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July 3, 2010 -- It's my sister Judy's birthday! Happy birthday, Jude.
Today I'm posting a poem I wrote a year ago but recently found in my journal. I can say I've been trying to fulfill my pledge since writing it. In fact, I entered a book-length manuscript of poems this week in a contest, the first time I have ever done that.
This poem was not included in that entry, which shows that I have a few more poems in my lifelong poet's bag than it takes to make one book manuscript.
You might say: 'Well, I hope so!'
But it has only been three and a half years since I quit my job and I began devoting all my energy to my art. A book-length manuscript of poems has been a long time coming.
Thank you for visiting my web site!
The purpose of the site is to showcase and sell my collection of poetry from more than forty years of writing, as well as feature my most recent work. I also treat this introductory space as a blog, telling my readers something about the poems I'm featuring here as well as about my thoughts on poetry in general.
I also write about poetry and other literature at www.Examiner.com, as the Denver Literary Examiner.
To best use this site buy some poems! They're cheap! E-mail me at rschwab@robertschwabpoet.com if you have any problems. PayPal is a reliable system for making the purchase. If you like what you buy, come back to the site and buy some more.
On my formal blog, Schwab on Anything, I am writing about small business, politics, minority business, my own development as a writer and other topics. If you would like to check out the blog, click here. To learn more about me and the vision of RobertSchwabPoet.com, which is changing all the time, click here.
Again, thanks for visiting.
My pledge
Sitting at my window, over my screen
I watch clouds fill its frame, and want to scream
against another dose of winter cold
not unlike Midas, who was so bold
to scream against the waves of sea and sky
-- to no avail, of course. But I,
can be a warrior against the death that haunts
my screen and sky. Set me to launch
a new career among the choices rife,
or an old choice, the poet’s life.
A choice to use my words and rail
Against the night, against the pale.
Against a death still premature,
I fight to write, and will endure.
I pulled this poem from my spring 2009 journal; it's about what I decided to do with the rest of my life then.
Deadly joke
“All for art!”
Joyce joked
once,
before he died.
And yet,
my life,
as he foretold,
is locked upon
a four-line poem
– or five.
Poetry is
demon
and dictator,
it eats
you up
before you die.
Started in 2004, I finished this poem just this week, the fourth week in January, 2010. Poems are a process that doesn't end until you die.
Other Poems by Robert Schwab |
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Tattered Man
1 Poem
An aged, tattered man,
stands in his mind
before the bookstore
in San Francisco, the old
anxiety hangs
on the threads and patches
of his frayed coat...
Price: $ 0.89
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Blades & Evolution
2 Poems
Oh! The sharp sparks
we strike: they glitter
as they flash
off each other
… or would we rather
lose our edge …
Price: $ 0.89
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Because she was lovely
& Love ‘ya
2 Poems
Because she was lovely,
Lovely and sweet, a soul
who cared about me
for a time...
Price: $ 0.89
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“Painted Veil,”
Poetrybiz &
Nugget
3 Poems
The tarp my daughter Catherine paints
to shroud a high-school-age worldly disaster,
that needs addressing. Her talent wasted
in blobs of bright light, illuminating shadows...
Price: $ 0.89
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The Gun & Your Art!
2 Poems
The gun lies wrapped
in a shoe-shine rag
in a box in a closet,
with a bunch of bullets...
Price: $ 0.89
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Church Ladies &
Love Poem: The Male
2 Poems
Don’t you just love
the guys
who use God
to jump...
Price: $ 0.89
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Two Women & Rebecca
2 Poems
Now you’re back again,
you who put me out
like wash on a clothes line
to slap and dry…
Price: $ 0.89
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Terrible Beauty, and
Roused
2 Poems
Roused at the memory of her kiss:
I feel her tongue
like fruit insider her mouth …
Price: $ 0.89
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Barbie Dream and
Sonnet to Byron & Keats
2 Poems
I’ll have no plastic doll for a lover,
My woman cooks with onions and garlic.
I want her wetness …
Price: $ 0.89
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No Time for Apocalypse
1 long poem
The final decade is about to begin
Jesus Christ is risen again.
Bury the decade in a common grave,
forget it all.
Dress for the dance
Save money for the ball …
Price: $ 1.95
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Three Poems:
Thief
Daffodils
Short Poems
Death claims our lovers
As a thief snatches
jewels in the night…
Price: $ 0.89
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Black Holes, I and II
2 Poems
"I am an explorer
sent to the center
of space…"
Price: $ 0.89
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My Love, I and II
2 Poems
Wyoming you are to me
white sand beauty
a land of hard edges…
Price: $ 0.89
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Colorado Millennium
1 Long Poem
A new round of time
spins the Mayan calendar:
the millennium is come,
another thousand years.
Colorado’s busy, bustling
engines warm.
The trucks outside
the Conoco, their drivers
huddled over coffee…
Price: $ 1.95
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Catherine &
“Not Marble, Nor …”
2 Poems
Even now,
at three,
parting seems
to tear
her heart
apart.
...
Price: $ 0.89
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After &
Mother’s Day
2 Poems
The world is flying apart,
gravity fails; my heart, too.
Birds fall with fever,
blue smoke rolls over
the harbor of our souls.
...
Price: $ 0.89
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