Long Doorstop Poems

About Bill Posters and Bill Greenwell

Words not to use in poems

In 1993, I (Bill Greenwell) went on a three-day workshop with the poet Peter Sansom, who co-edits The North, and runs the Smith/Doorstop imprint. He’s...

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IS THIS...?             Poem 8/17/

Written for Jim Eslinger , 37-year anniversary

What are these specks we must trudge over, 
Transplanting ourselves from one wilderness to
Another?...

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the combustion of combinations of created

An angle of a candle in a demi flux should not be mistaken for tooth floss, cherry pickers, or ironing boards. For the numerous numbers of numerals note noticeable nuances...

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Perhaps like a lightning
bolt of clear out of the blue
rigor mortis (tenon and
three decades hence)
two thousand fifty nine if you
count from January 13th 2019, adieu

attest that day 9 months I did brew
in wound (of the...

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getting off the d-train one morning
@ the 125th st. nicholas stop 
&
walking toward the soup kitchen
where i was going to work that 
day
i saw a young girl of maybe 6, 7 or 8
(i’m not good...

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“holiday” card scramblers

seen them “holiday” card scramblers
heads down, frantically shuffling fingers
through the leftover scraps of the
rush from last week, from the weeks
before, from that crazy ****ing black
friday---
complaining & spoiled college brats
home from sucking on a...

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my life is frozen
and stuck in time
an endless torture
an endless rhyme
bloodstained bedsores
and lifetime slits
a world of chaos
and murderous skits
in a world that's mine
but in mind of my own
torture of gashes
bloodstained stone
beating the skin
and ripping the...

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if you have lived to see either
side of 30, you have been
offered a fruitcake---
it might have been round these
“holiday” times, when people
celebrate their fictional characters
that got the horrible religions 
rolling, or the
fictional meal that didn’t...

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Pumped

Reams of paper sit upon my desk accordioned untidily, dimpled where the cat stood or sat too long. The wastepaper basket was full of crumbled balls, reflecting the topography of the Nepali  adventure ...

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Death must be old fashioned way up in the future. Nobody's gonna die.  Tell me when. Should I solicit from the reaper?  Must I decide with my keeper? Must I still try to...

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Ada McDonald

1873-1906

This is a mistake!

A huge contretemps indeed!

A foul up of the most egregious kind!

You see, it wasn’t my time yet,

This death thing; I had things to do still.

I had places yet to visit I...

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To the younger generation
 of the world today
Try not to let drinking,
 or drugs get in your way
It may be kinda cool,
 to hang with the in crowd
Hitting all the hot scenes,
 that crank their...

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When wind whips high in the night
Shrilling it's loneliness
Or the cold grey curl of the fog
Follows me through the streets
Terror is my name, as the asphalt trembles
And I land on your doorstop, 
With horror at...

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I stood behind the bathroom door
I may have been about three or four 
I held Mom’s biscuit in one hand
I loved to play in Kitty’s sand

Grin..

I found a toy mounted on the wall
This must be...

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Orange October

The words orange and October 
surely a unity made in heaven
Giant pumpkin faces that  light 
the way up darkly garden paths.

Orange ghoulish faces, grin like
cut throat pirates, looking for 
new victims. Candles flicker...

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We bought a doorstop today,
For our great-grandson Noah
It was in the shape of a Giraffe
One like I've never seen before.

This doorstop had an attitude,
He had a cheeky grin,
His eyes were bright as buttons
They sucked us...

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My skin prickles, hair on my arm
flag-raised.
Quite peculiar, actually, someone
or something, is watching me.

I recalculate my senses, dusting off
pre-conceived notions of paranoia.

Across the room, a dull thud garners
my attention. Searching, I discover a
doorstop has simply...

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I Found My Head
 
In a Thrift Store, I found my passion,
A life-size carving of a wooden head;
I thought it would be a piece of conversation,
Unfinished though it was, I want it, I said.

The head...

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Leaving quickly I rushed by
Opening my error in this case
Standing on my doorstop at home
Taken aback my gloves are lost

Going too fast I went past them
Leaving them behind somewhere
Originating a fear that they’re gone
Very calmly...

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