GAS Featured Poet: Rp Verlaine

 

Rp Verlaine lives in New York City. 

He has an MFA in creative writing from City College. 

He taught in New York Public schools for many years. 

His first volume of poetry- Damaged by Dames

& Drinking was published in 2017 and another – Femme Fatales

Movie Starlets & Rockers in 2018. A set of three e-books

titled Lies From The Autobiography vol 1-3 were published from

2018 to 2020. His newest book, Imagined Indecencies,

was published in February of 2022.

Thanksgiving Prayer 

To charity

and the abandoned

in city streets.

To dogs that follow

taillights blinded

with hunger.

The winos who’re

pissing themselves in

the drunk tanks.

The abandoned

baby carriages

near the hospitals.

The preacher walking

last miles with

smiling murderers.

The harlot who has

used all her kindness

left only with hate

The cartoonist

alone with laughter

of others.

The window washer

no longer careful

after a divorce.

The actress who

died in a hundred

films afraid of death.

The wine that keeps

these thoughts at bay

or brings them fourth.

A concluding whisper that

eyes opening to another

day- is still a gift.

You're My Daisy

Yet tonight 

I think of churches with doors closed 

to me forever.

The getaway driver 

finally seeng holes in the plan 

as bullets whizz by.

The depth of dreams 

shallow as a mirror 

reflecting chaos.

Debauched youth and loss

dancing together drunk 

enough for laughter.

The missing electric hum 

of ghosts in circles 

of thought.

The door slightly

ajar to invite chance

to play another card.

Boredom like a virus 

gaunt with need 

and hunger I 

no longer know well.

A daisy in the garden 

facing the sun 

afraid of nothing

GAS Featured Poet: Rp Verlaine

 

Rp Verlaine lives in New York City.

He has an MFA in creative writing from City College. He taught in New York Public schools for many years.His first volume of poetry- Damaged by Dames & Drinking was published in 2017 and another – Femme FatalesMovie Starlets & Rockers in 2018. A set of three e-bookstitled Lies From The Autobiography vol 1-3 were published from2018 to 2020. His newest book, Imagined Indecencies, was published in February of 2022.

Eve

Wrote about

her active love life

for years. I was lucky

to be a part of for

a few eventful days

and featured in 3

or 4 poems that

fortunately

were kind.

She stood about 5' 4”

had long red dazzling hair

that went down to her waist

and would move with a

rare abandon as she

danced and twirled

reciting poems

from memory.

Now 62

that wonderful hair

is cut shot like a man’s

and is white as bones

in the desert.

She uses

bottle thick glasses

to read her work

not moving so much now.

Many of the poets

we knew are dead.

Yet her smile still has magic

even though she walks with a cane

when she reads, which is rare.

Poems about birds

and cats not

about her love life

anymore.

But I’ll always

remember her

with that wild red hair

I see it a few times still

in dreams beyond boundaries

where I gladly

surrender everything

to her again.

Of Carrion and Sunsets

We hover like carrion crows,

death in the air yet we still circle

this limited trajectory. We've mastered

the synchronized chaos of new emotions,

duplicating subterfuge of starlings at night.

The joy of laughter when the clown falls,

the curtain blind to what’s behind it,

the empty tears that fill a coffin,

calculating the odds against any sure thing.

The parade that ends with no destination,

trigonometry's failure to make things clear,

the difference between losing and surrender.

Wrong calls ghosting missing telephone booths,

vainglorious ambitions pretty in retreat,

the bright sunset never quite ours.