Rain After a Vaudeville Show by Stephen Vincent Benet
Rain After a Vaudeville Show by Stephen Vincent Benet The last pose flickered, failed. The screen’s dead white Glared in a sudden flooding of harsh light Stabbing the eyes; and as I stumbled out The curtain rose. A fat girl with a pout And legs like hams, began to sing “His Mother”. Gusts of bad […]
Portrait of a Boy by Stephen Vincent Benet
Portrait of a Boy by Stephen Vincent Benet After the whipping he crawled into bed, Accepting the harsh fact with no great weeping. How funny uncle’s hat had looked striped red! He chuckled silently. The moon came, sweeping A black, frayed rag of tattered cloud before In scorning; very pure and pale she seemed, Flooding […]
Portrait of a Baby by Stephen Vincent Benet
Portrait of a Baby by Stephen Vincent Benet He lay within a warm, soft world Of motion. Colors bloomed and fled, Maroon and turquoise, saffron, red, Wave upon wave that broke and whirled To vanish in the grey-green gloom, Perspectiveless and shadowy. A bulging world that had no walls, A flowing world, most like the […]
Poor Devil! by Stephen Vincent Benet
Poor Devil! by Stephen Vincent Benet Well, I was tired of life; the silly folk, The tiresome noises, all the common things I loved once, crushed me with an iron yoke. I longed for the cool quiet and the dark, Under the common sod where louts and kings Lie down, serene, unheeding, careless, stark, Never […]
Nos Immortales by Stephen Vincent Benet
Nos Immortales by Stephen Vincent Benet Perhaps we go with wind and cloud and sun, Into the free companionship of air; Perhaps with sunsets when the day is done, All’s one to me — I do not greatly care; So long as there are brown hills — and a tree Like a mad prophet in […]
Music by Stephen Vincent Benet
Music by Stephen Vincent Benet My friend went to the piano; spun the stool A little higher; left his pipe to cool; Picked up a fat green volume from the chest; And propped it open. Whitely without rest, His fingers swept the keys that flashed like swords, . . . And to the brute drums […]
May Morning by Stephen Vincent Benet
May Morning by Stephen Vincent Benet I lie stretched out upon the window-seat And doze, and read a page or two, and doze, And feel the air like water on me close, Great waves of sunny air that lip and beat With a small noise, monotonous and sweet, Against the window — and the scent […]
Love in Twilight by Stephen Vincent Benet
Love in Twilight by Stephen Vincent Benet There is darkness behind the light — and the pale light drips Cold on vague shapes and figures, that, half-seen loom Like the carven prows of proud, far-triumphing ships — And the firelight wavers and changes about the room, As the three logs crackle and burn with a […]
Lonely Burial by Stephen Vincent Benet
Lonely Burial by Stephen Vincent Benet There were not many at that lonely place, Where two scourged hills met in a little plain. The wind cried loud in gusts, then low again. Three pines strained darkly, runners in a race Unseen by any. Toward the further woods A dim harsh noise of voices rose and […]
Going Back to School by Stephen Vincent Benet
Going Back to School by Stephen Vincent Benet The boat ploughed on. Now Alcatraz was past And all the grey waves flamed to red again At the dead sun’s last glimmer. Far and vast The Sausalito lights burned suddenly In little dots and clumps, as if a pen Had scrawled vague lines of gold across […]
Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum by Stephen Vincent Benet
Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum by Stephen Vincent Benet Here, where men’s eyes were empty and as bright As the blank windows set in glaring brick, When the wind strengthens from the sea — and night Drops like a fog and makes the breath come thick; By the deserted paths, the vacant halls, One may […]
Elegy for an Enemy by Stephen Vincent Benet
Elegy for an Enemy by Stephen Vincent Benet (For G. H.) Say, does that stupid earth Where they have laid her, Bind still her sullen mirth, Mirth which betrayed her? Do the lush grasses hold, Greenly and glad, That brittle-perfect gold She alone had? Smugly the common crew, Over their knitting, Mourn her — as […]
Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room by Stephen Vincent Benet
Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room by Stephen Vincent Benet Soup should be heralded with a mellow horn, Blowing clear notes of gold against the stars; Strange entrees with a jangle of glass bars Fantastically alive with subtle scorn; Fish, by a plopping, gurgling rush of waters, Clear, vibrant waters, beautifully austere; Roast, with a […]
Dedication by Stephen Vincent Benet
Dedication by Stephen Vincent Benet To W. R. B. And so, to you, who always were Perseus, D’Artagnan, Lancelot To me, I give these weedy rhymes In memory of earlier times. Now all those careless days are not. Of all my heroes, you endure. Words are such silly things! too rough, Too smooth, they boil […]
Colors by Stephen Vincent Benet
Colors by Stephen Vincent Benet (For D. M. C.) The little man with the vague beard and guise Pulled at the wicket. “Come inside!” he said, “I’ll show you all we’ve got now — it was size You wanted? — oh, dry colors! Well” — he led To a dim alley lined with musty bins, […]
Before an Examination by Stephen Vincent Benet
Before an Examination by Stephen Vincent Benet The little letters dance across the page, Flaunt and retire, and trick the tired eyes; Sick of the strain, the glaring light, I rise Yawning and stretching, full of empty rage At the dull maunderings of a long dead sage, Fling up the windows, fling aside his lies; […]
Alexander VI Dines with the Cardinal of Capua by Stephen Vincent Benet
Alexander VI Dines with the Cardinal of Capua by Stephen Vincent Benet Next, then, the peacock, gilt With all its feathers. Look, what gorgeous dyes Flow in the eyes! And how deep, lustrous greens are splashed and spilt Along the back, that like a sea-wave’s crest Scatters soft beauty o’er th’ emblazoned breast! A strange […]
A Minor Poet by Stephen Vincent Benet
A Minor Poet by Stephen Vincent Benet I am a shell. From me you shall not hear The splendid tramplings of insistent drums, The orbed gold of the viol’s voice that comes, Heavy with radiance, languorous and clear. Yet, if you hold me close against the ear, A dim, far whisper rises clamorously, The thunderous […]
The Grammar Lesson by Steve Kowit
The Grammar Lesson by Steve Kowit A noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does. An adjective is what describes the noun. In “The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz” of and with are prepositions. The’s an article, a can’s a noun, a noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does. […]
The Convoy by Stephenie Tucker
All goes dark, first sound, then sight. I look to see my men alright. Deafening silence in concrete rain, Distract me from the searing pain. All time stops and vantage ends, As I look upon my dying friends. Radio in and evac out, No time for tears between the shouts. Between the blood and shrapnel […]
Some Clouds by Steve Kowit
Some Clouds by Steve Kowit Now that I’ve unplugged the phone, no one can reach me– At least for this one afternoon they will have to get by without my advice or opinion. Now nobody else is going to call & ask in a tentative voice if I haven’t yet heard that she’s dead, that […]
Resolute by Stephenie Tucker
The men were dead, their lives, long gone. And yet, their cause still lingered on. The banners wavered in the breeze, through borderlands of ship less seas. And now Apollo shall rise once more, to ferry souls to whitened shores. Now red shall rise the yellow sun, and end at last what we have done. […]
Purple Heart Liz (My Girl At Woodstock) by Steve Sant
Purple Heart Liz (My Girl At Woodstock) by Steve Sant It was all record playing Jigging and swaying Some experiment too Although not ever I All fumbling and shy I left all the tripping to you Oh I had my wild times Fuelled by beers and wines And I once smoked a funny cigarette Though […]
Numb by Stephenie Tucker
The door kicked in the dust relayed, The area secure and stayed. No longer taking time for peace, Within myself, it’s out of reach. No more time spent to say goodbyes, No more tears left for me to cry. I do my job and stay detached, Don’t even care if I come back. They call […]
Notice by Steve Kowit
Notice by Steve Kowit This evening, the sturdy Levi’s I wore every day for over a year & which seemed to the end in perfect condition, suddenly tore. How or why I don’t know, but there it was: a big rip at the crotch. A month ago my friend Nick walked off a racquetball court, […]
Must Work by Steve Downes
Must write must write must work must work minimum wage or better can’t be too physical got a bad back can’t be too stressful bend under pressure can’t be too sexual haven’t got the legs Must write must write must work must work minimum wage or better can’t work for corporate I’m an anarchist can’t […]
Lifetime Of Death by Steve Sant
Lifetime Of Death by Steve Sant A Lifetime Of Death The broken feeling you learn it young You must for it’s certainty true No hysterical fits just stiff upper lips We are British and that’s what we do So when I was but five and my grandfather died And old aunts wept silent tears I […]
In The Chapel Of Rest by Steve Sant
In The Chapel Of Rest by Steve Sant Forever I have seen her Yet never did we speak Well only in some dreams I had On five, six nights a week Then yesterday by chance As she got upon my train The only seat free, was next to me And so my chance it came […]
A Warrior’s Truth by Stephenie Tucker
The dying gasps of night are blackest before the dawn, The final surge of courage calls us to battle on. Enemies approaching from the hillside to the west, Trenches lined with casualties pulling at my chest. Flares as bright as day blinding vision tones of white, Bullets biting dirt rings too familiar sounds of spite. […]
A Soldier’s Song by Stephenie Tucker
Seventeen and full of rage, He fell in love with the careless gauge, of lipsticks red and flawless age, and monsters kept within the cage. Wonder lust and broken down, nothing world, can’t stop me now. bullets spent through hell spit fire, souls to burn on sandy pyres. New world turned and spat him out, […]
YOU ARE CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY by Steve Troyanovich
YOU ARE CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY For Elizabeth twinkling tree lights always remind me of the christmas in your eyes… i wish i could carry your laughter cupped in my hands forever hold the sanctuary of your smile… then every day would be christmas and i would be warm wrapped in the unending gift of your embracing […]
tomorrow is already past… by Steve Troyanovich
tomorrow is already past… Je ne t’ai pas trouvee tombe au meme amour Ou tu dors allongee derivante en quels cieux — Jean-Philippe Salabreuil dark is the sleep. darker still the dream. woodsmoke ghosts roam over remembrances of shuttered childhood hills… James Wright looms against the countryside banished to the cold brooding fields of trembling […]
still the leaves fall… and dream by Steve Troyanovich
softly… in wingless dream by Steve Troyanovich
softly… in wingless dream for Elizabeth darkness unfolds its starry wings and flies away with a nameless world —Erik Lindegren once upon my dream i touched you. your eyes gave me both ends of a rainbow. in the early dawn wind i felt your abandonment nowhere was warm… memory remains hiding behind your smile Copyright […]
Snowfall by Steve Troyanovich
Snowfall for Elizabeth You renewed me by losing yourself to our deepening dialogue in fading light. To stardust we shall return. —Philip Casey you are lovely. i dream you again… the snow falls in fleeting stillness lost images dressed in lonely white… seeking your lips moonlight touches you Copyright ©: Steve Troyanovich ————— The End […]
shivering wind by Steve Troyanovich
NOCTURNAL EMBERS AND LOST LIPS by Steve Troyanovich
MY BEST PAL by Steve Troyanovich
MY BEST PAL (for Elizabeth) entering the womb of my aloneness like a blanket of rainbows your Christmas-morning-smile becomes my haven of lingering warmth… let me hold you with my eyes… a galaxy of peace… a special kingdom fills this orphaned space when you are here like an angel sheltering only me … please stay […]
forever blue by Steve Troyanovich
dreams the wind by Steve Troyanovich
dreams the wind You’ll bring the place to me Where all is well… — Dylan Thomas through the loneliness of mirrors i sought the lost lips of your nakedness through the gliding wind your gazing song of night… mouthing my touch fostering a warmth i had not known moonbeams danced tenderly within the fragrant memory […]