Roy William Gotaas Poems

Shield yourself -
Lead or carbon-fibre, some such
Impenetrable mask,
Black blank glasses:
...

CORRESPONDENCE INTERRUPTED:
if you should stop writing now:

I have sat long in cold, quiet darkness,
...

Judging by the average:


I thought I was tall enough -
...

For that I have words
You shall not see my work:
Buried my bone in the wide flower-garden
Under the rose-petals and rotting leaves.
...

Ideally, dear reader, you need the text of 'The Passionate Pilgim', Stanza 12, in front of you as you read this. If you can't find a copy, message me and I'll send it to you.

You’re wrong Will: you who only ever cloak your truthes
With tact toward your proud and spinster Sovereign.
...

You go with me everywhere

And I ache to hold you
...

These days there seem to be no victories,
No marches in triumph between a roaring crowd:
Only the sad parade of sorrow,
The sounds of pain keening on a carrying breeze.
...

When one lies at night in the arms of a ghost,
What can one give but tears?
Are there no words to speak this kind of love?
...

(I promised I wouldn't say I loved her till we were face to face. This acrostic was my cheat on that. Acrostic? Read the first letter of each line down the page.)


I may not speak three words that tell all I feel for you:
...

Safer in my dreams:

Waking, close to you, your flesh too solid and unyielding,
...