http://slow.writerscafe.org/DaleP The original writings of author Dale Pavolko en-us Copyright 2026 WritersCafe.org 1775982337 WritersCafe.org RSS Generator 15 (Fragment, found on a banana leaf)We have eaten him entirely, the Grey One who carried the world on his slow back. His heart was heavy as an ancient moon, his marrow sweet as the forgotten milk of childhood.Now his death sits within us, warm, heavy, unspeakable. We car.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3129656/ I live a life of leisure~~damn near a crime: I take the money and leave not one dime. I live a life of pleasure, kiss Chantelle, kiss mystique, sweep every beauty clean off her feet. If I marry one, I’ll marry them all~~we’ll live in a country house wit.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3123669/ Paging IrinaPressed lilies lie flat in the dark pages of yesterday~~petals softened into the grain of ink and time, melding with the page, tracing the shape of my name in faint, stubborn relief.This morning the sheet cracked~~fingers first, breaking the seam, then wrists, .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3123543/ Crunching snow under my feet,I like this sound.I bend reality, Like a minor keyOf desolationFrosted branchesfrozen in silenceUntil the wind breaks theminto sticks. Cold attacks my cheeks.It’s the crunch of footstepsand sparkle on whiteThat leads me down&.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3123515/ In the unyielding dawn of a young nation’s fire, America’s spirit was hammered from raw ore,not common metal, but a moral alloy, bright and pure, resilient as the Rockies, vast as prairie skies.At the master’s forge, values took their shape: integrity the hammer, fai.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3122957/ Once upon a midnight dreary,while I pondered, weekend weary, Over many a various mishap Of a quaint, nay, one might say nostalgic summer’s day. Bereft of plan, myself, my friends Dan and Stan Met some miscreants at the local park, and there we dared to play A most wholesom.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3122949/ Salt and SorrowI breathe a breath of Babylon In polyglot phantom, prophecies come The blood and bone of kings And all the men who fed their dreams Would still fertilize the soil Were there an ounce of water left That was not tearsSo sing a dirge for love for the child .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3122775/ The Sky on FireWith a slow, patient grind, the Metro buss crests Queen Anne Hill, windows fogged with coffee breath. A phone slips, clatters to the floor. Heads turn slowly, then all at once. Fingers point upward. Someone whispers, “Look~~” A woman half-stands.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3122411/ I pitched myself a ball and smacked it with my Louisville bat. It flew so high~On a perfect home run path. I was so proud, watching my prowess soar.The ball crested the trees. Mrs. Ploszek stood regal in the kitchen, sipping tea, spying on the neighbors through her pi.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3122269/ To think upon the quiet morning dew That beads each blade of grass in fragile light, The humble spider’s web, so finely drew, Where silver threads catch dawn’s first gentle sight; To think of tiny seeds that split the soil, Of roots that seek the dark in patient grace, .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3122168/ They say the deal was done in 1961 on Highway 49, just south of Clarksdale, where the red-dirt crossroads bleeds into legend and the cicadas fall silent when a lone shadow passes.A bullet puckered stop sign still stands there, impaling a burnt patch of grass. Paint flaking like old scabs. No one.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3122008/ We are built from **teeth and shadow. The gnashing bite of predators we never saw, the creeping dread of eyes that glowed in absolute black.Our core being was forged in the **bat cave**, where the acrid fumes of guano rose like incense to some older, crueler god. Those sharp, ammoniac tendrils, .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3121277/ Before my first inhale they asked me if I was ready for teeth, for hunger, for graves and I still weightless, fur already bristlinganswered like a honey badger that had never met a snakeNow night finds me counting bites on knuckles that finally learned some things .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3120589/ I wrote this around 2014 I haven’t thought of any way to improve it yet. Maybe it’s too long? http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3120454/ The hush of crickets is abruptly stilled. The moon marinates the night. A cougar coughs and pads into the dream.A child, mesmerized by shadow, pulls the covers over his head. The edges and corners converge. Reality is leaking.Behind the taste of brick dust the stage is.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3120400/ When the river they trusted betrays its name, its bed cracked and faithless a drunkard’s old vow. the young bull snorts fury, takes burden and blame, and charges the thicket with sweat on his brow. He hacks a new pathway through briar and flame, breaks mules, spills blood, lose.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3120392/ We had been walking forever, destination long since forgotten, when the tower rose at dusk, plainly there, breaking the wind.We made camp in its lee. I traced Emma’s carved letters, beautiful, sealed, a poem you can see but not enter. I was tired. Ready to sleep outsid.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3120173/ The rain came down in sheets, cold and merciless, turning every streetlight into a smeared halo. A cobalt Packard cut through the deluge like a shark through black water, its chrome teeth catching the neon and throwing it back in broken pieces. It slowed, purring, beneath a cracked marquee that flic.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3120155/ little bit Fishy Cephalopods make great lovers and you can eat them with butter when you are through. O’ blue-sea lover true, ten strong and slick with dew, those tentacle suckered lovers Playing games the whole night through. After we’re finished it’s n.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3120087/ Between the hush of snow and our child’s first breath, I stand in the doorway again.The same doorway in time from where I once watched you sleep,years ago, when dawn was a rumor and your dreaming face held every future.Tonight the light returns, not as prophecy but as memory ma.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3119934/ Joe was seven and already convinced his father made the best thing in the world.He’d sit on an overturned bucket in the garage while Dad spun the extractor, watching the honey come out thick and slow, the color of a summer afternoon. Dad called it liquid gold, and Joe believed him the way .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3119857/ My chest revels in drowsy numbness as I traverse the jungle’s mossy ways.The eternal source of summer, I feel scents of orchids and hibiscus bleeding into moist air.Opiate-eyed, I marvel at the poison frogs, Iridescent, red and blue, startling, jewels I don’t dare .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3119674/ Just Bend to the Trend (2025 Remix) A Poem by Dale Pavolko (still not sorry)the moon was feeling mean misgendered. by the big bad wolf she had a panic attack in the wrong bathroom. the sky could not take the glare posted content warnings everywhere. there was thunder in th.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3119650/ Here’s a concise, practical checklist you can keep beside you (or in your head) every time you sit down to read a poem with the intention of writing a useful review. It works whether the poem is fragile grief, polished craft, or raw flint.1. First pass - pure reception □ Read i.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3119640/ Nightside ride http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3119514/ I am a dark goodbye Folded Neatly Beside your heart I depart, a sleeping sigh on my wayto breathe frost upon your window we began as backstage support every breath was pulp fiction oursaccharineparted lips impersonated Love http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3119332/ I taste tears falling from utopia, And the bitter scope of words Is lost I cannot hope To change salt into diamond. There is a breaking point where Stability is…My fingers are bloody As I attempt to halt The momentum Of Forever http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/3119329/ We say goodbye With cracked porcelain smilesand I lament how the death of lovebecomes youI breathe the vacuum  Yet Through the long night comes a new pain parting on nowstrange city streets  memories At the edgeswhere dark silenceforsakesdrowni.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/1486057/ The moon was feeling mean. The big bad wolfhad a bad dream.The sky could not take the glare.There was thunder in the air.The land was full of rocksthat rumbled as they rolled.In the distance an angry lion roared.God looked down and saw the need.Therefore in his wisdom he decreed, Henceforth there sh.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/780066/ I would have thought her eyes chips of icewere they naught so green a hue.Instead I am sure a snow clad Spruce will suffice,for their color must include some form of ice.But could a Spruce survive the cruel ravage of thosewinter eyes? Those eyes that never melt into tears.Whose black d.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/780047/ First it comes with seductive power,  redolent scent on nightshade’s flower.  Shadows in the mist, sweet nothingness;  dreams and things obsession brings  break your will, take their fill, and sting.  They slip into the purest thought,a blinding burst, unquenchable thi.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/639122/ She spills across the night in reckless light-  a nightshade smile too sharp to be benign.  Beside the black mirror of the lake he lies,  already burning in the veins of his own want.  .The water keeps its counsel, cold and deep,  yet shows him what he will not admit:  .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/638637/ What is sweet surrenderwhen It’s purely lust within your eyes?How can you tantalize me thus then stay me with a sigh?If it did not feel so good when you flick your tongue right there.I would show you what it means to tease a man.But I do forbear punishing you as I might. I much .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DaleP/606313/