Arisen out of Necessity (poems)

[watersong84]

Hello All! So, I actually didn't meander over into this here forum until just recently, but I guess my boldness or my zeal or maybe my anxiousness has compelled me to post.

This will just be a collection of poems that might come up somewhere in my delirium.

Title: Arisen out of Necessity
Author: watersong84 (Alyssa)
Distribution: ummm... please refrain
Feedback: Pretty pretty please with a cherry on top
Note: The title, "Arisen out of Necessity," comes from Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet.

Now, without further ado, I present the first poem:


Casualty

a man cut off your head
with a sharp blade
between your ears and your shoulders
he cut through your thick neck
blood and bone and matter
flesh so astonishingly beautiful in life
that in your death all that comes to mind
is beauty
I don’t remember your name
you appeared on a small television screen
and I stood paralyzed
unwilling to move and unaware of my breath
my lips became chapped as I stared
at your beauty
you were once
a fire in a field of snow
skin was warmer for you
that beauty
like flushed cheeks coming in from the rain
you were a lover lit by the moon
beautiful
no one will recognize your bones
without your scars
without your eyes
you are but a memory
tears and dead roses
an empty space
a man cut off your head
with a sharp blade
casualty

-Alyssa

[watersong84]

Okay, so here's another one. (I guess I've had a lot of free time today... )

Note: This poem has inferred violence and may be inappropriate for young children. However, I don't think it qualifies as "graphic" violence, so I am going to post it. Avoid it if you are having a bad day...

Other note: This poem was inspired by the events about a year ago at the March for Women's Lives. Props to anyone who was also there .


Washington, D.C.


I put on my shoes
one after another

1968, the park not lit,
nor do stars shine enough, nor the moon
temporarily mute, she does not scream
with her tongue in her throat
she grows
she cries
a knife bleeds her
not fifty steps from that dungeon
of silence
another one
with her tongue in her throat
she dies

and step, step,
hurried step
to the platform
catch a train

she holds his hand
her father
eyes bright
like water drops on
blue tile
the car jerks through
sure on the tracks
to 13
he holds her hand
eyes leak
water drops on
white sheets
blood drops on
white sheets
a tiny girl
he’s still young

step off to
history
we learned that
black skin harbors dreams
and so do they in Vietnam
to not wake up with a gun
shoved in their ear
a history
of feet
on this grass

the machine beeps faster
as she kisses his rough cheek
his pink cheek
the same color as it was
two days ago
through the snow he walked
to a clinic
to his job
into the crowd with
eyes like black and
blade like silver
and snow
that turned to red

and so I march
on this grass
and scream with the air
in my lungs
that soft skin
harbors dreams
also

for a girl who
could not scream
could not breathe
with her tongue in her throat

graves are filling
gutters are filling

houses are filling
for a man
who sleepwalks at night
and ends up in his daughter’s bed

I walk
with my feet
like an army
I march

for a woman she cries
closes his eyes

I march

-Alyssa

[vix84]

You're a wonderful poet.

This part really stood out to me:

into the crowd with
eyes like black and
blade like silver
and snow
that turned to red

Thanks for sharing your poems, they're so vividly real.

[SpinCycle]

I really like your poetry. Especially the first one. I can't explain really what I liked about it just that I did. It was likes like this:

a fire in a field of snow

Just something about it.

[SJ]

Great poetry,thanks for sharing.

[watersong84]

Thanks to everyone for reading and especially for replying, I really appreciate it.

vix84 - Hello ! Thanks for being the first to reply!

This part really stood out to me:

into the crowd with
eyes like black and
blade like silver
and snow
that turned to red

Yeah, I actually like that part of that poem also. Actually, I dislike it a lot because of the images it brings to mind, but I like it for bringing those images up, you know?

they're so vividly real

Aw, thanks. That's one of the best compliments I've received in a while.

SpinCycle - Thanks!

I can't explain really what I liked about it just that I did.

Yay! I think that happens a lot with poetry, you like a poem but you can't really explain why exactly. I'm glad that poem evoked that kind of feeling.

SJ - Thanks! I'll be sharing more any minute now...

-Alyssa

[watersong84]

Alright kittens, here's another one...

Linger

this breathing that I must do
is keeping me from simply
sinking into the earth
all the water inside me
just like rain into the soil
disappears

I am lingering
in the melancholy space
above the earth
below the sky
gently slamming my head against the wall

it doesn’t hurt
there is pleasure, often, and pain
and between

I feel the earth
hurtling, hurtling, twisting
falling from nothing
towards everything
from everything
towards nothing

I could take in a lungful
and float up
up through the ceiling
a ghost among the night
among the night
a quiet everything
nothing, nothing

I linger here with my eyes open

-Alyssa

[SJ]

Liked that poem,great imagery.

[watersong84]

Hello all! I have a new poem!

SJ - Thank you for the comments and for reading!


Okay, so I *may* have written this poem during the AP Gov test... I guess I just have a one-track mind, what can I say?


Piety

It would be a vulgar, vile sin
not to take you into my mouth, upon my tongue, and roll you about
to taste you
in all your splendor and wonder
like a goddess.
I will enslave myself and build a temple on the banks of your
silky, muddy Nile,
I will be baptized newly
and from the deep red blood pumping through my heart to
my lungs to my liver to my tongue and lips,
I will sing out
halleluiah in heaven, in heaven,
I worship you, Goddess, in this earthly, sensory heaven.

-Alyssa

[SJ]

Great poem.