Poems and other similar things

"I believe that imagination is
stronger than knowledge
that myth is more potent than history
that dreams are more powerful than facts
that hope always triumphs over experience
& I believe
that love is stronger than death"

- The Storyteller's Creed by Og Mandino

This is all about verses

Some of them are mine. Others are from my favorite writers.
Not to worry, each author will be credited for their work...

First, a list of some of my favorite poems by published authors.
(Poetry by my friends and myself are right after this list).
Click on the title to get to the poem:
Tonight I can write the saddest lines by Pablo Neruda
Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Falcon's Song by Rainier Maria Rilke
Excerpts from Phenomenal Woman by Dr. Maya Angelou

Now...the unprofessional verses that nevertheless are equally
eloquent only not as widely read! (hahaha)

and i feel like plaster
crumbling
tumbling rocks down
a ravine
i've been six thousand voices
noises
that sear the night
with sullen pain
please unexplain
the tearing pieces
of my shedding skin
& the hundred people
i've been in
touch w/ softly
spoken cries of need
sung with sorrow
falling...
falling
away from me.
-"At Miggy's One Summer"
Kage: 10 April '97

the poem and the picture seem to go hand in hand...
there's a certain darkness that you cant bring yourself
to look away from and thats how i felt the day i wrote that poem... thanks to gwen for the photo

Bright bird
of many colors
stand proud
Bright bird of
tarnished feather
sing loud
for yours is a world
of those on the edges
Yours are the nights
we cried on rooftop ledges,
bright bird.
-- "Freedom Bar, SKIN party" Kage

"I come to you with strange fire
I make an offering of love
the incense of my soul is
burned by the fire in my blood."
-Strange Fire, the Indigo Girls

~ I have great admiration for the Indigo Girls.
Especially, Emily Saliers who writes almost all of their
songs. There is a certain honesty and eloquence in her lyrics.
Yes, I know, she writes about love & so does everybody
else. But it's not what she says but how she says it that
makes it matter. Right?

i want someone to find me
singing
dancing
laughing...
not knowing that he is there
Unaware.
i want someone to
find me, without knowing.
-"Before the monitor" Kage

From Paula:
the language of the eyes
is only eloquent in poetry
SPEAK,
want to hear you...
- P. Nocon 1994

I am a well
that stands ready in
your hardened earth

made of brick
made of clay

deep and waiting
for that rush of water
to fill me,
for questing hands to
find treasure held
within

I am the well that
stands ready
in your hardened earth

-"De la Costa, Feb 98." (Kage)

Women take heart. The next poem was written by my
friend and teacher Ruey de Vera. He recently published a book of
his poetry called "The Most Careful of Stars." I hope that one
day my name graces the same shelf that his already does.
Are we ready?

Likely Stories

Knowing full well
that trust is a kinife
held lovingly
to your throat

Don't bear witness
to excuses in critical
condition from source
w/o prior conviction

Knowing full well
how only the moon
believes and accepts
that all phases pass,
dont dare be loved
to long & openly
in an atmosphere
radioactive with reasons
Knowing how all this
weary wordspinning
can leave you exposed
to uncertain vertigo
Dont get caught
in the same small snarl of sorrys,
dont agree to the sentences
passed down on you

Knowing he'll want you back
& will appease your anger
like a village its volcano wooing
you perishable promises
Dont say you wont
believe him again
Forget yourself in the flush
of the familiar

Knowing how one cant
ask for too much,
swoon in sweet surrender
take him back

even if you've heard it all before

-Ruel de Vera

This is something from the comic book "Sandman" by Neil Gaiman.

[Love] makes you so vulnerable. It opens
your heart and it means someone can get inside you &
mess you up. You build up these defenses. You build
up this whole armor for years, so nothing can hurt you.
Then one stupid person,
no different from any other stupid person,
wanders into your stupid life...You give them a
piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something
dumb one day like kiss you or smile at you, and your life
isnt your own anymore.
Love takes hostages. It gets inside you.
It eats you out & leaves you crying in the darkness.
So a simple phrase like "Maybe we should just be friends."
or "How very perceptive" turns into a glass splinter
working its way to your heart.
It hurts.
Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind.
It is a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and
-rips-you-apart pain.

Nothing should hurt like that. Not especially love.
I hate love.
- Sandman #65

A little extreme. But doesn't most of it make
so much sense? (Thanks to my surrogate sister Bambi for giving
me a copy of this at the right time.)

You know how I mentioned that songs are poems too? Check out
the link below if you haven't already. It will prove my point.
I chose the songs mainly because there was a phrase, feeling or
message that made my mind go "Exactly! Wow!" Something that
sounded honest & true & very real. You know what I mean right?
Finding something in a song that you agree with because you've
had that same thought or felt that same way or said those words
only less eloquently.
For whatever this is worth, I hope you check out the lyrics page

Lyrics

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Poems and other similar things

"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge that myth is more potent than history that dreams are more powerful than facts that hope always triumphs over experience & I believe that love is stronger than death"