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poetry by j matthew waters

Archive for the tag “collaboration”

Once upon a carnival


by Pleasant Street & J Matthew Waters

Shopping for groceries
I turn a corner near the eggs
A feather, buoyant before my eyes
Dancing in the air so I can not reach
The sound of a brass band in produce
A smile on my face for past times

Out in the parking lot
Lost thoughts become louder
Parading with yesterday’s revelries
Like souls without a care
Preventing me from finding my car
Blended amongst all the noise

The carnival days are missed
Black leather on crushed red velvet
Deep glasses of confidence
Unconcerned with consequence
Nights of ambition
Behind masks ’til the wine ran dry

How my mind wanders
Wondering where in the world
We will ever meet
And relive the magic that once
Existed in a special place
Full of color and sound

Succulent nights – joy in our fists
Carefree, somnolent days
Everything glittered
Though nothing was gold
I knew your touch
As well as my name

Passion and danger
We were never strangers to either
Japanese lanterns on fire above us
Below us thin air we danced upon
Like in a fairy tale
That never seemed to end



august two thousand fifteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

my misbehaving poetry

by Daniella Sciuto & J Matthew Waters

a mess of discarded words
surround the waste paper bin
a screwed up frustrating mishmash
of misbehaving poetry
sent to Coventry
the current state of affairs
keeps missing the mark
ideas bouncing off rims in silence
not even a dead klunk
to rattle my soul
to let me know
if I more accurately honed my aim
matched that rhythm zigzagging
in and out of my own personal alphabet
if I took an occasional Z
rhymed it with W instead
attached it to an A, B or C
would poetry suddenly
work for me

exhausted I pause
stare deep into the double-hung window
a handful of flies
trapped between the panes
gasping for fresh air
crawling and buzzing
schizophrenically searching
for the only way out
watching me in a frenzy
weighing up the worth
over-thinking the import
of a few lonely words
which my pen decides
to frantically override
in indigo ink

the day turns to dust
water turns to wine
turns to blood in a trice
I raise my ancient chalice
toasting and praying
to the poetry gods on high
for an ounce of inspiration
as I drift into stars
the night showers reams
of words falling free
my pen and my paper
and my mind all three
collaborate with the gods
to write dream poetry

in the morning I awake
feel the words as they bleed
dead flies on the sill
empty paper
empty pen
an empty state of mind


This is the third poem in a series of three originally published by ArtiPeeps in their “FreeVerse” Section

october two thousand fourteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Rewriting the Universe

by Daniella Sciuto & J Matthew Waters

I drew these lines ages ago without
understanding the consequences
and my desire to protect them
weakened as time wore on

I sketched these images
fast frenetic murals on the wall
portraying all my doubts
concerning this world
and myself
and then I lived on
each day passing by
these lines remained unchanged
concealed by a thin layer of imagination

I crossed the line into a new
form of reality
regaining my strength by
becoming one with creation
drawn across the land
yet the pull of these lines
that basis of all
beyond the veil of life
influenced everything
no matter how much I whitewashed
my tabula rasa was not pure
and I found myself
redrawing the lines
found myself starting all over again

this is how it both
ends and begins
with poetry written
rewritten and rewritten again
layers upon meanings
upon words
with us forever
redrawing the lines
starting all over again
whilst the ghosts of poems past
influence everything





september two thousand fourteenl
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

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