I write myself into a poem
Not by intention
But by accident
I am there only because
I exist, and
I refuse not to.
I sing myself into a song
Never because I will it
But because I unwill it,
I refuse, but I never
Listen to myself,
And so... – by Sean Taylor | 13 Views added 2 months ago
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I just met sixteen million monkeys
With a copy of Macbeth
And they wanted to personally apologize
That it wasn't Romeo and Juliet
(Or The Tempest or A Midsummer Night's Dream)
They said they wanted to write a comedy
But they've been watching... – by Sean Taylor | 31 Views added 2 months ago
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You take the treasures of a queen
And lay them at the feet of a whore,
Ignoring the heavily perfumed skin,
The sultry scent of sex,
The eyes smear-streaked with tears,
Blue and black and trailing eye shadow
And mascara in riverlets across her... – by Sean Taylor | 5 Views added 4 months ago
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Weakened eyes gaze upward, lost
In endless stare with seeming ghost.
Pale hands reach downward
Offering rest in shimmering host.
Life-long pursuit, a futile task
I sought when young a chance to ask,
Sought you, dear Mistress,
Offer my all... – by Sean Taylor | 4 Views added 4 months ago
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Where do the flowers go when winter comes?
The age-old question comes to mind.
Do the lilies rise up and march away
Leaving a barren field behind?
Or do they merely hide away
Not seen by beast nor bird
Beneath the blanket of the snow
Till... – by Sean Taylor | 7 Views added 4 months ago
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When the wind blows brisk,
The dry, cold leaf tugged away,
Torn from its delusion of eternity,
Lying lifeless on barren earth,
Was it ready?
When the fly, unaware,
Lies captured in seductive strands,
Huntress, licking her lips,
Confines him... – by Sean Taylor | 3 Views added 4 months ago
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(To Dennis, January 15, 1987)
the match strikes
lights the candle
the candle burns
faintly at first
then growing brighter
soon burning strong
not too... – by Sean Taylor | 6 Views added 4 months ago
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I wear this mask
Of religious trappings
Dos and don’ts
Control my actions
Others’ attitudes
Form my beliefs
Fear of separation
Binds my limits
Oh, to thrust this mask
To the ground, smashing
All the plaster
That binds my smile
And... – by Sean Taylor | 4 Views added 4 months ago
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Dead poets bleed literature
Though they be bloodless and food for worms.
Literature is anarchy.
Literature is counterculture.
Not all fiction, not all poetry, is literature.
There exists safety and there exists fringe.
Fringe calls safety... – by Sean Taylor | 3 Views added 4 months ago
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Clio knocks at my door,
Begging to be let in—
“Make love to me,” she calls through the thin wooden frame.
“And I will tell you a story.”
I grab the remote
And crank up the volume on the news.
She’s been over before, and I’m never happy when... – by Sean Taylor | 6 Views added 4 months ago
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When I was twelve, I would have said something like
“I’m afraid to die” or “I haven’t danced” or kissed
Or had sex or drank whiskey or fallen in love.
But they would have all meant the same.
When I was eighteen, I would have read religious... – by Sean Taylor | 13 Views added 4 months ago
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The bray from the trumpeter
Sneaks through the kitchen window,
Settling gently near the steam
Of the fresh apple pie.
He waves at the winos,
Calls for the shop-keepers
To forsake their brooms and buckets,
And join his rag-tag-tag-along bunch.... – by Sean Taylor | 14 Views added 2 years ago
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There he kneels, the old man,
Still, staring at the headstone,
Boring holes into the fresh patch of earth
Between the plastic hearts, wicker wreaths,
Flowers doomed never to die,
Perched on three thin metal legs.
I wonder, is his heart perched there... – by Sean Taylor | 8 Views added 2 years ago
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He loosens the tie clutching his neck,
The extra pounds squeezed into rolls by the net of cheap silk.
He hates this place, these people,
The pettiness, the way they lock him
Into their definitions – not his, never his.
A shepherd? Ha! More a fool.... – by Sean Taylor | 12 Views added 2 years ago
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Part 1:... – by Sean Taylor | 23 Views added 2 years ago
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Swooning beneath the weight of Utopia
Two girls threw themselves from the overpass last night.
The paper had nothing to say
Of their goals, the desperations, their drives,
Only that one was an honor student
And that they both died before the... – by Sean Taylor | 15 Views added 2 years ago
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Today
The sun didn’t shine
And the ground was soft and wet
The rain fell all day
Onto the dirt and washed it to mud
Yesterday
Wasn’t much different
A little more rain than today,
And a little more mud
To step in and ruin your... – by Sean Taylor | 12 Views added 2 years ago
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The annual parade waddled through the streets of town today,
And as the flag, held high by the withering hands of local veterans,
Passed by me, I did not lower my head,
Or remove my cap,
Or fight back the annual tears,
Like the old men crowded... – by Sean Taylor | 10 Views added 2 years ago
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Brazen Truth
Stepping through Clio’s book
Seized the hearts of some,
Their minds and hands
And, forcing the pen along the page,
Began to write.
Inspiration.
They named it so
Though the service was immutable,
Fixed before the first struggling cries... – by Sean Taylor | 6 Views added 2 years ago
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When old Fall winters himself
Eagle-like, bold, and swiftly
Gliding, wings adrift,
The eyes ahead,
Something splinters inside me,
And vanishes like old Fall himself,
Replaced by the arrogance
Of Winter, unstoppably fixed,
Immutably stable,
Coating... – by Sean Taylor | 5 Views added 2 years ago
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I’ve studied and examined the
Culture and history of others,
Even imagined, or tried to imagine,
Myself in their places.
At times, I thought I could
Hear the cheers, smell sweet freedom,
“Free at last, free at last,
Thank God Almighty, we are free... – by Sean Taylor | 8 Views added 2 years ago
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(It is said that children who have been abused have a greater likelihood of becoming abusers themselves.)
She is a drooping rose
Weighted by the rain
Hunched,
Leaning above a younger bloom
Careful to pour out her burden
Beyond the newer... – by Sean Taylor | 11 Views added 2 years ago
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That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
– Neil Armstrong, July 20, 1969
Jupiter laughed
When man first sparked flames for himself;
(Sure, his public face was aghast)
With his eyes upon us
He rested
And... – by Sean Taylor | 14 Views added 2 years ago
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Gomer
Wiping a tear from her reflection
in the dull light
of a 60 watt bulb in the bathroom
of Room 38-B,
she sighs, and slides her stockings
again over her... – by Sean Taylor | 32 Views added 2 years ago
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