The Best of 2000-2002 DOL

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

An idea

An idea:

There have been some wonderful poems/stories in this foum over the past two or so years. All these old works can be found in the back pages.

What I suggest is that we copy/paste/post those old works that we like best. Eg: If there was a particular poem that you really enjoyed/moved you/etc. post it in this thread.

It can be your work or someone else's.

Is this okay with everyone?

I'd start but this internet connection is running quite slow at the moment. I'll have to go back later. I'll be interesting to see what comes back, what people enjoyed.

 

[zooropamanda]

You should have called the thread The Best of 2000 - 2002 OL

Nice idea, Janine. I always loved this one..

By Michael Griffiths...

?Canvas Light?

Kiss me under canvas light,
painting us in shards of white and yellow;
let me dive
into the purple pool
of your eye?
the colour bouncing off
the ever-changing ripples
in our tides.
Lead me through the undergrowth
of a masquerading garden,
to where your foliage
becomes wild,
thick with curiosity and purity,
to where we get lost
in our own shadows.
Bring me down this way,
under the beat of your lashes,
where the light seeps out
from within you?-
lead me to a valley
where your lips tremble,
and your smile begins to form
its own canvas light.

 

[ACROB@T]

..I chose these because they captured a time and place for me..and I remember exactly how I was feeling, and what I was listening to when I read them..I could copy and paste pages upon pages of poems here that I've connected with but it would take more time than I have

Like a Death Kept Rose ~ Jett / z

And so I was abound with riches
when I was with you,
To cradle up the light you warmed over me,
cast it away and blanket it with darkness,
for I shall know it again
in the silence of my own night.

And if we met in weathered time
would the love we shared under silk torn trees,
be only but a distant passing
like the lost wind skip that blows over
the shadow of your scent.

For what was ours,
was our alone.
When a fist like hold looked
upon our lonely souls
I believed in sea and sand,
in the wiring of our hearts,
and waited on a song,
until finally the stars were butchered into clouds...
and so the song quietly dies
like the last crumpled petal of a deathly owned rose.

I watch as your gentle hand is taken from mine,
and the powdered lock once shared
perishes to the cold and dusted ground.
And when your face enters my every day thought
my love beats on forever,
but only in my forsaken heart


"dreams" ~ BabyGrace

as you close your eyes
you begin to drift over elysian fields
take a dive further down
as your memory is slowly erased
grasp tighter what you can't hold
let go of all that can't be sold
slip into a world you know
where you're spun around
to face the petals in slow-motion
dreams are better
when all they do is leave the truth behind
dreams are better
when negativity's a state of mind
catch the rain on your tongue
and taste the tears of the mist
look at this land where no one lives
turn away from the deafening echoes
as autumn's leaves begin their journey
dancing a startled path to the ground
you're alone as the shadows bare their teeth
and you're driven back to the quiet of your secret realm
escape reality with new pain
hide with this silence that is better
amd an imagination that slowly bleeds your soul out


Zootopia ~ Alisaura

Where your soul screams
to an unfamiliar song
Where your flaming car
plunges into the abyss
Where you tear your hair
and sob and cry to a song you never felt before
Where you bare your bleeding heart to the world
but you're still alone
Where you are your own contradiction
Where you know how everyone feels but you
Where you know you shouldn't
but you do it all the same
Where there's no compass, no map
no reasons, no going back
Where immitation is art
Where you are both more and less yourself
than anywhere else
Where uncertainty is the only light
Where emotions have colours
Feelings a voice
Where if you listen you feel
Where if you feel it, you fall
Where nothing's as simple as you think
Where dreaming is real
and everyone can see
Where you're far away
but so close
Where you can taste and touch
and feel so much you go numb
Where the siren song means the doors are closing
Zootopia - Where it's not always nice
It's not ever real
It's only what you see and feel


"tangled up in the night" ~ The Wanderer

crashing around my head
waves that stir the echos
but never find a vein to your heart
always so full of poison,
yet never bring my death

your blood is wearing thin
daggers that shine with naked gleam
of the gushing sun thru translucent windows
your love was never so heavy,
as when it fell upon my heart

the thought that I am one
cutts me in two

let us drink from time
as it fills us with age

lovers tangle and touch,
as the petals and the sunlight
breathing a soft kiss upon the breeze
a night to hold upon your breast and dream
exhale a perfumed kiss,
so that love may soak,
in your sweet bliss


For Heaven ~ LarryMullen's_POPAngel

You're too far gone to think of caring
Too nice in the mind to even notice
This sparkle you've set in my eyes
I'm blaming this all on you

A mask uncovered, revealing your endless truths
I'll bury my soul deeper into your subconcious
Hide it there, keep it close
Let it grow

Give me some time to rehearse
Let us practice this a bit
Realize love is directed by us alone
Not by your mother
Not by hands on a simple clock
Or a thundercloud in a blue sky

Enter heaven
You know you've found it with me
A guiding light inside these dreadful days
Love is our prayer


Love Sonnet ~ Foray

This woman aches to worship the magic
and mystery that you cloak.
I felt the surge of healing, my sickly
wounds gone as you spoke.
Pegging my lack next to whitest of linen
with the grace of a lady disgraced
with whatever pride not already taken
I am nothing but a woman who waits.
Let me always hang by your side
and live in the world you're part of
as you reveal to me the thorn and stripes,
pain(t) and colours of love
Then I will live dreams of paradise
when at night it be time for to close my eyes.


Invicto ~ scatteroflight

This is the loneliness of underground
This is the darkness of the otherworld
Where killing lights occasionally sweep
In deadly arcs that freeze the life they touch.
The future slips away. There is no time
To look ahead when everything is now,
And now is time to die when sirens call.

In groups we creep across the no-man?s-land.
We fear the depths, we fear the heights, the skies
That fall so gently upon those who die
While killing all but rage in those who live.
Calamity is all that we can see
Staring at us from pools of blood that lie
Like rusted mirrors strewn across the ground.

Lord God, we know you hear us when we call.
We know you see the flash of unreal lightning
And darkness falling deathlike in its wake.
We know you hear the cracking of our spines
When iron cuts us open from behind.
We only do not know when this will end
And so each day is death brought back to life.

The diamond light is hard and cold as ice.
It scythes us down and cancels out our lives
Into a deathless, lifeless quantity
Without the grace of being. Here I am,
That one might die for all or all for one.
We linger in the underground, till dawn
Ignites the flame that burns us into light


Haunted ~ popkidu2

Fire
Hold it in your hand
Wires
Threaded cross the land
Nothing
Can make it ever right
Water
See it dancing in the light

And I can't make you dissapear
And I can't let you know

Waiting
To feel it pushing back at you
Haunted
Never knowing what to do
Taste it
Let it sit beneath your tongue
Forever
Dying younger at the gun

And I can't make you dissapear
And I can't let you know
And I can't make you dissapear
And I can't let you know

 

[famous rungi]

Bono-themed sestina by paxetaurora demonstrates excellent skills and discilpline...

The scene is bathed in sunlight.
In a seemingly tranquil Ugandan village,
dressed in fatigues and sunglasses, the singer
cradles a frightened and hungry child
who clutches a bottle of water
and finds peace in liquid quiet.

A rock star accustomed to noise is quiet.
He exchanges the spotlight for sunlight.
Perhaps he had given the bottle of water,
a precious commodity in this village,
to the wide-eyed and trembling child
who had never heard of this singer.

He's only the most recent protest singer
to penetrate this starving quiet.
But to his global fame, the child
is oblivious. All he knows is sunlight.
He sits with the Irishman in this village,
still clutching a bottle of water.

The blue plastic bottle of water
is the only thing between him and the singer
in the small and sandy village.
For now, all around them is quiet.
Decadence and simplicity meet in sunlight,
in the famed pop priest and an unassuming child.

Surely there is a story in this child,
in the flowing recess of the bottle of water,
in the yellow glow of African sunlight,
and in the tender, natural embrace of the singer.
But for now, storytellers are quiet,
and the tale is still unfolding in this village.

In a few days, the voice will leave the village
and the small, still-growing child.
Everything will return to an older quiet,
and they will search in new places for water.
But the world will hear from the singer,
still warm with trust and sunlight.

Who knows when there will be water for the child,
or when more than sunlight will warm the village?
It is for this that the singer will not be quiet.


The Ballerina by The_Sweetest_Thing cos I like how the lat word of each stanza is like the pressure point on a ballerina's toe...

The simplest movement of the leg
Requires the strength of the deepest soul
Perfection, in all its viciousness
Demands control
With each action I exude
Balance, stability
Power

Nature's cruel desire to see me fail
Is unequaled by my passion
I will not give in to my limitations
Stature, flexibility
I cannot escape the inevitable
Wrench of pain
Injury

Movement races across my mind
As my body thrashes to keep time
Awkward in my own skin, I am
Poetry in motion
The smooth, simple line of beauty
I struggle to achieve
Grace

I am stifled in stillness
Freed only through choreography
Harmony--fusion of the soaring heart
Spirit, self
My sisters become
Rhythm, co-ordination
Expression

Time's crafting hands
Are reflected in the fluidity of an arm movement
The extent to which I reach
Is unlimited
Though I may spiral upward
I return to the earth
Grounded


this is just to say by The Wanderer

dearest love,

i have a secret
bible in a box
cannot worry
of such things
where to unlock
a touch here
a whisper there
the ice pick
from the freezer?


everyday thing. by popsadie cos I was an early fan of her writings

It isn't an everyday thing
But sometimes I can see through the mist
Sometimes, moonlight peaks out from her slumber
And unwraps the blanket she's snuggled up in
For a moment, my sight clears
And though naked and shivering, she gives me a smile


The Flight by Anthony who's one of the most intelligent poets

The light flutter of wings
in the sheets of the Night,
like hand ripples across a
Forbidden landscape;
see the butterfly soar.

Twist in the cocoon
and writhe in the heat,
the flight of the butterfly
wrrupts like an explosion
in the night;
clenched fists and wrought
wrists won't contain it.

The mountains are moving
across the Forbidden landscape,
as they follow his flight;

See the butterfly soar!


foray

 

[Cowgirl]

Death Garden Tea By Hermes

Cigarette stands in palm of hand
Turns into a butterfly
I'd like to see it's yellow and black wings Flipping away
But I am already walking on
To the back of the garden
Where she waits among the lilies and black roses

'Hello' I say

she reaches out her ivory hand to mine
Black nails cool to touch slide in my palm Seconds before she takes her grip

'I don't usually take walks at day.'
And with the mutterings of her velvet voice
The blue sky bleeds black


The Cereus, Datura, and Moon Flowers bloom
The fragrance spreading across the garden waiting

'It has been long' She says

'Too long'

We walk past the shrubbery and the cats stir darting around
'I like the stars' I say

'Then they will appear' She says

And they do
bursting in the radiance of a place with no other light

the silence twirls around us in rotating spheres
The shrubbery gives way to twisted trees
Bent in the growth of a thousand ages

Wildflowers stir in the unresting air
our path takes us away from the trees
And towards the whispering river

The fauns run around us and off to the forest

We sit at the table in delicate iron chairs
I Pour the tea for us
In cups laced with gold vines

'The nights stirs much' she smiles, 'Is there something wrong?'

'This is your realm, if the night stirs it is not my doing.'

'You did not answer my question.'

I blow on my cup to cool the tea a little before sipping.

'I have seen many things, traveled far, if far is still a valid term, and experienced what can be experienced.'
I pause there and see what she has to say
We both wait in silence

'Brother, I will not finish your sentence for you,' She grins 'Unless you really want me to.'

'No, I suppose that would not be good for either of us,'
I also grin a knowing grin which fades as I proceed.
'It just seems as if, perhaps it is time to end.'

'End?'

'There seems to be nothing left, my dear sister, ages pass and fade almost as quickly as the people who live them. Each empire, revolution, era and millennia goes by, and nothing new.'

We stop as a ferryman floats past
He tips his head at us
and busies himself with feeding his wolf

Once it passes I proceed,
'There is nothing new under the sun, under the moon, under the cloak of the universe. The same mistakes are made, the same things repeated till riding itself into chaos until it can be built anew.'

I pause and wait

Sister jerks a little as if suppressing a sneeze
Then tips her head back and laughs
' So what are you saying? Should we just give up, let it be, stop? What is your point, my dear brother?'

'My point is...well I don't know if I have a point.
I am feeling listless as of recently.'

'We all feel listless, brother. It is the nature of the game, after awhile you can only live so much before you get bored. If we could only forget, so we could live our experiences again that would be interesting, but we can not.'

I pour more tea
Listen to the stream
See the ferryman light a lantern
As he disappears over the horizon

'You should not tip in your chair,' she scolds,'You'll fall and hit your head.'

'the chair is too short, I am tall and this makes me comfortable, it is your domain here, you make the chair taller.'

'I think I'd rather see you hit your head.'

'Nice'

'You'd live.'

'We always live.'

'And do you really have a problem with that?'

'Sometimes I do, my sister, sometimes I do.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Sanguine Penguins by frogbat

Sweet repose oh fleet ? the satanic swan
Your dress will not mend that which you?ve undone

Our time here is wasted
None more so than yours
What is it you?re after?
As by your feet the world?s roof crumbles
Falling rafter after rafter

You kneel because you want to receive
Read the origin of species
You might do yourself a favour

You sanguine penguins
Are up in arms?
Ready to help on the holy Roman erections?

White washed tombs dressed in black
The beads are there but where?s the sweat?
A road need to be crossed
You put my life under threat

The condescending nuances a nuisance
Their purpose is the mystery
This world would be fucked if they ever found it out
And our laughter will turn into a shout

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Step Lightly by Dancing Barefoot

Step lightly when you walk on me
Because I'm not ready for the hurt
I never quite learned how to sleep on my stomach,
Instead I lie patiently with my underbelly exposed,
Waiting for the inevitable crush
When the sole of your boot slowly presses the air from my lungs.
I hope I gave you the extra lift you needed
To take you upward and out of this place.
Don't look back at the muddy footprint you left,
Eventually it will match the others, now dried and cracked.
I'll still be here when the next one comes around.
I never quite learned how to stand up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

silence of the morning drive by Babygrace

and so the days pass on
in a timeless circle I'll never accept
yet there's nothing that I would regret
maniacal laughter hit me high
wind-broken on a sigh...

I speed along, frozen in the hush
inverted twilight hours before the frigid rush
crashing with each day I'm more alive
daring myself to take the dive
might I surface on the other side?

entranced by the falling leaves
bewitching in their brilliant grace
before they swirl in my passing wake
to come to rest, naked and veinless
alongside their gutted, abandoned fellows

murderous mysteries
pull me ever further in
seeking the blind touch
am I allowed to say my heart is tired?
or must I sing this song thus wired...

still trying to twist out of the lie
we'd built girders of steel to caress the sky
but held within,
a thousand sparks of life and love
truth and blood
now smeared in oblivion upon the pavement blacker still

a startled mourning dove darts out of my way
I catch my breath before it is too late
killing people a world away
just by being
with each delicate stab through my heart
growing ever more painful
I can't help but feel how alive I am.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Blue Soul" by The Wanderer

like winter sky you hover beneath
as the cold air devours your flesh
frozen like angels -- bent along the fading horizon
their wings stuck, unable to embrace,
or make you fly, the stars echo
blinking like yellow traffic lights in her eyes
held frozen by the cold blue sky
you try to reach them but you are afraid

where did the twilight go?
her eyes sink back into the night -- a sun, asleep
not knowing when to shine,
not knowing how to climb
always setting in blue -- singing to the angels,
trying to make them fly -- stuck in the cold...
abyss of night -- with all the flickering hearts...
trying to shine, if you could shatter the frozen sheets,
the falling fragments could touch your soul with blue angel dust
stuck in the slipstream of heaven and sky
never penetrating your atmosphere...
stranded in that maze, of an imagination as cold as the winter sky
and as bright as the stars shining like petulant lilies in the sky's icy aquatic garden
and as thick as the frozen air in your lungs,
as vast as the universe you hold inside your heart...
a blue 'titanium soul' -- not ready to bend or break
open your sky to the warmth of this love
and it will flood the years and purify your soul with blue

soul love

soft light... in blue dreams
endless night... of moon beams
satellites... like dizzy kites
sky screams... in frozen nite

we'll shine like stars in the summer night
we'll shine like stars in the winter night
one heart, one hope, one love...
with or without you
I can't live -- with or without you

beautiful + blue + paralyzed (inside you)
in the blue soul of life
the infinite sky of darkness... creeping away and fading... blue mist... tears

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll be back with more.