God Across the Bar Pouring Jose Cuervo—Free Verse

Is there something more Sunday

Than American Idol meets Fight Club

In the neighborhood in the borough

And people walking city streets at night?

.

Perhaps not on the traditional day of rest

The one day you have to nurse your hangovers

Wearing a tie and sitting amongst the sinners

.

Pretending to know the bible

And see God in the everyday.

.

And did you stand there with God

Handing you shots across the bar

To beg the ugly woman to drink

In hope that you might could

Trick her into coming home with you?

.

And maybe God was there.

And maybe the ugly woman

Would have gone home with you

.

Even if you hadn’t gotten her drunk.

And maybe you would still sleep with her

Even if you weren’t drunk.

.

And maybe God was the ugly woman

Or the shots of liquor.

Or the buzz in your head.

Or the truth serum

.

That kept the lies flowing from your lips

Like the way you felt

Sitting there with the bible in your lap

Pretending that there was a God

.

Differing from place to place

And you just happened to be born

In the one true place

With the one true God

Who drinks shots with ugly women

.

And tells them that he loves them

When, clearly, he doesn’t.

***

A free verse poem has no set pattern for line or stanza length. Rhyme is not used, or it is used sparingly. The line length and the rhythm or the lines are dictated by the natural rhythm of speech or other concerns such as emphasis on a particular word, image, or idea.

Trump and Jesus Cuddling Naked Together in the Tub with Biden—Flarf

Staring down long tray top brain crates

Holding the best and the brightest

As well as some of the past presidents, too,

The view between life dioramas shows the two men

Regard the ghost of God sharing their bathwater.

.

Looking through the ghost, Biden speaks to Trump.

He frowns and says the Mc Rib should come with a warning label.

.

Trump smiled peering straight through the faded Jesus in the room.

There was something they could finally agree on.

He says the warning should say

‘Delicious, the best, the perfect sandwich!’

.

Biden grabs Trump by the throat and says,

No. They put pickles on barbeque, man!

Nobody should put pickles on barbeque, man.

Trump fights Biden’s hand off his throat

And grabs the bar of soap and rubs it in his eyes.

.

The ghost of God shines his light

On the two naked and fighting men.

He tries to get them to calm down and talk.

The faded Jesus says push it down.

.

Push it down. Feelings are only temporary

Just like all of life.

Push it down. The arrow of experience is ill defined

And flows one way at a time.

Push it down like the tinsel gleam of a cracked tooth

And a bloody smile.

Push it down like three inches of bloodied cloth

Tattered and ripped on the wind.

He said push it down.

.

And when that didn’t work

He pushed both of their heads under the water

Until they both stopped twitching.

Jesus is the ghost of God, isn’t he?

He can start again later

When they are in a better mood.

***

Flarf is a wild style of poetry that started as a joke. People noticed that no matter how bad your poems were Poetry.com would tell you that you had won their poetry prize. Then, they would try to scam you out of your money. So devious poets started sending the crappiest poetry they could write to Poetry.com. Even that would win the poetry prize. These poets began sending each other their crappy poems, and eventually it became a legitimate poetry style. If you want to read more about the FLARF or any of the other poetry terms, check out the glossary of poetic terms from the Poetry Foundation at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms

Google painting is a type of collaging that primarily uses internet search results and Google’s search prediction capabilities to generate quasi-random phrases. The technique helps jumpstart creativity with strange juxtapositions, broken syntax, and internet speak.

Wigwag of a Bumblebee

When God looks down,

We speak the wigwag of a bumblebee

Grunts, clicks, ululations,

Warbles and trills.

If we understand each other,

If we can communicate,

Do we have souls?

***

I think I wrote this poem at the same time that I took the introduction to poetry class in 2015, but I think I wrote it simply for fun. It wasn’t part of any assignment, and I don’t think I turned it in for any kind of credit. I posted it in July 2015, and you can see the original post here: https://therichardbraxton.wordpress.com/2015/07/01/wigwag-of-a-bumblebee/

I think this poem has a good kernel of idea, and I love the line ‘We speak the wigwag of a bumblebee,’ but it gets lost somewhere. I really want this poem to be good, and I think it wants to be good. But it has been a bad little poem and it wants to be punished. lol 😀

Scrubbing Clean Darkness—Flarffed Choka

The monastery

Is old town faith scraping and

scrubbing clean darkness

Streaked clouds with misted mirrors

Found hiding God has

Been too long in the shower

Wasting his shampoo

Bringing sparkling morning skies

To his drain and shower floor.

***

Choka is a long Japanese poem that alternates lines of 5 and 7 syllables. The poem must end with at least two 7 syllable lines in a row. If you want to learn more about choka or other syllabic poetry forms, you can visit Word Craft Poetry #TankaTuesday at: https://wordcraftpoetry.com/tanka-tuesday-poetry-cheat-sheet-for-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenges/

FLARF is a wild style of poetry that started as a joke. People noticed that no matter how bad your poems were Poetry.com would tell you that you had won their poetry prize. Then, they would try to scam you out of your money. So devious poets started sending the crappiest poetry they could write to Poetry.com. Even that would win the poetry prize. These poets began sending each other their crappy poems, and eventually it became a legitimate poetry style. If you want to read more about the FLARF or any of the other poetry terms, check out the glossary of poetic terms from the Poetry Foundation at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms

Google painting is a type of collaging that primarily uses internet search results and Google’s search prediction capabilities to generate quasi-random phrases. The technique helps jumpstart creativity with strange juxtapositions, broken syntax, and internet speak.

All Who Follow Crow—Choka

Crow in grass canted

In prayer. Black feathers burn

Spirits and fire.

Lazarus of the grassland

Missing for three days

Preaching sermons to the herd

Of life after steaks.

Praying to feed the masses

With the animals of faith.

.

All who follow Crow

Grass stubble and muddy pond

Lazy swatting tails

Finding their personal God

Raptured into hamburger.

***

Choka is a long Japanese poem that alternates lines of 5 and 7 syllables. The poem must end with at least two 7 syllable lines in a row. If you want to learn more about choka or other syllabic poetry forms, you can visit Word Craft Poetry #TankaTuesday at: https://wordcraftpoetry.com/tanka-tuesday-poetry-cheat-sheet-for-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenges/

If God Spoke–Landays

I am meat puppet, ghost of instinct.

If God spoke a single word, the word was not a name.

***

I was inspired to write this landay poem after reading the most recent Poetry Partnership, “Daydream or the Here and Now,” from Skeptic’s Kaddish. That post can be found here: https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/106476380/posts/3954337090

“Daydream or the Here and Now” is a pair of highly entertaining and deeply introspective poems on the nature of existence. They were both very cerebral poems focused on the psychological angst of not knowing why we exist. I was inspired to try my hand at embodying their angst in two short lines of concrete imagery. My poem is my answer to the question of why we are here and not a projection on what David or Puvanesvari believe.

Landay is a form of folk poetry spoken by women in Afghanistan who are predominantly illiterate because girls there are not allowed to attend school. A landay is a couplet with a first line of 9 syllables and a second line of 13 syllables. A landay is supposed to end on the sounds ‘ma’ or ‘na.’ The poems are often about love, homeland, grief, war, or separation. If you want to learn more about landays or any other poetry term, you can check out the Glossary of Poetic Terms at Poetry Foundation here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms?letter=L

God is Love—Monometer

God is

Love of

Father

For son.

.

Giving

Freely

Bellies

Of lasting

Hunger.

.

And rights

Over

Others

Looking

The same.

.

Given

Power

To rain

Fire and

Judgment.

.

Often

Metering

Out his

Love like

It’s pain.

.

Monometer is verse where each line is one metrical foot. Therefore, the poem has two syllables per line. I did allow a few lines with three syllables, and I did not worry too much about the rhythm of the stressed and unstressed syllables.

A Carpenter God

A carpenter God

Attached to a frame of lumber

Was worked to death.

Even Jesus had a sense

For poetic irony.

When it’s Foggy

When it’s foggy, God has been in the shower too long wasting shampoo.

October Poem 5: Traditional American Values

It’s just like water under the bridge, pooled

And stagnant with an oily sheen from

The decomposition of this season’s

Fallen leaves. And the smell. The methane burps

Rising up from the black bottom, and the

Sulfur gas stuck down in the ditch dug from

All the years when the water had moved. To

Walk up on the bridge shows the beauty of

The weathered wood and rusted nails. And the

Path choked by weeds teeming with insects for

The birds to eat. And the dead cat floating

Baptized in the pool of bottom feeders

Plucking at his putrefying innards

In the holy water of the dollar store God.