Short Stilted Poems

stilted dawn tiptoed
softly to edge of morning
lullabies rising...

Read More

bloated river crests
stilted banks under duress
brackish streams cascade...

Read More

with slow, stilted gait
neck bent and eyes fixed downward…
      the smart phone zombie

              18 Mar 2016...

Read More

Seagulls eating peck
Aloe Vera coats my neck
Tar stained stilted deck

By Robb A. Kopp

All Rights Reserved © MMX...

Read More

Idolized by pharaohs, monarchs and kings;
Bird of the wetlands, marshes and swamps.
Interesting forager with long bill and stilted long legs;
Sacred icon of the dynasties of yore....

Read More

angular
   stilted
half-
     leaning,
heavy
     weary
        chilled
complacent
  in attitude:
indolent
     even
but
    patient,
here
   I stand,
still 
     articulate...

Read More

Light painted walls
Pinklish lights
Soft tones
Swaying candles
High stilted vine glasses
Slow sipping
No words
No audience
Sparkling eyes
No secrets
Mutual compromise
Hearts smiling
A leisurely night
For two naked hearts only...

Read More

Our love has gone from
hard cover to soft

The words between us typed,
no longer scribed

The moments counted,
          that once were thrown breathless in the wind

Our feelings stilted
—with words to just describe

(Kanab Utah: July, 2019)...

Read More

I blame it on the light
pretending. Auburn bright and Autumn
too.
Fainted dim of our December
imparts the solemn fall of all to
view.
Crass comes the stilted body, amalgam
in the slanted rain. The April rains a timbered
soak.
The rings. O time! O time remains....

Read More

Atheist or Pagan
which gets to dream
reasoning stilted
 spirits unseen

Rational narcissist 
tribal taboos 
if given the choice
it’s easy to choose

Atheist or Pagan
contrast to compare
the first in self-worship
—the second aware

(Dreamsleep: March, 2022)...

Read More

Christians flock into their churches,
travelers hit the road

Searching for what’s beyond their view
in spirit overload

To leave behind the past imprisoned,
stilted and controlled

The blacktop chanting “come what may”
—a eucharistic whole 

(Dreamsleep: December, 2020)...

Read More

More silences than soft embraces, 
now we're lost with little left to say;
what used to be the flame of love
has gone to ashes, brittle, cold and gray.
Stilted words and courtesies
are all that seem to slip from our tired lips
as quick the fount of memory fades, 
the final ember flickers now and dips....

Read More

More silences than soft embraces, 
now we're lost with little left to say;
what used to be the flame of love
has gone to ashes, pale and cold and gray.
Stilted words and courtesies
are all that seem to slip from our tired lips
as quick the fount of memory fades, 
the final ember flickers now and dips....

Read More

More silences than soft embraces, 
now we're lost with little left to say;
what used to be the flame of love
has gone to ashes, pale and cold and gray.
Stilted words and courtesies
are all that seem to slip from our tired lips
as quick the fount of memory fades, 
the dying ember flickers now and dips....

Read More

More silences than soft embraces, 
now we're lost with little left to say;
what used to be the flame of love
has gone to ashes, brittle, cold and gray.
Stilted words and courtesies
are all that seem to slip from our tired lips
as quick the fount of memory fades, 
the final ember flickers now and dips....

Read More

More silences than soft embraces, 
now we're lost with little left to say;
what used to be the flame of love
has gone to ashes, pale and cold and gray.
Stilted words and courtesies
are all that seem to slip from our tired lips
as quick the fount of memory fades, 
the dying ember flickers now and dips....

Read More

Ashes

 

More silences than soft embraces, 

now we're lost with little left to say;

what used to be the flame of love

has gone to ashes, pale and cold and gray.

Stilted words and courtesies

are all that seem to slip from our tired lips

as quick the fount of memory fades, 

the dying ember flickers now and dips....

Read More

I am enticed by the iambics felt
in tides between my heart, your tongue;
I know dark orchids hem your stilted voice  
and yet your kiss unfolds me lip by lip.
Each line you've breathed has been exhumed before
by a more faithful heartbeat than your own.
Am I in love with practiced whispers pulled
from mouths of dead romantics, rhythm cursed?...

Read More

Amongst this ligneous I don’t run around,
keep still where all the timber spars surround,
for if I move a little man falls down
hate filled from stilts I brought him to the ground.

Delusion was his watchword when up high,
deluded how the light would  blind his eyes
but with his feet on grass the forest sees
and what a stilted mind defines as trees....

Read More

typeitallout,doesn'tthatseemnice?
would
it be like
a mantra
giving each thought
its own
universe-in-verse?
or,
inversely,
trapping thought
so pure
so muse
-ical
into
some stilted
pattern
a vice
of semi-pleasing 
expression-expressing-expression
that's never quite what
it seems?
isit/
arethey
phones? morphs? memes?
the unassembled
vehicle of dreams?...

Read More

It has been raining
All the day.
But now silence.
Stillness
Where just before
The drops a  rhythmic downwards breeze
Poured,
And gave us quiet melody to our thoughts,
Are suddenly no more.

The trees, stilted now,
Waving hesitant.
This new, patternless breeze
And our lives are a little more boring
As the clouds sweep past
And leave us alone.

No accompaniment seems to last....

Read More

Who am I ?
Someone standing 
On the shore
Or some one
Who sailed across
The seven seas.

I am the toiler of sea
A seeder of the earth
An emblem in nectar
For the humming bees
A creator in deeds
For impassioned ends
In tune with liberators.

My bones return to earth
And roads flash under pines
Trusting the high clouds
Or carried in palpitation
By the stilted winds
In greet for the advent
Of some warmer seasons....

Read More

Restoring far-off times, 
With stilted, Georgian rhymes,
He tried repealing Fate
Two centuries too late.

And when he saw the worth 
Of poems dead at birth,
He turned his pen to write
Strange fantasies at night.

Then when the morning came,
He signed his unknown name.
To one more priceless page
Forgotten by his Age.

Forgotten, all except
For friends who paid their debt
By publishing him till
His fame no Fate can kill....

Read More

I hope the grass is greener,
As mine is dry and wilted,
I hope you find your happiness,
As mine is faint and stilted.

I hope you treat her well,
Since you’ve left me all alone,
I hope she gives you her all,
I wish she could have known.

I hope she makes you happy,
I wish i was enough for you,
I hope you have the best life,
I wish you felt the same too.

I hope you don’t forget about me,
I’d do anything to make you stay,
I hope you loved me back,
I’m sorry I pushed you away....

Read More