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Best Poems Written by Vaughan Wesley

Below are the all-time best Vaughan Wesley poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Vaughan Wesley Poem

Chattering

Sails flick while chattering
To the wind deciding
How to best throw itself 
Into its arms.

Port rocks to starboard 
And back again
While I'm throwing my insides
Over the rail into the sea.

Mainsail catches and off we go
Pushed along by nothing
Except the breath of the sea
My stomach as a sacrifice.

The water decides most things 
And today to swell and fall
Bucking like a horse.

It's just the risk you take
When you let her be herself.

Details | Vaughan Wesley Poem

Wolf Hunting

I heard a story once about people up north.
Where there’s long days and long winters
And the snow piles higher than houses.

They hunt wolves in winter,
Finding ways to do it safely.
Horrific and brilliant methods.

Take a knife and dip it in blood
Freeze the blood on the blade,
Do this over and over
Ten times over.

Until the blade is deep beneath a thick coat
A winter coat of deepest red.

Leave it in the open blade pointing up
Saluting the sky 
Taking a bow before the grand performance
The great seduction of the beast.

Curiosity can be wonderful,
Curiosity can be devastating.

A hint on the wind
And the scent makes itself at home 
Amongst happy memories
Eating dinner with family.

You come out of the trail 
Seeing this small tower of red
Amidst this ocean of white,
You remember this shade of red.

It wasn’t the first lick that killed you
But it sealed your fate to be sure.
Those that live by the sword die by the sword
Those that thirst for blood drown in their own.

Niceties we say to excuse our guilt,
You never stood a chance against this trap
It looks like food
It smells like food
And it even tastes like food.

Your tongue swarms into every crevice
Made by the swirling vapours
Of your hot breath excited
Panting with desire and hunger.

You lick and lick and lick
And endless fountain of your favourite flavour
You denied yourself nothing.

The blood just kept coming,
First from the frozen blood
Thawed by your warmth,
But then it switched and you didn’t notice.

Did you?

Can’t pinpoint the second but sometime 
Your tongue met the steel
Blood now spouting from many sources
And you swear it’s the best day you’ve ever had.

You died in a garden painted red, 
By the fleshy brush jutting forth
From your strong jaws
Bathed in your own paint.

I just listened to the story,
Dumbstruck.

I’ve never understood
A wild animal better than now,
I’ve been betrayed
By my longings too.

Curiosity can be wonderful,
Curiosity can be devastating.

Details | Vaughan Wesley Poem

Cleft Heart

Early October when the bomb went off,
Tearing us apart.
A brother here, a sister there.
Scattered across the globe.

Like the shock had made
Roots suddenly disappear.
Wandering to find them again.

Something to anchor me to life,
And something to pretend 
That none of this ever happened.

It was like walking under a tree
Green burning bright
Like a star in the night.

Until it drops its snow
Right down your back
And your spine inverts itself.

The snow no colder than
The snowball fight earlier.
But never expected.

I never expected any of this
I trusted you,
I loved you.

But after you left,
We didn’t talk for months.
You didn’t understand that.

How could you think,
Nothing would change between us?
When you tore my heart right out.

I was a child,
Not a liver,
I’m not that resilient!

Are you stupid?
Or can you just think
That wishfully?

Couldn’t you have thought wishfully,
About her too?
Build her up in your mind.

Something better than she was,
Instead of leaving me all alone with her,
The only boy around.

We were six!
Then just three,
Only boy was me.

Brothers dug for oil,
Money for their toil.
We all got new family.

Pretend it’s normal
This prefix ‘step’ for everybody.
A monosyllabic word for ignorance.

Did you have stinging nettles
In the corners of your mind,
Shrouding your secrets from yourself?

I didn’t know what a man was!
How could I instantly become?
I guess you didn’t know either.

I found a new father,
He’s never let me down.
He’s unshakeable.

Yeah we talk now,
About the weather,
And the price of gas.

But it will never be the same,
I can’t think that wishfully.
I won’t struggle to get as close.

You used to hold me close,
Just to be near me,
I treasure the memory.

It was twelve years ago you left,
Twelve years with a cleft heart.
When you changed the definition of home.
I’m trying to be eloquent now,
But all I can think of,
Is just how much it hurt.

Details | Vaughan Wesley Poem

Slam Time

So you think that you’re better?
My diction ain’t got no fetter
I can pull books from just one letter.

It’s a skill I’ve been honing
While you’ve been atoning
For rhymes inexcusable
Yeah I’m not defusable.

You think you’re so clever 
But I’ll use you like a lever
All your weak lines I’ll sever.

Stack them up like a ladder
My victory spoken from your tongue
And every time you get madder
I’ll just climb another rung.

Details | Vaughan Wesley Poem

Origin

I tied a hangman's noose
Within the womb
Around my neck was slung
And from those gallows swung.

I was six days late
The pressure wouldn’t abate
I’ve always been
Afraid of change.

I came out looking blue
Foreshadowing how I’d feel
Writing this at all.

I was timid, I was quiet, 
Sleeping days away.
Always compliant
Never outspoken.

Obedient, a good kid 
They’d say.

Now looking back as a man
With fissures throughout my heart
I think it’s not that simple.

Never outspoken sure,
For every strongly expressed opinion 
Was shouted, and frightened 
This gentle child into quietness.

So I grew with roots reluctant
To claim soil another may one day want,
Older brothers younger sister 
More abrasive than I.

I like tile they like sandpaper,
Every attempt to rough me up
Only made me smoother.

One day I was called to manhood
By nothing but necessity. 
At an age that couldn’t be expected
To swing a hammer well.
Hell I couldn’t even swing a decision yet.

How could I possibly step into shoes
Strangely unworn before
And with strength strike
The nail on the head.

I filled those shoes in time
Sometimes feeling room still
By my big toe.

I swung a decision,
I’d be the man I wanted to be
To be different than the example.

A timid trailblazer still covers ground,
A kite broken free may crash,
Or fly higher than ever imagined.

The world needs good men
I’ll fill that need or die trying,
She needed me to be more,
My soul began 
To grow chest hair.

So that’s where I’m from
There’s my past laid out.
My future?
Well that’s up to me isn’t it.

Details | Vaughan Wesley Poem

Peacock

I am a peacock preening feathers
So you might not notice
How slight I really am.

Maintain this sheen make it gleam
Lest it betray my fear
Of prying eyes
From fiendish spies.

So many layers built upon
For year after year after year
I don’t remember the colour
Of my own natural skin.

There are few and far between
That see me as I am,
When days length gives way
To evenings hold and nights sway,
All the shimmer and shine
Of my prized plumage 
Means nothing in the dark.

The fear of being known 
As well of being unknown
Keeps me painted today,
Now you know my secret
Seen the crack in my veneer,
When twilights comes
And the brilliance of the sun
Angles just right I’ll see yours too.

Wear your flaw proudly
It’s what makes you different
Not just another zoo attraction
Be a rebel a renegade
Choose to boil or freeze
No matter the centigrade.

Details | Vaughan Wesley Poem

Sunglasses

If you need proof that every soul
Is at war with itself,
Look no further than your sunglasses.

That in the darkest hour of night 
We pray for dawn to break
To chase the shadows away
And illuminate your spirit.

What do you do?
What have I done?
That dearest beseeched ray of day
Finally hops the fence and is found
To be too damn brilliant
Too sharp and discerning to tolerate
It stings the eyes and scorches the skin.

I wear sunglasses,
Keep my foot in both camps
For darkness threatens to smother
And light threatens to burn me
So I stay in the middle. 

So you see we are all of us
Creatures afflicted by division,
Fallen spirits trying to float upwards
While still clinging to the ground,
The best gymnast of the heart 
Can’t do the splits that well.

Trash your Oakley’s
Nobody can serve two masters.

Details | Vaughan Wesley Poem

Night Sky Conservatory

Do you remember the night sky conservatory?
The time we picked the lock at the gate
Snuck in after dark?
So innocent we felt like criminals.

Little did we know we were stealing
Each other's hearts.

Do you remember the blanket I spread out
Beneath the stars that slowly revealed themselves
One constellation at a time?
Learning that darkness and light
Can really coexist quite beautifully,
Each gaining significance from the other.

Do you remember the bats 
Scattering their silhouettes 
Across our unhindered gaze?

Do you remember the creature
Moving not far away?
Do you wonder as I do,
If it was our budding affection manifest
To warn us we were falling?

Do you remember when you said,
“That was my first kiss”
And your very words
Altered my body chemistry?

Do you remember from all the years gone by
Amidst the tangled breaths and foggy windows,
All the vapours of pleasure
Turning into solid child?

How could I not believe in magic?
When what I’ve known with you
Is the opposite of tragic.

Details | Vaughan Wesley Poem

Kamikaze

I have no blood
I have no heart
Only a red sea in my chest
Tide in highs and lows
Every single second
At the beckoning of a moon
Behind the very sky.

Pulled by things unseen 
Plucking feathers clean
Pruning vanity clipping pride
Silencing remarks so snide.

In the end I’ll be a nomad
Walking ever inland 
To where the gardens grow
I’ll have no grass to mow
Only seeds to sow.

Come with me 
Come one come all
Untie the dreams safely moored
Let them risk open waters
And swift unseen currents.

Be swept away by the music
That’s played in the background
Of your dreams.

Be the kamikaze 
That forgot to say goodbye
Overwhelmed by the importance
Of the task at hand.

Details | Vaughan Wesley Poem

Nativity Part 5

Then it all happened in an instant
The last push was pushed
My hand was squeezed
By a might I didn’t know she had.

He came screaming past
The chasms of fate
Brandishing no scepter
Wearing no crown.

A boy child that 
Looked like any other,
Except that I knew better
Even the animals did.

What a strange manner
You chose from on high,
That your strength and splendour
Would come as one so weak.

Many knees were bent that night
And many heads were bowed,
Later I heard that wise men came
And shepherds who’d seen
Angels singing in the hills.

I heard that a heavenly light
Had guided them here 
To give gifts
To this most fragile king.

I don’t quite remember
For my head never left the ground
My knees never straightened
And all I could think was,

He’s here!
He’s finally here!
The great Son
Of the Great I Am!

He who parted the Red Sea
And protected our people
With pillars of fire in the night
Is finally here!

I didn’t even think of Mary
In an instant secondary,
Not that I didn’t care
That she would heal or not,
Rather that hope itself 
Was in the room,
So how could I despair?

Upon seeing his face
And slender form
Wrapped up in cloth
All fears and doubts
Simply perished,
And left in their place
Only wonder
Only praise
Only adoration.

This is Christmas
This is joy
In this precious little boy,

Here is hope
I see it plain
That by this child
Death may be slain.