stevencudahy

stevencudahy, 9 days ago to poetry

there are the old tales
of the man who went for smokes
and never returned
as if it was that easy
afraid of laughter
in case it turned showery
caressing with smoke
lungs that gave up long ago
filled with that small joy
and he said, 'fuck it', and went
elsewhere, far beyond
the reach of life's pain and hope
as if his long trail
of lived days led to one choice
as if it wasn't
the weight of so much choosing
that crushed him to a fine dust

#Choka #Poetry #SmallPoems #Writing #MastoPrompt notion.

stevencudahy, 9 days ago to poetry

snug door
storm trapped outside
the shape of you in the darkness
our bones still humming to the tyres
skin patterned by stitched seats
eyes busy with back projections rolling
hands full wet clothes puddled
somewhere it is morning
there are people on their way to work
this is the stolen place between lies
where we can be true
light switch hidden but not needed
rain picking at the roof
wind wrestling the branches
peace in the darkness

#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 13 May 2024 - fettle

stevencudahy, 9 days ago to poetry

and then they cut you
like you were the pattern bits
and not the pinned-to fabric
defining edges
from where no edges had been
before hungry scissors snipped

#Sedoka #Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - parent.

stevencudahy, 9 days ago to poetry

water's gentle flow
how the land yields over time
leading the water away
dynamic tension
defused and redirected
although never without harm

#Sedoka #Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - course.

stevencudahy, 9 days ago to Haiku

drunken thunder grunts
crushing thick the air beneath
lake blows us kisses

#DailyHaikuPrompt - 25 May 2024 - cool.
#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing

stevencudahy, 9 days ago to Haiku

green stolen from sun
watered light solidified
lazy bears snacking

#DailyHaikuPrompt - 24 May 2024 - bamboo shoots.
#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing

stevencudahy, 16 days ago to poetry

hand-me-down threadbare heirlooms
of common sense and stock phrases
well intentioned tools to short-circuit
critical thoughts
as if we're afraid to be asked or ask
questions we have to think about
too scared to admit we don't know
and that not knowing is default human
but even more afraid to say the clean thing -
not having time to try to find out
is what left us for dead
before we rose, zombie

#Sedoka #Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - parent.

stevencudahy, 17 days ago to poetry

when the wind sings
and the trapped sails drift
then turn
wheat ears between the stones
serving the gritty rumble
and nearby in the sun
we are testing the dirt
for the survival hope of small insects
and whether we will dash them
or offer mercy

#Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - ground.

stevencudahy, 17 days ago to poetry

the blade isn't an answer today
wasn't an answer then, for me
heated to sterile because the drama of fire
licking the steel was cinematic
though predictably gauche
and i choked
lacking blood enough
to restore the scorched sands to life
lacking the conviction
i could ever be clean enough
to not infect the knife

#Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - sterile.

stevencudahy, 17 days ago to Haiku

falling but anchored
this is what skin was made for
contact glorified

#Haiku #Senryu #SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 11 May 2024 - touch.

stevencudahy, 17 days ago to poetry

your eyes and the pour of time
through my breached defences
i am uncertain of my edges now
aware of the mixing swirl
of a cosmos in which we are the dance
of endless restless smallness
we are the coalescence of waveforms
mingling in a glance
itself embroiled in the everything
a sharing of the tales light tells
a charge, a spark in the shadows

#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 10 May 2024 - glance.

stevencudahy, 18 days ago to poetry

this is the prize game
played for art as embodied
in the warpaint built from joy
and raw practiced skill
surgery of light and shade
colour as scalpel and graft

#Sedoka #Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - contour.

stevencudahy, 18 days ago to Haiku

gift the trees give us
buildings try to emulate
never quite the same

#DailyHaikuPrompt - 21 May 2024 - shade.
#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing

stevencudahy, 19 days ago to poetry

keep it low level
and subdued
enough below notice
people don't
but are changed nonetheless
creep in like mice
and chew wiring
no one knows they need
until it fails
do not ask permission
commit violence
quiet and soft
as snow falling
outside the window
changing everything
secretly

#Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - subliminal.

stevencudahy, 19 days ago to poetry

like the bunched duvet
you left behind to haunt me
memory of wood
sucked dry by the thirsty flames
left ghost, a haunting
shaped from the fire's soft grey tears
collapses empty
beneath the settling structure
we carefully built
later i'll make the spare bed
leave ours your lost body's cave

#Choka #SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 8 May 2024 - ash.

stevencudahy, 20 days ago to poetry

fuzzy-edged distortion
your hands warm in my hands
we breathe across the sky
foraging for dreams we misplaced
and forgot the flavours of

drift smoke-light across dusks
each more heartbreakingly beautiful
singing tales soft
we hope and fear are heard
and dread hearing bounced back
from uncaring slabbed dullness

we dissolve and fizz
edges like ash exhilarating
in spin and drift
sometimes it's easier to hold on
than it is to see you

#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 7 May 2024 - focus.

stevencudahy, 20 days ago to poetry

take a handful of minutes
like peanuts from a bowl on a bar
and use them for yourself

doors are promises and lies
depending who they admit
or where they lead

and you and i could stand at the edge
of the building we climbed
trying to see tomorrow

but breathe now, lover, breathe
time doesn't know we're here
and we can rest, wrapped in each other

#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 6 May 2024 - relax.

stevencudahy, 20 days ago to poetry

stones worn smooth by waves
warmed by sun
we build small settlements
for scuttling things

but you are no rock
to be worn to be ground
to paperweight or doorstop
or safe remembrance

if i could replace your broken spines
with something as worthwhile -
but the wild is once and done
and it would insult you

i speak carelessly
uncover your edge for a cutting moment
only not careless but desperate
for any kind of traction

#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 5 May 2024 - preserve.

stevencudahy, 20 days ago to poetry

decay deep covered
beneath skin so plump and smooth
they hope no one notices
their sweet corruption
and no one does - a fragile
mind fist and language fractured
haunted by almosts
possessed by musts, shoulds, and nots -
has built from kicked-in windows
a rain of keen blades -
all that fertile soil poisoned
to grow lying heavy plants
overripe, slick, bursting

#Sedoka #Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - putrid.

stevencudahy, 20 days ago to poetry

fingers intertwined
a grabbed hold, a salt thirsting
the room half lit by streetlight
focused race towards
somewhere we both have to be
familiar yet new again

#Sedoka #Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - unison.

stevencudahy, 21 days ago to poetry

something like falling
a rushed blossoming downward
limbs flailing - panicked heart thrum -
some witchcraft - your eyes,
twist of lip, of voice, dancing
skin, bone, blood - i'm lost, found, owned

#Sedoka #Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - fissure.

stevencudahy, 21 days ago to poetry

slip into quicksand
as if into a warm bath
a deliberate choice made
to sink beyond sight -
if only - peaceful deep dirt
an escape from the chaos -
no one sees me here
a darkness like a gullet
swallowed to drift to pieces
and then to nothing -
nerves no longer pain-shredded
but no kisses on soft skin -
claw back to the light

#Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - confusion.

stevencudahy, 21 days ago to Haiku

too hot for sleeping
i kneel before your temple
offer ev'rything

#DailyHaikuPrompt - 17 May 2024 - summer moon.
#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing

stevencudahy, 21 days ago to Haiku

exhausted by the heat
but air needs to stroke your skin -
and who can blame it

#DailyHaikuPrompt - 16 May 2024 - breeze.
#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing

stevencudahy, 22 days ago to poetry

faster than lightning

there are caves
sand-floored recordings of sea noise

did you see the eagle
i know you didn't -
you're asleep, it wasn't a dream

faster than breath or blink
or the space between heartbeats
hammering with panic
after learning the world is fragile

afterwards weeping
could make glue strong enough
to bind it back how it was

everything normal hurts now
spiked, edged new

time heals, they say, but time has ended

#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 3 May 2024 - quick.