# The Great Doper Poetry Reading

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-doper-poetry-reading/176676>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 21, 2003, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-doper-poetry-reading/176676 "2003-05-21T23:42:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-doper-poetry-reading/176676/1 "2003-05-21T23:42:48Z")

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I was walking home from work and thinking about poetry. I have fond memories of poetry readings from when I had a life and got out more. I also know that there are many hidden poets out there - people who wrestle with copy machines or bulldozers all day, and scribble in secret, when no one is looking. My stepfather, a sullen guy with the head of a mountain goat, keeps a black book filled with poems about the sea and the fields, from when he traveled Europe.

If anyone else has something they’d like to share, please post it here. There are only two rules:

1. Only two pieces per day, per poster, please.

2. If you want feedback, please say so in your post, otherwise, people are kindly asked to keep their critic’s hats in their boxes.

I’ll show you mine when you show me yours 😉

Happy posting!

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**Author:** ![OfBlinkingThings](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ebca7d/32.png) [@OfBlinkingThings](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OfBlinkingThings)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-doper-poetry-reading/176676/2 "2003-05-22T00:54:58Z")

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85 6  
My lady friend wears tin cans  
like a  
fine spanish  
dress (the whole city strokes faith as though it were silk)  
my lady friend says  
that her job is  
all  
numbers  
(every man that punches a clock should punch  
himself as well) my lady friend  
responds to personal  
ad in russian sewing magazine  
and sets fire to  
lily pads while  
counting broken marbles  
(deadliness is close to godliness)  
(godliness is close to loneliness)  
my lady friend started cooking  
liverwurst to save  
her dear old soul (lies are made of rainbows)

feedback ok

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**Author:** ![rmbnxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9e5f3/32.png) [@rmbnxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rmbnxs)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-doper-poetry-reading/176676/3 "2003-05-22T00:59:16Z")

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little dog outside  
always goes “yip yap yip yap”  
drives me fucking nuts

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**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-doper-poetry-reading/176676/4 "2003-05-22T01:17:50Z")

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I just saw the Bad Poetry thread in IMHO, and I think this is a nice counterpoint. Feedback on all my writing is welcome, either in here or via email. OK now that someone else has posted and this isn’t a total wankfest, I will share two of mine.

**Junction**

Lost near the reddish junction  
veiled in pink dust at red dusk

She saw the ocean, once  
dreamt of it and  
imagined herself far from home

Dressed and downstairs, galloping  
past her white parents  
streaking lean legs  
tight crimson t-shirt leading the charge

Limp okra crisp chicken and red mud behind the shed  
slow honeysuckle hanging  
by the porch and stolen beer at sunset  
diving  
into swimming holes with all her clothes  
or not, when she has her sisters.

Dancing around and around the dry earth  
wailing out the oppressive song of  
summer cicadas

In August, everything is lulled by the heat,  
and shimmers in silence.

~kfl

* * *

This next one is one of my Buffy fanfic poems. I have one or two poems written in each character’s voice and two whole series, a Willow one and a Buffy one. This is my Giles poem, and it’s one that got a great reception at another messageboard.

**Choking Hazard: (may contain small parts)**

I never knew you  
when you were playing with Barbies  
your Red Riding Hood was a stranger to me

I couldn’t have been of use then anyway  
except ready with iodine  
to blot your knee orange  
when you fell off your big wheel  
in suburbia

You don’t sleep with a teddy bear  
I handed you a crossbow  
No pink plastic afternoon tea parties  
I handed you a sword

I have never held you  
and yet  
I cradled your life in my hands  
I held it  
And I have never begrudged the weight

But I think sometimes  
I wonder  
about tea parties

Show me what I have missed

And we can mourn together

~ kfl