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Best Poems Written by Joseph Adler

Below are the all-time best Joseph Adler poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Joseph Adler Poem

I Had the Grapes

I had the grapes 
but I wanted the vine
I had the vine
then wanted the garden
I got the garden
and needed the
valley
the valley was mine
but not the peaks
so I got the mountains
but the sky was
out of reach
so I 
stole the sky
but the stars
stayed
where they wanted 
to be
so I swallowed them
up
inside of me
and when I had it 
all
I came to see
that I had sadly
ceased to be.

Details | Joseph Adler Poem

Saboteur

saboteur 
lying in wait 
in the camouflage
of my unsure
intentions
acrid ants of doubt
run amok 
in black swarms of 
errant motion
fixed wings impaled
by pins of lies
goodbyes
and busted dreams
oh when did I fall 
and forget to get up
how far did I go
before I forgot
is she in the pale
reaching into the void
only to find me
adrift
with shame by my side
and a bottle of confusion
along for the ride
the saboteur smiles
in deft illusion
yesterday and tomorrow
struggling in fusion
lovus interuptus
the most horrible of intrusions
what’s done has morphed
into painful protrusion
and what of my vision of
pure virgin white
stained by deception
deconstructed in one night
left old and stumbling
on the precipice of fright
frantically searching
to make it right

Details | Joseph Adler Poem

Ask the Moon

ask the moon

two approaches
two dead ends.
love doesn't die it just slips into your
back pocket
shifting uneasily
like detached spiders legs
you must remind it
that there's no where left to
run.
bodyless memory
entity unto itself.

towards and away
connected at their ends
by the circumference
of doubt.
each movement the derivative
of mute-faceted equations
that click away
between want and
denial.
you approach the subject
of love
with drama and a 
top hat
twirling on a cane
with a razor edge.

slicing into
and stretching up
stopping up flows
that quench the need for
chronic seepage.
love has answered none of the
questions
least of all
are you able to love?
or can love exist
in the spaces you have left it?

at first love looms
like the steps of a library
littered with strange words
as you peer through the knees of
understanding
time alters the grandeur of
romance
revealing it as mere discovery.
then the first house
the patch of green
and the settlement grows
a cancer
or a mass of promises-
either way it seems incorrect.

and so the long
goodbye
a deja vu of ripped ligaments
and voided wombs
love remains transient
a boarder in the back of your
mind
an impossible achievement 
incomprehensible as
immortality
while love,
the primeval
cytoplasm,
alters its shape
in order to survive.

are we left with
nebular inconsistency
or with
love?
ask the moon 
it will reply
"rocks"
ask the universe
and it will remain 
silent.

Joseph A Adler  copyright 1975

Details | Joseph Adler Poem

The More She Opened

the more she opened
the deeper I went
until widening 
and entering
became
a transcendent
event
form into
formless
empty of intent
simply there 
for it’s own pleasure
a celebration
of time
eternally spent
past and future 
suspended
in divine
consent
we thought
we were making
love
while love 
was making us
rebirthing
the original 
memory
ashes to ashes
dust to dust
we die each time
we surrender
into the womb
of primal
trust
I am the friend
of your body 
mind
and heart
come to your
stage
to play the
lover’s role
in the 
“Tale of 
Two of Us”
choreographed by
destiny
an endless engagement
playing at
the “Theater
of Our Souls.”
(Broadway and 777th St)

Details | Joseph Adler Poem

Monster

Monster

just before the kill
corner of eye
mirror shard
piece of something
i had sculpted
from betrayals
beatings
in the pit of my
nightmares
what are you?
i turned to stare:

“I am the Monster
made in your image
beaten boy
abandoned baby
till death do I march
in defense of schemes
here at your bequest
roots of shattered dreams
do not mock me
I protect you
from the knife of pleasure
lodged at the core
of black disaster,
who but I will suture
your shattered soul
keep falsehoods true
and innocence unbattered?
hideous kiss
upraised hand
black and blue
fists and you
I will devour
the broken promise
fissured failure
foul and fuming
I am the cradle you spun
round your pain
I am hero
in nothing but stain,
do not judge me
I have served you
I have kept you sane.”

just before the kill
my monster turned to
terrorize
assailants
assassins,
perpetrators of doom
heartless nurturer
in a crushed room
i cried and cried
cried and cried
until breath twisted
pleading choking
what when
how will I survive?

just before the kill
just Him and me
who will decide
how it will be
the Monster ran
and ran and ran
quicksand, concrete
roiling seas
thrashing, lashing
foaming groaning
till even It
lay spent and moaning
limp in my arms
fearsomeness withdrew
the scales of time
shed dreams anew
and i who thought i hated Him
let truth be known
that Ugliness 
is Absence
and cradled tenderly,
He was beautiful too.

Details | Joseph Adler Poem

I Will Pour

I will pour 
mySelf 
into You
til breath
is done
flowing
thru your
giving
drawn 
to your yielding
my waterfall
smoothing stones
in widening streams
passing through
secrets
I’ve never seen
I will dance with you
long after
these legs are gone
and sing the words
of our favorite
songs
cleave canyons
in your 
sandstone
leave footprints
upon your soul
sink into
your heaving
a drunken traveler
beyond your reach
hiding in your 
slipstream
awash within
your breach
small moments
of unforgettable
meaning
that traverse
this illumined room
chanting
while angels
swoon
and etch desires
upon the reflection
of the moon
upon tussled sheets
and conjured dreams
lover’s themes
timeless scenes
enfolded sleep
cradled in a 
heartbeat.

Details | Joseph Adler Poem

When You Become

when you become
every woman
and I become every
man
time will stop
and duality will end
but until that time
play with me in the sand
let me lift your
sun drenched body
in the Aegean sea
and spin you round
in divine buoyancy
cover you with clay
crafted in antiquity
rest at the gate of your
womb
in unbearable ecstasy
till we tumble into the
Valley
of endless
possibility
as you become
all earth
and I become
all seeds
then this moment
will drop
into infinity
but until then
let me taste
wine grapes
split between
your swollen lips
and the green scent
of Corfu
upon the curve 
of your hips
as my sword 
and your bowl
make molten
romance
cascading
rearranging
into the bliss
of our 
second chance

Details | Joseph Adler Poem

Morning Hero

this morning
I sought to be
informed
to become a glutton
for sturm and drang
two dimensional facts
were tasteless
only wailing tears
realtime malevolence
and the correct color of blood 
could satiate
the need to know
to swallow evil
feel it burn my bowels
squeeze through my lens 
tear my retina
and twist my lips
into unutterable words 
emaciate my heart
until I become
the dark fairy tale
I read in my youth
then
and only then
would I be moved to action
untie the tongue
unblind the truth
mount a white horse
shine in sunlit armor
and shield my sensibility
with brute mentality
swing my sword of purity 
behead the lame excuses
of paltry personalities
who make the evening news
and forge myself
into the morning hero.

Details | Joseph Adler Poem

The Big P

the big P

it was in it’s own proud prominence
the path that entered your world
innocent 
ruled by beast
brawn
blood
pressed in tensile tension
awakening in sleep
asleep in wakening
a one note song
spewed from a 
two sphered voice
spiraling into the fulcrum
of your fecundity
it was in it’s own stuttering singularity
a part pieced partly from
paltry presumptions
petulant pursuits
penetrating into palsy
perturbed then pallid
plucked
pruned
passed
into peculiarity
punctured
pitied
perplexed
into perpetuity
trapped in pubescent possibility
perambulating at the periphery
of your heart
just beyond the miracle
of profundity.

Details | Joseph Adler Poem

It Only Takes a Tiny Thing

it only takes a tiny thing
to rock the immobile heart
to cleanse dusty corners
that keep us all apart
creatures crawling
in the night
blood lust coaxing 
clouded sight
calling us from lethargy
into transformational heights
the smallest of angel’s
creatures
endowed with so much might
who feeds upon whom
when blood is drawn away
a space 
for breeze to flow
beneath the bed 
of another day	
in search for the
invisible
everything is seen
dust balls
hairclips
detritus of decapitated 
dreams
cities of neglect
full of ancient
insect schemes
cluttered intentions
careless artwork
depicting aborted scenes
withered  memories
that have long forgotten
where they’ve been
it often takes 
no thought at all
to change  
an unsure life
just a broom
some cleaning fluid
and the swipe
of a loving wipe