380 lines
11 KiB
HTML
380 lines
11 KiB
HTML
<!doctype html>
|
||
<html>
|
||
<head>
|
||
<title>Zk | Unimportant verse about important people</title>
|
||
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/style.css" />
|
||
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
|
||
<meta charset="utf-8" />
|
||
</head>
|
||
<body>
|
||
<main>
|
||
<header>
|
||
<h1>Zk | Unimportant verse about important people</h1>
|
||
</header>
|
||
<article class="content">
|
||
<p><span class="tag">writing</span> <span class="tag">poetry</span> <span class="tag">polyam</span></p>
|
||
<p><q class="comment">In <em>Eigengrau</em></q></p>
|
||
<!--Lochiel-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">I see your past in cross-processed film,
|
||
in blown-out colors and over-saturation.
|
||
|
||
You told me all about it, told me grand stories:
|
||
you were going to go back in time and save the world.
|
||
|
||
I see your past in yellows and browns,
|
||
in umber and sienna and amber, in a younger sun.
|
||
|
||
You sat and told me how — and you were always sitting —
|
||
you thought past-you dreamt of a future less complicated than today.
|
||
|
||
I see your past through film-grain and vignette,
|
||
with a thick white border, space on the bottom to write.
|
||
|
||
You told me how you learned so many imperfect things,
|
||
in so many less than ideal ways, always at inopportune times.
|
||
|
||
I see your past in architectural drawings of unrealized buildings,
|
||
in paperback covers reaching towards heaven, in trillions of words.
|
||
|
||
You figured past you dreamt of, not perfection,
|
||
but a world unconstrained by so many failures.
|
||
|
||
I see your past with no me in it,
|
||
and wonder if past-you dreamt of us.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p><q class="comment">In <em>Eigengrau</em></q></p>
|
||
<!--Lutea-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">Resuscitating ancient coins in class, we learned,
|
||
takes a toothbrush and olive oil.
|
||
Slow, steady strokes across, around…
|
||
soft bristles dislodging soil
|
||
one speck at a time.
|
||
But no one that day was nearly as blessed,
|
||
seeing a coin shine through
|
||
at the end, full relief brightly expressed,
|
||
as I was to see you smile.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p><q class="comment">In <em>Eigengrau</em></q></p>
|
||
<!--Axiom-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">When you arrive,
|
||
the whole world gets slow.
|
||
Sluggish, amber-colored air
|
||
mellows lively conversations.
|
||
Everyone stops, marvels,
|
||
turns eagerly toward you;
|
||
and there are no complaints
|
||
about warming our faces in the sun.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p><q class="comment">In <em>Eigengrau</em></q></p>
|
||
<!--Sparf-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">We fit together in the strangest ways
|
||
and seem to seek new seams to savor.
|
||
Such joins are hardly perfect,
|
||
thread tugging fabric unevenly
|
||
unless it’s reinforced over and over again.
|
||
We seem to seek new seams to savor,
|
||
and, weak though they are,
|
||
revel in the imperfect unevenness of joining.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<!--Krinn-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">“Comrade” would I call you,
|
||
and “brave,” and “fierce” and “true”.
|
||
“Lovely” have I called you,
|
||
and hope but to live up to
|
||
the example which you set for me.
|
||
|
||
So, comrade, onward, ever onward.
|
||
I know I cannot hope to offer
|
||
much but word on cloying word,
|
||
dull rhymes I strain to proffer:
|
||
small flowers, small gifts, camaraderie.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p><q class="comment">In <em>Eigengrau</em></q></p>
|
||
<!--Peri-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">Complementary, clashing anxieties.
|
||
Dull clamor of intersecting feelings.
|
||
Need, desire, craving, jealousy.
|
||
Worry, fear, care, prayerful fretting.
|
||
Love, lust, friendship, a need to share.
|
||
Emotions on emotions on emotions,
|
||
and, often, comfortable silence.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<!--Judith-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">I chose your name.
|
||
To defend, it means. To help.
|
||
I admit, having chosen it,
|
||
that I chose it to defend you.
|
||
When I picked you up by the scruff,
|
||
Dragged you off to that place
|
||
I hoped we could call ours,
|
||
I expected that we’d
|
||
simply find a way to survive.
|
||
I never expected love,
|
||
and rejoice every day in that surprise.
|
||
|
||
I chose to collar you.
|
||
I admit it was an experiment,
|
||
I submit to most, but not my partners;
|
||
until then I’d never owned, claimed.
|
||
It felt vulgar, at first,
|
||
greedy, jealous, possessive.
|
||
Through you I learned the joy of possession,
|
||
the love and trust and exactness of terms.
|
||
Owner, partner, love,
|
||
and pup, partner, love.
|
||
My beautiful, my own.
|
||
|
||
I’ll hand you off some day.
|
||
I’m a less than ideal owner
|
||
in so many terrible ways:
|
||
I owe you more than you owe me.
|
||
I’ll gather your leash up,
|
||
I’ll let you keep your tag,
|
||
I’ll bow, I’ll kiss you one last time,
|
||
and I’ll bless you and your new keeper.
|
||
And I’ll never stop loving you.
|
||
And I’ll never stop loving you.
|
||
And I’ll never stop loving you.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<!--Robin-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">You, for whom a heart means all feeling —
|
||
You, for whom yeah is an expletive —
|
||
You, for whom even computers sing —
|
||
You, for whom every tangle invites disentangling —
|
||
You, for whom even <strong>I</strong> will rub feet —
|
||
You, for whom shop always follows flop —
|
||
You, for whom words form a squall-line —
|
||
You, for whom I guess I —
|
||
You, for whom —
|
||
You, for whom even —
|
||
You, for whom I reach —
|
||
You, for whom my shit day leads straight to lets talk —
|
||
You, for whom I curate my week’s feelings —
|
||
You, for whom I wait by the month —
|
||
You, for whom I structure my year —
|
||
You, for whom understanding of me seems always in grasp —
|
||
You, for whom my struggles provide no obstacle —
|
||
You and I, from whom us.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p><q class="comment">In <em>Eigengrau</em></q></p>
|
||
<!--JC-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">Tightly wound springs
|
||
Of very carefully
|
||
Not touching.
|
||
Secret words
|
||
To be said
|
||
With confidence.
|
||
Rules.
|
||
Prohibitions.
|
||
Limits.
|
||
Discussions planned,
|
||
Side-channels arranged,
|
||
Whiskey purchased.
|
||
And now anxiety
|
||
Over what it means
|
||
And how to work it.
|
||
Is it worth it for
|
||
Long-standing questions
|
||
To be answered?
|
||
To invite disaster
|
||
For sake of knowledge
|
||
And further dreams?
|
||
Maybe the answer
|
||
Is that tired refrain:
|
||
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
|
||
And now we’re
|
||
Awaiting weeks
|
||
Of careful touches.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p><q class="comment">In <em>Eigengrau</em></q></p>
|
||
<!--Zeta-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">I could never tell you
|
||
that you feel too much.
|
||
That you feel too hard,
|
||
or that your feelings
|
||
overwhelm and overtake you.
|
||
|
||
I could never tell you
|
||
how beautiful that is.
|
||
That I wish I could feel those things,
|
||
that I wish I could feel that way.
|
||
|
||
All I can tell you
|
||
is how beautiful you are
|
||
when you feel love.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p><q class="comment">In <em>Eigengrau</em></q></p>
|
||
<!--Margaras-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse"><em>Yit’gadal v’yit’kadash sh’mei raba</em>
|
||
Would that I had the faith
|
||
To pray daily.
|
||
Eleven months to let you go,
|
||
And an amen to end the sorrow.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<!--Tao-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">When a light so far above me shines down,
|
||
I lose my footing, stop, look around,
|
||
and for once, see my way lit before me.
|
||
|
||
Through you,
|
||
I learn how I move.
|
||
Through you,
|
||
I see how I act.
|
||
Through you,
|
||
I judge myself.
|
||
|
||
When a light so far above me shines down,
|
||
I turn my face to the warmth and bask,
|
||
drawing strength, assured in my steps.
|
||
|
||
Through you,
|
||
I recognize my failings.
|
||
Through you,
|
||
I understand my strengths.
|
||
Through you,
|
||
I gain perspective.
|
||
|
||
When a light so far above me shines down,
|
||
I reach toward it and grasp at what I can,
|
||
hoping I might somehow gain my own luster.
|
||
|
||
Through you,
|
||
I find my place.
|
||
Through you,
|
||
I gain surety.
|
||
Through you,
|
||
I learn who I am.
|
||
|
||
When a light so far above me shines down,
|
||
and I fail to shine myself,
|
||
I hope only to reflect what I can.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<!--JD-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">Every time I seek to change
|
||
my life, myself, my love, my name,
|
||
every time I try and broaden my range
|
||
in this shitty, all-encompassing game,
|
||
I hesitate.
|
||
|
||
With every change in my life
|
||
comes the terror of maybe losing you
|
||
of maybe being caught in strife
|
||
over such insecurities as few
|
||
have escaped unscathed.
|
||
|
||
That you love me still
|
||
reaffirms so many of my choices,
|
||
and I set about with a will,
|
||
ignoring querulous voices
|
||
in favor of your calm laugh.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p><q class="comment">In <em>Eigengrau</em></q></p>
|
||
<!--JC redux-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">Between our houses,
|
||
there is a simple fence -
|
||
not a chasm, not a wall.
|
||
Chain-link, waist high,
|
||
bedecked with sweet-pea
|
||
and set about with violets.
|
||
Something we can tend,
|
||
something to feel good about,
|
||
something between us
|
||
other than nothing.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p><q class="comment">In <em>Eigengrau</em></q></p>
|
||
<!--Maelkoth-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">Mi glutos mian amon por vi.
|
||
Mi glutos mian amon.
|
||
Mi glutos mian amon por vi
|
||
Kaj frandos la ekflamadon de magnezio,
|
||
Ĝuos la oferbuĉadon,
|
||
Ĝojos la aŭtolizadon
|
||
De sekretaj ĉeloj.
|
||
Mi glutos mian amon por vi.
|
||
Mi glutos mian amon.
|
||
|
||
-----
|
||
|
||
I will swallow my love for you.
|
||
I will swallow my love.
|
||
I will swallow my love for you
|
||
And relish the magnesium flare,
|
||
Rejoice in immolation,
|
||
Cherish the autolysis
|
||
Of secret cells.
|
||
I will swallow my love for you.
|
||
I will swallow my love.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<!--Vasha-->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">I live my life in eternal terror
|
||
of the completeness of your own.
|
||
I take up so little space
|
||
and impinge upon it so gently,
|
||
I only hope that there is space enough
|
||
for a ‘dear’ here and a ‘lovely’ there.
|
||
If beauty is at the edge of the terrifying,
|
||
I live my life in eternal terror.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<!-- Justin -->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">Cover me, crush me, compress me.
|
||
Squeeze me down until I fit in your pocket.
|
||
Let me jangle among your keys,
|
||
or slip between bills in your wallet.
|
||
Forget me, let me fray, let me fall apart.
|
||
And, some day, pull me free,
|
||
dust me off, flatten me out,
|
||
and tell me that you love me.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<!-- Sandy, but she deserves better -->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">Every day, I learn to say “I love you”
|
||
in a whole new way.
|
||
And every day, I fall short
|
||
of being understood.</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<!-- Dwale -->
|
||
|
||
<div class="verse">Beneath that evening’s breeze the sickly sweet
|
||
And brazen scent of countless flow’rs
|
||
Awoke inside of you a darkened sleep
|
||
Of dreams dug deeper than the soil.
|
||
Oh, we are waking minds who missed that scent!
|
||
What hope have we who wait in life,
|
||
Who sit and pray and watch for your next breath?
|
||
Our hope can only reach for ends -
|
||
To wit, to see you wake and meet a mind
|
||
Too keen to weed a garden clean -
|
||
For we exhaled when you breathed in that breeze,
|
||
And flowers wreathe your sleeping form.</div>
|
||
</article>
|
||
<footer>
|
||
<p>Page generated on 2021-07-20</p>
|
||
</footer>
|
||
</main>
|
||
<script type="text/javascript">
|
||
document.querySelectorAll('.tag').forEach(tag => {
|
||
let text = tag.innerText;
|
||
tag.innerText = '';
|
||
tag.innerHTML = `<a href="/tags.html#${text}">${text}</a>`;
|
||
});
|
||
</script>
|
||
</body>
|
||
</html>
|