Posted on November 20, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

Brilliant…Add that to your tally, Mike!

ruleofstupid's avatarRule of Stupid

Part three of my essential Blog tips is here – whoo hoo. yay. great.

I have been told by the Society for the Protection of the Over-Sensitive that I cannot post this without including the following warning.

I say mean things about depressed people. If you’re a depressed person this may upset you. On the other hand it may make you laugh, and since depression has become the only faithful friend who has stuck by you all these years this threat to your incessant state of misery might also be upsetting.

On with the tips 🙂

Tip 4. To repeat tip 4 – Write with sensitivity.

Some people still believe they have real problems and will be very cross if you make fun of them. Just because you spent twenty years overcoming clinical depression does not mean everyone else is ready to laugh bitterly at their disorders.

Tip 7. Give…

View original post 1,066 more words

Posted in New Free Verse | 2 Comments

countdown

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

tomorrow
we are 30 days
from apocalypse
again, calculated
by the ancient wise
they say, but really just

the end

of the Mayan long count
before another cycle of numbering
births

in a  stretch
keeping time
the way only they did
in cycles from creation
to an unseen end

proving only
that what is spoken

from an old place

might be true
but is often misunderstood

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Words: Beyond and before words

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

by Noel Ihebuzor and Susan Daniels

 

before Babel
maybe
there was a word
for this me you raise

not from anything dead
but sleeping
& deep

this me that answers
& opens

throating
every word
ever spoken
in any language

before and beyond Babel
that silent voice bubbles on
bounding and bouncing
in bundles of beautiful
babble that unbundle, bare
and bond me
with no words spoken
not needing nor heeding
any spoken word

simply

because your silence speaks
more than all words

it undoes me

my unfurled feelings
amplifying the unspoken,
filling my being with soft echoes
of sounds stronger than words

***Another spontaneous duet this week.  I am loving this!  Noel (regular text) and I (italicized) had a conversation in poetry in my comments.  I need someone to explain to me how an American and a Nigerian can together compose something that has an almost Japanese feel to it?  Whatever the reason, I simply adore the result!  Thanks Noel–as always, a pleasure to volley lines with you!

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , , , , , , | 43 Comments

another love poem without the word in it

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

before babel
maybe
there was a word
for this me you raise

not from anything dead
but sleeping
& deep

this me that answers
& opens

throating
every word
ever spoken
in any language

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , , , | 50 Comments

gaza

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

children.

eyes open & flesh silenced to seed
ready to plant in dry sand
to bloom ashes later

i am no prophet
& am not consulting one
but already i taste
that stinging harvest

bodies cast like runes
spill on the floor
to spell only one word

& that is not hope

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , | 26 Comments

ghost story (conversation with trent)

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

I don’t think it’s me
that haunts you–
but maybe some idea of us

half-formed

threads a lightning heartbeat
through your ears

& flashes patterns
in the corners of your vision

almost seen
but not there enough

to touch

I think it’s he that haunts you
The ideas all flat and unformed
Him on a mountain, him on a stool
The patterns flash of him
Alone, stolen, beholden
To the ghost of you
Where you float
As a shade
And return but fade
And he wishes to touch
Not spirit but flesh
And you whisper as he sleeps
And flee as he wakes

Who is the ghost?
Who is the penitent?
You or him
She or he
Witnesses dispute
The existence of either

I have floated patterns
on that ceiling
where he sleeps
spun my whisper
with his dreaming voice
into thread
just spoken there
but binding when awake

who can witness passion?
or accuse desire?

such crimes leave no bodies
& disappear
after eyes open

 

***Had to take this out of my comments on “Ghost Story,” as Trent’s poetic response to my initial poem was so great…  Trent’s voice is italicized and I am in regular typeface.  Trent, this was impromptu fun!

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

ghost story

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

I don’t think it’s me
that haunts you–
but maybe some idea of us

half-formed

threads a lightning heartbeat
through your ears

& flashes patterns
in the corners of your vision

almost seen
but not there enough

to touch

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , | 10 Comments