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onthestraight&narrow



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Sat Mar 30, 2019 3:09 am
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Vervain says...



2019.


poesía

Last edited by Vervain on Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:46 am, edited 8 times in total.
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Sat Mar 30, 2019 3:25 am
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Vervain says...



warm-up 1.


switchgrass grows high between the ties
when winter bites away the leaves

the new is cut away to show the old
lacquer brushed away lets the light shine through

on the virginal blues
played on an organ in an empty church
in reach of the canon

poised on the edge of the old fort:
souls on patrol morning and night
paper hives and red hawks in the fading

the old railroad laid like a vein
against the windpipe of the city
where the ghosts walk

every highway singing

the mother tongue is a dirge.
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Sun Mar 31, 2019 3:18 pm
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Vervain says...



warm-up 2.


the roots growing through your lungs
__________will have nothing to do
_____without you
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Tue Apr 02, 2019 12:33 am
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Vervain says...



April 1.
Mr. Poe's Snake Oil Carnival


have you heard the news—
the good news
or the bad?
every corner's painted with the spring
of discontent,

the carnival has come to town
to show you how
to bring you down and
heal you, yes
we'll heal you every ailment
with our elemental
instrumental mixture of the gods!

sing
with
me and pray with me to better
our horizons
brighten
lighten
might
eye

say the news is better than
whatever you're invested in
if that don't sway you, let me
say you'd really better listen up
(or down,
come down to town,
the town resounds with all our
proud investors!)

might
we

swing you our direction
counterfeit your own reflection
our best tactic is deflection

might
your

eyes, they see
you listen, silent
as we enrapture
you're compliant

try this—

take these—

our lies, you see
a free sample's never free
but stop by and listen to we of

Mr. Poe's

(all-inclusive)
(quite exclusive)
(and conclusive!)

Mile-A-Minute
Heal-Your-Ailments
Try-Today!

Snake Oil
(don't recoil)
(we'll ease turmoil)
(and heal those boils)
Car-Ni-Val!
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:44 am
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Vervain says...



April 2.
Grandma
1942-2019


may all your descendants gather around you
a turquoise bead buried deep in silver sands
rounded by time, shot through with earth and smoke
you rest in the bottom of the sieve, buried treasure

christened by sighs of wind o'er the desert
against weathered mountains your sun will set
revel in the worship of mem'ry forgot to us
old leather bibles and worries—rest, now
lain in the earth, as earth, passing under us
yearning for life to return you once more
none of us can say those words that recall you

pass me the beadwork wrapped 'round the old bones!
ache not, wear not, your time's come to sleep
teach your peace underneath your white willow-tree
teach your love and your patience, we'll learn
onward we walk with your name in our hearts
no more pain nor sorrow to keep you in chains

still we will stand at the mouth of your grave
undying, unrelenting in our body and soul
the life of a woman unbroken, a photograph
to capture the people you were for those years
let all your descendants gather around you
end all your pain and lay you to rest
still we remember you—weep not at the end.

Spoiler! :
this is an acrostic memorial poem.

my grandmother, mary carolyn patton suttles, passed away at the young age of 76 this past february. the day after her husband's and son's birthdays.

while comments and thoughts are welcome - please be gentle on this one.

thank you.
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Thu Apr 04, 2019 12:42 am
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Vervain says...



April 3.
Spring Leaves Too


veins
unfurl green
beneath a skin
so thin and tight
no room to breathe
trace my fingers down
your spine and reel you
in towards my center
—be gentle with
yourself small
as
you
are
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Sat Apr 06, 2019 12:03 am
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Vervain says...



April 4.
You Had Blue Eyes


behind the lowered curtains
_______shadows shift alone
ling'ring in the midnight
_______woven to the bone
a shimmer in the distance
_______with eyes of colored glass
the stars so quiet listen
_______and with time our trifles pass

less the weeping willow
_______head bent o'er the creek
more the searching siren
_______in her claws the thing she seeks
less the fading sunlight
_______and the migrant of the blue
more the hidden knowledge
_______they won't admit is true

under all the greatest men
_______we have glanced not at the stars
but shuffled by with lowered heads
_______cast in hatred and its tar
now standing in the midnight
_______weaver anchors them to bone
to wing and into feather
_______for a kind who've never flown

else we fall from cliff and crevasse
_______as a kind who've never flown
and the stars up in the midnight
_______they are burned into our bones
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Reviews: 425
Sat Apr 06, 2019 2:42 am
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Vervain says...



April 5.
Z3r03s


each piece made up of haves and have-nots
yeses and nos flickering in the shadows
walls that keep one in and keep one out

glance out the window towards the ground
blood red clay baked hard in the sun
and know you are lucky, zero

know you are lucky

you could have died
and been one of them,
ones trawling the rancid streets
overflowing with the blood draining
from the locks

red creeks in every street below
feet dirty and smudged
dry mud dry blood dry zeroes
wet ones

know you are lucky, zero,
because only luck can save you
in the end.
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Reviews: 414
Tue Apr 09, 2019 5:24 pm
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keystrings says...



I wanted to pop by and say that there's some wonderful imagery in these poems and that repetition worked very well in Mr. Poe's. There's such emotion in your acrostic (I'm very sorry for your loss) and I think it's done quite beautifully with a clear of saying farewell. Spring leaves too has such a pretty format, while number 4 has such interesting language being used, the "ling'ring" and use of apostrophes creates such an interesting mix of old and new traditions. Zeros had really good repetition as well, and some really neat imagery - like a desert during the apocalypse.

Overall, this has been very well done so far ^^
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





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425 Reviews



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Reviews: 425
Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:44 am
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Vervain says...



thank you for your comments! they're very appreciated <33333 i'm glad you're enjoying things so far

i've fallen behind but i might try and just maintain where i am
stay off the faerie paths
  





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425 Reviews



Gender: Gendervague he/she/they
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Reviews: 425
Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:46 am
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Vervain says...



April 10.
rosacea of the heart


i am not a monster,
__________________yet.

i am not the shadow in your closet
unless you believe me to be;
i am not the blood behind your mirror
unless you paint me there,
a handprint to remind you
of the person you killed.

i am not a monster,
__________________yet,
but i wonder if i would have been
should i have stayed, with you,
with all your shadows and all
your closets and all your
funhouse mirrors.

i am not a monster,
__________________yet
you would have me believe
something about me deserves
to be hated—to be scorned—
to be ostracized from all those
who would reach out to me,
because mama knows best.

i am not a monster,
__________________yet,

but there is nothing
left to stop me from it
__________________now.
stay off the faerie paths
  








That awkward moment when you jump out a window because your friend jumped out a window, then you remember that your other friend can fly.
— Rick Riordan, The Ship of the Dead