01-18-2013, 12:12 PM
As per Todd's suggestion. The poem still sucks though, so it's more like a public humiliation of my lack of poetry skills. 
So, this is a poetry chess game. Basically for every move made, a poem will be written on it. This continues until the end of the game, and it starts all over again.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The game:
1. e4 e5
2. f4 Bc5
3. Nf3 d6
4. b4 Bxb4
5. c3 Bc5
6. d4 exed4
7. cxd4 Bb4+
8. Bd2 Bxd2+
9. Nbxd2 Nf6
10. e5 dxe5
11. fxe5 Nd5
12. Bc4 Ne3
13. Qb3 Nxc4
14. Nxc4 0-0
15. Rd1 Qe7
16. 0-0 c6
17. Nd6 Be6
18. Qb1 b5
19. Qe4 a6
20. Rd3 Ra7
21. Nh4 Bd5
22. Qg4 Be6
23. Nhf5 Bxf5
24. Nxf5 g6
25. Nxe7+ Rxe7
26. Qh4 Re6
27. Rh3 h5
28. g4 1-0
----------------------------------------------------------------
---------------B---------------
Habit
e4
Position familiar, army ready;
Once again.
Ares in his throne,
With initiative.
Hand slides over board,
Caught the pawn,
Between index and middle,
Elegant dragging,
Towards the center.
There it waits, in
One swift movement.
Too swift.
He's done it before,
Moving as if by experience,
By habit.
---------------T---------------
The Gospel of the King's Pawn
e5
Even your nailed god knew
the glory in sacrifice.
I am a dark seed
in dark loam--waiting
for this night's harvest.
Submission is glory, and I
am a poured out glass,
a moat, an impasse
on an eightfold path,
the steps to resurrection.
I came to serve.
I will return to judge.
---------------B---------------
The King's Gambit
f4
A path is made, where there is none.
A soldier transcends, martyr born.
Perhaps a little antique,
And even archaic.
But no other warriors
Claimed title 'Immortal'.
Gallant sacrifice, it decrees
For romance on board.
Decision in your hand,
Do you have the guts
For a swashbuckling duel?
---------------T---------------
Acceptable Loss
Bc5
The raptor’s gaze
is a coiled spring.
Circles tighten
within circles,
turn upon turn.
The center of the plain
becomes tall grass
bending behind
a spotted rock,
becomes a rabbit
heart racing
in rhythm
to its steps,
distance sacrificed
in swift descent.
The center recoils
beneath talon
beneath claw
beneath blood-
dimmed meat.
---------------B---------------
Voyeurism
Nf3
Offer declined, "No," you say.
For this is war, where all is fair.
No need for direct confrontation.
Yet.
A spy sent, donning cassock and mitre.
One of shockingly low moral fibre.
Even the bravest knight's terrified of
Perverse leer felt; so intense the desire,
He no longer bathe peacefully.
Upon request, he's thrown into the front line.
Rage of war safer than lust of pious man.
The beast's still horny, I know,
For chills down spine are felt by the king
Whenever he changes.
---------------T---------------
A Spy’s Lament Upon Retirement
d6
Her Majesty was quite sincere
that I should live with this veneer.
A simple man his work now done.
This cigarette is not a gun.
Oh, nothing shaken, nothing stirred
with prune juice words are never slurred
At least I’m constant in my fun.
This cigarette is not a gun.
Pussy Galore, she is no more.
No sheets lay tangled on the floor.
From many conquests now to none,
this cigarette is not a gun.
My bed is empty and so cold.
How did I ever get this old?
Escaped all death traps save this one.
This cigarette is not a gun.
License to kill, I want to scream.
This is a nightmare not a dream.
I need a light, a blackened lung.
This cigarette is not a gun.
---------------B---------------
Boy Wonder
b4
A knight's aide,
Hungry for glory,
For chance to shine,
Like the chosen sacrifice.
What better way,
Than exposing the creep?
What better way,
Than capturing the spy?
Haste makes waste,
But he's desperate;
For opportunity
To outdo the knight.
Blinded by greed,
He forgot.
That bishop spies
Are trained in 50 different martial arts.
---------------T---------------
Empty Hand
Bxb4
What you call dragon style
is monkey steals peaches.
Yours is the kata of a video game
with anime thousand foot leaps
to nowhere.
I am a haiku
of twelve syllables.
brush of wind
blossoms in winter
the stream bed dry
I am your mercy.
I am death.
---------------B---------------
Cinquain: You Brought Nothing to a Gun Fight!
c3
Master,
Of Dragon Style.
I hate to say this but
You brought nothing to a gun fight.
Bang bang!
---------------T---------------
A Conversation with the Magician’s Rabbit
Bc5
No simple trick,
no sleight, no illusion,
like the cat in the box
(in two states),
I wait
for quantum certainty.
The universe is cold
silk and brimmed
with heat death.
Your stories give us watches.
We are late, ever late.
Even this is perception.
I speak a mystery;
there is no hat.
---------------B---------------
Phalanx
d4
It's a wall,
Of shields and spears.
Insurmountable, for
We fight in the shade.
Spear in hand,
Tightly gripped.
Shield in other,
Clenched in fist.
Air's static, but not stale.
Cold sweat dripping
For tonight, we dine in hell!
Take initiative,
TO VICTORY!
And lest you forget,
THIS - IS - SPARTA!!!!!!!!!
---------------T---------------
Newton’s Cradle
eXd4
Terror is
an unseen clacking ball,
an animated doll with
a butcher’s knife
crawling through
ventilation shafts.
Imperceptible connections:
sticky as spiders’ webs.
A butterfly’s wings bringing tornadoes.
Overhead, flying monkeys chitter
at straw zombies
in need of brains.
The witch cackle, cackles
You can never go home.
She will tell you of cancer
after the cell phone call,
of the mercury and fluoride
after the filling.
Death comes first
then the dying.
The metal duct cover has already
clattered to the floor.
---------------B---------------
You're Out!
cxd4
The bat's dropped,
Thud unheard.
All that's left,
A sandstorm trail.
Ball flying low,
Then it skids,
Rippling on the sandy lake.
Eye on target, square in sight.
Wee upward curve speaks aplomb.
Sweeping dive, time for progress.
All waiting for the grit curtain
To fall.
Wait, the baseman is touching.
When?
How?
Peek at the foot, a gap revealed.
Small in number, large in scale.
Eyelids close, heart plummets,
As umpire avers with 2 syllables.
Like a dull thud.
---------------T---------------
Sacrifice
Bb4+
No one mourns the acorn
in the shade of the oak.
---------------B---------------
Cuban Missile Crisis
Bd2
Eyeball to eyeball,
And you're going to blink.
---------------T---------------
The Schism of Word and Number
Bxd2+
In the beginning was the word,
and the word was not the number.
The tree, with fruit blossoming
in metaphor, was also not a tree.
That was the way of the word.
Six days could see the great lizards
buried beneath ice and fire.
The sun was light, and chariot, and flower.
The word craved this nuance.
The world was abstract in those days
without census.
The animals were named
to feel joy of syllables.
Giraffe was a happy gurgle.
Sin was not yet defined.
Or, in the beginning was the null set.
Creation an equation
solved in 518,400 seconds
consisting of 332 perfect variables.
Giraffe was a cipher to extract.
Sin was a tally.
The number can neither love
nor hate the word.
The word cannot abide the number.
They are parallel lines,
orthodoxy and heresy
stretching beyond the call
of the final trumpet.
World without end.
Q.E.D.
---------------B---------------
Good Night
Nbxd2
Before I sleep,
I wish the world:
"Good night."
Then I switch off the light.
Before she closes her eyes,
I wish her:
"Good night."
Then He switches off her eyes' sparkle.
---------------T---------------
Thunder of Hooves
Nf6
War is also wasted
on the youth.
That is its point.
Battle begins as
a horn of glory,
a crash of waves,
a distant thunder with
the dry anticipation
of lightning.
They march to it;
sing songs of it, like children.
They cannot conceive
of what follows--
of the dreadful quiet,
of the field of flies.
It is much like love.
---------------B---------------
The Finger
e5
Slowly, but surely,
It extends.
Upright mast,
Rising, till it's
No longer flaccid.
Symbolism, yes,
But nothing deep.
Unless you want it up
Where the sun doesn't shine.
The message's clear.
From peasant to knight;
Oppressed to oppressor:
Step down your high horse,
And fuck off!
---------------T---------------
Pygmalion and Etiquette
dxe5
Elocution has its place, but at the formal table, it is the understanding of utensils that will mark your breeding. Move from the outside, fish course to salad course. The forks are placed at your left hand, knives are on your right. This is not by accident. We are not eating beans from a tin in the American Southwest.
roil of darkening seas
a course set through fog
celestial light shines
---------------B---------------
Triolet: To Chase Your Dream
fxe5
Came across a forking path,
No chance to turn back and run,
Not on the one-track time warpath.
Came across a forking path,
Options clear it ain't no math.
Stable boredom or volatile fun.
Came across a forking path,
No chance to turn back and run.
---------------T---------------
Triolet: Recipe for Escape
Nd5
It takes the Cheshire's floating grin
and lock picks from Houdini's throat.
Safecracker's touch to feel each pin.
It takes the Cheshire's floating grin
to laugh at fear that eats within.
This is an art, don't think to gloat.
It takes the Cheshire's floating grin,
and lock picks from Houdini's throat.
---------------B---------------
Rondelet- Relentless
Bc4
Don't stop to rest,
Not when surrounded by danger.
Don't stop to rest,
When they're about to cast the net
That eats your skin in its vile tangle.
Run, don't stop, don't trust the grangers.
Don't stop to rest.
---------------T---------------
Rondelet: The Race
Ne3
This steeplechase
with hedgerow over open grave
This steeplechase
Hoofs spark upon a crumbling ledge.
Froth laves the skin in frenzied wave
The pace itself starts to enslave
this steeplechase.
---------------B---------------
Tetractys - Selina
Qb3
She's
Magic.
A godsend,
Or the devil.
Such sexy innocence, my femme fatale.
---------------T---------------
Tetractys: Whitewashed Tomb
Nxc4
There
is no
religion
in the heart alone.
The seed will not sprout on a barren field.
---------------B---------------
Pantoum Sonnet - Things
Nxc4
It lets us live so it can exist,
It lets us live so we think about it.
The world doesn't love us,
Things don't revolve around us.
It lets us live so we think about it,
Our role in the grand scheme of things.
Things don't revolve around us,
Other than our wars and destruction.
Our role in the grand scheme of things,
Maybe is to hug those close to you, since
Other than our wars and destruction,
There's not much idiocy that repeats.
The world doesn't love us,
It lets us live so it can exist.
---------------T---------------
Pantoum Sonnet: Happily Never After
0-0
A child's tale is often sad.
Imagination won't transform.
A wardrobe may change king to lad,
but old inside they must conform.
Imagination won't transform.
A frosted cake won't make them grow,
but old inside they must conform.
The looking glass cannot bestow.
A frosted cake won't make them grow,
nor shattered shoe upon the stair.
The looking glass cannot bestow
a ballroom dance without a snare.
A wardrobe may change king to lad.
A child's tale is often sad.
---------------B---------------
Sonnetina Cinque - Of Silent Gazes, Of Algid love
Rd1
Overflowing worries, a sigh escapes.
Damaged statue of imposing presence;
On the stale couch, staring at old fire.
The flicker pensive, ran out of passion.
For what is a man to do, to build a man?
This warrior is beat, by time, by life.
Losing is a habit, and so is irony.
This single dad protects, but doesn't guide.
Loser raises losers, so it's best to let go.
A love so awkward, the loved doesn't know.
---------------T---------------
Sonnetina Cinque: More Than What Glitters
Qe7
The little man will often deign
to spin coarse straw in gilded braid,
and at the feet of vapid maid
the pyrite of his heart is laid.
But will she delve the hidden vein?
I am a queen without a crown.
Frogs are not due a lady’s word.
Your name itself is darkness slurred.
I see no debt that’s been incurred.
My first born son I’d rather drown.
---------------B---------------
Tritina: Lucid
0-0
There’s no need to rush.
Nothing here is real, after all.
Deep breaths, take it slow, till you wake up.
So let it slowly rise up,
And feel your blood rush.
Relax yourself, but give it your all.
Pull them in, let them all
enjoy you, feel you up.
You’re in charge, so don’t rush.
Don’t rush, but when it all ends, you wake, and it’s still up. Darn.
---------------T---------------
Tritina: The Climb
c6
The mountain is a meditation;
oily granite pocked by pale light.
Silence has weight, cold as gray stone.
Hands crimp in this ascent of stone,
becoming my meditation,
breath, a contrast of fog and light.
At the summit is there a light,
an end to that tunnel of stone—
a lone voice my meditation?
Struggle is a form of meditation, where light dapples stone.
---------------B---------------
False Intellectual
Nd6
Stuck in a liquidity trap,
No fiscal stimulus or aid.
Everything is fluid,
But nothing is moving.
Little do we know
That the pipes are clogged up.
Demand, supply, elasticity be damned.
To be free, we need to bleed a little.
---------------T---------------
Tetzel's Economics of Indulgences
Be6
When supply expands
into a broad superhighway,
many are those who find it.
Demand remains a one lane dirt road
with traffic backed up
and few live through it.
The externalities are not captured
at the intersection
of lane and highway.
Purgatory is a booted wheel
in an underground parking garage.
Ticket lost
to the metal ring of all eternity.
---------------B---------------
One
Qb1
One poem,
One novel,
Just one line
For fireworks.
Seconds or years,
Splurge or thrift,
One oasis
For hope.
One memory,
For waterfall of tears,
For smiles in full blossom.
---------------T---------------
Two
b5
In this yellow wood,
with its frost-lined path
and barren trees, hands reaching.
It is no longer the time
for green steps.
The leaves now sting
in wind-whipped spinning.
Can footsteps untrace
on a trail of dying blossoms?
---------------B---------------
12am-4am
Qe4
It's the last train.
An empty vessel
Steaming through,
Speeding past
The frozen world.
I can't move.
Icy breath
My life sign.
Watched it pass;
The last action
Of the night.
The final sound
Still echoes.
Apathetic,
Or a little
Depressed.
Reality
A standstill,
I own this void.
Let the moon
Swallow me.
---------------T---------------
On Sad Movies
a6
The world has been bleached
to an old sepia photograph.
A man’s dark overcoat billows
to the wind of cello music.
Eyes fixed on a small casket,
or a young wife in a hospital bed.
Unimportant details
blur into what we imagine
are tears under the soft focus.
The face slowly darkening
into sharp contrast.
---------------B---------------
Lancelot & Guinevere
Rd3
Love that never should have been,
Brings kingdom down into has-been.
---------------T---------------
The Science of Adultery
Ra7
It starts with chemistry,
an illicit exothermic spark.
Then there is geometry.
One shape's relative position
to another, the point
of intersection.
Biology being
an applied science comes
much later.
---------------B---------------
Clerihew:
Nh4
Robert James Fischer
Chess master gone bonkers
Yet he departed
In his mind champion undisputed.
---------------T---------------
Clerihew:
Bd5
Aimee Semple McPherson
was thought to be a dead person.
Though baptized and drowned,
she rose to fool around.
---------------B---------------
Balasi Stanza: To Zinc
Qg4
Come on Zinc, let's dance;
Get lost in this trance.
Get high, then we shall sing.
You said you're crazy,
And your life hazy;
So let this waltz make clean
All uncertainties
And bring harmony.
Zinc, will you be my queen?
---------------T---------------
Balasi Stanza: Rapunzel
Be6
A golden stairway
Tress superhighway
A prince and his tower
Eager to befriend
By morn’ now descend
Flaccid robbed of power
Better he dangles
Then sullen tangles
Of this yellow bower
---------------B---------------
Emmett: Foxy
Nhf5
Don't let your eyes deceive,
Let integrity be the one leading.
Your foxtail is clearly showing --
Eyes have a penchant for mischief;
Deceive me once more, and I'll stop forgiving.
---------------T---------------
Emmett: Every Snowflake
Bxf5
If as snowflakes we’re unique,
as one might describe a blind date.
Snowflakes never preen or prate.
We’re confusing different with mystique.
Unique won’t melt easily, and often won’t elate.
---------------B---------------
Septolet: Vengeance
Nxf5
Life for life,
In memory of
him.
Unaware
Of their place
As mere
Tools.
---------------T---------------
Septolet: I Wrote My Suicide Note
g6
Beneath your
eyelids; so you
would see.
In hieroglyphics,
so you would
never
understand
---------------B---------------
Tyburn:
Nxe7+
Fearless,
Peerless,
Swiftest,
Strongest.
Right now, I'm a fearless, peerless knight.
Dueling with my swiftest, strongest strikes.
---------------T---------------
Tyburn: Burger King
Rxe7
Benign
Divine
Malign
Equine
These burgers aren't benign, divine now.
In this mix, they malign, equine cow.
---------------B---------------
Minute Poem: Kathy (Catty)
Qh4
'I'll stay,' promise under moonlight,
Witnessed by night.
With such ardour,
You enamoured.
With those words, the night got coloured
Into ballad;
And I let go
Unto the flow.
Hoping if my sanity cracked
You'll bring me back.
Please, do not laud
A girl so flawed.
---------------T---------------
Minute Poem: The Relationship's Dilemma
Re6
Oasis gives way to desert.
Our steps inert,
oppressive sun
water for one.
Two is a path of sand and bone,
but one alone
can still take flight,
betray by night.
Both will always take the water,
choose to slaughter.
Self interest
in each instance.
---------------B---------------
Sedoka:
Rh3
Why do people try,
When all hope abandoned them
And they know the fight pointless?
To go out in style;
To never stop your struggle.
This is what being human means.
---------------T---------------
Sedoka: One Flower Hidden in a Field
h5
Spirit of the rock,
a talisman for sickness
for those who fear the dark time.
This time is bright chrome.
We pray to actuaries,
as death might hear statistics.
---------------B---------------
The March
g4
What used to be
The green canopy
And impressive velvet
Is now a mere shell scrape.
Not enough room
To stretch, to even stand.
They marched to make merry,
For their favourite child.
Wistful imagining
Removed bloodshed,
And made heroes out of them.
They then marched back to sleep,
Cramped in the bunk.
Until the veteran yellow is awarded,
And they keep warm with dust blankets.
The toy soldiers miss the march,
Wishing upon the light sliver
To tread ever so softly
On the green canopy once again.
---------------T---------------
1-0
a cough of black smoke
ash drifts with bamboo blossoms
seeds wait underground
So, this is a poetry chess game. Basically for every move made, a poem will be written on it. This continues until the end of the game, and it starts all over again.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The game:
1. e4 e5
2. f4 Bc5
3. Nf3 d6
4. b4 Bxb4
5. c3 Bc5
6. d4 exed4
7. cxd4 Bb4+
8. Bd2 Bxd2+
9. Nbxd2 Nf6
10. e5 dxe5
11. fxe5 Nd5
12. Bc4 Ne3
13. Qb3 Nxc4
14. Nxc4 0-0
15. Rd1 Qe7
16. 0-0 c6
17. Nd6 Be6
18. Qb1 b5
19. Qe4 a6
20. Rd3 Ra7
21. Nh4 Bd5
22. Qg4 Be6
23. Nhf5 Bxf5
24. Nxf5 g6
25. Nxe7+ Rxe7
26. Qh4 Re6
27. Rh3 h5
28. g4 1-0
----------------------------------------------------------------
---------------B---------------
Habit
e4
Position familiar, army ready;
Once again.
Ares in his throne,
With initiative.
Hand slides over board,
Caught the pawn,
Between index and middle,
Elegant dragging,
Towards the center.
There it waits, in
One swift movement.
Too swift.
He's done it before,
Moving as if by experience,
By habit.
---------------T---------------
The Gospel of the King's Pawn
e5
Even your nailed god knew
the glory in sacrifice.
I am a dark seed
in dark loam--waiting
for this night's harvest.
Submission is glory, and I
am a poured out glass,
a moat, an impasse
on an eightfold path,
the steps to resurrection.
I came to serve.
I will return to judge.
---------------B---------------
The King's Gambit
f4
A path is made, where there is none.
A soldier transcends, martyr born.
Perhaps a little antique,
And even archaic.
But no other warriors
Claimed title 'Immortal'.
Gallant sacrifice, it decrees
For romance on board.
Decision in your hand,
Do you have the guts
For a swashbuckling duel?
---------------T---------------
Acceptable Loss
Bc5
The raptor’s gaze
is a coiled spring.
Circles tighten
within circles,
turn upon turn.
The center of the plain
becomes tall grass
bending behind
a spotted rock,
becomes a rabbit
heart racing
in rhythm
to its steps,
distance sacrificed
in swift descent.
The center recoils
beneath talon
beneath claw
beneath blood-
dimmed meat.
---------------B---------------
Voyeurism
Nf3
Offer declined, "No," you say.
For this is war, where all is fair.
No need for direct confrontation.
Yet.
A spy sent, donning cassock and mitre.
One of shockingly low moral fibre.
Even the bravest knight's terrified of
Perverse leer felt; so intense the desire,
He no longer bathe peacefully.
Upon request, he's thrown into the front line.
Rage of war safer than lust of pious man.
The beast's still horny, I know,
For chills down spine are felt by the king
Whenever he changes.
---------------T---------------
A Spy’s Lament Upon Retirement
d6
Her Majesty was quite sincere
that I should live with this veneer.
A simple man his work now done.
This cigarette is not a gun.
Oh, nothing shaken, nothing stirred
with prune juice words are never slurred
At least I’m constant in my fun.
This cigarette is not a gun.
Pussy Galore, she is no more.
No sheets lay tangled on the floor.
From many conquests now to none,
this cigarette is not a gun.
My bed is empty and so cold.
How did I ever get this old?
Escaped all death traps save this one.
This cigarette is not a gun.
License to kill, I want to scream.
This is a nightmare not a dream.
I need a light, a blackened lung.
This cigarette is not a gun.
---------------B---------------
Boy Wonder
b4
A knight's aide,
Hungry for glory,
For chance to shine,
Like the chosen sacrifice.
What better way,
Than exposing the creep?
What better way,
Than capturing the spy?
Haste makes waste,
But he's desperate;
For opportunity
To outdo the knight.
Blinded by greed,
He forgot.
That bishop spies
Are trained in 50 different martial arts.
---------------T---------------
Empty Hand
Bxb4
What you call dragon style
is monkey steals peaches.
Yours is the kata of a video game
with anime thousand foot leaps
to nowhere.
I am a haiku
of twelve syllables.
brush of wind
blossoms in winter
the stream bed dry
I am your mercy.
I am death.
---------------B---------------
Cinquain: You Brought Nothing to a Gun Fight!
c3
Master,
Of Dragon Style.
I hate to say this but
You brought nothing to a gun fight.
Bang bang!
---------------T---------------
A Conversation with the Magician’s Rabbit
Bc5
No simple trick,
no sleight, no illusion,
like the cat in the box
(in two states),
I wait
for quantum certainty.
The universe is cold
silk and brimmed
with heat death.
Your stories give us watches.
We are late, ever late.
Even this is perception.
I speak a mystery;
there is no hat.
---------------B---------------
Phalanx
d4
It's a wall,
Of shields and spears.
Insurmountable, for
We fight in the shade.
Spear in hand,
Tightly gripped.
Shield in other,
Clenched in fist.
Air's static, but not stale.
Cold sweat dripping
For tonight, we dine in hell!
Take initiative,
TO VICTORY!
And lest you forget,
THIS - IS - SPARTA!!!!!!!!!
---------------T---------------
Newton’s Cradle
eXd4
Terror is
an unseen clacking ball,
an animated doll with
a butcher’s knife
crawling through
ventilation shafts.
Imperceptible connections:
sticky as spiders’ webs.
A butterfly’s wings bringing tornadoes.
Overhead, flying monkeys chitter
at straw zombies
in need of brains.
The witch cackle, cackles
You can never go home.
She will tell you of cancer
after the cell phone call,
of the mercury and fluoride
after the filling.
Death comes first
then the dying.
The metal duct cover has already
clattered to the floor.
---------------B---------------
You're Out!
cxd4
The bat's dropped,
Thud unheard.
All that's left,
A sandstorm trail.
Ball flying low,
Then it skids,
Rippling on the sandy lake.
Eye on target, square in sight.
Wee upward curve speaks aplomb.
Sweeping dive, time for progress.
All waiting for the grit curtain
To fall.
Wait, the baseman is touching.
When?
How?
Peek at the foot, a gap revealed.
Small in number, large in scale.
Eyelids close, heart plummets,
As umpire avers with 2 syllables.
Like a dull thud.
---------------T---------------
Sacrifice
Bb4+
No one mourns the acorn
in the shade of the oak.
---------------B---------------
Cuban Missile Crisis
Bd2
Eyeball to eyeball,
And you're going to blink.
---------------T---------------
The Schism of Word and Number
Bxd2+
In the beginning was the word,
and the word was not the number.
The tree, with fruit blossoming
in metaphor, was also not a tree.
That was the way of the word.
Six days could see the great lizards
buried beneath ice and fire.
The sun was light, and chariot, and flower.
The word craved this nuance.
The world was abstract in those days
without census.
The animals were named
to feel joy of syllables.
Giraffe was a happy gurgle.
Sin was not yet defined.
Or, in the beginning was the null set.
Creation an equation
solved in 518,400 seconds
consisting of 332 perfect variables.
Giraffe was a cipher to extract.
Sin was a tally.
The number can neither love
nor hate the word.
The word cannot abide the number.
They are parallel lines,
orthodoxy and heresy
stretching beyond the call
of the final trumpet.
World without end.
Q.E.D.
---------------B---------------
Good Night
Nbxd2
Before I sleep,
I wish the world:
"Good night."
Then I switch off the light.
Before she closes her eyes,
I wish her:
"Good night."
Then He switches off her eyes' sparkle.
---------------T---------------
Thunder of Hooves
Nf6
War is also wasted
on the youth.
That is its point.
Battle begins as
a horn of glory,
a crash of waves,
a distant thunder with
the dry anticipation
of lightning.
They march to it;
sing songs of it, like children.
They cannot conceive
of what follows--
of the dreadful quiet,
of the field of flies.
It is much like love.
---------------B---------------
The Finger
e5
Slowly, but surely,
It extends.
Upright mast,
Rising, till it's
No longer flaccid.
Symbolism, yes,
But nothing deep.
Unless you want it up
Where the sun doesn't shine.
The message's clear.
From peasant to knight;
Oppressed to oppressor:
Step down your high horse,
And fuck off!
---------------T---------------
Pygmalion and Etiquette
dxe5
Elocution has its place, but at the formal table, it is the understanding of utensils that will mark your breeding. Move from the outside, fish course to salad course. The forks are placed at your left hand, knives are on your right. This is not by accident. We are not eating beans from a tin in the American Southwest.
roil of darkening seas
a course set through fog
celestial light shines
---------------B---------------
Triolet: To Chase Your Dream
fxe5
Came across a forking path,
No chance to turn back and run,
Not on the one-track time warpath.
Came across a forking path,
Options clear it ain't no math.
Stable boredom or volatile fun.
Came across a forking path,
No chance to turn back and run.
---------------T---------------
Triolet: Recipe for Escape
Nd5
It takes the Cheshire's floating grin
and lock picks from Houdini's throat.
Safecracker's touch to feel each pin.
It takes the Cheshire's floating grin
to laugh at fear that eats within.
This is an art, don't think to gloat.
It takes the Cheshire's floating grin,
and lock picks from Houdini's throat.
---------------B---------------
Rondelet- Relentless
Bc4
Don't stop to rest,
Not when surrounded by danger.
Don't stop to rest,
When they're about to cast the net
That eats your skin in its vile tangle.
Run, don't stop, don't trust the grangers.
Don't stop to rest.
---------------T---------------
Rondelet: The Race
Ne3
This steeplechase
with hedgerow over open grave
This steeplechase
Hoofs spark upon a crumbling ledge.
Froth laves the skin in frenzied wave
The pace itself starts to enslave
this steeplechase.
---------------B---------------
Tetractys - Selina
Qb3
She's
Magic.
A godsend,
Or the devil.
Such sexy innocence, my femme fatale.
---------------T---------------
Tetractys: Whitewashed Tomb
Nxc4
There
is no
religion
in the heart alone.
The seed will not sprout on a barren field.
---------------B---------------
Pantoum Sonnet - Things
Nxc4
It lets us live so it can exist,
It lets us live so we think about it.
The world doesn't love us,
Things don't revolve around us.
It lets us live so we think about it,
Our role in the grand scheme of things.
Things don't revolve around us,
Other than our wars and destruction.
Our role in the grand scheme of things,
Maybe is to hug those close to you, since
Other than our wars and destruction,
There's not much idiocy that repeats.
The world doesn't love us,
It lets us live so it can exist.
---------------T---------------
Pantoum Sonnet: Happily Never After
0-0
A child's tale is often sad.
Imagination won't transform.
A wardrobe may change king to lad,
but old inside they must conform.
Imagination won't transform.
A frosted cake won't make them grow,
but old inside they must conform.
The looking glass cannot bestow.
A frosted cake won't make them grow,
nor shattered shoe upon the stair.
The looking glass cannot bestow
a ballroom dance without a snare.
A wardrobe may change king to lad.
A child's tale is often sad.
---------------B---------------
Sonnetina Cinque - Of Silent Gazes, Of Algid love
Rd1
Overflowing worries, a sigh escapes.
Damaged statue of imposing presence;
On the stale couch, staring at old fire.
The flicker pensive, ran out of passion.
For what is a man to do, to build a man?
This warrior is beat, by time, by life.
Losing is a habit, and so is irony.
This single dad protects, but doesn't guide.
Loser raises losers, so it's best to let go.
A love so awkward, the loved doesn't know.
---------------T---------------
Sonnetina Cinque: More Than What Glitters
Qe7
The little man will often deign
to spin coarse straw in gilded braid,
and at the feet of vapid maid
the pyrite of his heart is laid.
But will she delve the hidden vein?
I am a queen without a crown.
Frogs are not due a lady’s word.
Your name itself is darkness slurred.
I see no debt that’s been incurred.
My first born son I’d rather drown.
---------------B---------------
Tritina: Lucid
0-0
There’s no need to rush.
Nothing here is real, after all.
Deep breaths, take it slow, till you wake up.
So let it slowly rise up,
And feel your blood rush.
Relax yourself, but give it your all.
Pull them in, let them all
enjoy you, feel you up.
You’re in charge, so don’t rush.
Don’t rush, but when it all ends, you wake, and it’s still up. Darn.
---------------T---------------
Tritina: The Climb
c6
The mountain is a meditation;
oily granite pocked by pale light.
Silence has weight, cold as gray stone.
Hands crimp in this ascent of stone,
becoming my meditation,
breath, a contrast of fog and light.
At the summit is there a light,
an end to that tunnel of stone—
a lone voice my meditation?
Struggle is a form of meditation, where light dapples stone.
---------------B---------------
False Intellectual
Nd6
Stuck in a liquidity trap,
No fiscal stimulus or aid.
Everything is fluid,
But nothing is moving.
Little do we know
That the pipes are clogged up.
Demand, supply, elasticity be damned.
To be free, we need to bleed a little.
---------------T---------------
Tetzel's Economics of Indulgences
Be6
When supply expands
into a broad superhighway,
many are those who find it.
Demand remains a one lane dirt road
with traffic backed up
and few live through it.
The externalities are not captured
at the intersection
of lane and highway.
Purgatory is a booted wheel
in an underground parking garage.
Ticket lost
to the metal ring of all eternity.
---------------B---------------
One
Qb1
One poem,
One novel,
Just one line
For fireworks.
Seconds or years,
Splurge or thrift,
One oasis
For hope.
One memory,
For waterfall of tears,
For smiles in full blossom.
---------------T---------------
Two
b5
In this yellow wood,
with its frost-lined path
and barren trees, hands reaching.
It is no longer the time
for green steps.
The leaves now sting
in wind-whipped spinning.
Can footsteps untrace
on a trail of dying blossoms?
---------------B---------------
12am-4am
Qe4
It's the last train.
An empty vessel
Steaming through,
Speeding past
The frozen world.
I can't move.
Icy breath
My life sign.
Watched it pass;
The last action
Of the night.
The final sound
Still echoes.
Apathetic,
Or a little
Depressed.
Reality
A standstill,
I own this void.
Let the moon
Swallow me.
---------------T---------------
On Sad Movies
a6
The world has been bleached
to an old sepia photograph.
A man’s dark overcoat billows
to the wind of cello music.
Eyes fixed on a small casket,
or a young wife in a hospital bed.
Unimportant details
blur into what we imagine
are tears under the soft focus.
The face slowly darkening
into sharp contrast.
---------------B---------------
Lancelot & Guinevere
Rd3
Love that never should have been,
Brings kingdom down into has-been.
---------------T---------------
The Science of Adultery
Ra7
It starts with chemistry,
an illicit exothermic spark.
Then there is geometry.
One shape's relative position
to another, the point
of intersection.
Biology being
an applied science comes
much later.
---------------B---------------
Clerihew:
Nh4
Robert James Fischer
Chess master gone bonkers
Yet he departed
In his mind champion undisputed.
---------------T---------------
Clerihew:
Bd5
Aimee Semple McPherson
was thought to be a dead person.
Though baptized and drowned,
she rose to fool around.
---------------B---------------
Balasi Stanza: To Zinc
Qg4
Come on Zinc, let's dance;
Get lost in this trance.
Get high, then we shall sing.
You said you're crazy,
And your life hazy;
So let this waltz make clean
All uncertainties
And bring harmony.
Zinc, will you be my queen?
---------------T---------------
Balasi Stanza: Rapunzel
Be6
A golden stairway
Tress superhighway
A prince and his tower
Eager to befriend
By morn’ now descend
Flaccid robbed of power
Better he dangles
Then sullen tangles
Of this yellow bower
---------------B---------------
Emmett: Foxy
Nhf5
Don't let your eyes deceive,
Let integrity be the one leading.
Your foxtail is clearly showing --
Eyes have a penchant for mischief;
Deceive me once more, and I'll stop forgiving.
---------------T---------------
Emmett: Every Snowflake
Bxf5
If as snowflakes we’re unique,
as one might describe a blind date.
Snowflakes never preen or prate.
We’re confusing different with mystique.
Unique won’t melt easily, and often won’t elate.
---------------B---------------
Septolet: Vengeance
Nxf5
Life for life,
In memory of
him.
Unaware
Of their place
As mere
Tools.
---------------T---------------
Septolet: I Wrote My Suicide Note
g6
Beneath your
eyelids; so you
would see.
In hieroglyphics,
so you would
never
understand
---------------B---------------
Tyburn:
Nxe7+
Fearless,
Peerless,
Swiftest,
Strongest.
Right now, I'm a fearless, peerless knight.
Dueling with my swiftest, strongest strikes.
---------------T---------------
Tyburn: Burger King
Rxe7
Benign
Divine
Malign
Equine
These burgers aren't benign, divine now.
In this mix, they malign, equine cow.
---------------B---------------
Minute Poem: Kathy (Catty)
Qh4
'I'll stay,' promise under moonlight,
Witnessed by night.
With such ardour,
You enamoured.
With those words, the night got coloured
Into ballad;
And I let go
Unto the flow.
Hoping if my sanity cracked
You'll bring me back.
Please, do not laud
A girl so flawed.
---------------T---------------
Minute Poem: The Relationship's Dilemma
Re6
Oasis gives way to desert.
Our steps inert,
oppressive sun
water for one.
Two is a path of sand and bone,
but one alone
can still take flight,
betray by night.
Both will always take the water,
choose to slaughter.
Self interest
in each instance.
---------------B---------------
Sedoka:
Rh3
Why do people try,
When all hope abandoned them
And they know the fight pointless?
To go out in style;
To never stop your struggle.
This is what being human means.
---------------T---------------
Sedoka: One Flower Hidden in a Field
h5
Spirit of the rock,
a talisman for sickness
for those who fear the dark time.
This time is bright chrome.
We pray to actuaries,
as death might hear statistics.
---------------B---------------
The March
g4
What used to be
The green canopy
And impressive velvet
Is now a mere shell scrape.
Not enough room
To stretch, to even stand.
They marched to make merry,
For their favourite child.
Wistful imagining
Removed bloodshed,
And made heroes out of them.
They then marched back to sleep,
Cramped in the bunk.
Until the veteran yellow is awarded,
And they keep warm with dust blankets.
The toy soldiers miss the march,
Wishing upon the light sliver
To tread ever so softly
On the green canopy once again.
---------------T---------------
1-0
a cough of black smoke
ash drifts with bamboo blossoms
seeds wait underground
Back!