Long Freeverse Poems

After "the ritual" by Olivia Gatwood

everything about this song is red,
your wallet is brown,
the brown a burgundy
and the burgundy’s chalice
has gold to dazzle
rubies, carnelian, sard
precious, semi-precious, the same-
all the same, feel the same
when you hold...

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soul searching
purpose working

once upon a rhyme
a friend named Trina and I wrote
it's still true in this space
and time although some
things have changed
the life of a soul with a 
spirit in a body from 
soul to...

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it did not knock.
it poured through the cracks—
in dreams,
in fever,
in the silence between my inhale
and forgetting.

i didn’t summon it.
didn’t pray.
didn’t kneel beside any sacred thing.
but something sacred knelt inside me.
without warning.
without language.
without mercy.

it came wrapped...

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Spirit didn’t knock.
It entered through the back door—
a sliver of wind in my kitchen,
on a Tuesday so ordinary
I thought the sacred had forgotten me.

The sky was the color of old bruises,
and my hands were inside...

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I
"Gotta job as a nanny!"
"Maybe they'll hire me as a butler"
"Butler and nanny always live
in close quarters"
She winks
He raises and eyebrow suggestively

II
"I love flirting with poets
so...
palpable"
"Indeed my dear, indeed.
We are a flirtatious, passionate creature"
"But we're...

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Conditionally,
“unconditional”
comes with its 
vast conditions,
don’t you agree?
we invest our love,
and all of ourselves 
into the adoration
and dissection 
of all forms 
of muses,
who will, 
or will not
be found 
swimming amused 
in each others' 
minds, 
in each...

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Walking besides the beloved's yard.
I saw her fragrance-enchanting the palace..
Her rosy essence couldn't make me stand-
For another while;darted I inside the house..
Fetching the water to the greens;
Stood she-besides me.
The eyes met-the song on her lips...

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Unpoetic Justice 2: Best Freeverse as Traditional Poems
A poem I will not publish here was stolen by a man and remixed slightly, then claimed as his own. I have taken an original version and restructured...

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each morn' I surrender my sins ...
          to God ...  my heavenly father
        I pray for help to...

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Once a day I would meet a girl named Jasmine, 
Who gave me a cup of Jasmine tea

The warm, flowing liquid went down my throat,
A smile dancing upon my cheeks as I enjoyed the taste...

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'Love Story' Poetry Contest. 
Sponsor: Regina Mcintosh
1st Place. 

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” 
           ...

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1.)

I read a poem about a dream and so, I try to 
track my dreams, I try to catch them in my pillow case.
All night- I flip back to back, flippantly- up and down.
Keeping a...

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last night,
i kissed the wine glass
until it cracked
from want.
i wanted red—not wine.
not again.

the walls talked in their usual static,
soft-lipped murmurs,
muffled as a hand over a mouth.
i pressed my cheek to the faucet
and heard
my mother crying
through...

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With each step forward, let your heart feel,
The pulse of the earth, the strength that is real,
For paths of mercy and grace lie ahead,
Where love guides the weary, where hope’s gently spread. 
The mountains may...

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Sitting on the lip of my bathtub,  
hunched over the edge,  
dripping and draped in terry cloth  
I cry out, "Oh God".  
I pray.  
More sincerely than I have since...

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Clocks tick on old, wooden walls
shelves of books line the room
suede elbow patches rest on chairs
part of the suit that plays host to 
men of distinction
stories as lavish as their clothing
tobacco smoke billowing
fantasies constructed in...

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I am alone

I’m all alone
Yet again
In this sparsely populated plain
My dearheart having gone off the screen 
Giving me  a really nasty turn
To hit the sad way of the forlorn
But your love I never did...

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i text dead people for advice.
not because they answer—
they don’t—
but because they never interrupt.
i tell my grandfather
about the boy who left mid-winter
and how my ribcage still
clicks shut like a locket
when someone new gets close.
he was...

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Artificial pairings forced friendships
and barriers of language, but seemed 
harmless, and without knowing me
painted letters in tidy rows
words on scented sheets signed with love
and read in secret.

Mother could be so distant
she must have known love...

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I often question why we are here
are we pieces to a bigger puzzle
why do we hide these questions from the world,
afraid of rejection, fear?

I often question what it's like to be mute, 
observing the world...

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i never wanted to be a god—
just someone you cried in front of.
that was enough divinity for me.
your grief tasted like pomegranate seeds,
sweet and bitter
and buried in the soft ruin of you.
i held your sobs...

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seeking elusive violets
     in shadowy patches 
           beneath jacaranda trees
     a window of sunlight fell upon you

desiring...

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she does not walk—
she ignites.
in the dark cathedral of ash and echoes,
she spins,
a silhouette carved from the mouth of a flame,
hips swaying like the last breath of a phoenix.
her dress—
not cloth, but the wind of...

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in the desolate
          solitary hours
    when fear trickles down my spine

  time is my jailor
    closing me behind its...

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Why I Write


He asks why I write

And I say I must

Because the words, you see

Flow as easy as blood in my veins 

The pen as natural as the air I breathe

Without it, I explain

The maze...

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