https://youtu.be/WhPQ84JWJTU

POEM:

In the sole required text for that Intro to Western Civ
State-college course I took as a freshman, in the chapter
On the 19th century Industrial Revolution in England,
I saw farmhands by the dozens streaming up the street
From a black iron gate, their agricul...

https://youtu.be/M8J3J5rWC0I

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I heard your voice
like thunder through the air.
Before I could think,
before there was a flinch
you appeared.

The storm doesn’t scare me,
especially when it sounds like you.

Regardless of what things look like,
you soak through my sk...

https://youtu.be/Z0B3ZEiOzbQ

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Their moment had come where the truth was told…
From that point forward nothing was known.
All that remained is the constant flow
that stained their minds that had come to a close.
Their minds bestowed only what is allowed.
Allowed to b...

https://youtu.be/Hy92-yHuykY

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Whether you pretend to see me,
or you actually do
eventually, eyes betray
and look at what they really want.

In an attempt to know myself,
I know you.
What it means to know beauty.
To find a moment you hope lasts forever.
A smile that ...

https://youtu.be/pDqK9dK-BVg

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

(Church of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ)

I.

In a small Eastern European town,
A painter swiftly walked on through the square
Of the city, past old roofs colored brown.

There was a metallic smell in the air,
Caused by the rai...

https://youtu.be/2mP0bDi5igA

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

A stag leaps across the board run,
ditch to ditch, thorns to thorns,
muscles, music, obsidian eyes focused
to aspens beyond his landing.

Those blessed to see such things once,
and never again, carry the frames
of that motion into the s...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I met her on a Tuesday.
But it wasn’t an ordinary Tuesday.
Sort of lukewarm, but heavy.
One of those just get in the car,
cut the music on and drive
kind of Tuesdays.

She was at the gas station,
wearing Beats headphones.
Not the discreet ones that fit
in your ears,...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I would let you eat me alive,
Devour me whole, and
Digest me completely.

I would let you set me ablaze-
Bright lights engulfing me;
I’d burn to a crisp.

You could carry me to sea,
Drag me down, drown me,
And I’d still thank you.

You took her first,
So far away…
I...

https://youtu.be/A2Yo6b6dKUM

Performed by Val Cole.

POEM:

My beloved Great Aunt Ruth
Fed her children good gray truth.
Great Aunt Lisa, whom I prize,
Raised her brood on bright red lies.

Filthy cupboards, cockeyed doors,
Spotted carpets, sticky floors,
Rancid odors, saggy plaster. . .
Lisa’s...

BLUE PEARL UNDER THE SEA
by Ardalan Pourvali

In twilights dusk, where coral reefs sway,
an empress dwells beneath the waves gray.
With tresses of hair, like golden seaweed,
she reigns; a blue pearl - carefree.

Searching the bayside;
Nature Man hunts for lost treasure.
Shuttere...

https://youtu.be/EW45EGodRds

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Slammed doors,
raised voices,
tears hitting the floor,
she’s faced with choices.

She sleeps alone
for the first time
in a long time
with a heavy heart.

Her own painful words echo in her head
and guilt consumes her.
What started the fig...

https://youtu.be/__hH3S-FfAw

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I.

Eros walked slowly through the forestland,
Near Mount Olympus, in the soft twilight.
By his side, he held his bow in his hand,
As he walked on through the advancing night.
Above the forest, the evening was clear,
As a full moon lit ...

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

To the tune of Yesterday-With apologies to Paul McCartney

Yoga pants
I spend half my life in yoga pants
don’t do yoga, I don’t even dance
oh, I just live in yoga pants

Wintertime
cold outside but I don’t have to freeze
Used to garden in my dungarees
but yoga...

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

Mirroring myself
Only led to broken glass
Pick up the pieces

Stained with memories
Jagged and rusted with tears
Only truth remains

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

Is it better never to have loved at all
Than to have loved and lost in sorrow’s pain,
When love departs on flights to be enthralled
With pleasures of youthful spring again.

That temptation of Eros which beckons,
To shed one’s age and cast love’s old clothes;
An...

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?
Admiral's Log is mostly an allegory. It's largely about respecting the deep mystery of unknown cultures and possible personal intrusions into things beyond human control or understanding.

2) What motivated you to w...

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

Ed- I watch as he stumbles, a man undone,
A poet once soaring, now falling—done.
His words like daggers, sharp but not kind,
A tortured soul with a fractured mind.
“Nevermore,” he mutters, his eyes vacant, cold,
A genius’s madness, a story retold.
I wish I could ...

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

The abhorrent white mucus bore no trace of the honeyed nuances he was accustomed to.
All the elements of earth and beast were absent in its creation,
As if this pale perversion stood wholly apart from the nurturing animal for which it did imitate.
And though th...

Performed by Val Cole

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Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

The theme of my poem is love.

2) What motivated you to write this poem?

I am a therapist and I had a client who was processing what love meant to them and I decided to write a poem on what love meant ...

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

I find myself attached to a woman in the most peculiar way. I love her, but she’s a fractal scar of a person. She’s been struck by life, but who hasn’t. There’s a quietness I love about her – sheepish to show me what she likes; what music makes her soul breathe...

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

If you asked my parents

“What was the worst year
Of your youngest daughter’s life?”

They might tell you age twenty.
Because that’s the year
A bottle of pills
Found their way
To the bottom
Of my stomach.

But that wasn’t
The worst
Of my experiences.

If you a...