Increments Poems

Expect the unexpected

Life changes come in little increments
along a fated journey fraught with twists and turns.

But once in a while
changes come on sudden and dramatic
like the day you passed away.

A fatal blow ~
the instant when I became unwhole
a widow
a casualty of love.

Blueprint for Amity

You are that feral fox
that’s wild and wary
not easily won over
needing to be approached with caution
ever so gently to be coaxed to trust

Opening up in bits and bites
get to know me slowly
get used to me in increments
i’m an acquired taste
a rose blooming in its own time



AP: Honorable Mention 2025

We do not wish the wild horses tame

Winds Blow, and We know
That Change is Coming Soon.

Life-Tides Moving By 
The Glistening Monthly Moon.

Make Room We Say, For Crossroads;
By the Way.

As Dew Becomes; the Dues
That We Must Pay.

Our Crusty Mirror Sees Only Shapes;
Foggy and Unclear.

When Eyes of Youth So Crystal 
In Their Shining Lack Of Fear.

We Move So Slow,
And Slow the Change Becomes.

We Hardly Notice How Our Lives 
Doth Rearrange Our Sums.

In Increments
Of Infinitesimal Stature

Before We Know, A Winter's Snow;
And Our Foundation's Fracture.

We Do not Wish for Youth's
Renewable Moments Passing;

We do not Wish the Wild Horses Tame,

Our Only Wish:
 
To Touch Love Every Day,

And Every Day 

Be Other Than The Same.

Traffic Jam

The sand from the hourglass is slipping through the cracks between my fingers. 
as I track my time in increments,
regulated, rhythmic, redundant.
the weekends coming, 
it’s almost winter break.
I think, as I fail to realize that I am watching time pass me by 
like I'm standing on the side of the road watching the cars drive by 
instead of being in one, 
controlling the wheel and pressing the gas.
I catch a glimpse of an empty car parked on the side of the road,
desperately scrambling towards it,
my hair whipping around my face,
obscuring my vision, 
clouding my judgement.
I try and try and try to push it away—
but it keeps coming back.
drive, drive, drive,
a voice tells me.
as I steady my shivering, shaking hands grasping the wheel. 
don't, 
my hair hisses.
encircling my face with the grip of a vice
tighter, and tighter, then black.

Simple Verses of Love

As much as anything, 
we are our words -- 
increments of twists and 
turns, joys~ inevitable burns

(one's acrobat of verbal
written being)

As much as anything 
what we think we should
feel -- important less right
and wrong~ 

At our best when together
keeping it real -- 

Reams of letters freeing
can also be a bound fetter

less important is the letter

If only lines of division
let that paper go up
in flame! We are far
more than our portraits
and names, marble busts,
insatiable art-lusts

States have their politics
and God far above

a mere poet, inclined I am
more often to humbly settle 

for simple verses of love --

Chrysalis

Able to take change 
in smaller increments …
the total overwhelms

The pieces digested
in tiny fragments
absconding from the realm

— Breaking it down —
 taming the maelstrom 
 hail turns into rain

The whole reemerging 
inside my becoming
 transforming me again

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)

Do We Really Know Anyone?

"Of course, I can vouch for him to work in your bank''
He is the most honest, trustworthy genuine conscientious, reliable person I've ever met!.''


"'Yes, I met him in jail two weeks ago.''- Peter Dome. 2024.

It is my unwavering understanding
And a humble earnest opinion
I may be I'm wrong in other people's eyes
And open to conjecture and open to a discussion 
In a civilized objective debate 

It may not even bother you
But really knowing someone you may think you know
Inside out that may cast no shadow of adoubt and deceit    
But it may not have anything to do with distrust at all
But stories yet unread and uncomplete

Then trust is just a word until it's earned
As I know only too well I had to learn
As I have had my fingers burned
Just too many times
And tread upon some explosive landmines

If it lasts just a short time
Or life
And there are missing blanks to fill in
If that's what you need to know 
Or better off not to know

The person in question
Over time in increments
Gives you another jigsaw piece
That makes you understand who they are
And just where they have been.

Dying in the Moment

In the language of Spirit
it is said: “that we must die before we die.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the language of Sprit
it is said: “that we must die before we die.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It kills me,
a lot of things kill me.
I mean the kind of ‘killing’
that blinks you out for a moment,
that kind of little death.

Such instances can be exquisite,
like when your life unlatches,
you stop in mid-throttle,
halted upon a careening mania.
There are no increments,
no gradients,
you just jump out of yourself.

A powerful ****** can kill you
with one thrust of bliss.

Holding your baby for the first time,
a sudden inexplicable gnosis
obliterates your present,
past and future.

Writing a killer line in a poem -
that can kill the reader
for a bitty twitch of time.

Those quiescent extinctions happen,
in a single tick of abeyance,
transient wipe-outs
(too abrupt to me measured),
when we forget
to be both happy or sad,
in nothing-flat
we have ceased to be, we succumb,
only to return.

Between each taken breath,
these little deaths may, at any time,
undo time,
revealing much more than we,
the living,
might care to admit.

The Moon By Day

Some fireflies lit the way of wishful whim,
the expectations fired diminished vim.
The lack of lucence rendered chances grim.
Design of great foment—I hugely now repent.
The flowers vie with scent—their vibrant colours spent
when light from Sun in lower meadow mean.
The crows at dawn abated soon to preen.
A gibbous Moon in western sky still seen.
Yet rainbows will succeed—the face of Moon must bleed;
the rays absorbed thus freed—its cast expressions knead.
I guess my chance to win your heart is slim.
Tenacious Moon by day espy torment:	
From arduous labour I tire and wean
myself by increments in chocking plead!

Time Vs Time

Time is not justly counted by increments...

like a pie all crust can have space without filling 
it disappoints – 

too much wasted by reluctant planning – 

few visions of living ever leaving the station of 
Excursion – like a dynasty of tempting brochures culminating in
tenure, that far more brave and less credentialed travel faithfully
outright...

Triumph's Reckless Youth vs Pompous Charted Night

such licensed surveyors expose dark by tiny bits called 
stars, seeing only seconds, oblivious to stuffed longer 
gigantic days' leaps packed into uncharted universes

time shallowly used is soul
and spirit only outside basted,

exterior roast__toast

while the bloody inside
left yearning release,
for its surface~ burning!

when time is too contemplated,
measured, set in plates of orderly
rations – seasoned but only tasted
(a belly denied lumps of glutenous
impulsive passions)

it is a written novel

with no real claims
to glory....

Time then...is only Time

dimly expressing God's timeless
true story

How Do You Feel

 Love portrays the myriad of displays, 
Much may pass, the way you feel - stays! 

Crazy love song with dancing butterflies, 
Cryptical sighs and puppy eyes. 

Sweet whispered nothings making perfect sense 
Foaming cloud nine, puff and intense.   

Fond pillow talks of matters of sublime,
Earnest vows till the end of time. 

Walks either holding hands or arm in arm 
Have a mystique of all time charm. 
 
Would there be a prerequisite of love 
If not for increments above?! 

Love portrays a myriad of displays, 
Much may pass, the way you feel - stays! 

January 23, 2023

Time Away

I am told that Time
are increments...the
happy man counts 
his by kisses – a family
hour, a dream for the
thrifty~ wise, a short REM 
seeming somehow linked 
to greater eternity – 

I am told that Time 
is precious – or burden
to those without Power,
to those hungry – 
alone as empty and sad

Time with God I've never
found wasted...

Though I've managed
good use of all these

Time away from you
has always been, pure hell....

Birth Is a Doorway

We enter and exit
through the vision – 
what we see, and
what we deny; never
knowing what is there;
nearsighted and a-far – 
born unclear, our focus
a gradual ascent – eyes, not
a victory, but what they show
us of the world outside, unseen;
birth is a doorway ajar – the 
vehicle, and not the journey;
the thrust, but not the fuel;
born to die so that we may
live...passing through and
beyond in recyclable 
increments....

Predicament

6/30/21

Listen to this
Getting sick of it
This drink I'm always sippin' it
Does no good to be a chicken s***
Or hypocrite

What a predicament
An outcome is imminent
Nothing infinite

All these increments
It's gone beyond intricate
The spectrum was never equivalent

Another foolish idea they implement
Quickly calling it legitimate
With a signed certificate

So focused on the omnipotent
And whether guilty or innocent
Treating you like an instrument

Don't be insolent
Stay diligent
Work on something significant

Another participant
And new experiment
Leading to life long imprisonment

In abundance or limited
Deliberate or a coincident
Complex or primitive
Sober or off much more than Ritalin
Where are you girl
In this world
Lately, I've been considerate
And interested
In getting intimate

Feeling magnificent
Mind state past militant
As another citizen
It took discipline
The maximum not the minimum
An occasional stop in Michigan

Among all these specimens
Before I'm a skeleton
For my own benefit
And the Benjamin's
Always genuine
Did it off adrenaline

God Help Us All

Nineteen eighty four was late
Not quite when Orwell said
But slowly and in increments
They are getting in your head

They're trying to change your thinking.
Quite slowly day by day 
Affecting how you view the world
And, controlling what you say

You're not allowed to voice your thoughts
'cause folk might get offended
Even though they are innocent
With no offence intended

This modern world is changing 
Surreptitiously it seems
It won't be long before they start
Policing all our dreams

They'll cart you off and lock you up
It'll be no use complaining
Then put you in room 101
for thought police retraining

• Short Increments Poems
• Famous Increments Poems
• Best Increments Poems
• Read Increments Poems
• Long Increments Poems
• Increments Quotes