Best Poems Written by Scott Carrier

Below are the all-time best Scott Carrier poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Wrong Turn

You hid it well---
I couldn't tell
Until it was too late.
I went through Hell.
Resigned to Fate
I tried to sate
Your constant growling need
Or else abate
Your lust.  You feed
On the heartseed
Of my soul.  Dark and fell,
I take no heed.
I'm already dead.
You bled me that way.

Copyright © Scott Carrier | Year Posted 2023


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Melancholia

At the time of night that men call 10:30,
I sit in a corner bar by myself,
Watching two tables---
Clusters of life and sound---
A softball team and their wives/girlfriends/lovers
Drinking softly into the evening

A child's face, released from mother's side,
Floats around the tables,
Serene and white in tavern dusk,
Asking a quarter from each adult
Until finally someone gives him one
To make him gone

And for the millionth time
I look into the mirrored tile behind the bar
And see you there beside me

You're looking down---
Digging through your purse---

And the wound that never heals
Opens just a little more---
A quarter's worth---

Copyright © Scott Carrier | Year Posted 2023

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Fantasia

I.	O my children,
	All the faithful,
	Heed the call,
	Hear the sanction...
	The ancient eldritch plea
	Gathering from the thousand shadowed places,
	Plazas, pagodas, pavilions...
	Reach out, summon in communal ritual
	The quencher of your thirsts
	Slayer of want

II.	Moving through the smoke of October,
	The dry chill of night...
	Tending to the bells in the upper atmosphere...
	I am Keeper of the Chimes,
	Seeker of the Hearts
	Of those who yet seek, and know not yet that they seek,
	The Breath of Life and the Flame in the Night...
	I am here and I am She
	Who loves you all and loves you alway,
	And lo, I am with you until the end of your age

Copyright © Scott Carrier | Year Posted 2022

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An Apology

Get your claws out of my heart
The pain's too much, can't take no more

It's like swallowing peanut butter
Five pounds
All at once
Without chewing
You do strange things to my throat
Not to mention my mind

You make me want to give you things
Things I ain't got
Things I got to steal

You make me vomit up rotten poetry

Copyright © Scott Carrier | Year Posted 2023

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Yawn of the Wrist

Leaping, spilling, jumping,
The flowing crimson flood
Pours forth, my heart still pumping
The river of my blood

Copyright © Scott Carrier | Year Posted 2023


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Dark Fight With the Midterm

Moving on into the night
I struggle with ideas,
Trying in desperation to fit words
To a subject I don't even understand

A train sounds its horn
A sound born of forlorn lament
A cry shorn of language
Torn between anguish and mourning

Research work
Rattling across my inner landscape
Paraphrase paraphrase paraphrase
Mindless conglomeration

(The third line of the third verse is an echo of Charles Bukowski's line "boxcar boxcar boxcar" in the poem Boxcar)

Copyright © Scott Carrier | Year Posted 2023

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Le Mot Juste

I saw you again last night, real and near and true---
And knew that, if I found The Right Word
(not good words, or convincing words;
only The Right Word would do),
You would turn and see me,
And know, clean and clear,
Like the ringing of a bell,
That though the years have blurred
My face and mind and touch,
Still there within my heart,
I hold you near and well,
More tenderly, I swear,
Than I have words to tell.

Then I woke, and found I was alone,
And The Right Word slipping back,
Away from daylight mind,
Back into the midnight of my soul---

I will find it yet, this I vow---
And if the Universe has truth or heart,
I will be allowed to speak it to you.

Copyright © Scott Carrier | Year Posted 2023

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Dancing On

Dancing on the edge of oblivion with you,
Waltzing, whirling drunkenly
Like children intoxicated with motion---
I see your eyes searching mine,
Sparkling with possibility---
As if to ask, "Are we really here?"
If there is an answer,
It's been driven from my mind---
Erased by the icy blast at my back
Every time I swing too near to the abyss.
My face and limbs are warmed by blood,
And you grip my hands
Just a little tighter, laughing nervously. Don't worry.
Let my manic smile reassure you---
I'm not going anywhere without you---
And if you start to fall,
I'll pull you back---
Or failing that, I'll take the long plunge with you,
Holding on for your dear life
As we pirouette into the void.

But let us not consider falling
Tonight,
For Now I am more than happy,
Dancing on the edge of oblivion with you.

Copyright © Scott Carrier | Year Posted 2023

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Revelation Repeated

Awareness floods my veins
The eyes are open now
Truth fills the soul,
Rushes into the hidden corners
Revelations fall into place
Snap to attention
Like dominoes or perfect solitaire

Razors chilled to freezing
Slice my mind,
Galvanize my sight
While ice claws my lungs---
Breath slowing to a ragged rattle,
I can't think,
I can only write my reactions
To my crucifixion
At your unwitting hands---

Sometimes the pain isn't so blatant.
Sometimes it's subtle shadings,
Intricate turnings of pink---
Lace bonds that constrict
Gently, slowly about the heart...
Unnoticed until they've caused pain for some time.
By then they've cut too deeply,
Become too embedded to remove.

Don't get me wrong---
In some veiled, perverse way,
I enjoy it---
I enjoy learning nothing
From my mistakes---

Copyright © Scott Carrier | Year Posted 2023

Details | Scott Carrier Poem

Downed

I feel your eyes,
Heavy as cold lead,
Resting on my chest---
Great dauntless weights
Pushing me through the couch,
Crushing me through the ground
Through depths of Hell.
Naturally enough, I begin to panic
And jabber
Aka zuzu non biz fo metacomf
Sternly, I tell myself,
This Will Not Do.
But it is too late.
I have made a fool of myself,
And you cannot love me.

Copyright © Scott Carrier | Year Posted 2023

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