sassoonery

[sassoonery]

I break the language into small bits,
swallow some, put the rest in the back
of a cupboard where no light can reach. 
When I speak, rain puddles and rivers
meander further south. Only the squirrels
notice. There is no one in church,
not even a lost angel. I have the hallelujahs
to myself. Some words strain behind
my teeth, some sandpaper my throat. 
They want out, so badly. I’m careful
but it only takes one slip, one hesitant pause.
In the cold winter air, words are suspended
between bulbous clouds, precious to some.
I try to reclaim them, lure them with honeyed
sighs. Thus, I am diminished, less 
of an alphabet, scurry of letters, forced
to make do with eye movements and facial
contortions. I am no longer the source,
the fountain, the encryption, the narrative.
There are gaps which means there are tears.
We’re in a sorry state.

#spilled ink #poetry #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #bitsofstarglow #smittenbypoetry #muse bros #see also: today I will be master of my emotions #about a boy #muse: jlm

[sassoonery]

california light rained

like the sugary something we ate

falling on his shin, my tongue, his toes

landing in his hair

car lights—fireflies out the window

laughing , fingers touching—

wind drew diamonds from the blur past

Goodbye, in the midst of it all

on the other side of the sky

he gave life twice—

once, he knows

but this he doesn’t

he let me go from the grief of his heart

as it slows—descending

it’s most difficult turn making a drumbeat

towards dark

(A never ending list of things that could’ve happened @scarletfieldsofcankanorey )

#spilled ink #poetry #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #abstractcommunity #bitsofstarglow #muse bros

[sassoonery]

Your love was like the wind

Intermittent and pushy

The first gust stealing my breath

Still I reached for you as the sun’s rays

Stretch toward clouds

In the end touching only wispy void

Between blue and gray

Yet I mourn your absence like stardust aches for the moon

Fiercely in bright pulsing fits

In the misty silence at dawn

As I dissipate into ozone

#spilled ink #writerscreed #smittenbypoetry #abstractcommunity #bitsofstarglow

[sassoonery]

Night stretches and I am a haunting

Of birds, feathering thick with dusk,

A flood of beaks shadowing the gated

Square, a sudden whoosh of wings like a downpour,

Swallowing all the names and tears inside me.

I make walls from husk of breath and blurred

Sky of memory and wait for the water to rise—

Hold me. Now the darkness will break.

#spilled ink #poetry #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #abstractcommunity #bitsofstarglow #smittenbypoetry #muse: mick

[sassoonery]

in time you will forget the melody

of birdsong

echoing under a cerulean sky

because memory is fleeting

the joy of a choir in summer’s vast embrace

will be replaced by

nature’s frantic morse code

the whining of the wind

the turbulent thwack of tree limbs

against the wooden barn

your mother calling you home

run to her with wild abandon

with thankful prayers sent up to an out-of-focus sky

through salty tears for the false safety of home

and the lost symphony of something so simple

as the coming of an afternoon storm

and a mother’s embrace

( prompt: “go to her” @nosebleedclub )

#nosebleedclub #writerscreed #abstractcommunity #bitsofstarglow #smittenbypoetry #poeticstories #something for Theo

[sassoonery]

the squall line

of the derecho

stretches across the summer sky

threatening and massive and

frighteningly beautiful

i lift my eyes in awe

smell the air juicy with humidity

and precipitation that

suddenly sizzles on the pavement

the drag and shove of wind

my arms stretched out

like a weather vane

( Prompt: “derecho” from @nosebleedclub )

#nosebleedclub #derecho #writerscreed #poeticstories #smittenbypoetry #bitsofstarglow

[sassoonery]

My sunburnt heart yearns

For suck and shudder of waves,

Love like a monsoon.

#writerscreed #smittenbypoetry #bitsofstarglow #spilled ink #abstractcommunity #haiku

[sassoonery]

What certainties does this darkness hold,

Cradled in the crepuscular void?

Vast, deep fields abundant in

Disembodied whispers of

The desperate nightingale

Choked by a bruised gloaming

Chaotic plans we made

And sacrificed to the shadows

Trying to recall the melody of a calming breeze

Across absurd poppy fields sown with brass

Oppressive between lonely heartsong

And a solitary candle

(August prompt “deep field,” @nosebleedclub )

#poetry prompt #nosebleedclub #writerscreed #muse: john

[sassoonery]

Dear Diary,

in the space between now

and forever

i fall into bed

like dust

i have already lived this day

but it has come again

because the days do as they please

and I will never understand

how time can be slow like a bruise

and faster than the fall

how pain beats like an eternal pulse

and laughter rots like petals

and nothing ever stays

but everything lingers

time is running out

is overflowing

is everywhere

i can’t catch it

and i can’t escape it

#writerscreedchallenge #dear diary

[sassoonery]

All year I’ve stood like a stone column

Steady, immovable, mute

Alone in my singular makeup

But now December comes and you’ve brought the band

My temple shows it’s settling

Small volcanoes of dust erupt around my toes

I’m too exhausted to even raise a fist

My skin betrays me

A cracked façade

It dimples purple and shrinks under your fingertips

My voice exposes what’s left of my foundation

Sarcasm, agony, something else entirely

Such is life

My eyes leak truth

Drip what my bones want from you

A relenting peace

No more rumble

The chance to move wide open again

Be still my heart

You’re choking me

#writerscreed #abstractcommunity #bitsofstarglow #smittenbypoetry #writingthestorm #spilled ink #middle of the night trash #muse: john

[sassoonery]

Together we

Collect the tap water into a ceramic bowl.
You, wearing a crown of cumulus clouds 
low upon your brow and sifting rice that
murks the water, blush the red of a rising
sun. I light the candle and fan our flame
into a slight warm halo that sets the brew
boiling. Sparrow eyes flit among the shadows,
but we are far away from normal time.

#writerscreed #smittenbypoetry #bitsofstarglow #spilled ink #abstractcommunity #writingthestorm #muse: j x j

[sassoonery]

Lend me your ear and I will tell of

Bombs unexploded or still unsent

Shrapnel waiting to find a mark

Concentrated chemicals not reaching for fresh flesh

Blood still in the veins

Yet to find its way to the lung,

The mouth, the nose, the ground

Poised pens yet to ignite the revolution

Minds free of worry about

Ways to survive

The serene night air

Blanketing the dreamers

Before the waking and the dawn prayer

Potential energy all

Like motionless feet

Hidden wings

Before I fly from this cage

#writerscreedchallenge #potential energy #spilled ink #poets on tumblr #bitsofstarglow #abstractcommunity #muse: John x Matt

[sassoonery]

the moon arrived

revealing her porcelain face

subtly ablaze in the infinite

her shoulders draped with constellation

her smile a luminous invitation

to hold my soul

know myself as chosen

i watched as she

rouged her cheeks with stardust

lined her eyes with

night black

a celestial conspirator

ushering in the dawn prayer

#writerscreedchallenge #the face of the moon #spilled ink #poets on tumblr #smittenbypoetry #bitsofstarglow #muse: matt

[sassoonery]

No one ever speaks of

Fluttering eyelids in the ambulance

Searching for a horizon,

Fugitive freckles twitching

Under death dust across your cheeks

Framed just right,

Your very last word being someone’s name

Like a prayer of hope for life well lived.

They don’t remember cosmic generosity

Nor vast sorrow held close, unattended.

Friends only tell of

The satellite phone

Busted and jammed,

You cursing a stolen laptop,

An absurd white turtleneck

Now emphatic with blood.

They recall you never got to spend

Your last ten dollars and

Had no idea how to order flowers for your own wedding.

I wonder whom it was they knew…

#spilled ink #poetry #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #abstractcommunity #bitsofstarglow #smittenbypoetry #after Hondros

[sassoonery]

One gets used to it, the cold,

how brittle things are; how the nights

unfold, blacker than black, the fumes

of us carried off to some softer clime

—and the stars, so close.

One gets used to it, the stars so close

and how paltry it is to wrest

from them some future Spring

when all that huddles on the ridgeline

glistens: small, frail and far.

And on these savage nights

with the stars so close, with a breath

that burns in an air that breaks, I think,

how far I’ve come, how far indeed

to be humbled—how desperately far.

#spilled ink #poetry #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #abstractcommunity #poetryportal #poetryriot #muse: Matt #muse #bitsofstarglow #smittenbypoetry

[sassoonery]

The world is ending and I’m pouring coffee into plastic cups.

I’m pulling on my boots

And marking messages as read

And walking down familiar streets

And tuning out my empty echo footsteps.

I wake up and the distant sky is rust,

A tired, tarnished horizon,

And I stretch and I touch my toes

One time, two times, three times—

I didn’t know I’d be so stiff so young,

That growing up meant locking into place,

Bones frozen in time.

The clouds sculpt themselves into mushrooms,

Mythological mimics,

And still I stare into a mirror.

This place will be long gone,

Incendiary dust, the burning wreckage of a town,

And still,

I’ll be quietly washing my hands

And with the shadows of firelight crawling over my skin,

I’ll think that the afterglow of loss

Could become my color.

#writerscreedchallenge #frozen in time #muse: Riley Flynn

[sassoonery]

I’m reusing this misery,

I know it

ancient, I know it deep,

know it sea-stretching;

vast, endless, relentless blue

wide mouth opening

shiny teeth clattering

dissect my body as I wallow,

become

sad eyes and heartache

dispersed in the twilight

#spilled ink #poetry #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #abstractcommunity #poeticstories #bitsofstarglow #smittenbypoetry