Voice over by Val cole

READ POEM:

My mom likes to say she gave me her tongue—
not the muscle
but the ability to move worlds with it.
She anointed me with her fury,
her impatience,
the power to gaze within your opponent
and pluck their greatest insecurity
from their chest.
She birthed me in her...

Narrated by Val Cole

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We drove for two hours
to the badlands of Cleveland
searching the streets and the alleys
just to find our way
to find a safe way
into The House of Wills.

We were met with armed guards
all meant to protect us
milling the grounds and
defending the building and
th...

Narrated by Val Cole

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Two weeks before you died-
You were joking, laughing, and seemed alright.
I thought you would be fine.

We talked and joked and watched the skyline-
From your hospital bed at half-light
Two weeks before you died.

As the day wound down, I saw no sign-
And when w...

Voice over by Val Cole

Voice over by Val Cole

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After much deliberation, Radu concluded his name was Merlin.
Merlin was the greatest wizard of all.
Radu had first been Houdini, the Master of Illusions,
But all that magicians worked with was perception after all.
Reality remained unchanged.
A wizard, on the ...

Voice over by Val Cole

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He wasn’t adopted but made,
Not in a womb but psyche.
My son was a misborn,
I never met his father.

I was still married to my past,
Yet I nurtured my son.
Who feeds on my thoughts,
Sparing nothing at all.

While I drained every day.
He bloomed to a manchineel...

Voice over by Val Cole

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I arrived at a destination that was far away from home.
It was more like isolation. I felt alone!
Drowning, watching water surround me on every side,
called my parents every day and often cried.
I searched for ways to escape this place,
because with each passi...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

I’m from a Southern backyard —
Magnolia grandiflora sporting huge white blooms
Honeysuckles spilling over the fence
Red roses soaked with the aroma of tea
Hollyhocks springing up yearly into flowering towers.

I’m from a Southern backyard —
Mud pies being made beneat...

https://youtu.be/uzix0NNftPU

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM: I am an immigrant, nomadic desperate for home,
to hammer myself into existence
out of pain in depths of yearning—
for what it’s too immense to bookend in language,
perhaps only indicted by silence inserting itself
into the form,
the only s...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

The old trees bend protectively around us
as we rest on the park bench in our winter wear
your faltering mind following the course of the river that is close and sure and deep

even now I can still find your younger face and remember the pillowy softness
of your lips...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

i. THE BLACK SHUTTLE IS PASSING OVERHEAD

ii. The Chumash (California) referred to meteors as Alakiwohoch,
which simply meant “shooting star.” They believed a meteor was a
person’s soul on its way to the afterlife.

iii. The black shuttle is passing overhead, sent ea...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

Today is a day both rare and familiar. Tragic months before
another comes around. This will be the past that makes the
future proceed. Only what of the lack of true possession?
What of the decline spotted once again in our ascent, that
we heard in what was said in tir...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

Beauty is what we’re here for.
To utilize our sense of wonder
To create a path of wonder for others.
Be awake in the now and
Find that connection to the universe
To dig deep and discover what is in us
That is moved by the aesthetically pleasing.
Why is that which we ...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

Grass grown tall green slicks drizzle wet,
new planted seedlings shakily take hold,
crumpled mulch retains soil covered mold,

run tongued dogs
checked for ticks
lap water bowls.

And I am left with trowel and rake
to gather weeds in sunlit rain still cold.

How easi...

https://youtu.be/CNbkjDqe6TM

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

After checking each other
for spit-up stains, we head to an Italian place,
glasses of red wine, gnocchi,
in a booth by the window.

There’s a flurry or two, Christmas
lights strung across Main.
The marquee on a local theater
seduces: Ult...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

I miss you…
phoning
just to say hello.
I miss you…
calling
to hear about your day.
I miss you…
coming here to stay
giving me
your precious time.
I miss…
our travels together
taking in the sights
like kids set free
on a playground
finding pleasure
in exploring new thi...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

Sometimes I’m stunned by how time

moves through a life
so easily
and quietly
so that one spring day,
you’re ten, running to a neighbor’s to climb
his apple tree;
the next week,
you’re buying your first house in Adrian,
wife pregnant with a third child;
two weeks lat...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

I hate that I am gaining so much weight,
It’s feeling like I’m losing my grip on fate,
As here and there, I await and debate,
How to turn back learned time.
I need to not burn my rhymes,
Except in my readers minds.
I feel blind and signed,
My fine health away,
Today a...

Narrated by Val Cole

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Cold unconscious metal
Reflective concentration
Carefully cloned contortions
Cast in curves of concave
Full length spying steelfaces
Hung in private parlours
Viewing fornication
Convex copulation
Such vivid observation
For one so unalive.

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

Once there was a woman in the night forest
who could hear above the register of most.
She would listen to mice sing in chorus
or coyotes comfort their young
over the flash and rumble of coming weather.

There was the night when I stayed in the garden
late into the ho...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

Silk tangerine sheets dance melodically
as reflections of the sultry moon, gleams
through the lofts balcony, under-shadowed
by the soft lip presses of two sexually stressed humans
pressed against their saturated melaninated skin
pressing old buttons during the practi...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

I hate when cannibalism is used as a metaphor for love.
I think love is a form of devotion which does not include devouring. Maybe
hunger and
sometimes bruises or
sunburns
but never devouring.

I wrote in a poem once that I am a liar at the best of times.

I hate when...

Narrated by Val Cole

POEM:

My love, I was just praying when the Holy Spirit put you in my mind; did I ever tell you that you are stupid fine!?

I was envisioning us playing in the snow, please my love; don’t forget to bring that special glow!

We would now have snowball fights, but I promise no...

performed by Val Cole