Author: poetryfest

“Language is like a river
Flowing from there to hear
From mouth to ear
From heart to heart
From God to word

And sometimes rivers dry up
Like coffee in a cup
And sometimes they just get tired
And lay down to sleep
Where I can’t find them
And sometimes they float away
For someone else to say and keep

I feel the flow slowing down a bit
I see some words moving away
Like pieces of an iceberg
Suddenly set free and floating off

And it’s all okay,
It really is
Because all I really need
Are two words I have not yet forgotten
And hopefully never will…

thank you.

The crystalline pendulum vaults in its quotidian indifference as

the frog swollen with ego, a cajoling Chimera in apparitional

Voice

Beckons the bedeviled and searching Komodo Dragon and the Kaleidoscopic Salamander to

Follow along the phantasmagorical path to the kingdom of jewels and

Vegetables

A three-day trek through the muck and mire of a philosophic

Expedition through the Mountains of Surreality

Our pioneers find themselves paralyzed deep in the vortex of melancholy

Strangled by the tentacle bowels of confusion

Oh, high frog what happened?

Did your sidereal cartographers miscalculate?

Are you a weak servant of mortal suffering?

You incredulous dwarf nestled under an umbrella in a fountain of

Purple medicine “We only sought to follow the chameleon

Over the rainbow, we saw him run past but so quickly

We lost his trail in the fleeting gleam of a porcelain fog

Under the night sun

Now we must return to the cavernous gnomes to study pataphysics

And the incomprehensible blueprints of the Lemurian Architects.

By

TJ Mancini

(from my collection ‘A Handful of Leaves: Poems and Anti-Poems’)

Two hearts instantly sealed airtight together

One worried about revealing pain and tiger stripes

The other said they’re stories of your beautiful life

One fell deep asleep worrying embarrassed

The other slid in closer gently pulling back the sheets

Admiring elongated curves in the moonlight

The moonlight reflected brightly on the bed

Moved one hand across those hips and thighs

Surveying the beauty of one’s nakedness

The other moved a pointy finger following a stripe

Whispered it’s okay just pregnancy weight

The other’s fingertip journeyed to the belly button

Whispered, it’s okay it’s stress from binge eating

Whispered, don’t worry let me be your fitness partner

Whispered, nurture lovely things in your mind

Whispered, build up confidence shrink the fear

Whispered, fear you’ve carried like a pregnancy far too long

Whispered, your abusers are gone take a breather

Whispered, let me be your comfort mountain valley sea

Whispered, I’ll never cause you pain or mistreat you

Whispered, allow me to commune with words and deeds

Whispered, let me love you boldly publicly not ashamed

Whispered, your timeline prepared you to journey closer to me

Whispered, a picture speaks thousands of words

Whispered, let me love with the one you’ve always deserved

Whispered, I’ll wait here counting your stripes by the moonlight

Whispered, remember you’re beautiful a goddess

Whispered, I embrace every story that makes you, you

Whispered, now wake up my love believing it too

This a story unlike any other
Once upon a time, people could not find the opposite of “Hero” aha!
While it might seem adventurous and quite interesting
Mind you, the tale is gory and a teensy bit frightening!

There was once a little big man
He stayed home all day long under the fan
Smells of mountains of food had to accompany him near
He required 10 litres of milk every hour

He had a bungalow full of servants
And a wife or two to dote on him
Though they all seemed to serve him reverently
One day he discovered a fact furtively

The servants all thought he was a fat man surviving on others’ labour
His wives said he was a good for nothing fellow, no fervour
This ignited in him an urge to do something
“Why not try my hand at social service?” he started to think.

“A good man never boasts of his good deeds,” a wise man said
So he decided to keep his work a secret
That night he dressed up with a mask in full black
And saw a thief sneaking into his neighbour’s through in the shed a crack

In flew our hero right to his neighbour’s balcony
Intercepted the thief and took back the furniture of mahogany
At this moment the mistress of the house came face to face with him
Screamed “Thief! Thief!” and our poor hero was convicted of trespass and thievery

He got beaten up fairly bad
Was isolated, and spent two years in a jail sad
Matters not, our hero was yet determined
To achieve his goal, so he even more strived

This time as he flew across the sky
Saw the King’s son and his drowning in a pond by and by
Swooped in he to save the boy
But the poor cat died, ahoy!

The little chap ran to his papa in a fright,
Our hero was not just accused of spying and kidnapping the prince, but killing the cat outright!
Not only were all his lands confiscated,
He was suffocated under water for two hours straight!

But of such great spirit was our hero made
Even not under such magnanimous weight did he crack
He got wind of a bomb planted in a primary school
Barged right in to right the wrong, in my opinion much like a fool.

As he quietly defused the bomb and buried the remains underground
His cape brushed against the dry leaves and rocks and set fire to the school ground!
All the school authorities blocked him from all sides
This time our hero was to punished for arson and terrorist acts!

All his kinsfolk were mercilessly decapacitated
He himself was almost beheaded
But the King at last decided that he did not have so much time to spend on him
And sent him to the forest in exile instead!

Now brimming with anger, our hero sitting under a tree thought
“What good has good brought me, instead of wrongful accusations and punishment?
If the good side is does agree with me,
Why don’t I try its opposite instead?”

So our hero planned for years in secret
And fashioned a chainsaw quite sharp and heavy in weight
Suddenly he burst forth one day
And hacked everyone and everything to death!

And as he finally sat basking in the light of his accomplishment,
Thus my friends, was born in this world the very first villain.

I wish we could stand

You and I

out

Today

alone together

just once more.

A world with so many edges

now softened

by the falling

snow

Flakes enormous

like spent dandelions

ready to seed

And catch them

on our tongues

laughing again

once more

Or that I could see

the exquisite flakes

fall

upon

your star-crossed lashes

and kiss your eyelids

miraculously

warm

again

Copyright 2022 Valerie Quercia. All rights reserved.

the physically sick
the emotionally weak
the revolutionary fists
the caregivers
the caretakers
the meditations, exclamations, recriminations, proclamations
no work, some play, Zoom to the rescue.
Where is our right to life?
Where is our liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Did it fall into a bottomless abyss?
It’s floating..just out of our reach…
fragile wispy dandelions
overblown bubbles
rainbow fractured light
Gracefully ascending out of our reach.
Lushly leafed trees enveloping stone bridges
And the river is reassuringly ebbing and flowing.
The windows of our soul
deeply peering
questioning, smiling, narrowing,
tightly shut.
Will we find what we seek?
John and Paul read the news today, oh boy
It’s a day in the life.

I made a wanted list molding you
Serenading pleading God for you
You came during a great trauma
Dressed slick wolves clothing
I thanked God for sending you
Then prayed for forgiveness
I was a blind beggar refusing to see
Every caress penetration deceiving
Bravo to your performance
How exhausting your deception
You cradled my heart gently
Put me in deep sleeps intimately
Often I wake falling crying yelling
You dropping me from high up
Your vows galloping lies heavy
The universe hearing witness
Our breathe ahh and mmm
Accepting no room unwanted
You pretending you holding me
When I’m shattered at the bottom
When you’re not looking I see me
See fully where your mind put me
Like a bread crumb under a table
You stole something priceless
Left my heart mind spirit splitting
Priceless gem you never deserve
A robber thief burglar jive talker
At night you glitter like gold
Midnight you reject me like Absalom
Sun rises reflecting speckles of fools gold
You leaving a trail flying red flags
Flags my heart overlooked in brokenness
Taking accountability for my hurt
I let you in while weak and fragile
All I wanted was it to be real
One heart soul beating breathing
Becoming one with eternity
Grateful for latter days
Accepting it’s time to heal
Resting like sleeping Beauty
I’ll keep resting no worrying
Not waking up until you find me
Awakening me with a kiss
A kiss so indescribable
I’ll be seeing stars of the universe
Connecting with my whole being
Thinking I’ve known you a lifetime

Genre: Hope, Hurt, Inspirational, Intimate, Life, Love, Motivational, Painful, Relationships, Romantic, Sad, Self Love, Waiting

I was hooked right under a spell
Every slit got me a step closer to my own hell.
17 years ago you should have seen
The way I used to be before I reclaimed me.

It was over, I lost the fight
Then darkness faded into light.

Rain just downpours blood into my skin
Places I have never been
Laced with nitroglycerin
Now I have escaped the pen.

I believe I’ve escaped the pen.

When I started to exile myself
From the party, I thought no one wanted me to be well.
So I dug deeper into me
Letting the blood take off wherever it feels it should be free.

I loved every split second’s bliss
Of wanting to never exist.

Rain just downpours blood into my skin
Places I have never been
Laced with nitroglycerin
Now I have escaped the pen.

Rain just downpours blood into my skin
Places I have never been
Laced with nitroglycerin
Now I have escaped the pen.

The feeling was such a rush
The control just whisked away all my sensation of touch.

Rain just downpours blood into my skin
Places I have never been
Laced with nitroglycerin
Now I have escaped the pen.

Rain just downpours blood into my skin
Places I have never been
Laced with nitroglycerin
Now I have escaped the pen.

I believe I’ve escaped the pen.
I have escaped the pen.

-Karianne Gabaldon