A CHANCE

            EVERY child has a spark

            EVERY child has a smile   . . . and a hurt   . . . and a CHANCE.

            I am sad     I am lonely     and hungry      and angry     (and poor)

            . . . and sometimes I feel unclean.

          UNFAIR!

            Sometimes. . . in the dark     or in a corner     or in my bed

            I cry.

            Sometimes. . . I just HAVE to cry.

Read more

Piece by piece, this heart, mends itself as one.

Thought by thought, this mind, builds itself into one.

Listen to my voice, drool and spit combined

it shows that this mouth still cries as one. Read more

“Virgin Mother” was previously published in the book “When the Body Calls“, Writers and Readers, 1999.

She didn’t know

where her feelings came from

but they were there

to be reckoned with.

She always needed

to offer gifts to the shore

so she could take

what she wanted most: Read more

most everyone

has the authority

to do

whatever they can get away with Read more

I

dawn comes

to the flatland

on the otherside of the hill

Billy Ralph climbs shadow

Wamba roosts on his shoulder

pearl essential glow outlines borders of Earth

sky slides back in silence

one by one, stars

lose themselves in growing depth

Read more

the cat

on hind paws  

claws (ouch!) in my sitting leg Read more

All I want, is to know what the truth is…
Wrestling with ideas and covers,
in this bed of seaweed made of green pain.
The shoreline is a distant memory.
Read more

Emily D wrote notes to herself
and put them in a drawer,
a box with no locks.
No TV those days Read more

Bill Vartnaw will be a featured poet on Tuesday, August 26, during the Listen & Be Heard Radio Open Mic.

opening kickoff

first down & 10 yards to go

on the 47 yard line…

midway through the second quarter

first down & 10 yards to go

on the 47 yard line…

Read more

Dana Teen Lomax will be a featured poet on Tuesday, August 26, during the Listen & Be Heard Radio Open Mic.

Which proves that when a person or an event comes along to jolt or appraise me I can take some appropriate action, although I am better known for my hospitable remarks.

                 –Grace Paley, Wants

an effort to Pan’s lost child

you check the difference

in priss and tomboy

Read more

Dream vividly,

drinking down colors uncloaked,

unfit for the idle consumption

of the minimalist mortal mind… Read more

Imagining the sun shall not rise in the morning

And the stars in protest won’t yield to the dawning

‘Twas decreed that the heavens surrender their wonder

Before infinite night descends or we’re put asunder.

Blind the rage, now blind with fear; ignorance, blind, I do not hear

Read more

Read more

Alicia Jones will be one of the featured open mic poets on Tuesday, August 19, 2008, during the Listen & Be Heard Open Mic Radio Show at 8pm, PST.

I’ve learnt how to deal with my anger
To overcome my struggles
And not letting everybody be a stranger
How my heart was smuggled
The lies that were told
The criticism that led to fear
The lies that were sold and bought
All the common sense I’d forgot
The beauty that within I’d lose
All this ambition should be used to have a shooting success Read more

 Bill Vartnaw will be a featured poet on Tuesday, August 26, during the Listen & Be Heard Radio Open Mic.

3.

Armies cross your heart in moonlight.

Naked, they can barely stand

                                                       the discipline. Read more

I’m not what you assume,

I see the world in twos,

I see your dark side through your pleasant lies.

I take my time I read between the lines. Read more

 DDE will be a featured poet on Tuesday, August 19, during the Listen & Be Heard Radio Open Mic.

The weight on my hand is different
Yet welcome like an old friend
And brings me no burden
But even though it rests on but one finger
It affects my whole body Read more

Don will be a featured poet on Tuesday, August 19,

during the Listen & Be Heard Radio Open Mic.

For Those Who Leave Marriage against Their Will

The sluggishness after dining on verbs seemed

To droop down from the weight of the moon.

The Cypress trees’ song cracked the path,

Which swayed under our divorcing footsteps. Read more

Alicia Jones will be one of the featured open mic poets on Tuesday, August 19, 2008, during the Listen & Be Heard Open Mic Radio Show at 8pm, PST.

Why do I feel so confused?
Upset, distraught and lost
Bewildered and misused
How did being your friend cost
Me, my pride and dignity
Why would you give me so much pain
Missing and neglecting my family
I can’t hold my head up and maintain
This fantasy you brewed in my head
Leaving me upset and hurt Read more

Adam Gottshalk will be a featured poet on Tuesday, August 19,

during the Listen & Be Heard Radio Open Mic.

I knew a fellow when I was 17.

Tall Paul we called him.

He was one of those guys

I hoped some day to be as cool as.

Later in life, when we were in our

early twenties, I met Paul

for a beer. We were talking

about what we’d been reading.

Paul said he was into Truman Capote.

Ignoramus that I was then

(and maybe still am),

I thought he was talking about

Al Capone. “You mean the guy

with the vault?” I asked. Read more