what i cannot tell you / is how to protect something as tender / as a lamplit confession, one never given / because i pressed my voice / against the crackling edge of yours / and whispered stop / and you did. switched off the lights / and let the words pool / soft and secret and unsaid / in the newly birthed dark, / post-artifice dark so unlike / the others we had shared: midafternoon classroom / with blinds drawn, candleflame breathy / on a nightstand, woodfire pushing sparks onto / the pathways of stars.
what i can tell you / is that there was no thief in the shadows that night / or after. there are times / when something offered freely is still stolen, but this / is not one of them, and so / the only night-singing blood in the room / is yours, and the only hands that are here / to hold the blame / are yours, and the only voice that can tell this truth / renames itself a small silence and still / it is yours
and the kiss you drop into her hair / hangs light / as a wildflower, unnoticed.
i mountain myself under january’s hands, turn to volcanic glass where my heat first meets air. there’s fine gray ash drifting in the winter air, falling between the nodding white heads of snowdrops. they’re early this year, january tells me. it hasn’t even snowed. they’ll freeze when it does. i ask her what kind of metaphor that is.
what kind of metaphor do you want it to be? she asks.
january has me earthquaked, has the rock of me folded. this time will be different, she tells me. this time, nothing hurts. i don’t believe her. already, the flowers are withering in the cold. they’ll grow back, i tell her. i know this because i have, too. and if they don’t, i’ll plant more.
so, i have this ask that i answered which tumblr poets that i love & i’ll try to suggest poets that haven’t been mentioned there. so, check that out too! i also suggest you check out my tumblr poet tag where i reblog all things from tumblr poets.
and hm, some of these folks have moved to other platforms — like i know @angelealowes is moving to insta & i highly suggest you follow her work because she always has a lovely way of piecing together moments with just the right words and a half forgotten sense of nostalgia.
@7-weeks is another poet that i’m just ! wow ! his poetry i would describe as the tail end of a thunderclap. that moment where you’ve just been hit by something and the rumblings that happen afterward. truly amazing. bonus points for flordia but hey.
@yvesolade is often recommended throughout tumblr and for good reason. he recently was part of a poetry anthology that i would highly suggest you check out as those are excellent ways to get to know other poets. as well as just to read his stuff because ! oh wow ! you think you get the hang of what poetry is and then yves comes around with a poem like a gut punch and you’re just nope, you had no idea. wonderful things!
@verrloren is also moving / has also moved to insta & she just released a chapbook filled with wonderful, wonderful poetry! when i read her stuff, honestly i can feel the way she just looks up at these cities and adores them down to the rubble & she’s just so lovely in her translation of that feeling. also bonus points for florida but hey.
@kblairpoetry has also moved / is moving? ( or she just is posting poetry on insta ) and ! oh my god ! a visceral poet that just gets into things with her words the way animals do with their teeth. it’s so fantastic and the feelings are always raw and open and i’ve had several of her poems where i’ve just been like oh my god out loud. fantastic! stuff! ugh, i love her poetry so much.
@birchbritches posts regularly and a lot and they’re always interesting and lovely poems that just delight me to see on my dash. honestly, it makes me think of finding something you’ve lost or a thought you’ve finally remembered or seeing the perfect scene one day in the woods. lovely, lovely.
& of course, there are plenty of places to read through. you can check out the tags here and just read through them until you find a poem that speaks to you. these are just the few that have been around lately that i’ve been reading. have a lovely day!
T & I on a Saturday night, drinking u under the table & I think I’m more in love with the moment than I am with u. I always feel like I belong in ur space. Our tiny family, never sober, always going home. doesn’t matter. ill still cry. I’ll still break my own heart. it’s what I know how to do. but I like when we sleep, & in the morning when we part the blinds & u tell me the weather. ur so pretty in the winter shock. I’m sorry for thinking these nice things abt u. sorry for never wanting anything tht u want at the same exact time. the world is cold & frozen & I am writing u a letter from the time machine in my heart. I’m crouching in last year. I’m holding our hands over the radiator. I’m singing park that car drop that phone sleep on the floor dream abt me. oh, please, dream abt me. Or at least, think about me a little bit more. Just a little. Then smile, or bare ur teeth. Same thing. I promise when u see me we’ll forget to be fair. I only kno how we treat each other, touching ur face in the club, saying how we don’t mean to, but we can’t stop thinking about why it won’t work out.
slow/steady/rot makes a beat in my chest. unflowered, unflinching. you make peace with it / and we all say amen. scenic tension ponds rot with scum and save-a-lot please-come-again have-you-made-your-peace-yet plastic bags catch in youthless magnolia trees. they’ve torn down the useless and forgot to give the rest of us a warning: caution. you will forget yourself in the same way a tree fruits. you destroy the dead & make it fear for its life & thus: it must create.
