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I'm Who | JD DeHart - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

I'm Who | JD DeHart

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By the third cup
of coffee I remember
my name.
My occupation. What
I’m doing here.
I remember my favorite
book and why it’s
important. I remember
the itchy part of my soul
that hasn’t healed yet.
The new wounds.
I have searched out
my name in published
words. Searched out
who I am in books
by Brennan Manning.
By Ernest Hemingway.
By Lee Smith. A really
eclectic set.
I remember by noon
where I am supposed to be
but can’t shake this feeling
I’ve forgotten something
important. Maybe the most
important thing.

Perennials In Parallax | Richard William Kirkpatrick-Thorne - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

Perennials In Parallax | Richard William Kirkpatrick-Thorne

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Turns To Take,
On The Crushing Gritted Down,
NoWhere In Nor Out Of Its Serrated Fulcrum,
Surviveal Through A General Anesthesis,
To Appease The Scratching From WithIn,
The Frantic Struggle To Maintain Dormancy,
Flickering EyeLids In The Black Shimmer Of Satin,
Hearts In Stasis To A Rendering Of Cages,
EnThroned In Reviveal…In Approach To Its Melting Point,
Saturateion Of Flesh With Phantom Accumulation,
Assimilateing Into A Failing Sense Of Space…
…
Leaves To Rake,
On The LushFull Green Lawn,
Knowing Where To Be Ignored… Devout In Its Swinging Hammock,
Serveing All In A Self-Centered Assignment Of Duty,
To Will The Match InTo Strikeing Against Thumb,
The Gentle Combustion To Forget Romantic Demure,
Flames Licking Lashes In The Blue Summer Of Saturday,
Heated In The Smoke To A BeFriending Of Ages,
EnThralled By Desertion… By Appropriation And Its Mounted Pelt,
Desiccation Of Reason With Infantile Perennials,
Failing To Fully Accept A Sense Of Time.

More at http://rwkt.blogspot.ca.

Falling in Love | Spring Nelson - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

Falling in Love | Spring Nelson

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It’s happening,
I’m falling in love.
I didn’t plan it,
But I was hoping it would.
I’ve been thinking about you
For such a long time,
Wondering if you and I
Would share a journey
Like no other.
The passion and excitement
Is almost too much,
I want to spend every
Moment with you,
Gazing into your eyes,
Losing myself in your voice,
Whispering our thoughts
To each other.
A beautiful dream,
Falling in love with you.

Emancipation | Langley Shazor - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

Emancipation | Langley Shazor

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To whom it may concern
I tender my resignation
I will no longer fetch
For though lashings
Have lessened canines
There is still bite
In this old dog
My shoes are hard
And I shall dance for you
No longer
Whispers in the dark
Will gain decibels in the light
Your failed attempts
To cut my tongue
Has only removed
All the “yessahs” and “massuhs” from my vocabulary
My fate is my own
Stained posts
Bearing fathers, sons, daughters, mothers, sisters, brothers
On the verge of collapse
From the weight of injustice
Rope-worn limbs buckle
As I make my last knot
And exit these killing fields

The Skinny on Fatty's Cafe | Donal Mahoney - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

The Skinny on Fatty’s Cafe | Donal Mahoney

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Here’s the skinny on Fatty’s Cafe,
a grubby diner on a snaky street
under the El in dark Chicago
where street lights flicker
and the hungry descend from
the flophouse above the store.

If you have a yen for a BLT
and Fatty is workin’ the grill,
the hungry say don’t go in,
be patient and wait outside
for Fatty’s brother, Skinny,
to wield the spatula.

Skinny has a way with BLTs,
piling bacon and tomato high
on a triple decker, with a hint
of lettuce and a swipe of mayo
on all three slices of bread.
No extra charge to toast it
when Skinny’s workin’ the grill.

Ignore the rain, sleet or snow
and wait outside with the hungry
till Skinny starts flippin’ the bacon.
He takes over at midnight when
Fatty flops into his Lincoln
and heads for his castle.
Then Skinny lays out the bacon
and the hungry outside march in.

More at http://booksonblog12.blogspot.com and http://booksonblog12.blogspot.com.

Themistocles | JD DeHart - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

Themistocles | JD DeHart

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My love, she studies
for a grand humanities
exam. I’m quizzing her
and for each answer she’s
not sure about, she says,
“Themistocles.”
We have a brief debate
about whether Themistocles
was a real person or just
a name she’s making up.
Turns out, like with most
topics, she’s in the right.
Now I wonder if, somewhere
out there, sons are still named
Themistocles. Is there a
Themistocles being born right
now, in another distant land?

Where Do We Go from Here? Ashley Morgan - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

Where Do We Go from Here? Ashley Morgan

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We’re at an impasse. Any decision is the wrong decision on some
level, even the easiest decision is probably the worst: doing nothing at all. Let everything stay the way it is. Keep living in the pretend reality that everything is okay. Keep letting the years go by without making a decision. Keep hoping things will change. You know you keep repeating that stupid quote in your head “The definition of insanity is repeating the same action and expecting different results.” And yet you keep doing it. Because the moment you stand on the precipice, the moment you look at the edge at what’s unknown at the bottom, you pull back. You recede into what’s known, what’s comfortable. Even though you know it’s irrational. Even though you know it’s holding you back from progress.

This year you have come the closest yet to making the jump. Have
faith. The therapist is right: you are immature. You are not mature enough to stand on your own. You are not mature enough to take what
you already know and put it into practice. That one statement twisted your reality so far backwards, that now you aren’t sure what to do with yourself. It really is your fault. You put yourself here and only you can bring yourself out.

So, I ask again, where do we go from here? Do we continue on this path through the fishbowl we have been pretending is the world? Knowing that eventually it will end, but allowing someone else to make that decision for us? Are we that weak? Maybe we are. Let’s fade back into our false reality for a bit longer. It’s comfortable here with the wool pulled over our eyes.

More at https://ashleyjmorgan.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/where-do-we-go-from-here-an-inner-dialogue/.

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