http://slow.writerscafe.org/2OliverWordsmith The original writings of author Brian D. Roth en-us Copyright 2026 WritersCafe.org 1776241719 WritersCafe.org RSS Generator 15 It was a night filled with smoke and heavy rainclouds blurring the arc sodium streetlamps when I followed Delores Payne, a woman dressed entirely in black who carried a red purse, deep into Dresden.  Dresden was a quaint backwater that lay along the outskirts of Brooks like a drunken afterthoug.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2855290/ Today, decades are a mytha hearsay descended upon current generationswhose cameras don't flashand who can scarcely imagine a world without Words With FriendsToday, people crave the nostalgias of yester-yearas though they were Thanksgiving leftoversLet us keep the feast as best we canToday, star-cros.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2809205/ Sifting through the ashesthe detritus of twilight following footprints smudged with tearsyour tearsloneliness betrays a trail into your heartStill, you prefer the comfort of anonymity I know you even through the fog that hides your spiritYou know me even through the darkest of rainfallsI a.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2808472/ If life and all its spontaneous trajectoriesdrag you down a spiral of spiteful turbulence,may an empathetic embrace shelter you from the shrapneland absorb your tears like a sponge If the chemicals in your brain flail like a tangle of live wires,may the reassurances of today and tomorrowhelp al.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2808362/ I miss you,long after you have fallenand your spirit has scattered to the cold windsI come for a visit on days when the sun hides behind vales of silverwhen thunder bellows the boughs of tendernesswhen the rain flourishes your bed of roseswhile remembering the widowers songYour hello carols up out o.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2808025/ Like a bear burrowing into hibernationwhile winter wages war on an unwilling earthit's rage hardening in the windsyou need time to healLike a duck freezing beneath a bergattacking a canopy of icewith a blunt beakscarcely chipping awaywith hope unwaveringyou need time to healLike a cat smothered bene.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2807473/ They,those hybrids of fish and feline,who have disingenuous hearts aand greedy little fingerscome swimming at you from out of the etherthe internet etherThey come with heartfelt emoji'swith profile pictures tantalize the eyesso that for a few seconds at least,you forget to breatheThey come with proc.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2807471/ What if your heart is already tornbetween the only mirage in a desert filled with dry dreamsas well as prickly porcupinesand a fountain that sprinkles sporadic spellsof beautiful misfortuneby the time I reach out to you with hands doused with tendernessand dripping with desireHow can I then be the r.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2807079/ In your absenceas you abscond with the ambers you pilferedfrom my flaming heartI become a vesselhelplessly flooded with an onslaught of tender whispersand empty promises I lay alone in the darklistening to the bats squealand flutter their winds about a windowI once crawled through to taste the .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2807076/ When emotions flow like rapids through a river wildhow is one to grasp the oarbefore tumbling into the fallswhere those whose hearts have succumbed to the vicious currentscurrents that feed the depths of the lonelyhave long since drownedHow is one to declare a state of certaintyin the eyes of a love.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2807015/ I would rather not speak of lovewhen words flow like wineonly to be damned by the coming of the dawnSpent are our spirits in sips and spillswhen our empathy,like the invitation to melt in each other's eyeswhile immersed in the glow of a crackling bonfireremains unrequitedI would rather not speak of .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2805964/ Tonight, rather than weighing less than autumn leaffalling from a branch both brittle and beautifula man's spirit is heavy like brimstoneHeat hides behind the eyesHis senses, once submerged in mistsmurky and graysurge suddenly back into the tubesand the channels of his brain where they belongand alo.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2804486/ The whispers of lovers whose words once dangled from willowsand dreamcatchersduring tender moments of warmth and hush hushflutter like a cauldron of batswings tattered and tiredwhile they negotiate a darkness everlasting A curtain has fallen upon their lovetransforming it from a blossom of care.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2804399/ When a virus slips past your vales of vitalityand caution and infests your fickle orifices spreading germs throughout your soul like the ashes of a brushfireall while willing you to wallow in a fortress of fortitude tossing and turningamid a submarine of turbulent solitude may yo.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2803151/ I stand upon the ledges of lifelike a peacockeager to spread its wingsand cast its ambitions into a miraculous moonbeam revealing a rainbow as vibrant as a soulful kaleidoscope and yet the power to lift myself high enough to stroke the skyhas plateaued Clouds are hanging downward like.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2801846/ If a candle wishes to glow,'it cannot do it on its ownIt needs another's touchto deliver a kiss of flame http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2801673/ When I was nine years old during the summer of '87, I fell out of my grandfather's old oak tree.  I don't remember how high up I was, ten feet or so or maybe more.  What I do remember was landing on the roots protruding from the base of the tree like wooden tentacles and being far too wind.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2801068/ Sure, a man may dreameven if that's all he has left to hold ontowhile treading the waters of a world whose realities ensnare like reefsand entangle like the threads of remorseA man may dreamand his dream may encircle him like a shining halokeeping him afloatwhile his feet dangleand he drifts am.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2800689/ Dressed to the nines,my Sunday best ironed to hot perfection I kneel at the altar during Communion Meanwhile, my phone shrieks at me from inside my pocketThe ex is callingI don't know why, probably bitching about the triangle she belongs toIt used to be our triangleI try and talk to her on.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2799860/ I so often find I have a mind that doesn't really mind swirling and twirling two strands of spiderweb at a timemaybe threebut certainly no more than threefor what then will become of meMy mind is not a ball of yarnfor cats to bat aroundFor my mind and all its faculties are vulnerable, you seeas.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2798870/ And so I set out once more among the desertto follow what footprints my imagination,his name is Sawyer,may have left behindLike a feral Doberman who snarls and chews through his leashSawyer has gone away againon another one of his wild absences Where he has run off to this timeor how much sand .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2797924/ Can you help me reach the starsCan your love lift me high enough to be able to do thatCan you lift me above the cloudsabove the thunderabove the lightningeven higher than the moonI want to pluck sparkling stars out of spaceand hand them to one after anotherI want to fill the galaxy with as many feel.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2797294/ The hours embrace me with their subtle torrentwhile I soak in silence as thick as thunderPain,my painthe loudest, most ravenous leviathan to ever swarmabout the human soulunleashes venom into my veinswhere it echoes out through the crevices of vulnerability and so I toil My teeth clen.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2796763/ A dove flies beneath a canopy of silver treessoaring into a miasmaa moonless murksuch as a heart whose emotions have no place left to moveno more souls left to smothersurrenders to the safety of a cocoonuntil the wounds it has sufferedburst open and bleedingseal themselves in tourniquets composed of.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2796748/ I prefer to let my poems speak for themselves http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2795440/ Lying awake in a dark roomlit with salt lamps and candlessighing at the aroma of incense wishing for my eyes to closeand stay closedso I may coast through the hours as they grow heavyas heavy as the waves crashing upon the shoreMy legs, arms and chest ache somberlyand with the exhaustion of a g.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2795288/ I prefer to let my poems speak for themselves http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2794827/ Cold nightsand even colder days wrap around youlike towels soaked with ice watercausing you to cower and shiverwhile you brave the rapidsand brave them aloneOnly you are not aloneUnseen are the hands that reach out to you the mostUnheard are the prayers and the tears of othersthat touch you on .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2792487/ The sun sagsand the clouds partwhile our hands drift palm from palmfinger from fingerOur footsteps vanish into the iceOur prints are washed away during the falling of the rainAnd the distance between us broadens into a canyon of canyonsWhat has happened to us? http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2792198/ I wish we could meet in personsense a smile as warm as the recognition that no longer renders us strangersshare an embrace brimming with benevolence so breathlessclarify the floaters drifting between usfloaters that may be misty with question marks and misconceptions I sail the ebb and flow of .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2791707/ You crawl along the edge of a cliffduring the cusp of winterit's cold claws scraping away the deepest desiresthat feed your heart and soulbut even the most jagged of drafts that swipe at you from out of the etherhiding amidst a season of bitternesswill never rip you away from the hearts of many.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2791225/ Your heart is an antique vesselshipwrecked and marooned on a shelf in the atticalongside an old pair of bootsas well as a series of pictures capturing a lifetime long since spentin the era of black and whiteYour heart may be brimming with the salt of lonelinessand it may have acquired dust and cobwe.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2790529/ Thoughts of you draw out like swordsin the hush of nightcutting through time and space as though they are ribbonsslashing through realmsand severing realities that separate autopsy incisions from surging impulsesbones from pints of bloodshriveled organs from animated tissues heaps of dust from .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2790039/ Love is unrequitedLove is severed like an umbilical cordGoodbye strikes like a dagger, carving the heart into halvesThe heart weeps tears of bloodwhile crawling toward a blackened hole where it hopes to hibernatehopes to hideuntil it can strap bandages of reassurance across its woundsand mend with a.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2789276/ Your heart achesand bleedswhen you are aloneIt has come to thisThe walls around you have grown darker, narrowerspeaking their own silent hopeless messagebut don't listendon't you listenWe fall into our own dungeons of hellso we can embrace the glow that emerges from within Whenever we sense tha.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2789147/ A butterfly doesn't flutter it's wings with grace and freedomonce it takes flight amid a world besieged with blackness and thornIt emerges as a caterpillar the bearer of the burdens of the universea universe that inflicts seasons of undernourishment, agonyand isolation within a cocoonAll things.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2788566/ Loss,true loss,is a chasm opening spontaneously and painfullywhile those who have fallen from lifefall through holes in our hearts that know no bottomsLoss,true loss,falls ever so slowly through portals of thunderThose who have fallen from life make the loudest noises inside usloud enough to quake b.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2788462/ When inspirations are as dry as hollow snowflakesfloating through your fingersand the muse hibernates in an igloo of idlenessa glacial sense of doubtand speckles of icy karmawhere is the flicker,that spark the ignites when your aspirations,the atmosphereand the universe rub together like stones posi.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2788452/ Like a bridge beneath the flow of an aggressive waterfalla woman's water breaks the cyclebefore science has even finished monitoring the wombA mother bleedsA mother shoutsA mother screamsA mother sacrifices energy and expectation A mother sacrifices hours,medicine and even her sanity but h.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2788144/ When clouds coagulate like powdery mushroomsclashing with dashes of silvery graythe day resembles an entourage of coins that had not been freshly minted in yearsand the hours grow gargantuantoo heavy to hold in our precious, precarious handsuntil they refuse to budgeand refuse to bendstanding like s.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2787511/ Pain,push, pushPain like that of shoving a boulder, a bladethrough your own infinitesimal crevicethe threshold that yearns between the formula of creation and life itselfis extravagant Push, pushextravagant and extraordinary a catalyst for the evolution of both mother and childIt is blesse.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2786816/ I often prefer to let my pieces of writing speak for themselves http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2786277/ I am torn between two shoresone shared by souls slowly burning the kindred oiland another where my roots are surrounded by sand and waterunbound and un-smotheredwhile standing tall and flourishing on their own upon an islandindependent of other islands holding hands http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2785638/ Your fingers slip away into the wispy air like fickle feathersYour lips, supple and surreal, melt into a phantom smilecaressing the deepest corners of my heartwhile I lay stranded upon beaches emblazoned with by earth's brightest beautyOcean waves clasp in an inseparable unisonbut missing you is a c.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2785637/ A Chameleon crashes through barriers of brick and brimstoneshedding skins and seasonsbesotted with bruises and scarsfrom fighting the urge to push forthto encroach upon an evolution envisioned through eyeshindered by a blindfoldthickened with ambivalencea cloth removed not with a slow and reluctant .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2785635/ Hearts are lost among blades and thornLove, once evergreen, lay in tatters of bark and shrubberyDestiny yields to detritus Whispers haunt the high windsFriendship, a substance,a solution as soft as nectarweeps upon a field fickle and frayeduntil even the weeds find forgivenessRoots, once wounde.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2785634/ I once was a rock for youYou were once a rock for meWe rolled down some of the same hills togetherThe energy pouring between us was once as warm as a downpour of dew during a summer's duskWe each have a gifta weaving of the will of words into a web dripping with the potencyof passion and intens.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2785633/ Welcome to Hazelnut's CaféWe've been around for some time as you can seeOur tables, walls and bar are made of the finest oakLanterns imbued with blazing orange light similar to that of a salt-lamphang down from the ceilingGentle music plays from the speakersall contributing to the timele.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2785630/ I wish you and I could give each other a huga hug blooming with tender buds of red and orangeand mend a friendly oak tree growing between usfrom losing its foliageduring the languish of fall into winterWe may not be able to resist the course of a cyclonerolling from season to seasonIt changes youas .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2785625/ My heart hides deep in a hole dug by wounded handshibernating with a litter of ghosts whose destinies have bled them dryall while laughing lovers clasp commitment by its coreand run slippery thieves along the beachthe winds whistling the theme of their soulsMy mind swims through a swarm of memories .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/2OliverWordsmith/2785624/