Short Knife Edge Poems

I remember you
and that sardonic sneer
is imprisoned deep within.

Those jagged taunts 
and knife edge taunts
devour my days ahead.

The cold dead eyes 
of mercy slain
meet mine

Forevermore....

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The knife edge of verse…
a verbal incision,
whose sharpness cuts both ways

Its blood groove runs heavy
with truth dripping free
—to mark the words unsaid  

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2020)...

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Seeking the right answers
to all the wrong questions
The knife edge resharpens
the danger rehoned

Seeking the right answers
for all the wrong reasons
The rumors refester
—all truth unatoned 

(Dreamsleep: December, 2022)...

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In the shadow, behind the tree, 
on the meadow, bend your knee,
down the valley, up the stream, flat bedrock,
hear me scream, bellow the heavens, toward hell,
dark tunnel, wishing well; fellow traveler listen well,
no chance given, could you tell, 
on a knife-edge, head or tail?...

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WORK THRU IT

Feel like I’m walking on a knife edge, 
the whole blade cutting me up. Can’t look down, 
I’m scared to fall off into the unknown. 
I’m like this a lot, so full of painful emotions 
that really take it out of me. It’s worry pulling 
me one way and then anxiety the next....

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Aching cold in swirling grey,
damp, wet, sharp within the freeze.
The loud retort of battering winds.

But then the silence...
a soundless crystal expanse.

The timeless, endless halt 
of all things storm and damage.

A pristine genisis emerges
on the knife -edge of the instant....

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Sometimes when I'm silent
I really want to scream,
I'm holding hurt in,
Try hard not to show my emotions
Because if I do
I may never regain composure again.
I'm living on a knife edge,
I have to push the feelings down,
Keep them hidden
From the outside world.
I don't want pity,
I just want your love....

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SKATING



I pull on my hat
The lake top stretches flat
To the far shore
Knife edge smooth and more

Leaning with the breeze
And aiming at distant trees
My skates bite the ice
Cutting straight and twice

Wind in ears and the chill
Make it seem I never will
Reach that frosted forested place
No matter how fast I race...

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If at all you lose your way, 
Return back from whence you came 
Until you find your strength again. 

This is the way for a random universe, 
To twist and turn from whence again, 
Again, again, and then again, until you reach the same again...
Mine ‘I’ is all important when you live on the knife edge present - random,
Order!...

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Carl is handsome
Beth says come dear
Awesome affair

Beth’s spouse comes close
Breaks Carl’s nose bone
Fierce blows rain soon

Quick comes Carl’s wife
Like sharp knife edge 
Life rife with pulls
_____________________
20 February 2016
Than-Bauk on Human Folly – Poetry Contest by Marugu Mo
Syllables 36
Checked on: www.howmanysyllables.com...

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I watch the buzzard soar
Not a wing beat for a mile or more

Majestic in natural flight
A call that owns the skies

A carrion hunter it’s true
Living on a knife edge unlike me and you

Each day prey has to be found
Each day survival hard is bound

I watch the buzzard soar
It amazes each time the more

As much of nature as you or I 
Majestic raptor soaring through the sky....

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ON THE KNIFE EDGE


City without electricity - a  lost town  - 
Phones don’t work, internet’s down.

Food spoils in freezer, coffee can’t perk;
Traffic lights out, everybody’s a jerk.

Elevators don’t work  -  gotta climb, climb: 
And read fast before sun-down  time.

Learn to cook over a candle,
Electric can-opener? Use the handle.

Back to the stone age in a second
Life’s not as easy as you reckoned....

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STOOD     UP


Wet corner,  bricks uneven,
Rain driven in lines horizontal,
Cutting knife-edge of gale. 
Distant bell chimes eleven.


Turn up  coat  collarband:
Imagine why she’s late
For this our regular date;
Light cigarette with cupped hand.


She does not come,  likely never will.
Clock pointers slow to stop,
Bolts go home in door of tobacco shop, 
Last bus strains past up the hill....

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Sitting alone on a knife edge
Looking each way and it’s a fall
Slow and steady goes it 
Each step you take is a danger

So you carefully place each foot
Each step doesn’t help with the next one
Sometimes the pleading for a rest
Knowing there will be none for you

I wonder what do you think of me
When you see me day to day
Sometimes so tired of it all
With a rest so far away.

© Paul Warren Poetry...

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She danced upon my sleepy knife-edge
Rem sleep concealed; my hollow tin ledge
Was the naked girl who stole my show

Labanotation echoed her tarred shamed knees
Free falling from grace, cumulating fees 
Have every my gutter pushed so low?

Integument tally, a dollar per pound
Rumoured lies within; no truth found
Flesh voucher paid in Bordeaux

So I flickered in though
Scar tissue hand did plough
My poured soda fountain flow...

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Does weaponizing a stolen truth
  give you the right to lie

From this perverted use of power
  do others run and hide
  
Is this how force is wielded
  on the knife edge of denial

With rules you change to suit your needs
  your sly deceitful smile

When the real truth comes upon you
  will you hang your head in shame

And see what’s false in all you’ve made
  —for temporary gain

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2018)...

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The wind is in from lost town,
it is as thin as a knife edge.
Razor beaked gulls
twist their necks, rolling
in the gritty bluster.
Lost town sinks beneath
churning clouds,
its smokestacks
just above each
new wave of despair.
The people there
have misplaced their lives,
and if they only had time
they would out-scream the gulls,
but a groveling grind
keeps them turning iron wheels,
or shoveling dry clinker
into long rusted buckets
of hope....

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