Tag: Poems

Poets Loved: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? By William Shakespeare

Poets Loved - stevestillstanding.com

Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

By William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Bill is the MAN! To find out more about him, click here.

3

Rose-Colored Glasses. A poem.

The rose-colored glasses slipped away
and I saw you as you really are,
crowned in wishful thinking and spoilt
disparity of thought, overwrought,
less than I expected and more than I assumed.

I guess I didn’t know what I wanted,
or why you made me blue,
just another misdirected convolution
leading me astray, as always.

Got to get my mind in gear,
stop crunching the shift, driving in reverse,
overcome my hapless fears and get back on course.
And where would that be?
I’m not really sure.

But I am sure I’ll make the same mistake again,
unless I can come up with a way
to rewire my faulty brain.

poetry books - stevestillstanding

For more of my poetry, check out Poetry for the Sad, Lonely and Hopelessly Endangered and The All or the Nothing, available in print or e-book formats.

Click here to find out how to get your copy.

Want to support Steve with a donation? Click on the donate link at the bottom of this page. Thanks!

9

Writer Interrupted: my new Poetry book!

The print proofs are back and the new poetry book is ready!

Today, my second poetry book – Poetry for the Sad, Lonely and Hopelessly Endangered – is available in print.

Inside, you’ll find 76 poems for various states of mind: happy, infuriated, inebriated, dogmatic, dramatic, smiley, wily, cranky, spunky, overwrought, overworked, sad, lonely and hopelessly endangered.

Poetry for the Sad, Lonely and Hopelessly Endangered is available as a print book for $10.00AU by clicking on http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/stevestillstanding

poetry book 2 - stevestillstanding

Please support a literally starving artist, in my quest for truth, justice, meter and rhyme.

Help save me, along with all poets, from extinction. Your donation will go a long way to ensuring these sad and ever-lonely beasts continue to write and work in the most iniquitous and appalling of conditions.

Cheers

Steve 🙂

P.S. …and don’t forget The All or the Nothing, my first poetry book, available in print and ebook formats!

2

Poetry. A poem.

When I read good poetry
I want to write good poetry
But my feeble affectations
And wanton masturbations
Pale to insignificance
When compared to
Browning, Whitman, Yeats

I yearn to write good poetry
The way I yearn to read good poetry
But such poetic vastness
Just becomes loquaciousness
Flowing perspicaciously
Away into a vast, uncaring
And unconcerned wilderness

I write a lot of poems, some from my head, some from my heart. Many don’t appear on this website. For more of my poetry, check out The All or the Nothing, my first e-book, available at most online book sellers.

Click here to find out how to get your copy.

5

An Exercise in Poetic Styles

Here’s a response I did for Uni. You might like to try the exercise out yourself.

Cheers

Steve 😊

Write a haiku (formal style) on the theme of water and then write a free verse piece (of no more than 10 lines) on the theme of water. Which style worked best for you? What stumbling blocks did you have to overcome in each?

Water Haiku

Your water cascades
Caressing valleys and hills
I will drink deeply

Stephen Thompson

Deep Water

Deep
 
How deep my heart has sunk,
into depths
unmeasured
 
(I swim
amongst broken hulls and dead men’s skulls,
coral memories and crustacean verdigris,
viscous cold and furtive shoals
shaping origami headstones,
draped in ocean’s finery.)
 
How drenched is my heart,
drenched in depths
unmeasured
 
Deep  

Stephen Thompson

 

I enjoy writing Haiku because it can be challenging to find a theme that works in the 5/7/5 syllable structure. Haikus can say so much in so little space and it’s one of the reasons I love them so much.

Free verse is always fun, because I can play around with meter and time, line length, enjambment, etc. without any need to worry about poetic constraints; it’s easier for me to come up with interesting imagery. Often the theme of the poem presents itself as the poem progresses, or a new one is formed when the poem is completed.

I love free verse, but I believe that learning forms with specific poetic structures (such as the villanelle, sestina, pastoral, etc.) force you to be a better poet, because you have to work outside your comfort zone and within a stricter format.

Cheers

Steve 😊

5

Upstart Photographer #7. And poems, no less.

Yep, it’s that time of the month, again. Time for some dreary photos to liven up your/my dreary world.

This time, I’ve included a few (very) brief poems to accompany my black and white, unfiltered shots.

Sunlight - - stevestillstanding.com

Sunlight. A poem.

Through the ancient boughs, you shine,
shadow fall and illumine.

Statue - stevestillstanding.com

Statue. A poem.

The weight of thought and remonstrance.
Who is left to argue, now?
Who is left, with you, to stand?

View - stevestillstanding.com

View. A poem.

I won’t weary of your patina sky,
my square-cut, sandwiched, glassy eyes
that see the world as it could be
as evidenced, so literally.

You like? If no, then sorry.

Cheers

Steve 😊

My first book of poetry, The All or the Nothing, is available now as an e-book from most online distributors. To find out more, click here.

11

‘The All or the Nothing’ – My first book of poetry is available NOW!

The All or the Nothing - Stephen Thompson (c) 201762 poems to make you laugh, cry, get depressed or get drunk by!

My first book of poetry is available as an e-book for $5.99 from the following distributors:

Please support me, a literally starving artist, in my quest for truth, justice, meter and rhyme.

Cheers

Steve 😊

9

A Poor Poet’s Cause

I’m putting together a book of poetry to self-publish, hopefully before Christmas. I’m working on whittling the two hundred plus poems I’ve written over the last nine months down to about fifty, as that’s the general size of most poetry books. The book will include some poems I’ve published on this site and new work not yet seen.

Why self-publishing? Whilst self-publishing your own novel can negatively impact your chances of getting signed to a publisher (unless you’re a particularly high selling self-published author a la E L James or Amanda Hocking), self-publishing a book of poetry should have no negative impact at all. But, why, I hear you say? Let’s face it, poetry, even when it does sell, generally only has small print runs. In other words, it’s probably not going to make or break your career unless you’ve already won a Pulitzer for poetry or something.

I know Amazon allows you to self-publish for free, but that means you’re restricted to the Kindle platform, and I want broader distribution on multiple platforms, so I’ll be going with either Bookbaby.com or ebookit.com. I just need to check out the reciprocal tax agreement between Australia and the US, to make sure I don’t get additional tax withheld by these American-based companies.

Because I’ve left this all a bit late (as usual), my book of poetry may not see the (blue) light until early next year. Either way, at least it’ll be out there at a low and reasonable price, available to all.

I’ll keep you up to date on how it’s progressing. I hope that you will support this poor poet on his journey to further obscurity.

Cheers

Steve 🙂

26

Haiku Friday. ‘Wings’, a haiku pentalogy.

Wings – a haiku pentalogy

1. Moment
One tragic moment
to turn your heart into ice;
extinguish the flame.

2. Deficiency
Such deficiency
within your mind, body and soul.
Pray you find the light.

3. Your Turn
Heaven weeps tonight
with all the unworthy souls.
Is it your turn now?

4. Redeemed
Walk the endless night,
a tightrope of redemption.
Return on gold wings.

5. Open Arms
Dare you try to fly
into heaven’s open arms?
The earth holds you firm.

.

Wow, this became a bit of a 5/7/5 syllable opus.

Oh well, sometimes poems have a literal life of their own.

Cheers

Steve 🙂

4

Haiku Friday. Three freaky haikus.

Message
I got a message,
anonymous, confusing.
“Don’t wait up,” it said.

Nerd
Glasses, weird hair cut,
quirky disregard for all.
“Grab a seat, player!”

Dog
All dogs love me so.
Must be my cool aftershave.
Or meat in pocket.

.
Haikus, those wonderful little 5/7/5 syllable Japanese poems, are usually serious.

I decided serious is not for me, today.

Cheers

Steve 🙂

0

Haiku Friday. Three Haikus pour vous!

Fence Sitter
Here in your desert,
every choice a mirage;
each oasis lost.

Silence
Shy, foolish man child, 
so terminally quiet.
Silence will end you.

Bloom
I wish love would bloom.
In the field of broken hearts,
loneliness grows strong.

.

Well, it’s that time of the week again. Haiku Friday demands three line poems with a 5/7/5 syllable structure. 

And what Haiku Friday demands, it gets!

Cheers

Steve 🙂

3

Every Word. A poem and a thank you.

Every laboured keystroke,
every considered verb and noun.
Every gritted mental blank,
every meaning so profound.
Every silken metaphor,
every glorious turn of phrase.
Every underlying message,
every edit, every change.
Every keystroke, every line,
ever thankful every day.
Every joy I write that lies within,
that flowers on every page.

Thank you.
.

This poem is a thank you to all of my readers. Everything I do is for you.

Cheers

Steve 🙂

0

Poetry Drought!

I started a new uni subject today, on writing poetry. Because I have to write a lot of poems for this subject it’s gonna mean a bit of a drought for my blog (normally I post a poem a day).

So I’m going to publish a few of my older poems to keep readers going until I have some time to post some new original poems (I can’t post poems from my current uni subject until it’s over, otherwise the plagiarism checker will pick up my own poems on this website lol).

So, without further ado, here’s an oldie but a goodie:

https://stevestillstanding.com/2017/02/23/today-a-poem/

Steve 🙂

1

On the Shelf. A haiku trilogy.

Lost

Another friend lost
Empty space upon the shelf
Whispered remembrance

Alone

Walking in my sleep
Dreaming alone as always
Isolationist

Reflections

Friendship, charity?
Mature reflections adrift
Empty shelf beckons


Friendships can be hard to find and to keep, especially as one grows older. If you’re an introvert it can make it even harder. It’s not easy to find someone you connect with and let it grow to a point where you can say you are ‘real’ friends, rather than acquaintances.

I recently lost a good friend. Lots of reasons why: circumstances, distance, family commitments, time. I’m not really sure why people ‘disconnect’. In a world where communication over distance is so much easier than before, you wouldn’t think it would be an issue.

But that’s how the cookie crumbles. I have less friends in my life now than I ever had, but the ones I have left remain true. And sometimes that’s all you can hope for.

Steve

5

The Mind of a Poet. A poem.

The mind of a poet
Constructing verse
Rhythm and rhyme
Meter and time
In all-consuming madness

Sonnets, couplets
Haiku, freestyle
Diamanté, Cinquain
Pantoum, villanelle
Concrete, tanka
So many choices and more
To bring life to blank pages

How sensitive you become
To your own critiques
And how you labour long
At your own expense
To hide your jewels
Bury them in the roots
Of the tree you've grown

Does anyone care?
No matter, you toil on
Because someone out there
Will identify, dig deep
Find your buried pearls
And will smile
Because of
The mind of a poet

4

Turbulence. A poem.

They're across a crowded room
And the narcissist within
Is screaming "look at me, look at me"
But the introvert without
It whispers "look away, look away"
Trying to smile is a struggle
As complex and as simple as a Gordian knot
And while the cannibal butterflies
Consume your insides
And the flush creeping up
Makes you look like a fire hydrant
And you're thinking hard
How not to screw it up
They've started talking with another
And all you have left is self reproach
And one big "Doh!"
Better luck next time

0

Picture. A poem.

A picture of togetherness
Written in elemental script
Captured then in time serene

A picture that made sense, it seemed
Once upon eternity
Before the poison settled in

A picture of two frozen smiles
But what in truth do they relay
When hollow eyes betray the scene

A picture of faded sepia
Now all bitterness and disregard
As if the picture had never been

0

Family Lost. A poem.

There are rabbits in my back yard
Each day they rise to greet the light
With eager noses, seek daily bread
While the alpha, tall and bright
Watches oh, so protectively
Together, the family eats again

I had a family once like them
It now feels like so long ago
I loved them so, my family lost
The rabbits are reminders then
With faith and hope
I’ll survive the cost

0

No Sleep for the Wicked. A poem.

Close my eyes
Sleep the sleep of angels
Until l can’t
Rude awakening
Brought back to life
Defibrillated from dreams
And held
Status update: insomniac
Mental tides
Washing over tired eyes
Why won’t
You let
Me sleep
Damn brain
3:00am meeting with the board
Micro managing
My many personal investments
My kingdom for a hammer
To knock me out
(In a placid way, of course)
So I can ski those dream snow slopes again
But no
I guess not tonight
So many sheep
To keep me company
10,20,30,100,1000
Bah
I hate sheep, anyway
Don’t check Fb
Blue light reinforcement
Night is day
I find the vale of dreams
Eventually
And then the alarm
Harsh reminder
Snooze
Too short
Late for life
Grrrrrr…

5

For Sale. A poem.

For sale
Older model
Chassis in fine shape, no rust
Engine in good condition
Fiery but reliable
May need a lick of paint
And new tires
Great long term investment
Won’t let you down
Can be driven hard
Or from A to B
Whatever your fancy
Some wisdom and insight required
Best or nearest offer

Going cheap
Reduced to clear

0

The Example. A poem.

I watched TV
Saw an interesting story
A man with no arms and legs
Overcoming every challenge
Every adversity
And I thought to myself
In a moment of epiphany
If he can do the things he does
Without a fuss, without complaint
Then surely I can rise above
My own misbegotten woes
I’m no saint
I’m no fool
But I’ve screwed up my life
Worse than most do
But time has come
To follow the example
Set by a man with no hands or feet
Who walks tall without them
And who lives life
As it’s meant to be lived

1

Dawn. A poem.

Dawn peeks in through the blinds, seeking the one behind
Laying here in bed, yet to face sun and sky
Yet to feel the warmth and to stretch arms wide
Yet to start the day, nothing changed by the night
No miraculous cures or incredible saves
Nothing more than pleasures we indelibly crave
When your feet hit the floor, sunlight leads the way
Every morning follows night
Every night follows day

0

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