Chelsea Walls

This poem is featured in the film Chelsea Walls, directed by Ethan Hawke...

I want to be a lost poem
in a stranger's coat pocket,
that conveys the importance of you.
To assure you of my desire,
to assure you of dreams.
I want all the possibilities
of you in writing.
I want to give you
your reflection,
I want your eyes on me,
I want to travel to the lightness
with you and stay there,
and I want
everything before you...
...everything before you
to follow us like a trail behind me.
I want never
to say goodbye to you,
even on the street corner
or the phone.
I want,
I want so much
I'm breathless.
I want to put my power
into a poem to burn a hole
in your pocket
so I can sew it.
I want my words
to scream through you
I want the poem
not to mean that much.
And I want
to contradict myself by accident,
and for you
to know what I mean.
I want you to be distant
and for me to feel you close,
I want endless days
when it's day and...
nighttime never to end
when it's night.
I want all the seasons
in one day.
I want the sun to set before us
and come up in front of us.
I want water up to our waists
and to be drenched by the rain,
up to our ankles
with holes in our shoes.
...with holes in our shoes.
I want to think your thoughts
because they're mine.
I want only
what's urgent with you.
I want to get
in the way of the barriers
and I want you to be a tough guy
when you're supposed to,
like you do already.
...when you're supposed to.
And I want you to be tender,
like you do already.
And I want us
to have met for a reason
and I want that reason
to be important.
And I want it
to be bigger than us,
I want it to take over us.
I want to forget.
I want to remember us.
And when you say
you love me
I don't want to think
you really mean New York City,
and all the fun
we have in it.
And I want your smile always,
and your grimaces too.
I want your scar on my lips,
and I want your disappointments
in my heart.
I want your strength
in my soul
and I want
your soul in my eyes,
I want to believe
everything you say,
and I do.
And I want you
to tell me what's best
when I don't know.
And when you're lost
I want to find you.
And when you're weary
I want to give you steeples
and cathedral thoughts
and coliseum dreams.
I want to drag you from the darkness
and kneel with you
exhausted with the blinding light
blaring on us,
And... 

Submitted by: Rachel Radebaugh

Public Transportation

After so much exposure to poetry, Chad was prompted to try is own hand at writing a poem, which he sent to me immediately. I have to say that I hadn't laughed so hard in awhile and it just goes to show how much easily you can incorporate poetry into your life!

Public Transportation

A poem by Chad Wagstaff

 

A thorn in all of our sides,

that cantakerous wench finally got what was coming to her.

She wasn't one to waterboard,

she doused you with acid the second you stepped into earshot.

The caustic splash even caused bystanders to turn, and turn into stone.

 

Medusa's snakes hissing a hymn so foul and shrill,

it penetrated my plugged ears.

While dying, my heart still ached for those with open drums, withstanding the attack.

 

Yes that bitch finally got what was coming.

The shun and hang of a Salem witch.

A gangster's pistol whip.

The ultimate dose of her own medicine-

Besides that sure and secured fate in the bowels of hell,

She had to take the bus.

 

Shel (2)

This is another video that I thought was really great. Poems by video are like cliffs notes for the attention deficit.

Shel Silverstein

It's Dark in Here

I am writing these poems
From inside a lion,
And it's rather dark in here.
So please excuse the handwriting
Which may not be too clear.
But this afternoon by the lion's cage
I'm afraid I got too near.
And I'm writing these lines
From inside a lion,
And it's rather dark in here.

Shel Silverstein 

submitted by: Kim Smith

Everyone has a poem they remember from childhood...Shel Silverstein was the quirky voice we grew up with! Share his work with someone small.

I found this video which I think is 

adorable, enjoy!

Invocation

Invocation

by Robin Morgan
for Isel Rivero

Gunmen attacked a school in northwestern Rwanda last Monday, killing seventeen girls.... The Attack took place after the Hutu gunmen ordered the girls to separate into groups of ethnic Hutu or Tutsi, and the students refused to comply.

--From The New York Times, April 30, 1997

Insane, sadistic gods to whom I offer
only my denial and disgust,
how do we bear witness to each other
when such defiance gleams beyond our trust?

They stupify us, these small, nameless girls
in whose name Love linked arms with her best friend.
Courage skulks shamed before these little skulls
rotting on the grassy school playground.

Let me be worthy of such children, slain
where they stand, who in the face of dying, cling.
Let me be equal to my small, sufficient pain
and in the broken teeth of horror,

sing.

Posted by: Robbie Pierce

Stephen Crane

Once, I knew a fine song,

-- It is true, believe me --
It was all of birds,
And I held them in a basket;
When I opened the wicket,
Heavens! They all flew away.
I cried, "Come back, little thoughts!"
But they only laughed.
They flew on
Until they were as sand
Thrown between me and the sky.

posted by: Chad Wagstaff

This famous American author is most famous for his novel 
"The Red Badge of Courage." My best friend once sent this poem 
saying it reminded him of me..... 







For more information and a links to all of Stephen Crane's texts 
available online! 

In Memory

In my dreams
drifting gently down stream
on golden waters...
No voices, no eyes, no ears, no luxury
Ohhh, I know, this is home...
On through age-old willows older
than dream itself I drifted,
with rays of sun seeping into my skin,
drifting far til the sharpest eye
could no longer see...
No building, no smoke, no rain, no lies
Now I know I am home...
Warm, numb, and free
I've never felt so alive
as now, as my body left me,
drifting for what seemed an eternity
lying there, on silent water
I spoke to the sea
and the sea spoke to me
we agreed
I am home

Joshua Farrer



posted by: Kevin Radebaugh