Category Archives: Collaborative Poetry

Sublimation

By Benjamin Grossman and Cassa Bassa

I lost the grip of my writing pen
                                                the ink frozen in-between the flow 
                                                                                                      of words and broken nib.

As if making every stroke 
                                        on water 
                                                       letters now convert to vapor
vanishing before forming any solid state.


I burn lavender incense up to the heavens
offering fragments         of laden thoughts 
denial               sadness            resentment 
                                                                   cast 
                                                                  down 
                                                                   like 
                                                            Autumn rain.

I wish to be a fixed matter
an existence tightly packed together

but    my    particles    keep     spreading 
                                                                 in
                       different 
directions
                deaf
                  to
                 all
               prayers.


I found no escape on the verge of my final break.


Perhaps if I hibernate long enough
Spring will come with the promising sun
I WILL GROW FROM THIS INEXCUSABLE PAIN.

__________________________________________________________
*Please make sure to view the poem again and additional content at Cassa's blog: https://flickerofthoughts.com/
It's always a pleasure to write with a poet as knowledgeable and talented as her, and I really enjoy this poem for what it stands for beyond the words.

The Anatomy Of A Hug

Through an endless cycle of embrace
I will go beyond all lovers
And spin your world in reverse

Travel back to a time before myths
Reimagine the universe as the shape of our kiss

Slow

        Down

The

       Earth

Until the core and mantle flake

Whileholdingtheatmospherewithinreach

Atlas held the celestial spheres on his shoulders
Now you hold them on your hips
And spin my world in reverse

_______________________________________________________

This poem was a collaboration with Sirishty Thakur. Please, do yourself a favor and check out her amazing poetry on her blog: Thought Loop.

© 2021 Sirishty Thakur & Benjamin Grossman

Universal Song

By Benjamin Grossman & Ace

Push and pull
Empty and full
Ebb and flow
Learn and know

A balance of inwardness
And outwardness
I wish I could explain
The twists and turns of this lane

Dark and light
Day and night
Observing and living
Receiving and giving

There’s a dream to be at peace
There’s a knowing it’s within range
With a smile and a breath of release
This feeling is a message no longer strange

____________________________________________________

Another duet with the fantastic Ace! Make sure you check out her blog Fearless Free Soul!

Pregnant Infinite Connectivity

By Benjamin Grossman & Amber (DiosRaw)

In a world pregnant with temporary encounters, yet enteral knots, in a world that romanticises and philosophises the abstracts of next lives and alternative universes we dispose in the now.

Every second is some form of a small tomorrow, every passing moment part of the long, long past. The path to the future is paved with repetitions, whether light or dark.

Eternally knotted cyclical patterns betwixt the comedy and tragedy of every breath of air ever taken by souls; likewise every drop of water consumed yet synergised. If only I could take your hand and disseminate to you the Divine plan simultaneously existing in the eternal.

If only … we could samba through the bosom of the storms, cross the space between distance and time, shuck our stranger status, or baptize ourselves in patience’s perfume. Then perhaps we could return to our primordial states, remember the superiority of our ancient nonphysical forms.

In a parallel universe, ancients crouched side by side, chuckling that in some other life they are apart. Ancestral roots, the thread may stretch and tangle, yet never to break with elasticity pinging all order from chaos into being. My lips swerve with the rhythm of your lineage of words flowing through this vessel, the tongue caressing each morsel of wisdom whilst antiquated DNA rides the veins.

I connect to all existences through your umbilical cordage. You are the dawn of entanglements, the prelude to love, the one and only starting point; and I become inseparable from these essences by being enfolded in your spiritual domain.

____________________________________________________________

I had a blast working with this poet! She has so much depth and spirit in her words, and she has a very thought-provoking blog that you can find here: DiosRaw. Make sure you check it out and follow her if you haven’t already done so.

Galaxies Across A Galaxy

By Benjamin Grossman & Ace

I am the birth of the Universe
Spiraling through my soul
I am a galaxy becoming whole
Beyond this life and evermore

A solar system of wombs
A star creating many homes
A heartland that eternally ascends
An emotion that will forever cleanse

The Universe echoing deeply in our veins
Our bodies free of restrains
Breaking through intrinsic chains
Becoming a galaxy’s avenue of many lanes

I am the birth of the Universe
All that flows and spins
A story with no beginning or end

I am a galaxy within
An internal grin
A destiny to begin

Another duet with the fantastic Ace! Make sure you check out her blog Fearless Free Soul.

Sweet Ink

By Benjamin Grossman & Bree Leto

There’s no denying the sweetness
When we share the body
Of a poem

Your words make my ink blush
Our fingers stroking the same lines
A teasing exchange of sugared phrases
Awakening our entwined imaginations

Every time we devour
Each other’s souls
Savoring new flavors
Created from our intimate flow

When we write like this
I need more than just letters
There’s something brewing beyond this sweet ink

Let’s put down these pens
Write on our bodies instead

Please, make sure you check out her blog by visiting Secret Thoughts Within. I can’t say enough good things about her as poet and a person. Her writing is intelligent, clever, funny, diverse, thoughtful, and passionate. A mixture of depth and pure beauty. Also, she can read a poem like no other. Truly her talent flies off the page and stays with you!

Love’s Layers

By Benjamin Grossman & Ace

The mirror of my soul dissolves my flaws
While my heart’s vibration draws
Its inner handwriting breaks fear’s barricade
And together we dive deep into love’s cascade

A graceful night above
Our harmony raising the frequency
Auras ascend, we fly like a dove
On the light of constellations, soaring peacefully

Toward the bloom of time
This journey is an eternal climb
The roots of emotions
Are the bravest oceans

A magical connection
The creation of love’s reflection
We are one, an immortal team
Spinning through this life’s infinite dream

What a pleasure it was working with Ace! Make sure you check out her blog Fearless Free Soul. She’s always posting something that makes me feel better about the world.

Fighting A Different Battle

By Benjamin Grossman and Cassa Bassa

Two millennia ago 
I would’ve cried
Stony tears 
Like the stoics of legends

Today
For the injustices raging 
Against shared truth
I scream in silence 
Like a fallen knight 

There are no more 
Heroic battles 
On a field of dirt and dust
Where men were once raised
To die for future honor

We hide behind 
Neuro electro defenses
Attacking lives
Without sounding
The trumpet

Am I a departed
Clutching the white flag
Crippled by reality 
Or my own fatal mind?

(This is part of a collaborative poetic effort between myself and Cassa Bassa. Make sure you check out her blog by visiting Flicker Of Thoughts. She’s one of my favorites to read!)

Bohemian Nights

© 2021 Sirishty Thakur

By Sirishty Thakur & Benjamin Grossman

What is love?
I venture for the search,
Hovering above the restrictions,
Masquerading feelings,
Packing the streets and theaters.

In the shadows of the city lights,
The subtle touch of elation,
Tempered by the night’s venom.
A parade of tamers lurking to fragment dreams,
To seek the hook for their puppet master.

There’s always a cage for joyous affairs,
Some subjugation of our bohemian nights.

But I still reach possessively for the moment, as the pendulum strikes.
Eternity vibrant in your eyes,
Unwavering in my faith that love is untamable.

This poem was a collaboration with Sirishty Thakur. Please, do yourself a favor and check out her amazing poetry and photos on her blog: Thought Loop.

© 2021 Sirishty Thakur & Benjamin Grossman

The Lesser of Two Evils

By Benjamin Grossman and Cassa Bassa

The glacial battle begins in our heads
Face pressed to the sun-pierced window pane
January snow in recession, the signs of regression 
Half hidden like an iceberg in the arctic water 
And where once a soft glow illuminated the surface 
Only the placement of desolation remains
Reverberating silent screams 
  
There is no one way of knowing cold
The stages are fluid and transient
Its meaning bitterly ambiguous 
Yet in rare lucid moments, I see husks
An empty bed, scarred skin, chattered teeth
Spirit-numbed mind, missed meals, vacant smiles

There is no one way of knowing cold
Its symptoms appear to have no rhyme or reason
Although they move with wintry doom
From person to person increasing in aggression 
Till you understand the meaning of icy
Which unbeknownst to us creeps in succession 

There is no one way of knowing cold 
Though maybe it’s always the same
Emotional and physical reaction 
A state of feeling dangerously low
Struggling to survive between cold and colder
The very same polar opposites: Arctic and Antarctica

(This is part of a collaborative poetic effort between myself and Cassa Bassa. Make sure you check out her blog by visiting Flicker Of Thoughts. She’s always coming up with some exciting words! And often sketches, too.)