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Best Poems Written by Camille Beck

Below are the all-time best Camille Beck poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Camille Beck Poem

Turf

The turf is wet. 
Tinny rap splashes out, booming and the players are bouncing
Like boxers, ready for the air-balls
That they cleanly tap and set on the ground
With the surfaces of their cleats.
The rap is crashing.
The rain is dripping
From a sky done raining, 
Just feeling sorry for itself.
Number 21 runs on the field
With a ball between her feet.
Meeting a teammate she fakes,
Jumps over the ball
Landing, sliding, beside it.
She does this twice, 
Bent with elevation,
Her ponytail swinging.

Halftime.
21 has seen every white line on the field up close by now.
If not for the clean turf 
Her jersey would be dirty and covered in mud.

Still fighting,
Number 5 scores.
We scream for her.
21 goes down again.
Up again.
She is half-crouched,
So close to her defender she is almost leaning on her as the ball flies
21 jumps incredibly, legs bent, and viciously snaps her head
Sending the ball at a different angle.
And 5 scores again.
21 goes for the goal in the next minute,
One of many runs.
"One rule:  Don't hold",
I hear in my mind.
She bolts, bent to it,
Jumping over legs.
Lightning.
Sticky defense,
No go.
And again,
She takes it and runs,
Maradonna,
Spinning, tapping.
So close to a wrong-colored leg,
Split second evasion.
The shot flies down the middle.
Her toe rips a spray of black rubber
From the turf.
Too high.
In exasperation
She bends over,
Head by knees.
And straightens up,
Watching the keeper punt the prize.
She explodes out of the crowded center again,
Leaping but watching
For options.
The ball is sent,
Is slid back to her,
And nothing has taken any heart out of her.
End of the stride,
Slide,
Shot!
Deflected.
Volleyed hopefully.
In.
Top of the net.

I am sent in, full of excitement.
I start to congratulate the replaced player,
But she's singing,
Teasing me encouragingly.
"Yeah 28,
It's your birthday..."
21 is leaving the field also.
High-fives.
(Always high-fives...)
"Hey.  Hey.  Go score a goal,
Okay?"
Just that simple.

Details | Camille Beck Poem

Cliff

She stands, a horse with legs taut and proud
And her eyes are an opera, 
The clashing and rising of war voices
Marble eyes in rubber casing.
She is perfectly how
Hope stands in battle.
I bought a horse with a tail like a cliff, 
Blown, fine, proud, tall; 
Stalked.
And I would have bought you
But your hair was lavender.
And I would have bought you, twilight

Details | Camille Beck Poem

The Song About Kayla

I wonder if we'll find each other at the 100th story of the cylinder
And play through the glass walls.
'Kayla's laugh is so distinctive.'

In my eyes sHe was like superman.

Finally I said my goodbyes
And walked  away, 
So much the better for it.

She really could fly.

I knew because I saw everything; 
The sunsong spilled into the hood of her jacket, No, wait, 
Her sunbrown hair flew like a song...

Then Hero was just in a strong rangy gray t-shirt
And big brown eyes.
And I envieD her so much.

I don't know what the song meant
But in the end the notes were softly saying
'She was my rock, 
She was my safety.'

Details | Camille Beck Poem

Moon and Star

And just when I was going to laugh
You came along, You stood ahead
You came along, and bled it out of me.
We are not the moon and star
But we will someday be.

Details | Camille Beck Poem

Building and Burning (Inspired By 'The Streets Have No Name'

When I walked into the evening
The broken leaves began to laugh
The moon was almost smiling
And the sky was torn in half

In the one half lay the darkness
In the other steeped the stars
And I thought for just a minute 
That the sky was throwing sparks.

There were people holding hands as
They danced around a lake
That the moon was being born in
And their song now makes me ache.

There was a soldier on a hilltop
And the sun it was his friend
So large it turned the sky red
And gave away the story's end.

On the corner of the street
Was a playground lined with swings
And I could only see it
Through the strange metallic strings.

And screaming to horizon
Was demanding desert sky
And I lived in an apartment
With the A. C. turned up high.


I banged the flimsy screen door
And disappeared that quick
Past the parking lot and drug store
In shining Spanish brick.


There are boxes, open doorways
To let in the warm light night
There are rows of harmless houses
Shining on the stars outside.

In the broken, golden leaf-fall
There are girls with determined hair
That claim they have found lost streets,
That Bono showed them where.

In the half with more than darkness
Are harmonics of the stars
And I looked from side to side
Then I knew the sky threw sparks

Details | Camille Beck Poem

Killer

She has always been dead-right.
She hangs on for the ride.
She has caused protection.
(Hoping against hope I am crying to your arms)    

She knows that she will die.
But she will march straight in
Only she knows how high.
The tears fall off her chin
She knows she can't lose
She knows it's all hers
She knows she can't lose now.

Her heart was broken
It will be again
She has never given up.
(Say a prayer.)  
Hoping against hope, I am crying to your arms.

Sadly she shakes her head as one walks away, 
A soul falls to the ground
She knows she can't lose now.

Details | Camille Beck Poem

Blue

She says,
'Forty in blue
Are you.'
And he looks past her, on the winter.

She says,
'Forty in blue
Are you.'
And he looks past her, out to the street.

She says,
'Forty in blue
Are you.'
And he looks past her, on the winter.

She says,
'You are Forty, and gently you are complete.'

She says,
'You are sky',
And he says,
'You leave me none.'

Details | Camille Beck Poem

Chance

I did what I'd been so relieved to put behind me.
I wished my life was over
So I wouldn't have to look at what I messed up.

But they say you work miracles
For the broken and the sweating.

Today I destroyed everything I had.
Today I gave up.
Today I screwed every chance I had.
I couldn't believe it.

But they say you work miracles
And that you brought someone back from the grave.

I heard about the water and the wine.
They say you can change anything

They even say you work miracles
That you are a celebration
You don't have to be anything
Anyone wants to see
To come to.

I lost.
I didn't learn; I am so afraid.
You are probably sick of me, 
I definitely am.
I shouldn't have a second chance
I don't deserve grace
But they say you work miracles.

Details | Camille Beck Poem

Glasentey

Glasentey
Say it is love
Tide hits the shore
Push comes to shove

Glasentey
It is a dream
Hay bales in summer; 
When the reams

Of ice and snow
Darken the bay
A ship rides in
To take me away.

Glasentey
I'm leaving you here
Forever, with the tide, 
But don't you fear

Glasentey
In the abstract wild
We're loving a 
Forgotten child.

Glasentey
When you're strange to me
Will I remember
That you used to be

Glasentey
Who said it was love
Sex on the ground, 
A nightmare above? 

If I die
Before I wake
Take the cord from
Around my neck.

Glasentey
If we're not 
Together again
Will you be lost? 

Glasentey
If you're strange to me
Will I remember? 
Will a blind man see? 

'Glasentey'
It sounds to me
Like all the waters
In the sea.

Glasentey
The birds all rise
Glasentey
One of them sighs

Glasentey
The birds all rise
Glasentey
One of them sighs

Glasentey
You're scaring me
Trembling I lay
Don't be far away.

Details | Camille Beck Poem

Greytone

I'll find you in the grey
And smooth the wrinkles
Of love we put away

And when my tears have made me blind
Then I will come to where you hide
Not rocking gently, just standing still
Without the icy touch of chill

I'll find you in the grey 
And smooth the wrinkles 
Of love we put away

And when the hours of ash and sand
Have left the outline of your hand
It's only dust, no diamond eyes
No breath to stop my breathing cries

I'll find you in the grey
And smooth the creases
Of love we put away

And when your hair is stone
I'll find you alone
In the greytone