Joel Barker
About
Poetry has been a hidden heart pumping steadily through my veins. To common ground, I accept--embrace red ink--release my pains.
The writings of Joel Barker
A Process
January 18, 2008 - 3:53 pm
Tags: joel, process, questions
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I find myself questioning more and more as time passes. A constant questioning that begun when I was of the youngest age. It seems to be a process constantly reshaping itself. Here I find the difficulty to even try to bring it into focus. Trying to process the process is an [...]
She Shot My Heart
January 18, 2008 - 3:50 pm
Tags: joel, poetry
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She shot my heart, twenty
caliber pistol–spiteful,
vengeful–I could not turn, plead,
beg forgiveness.
She loaded bullets packed
of cheat-ful powder–bang! Civil war,
both sides lost–countless reminiscence,
slaughtered romance.
Deaf to All, but Your Mouth
January 18, 2008 - 3:50 pm
Tags: joel, poetry
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Speak elongated breath–a kite
carry words, imagine–me
on a journey, blue sky–white–in
cloud pillow. Lonely head rest,
bosom soft, impressing comfort–ear
deaf to all, but your mouth.
Wings, Sprung, Cage Me
You will be death
to the heart, outside bars
like little sparrow, trust feline
not stalk under its cage.
There, I–fragile–trust
freedom to give myself
like feline in lap. I surrender
independence, selfishness–you pounce,
feathers asunder! skwaks!
silent, you prance; another lap, bed.
My wings, sprung, cage me
to this ravaged heart.
Lift Me…Carry Me
January 18, 2008 - 3:49 pm
Tags: joel, poetry
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Lift me to dream: nightfall breeze
whisking yellow curls; bosom-balloon
floating heavy head; finger-feet
tiptoeing disheveled hair; lip-sponges
soaking anxious tears; hand-wings
gliding across frantic face
to carry me from hard woes.
Better Days to Come
As the cold days approach I am reminded how the time has passed and how these pages have gone unattended. I pick the tool up again to scribe what is not important, other than to keep the hand warm and accustomed to the this tool. On this second day of November, I am [...]
Weight, Stop Thinking
December 2, 2007 - 6:15 am
Tags: frailty, sacrifice, weight
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Do not want to stop thinking
you–burden me–no
reassurance–remind my frailty,
hopeless humanity, believe
you are everything AND more
to yourself–world–like air
abundant oxygen, carbon-dioxide,
gas by gas; invisible & needed.
Puniness puts pound on pound,
weight by you, with you &
all on all world be lost
if I take you–suffocate in loss.
Thought drown–my battle
unresolved–you visible to–them,
invisible–me, deprive world;
I cannot–sacrifice me.
Dream of Ignorance
Caught in quicksand
colors spill backwards to pigments,
common brown grains swirl fourth colors
in lands of Seuss.
Fixed, pool neither pushes or pulls,
unyielding its monstrous grip;
torture not to senses, rather
eternal lock & key.
My eyes wander, scouting barren
landscape–summer & winter
impression–grass strobe many seasons
like a coked wolverine.
Weeks pass in seconds
as if the grass consumed
steroids–Jack’s bean stock–now
blades part like a flattened [...]
Silver Storm
November 30, 2007 - 4:00 pm
Tags: death, reflection, storm
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Above my head, thick gray canopy looks like death
& its bellowing gurgle speaks to my book like death.
Pulling me under friendly tree, it occurs that I
am in more danger than before. Hooked by death.
A perfect illustration, poisonous clouds that have
never been witnessed–eyes uncooked by death.
So I weep for all who have been touched
by disintegrating mushroom [...]
Fisherman & the Salmon
November 27, 2007 - 3:46 am
Tags: admiration, fish, fisherman
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How can I get you–wish
not to be gotten? Can patience be the hook
to my line? Do I pull hard, quick & firm;
irritate stubborn fish–game? Are you
& river bounded; I
another fisherman to drown?
As you allow current,
bring me unknown.
“Eye of the beholder,” pairs
many–wish to behold–rooted to bank,
nylon cast….I wade. Lost
rod, water lap–you–see me
stand–cold [...]
Line Our Future with Hope
Forty thousand days and bodies of yet to come line our future with hope. If today is infested by demons and blessed by angels, then a ratio of greater or less will come tomorrow. But, there is a greater hope for blessings to outweigh the infestings; while every present day proves a more [...]
Neglected
November 14, 2007 - 5:51 am
Tags: friend, loneliness, neglect
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Dear Friend,
Your beauty has been taken from
those many days you sat–waiting–behind
the front door. I longed
your companionship,
but you know how it is:
slave hours away,
caught in that awful, necessary
world.
Don’t ask why
you are still sitting
behind that front door. Flies
now wait with you
and when home, I bat them
in hopes they
won’t take you just yet.
I could not come [...]
Jingoism
November 14, 2007 - 5:50 am
Tags: country, jingoism, patriotism, soldiers, war
2 Comments
Leather strapped boots unsettle dust
that hitch on a desert breeze, splash
in children’s crying faces; I am frozen,
beat by bearing sun, a horrified statue
as if these children are weeping Medusas.
Men fall, bullets rapping against their skin;
barrels hot–mine cold–women kneel
by fallen husbands–my brothers do not cease.
Mothers, fathers, feel night’s cold;
children’s warm tears freeze on their bodies.
I hear [...]
Renaissance
November 14, 2007 - 5:49 am
Tags: admiration, art, torn
1 Comment
Cigarette dries in crimsoned oil,
a brush stokes across coarse tarp:
mirror of clocks, elephants, deserts;
Dali’s nude heaven.
Mirrors dissipate to windows,
bristles lay in cigarette’s bed,
a beret mounts a figure
behind plastic meadows.
Vertical iron rain rip
humpback mouth holes;
recant Kubrick’s stories.
A pen struggles to speak
Poe’s cries in urine stench
beneath busy streets. Alone,
black ravens bellow nevermore.
Pen falls, sheets rest,
fingers grip [...]
