A Month of Couplets - December 2017

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December 2017

12/1/17

Wisdom is like the rain--when it comes down

In drips or torrents, ignorance will drown.

12/2/17

There is no faith or truth in corporate crooks--
They'll feed you lies so they can cook the books.

12/3/17

When Democracy's sold to crooks by knaves, 
Freedom dies in plantations of wage slaves.

12/4/17

This world is a place with five fools for each sage

And a book of lies for every truth-filled page.

12/5/17

after Emma Lew 

The snide rich have one rule, and it's not recent:

"We have one life. Why spend it being decent?"

12/6/17

Hate shouts so loudly that none dare dispute it

Except Compassion, whose kiss can refute it.

12/7/17

The road snakes as we walk, winding and narrow.

But when we look back, it's straight as an arrow.

12/8/17

Eyes see joy clearer after tasting tears

Like hearts grow stronger after facing fears.

12/9/17

Love sees the lover through forgiving glasses.

Without them, angels look like stupid asses.

12/10/17

Love is, no matter how harmonious,

A war that has three sides: you, me, and us.

12/11/17

Wisdom and freedom will both meet their doom

When even fools are too smart for the room.

12/12/17

Hypocrites who preach Christ is love will claim

That hatred's good when it's done in His name.

12/13/17

Yesterdays are like ex-loves who don't care:

My heart still tells me that there's something there.

12/14/17

Loneliness is a clingy ghost who haunts me

By telling me that no one worth me wants me.

12/15/17

We all wake up to ancient pain and sorrow

Telling us how to live our lives tomorrow.

12/16/17

Love is a flower, lush and undefiled,

That will not grow true unless it grows wild.

12/17/17

I tell myself the lies I need to live--

But lie to me, and that I can't forgive.

12/18/17

Nothing is promised. Everything is granted.

Life's only guarantee: we all get planted.

12/19/17

Let all the rivers in you overflow.

Even what feels like poison helps you grow.

12/20//17

for Cresta Kruger

Three rules in life to always keep in mind:

Stay curious. Risk heartbreak. And be kind.

12/21/17

Fan-fiction Christ shills for the rich and greedy;

Canon Christ always helps the poor and needy.

12/22/17

Fan-fiction Christ says, "God favors the wealthy!"

Canon Christ says, "All money is unhealthy."

12/23/17

Fan-fiction Christ is hellfire and damnation;

Canon Christ is forgiveness and salvation.

12/24/17

Canon Christ has a loving heart that's huge;

Fan-fiction Christ is Ebenezer Scrooge.

12/25/17

Canon Christ feeds all who come to his table;

Fan-fiction Christ-just those who wear His label.

12/26/17

Fan-fiction Christ sees threats to get rid of;

Canon Christ is the rebel who cries "Love!"

12/27/17

Fan-fiction Christ will kill to be adored;

Canon Christ breeds compassion with Love's sword.

12/28/17

Fan-fiction Christ condemns women and gays;

Canon Christ welcomes all of us always.

12/29/17

The good disciples worship what they've heard;

The bad adore the teacher, not the word.

12/30/17

Two things the birth of tyranny requires:

Mute those who tell the truth and praise the liars.

12/31/17

Life's sneakers love to walk the same old trail

That leads from new and fresh to old and stale.

Copyright 2017 Matthew J Wells

A Month of Couplets - November 2017

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November 2017 Couplets

11/1/17

Let's be Republicans!--And hem and haw

Until we overthrow the rule of law!

11/2/17

Loneliness terrifies me because I'm with

Someone I can't stand to spend any time with.

11/3/17

Let's be Republicans!--And smugly blame

What we burn up for triggering the flame!

11/4/17

My bad romances are the children of

A needy dad and moms who feel no love.

11/5/17

Because my heart's an alcoholic souse,

It guzzles love and blacks out playing house.

11/6/17

Let's be Republicans!--And always battle

To make sure men can treat women like cattle!

11/7/17

Just body parts won't start my carnal car--

It's all about whose body parts they are.

11/8/17

Let's be Republicans!--And bravely fight

To make this country bigoted and white!

11/9/17

Between the ignorance and the mendacity

Our leaders put the ass in incapacity.

11/10/17

An ounce of hope lifts despair's ton of pressure

And one kind act's the stone that breaks Hate's thresher.

11/11/17

              Two Ideas Of Love

His heart believed her love could validate him;

His insecurity's what made her hate him.

11/12/17

One kind of love always ends in rejection:

Mistaking affectation for affection.

11/13/17

Never give up--but let surrender be

The way your spirit fights for victory.

11/14/17

Let's be Republicans!--And talk the talk!

And then go backwards every time we walk!

11/15/17

If wanting was enough, I'd be a saint;

But that takes love, self-knowledge, and restraint.

11/16/17

What justifies our political lust?

This motto: In Rich White Male God We Trust.

11/17/17

May my life always be a meal that feeds

Not what my journey wants, but what it needs.

11/18/17

When false friends talk behind my back, why curse?

If they knew ALL my flaws, they'd say much worse.

11/19/17

My lower self looks for a pit to fall in;

My higher self, a prospect to stand tall in.

11/20/17

Everything that we get in life's a loan.

Why cling to things that we can never own?

11/21/17

Arrogance--greed--rudeness--despoliation:

My country is an uncivilization.

11/22/17

Now is not then and will not ever be.

Let it go--it's one sure way to be free.

11/23/17

My life's been gifts and blessings by the tank-full.

I give thanks that I'm still here to feel thankful.

11/24/17

Joy's flowers are all watered by my tears;

My courage is the daughter of my fears.

11/25/17

Ask me my flaws--I'll tell you ten at once.

Ask me my gifts--I stammer like a dunce.

11/26/17

Bad decisions teach me how not to fail

Like storms at sea help me learn how to sail.

11/27/17

All sins can be forgiven--except one:

Using The Bible like a Gatling gun.

11/28/17

The ego: "Seek revenge for every hurt!"

The heart: "Treat foes like flowers, not like dirt."

11/29/17

The present is a diet of fresh meat

But it's the past's stale leftovers I eat.

11/30/17

Each time I undertake a plan of action

My monkey brain gets dazzled by distraction.

Copyright 2017 Matthew J Wells

A Month of Couplets - September 2017

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9/1/17

The new is tar in which my thoughts will sink.

Boring routines will give me space to think.

9/2/17

Walk out of any room where there's no love

And write a tale that you're the hero of.

9/3/17

If I loved myself half as much as I

Love the unworthy, oh, how high I'd fly!

9/4/17

Safety is knowing what you'll do for weeks.

Adventure never sees beyond your cheeks.

9/5/17

The door I fear to open guards a room

Of terrible rewards, not pain and doom.

9/6/17

I love the new, but it's the same old game:

When strangeness beckons, I reach for the same.

9/7/17

In all of history, no one's been you.

Don't waste that doing what the rest can do.

9/8/17

You always know who misses you the most:

The great reach out; the rest fade like a ghost.

9/9/17

Want to make haters feel incompetent?

Treat all their insults like a compliment.

9/10/17

Anger congests us till we fume and sputter.

Forgiveness cleans out all that nasty clutter.

9/11/17

Those born to a belief may be dogmatic

But converts live their creed like a fanatic.

9/12/17

Escape in fiction gets looked down on by

The jailers who say all art must be high.

9/13/17

Fear whispers--my soul sinks beneath the floor.

But just a breath of hope can make it soar.

9/14/17

The more we feed the hate of push and shove,

The less we listen to the voice of love.

9/15/17

(After Blaise Pascal)

All mankind's woes are meat on this one bone:

We can't sit quiet in a room alone.

9/16/17

Compassion weaves when heartless cuts the cord.

When hate is king, love is the rebel's sword.

9/17/17

It's only when I'm all alone and free

That I feel like I'm in bad company.

9/18/17

When my corrupted drives are all cleaned out,

There's still the back-up server of self-doubt.

9/19/17

The things that hurt us most we'll call a treasure

And let them kill us--if they give us pleasure.

9/20/17

It's Life when every answer to our cries

Is just another question in disguise.

9/21/17

It's all about what solitude can teach us

And those who care enough to try to reach us.

9/22/17

Shame is a cannibal--it always eats

Itself, till you're weighed down by your defeats.

9/23/17

Speak tolerance to hate--he never hears it

Because it's loving, and because he fears it.

9/24/17

Power responds to rebels with complaints
By killing them—then making them its saints.

9/25/17

Never tell narcissists that you adore them--

Because it's what they want to hear, you'll bore them.

9/26/17

The high road will become your status quo

When you ditch those who make you take the low.

9/27/17 

Fools take for granted their deep friends' ovation

And fish the shallows for appreciation.

9/28/17

The hardest things in life to let go of

Are those that cling to my lack of self-love.

9/29/17

Obey this sign and lift depression's fog:

DO NOT FEED THE NEGATIVITY DOG.

9/30/17

The world says I must give each waking thought

To what it calls "important"--or I'm not.

Copyright 2017 Matthew J Wells

A Month of Couplets - August 2017

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8/1/17

Change is the destiny that can’t escape me.

Growth is my future self trying to shape me.

8/2/17

Through where will happiness come when I’m mopin’?

A door I didn’t know that I left open.

8/3/17

The greatest let-down is the consummation—

The journey is the only destination.

8/4/17

Remember: when you love and live the chase
And it goes nowhere—that, too, is a place.

8/5/17

Each time we meet’s a play in which I’m smitten—

And you refuse to act the part I’ve written.

8/6/17

Losing and loving, killing and creating—

All that we do has its own deathbed waiting.

8/7/17

I like to think my might-have-beens betrayed me,

But all the roads I passed up are what made me.

8/8/17

Ask “Are you happy?” I’ll say “Hold that thought.”

But I know all the ways my friends are not.

8/9/17

We’re costumes on a skeleton of hope,

Dreaming of clothes with which we can elope.

8/10/17

The thing by which I thought I would be killed
Is all part of the wreckage I’ll rebuild.

8/11/17

Praise and salt water are the same way cursed:
The more you drink of them, the more you thirst.

8/12/17

“Find your own voice!” those writing teachers say.

Meaning: “”Choose a dictator to obey.”

8/13/17

Words are the wardrobe that I keep creating;

Photos, the self that I’m impersonating.

8/14/17

Live long enough, and you will cry, forlorn:
“No one's left who’s known me since I was born!”

8/15/17

A moment’s pleasure zips by fleetingly;

A moment’s shame lives on eternally.

8/16/17

Each memory I have is firmly set
Beside what I have chosen to forget.

8/17/17

The house of happiness is full of gloom—
Its whole first floor is one big waiting room.

8/18/17

My hopes are sleight when I give them the gate;

My fears a strain because I give them weight.

8/19/17

The joy’s not in what I know how to do
But learning what I didn’t know was true.

8/20/17

The story’s in the razor, not the edge—
Not jumpers, but what led them to the ledge.

8/21/17

It always starts with darkness to move through,
And always ends with light shining from you.

8/22/17

Hatred’s a gun that decimates the earth;
Love is the only weapon that gives birth.

8/23/17

Those who make promises and then forget them
Will only make you bitter if you let them.

8/24/17

If you want to excel in what you do,

Cling to those who bring out the best in you.

8/25/17

Lust is a blaze that scorches when it craves.
Love is a heat that nourishes and saves.

8/26/17

The new must undermine the old to thrive,
But old turns vicious when it can’t survive.

8/27/17

My past's a meal that I am daily fed
And memories the meat between Time's bread.

8/28/17

Love without wild abandon is a sin
But deadly poison without discipline.

8/29/17

The one great secret behind all great art:
You have to probe the wound to reach the heart.

8/30/17

We all share this same secret, hid from viewing:
No one—none of us—know what we are doing.

8/31/17

Leaving allows your life to change directions;
Goodbyes all say hello to new connections.

Copyright 2017 Matthew J Wells

A Month of Couplets - July 2017

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7/1/17

                   Two Ideas of Love

She says “I love you!” and he feels majestic.

He says “I love you!” and she gets domestic.

7/2/17

False friendship is an empty shopping cart.

True friendship is what blood is to the heart.

7/3/17

Today’s two things—the youngest you will be,

And the oldest moment in your history.

7/4/17

To those who make Democracy a hell:

Freedom is not something you buy or sell.

7/5/17

                 The Rouge Gallery 0112

You’re someone I can share fears, shop-talk, doubt,

And joy with—till my vocal cords give out.

7/6/17

                      Creativity

Something will always fill an empty cup.

Each time you start the car, the road shows up.

7/7/17

             The Rouge Gallery 0411

I laugh when you say you despise flirtation—

You say “I love you!” like it’s punctuation.

7/8/17

I use my love as a defensive measure

To wound myself before I can feel pleasure.

7/9/17

Opposites will attract, like soft to raw.

But similars all marry flaw to flaw.

7/10/17

                  The Rouge Gallery 0612

Your eyes are like two straws into your soul;

Let my eyes be the lips that drink you whole.

7/11/17

Planted and plucked up, with no hope of pardon:

Every life is a flower in death’s garden.

7/12/17

              The Rouge Gallery 1211

Our souls were once so perfectly attuned.

Now we can’t feel a thing that doesn’t wound.

7/13/17

Blame is a lynch mob looking for a tree;

Forgiveness cuts it down and sets you free.

7/14/17

          The Rouge Gallery 1102

If we were still in touch, I’d tell you this:

Each time you spoke my name, it was a kiss.

7/15/17

Anger dive bombs the guiltless in a flash;

Forgiveness parachutes you from the crash.

7/16/17

My heart knows when love looms ahead, the way

A blind man smells the night replace the day.

7/17/17

“I’m jumping ship!” I cry, and down I drop—

And then get pissed off when the boat won’t stop.

7/18/17

Friends are like bank accounts—never invest

In those who fail to show you interest.

7/19/17

When am I most myself, if not when I

Create something that—unlike me—won’t die?

7/20/17

               The Rouge Gallery 0607

You can’t be why I stay, though we both yearn;

But you might be the reason I return.

7/21/17

God’s silence is a book that I will read

And translate with the alphabet of need.

7/22/17

Once Truth was honest and went undefeated;

Now it’s a lie that’s constantly repeated.

7/23/17

                  The Rouge Gallery 1104

You love to count the hearts that felt love for you.

What really counts: how many still adore you.

7/24/17_01

God watches us love, suffer, and forgive

Like we’re all starring on One Life To Live.

7/24/17_02

If I had known I’d live to be this old,

My younger self would have been way more bold.

7/25/17

I feel God’s absence stretch in all directions

Like an unholy map of missed connections.

7/26/17

A good life has no greater dividends

Than the appreciation of great friends.

7/27/17

Let all my future travels be a toast

To all the kindred souls I’ll miss the most.

7/28/17

Our past is not just dead, it’s changed position—

And, like us, altered beyond recognition.

7/29/17

Two demons battle in me while I live:

The urge to curse; the challenge to forgive.

7/30/17

What molting is to birds from pole to pole,

Adversity is to the human soul.

7/31/17

The heart will feel a wound, much deeper than the flesh’ll—

The goodbye hurts because the hello was so special.

Copyright 2017 Matthew J Wells