Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

Human Teddy Bear comes from a place of comfort and emotional security. At it's heart it addresses how a person can easily become a safe place whether it feels like the world is crashing down or just an all around ...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Please respond the following questions with a number on a scale from one to five (one being least agree and five being most agree).

1. You would turn in your neighbor, should he be revealed to be an undocumented immigrant.
1 2 3 4 5

2. You would spit on him as he’...

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

Humanity staring into the mirror of AI — seeing both our brilliance and our blind spots reflected back. It explores the paradox of creating something that can echo our thoughts, amplify our vision, and also revea...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Snow White,
Circling the sky
In search of messengers
To show them the way to newfound
Freedom

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Years of betrayal
26 years to be exact
Holidays, vacations, children
Since the day they met

A long time coming
Waiting for the other shoe to drop
It didn’t hurt any less
Or make it easier to stop

On their family vacation
Cheating with him as she slept in their bed...

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

https://youtu.be/93mTwh2sGlY

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

My poem's theme is grief and the lack of understanding of others. This poem centers grievers and how lonely it is at times. People are not taught and often do not know how to interact...

https://youtu.be/68IL8F1Fu1s

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Once,
There was a poor little boy
Not poor in coins,
But in comfort.
Not poor in food,
But in love.

He had a mother
Who held a bottle
Tighter than her children,
Who traded bedtime stories
For silence
And babysitters.

She didn’t know
T...

https://youtu.be/3CdabwJ-w-A

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Like the tides, life rises and falls.
At times, you’re soaring—
High,
Reaching toward the endless sky,
Your crest catching golden light,
Dancing in the sun.

And then—
You’re pulled low,
Crashing down,
Breaking hard,
A surge of force,
S...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Seated alone on the couch, weary from the day’s labor,
full of hard drink and a heavy meal, he was content this
birthday affair may pass without incident.

A bottle of twenty-five-year Scotch adorned his lap.
He made certain she saw him swallow the sleeping pill she...

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

- The poem celebrates the vibrant, scenic, and lively essence of San
Francisco. Its themes include:

Natural Beauty and Scenic Charm: Descriptions of the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, green ridges, beaches, and star...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

One may pave the sided streets from his neighbors guile,
To a diligence of a leader; or to an acid’s chyle.
This zephyr from the switchgrass of soulstice,
is unabridged by my mama’s veiled smile.
One’s true veilon is dogged behind the child.
Child who refused to fin...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

My light was out when the message bore
the state of the child’s condition
and brought me kneeling to the floor
and reading what the father knew—
the object as inviolable, though reason claimed we too
would not cease in giving way
when met by forces, I recalled
my ow...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Number 1

I watch him carry my mother up the stairs as if she is the thinnest piece of glass,

She is full of cracks.

I turn on the shower, a waterfall of memories.
Rubber ducks in the tub as we pretended to be mermaids.

My mother huddles in the shower, scared and...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

(Sci-Fi for Rob Halford, Written While Sitting On a Curb
Outside Steven Spielberg’s “Amblin’ Entertainment”
Universal Backlot Office, Bungalow 477)

Ravages of starlight
beat upon his head:
This battleground,
a smoking field of dread.

His body feels the pummel
of w...

https://youtu.be/9DQs3B_4y2g

Performed by Val Cole

POETRY:

Uncle Ricky, a Gentle Giant
Uncle Ricky, a brilliant soul
He gave his near and dear a softer grace
With his gap-toothed smile on his face
His laugh filled a room as he told his vivid stories.
A smooth swagger, a heart in bloom
A brothe...

Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

The theme of the poem is the comeuppance and downfall of a politician
who literally lied his way into office and was then found out.

2) What motivates you to write this poem?

What prompted me to write it? I suppose it was to see how I...

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...

Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

The theme of Towards The Storm is to move into uncertainty regardless of what change is to come. The only difference is choosing to face it

2) What motivated you to write this poem?

Most of my poems start with a feeli...

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...