Long Sobriety Poems

Disability, Illness and Fundamentalism

My brother died of Cystic Fibrosis, 
When I was twelve and he fourteen, 
It took away his ambitions, 
To study at Oxford - the pipe organ’s steam. 

I understand being born with...

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I don’t want to feel.
I tried that and it didn’t work. I tried to numb myself because I just feel alone. I don’t want to talk about it because feeling pathetic is not a very...

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The mute old drunk had gotten lucky the day before - a stranger had taken pity on him at the bridge, (under which he and many other homeless people lived), and stopped to give him...

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Choose unironically ripping off a film to be ironic
Choose now because then will never be enough
Choose puff puff puff puff puff pass because you’ll never have enough
Choose feeling guilty in the morning because it’s better...

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I have let myself down
I made progress in this town
Then, I have lost it all
With this heart so emotional

I need some sort of outlet
To let go of my regret
I can’t hold on to this pain...

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Afternoon musing, not quite content,
Wondering where the time all went -
The time not really given, only lent.

The first day of fourth grade,
In the next desk a new girl stayed,
With honey colored hair all in a...

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You ask how I really am when you damn well know,
My world is crumbling right now.
But I'll be fine,
Just give it some time,
Just take it one day at a time.
This isn't the first time,
Nor will...

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The Power of Forgiveness
By Reg Rhodes





Today, I found a key to set myself free from the nightmares of my own 
shattered reality.  

Today, with the key known as forgiveness;
I will cease to languish in...

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Faith offered in the advance of ourselves, in our Creator, in all life is the best leverage for the (H)onest, (O)pen and ever-(W)illful heart. Letting go of this for another is the gracious welcome all...

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Columbus In The New World

Three ships sailed under Spanish colours
(The Santa Maria, Niña and La Pinta)
And dropped anchor off the shores of San Salvador,
For Columbus and his crew to man-the-oars
To set foot on Terra firma...

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it had indeed become the autumn of his life and he had harshly lost

every spring in his step when his wife began to abuse his good faith

abandoned him by the way side and the side...

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Since I was little you have been around me. My parents enjoyed you as well as their friends. You made the adults loud at the party full of joy and filled with sorrow come the...

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I have been staying awake for as long as I can.
I have been doing this till I come up with a better plan.
I have been going and going till I can no longer stand.
I have...

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I live in a place striving for sobriety surrounded in alcohol looking for happiness trapped among our very own sadness. I hear my people’s laughs and I hear my people’s cries, but most of all...

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My Battlefield cry 

I've never felt so alone,
Stood on a battlefield no army I stand alone, 
Staring straight at the enemy in front of me
This enemy is not stood alone it holds the monopoly over...

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In the beginning was the word-
and the word was…

light darkness 
dawn promise  dusk despair.

I was a tempest
child a feral cat-
alone wild and
untamed eyes a
jigsaw of shattered chaos.

Mom sighs a rustle
Autumn leaves of
disappointment her gaze
a...

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I'm thankful for the stepping stones
That lead me to solid ground.
I’m not ashamed
To go from a life of insanity
To a mind that is sound.
But, I will say
Trial and error
At first
Is mostly what I found.
I discovered...

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The moment I laid eyes on you,
I knew I finally found God's perfection.
All the beauty He crafted and sculptured,
Created you without any correction.

I wonder if there were circumstances,
Where I courageously ask your number.
I express all...

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Venus’s light grew ever brighter as discovery marked its territory
On new faces—old ones brought to the light of sudden love-falls
I grew wary of the feelings surpassing my entire being
Wavelengths of caution holding their hands up...

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Nineteen Seventy-Seven Alumni

Some conspiratorial and malevolent force
     must be fast at work
     cranking chronology dial
an extraterrestrial force

     donning, housing, loosing,
   ...

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THEY
All they want is for us to die
We as humans don't even ask why
Our education system is nothing but lies
We are all on the bottom, underneath the rich guy
We spend money on things we don't...

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- and, anyway, who breaks wind over double-M, a. k. a. Manson,

Marilyn?

I'll give a ride on my razor any day to

The-Second-Prime-of-Nine-to-the-Sixth,

who was around long before CD's, DVD's, MTV, and YOU / MYtube,

spitting out the healing...

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Most people don’t know what it’s like to have this fire beneath your skin ? Burning and scolding. 
The deep dependency inside, feeds the beast that dwells within

The beast is greedy; it will not stop...

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Life with you has always felt like waiting at a train station. I’d curl up on the cold benches and wait on you forever, I think. When you finally get off, I’m so excited that...

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Prayer to the Stone of Sobriety

Under a purple flannel-like sheet, but not as soft; 
As warm as flannel-but hotter,
I am sweating.
The flannel shroud soaks up my sweat like my liver soaks up venom

I see angry...

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