"Love Song" by Mary Carolyn Davies

Love Song

by Mary Carolyn Davies

There is a strong wall about me to protect me: 

It is built of the words you have said to me. 

There are swords about me to keep me safe: 

They are the kisses of your lips. 

Before me goes a shield to guard me from harm: 

It is the shadow of your arms between me and danger. 

All the wishes of my mind know your name, 

And the white desires of my heart 

They are acquainted with you. 

The cry of my body for completeness, 

That is a cry to you. 

My blood beats out your name to me, 

    unceasing, pitiless 

Your name, your name.

Read, listen, share, create, and be on watch.

My Apologies to Student Poets (and "Taste" by Jessica Laser)

Unfortunately I am struggling to transfer student poetry to this site. Over the next week Poet's Watch was going to feature poets Jace Henderson ("A Villanelle for the Family Road Trip"), Elyse Moser ("The Day of the Funeral"), Jassmine Dominguez-Torres ("Ode to her" and "Light"), Gabby Grider ("New Beginnings") and an anonymous poet ("Tobi"). If I am able to circumvent the issues I will feature them later on. I can assure you they were all marvelously crafted poems.

In the meantime, here is a poem by Jessica Laser that I just loved:

Taste

by Jessica Laser

All my life I’ve asked my master

Why I am unable to choose

This sweet man or fancy shoes

Over this stranger, more difficult lover

And these expensive but practical loafers

And why I am unable to author

A book exhibiting my full potential

And have focused instead on inconsequential

Letters to strange and difficult lovers

Who by my letters were never changed.

I certainly haven’t been constrained

By terrible parents or trauma or poverty

And even if I had it wouldn’t explain

My propensity for misery

Anymore than it would my

Propensity for joy.

Maybe I’m just a procrastinator

As life is a procrastination of death

And each breath just a procrastination of breath

And friends a procrastination of work

And work a procrastination of love

And love a procrastination I’m just not above.

Read, listen, share, create, and be on watch.

"Ode of an Ode" and "Love (Abstraction)" by Caleb Jansen

Today Poet's Watch is featuring a student poet. Enjoy these pieces by Caleb Jansen.

Ode of an Ode

by Caleb Jansen

Light breaks on the people who hold the world in two. Everything we want is controlled by those people. Why don’t they fight the battles? Why am I in their war? Why do I have to suffer for their benefit? Not anymore. I will not fight their war. I am not the enemy, nor am I the friend. I am me and I will fight my own war. Against people with more than me I wage. I will not sit as a duck while I am sent into the meat grinder.

Love (Abstraction)

by Caleb Jansen

I was drunk again.

Fell right back in the deep end.

You said nothing.

Like I wasn’t something.

Take me home.

On a carriage of dread.

Loving you, has made me a fool.

I fell for you.

You made me 

a martyr for you.

I’ve made my bed,

Tacks laid out like a sheet.

Now I’ll lay in it.

Read, listen, share, create, and be on watch.

Ode of an Ode

Light breaks on the people who hold the world in two. Everything we

want is controlled by those people. Why don’t they fight the battles?

Why am I in their war? Why do I have to suffer for their benefit? Not

anymore. I will not fight their war. I am not the enemy, nor am I the

friend. I am me and I will fight my own war. Against people with more

than me I wage. I will not sit as a duck while I am sent into the meat

grinder.

"Claustrophilia" by Alice Fulton

Claustrophilia

by Alice Fulton

It's just me throwing myself at you,

romance as usual, us times us,

not lust but moxibustion,

a substance burning close

to the body as possible

withut risk of immolation.

Nearness without contact

causes numbness. Analgesia.

Pins and needles. As the snugness

of the surgeon's glove causes hand fatigue.

At least this procedure

requires no swag or goody bags,

stuff bestowed upon the stars

at their luxe functions.

There's no dress code,

though leg irons

are always appropriate.

And if anyone says what the hell

are you wearing in Esperanto

—Kion diable vi portas?—

tell them anguish

is the universal language.

Stars turn to trainwrecks

and my heart goes out

admirers gush. Ground to a velvet!

But never mind the downside,

mon semblable, mon crush.

Love is just the retaliation of light.

It is so profligate, you know,

so rich with rush.

Read, listen, share, create, and be on watch.

"The Pick" by Cecilian Woloch

The Pick

by Cecilia Woloch

I watched him swinging the pick in the sun,

breaking the concrete steps into chunks of rock,

and the rocks into dust,

and the dust into earth again.

I must have sat for a very long time on the split rail fence,

just watching him.

My father’s body glistened with sweat,

his arms flew like dark wings over his head.

He was turning the backyard into terraces,

breaking the hill into two flat plains.

I took for granted the power of him,

though it frightened me, too.

I watched as he swung the pick into the air

and brought it down hard

and changed the shape of the world,

and changed the shape of the world again.

Read, listen, share, create, and be on watch.

"A Noiseless Patient Spider" by Walt Whitman

A Noiseless Patient Spider

by Walt Whitman

A noiseless patient spider, 

I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated, 

Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, 

It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, 

Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. 

And you O my soul where you stand, 

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, 

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them, 

Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold, 

Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

Read, listen, share, create, and be on watch.

"In Cities, Be Alert" by Annie Finch

In Cities, Be Alert

by Annie Finch

You may hear that your heartbeat is uneven

and let new tension climb around your shoulders,

thinking you've found the trick for going mad.

But try to keep a grip on where you are.

Remember: all around you is pure city;

try to stay alert. On the wide streets,

so empty late at night, streaking in glass,

the color of an alley, or the fall

of a sideways flicker from a neon sign

may utterly and briefly disconcert you—

but as you go, you'll find that noise is worse.

Prepare for noise. But never scream. Even tensing

ears too far in advance can sharpen sirens,

and as for horns. ... When you're back to

your normal rhythm after such encounters,

just try to stay alert. You'll never know

exactly who is coming up behind you,

but the sudden movement of pedestrians

will finally, of course, be what disarms you.

Read, listen, share, create, and be on watch.