Performed by Val Cole

Drop Me Off in the Wilderness

1

Drop me off in the wilderness
By the river shore where we were before
By the abandoned shack by the railroad track
Slow down and I’ll jump out the door
And find my own way back, I guess,
From the valley of excess
And the Land of 10,000 Dan...

Performed by Val Cole

DEATH, by FERNANDO MAGELA DA SILVA

From my most unbreakable certainty, I worship my most
visceral doubt, the legacy of death, day by day, in
seconds that drag on through my time, and to his
throne, now I am attentive, now I am careless

Death seems fair to me, it does not...

A Mourning Hug for John Mendelssohn
A glowing day
hell-orange
Nimbostratus cloud
hovers here,
choking everything,
from plants to crows
to this disillusioned woman
as a hard wind
whips the cloying air,
from Northern California,
taunting an already-battered heart.
This time last year
I ...

Performed by Val Cole

"Morning Dew" by Kyle Leighton

And so it is, a new day has dawned
As here I sit to greet it right
A pebble, nay, a grain of sand
In the depths of space on this land
Tomorrow brings what we not know
But care at all is nay we have
For sorrow comes to those who wait
Who lie...

[So, it began like]

So, it began like
I have a dream of the
perfect, lovely evening.

So, it began like
Well, hello.
Is this seat taken?

So, it began like
Why it’s for you.
—Thanks—smiling.

So, it began like
I’m looking
forward to
seeing The
Little Shop
of Horrors.
—So am I.

So, it began li...

Performed by Val Cole

“A riddle of Breakable things”, by Janine Parkinson
A love like ours starts out
with one cup of sugar
a teaspoon of thyme

Add a fight,
some words unkind
we sit broken, cracked, poached

Resting in silence, stirring
your pointed finger, stabs
Oozes yellow

The sunset
repla...

Performed by Val Cole

COFFEE by Paul Wood

On no what a palaver

What an awful din

The barista is going crazy

As the customers all pile in

Mums with small children

Spotty teenagers with attitude

All sorts from all walks of life

Are waiting in the que

I shuffle slowly along the co...

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the writer:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

An autobiography – told in little snippets.

2) What motivated you to write this poem?

I am currently in a creative writing class.

3) How long have you been writing poetry?

I really started writing creatively ...

Performed by Val Cole

“Sword of War”, from “Of Virtue, Love and War”, by Ryan Christiansen

Would I were a soldier still – would I were yet still a knight
A servant of the beautiful – honor bound to all that’s right

I’d marsh’ll out to meet the foe – for her return to fight
Would I were love’...

Performed by Val Cole

Genre: Historical

A Civil Soldier's Tale

"Lie still now, soldier", the Union General said,
As he knelt down beside the boy's bloody, wounded head.
The dying young lad, no more than fifteen, if a day,
Wore the blight of cannon, from being in its way.

The General swallo...

Performed by Val Cole

My mountain to climb by Bethany Zare

Diagnosis cancer,
like others have had.

My type is common,

so not really that bad.

The experience feels

like an amusement ride,

With ups and downs

but nowhere to hide.

Each test brings more questions

no clear path t...

Performed by Val Cole

Isolated Vodka, by Lizbeth Wartemberg

Last night I died
I cried and I cried and I cried
I drowned all my pride and I cried
and I cried and I cried

I drowned all my pride and I cried
and I cried and I cried
I tripped over half a bottle of vodka
Did a U-turn on my bed
Whe...

Sovereign Wisdom, by Kamanadine

Dancing on the razor’s edge

No mind

No body

Zero point

Shunya

Free falling in space

A fractal of light

A crystal skull starts vibrating

And shining iridescent

Never seen before

Patterns of light

Seeing through the eyes of Goddess

A lens of purity

Of ...

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

MILKSHAKE, by Leslie DuFresne

In having everything and nothing to do all at once,
this mother strips herself bare
of dignity. I do what I have to.
The happy meds I fed my mind this morning
kicked themselves in
far past the buzzed feel-good uprights
landing amidst a stad...

Performed by Val Cole

Rust
By Kelly Loraine Stearns

collecting old keys
seeking answers unseen
lost in a puzzle
of amnesiac complexities
the clock chants why
timeless moments pass her by
orchestrating a symphony
of a perpetual dream
silence whispers
echoing particles of dust
a young womans de...

Performed by Val Cole

Dedicated to the Unknown Woman
Listen to the drums
Echoing through the valley
See the demons fly
through the night

Hear the old woman
Cry out with fright
As a young woman is stripped bare…
Violated, beaten and bruised
She lays
With unseeing eyes
All she hears
Are the silen...

Performed by Val Cole

INNATE SOARING, by Edward Longo

This is a poem dedicated to those

Men and women who cannot help but follow

The unspoken meanings of their soul;

who will search or soar until

They unite their personas with their innate

Motivations; and

Whom will continue soaring

T...

Performed by Allan Michael Brunet

Aaliyah, by Pete Borreggine

All throughout my life,

I’ve searched for love alone,

A quest I made to find that love,

Was something I would never know,

For years I’d wonder where true love was,

And why it had forsaken me,

Years of turmoil and being left alo...

Performed by Allan Michael Brunet

(Bhagwan is God! or O God!)

As I passed a lonely temple in the after-evening glow,
On the banks of the Ganges where the quiet waters flow,
When the sun had sunk to rest and cool softness touched the air,
I saw a dark-skinned Indian and I heard him chant this pr...

Performed by Val Cole

A Rescues Song, by Tommy Anderson

Once upon a time I was a lost dog. I was abandoned, lonely, forgotten,
and praying for a home. I had no place to hide, no place to go,
no one person who would love me and let me love them.

I had been abused, starved, left alone out in the...

Performed by Allan Michael Brunet

Aaliyah, by Pete Borreggine

All throughout my life,

I've searched for love alone,

A quest I made to find that love,

Was something I would never know,

For years I'd wonder where true love was,

And why it had forsaken me,

Years of turmoil and being l...

Performed by Allan Michael Brunet

----

Before I read Lorca
My words were blunt swords for
Slicing rotted wood
Constructing
Rackety trellises
To fortify
Pathetic castles of sand
Praying never the waves
Or even harsh winds
Ascend to my feeble heights
Where from above with disdain
Cupid mocked
My...

Performed by Hannah Ehman