Charl Landsberg Poetry
Poetry by me... Hi, I'm Charl (they/them) - nonbinary trans nerd. D&D. Fantasy. Games. Social commentary. Art. Food. Poetry. Feminism. Witchcraft. Atheism. More art. Occasionally inflicting you with piano or even worse my singing. Giving heed to the conspiracy that all cutlery is secretly listening to us planning on taking over the world... or something.
Sunday, September 03, 2023
Coincidence.
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Cry, Boy, Cry
I wasn't expecting them to publish this poem. So I took it down from here and you can read it over at Poetry Potion
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Me and my body
the people who are the most loud
about me and my body
the people who are most critical
of me and my body
the people who tell me to be ashamed
of me and my body
the people who deny me autonomy
of my and my body
are always the same people who want access
to me and my body without my consent
-o0o-
Polyhymnia would be so proud
Saturday, September 10, 2022
The Gossip Starts
Devil Devil. I saw him slither;
smiling in my coffee froth.
Halfmoon broken smile, sack cloth,
sixpence silver eyes - warning, mocking.
No the worst of omens.
But it begs the question now,
to alert (or not) our dear Romans?
...begging to make good,
on an unfulfilled vow.
Devil Devil so scintillating smiling soon;
gone with your neap-tide moon.
Gossip tongue to a jubilant tune;
Devil Devil, you speak too innocently.
Snatched stories from saucer and pot,
make me accomplice to your plot?
With one mouth serve,
with one ear take,
with one word shake,
with one fist break.
I'd leave such sincere song and sacrament to priests,
for my own heart's sake.
-o0o-
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Stars
The stars have haloes.
They've seen and now tell,
stories like rings,
a woven text on the sky.
"It comes," they cry,
"The future foreseen."
"And tonight is the first of the signs."
The stars have haloes.
The moon clad with blood.
The sun beset by two dogs.
Ring the earth in warning.
The starry crowns shine through,
through cloud and doubt,
the stars have haloes.
The singing begins.
The forgotten have begun their march.
The book closes.
-o0o-
Sunday, October 17, 2021
Up and Down
Wither, wither, the flesh and bone,
and found his grace atop that hill.
Such winds that beat the rounded stone;
to see him tumble laughing still.
Our emblem, he, Ephyra's king,
for all his sins he might repent;
his hollow cough's and laughter's ring.
Must we so think the king content?
-o0o-
Wednesday, September 08, 2021
A Poem for the Antivaxxers:
After taking the vaccine,
my heart nearly exploded.
I shat my bowels clean.
It's still better than Covid.
as i might
try as i might
i cannot blame the new pain on the old
the old pain is a long since forgotten boyfriend
someone i dated in high school
the new pain is entirely my own
and of my own making
at least I could walk away from a man
there is no door leading away from this
-o0o-
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Mountain
I let you set me up with false praise.
Loose promises in my ears.
I was so gullible.
I would rise with you, you said,
only to find that when we reached the top,
you never even took a single step.
I was alone,
thinking you were beside me all of the way,
when you had never moved,
praising at my back all the way up,
and now unable to come down,
I'm so painfully aware,
that I am afraid of heights.
-o0o-
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Bless Tomorrow
Bless Tomorrow
by Charl Landsberg
Just for now, to catch your breath slowly;
I wish for you a better tomorrow morning.
An easy sunrise for you to dawn lazily,
from small dreams a peaceful awakening.
A warm cup of coffee or tea;
before setting out to do your thing.
-o0o-
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Off with the Pigs
Were you there when Hero's prayer in death,
-o0o-
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Aurora Redux
Whoo, that fairy gave everone a terrible fright.
Throwing curses born of hatred and spite.
That curse is gone, unsewn, a seed that will never find root,
I unknit her weave, and cast it to the wind, broken, moot.
But what of gifts, this is a celebration, yes?
So I give you a gift to uplift and bless.
The most simple of spells, a cantrip of light,
you can call upon when sad or in the dark of the night.
And I gift to you wisdom of heart of self and kin,
a compassion that sees to without and within,
a knowing love, a kind love, that doesn't lose sight,
of what's good in the world, what's true, what's right.
And the call is the third gift, a beckon to me,
that if you are in danger or sad or lonely,
say my name three times, give my ear a bend,
I'll be there as teacher, a confidant, friend.
-o0o-
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Tonguetell
Image Transcription:
Tonguetell
by Charl Landsberg
There is a candle of a lie that illuminates:
told by the mouth of the wicked man,
in sly attempt to shadow his crime,
that only survivors of said crime recognise;
instantly.
When you overhear that wicked man,
who speaks his little occulting spell,
and he knows by the flash in your eyes,
that he made such a crucial mistake -
and now two share his dirty little secret.
-o0o-
The Problem with Anger
Sunday, March 21, 2021
The Different Stories
Your friends and family speak of you in hushed tones.
You were such a good boy. Never did anything bad.
You were a model student and example to your peers.
That sort of shit.
I irritate them when I speak of you.
Because I knew you.
We met on Kwazulu Natal copper autumn leaves.
We met behind festival tents and market stalls.
We met behind the YMCA where we started fires and shot off crackers.
We met behind the Musica where we stole CDs and snorted cocaine.
You were such a good boy.
The terrible things we did.
And Sundays we would go to our respective churches,
And take the holy bread and wine…
only to receive forgiveness in each other’s arms later that night.
The subtle prayers that only lovers know.
I could shout it to the world.
The truth of you.
The beauty of you.
Not a small boy with auntie pinched red apple cheeks,
But a young man face flushed as he ran naked into a midnight Midmar Dam.
A young man who stuck his arms out sideways and twirled till he fell.
A young man who sang along to Alanis Morrissette very badly.
A young man stolen from us far too quickly.
They don’t remember you the way I do.
They remember you behaving.
I remember you smiling.
-o0o-
Saturday, October 24, 2020
Whoa Nelly!
(aka, the poem in which I lose my damn temper)
I am done with men fucking up after everything I say,
and going ahead with it anyway and then being so fucking surprised:
“I'm surprised! Are you surprised? I was so fucking surprised!”
Oh, you're his friend, are you?
No, I don't know where he went.
Maybe he's down at the store having spent,
his last silver dime on buying back the time he wasted;
or a balm for the consequences he wrought;
or a sense of responsibility; or... I dunno, some fucking shame.
Who knows? Maybe he's dead.
Is it my problem? Stop asking.
Is there something you'd rather have me do instead?
Like, sweety, I'd love to go headhunting with you,
but that boy's gotta make his bed some day.
So, I'm sorry, not my problem, he knew the rules, he knew the cost.
He came in guns blazing; to hell with the consequences,
and got his ass knocked two feet sideways from Tuesday.
Not my circus. Not my monkeys.
If you're through, are we done please?
I'm not particularly busy today, but this is not what I had planned,
but if you're laying claim to that trash,
I can offer you a broom and the door.
-o0o-
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Approaching Beltane
Saturday, September 26, 2020
I cannot wait to die
CW: little bit suicidal
I cannot wait to die,
to be so insubstantial as to have never existed.
I would never be fat again, hated for my body,
I would be so thin you'd never see me.
I would never be transgender again,
an inconvenient patch of grass,
that you can pave over with whatever story you like.
You can call me 'he' and 'him' till the cows come home,
and I will not be there to take it anymore.
To be the skinny man I never was in your imagination.
To be the stranger I never was living in your disappointment.
I cannot wait to die,
so everyone else could experience that absence of being,
as I lived a ghost in my own life,
as if I had this invisible twin brother everyone spoke to,
instead of me.
Maybe when I die I'll meet him, finally, and kill him too.
-o0o-
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Love: A Dictionary Definition
Love is a noun and a verb
Love is the tongue and the fist
Love is the threat and the delivery
Love is tragic and heartbreaking
Love is the cruelty of cis men
Love is being disappointed with cis men
Love is the unexpected wonder of cis men
Love is transformative
Love is being reminded that history is a circle
Love is being reminded that this doesn’t last
Love is loss and doing it again for the hell of it
Love is beautiful
Love is loneliness in the following years
Love is memory and far too many hours
Love is seeing your face in dream
Love is never being alone
Wednesday, September 09, 2020
13 Love Poems by Charl Landsberg (a copy of my book)
As always Amazon sucks and my book isn't going to be promoted in any way shape or form... so here's a free copy. Fuck, share it with whomever you like.
HERE
Sunday, August 23, 2020
From a tired atheist...
Look, child, I am not shopping, so stop selling.
No, I don't want a taste of your god.
Yes, I have met god. I've met a few men's gods.
And I've been somewhat, unimpressed.
Men tack gods onto their back pockets,
like collector cards "Look, mine's best! Mine's best!"
But the best gods I've ever met
were the quiet ones who sat on kind tongues
behind contemplative eyes, in compassionate ears,
not interested in saving me, or fixing me,
or damning me, or wanting me dead.
The best gods are teachers, not tyrants.
The best gods are roads, not graves.
You want a god, that's a fine place to be.
If that gives your life meaning and direction,
that is a good thing and I won't have you any different.
But your god wants to stick his cock in my business;
then I have a problem with both you and your god.
And we know from history the surest way to end gods,
is to end their cultists.
-o0o-
Sunday, August 09, 2020
First and Last Rites
Saturday, August 08, 2020
Autonomy
Sunday, July 12, 2020
The Heart of all Things
Wednesday, July 08, 2020
Dispelled
Monday, July 06, 2020
mango
Sunday, July 05, 2020
Consequences
Wednesday, July 01, 2020
haruspex
Monday, June 29, 2020
longing
Opal
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Afraid
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Hiberna
Sunday, June 14, 2020
She told me to Climb
Friday, June 12, 2020
Cassandra
Tuesday, June 09, 2020
Ode to being Transgender
For JKR (Poem up on Poetry Potion)
Sunday, June 07, 2020
Offering
Saturday, June 06, 2020
A Stranger's Bathroom Flood
(Image of toiletries: baby powder, cue tips, nail polish remover, floss, a spray bottle, pumice stone.) |
Holy Ground
Thursday, June 04, 2020
Cataclysm
Tuesday, June 02, 2020
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
The Neverthere
Sunday, May 24, 2020
In the event of my untimely death – a plea from a transgender person.
Don’t dress me up like a boy or masculinise my face,
When I die speak of me as I am,
They and them are my pronouns, even in death.
Do not call me by boy or man,
or male or son or him or he.
Do not speak prayers over my ashes,
and if you can’t control yourself, do it silently.
Do not bring my body or ashes into a church.
Do not have a priest give rites over my remains.
Do not show my body. Do not put my remains in a coffin.
Do not hold wakes for my body, I am not there anymore.
Any person who misgenders me or prays over me,
or befouls my corpse with patriarchal puppetry,
or makes me out to be a man is not my friend but my enemy.
They are committing desecration. I do not forgive them.
As for ashes, donate what they can use of my body,
and cremate whatever is left.
Throw my ashes in the sea, I don’t want to be shelved indefinitely,
a constant burden for the bereft.
Cry for me if you have to, but don’t you mourn my death
Celebrate the life I had with friends and food and song
Wear purple. Drink a glass of water. Eat something delicious or sweet.
Comfort those who hurt. And get some fucking sleep.
-o0o-
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Monday, February 24, 2020
Eight Kisses for Healing
Saturday, December 21, 2019
Two for One
Friday, October 18, 2019
Oranges (Video)
Sunday, October 06, 2019
Lines
Too much of my life,
is full,
of attempted lines others drew,
in my sands.
Their battle lines, scratched across,
my body, my sex, my mind, my life...
...their permissions, prohibitions,
petitions, and protestations.
And how they rage and weep,
when my tides turn,
and wash their little lines away,
as if they were never even there.
Respect the ground you stand on, chaps.
It is deep, and hungry, and you are very...
...very...
...small.
~Charl Landsberg
2019
Sunday, June 09, 2019
Monday, April 22, 2019
When you're feeling self conscious...
she would ask someone else to do the work
but she asked you.
So she knows.
Your heart.
Your hands.