOLOGY ONLY CAN YOU HAVE
which ensured that I would want to fight the others.
So I left that store and went next door
and was sorry that I had, for the sign
that greeted me there was
YOU MUST BUY ALL THE ITEMS OR HAVE NONE! | |
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| Choosing Not to Choose
Posted: 8/31/2006 4:47:12 PM | Yes! 
And that's how life is.
Always being made to feel we have to choose.
What if
What if
What if
What if we choose not to choose?
What if we just be exactly 'who' we are
Not label ourself or put up a sign
Or read the d*mned signs!
I would walk into the supermarket and fill my trolley with - friends, those who were only here for the forums, those taking a break, lovers, mothers, fathers, aunts and cousins, lost and lonely, bold and courageous, sensitive and thoughtful, black, white, green, purple, pink, wearing skirts or trousers, bikinis or great woolen coats, bald, long haired, skinny, fat, who cares! A joyous bundle of humanity :)
And what a wonderful soup (or pond) that will make.
Does anybody have a crane to lift this all into my trunk?
Going home, one spits in my eyes
I throw him out along the wayside
A shopping cop comes up and tells me
THE SIGN SAYS you cannot do that.
I write him a ticket
For infringing my freedom to choose.
Another one it seems
Is throwing out half my shopping along the way!
I stop the car
Ask her to find her own way back
To the shelf
(thank you)
A pedestrian cop comes up and tells me
THE SIGN SAYS I cannot put down a pedestrian there.
I write him a ticket
For standing on the sidewalk himself
And drive away.
By the time I arrive home
With my soup of humanity
I find
Of the 3 left
One refuses to enter the boiling pot
Points
THE SIGN SAYS no soup allowed
It is against their religion
So I throw him to the lions in my den
(my favorite room)
As my own religion says is right and true to do.
2 left I sigh
What a pitiful soup
So instead I pour some wine
Cut some cheese
And lift my glass
Horrified one points
THE SIGN SAYS no drinking allowed
And so I send him to the desert, to thirst
With one companion left
Smilingly we lift our glasses
I pass him the cheese
Frowing he points
THE SIGN SAYS honk if you love cheeses
But I am mute
And so upon my merry way I go
Alone I walk out my door
Bump into something I hadnt seen
"Oops sorry" I say
Then wonder who I was talking to
I scratch my head
Wonder if I am going insane
Go to walk off again
And bump into the 'something that isnt there'
Again
I smile :)
"I see"
No signs
Copyright 2006/2008 "me" | |
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| Signs
Posted: 8/31/2006 5:17:02 PM | In the night sky, a message. Or the prelude to a message:
M E S S A G E E N R O U T E
in large, ghostly letters. They flicker, fade, come back again. The next morning we learn that the same words appeared in every local language in every part of the world. What is more, wherever two people stood next to each other but did not speak the same language, the message appeared in the language they understood.
The next night, the same letters:
M E S S A G E E N R O U T E
This goes on for days and days. People conjecture as to what it might mean: some elaborate advertising campaign? A threat from an alien nation? But it has appeared in every nation known to us. An alien species? The Second Coming of Christ, or the first coming of some other messiah? Or Yeats' "rough beast, its hour come round at last,/[Slouching] towards Bethlehem to be born?"
M E S S A G E E N R O U T E
M E S S A G E E N R O U T E
M E S S A G E E N R O U T E | |
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| Signs
Posted: 8/31/2006 7:16:29 PM | That's very good! 
Message in the sky says "dueling keyboards"
EXCELLENT!
(those druids get around)
Have to go do some things.
Anyone else up for the crazy mind meanderings in here?
Great stuff! | |
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| This came to me
Posted: 9/1/2006 7:27:46 AM | one day clean out of the blue, and I hope it is NOT the message enroute, or not the only one:
Death is the laughing boy
in the pantry,
waiting.
I didn't know whether it should or could stand alone so I fiddled and fiddled and came up with this continuation:
One day you reach in there
for some tinned fish, beans,
and it’s 10.58.58
by the watch
on his thin, freckled wrist.
J. Newman copyright 2006
But I think it might be best left as I 'received' it.
Death is the laughing boy
in the pantry,
waiting.
Hey, Saltykins, what do you think, maybe I'm an OS after all? A sometimes rather tired OS. | |
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| This came to me
Posted: 9/1/2006 9:05:59 AM | I read it
And I read it again
I tried three possible combinations on OS and none of them fitted
I came here to ask and......ah. That OS!
Not 'that' kind of 'old' soul silly.
This kind!       
But yes  is sometimes a part of it | |
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| Odd Couples
Posted: 9/1/2006 1:32:25 PM | HUBBARD AND SQUASH
"Have you taken leave of your senses,"
asks Hubbard (the straight man).
"No, answers Squash, dead-pan, "but
"we're taking a short holiday from each other!"
They've got one of those mature, contemporary
relationships, an 'open marriage,'
no questions asked
or answered. Hubbard has been getting into
"his homosexuality" and Squash
has both men and women lovers on the side.
Hubbard is lean
as an incipient pain, while Squash
sort of waddles around, comfortable
as pop or "B" movies.
It's a treat to see them,
following each other around,
pretending to go their own ways, each
like the punch-line to some other joke.
J. Newman Sudden Proclamations copyright 1992 | |
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| This came to me
Posted: 9/1/2006 1:47:52 PM | Hi,
Have to say i loved that one, how its there in the 'pantry' all the time un-noticed! only just came onto this forum tonight and im hooked! | |
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| This came to me
Posted: 9/1/2006 7:23:14 PM | Death is our shadow
Following us from birth
Unto the grave
It leaves us not for one moment
Unless of course we choose to step out the 'light'
Which creates it
A choice
And yet would we
Could we
Forever dwell in darkness
Afraid of our own shadow?
Lest we be reminded our own ultimate end
I reach up inside my pantry
And today I choose...
Beans
And my shadow watches my choice
Indeed if it were not with me
I might have meant to choose beans
But taken with me sour pickles instead | |
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| A one-night stand
Posted: 9/2/2006 4:03:20 AM | A One-night Stand
What is a one-night stand?
It is like squeezing a pimple
when what you want is to have
all over beautiful skin.
What is an affair?
It is a cruise on a luxury liner
With all thought of the mainland
Gone.
J. Newman copyright 2006 | |
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| Oh, I am the king...
Posted: 9/2/2006 6:02:25 PM | Oh, I am the king of a land unnamed
where the subjects number none.
And I am the lover of a woman unclaimed
who will be, forever, one.
We share bread and raw cheese,
cool spring water.
I am her lover and her son, she’s
my lover and my daughter.
I am the king of a land unnamed
where the subjects number none.
And I am the lover of a woman unclaimed
who will be, forever, one.
J. Newman copyright 2006 | |
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| ANNE SEXTON
Posted: 9/3/2006 4:47:04 AM | ANNE SEXTON
She's trying to skip herself
like a wrong-sided pebble
across the wide water,
she's taut
on her mind's thin edge,
slicing,
and calling on everyone to save her.
What did she do
until she discovered poetry
which, she said, would save her
(it didn't) or before she wrote letters
all day, her hand held out in front of her?
Poetry? It's a shirt that has to be turned
and turned again, a hand
flung hard as you can
away from the heart. She stands
at the shore of white sound, surveying the waves,
but the pebble skips back on itself,
and the castaway hand
strikes back, twice as fast,
at the heart, that unskippable stone.
J. Newman Sudden Proclamations copyright 1992 | |
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| Honey and Wine
Posted: 9/3/2006 10:03:43 AM | You are honey, you are wine.
You are truth and tenderness.
Your face and your name
are unknown to me as yet,
and yet
I can see them, a smile
without effort,
a name
honey and wine,
truth and tenderness.
J. Newman copyright 2006 | |
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62 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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