Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

She climbed to the top of the mountain
In her ascent
She failed to see
Red roses blooming, so fair, so sweet
Grass green growing there
Purple lilacs, stalks so bright
Pink glowing sky
Turning white clouds red by and by
Blue fading into black
Her steps show her track...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

My mother is dead.
My father is dead.
My brother is dead.
My other brother is dead.
My sister is dead.
My nephew is dead.
My son is dead.
When will my family stop dying?
I’m never going to get used to it.

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

1
The cello stands in silence, holding
Its breath.
In one baton flick,
everything changes.

2
In music, rests and notes possess equal power –
Practice both. You’ll discover
life’s balance.

3
Framed family photos hang,
smiles obscuring the fights before the
CLICK
No...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

back
from the dead
The Painted Ladies
tremble
in the heather
the change has come
as ephemeral Large Blues
emerge
from their buried
chamber

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Capri is framed by the east window,
Mount Vesuvius centers in the west. Chandeliers
suspend high, trapeze artists erupting their crystal
blooms to guide a Mardi Gras of painted clay and gesso
far below ceiling

vaults. Do you recall sunset velvet splayed across marb...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I turned fifty this year
Which made me reflect
That at best I have twenty
Good years left before
My life is basically over
As seventy is pushing it
For a man these days
This of course assumes
I don’t get hit by a bus tomorrow
Or even later today
Or have a heart atta...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

professor says,
“picasso had a blue period, which was later followed by a rose period.
people tend to associate the blue period with melancholic sentiments.
& the rose period, with its opposite.”
but professor, i sense lingering melancholy
in his rose period, too.

...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Little girl. You’ve carried
the burden of my name
my life, interrupted
by a car crash at my
own hands for longer
then you even knew me
on earth.

It’s time you lay down the burden
of my name, my life, my
goals that exceeded expectations
because you have surpassed
an...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I smoke to take the pain away
Hoping for better days
That I don’t have to stress
And just be blessed
What God blew my way

I run to take the pain away
Running just clears my brain away
Away of any negative thoughts
That I may have running through my mind at the time...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Shadows
(they move)

Deep breaths
(can’t breathe)

Darkness swirls
(like the madness in my mind)

Deep breaths
(can’t breathe)

Name 5 things
(but it doesn’t go away)

Deep breaths
(can’t breathe)

Tree branches caress the window
(or scratching fingers)

Deep breath...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I wanna go home
As the dusk rises
With the sun bending down
And thus, staying there
Until it begins to rise again.

In your car
With the windows down
Does light shine dim
And bright shading the
galaxy, the sky.

Racing down the street
Goes the gas smell and
the steam...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Dry, arid, desert landscape of Mojave
spartan-like, feisty under the relentless sun,
austere rock outcrops, shrubs,
wildflowers under the clear blue sky,
bloom vividly upon a thousand stars in the cover of the night.
A solid trunk of a tree, a poetry
unfurls its bra...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

T’was my last caper, a risky but weighty score:
Safe dial whirred, door popped at speed,
No chance to focus, time to take a shot,
In n’ out in minutes, so why’d I get caught?

Cops cuff’d me, then questioned me, but I didn’t break,
The files stashed, they couldn’t c...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Pain and grief,
Sadness and sorrow
Will I have the strength to make the morrow?

I fear my loss
Will forever emboss.
Can I shed this pain, no matter the cost?

Rage and anger
Are no stranger,
Especially towards the one born in the manger.

You watch your world burn
...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I was, maybe, three
years old, when my mother
said: “I challenge you to run
from here to the corner.”

And, delighted, I ran.

On my spring stick new legs,
I ran,
giving it my all,
I ran,
alongside the old stone building,

While holding my mother’s hand
and I felt t...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

The Countdown begins
When?
November 5th, Jan.6th
OR
Is it
When does the countdown end?
I have heard one question and one statement over and over
Are you better off
We will fix it
I hear words like
I am traumatized
I am wondering I am leaving
I am scared
That is not...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

When I die, I’m coming back to haunt the shit out of everyone who ever screwed me over in this lifetime.And I will be immune to your puny exorcisms. And if you’re on my afterlife shit list and you happen to get yourself dead before me, don’t consider yourself off th...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

My body isn’t a protest.
It’s a betrayal.

I’ve been trapped in here for years,
buried inside a harp seal,
wide-eyed with hakapiks overhead.
It was silent when I wanted to scream.
It froze when I wanted to fight.
It stayed when I should have fled.
My body isn’t a pr...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

It was your curves I fell in love with
Or was it the gentle branches you offered me
Vines entwining you so lovingly
Bowing over to bond with each other

You provided shelter from all around
Protection like no other
Your strength shining in your continuous growth
Wis...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Let’s just say it.
You are the lucky one, Ed.

Dying is the answer to all of it.
Life is a constant drum

occluding the lyrics.
When you die,

you have flexible hours.
You can eat all the bacon you want.

You can run red lights.
You can float or bilocate.

If allowe...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

tightrope like tied note twirl tangential tiptoe
talk | your reflection
through
twisted spun spiderweb stuck-fly absurdity
scam | your reflection

escape glass enslavement soft falsehood of fractals
fear | your reflection
is lying, what

monster haunts this fun-hous...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Me, Janey, and Jack were in the backyard
When we saw a dead man hanging by
The neck of my jump rope up in the
Willow trees, and I looked up and
Yelled at him, “What are you doing
With my jump rope?”

And he opened
His yellow eyes and looked down at us
With a crooke...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I did not ask you to build me this way
I did not ask to come back from the grave
My brain has thoughts that my tongue cannot say
I do not like this second life you gave
The only reason that you worked this trick
Was to sate your own curiosity
A doctor who works with...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I am a lost soul,
Blighted, bruised,
Condemned to wait
For what will never come.

But still, I am not idle;
I drift, aimless, through desolation—
A desert, cold and cracked,
A barren land devoid of life.

Here, hope is an illusion.
Time—wasted and worn,
A currency t...