https://youtu.be/m3VNkbFm6gc

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I write my love to you
From the stardust
And the grains of sand along the beach
From the dew of the mountain air
An atom from within my soul
I write I love you
Using the drops of rain
I make a canvas of love
Written in the stars
So that...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

She told us, she warned us,
repeatedly through story,
through song and finally,
she showed us.

Even with the showing,
we did not listen.
Even when chaos reigned down
on us from above.

When fiery rockets of molten lava
spewed from below.
When oceans rose and dese...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

In pauper’s field, no flowers lie,
on our graves of chosen number.
How different is grief from public outcry?
There is no comforting answer.

Is God or the state our true gatekeeper?
Both took away our chance to say goodbye.
But which one silently buried us here,
...

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Talking endlessly and without reason,
I should have something to say,
something to tell you that would help you on your way,
I pause,
ready to speak,
yet nothing,
not even something little,
not even something great,
just silence,
silence so small,
so cogent,
it ca...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

—For my mother

while night scoops down to transform silt in the veins
spilling into day a slow drowning in songs from the waters of life
stretched fraying before day breaks
to dying embers of temporariness
wind blows like candle flames struggling,
calling with moan...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

We were just boys,
and we had spent
the best hours
of the day,
committing ourselves
to children’s parades
and folly crusades
and lost causes.
And we came home,
hungering and ravenous,
and ate amongst ourselves
candies and red meats
and angel cake, till,
full as pigs...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

People disappeared.
Not just people but our neighbors. All five of them. Momma, Poppa and the three kids with
thick black hair who played with our kids, wispy blonde blue-eyed, all three.

When they moved in, I remember
You were a little uneasy.
We only speak English...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

Got in a bit of trouble
A few years back.
It cost me very dearly.

Grew up in a Godly home
Never missed a service
Or a summer church camp.
My parents’ faith it was,
Not mine.

A rough crowd lured me away
A little at a time.
Innocent enough it began,
Weed and beer and...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

“I’m so fucking broke it’s absurd,” Floyd noticed the tear inside his jacket pocket. There are miserable times and there are the best of miserable times. Weeks had gone by and his dog Sue had been eating from the hand that fed him, trolling along on a loose rope. An...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

The horses of Gaza—the stallions, colts, mares
the donkeys too—and mules, and jennies
who once tugged the people
on their carts, across the streets and intersections
for twenty centuries and maybe thirty,
now they scramble, the neighs, the braying,
the gallop in dru...

Performed by Val Cole

https://youtu.be/2S9NpUs-x9E

POEM:

The Maga will deliver what is owed
from a great hardware store
a department, the section
necessary fixtures and adhesives
for the job, guaranteed to cement
what’s so rickety, piles as they shift
rise majestic, up to high heaven
where Mag...

https://youtu.be/0LufixXAwoA

POEM:

Summer arrives
in a dazzle
of pink blooms.

The gardener admires
my petals with his fingers.
Reach for the sky!

Seasons pass. Rivers slow. The gardener comes in shadow — a small flask
of rain.

A brutal cutting!
Tendrils reach out for him, asking
“Why?” as th...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

In the fading light of a weary day,
A man stands firm, through shadows play,
His heart a drum, steady and loud,
Facing the storms, beneath the shroud.

Each breath a battle, each step a test,
He feels the weight of the world on his chest,
Memories flash like sparks ...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

The sky opens,
raindrops fall,
and sunlight breaks the clouds,
casting its glow
throughout my backyard.

An event, as if tailored for me—
a dance of water and light.
The universe is communicating
through the space between.

I am in tune with the
presence of somethin...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

She climbed to the top of the mountain
In her ascent
She failed to see
Red roses blooming, so fair, so sweet
Grass green growing there
Purple lilacs, stalks so bright
Pink glowing sky
Turning white clouds red by and by
Blue fading into black
Her steps show her track...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

My mother is dead.
My father is dead.
My brother is dead.
My other brother is dead.
My sister is dead.
My nephew is dead.
My son is dead.
When will my family stop dying?
I’m never going to get used to it.

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

1
The cello stands in silence, holding
Its breath.
In one baton flick,
everything changes.

2
In music, rests and notes possess equal power –
Practice both. You’ll discover
life’s balance.

3
Framed family photos hang,
smiles obscuring the fights before the
CLICK
No...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

back
from the dead
The Painted Ladies
tremble
in the heather
the change has come
as ephemeral Large Blues
emerge
from their buried
chamber

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Capri is framed by the east window,
Mount Vesuvius centers in the west. Chandeliers
suspend high, trapeze artists erupting their crystal
blooms to guide a Mardi Gras of painted clay and gesso
far below ceiling

vaults. Do you recall sunset velvet splayed across marb...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I turned fifty this year
Which made me reflect
That at best I have twenty
Good years left before
My life is basically over
As seventy is pushing it
For a man these days
This of course assumes
I don’t get hit by a bus tomorrow
Or even later today
Or have a heart atta...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

professor says,
“picasso had a blue period, which was later followed by a rose period.
people tend to associate the blue period with melancholic sentiments.
& the rose period, with its opposite.”
but professor, i sense lingering melancholy
in his rose period, too.

...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Little girl. You’ve carried
the burden of my name
my life, interrupted
by a car crash at my
own hands for longer
then you even knew me
on earth.

It’s time you lay down the burden
of my name, my life, my
goals that exceeded expectations
because you have surpassed
an...