Tag Archives: poem

The Fool – A Poem and aren’t we all at one time or another.


 

TheFool

The Fool

I left my only picture
of you back on the moon.

I guess I’m screwed at ever
thinking I’ll be getting back
there anytime soon.

I could ask you for another,
but your narcoleptic and
you always fall asleep at
the exact moment my
lips form the question,

as if you’re a priest who
doesn’t wish to hear my
confession.

So sorry Mr. Man in Black
with that trace of white at
the neck that always looks just
a little too tight.

My truths are real.
My passions are true,
And my love, ah… well my love
turned me into fortune’s fool
for you.

By Philip Wardlow 2012

My Nature – A poem (but not really my nature…really)


black-hole

My Nature

Like a cosmic sandwich in my hand

I folded space and time

and slipped through to you,

To when you were younger,

innocent, happier, and  ignorant

of your fate cascading towards

you like a deadly comet careening through

a vacuum straight for your heart.

I knew the path you would take around the sun,

a planet on a collision course

that never had a chance to live but

you were so beautiful as you hung there

in the sky…a celestial angel.

Barely out of its primordial soup

from a single celled organism you

were flung to extinction as my

foot first felt the earth.

I am a black hole you see,

for I let nothing escape

when it reaches my event

horizon.

I consume, I devour…

as I did you under that

ancient fall night sky…an eon ago,

with the bright eyes of  a thousand

stars as my witness to

your cataclysmic destructive end.

It is my nature, my make-up and you were

the unlucky one to have

crossed my path.

By Philip Wardlow 2012

Mr. Pancake – A Poem an Ode to People who annoy the hello out of you


mrpancake

Mr. Pancake

You are a walking pancake in my way!

A brainless angry flapjack in my otherwise

glorious day.

My eyes roll up,

as you talk your stupid pancake talk.

Stop!

…Talking!

Mr.Pancake…Just stop!

I know you think you have something

important to say.

But I don’t live inside your thin

bulbous blueberry head.

Sooooo…

Go…

Away…

and I will put my fork down.

by Philip Wardlow

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – A Poem (inspired by a novel of the same name)


Sleeping Beauty

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

I am but a dark silhouette back-lit

by your imaginings of what I must be.

My frame of reference is not yours,

nor is your own mine to see.

I cannot hope to know the true depth

of the strangeness that lurks behind those eyes;

the sadness, the desperation, and the longing

cannot be accurately defined as simply measured

by a ruler or thrown upon a scale like a piece

of meat.

Think me misguided, corrupt, or lost?

Think me a friend, lover, or a hero?

You would be wrong on all accounts.

I am simply a solitary soul cast adrift,

striving to find a good home to lift

me up from this cold stone floor and prop

me up next to a nice warm fire and hold

me tight.

by Philip Wardlow 2013

Stuck in the In-Between – A Poem


inbetween

Stuck in the In-Between

 

 You are trapped in the

world of what-not, what-ifs,

and wannabes.

 

Top at the time may be the bottom

tomorrow, a smile a slap in the face.

 

Your core is courageous, wrapped in a

layer of boundless denial not looked

at too closely.

 

The hot sun beats down as the rain

falls in a deluge to sink deep and cold

into your bones.

 

Reason cannot be reasoned with on a

night when the day won’t go away.

 

A borderlander without a home, a foot in

the door to life, dusk and dawn

juxtaposed.

 

But still you fight, you push and rail

against the unseen that seeks to hold

you in this dark realm of broken dreams.

 

Soon…Soon… you say they will see,

as you continue to climb, run, and claw

your way out of the in-between.

 

By Philip Wardlow 2013

WORDS – My Poetic Definitions for Certain Words in the English Language


Words

A while back I  made a list of  certain words that had meant something to me personally  throughout my life.  With this list of words I decided to apply my own definition to them in a  poetic sense to really convey what the word means to me in a more concrete but at times abstract way.

These new definitions  would not be what you would  normally find, say  when you are  flipping through a reference book such as Webster’s English Dictionary or some such book of extensive boring knowledge that you have to begun learning  from the very start of Kindergarten all the way to college.

Of course it doesn’t end there, one day when your the Father of energy zapping kids and your relaxing back in bed with a hefty  book in your hands  you may have to keep one of those stupid dictionaries next to you on the nightstand at  your bedside because some pompous arrogrant ass of  an author had to  pick a word no normal person (or abnormal)  would ever use in their own mind let alone in casual conversation.  At times I revel in the English language and at other times I hate it simply because I believe words shouldn’t get in the way of what you are trying to convey to the reader, especially on a contstant basis as some writers like to do.

So here is brief list of the not-so definitions of words:

1.  Apathy –  A smile in your direction which never quite reaches the eyes with a sharp snap of the head away.

2. Dreams – Dim images of lost desire, a quest for innerpeace that travels on a slow runaway train

3. Friends – Pillars with which to hold onto in a raging storm where some are stronger than others.

4. Enemies – The unseen predator which lurks along the edge of life waiting to pounce.

5. Life – An endless array of patchwork on the soles of feet worn down and dirty.

6. Time – A number measured by emotions and circumstances of the day.

7. Envy  – A spark which turns into a flame soon to engulf the entire forest.

8. Justice – A rock thrown back at an unseen hand whose only intent was grief.

9. Poems – A collection of organized to disorganized words which have no meaning unless you say they do.

10. Woman – A mystery behind  a locked door where a thief must apply all his talents to get through.

***I am a word/idea collector so do YOU have any definitions for ME.  I would love to hear them….:)***

Aspects of Her – A Poem


rainbowgirl2

Aspects of Her

A sunshine smile

dipped in a psychedelic rainbow

of colors that don’t exist

in the spectrum  that

physics would allow.

 

Slide your hands down your hips,

feel the silk threads float over

your soft cashmere skin;

you always liked  touching yourself

more than me.

 

 Eyes look away when I speak to them.

I can’t quite catch their color; evasive

as a fish in a warm running stream.

 

Sad, reflective, in denial of your

desperation as you try and fit into

a dress that’s just a little too tight.

 

You are a free spirit that confines

herself behind a waterfall of wishes

that will never see fruition.

 

This is you, all the aspects, all the incarnations,

All the pages yet to be written, all the pages

torn out and tear stained and written over again

then forgotten..

 

This is you and I have known

them all.

By Philip Wardlow 2013

Ivory Towers – A Poem


IvoryTower

Ivory Towers

A thousand ivory towers sit clumped

tight together.

They fill up the valley below and

spread over the plains of grass as

the river cuts through.

The tops reach higher than the birds

can fly,

Deep into the clouds they pierce

until they scrape the moon as it slowly

passes by each night.

Standing next to a tower

I look up from far below.

Alone.

With a hesitant hand I reach out

And touch the ivory wall.

So smooth and slick like glass as

my fingers run up its length.

Not a crack, not a crevasse

To reach a finger into.

This wall cannot be climbed.

Who dwells in such a high place?

Do they converse across the way,

or do they ignore each other as much

as they do me every day?

Such a lonely place to call home.

These towers seem to me more

like an escape from  the life below.

Where I stand.

If they only understood.

Fortune favors the fool.

by Philip Wardlow 2013

Hiddin Within – A poem


Darknesswithin

Hidden Within

He watches her. She watches him.

The dog , he watches nothing.

Their eyes can’t hide what lies beneath.

A tilt of the head, a downcast look tells

me all I need to know about their inner

Lives.

They hate. They love.  They lust. They  laugh at

Life.

Is there sadness behind that smile they

Give.

Some hide from each other.

Some hide from themselves.

Some hide simply because they can.

I wish I could see all the dreams buried

deep within their heads.

Dreams which they’ve never fed;

maybe a doctor, a lawyer, or a whore,

maybe a pretentious pious little bore.

Their thoughts are hidden;

a landscape of dark shadows and fog banks hung

Low.

I watch it all unfold.

They can’t keep it hidden long,

for like a cauldron bubbles, spews, and spits so

does their mind emit a gurgling of regret, a wisp of

weakness, or a hiss of  hysteria in its’ attempt to lament.

I watch and I wait for it all to unfold,

for the hidden to be found and the found to be told.

I’m a spectator to the grand affair which is hidden within.

So know that when I look at you or you at me,

I will see you, see you indeed.

By   Philip Wardlow 2012

The Archer – A Poem


ArcherCredit to Sheldon for Drawing**

The Archer

 

Left arm extended and locked,

arrow drawn to cheek as

fletching brushes two day old

stubble.

Right elbow bent, pointed

tight against quiver at back,

tendons taunt with muscles fixed.

Pressure of braided bowstring

bites deep into calloused ruined fingertips

as they itch to release.

Eyes forward, focused, unwavering,

towards a target who’s heart will know

the strength he holds at its final beat.

Steady….steady….Hold, Hold…

Release….

Fly Free…Fly True…to find death

Draw again

and repeat.

By Philip Wardlow 2013