# The SDMB Poetry Corner

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 28, 2001, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513 "2001-06-28T20:17:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/21 "2001-06-30T02:37:27Z")

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I cannot write poetry.  
The words are not the problem.  
I snap my fingers,  
And the words line up like well-trained dogs.  
But these are only tricks,  
Empty, save for the echoes  
Of the passions of others.  
My heart sits in its chest,  
An unused treasure.  
I yearn for a touch I have never felt,  
A face I have never seen,  
A friend I have never met.  
I dream of love and heartache,  
And other foreign shores  
I fear I shall never reach.

---

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**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/22 "2001-06-30T03:49:33Z")

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**Recipe for Melancholy**

Ingredients:

-you  
-a loved one (results will vary depending on type)  
-a worthwhile relationship with above  
-an intolerable situation  
-failed solutions  
-despair

Mix self, loved one and relationship until well blended.  
slowly add intolerable situation and failed solutions,  
then crumble in despair. Cool indefinitely.  
serves 1 to 5 billion

-srw  
11/00  
For even more angst [http://www.geocities.com/theevilwriter](http://www.geocities.com/theevilwriter)

---

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**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/23 "2001-06-30T04:22:32Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Searching For Truth \*  
> (ok, so it takes a close second to sex…) But keep it up, anyways. 🙂

Well, considering I’d have to get really, really, specifically lost to get laid, I think I’ll take the first:)

That about does it for my good poetry . . . unless you all want to see the stuff I don’t show you because it looks like bubblegum crap without the music.

---

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**Author:** ![Lady\_Magdelane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a4c791/32.png) [@Lady\_Magdelane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Magdelane)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/24 "2001-06-30T04:47:16Z")

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You folks are sooooo fantastic that I’ve been inspired!  
well… inspired to share a bit. Mind if I share a few short ones?

```auto
**CUTE**

The way you look at me is babies
Soft and caressing
I want you to think of me without that sickening gentleness
That moping sadness
That slobbering hate
They are taking from me without ever being born
They remove your hand from me before I find fulfillment
They are missionaries to chasten me through your action
But I am a savage

I am a warrior
Seeking glory and worship for my own self
Indeed I am selfish
I am love
Fierce, burning, mind destroying

It isn’t right
I don’t want the presence of children when we fuck

4/4/01
(This won third place at a poetry slam hosted by my school's literary magazine)

```

**VESPERS**

His mane reaching up under her fingernails  
grasp moving up shoulder  
neck  
pause at the bell  
ring  
_flick_  
ring

Her mane dripping over his darkness  
breathe reaching for flesh  
neck  
pause at the harshness  
lick  
_flick_  
lick

3/31/01

```auto

**WAY DOWN**

I know that you are the
one
with the power
in this...
this friendship
this flirtation
this…
you pull my strings
ever closer to your sweet mouth
talking of Faulkner and his
indefatigable histrionic
language
you talk...
of his descriptive verbiage
and your eyes speak other words
as inflamed
as his passion for the South.
Do you worship in the Deep South as he does?
I can show you how to follow that river
its name eludes me
it is old and ancient
wisdom beyond thought
it calls...
to you
my smiling Lucifer
3/30/01
~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for humoring me,
~Mag
```

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**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/25 "2001-06-30T06:26:14Z")

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Good poems, all. I laughed a great deal at the Shakespeare one.

I guess I’ll post another one of mine.

## morpheus-thanatos

so that when i die i live on  
for hours  
days  
years  
after i am gone  
i boldly step through  
this in-and-out shadow  
machine on the eve of destruction  
to find a new path  
and be further down my chosen road  
by tomorrow.  
even after i die  
i still live through walking specterly  
in dreaming.  
i have lived my life in sleep  
no time to worry  
of men’s scheming  
no time to hurry  
no time to weep-

---

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**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/26 "2001-06-30T07:19:26Z")

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At **Nocturne** ’s suggestion I’m posting another one of mine. Bear in mind that originally I designed it as a song, which is why part of it repeats.

I am not Enough

You chose and wanted me.  
And I had what I wanted  
But I was not what I could be  
I took your love for granted

And I am not enough  
To satisfy your soul  
To give you what you need  
To come and make you whole

I am not enough  
For all that you deserve  
And yet you let me stay  
Because I want to serve

I broke things off last time  
For I was scared of us  
I wasn’t feeling right at all  
I didn’t want to cause a fuss

And somehow through the grace of God  
When I came back to you  
You did not run or hit or scream  
Your love was there and true

And so I write this song  
Because I cannot say  
How deeply I’m in love with you  
Since that wondrous day.

And I am not enough  
To satisfy your soul  
To give you what you need  
To come and make you whole

I am not enough  
For all that you deserve  
And yet you let me stay  
Because I want to serve

I am not enough  
For all that you deserve  
And yet you let me stay  
Because I want to serve

---

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**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/27 "2001-06-30T14:27:46Z")

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two offerings…

**something amazing**

world.

something amazing happened today.

and all around, without a sound

without a word

i watched them march

into the bleeding houses,

bleeding from the mouth.

the blood spilling into the

world.

i saw one kicked he fell

and was taken away

they said it was for attention

(medical or otherwise)

but i knew we wouldn’t see him again

…

something beautiful

something amazing

**the tyranny of distance**

yellowing  
pale, grimy walls  
my dust stained face  
(my tear-ripped eyes)  
this warm room isn’t small enough  
to hold me in.

a finger smudged window  
out there is a road  
at the end of, is home.  
a bar to barricade my door  
nails to hold me in,  
if i get out,  
a tempest on this town  
this smudged out photograph  
with decaying stores and  
faded white houses,  
small town stories and  
jealousies you wouldn’t  
care to write about.  
a run-out of land  
where proprieters of forgotten glories  
whimsy on their fast greying triumphs,  
feeding their egos,  
like flocks of crying seagulls  
snapping at a snatch of glory.  
wrapping up their John Dory  
a proud display of Australian slavery.

tomorrow brings a nine hour journey  
a baking, drowsy, sorrowful slide,  
where the city will seep too slowly  
into this broken, sunburned countryside

---

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**Author:** ![The\_Fromesiter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Fromesiter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Fromesiter)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2001, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/28 "2001-07-01T06:01:56Z")

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I’m not much of a great critique of literature, but once in a spanish class not so long ago while watching a rather weirdo chickin little cartoon, I came up with thiss little ditty:

Yo soy un gato.  
Yo soy un gato.  
No me gusta trabajar.

Yo soy un gato.  
Yo soy un gato.  
Duermo en la secadora.

Yo soy un gato.  
Yo soy un gato.  
Soy muy quemado.

Yo soy un gato.  
Yo soy un gato.  
No tengo nada pelo.

Yo soy un gato.  
Yo soy un gato.  
No me gusta trabajar.

Yo soy un gato.  
Yo soy un gato.  
Duermo en la secadora.

And for those of you who didn’t have the pleasure of learning Spanish, or can’t remember if you did, or got a cool language like German, here’s the translation:

I am a cat.  
I am a cat.  
I don’t like to work.

I am a cat.  
I am a cat.  
I sleep in the dryer.

I am a cat.  
I am a cat.  
I am very toasted.

I am a cat.  
I am a cat.  
I don’t have any hair.

I am a cat.  
I am a cat.  
I don’t like to work.

I am a cat.  
I am a cat.  
I sleep in the dryer.

Not really poems, I know, but still, i found them amusing and so did my friends, and aside from making a whole new post, I have no place to put this.

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**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2001, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/29 "2001-07-01T23:51:27Z")

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Why have I not yet seen any of these poems in Teemings? Some of them should be submitted (though not mine, because I’m not good at taking suggestions from anyone in this area).

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**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/30 "2001-07-03T18:27:58Z")

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What has become…of me  
the silence is glassed and glazed thick like the spit in my mouth  
and I sweat out the only available moisture  
so dry  
this desert in my mind  
give in  
let go  
turn back  
no relapse for an hour at least  
what thought rules that desperate look in the hollow eyes of the blinded  
seek the light  
get it right  
no patience for the ignorance of innocence  
tread upon the trampled flesh of the helpless  
help yourself  
inside the temple where gods feast on the souls of the dead  
from ambrosia to cynosure  
a parasitic illusion of allusions  
volatile with threats of veracity  
get out  
while volition remains an option  
crawl away under the dust  
and remain a part of me  
as if part of me remains unshed  
my shell is dry  
peel it back  
as the old gives in to the new  
as the excoriation begins  
each syllable a drop of acid  
each drop a stagnant regret  
each regret an affirmation  
of what…has become of me

---

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**Author:** ![Tabeitha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b3f665/32.png) [@Tabeitha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabeitha)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/31 "2001-07-03T22:06:13Z")

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This one’s old as dirt.

“A few hours rest”

My thoughts are as stars flashing  
Out through the darkness of such a blithe  
Existence, but unlike the constellations, they  
Seldom intertwine. Only black confusion with  
Clarity blinking in and out.  
This is the reality of my perception

I’m walking the thin line, one side of hell, but  
One step from greatness. But in which direction?  
And if the world shared my views, would I then  
Become obsolete?

Sometimes my head hurts from the velocity of my dreams  
And I pray for blinding light of dawn, and reality  
To give me a few hours rest

---

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**Author:** ![fish\_in\_the\_sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7ba0ec/32.png) [@fish\_in\_the\_sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fish_in_the_sky)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2001, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/32 "2001-07-05T02:42:38Z")

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Great work all around. **gex gex** , I really like your “Something Amazing”.

Now, my poem:

Northwoods Lover

I know where you go  
in the forest and I wait  
for you there. In the orange  
light of an autumn afternoon,  
I straddle the thick and sap-moist  
limb of an old-growth white pine,  
my bare feet dangling in two  
stories of open air.  
I peer eastward, hoping to see  
you sauntering through the field  
of tansy and aster. I have  
a bandana full of wild  
apples in my lap, and  
if you come I’d give you  
my fruit for your flowers.  
Meanwhile I twist off the  
apple stems, slowly and methodically,  
trying each time to reach  
the “W” of your name.

---

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**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2001, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/33 "2001-07-05T03:17:49Z")

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She burned her bra,  
She took her leave  
Of wifley duties  
And made grieve  
Her husband dear,  
That evil he!  
And started living  
Just for she.  
She left the kids,  
She dropped the roast,  
“For now I’m free!”  
We hear her boast.  
“I’ll find myself!  
I’ll seek my path.  
White men in power  
Shall feel my wrath!”  
Oh, feminist!  
We laud you now.  
To lowly males  
You’re loathe to bow.  
And glowing with  
This revelation,  
You flip the bird  
From the Greyhound station.

---

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**Author:** ![Gartog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/22d042/32.png) [@Gartog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gartog)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2001, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-poetry-corner/70513/34 "2001-07-05T16:05:19Z")

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**Afterwards,**  
Lifeless, grey flesh,  
twisted bodies.

Nothing left?  
Moving onward, looking down below.

A wave of people, cresting, breaking on the shore.

Minds, trapped.  
Souls, caged.

Helpless?  
Moving onward, growing.

A tower, gleaming in the sun.

Crawling with life  
and yet empty.

Futile?  
Meeting others, shown.

Empty carcass,  
danced around, buried.

Freedom.

* * *

comments please this is the first thing I have written in years. This thread motivated me, thanks.

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