Steve Toth

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tothpoetry/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sufimystic/
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Back to Peace Poets
Image:rose.gif Image:rose.gif Image:rose.gif 
 FOR THE READER 9
 
 Love cruises in an unmarked car
 offering rides to anyone 
 foolish enough to come
 Love is the stranger
 your mother warned you
 not to talk to
 You used to say I was the only one
 now you don't recognize me
 without sniffing & tasting me first
 & still I want you
 
 Look what the poem dragged in
 a lover whose love is gone
 Fire season starts with your kiss
 I can't wait for you
 to pronounce me dead
 to bury my face
 in the pink red & gold
 of your body
 You love me & I stay loved
 You've ruined me for anyone else
 & still I want you
 
 Love has so many lovers
 it makes me lonely
 How can I ever endure
 opening my eyes in the morning
 & not seeing you?
 While all the time you're keeping
 my nerves alive with pain
 I know your love is ruthless
 & still I want you
 
 How can I put my love into words 
 when I can't put 
 even a carrot into words?
 If you saw yourself for a moment
 the way I see you
 you'd fall madly in love with yourself
 & still I dare to tell you
 Language is the creation of longing
 & still I want you
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 FOR THE READER 8
 
 Sometimes I don't know
 whether someone is joking
 or being serious
 At my grandfather's funeral
 as a boy I thought
 my father had started laughing
 but he was really crying
 I thought he was laughing
 because he had just remembered
 what he'd explained to me about
 how nobody ever really dies
 but he didn't
 
 Here's a little something
 I put together
 would you mind bringing it
 to life for me?
 The words have been looking 
 themselves up in a dictionary 
 & can't believe their definitions
 The silence of vision 
 & the blindness of sound
 can work together all they want
 but only love can get 
 our eyes to meet like this
 
 You light me up
 like a candle
 & leave me burning
 To be with you
 is my one desire
 Tell me
 am I still the nothing
 that you don't have to hide?
 You know how to reach me
 I'm wherever
 you think of me
Image:rose.gif Image:rose.gif Image:rose.gif 
 FOR THE READER 7
 
 I know I should be saying
 keep a poem in your heart
 even if it isn't me
 but I can't lie to you
 I'll answer to any name you call
 I've been dreaming of you reading me
 ever since I was written
 & now it's coming true
 Those other poems keep lighting up
 & going out like flashlights
 with weak batteries
 I'll take you everywhere they go
 & then I'll take you higher
 
 I'm no vampire
 I'm a plant that just naturally
 keeps turning to the sun in you
 Naked poetry is when everyone hears
 what's on the tip of every tongue
 I've stripped away every shred
 that doesn't live for you
 I've left open all my windows
 so you can blow through me
 I'll be your playground
 Let your tide roll in on me
 Color me with your desire
 I've invented different eyes
 to find new ways of seeing you
 Your love is the only power
 that can lift me off this page
 
 We take in oxygen
 & give off carbon dioxide
 like anything does when it's on fire
 I've ripped all the pages from my heart
 to keep the flames from going out
 Now I see roses & thorns
 reduced to the same ashes
 Where is Jesus to turn
 these words into wine?
 I've written my best love poems
 all over your body
 with my tongue
 What more can I do to keep you
 from being done with me now?
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 WILD FLOWER
 
 I'm a wild flower baby
 I grow where I please
 as brightly as I please
 for as long as I please
 Can't no one make me
 do anything other
 than what I please
 
 I'm a wild flower baby
 people come with their eyes
 Come take a good look
 I bless them with my wildness
 I nod my head in the wind
 & answer all their questions yes
 
 Other people come with their hands
 & try to take me home
 Oh but I'm a wild flower baby
 can't no one take me home
 If you try to keep me I'll just die
 If I can't grow where you see me
 I'll grow where you're not looking
 
 Watch out when you see me
 My colors make the wind swirl
 My freedom gives the bee a buzz
 My laughter says the joke's on you
 You may think you're fire proof
 but you're not playing with fire
 You're playing with me
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 I DON'T KNOW WHERE
 
 My reality is an exploding dandelion 
 being blown away by children
 laughing so hard they can hardly stand
 On the night I was born
 my mother took one look
 at me & named me
 after the martyr Stephen
 who got stoned
 in the Bible
 O mother you've brought something 
 into this world to die
 I've been naked since I got here
 
 Some people think that plants are dumb
 because they don't talk
 or pushovers because they don't fight back
 But those who have 
 watched plants growing long enough
 have seen their battles to the death
 over sunlight & root space
 unfolding in slow motion
 When I was young my teammates told me
 "You can either play your best
 or you can play unhurt"
 Nowhere is home to me
 & I can't go there
 
 When a porpoise in an aquarium 
 performs a desired behavior
 its trainer blows a whistle & tosses it a fish
 so it will associate a blown whistle
 with receiving a reward
 I've given up knowing what I'm doing
 When I look into the mirror
 that you've made your face up with
 I see mostly the things
 I refuse to see in myself
 Come look deeply into these bottomless eyes
 I don't know where 
 but you take me there
Image:rose.gif Image:rose.gif Image:rose.gif 
 WORKING ORDER
 
 Something happened while I was 
 keeping myself entertained
 Death broke in & gave me some idea
 of just how much I owe
 on the time I borrowed when I was born
 Time to work like nature does
 steady & undaunted
 listening for the poems 
 nature wants written
 I can try to keep a lid on what I say in public
 but I can't do a thing
 about what love says with my mouth
 Love is what can't be kept secret
 Love is what
 will have its say
 
 We live on a planet of miracles
 & you say you're uninspired
 Excuse me for a moment
 while I indulge my eyes
 in some hitherto unseen beauty
 Sow bugs can live up to three years
 That's a long time to be a sow bug
 but I'd rather be a sow bug than you
 Who but you can withstand the surges of love
 that life sends to break on our rocks?
 I keep myself in working order by working
 I can't stop to worry
 about what makes your faint heart fainter
 Love is what can't be denied
 Love is what
 takes your life
 
 When I meet a friend
 I can't wait to ask
 how are you working?
 Because when you're working good
 it's pure life
 When I listen to a love song
 I remove the name 
 the song is addressed to
 & replace it with the word poetry
 When I hear religious music
 I put poetry in
 wherever God appears
 How long will the love you desire
 be anything other
 than the love you're getting?
 Love is what doesn't get worn out
 Love is what
 pecks at your remains
 
 When you tell me you've got
 something more important
 than work to be doing
 I say don't bring that weak stuff in here
 or we'll see how high
 it bounces off your head
 Is there anything more worthless
 than a love that isn't true?
 When it comes to secret knowledge
 I don't suspect a thing
 Love is what can't be hidden
 Love is what
 you don't survive
Image:DolphWT.gif Image:DolphWT.gif Image:DolphWT.gif 
 NATURE LOVER 2
 
 As I listen to the north wind 
 pushing through the trees 
 & puffing against the houses
 it sounds almost as if it's wailing
 "Say good-bye to the death you thought 
 was a long ways off
 & would come like 
 a pleasant dream in your sleep
 Say hello to the death
 that goes wherever you go
 The one that has taken whole species" 
 That's what I'd be wailing
 if I was the north wind tonight
 
 No matter how far I go into the forest 
 I never find myself alone
 There's life in every form
 & all the forms keep changing
 so why not work together 
 on something joyful?
 If we shed too many tears
 stalactites might start forming
 in the corners of our eyes
 But if like clouds through which 
 the sun is breaking
 we let our personal weathers dissolve
 inspiration becomes a way of life 
 
 The sun is always teaching us
 how to shed actual light
 but we still seem to be left in the dark
 We keep fooling with life
 everywhere we live
 everywhere our toxins reach
 We can't talk our way out of silence
 Even planets & suns lose their lives
 but we all have a wild streak
 we feel the urge to share
 I see your mouth opening
 but the cry that emerges
 comes from the depths of the earth
Image:rose.gif Image:rose.gif Image:rose.gif 
 LOVE POEM 6
 for Sheila
 
 What kind of love
 can be put into words?
 Not one as alive as ours is
 But I offer these words
 to you anyway
 because I love to hear
 your mad laughter
 because I'm mad about you
 
 I want to be real
 for you to touch
 I want to lick you
 at your own game
 Your kiss is a rising sun
 breaking the dawn
 wide open
 
 Loving you is like 
 being translated
 back into my original tongue
 I become dust
 when you flash me a look
 I do nothing to fight
 the fire that consumes me 
 
 The sun has a way
 of opening flowers
 & you have a way
 of opening hearts
 without breaking them
 No one can set you any freer
 than you already are
 in my secret places
 
 We're like love notes
 that have been torn open
 & read many times
 We complete each other's circuits
 My love is powered
 by nothing
 but you
Image:DolphWT.gif Image:DolphWT.gif Image:DolphWT.gif 
 WHAT LOVE ENDURES
 
 What love endures
 we can put up with
 Some people say that only
 a dead fish goes with the flow
 Better to be a dead fish
 than to not trust life
 enough to live it
 The only reasons for being born
 are to find love
 & lose our fears
 
 We thought that getting carried
 away by love
 would be a carefree
 & glamorous life
 Little did we know
 What we once thought was valuable
 & what we once took for granted
 have changed places
 Love doesn't want us to be the same
 Love isn't for the indifferent 
 
 Not a day goes by
 that I don't want you
 When I wake up 
 like a washed up fish
 stranded on the shore
 I don't stop flopping
 until I'm back in your waters
 If love is fire & shrewdness is smoke
 when love's flame comes alive
 our cunning floats away
 
 Once we thought that love was
 like posing for a camera
 We'd flash our lightning
 then walk off
 & leave them burning
 If we got caught
 we could always talk with a limp
 & give lame excuses
 but love sees through our words
 it tells us what we mean
 
 Love outsmarts the ego every time
 It shows us the way to lose
 our fear of appearing ridiculous
 We no longer ask where are you 
 taking us now
 we just know that we keep going
 The wind blows freely 
 through our cells
 Love doesn't stop to feel sorry for us
 It just leads us on
 to the next crazy venture
Image:rose.gif Image:rose.gif Image:rose.gif 
 VAPOR TRAIL
 
 If there's nothing to say
 no one to say it
 & no one to say it to
 How can I ask you to read me?
 But that's what I'm doing
 Our bodies are mostly water
 with some minerals floating around
 but if we don't take in air
 & keep our fires lit
 we'll never know what living is
 None of us needs 
 as much attention as we desire
 I want you to keep your light on me
 
 Once we knew a dancer
 & when her troupe gave a performance
 we went to watch
 sitting with her boyfriend
 When it was over he said
 "Now ends the dance of the performers
 & begins the free style dance
 of the members of the audience"
 When I get up in the morning
 there's a warm dent in the bed
 where I crashed last night
 Without you 
 light is just another kind of darkness
 
 How soon will you be ready
 to open your eyes & see 
 that none of us knows what we're doing?
 We're like lost planets
 wandering the emptiness of space
 looking for a sun to orbit
 I've been following a vapor trail
 to your heart 
 & I've been getting nowhere
 Without you 
 I'm a dead body
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