24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Adam Lipscomb is in all probability a carbon-based life form living and working in Austin, Texas. His work has been published in the Seattle Erotic Art Festival 2020 Literary Art Anthology as well as Celestite Poetry Journal and The Pine Cone Review. When not staring in frustration at a computer monitor trying to will words to appear, he enjoys cooking for the people in his heart and taking long, romantic walks to the taco truck.
We sit in the cafe
She takes a delicate bite
of the pastry, white teeth
tearing the croissant,
red tongue darts across
pink lips, chews and
swallows.
“I don’t believe in
love at first sight,”
she proclaims, and
I nod in agreement.
After all, it took
me seeing her twice.
The heart should always overflow
Do not let your emotions
be small enough to sit
comfortably inside you
Let love pour out of you,
spill onto the table,
cover the floor around your feet.
Love should always
be more than can be
contained
And if you grieve?
Grieve big and grieve deep.
Let the grief you carry
measure the loss it mourns.
Even anger needs that
release. Do not contain it,
do not nurture or feed it,
for then it becomes a poison
lodged deep inside you.
Pour it out and be done with it.
And as your heart overflows,
you will see it grow, become
larger still, and able to encompass
more and better things.
But still, then, it should overflow.
How do I do this impossible thing?
You ask me to go on
with my life as if
nothing happened,
as if you weren’t
suddenly half a continent
away.
As if our already too
infrequent time together
wasn’t made impossible
by distance and circumstance.
It’s not that I have ever
needed to hold you,
but I need to be in
your presence.
I am a wildflower,
struggling through the
tangle of the wilderness,
aiming its face at the sun
bathing in the light and
glory of its radiance.
Love, I shall survive
though I cannot live.
When the world overwhelms, when the news is all bad, when chaos threatens, I make art.
Howdy! I live in Austin, Texas, and this is my first marathon. I’m giving the half marathon a go, and we’ll see what happens with it. I’ve been actively writing poetry since 2019 (with a small burst around 1997 before that), and really dove into it during the pandemic.
Poetry has become part of my growth and healing process, and it’s become integral to my sense of self.
I’m looking forward to seeing what I create in this, and in seeing what other creations I get to see.