Intimate Spaces

Intimate spaces

(Written by John Christian Lewis; all rights reserved)

I

always

wanted to

hold the tender,

fragile parts of you.

Bits hidden in spiny

casings, formed to keep me out.

Oh to reach that intimate space,

where you reside alone and untouched.

Let me love what you deem unsafe to bare

Love

An example of a double etheree

Love

(Written by John Christian Lewis; all rights reserved)

love

whispers

love calls out

calling for hate

this alone it seeks

animosity hides

in dark and hidden places

can love be heard above the din

of war or violent racist speech

love is anti-hate, hate is anti-love

hate is anti-love, love is anti-hate

hate leaves searing marks upon the soul

that only love can quench and heal

hate’s hot garrote strangles hearts

kills all but caustic wrath

regardless the toll

love will not cease

to seek and

vanquish

hate

Not poetry Friday yet, but I'm practicing with a new form this month called the Etheree.  

Etheree Taylor Armstrong (1918 - 1994) was a twentieth century American poet, and is credited with inventing this poetry form that consists of 10 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 syllables.

 
Believer
(written by John Christian Lewis; all rights reserved)

lash

me hard

to your wild
verve-soaked dreaming
plow me deep with shards
torn from fevered vision

let me be your prime foundation

anchored tight to servant bedrock

anoint me your torch-bearing zealot

herald me as your first true believer

It’s Poetry Friday and this month the theme is Found Poetry.

Found Poetry is literately poetry that you find in everyday writings, news articles, graffiti, in short, anywhere. It can be intended or unintended. It’s a skill of recognizing, not writing. I found poems in lots of places…examples below are from a ubiquitous napkin that you use and throw away minutes later and an album from the late 1950’s.


from a napkin at chipotle

this napkin is made
from 90% post-consumer
unbleached paper
it could have been
an electricity bill or
a parking ticket
in its past life
forgive
&
forget


from the back cover of the love nest album
(cover written by Steve Allen; excepted and arranged by me)

now all hear this,
this one voice sliced four ways
this sound almost unbelievably pleasant
that opens fresh meadows of mathematical possibility
and floods us, washing our brains with honey,
closing our eyes and making us shake our heads
with unbelief

hear them rub two notes together, making sparks
form in the dark behind our eyes
hear them float, like a bubble in the happy air
lace a delicate change through it
a cascade of tones that slips into the body of the chord
like rich cream through iced-coffee in the sun

the top was down on the car and the wind
was licking my eyes
in my ears swam the sound,
the rich marshmallow high-calorie sound
that gave the car new horse-power
I turned the radio up higher
and sang along like a goof
I wanted to pull back on the steering wheel
and float up into the air
but I just roared along splashing music all
over the road.

the parts run sometimes straight
like stratified rock
and then
there’s the earthquake-trace
and lines that explode out
and away
and in
and out
and tie you in delicious knots of appreciation.

dig the kaleidoscoping blend
you shake the box and there are changes
stereophonic breathing –both lungs
they say see-squested and not suh-questered
these eggheads of harmony

you’ll take another look next time
because great art makes you appreciate the familiar

I would like to take off my hat
or my whole head
and bow low in gratitude