poetry
There are many kinds of poetry, and we want them all. Freeverse, iambic, haiku, sonnets, romantic, humorous, dark, send us your best!
My Neighbor’s Fruits
I noticed the apples on my neighbor’s tree
They stood there
No fences around them
Vulnerable to my imagination
By Colton Claye
I noticed the apples on my neighbor’s tree
They stood there
No fences around them
Vulnerable to my imagination
I felt the warmth of pies
Tasted cool ciders
They hung there
As the tree exhaled
Tempting me
Though not tracking followers
They didn’t aspire to write memoirs
Or symphonies
Or set a date for lunch
They didn’t answer to names
Like Gala
Or Granny Smith
Or Red Delicious
Or fill out forms with them
How fulfilled they looked
To my empty stomach
About the author
Colton Claye, a native of Milwaukee, WI, is an author, songwriter, visual artist, and an advocate for all conscious creatures. His work has been featured in a wide variety of print and digital publications. His latest release, The Percussive Sun, is a collection of surrealist poetry. He sends you warm regards
Notes From An Ethiopian Cafe
When we break bread together, our hands pulling it apart
and using it to scoop and consume communal stews
we are tearing apart the barriers of self
By colton Claye
When we break bread together, our hands pulling it apart
and using it to scoop and consume communal stews,
we are tearing apart the barriers of self.
When we rotate the plate
and take from the same lump of lentils,
we get confused
and we lose
the illusions of "you" and "me",
"yours" and "mine".
And just like this fermented teff,
which is baked
and becomes the bread we break and digest,
we too must build up and break down.
We are unbothered by that fact while we eat
and while this meal is all that sits between two people,
and we keep the injera turning together.
But once we pay the bill and walk away from the table,
we see ourselves separate once more
and the struggle to lose oneself begins again.
About the author
Colton Claye, a native of Milwaukee, WI, is an author, songwriter, visual artist, and an advocate for all conscious creatures. His work has been featured in a wide variety of print and digital publications. His latest release, The Percussive Sun, is a collection of surrealist poetry. He sends you warm regards
Colton Claye’s Variation on Kenneth Koch’s “Variation on a theme by William Carlos Williams”
This is just to say:
I have cleared
the forests
that were in
your country
And which
you were probably
saving
for their
ability to
return water vapor to the atmosphere
By Colton Claye
This is just to say:
I have cleared
the forests
that were in
your country
And which
you were probably
saving
for their
ability to
return water vapor to the atmosphere
and for
the beings
who made their home there
and for their
adeptness at
absorbing greenhouse gases
My bad.
Their pulp
and the monocrops growing in their place
were so instrumental in
providing me with
products that help me to
pass the time away
About the author
Colton Claye, a native of Milwaukee, WI, is an author, songwriter, visual artist and an advocate for all conscious creatures. His work has been featured in a wide variety of print and digital publications. His latest release, The Percussive Sun, is a collection of surrealist poetry. He sends you warm regards.
ode to jerome davis
The destructive force of war created you
Your voice, as silent as God, calling out to those you created in your image
They come hoping to see you delivering a new masterpiece
or picking up your junk mail
By Colton Claye
The destructive force of war created you
Your voice, as silent as God, calling out to those you created in your image
They come hoping to see you delivering a new masterpiece
or picking up your junk mail
They come seeking proof of their existence
Never matching your imagination
Or your memories of the chaos and quiet of the stalag
Where you take the perpetrator for your bride
Offering her the hand of the creator who puts as much beauty in what is left out as what is put in
About the author
Colton Claye, a native of Milwaukee, WI, is an author, songwriter, visual artist and an advocate for all conscious creatures. His work has been featured in a wide variety of print and digital publications. His latest release, The Percussive Sun, is a collection of surrealist poetry. He sends you warm regards.
another passion play
I've been chasing betrayal
all the way to your piercing gaze
and your invisible hands which lift me atop the calvary I carry inside
lowering the volume on the praise coming my way so I could hear their jeers
By Colton Claye
I've been chasing betrayal
all the way to your piercing gaze
and your invisible hands which lift me atop the calvary I carry inside
lowering the volume on the praise coming my way so I could hear their jeers
Once I was a poor scholar
decorating eggshells,
walking to find you straddling the lap of the rabbit on his throne
Now you've come to take this bread.
I raise my glass and make a toast
to the carpenter who built this barstool after he left the profession
so I could sit and drink Jello shots with the ghosts of the holy well
and tip my server
I see you in the peepshow
It isn't enough to be a voyeur anymore
I’m hoping you'll break my heart
my wounds are my way out
About the author
Colton Claye, a native of Milwaukee, WI, is an author, songwriter, visual artist and an advocate for all conscious creatures. His work has been featured in a wide variety of print and digital publications. His latest release, The Percussive Sun, is a collection of surrealist poetry. He sends you warm regards.