Cover Reveal: Inhale the Night

I've absconded to a new blog at WordPress. Follow me there for more poetic ramblings https://benjaminditmars.wordpress.com/

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Join Ben Ditmars, author of Night Poems and Haiku in the Night, on his final journey through the Midnight hours. Explore and breathe with him as night descends and stars emerge into new memories. Through free-verse, epic, and haiku poetry, some roads are darker than others....

Release Date 10/10/14

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Pale Blue

In Memory of Carl Sagan

his pale blue
sense of wonder
suspended
in a sunbeam

taught beauty in
the faint sensation
of our atoms
put together.

a legacy of
dust and stars
billions upon billions
of stars

I saw the sky and
endless possibility
stretch over me like
broken shackles
form the past

and we remain the
momentary masters
of a fraction
of a dot.

© Ben Ditmars 2014

“Carl Sagan – 1980” by PBS – ebay. Via Wikipedia.

Lightning Burning

lightning never
sees its fire burning
the trees

absent and forlorn
as love can be.

I can feel your
thunder on the
mountainside.

we will tame
the ashes, fan the flames,
and the pray the sky
returns to calm
forgetful sleep.

© Ben Ditmars 2014

Image Source: Flickr

Lifelike

I wrote a poem inspired by Charity Parkerson's book, Inoperative: Cyborg One . Be sure and check out her awesome story on Amazon.


Lifelike

lifelike confessions
play out like make believe

your metal warms
against my skin
reprogramming resistance

fabricated sweet talk
counterfeit concern
become too real

and I am drawn
more willingly
than magnetized.

© Ben Ditmars 2014

Image Source: Flickr

Dreams

rain falls like
streams of our
subconscious
in a dream.

she was no
small dream
but she has faded
like a song.

paint your
dream town
red.

everything is
just a dream.

fall inside your
rabbit hole and
dream of cabbages
and kings.

scream my name -
make love like it’s
your dream because
it’s my dream too.

sweat and breathe
emotions as our
dreams connect

we will connect
and move like tides
of some forgotten shore
where dreams exist
in layers like the sand
and we can live forever.

©Ben Ditmars 2014

In Memory of Maya Angelou

I wrote a post in 2010 titled My Regards to Maya Angelou.  In memory of a great poet I thought I would share it today.

I Know Why the Twitter Bird Tweets

The free bird leaps
on Google’s back
and scrolls down page
till the browser ends
and dips his wings
in Facebook rays
and dares to claim the internet.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow page
can seldom see through
his lists of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his claws to tweet.

The Twitter bird tweets
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tweet are read
on the distant hill
for the Twitter bird
tweets of freedom

The free bird may watch tivo'd Glee
And order up some good Chinese
and laugh as Sue Sylvester drones
On and on of kids off tone.

But Twitter bird stands on the grave of tweets
Getting “trends” for Trick or Treat
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his claws to tweet.

The Twitter bird tweets
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tweet is heard
on the distant hill
for the Twitter bird
tweets of freedom.

The Chair (Freestyle Poetry)

©Ben Ditmars 2014

3D Print

3D print me into
something real, impulsive 
and distinguished.

successive layers
built around a
pulse and backbone.

fused electrons hardwired
to my brain like therapy.

we are broken and
the sum of our spare parts.

©Ben Ditmars 2014

Image Source: Flickr

What You Don't Understand

I can't kill
and I can't win
a peace prize for it.
I can't save the government
It's too far gone.
I never sleep,
I'm like a drone
On Snowden's trail.
I hear voices
From a soldier's family
Who won't eat tonight.
Maybe I'm seditious,
another victim to shutdown,
But you can't kill what you don't understand.
And you'll never understand.

Abstracted

She calls the moon distracting
stars imperfections in a velvet cloth
the nighttime unromantic
owls heard in the distance
are unsettling and artificial light
cannot compare to dawn.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/4366842103/

We've All Got Something

I wrote a poem to the beat of Let Her Go by Passenger

I’ve got something

But it’s not a lot.

I’ve got sunlight

But I want the rain.

I’ve got love

And I want some more.

I’ve got demons

But I let ‘em be.

I’ve got eyes

That don’t always see.

I’ve got legs

That won’t always run.

I’ve got a heart

And I hope it beats.

I’ve got a soul

Somewhere deep inside.

I’ve got time

To dream a dream.

I’ve got stars

To count at night.

I’ve got screams

That interfere.

I’ve got a feeling

Something isn’t right.

I’ve got nothing

We ain’t got nothing

If we cannot act.

Rainbow Lullaby

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aimee_m/3309391722/

Somewhere

Bluebirds cry

Silently.

Somewhere

Dreams really do

Come true.

Somewhere

The clouds aren’t far

Behind me.

Somewhere

She’s still

Singing.

Somewhere

She has found

The rainbow.

Somewhere

I can hear

A lullaby.

Somewhere

There isn’t any

Trouble.

Somewhere

Beyond the moon,

The stars…

Somewhere

Over the

Rainbow.

Book Love

Books are time machines.
Books are cars, and planes, and submarines.
Books are rocket ships and magic beans.
Books are goblins, dragons, kings, and queens.
Books are beating hearts and things unseen.
Books are marijuana and caffeine.



   http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlfantasy/4703159475/

Poetic Perspectives on Love

I'm often fascinated how differently people view the same words, ideas and concepts.  I find this especially true with the word love and recently asked several poets to describe what loves means to them.  Perhaps we can get closer to unraveling something so painfully elusive?

Huge thanks to Amber Jerome Norrgard, Regina Puckett, Poppy Ruth Silver, Helle Gade, Brock Gates, Sreya Bremtin, and Susie Clevenger for their beautiful words.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenpoff/2739990491/

I will fight against you, for you

Because you mean more to me

than any fight can ever erase

Amber Jerome~Norrgard

Amazon Author Page - Website

Breathes held between

lingering sighs. Tangled thoughts

hemorrhage through loving eyes.

Regina Puckett

Facebook - Website

It is the surrender

that loses light

and yet invites

Poppy Ruth Silver

Apollo Blessed - Website

I walked into your soul

Embraced all that you were with my love

But death is a jealous lover

Now that you are gone

I'll forgive, but never forget

Helle Gade

Silent Dreams - Nocturnal Embers


When hate dies, compassion begins, when a violent urge to take care and be one with another, that is a two side deal, to break free of the curse of loneliness

Brock Gates
Website on Tumblr

Love is energy

And motion over time

Transcending distance.

Love will save us
If it doesn't kill us first.

Broken bottles

Shatter glass

Into a love letter

On the tear stained floor.

Ben Ditmars

You're already here.

I.

midnight rain kisses

shower eye lashes with dew

the sweet love of you

II.

spider web wishes

tangle around thoughts of you

to hold fast my heart

III.

you spoke, i answered

together we wrote the words

that said everything

Sreya Bremtin

Amazon Author Page - Facebook

I came with heartbreak

and you never left my side

through sickness and health

together we stood

facing every storm trusting

faith would see us through

goodnight never saw

our heads lay upon anger

forgiveness our choice

life came with its thorns

but they couldn’t divide us

love defied all odds 

Susie Clevenger

Facebook - Blog - Website

Let the Seed Decay

I dream in ways

my mouth cannot articulate

in ways my hands refuse to write

I am a prisoner inside

and there are bars

the world will never break

because they are made from fear

of death and losing all that

I have hid inside them

for so long.

let the seed decay

and never bloom

it will be better

understood that way.

.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerophish/3845885019/

Spiced Dawn, Eclipsed With Venom (Collaboration with Ben Ditmars and PoppySilver)

She bathed in surreal/resembling a dream/an incubus hallucination/trance, vagary and wrath/in the shadow she dwelt/mystified by death/it curved around her thighs, thoughts and heart/while daylight teased her lips/leaving strings of fire like saliva/caught between the stars/her soul had met its match/had suffocated lives long past/she had seen the doorway/invited him to witness it/he only had to offer her his blood/a simple sacrifice/yet more than picturesque/aesthetic qualities/one might taste/but never know/he would be a part of her/lost within the vast miasma/of her ventricles and veins/there he would swirl for longer than a lifetime/and a day/treason lingered in her soul/smeared with distaste for heaven/she absorbed his apathy/inhaled his sadness/such a succulent whirlpool of transparent fear/ beyond the pale of human skin/passive velleity turned raw emotion/the timbre of a voice/becoming one/within the walls/fingernails dug deep into/the fabric of eternity/and stretched time as it was known/pierced the core/ripped the dreams assundar/death was pungent/spiced with life/merged/they breathed/rapidly/let snakes hiss around their feet/venom writhed through their auras/oblivion never tasted so sweet/or putrid to vainglorious believers/in the craft of celibate demise/souls decay/if day by day/our sins become our passion/and she was more than vice to him/a guilty pleasure/sweet dessert/engorging all his senses/tasting, touching, hearing/more, than even five/he felt her on a cosmic plane/away from earth/she tasted his primal/raw/surge/engulfed him/released him/an orb unto the night/forever in her aura he remained/shone like a star unseen before/when she panged for more/he yearned for more/both/breathed/continually together/forever/continium/they had eclipsed the dawn/

(c)2013 Ben Ditmars and Poppy Ruth Silver

Poppy's Website - http://poppysilver.weebly.com/

Speak to the Stars

If I could echo
One small word
Across the universe
It would be love.
The hottest and most distant
Coldest planets,
Black holes and
Neutron stars will know
A species overcame
Their greed and lust
For that one, small word
If only for a moment
As they spoke to stars.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/4128229979/

Telescopic Memories

I never stopped
and thought of time
like gravity or motion-
maybe oxygen draining
from an underwater tank
or the wrong end of a telescope
where everything is smaller
than it was a minute
or a year before.

 
     http://www.flickr.com/photos/darksidex/414679569/

Majesty

Be beautiful

Be spacious

Be the sky.

You are purple mountains

You are majesty.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/145746009/

Blame

I blame the poor

And not the ones

Who put them there.

I blame women

Who are raped

Because they dare

To go outside

Or dress as less

Than nuns.

I blame

Young black men

Because I am taught

To fear them.

I blame

Single mothers

Who destroy our values

As they sacrifice everything

They have for love.

I blame

Homosexuals

And their pursuit of happiness.

I blame

Everyone.