R.M. ENGELHARDT

Poet Writer Author Albany NY

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R.M. Engelhardt is an American poet, writer and author who over the last three decades has published over 20 books of poetry including “Nod” “Alchemy” DarkLands, RAW & “The Last Cigarette: The Collected Poems of R.M. Engelhardt. The founder of the Upstate NY organization ALBANY POETS & the Annual Poetry Celebration THE ALBANY WORD FEST he has through his ideas & visions helped to contribute a large amount of advocacy and creativity to the Spoken Word~Poetry Capital District scene and is the former host of the long running readings The School of Night & Vox. He is currently the host of SPEAK THE WORD ALBANY!. An Open Mic for Poetry And The Spoken Word at Ophelias. Over the last thirty years his work has also been published in many journals such as The Rye Whiskey Review, Red Fez, Rusty Truck, Sure! The Charles Bukowski Newsletter, Thunder Sandwich, Black Noise, The Hobo Camp Review, Full of Crow, on the Outlaw Poetry Network & in many many others. Look for his books “WHERE THE PEOPLE’S VISION PERISHES 2020” “DARK LANDS (2019 on LuLu, Amazon & At Barnes and Noble) The Resurrection Waltz, 2012 ( Infinity Press) & “COFFEE ASS BLUES & OTHER POEMS” ( 2018 Alien Buddha Press 2018) ” DarkLands” 2019 & “Where There Is No Vision” 2020, “WE RISE LIKE SMOKE” (2021) & Of Spirit, Ash & Bone (2022) and RAW- Poems ( 2023) all available on Amazon.com He is also the Editor of the small independent poetry press Dead Man’s Press Ink since 1998. Look for his books The Bones of Our Existence A Journal 2046 & his new books THE DYING TIME POEMS BY R.M. Engelhardt 2026 & NO KINGS 2025 available at Barnes & Noble and currently on Amazon. www.gentlemanoutsider.com *All Poems, Writings & Information Contained On This Blog Are The Property & Owned By The Author R.M. Engelhardt. © 2026 www.rmengelhardt.com

  • Ghosts … Remembering 911

    GHOSTS

    911

    There are ghosts wandering the streets of New York. Lost souls looking for their homes trapped in the wreckage and in the moment. Some never went towards the light, because they don’t know the truth. One woman is shouting to the firemen “I’m over here!” but the firemen look confused and cannot seem to hear her cries.They walk around in almost a daze, their purpose now unclear,and there is no sense of time, for the moment repeats & repeats and repeats & the words of “Help me” and the sounds of voices in prayer & machines drown out the last consciousness of thought.

    There are ghosts wandering the streets of New York. Only a moment ago a policeman covered with dust was seen to be walking past a group of rescue workers only to disappear into the night, and shortly thereafter he was followed by the apparition of a crowd of office workers holding hands who were later identified as those missing in the destruction, their photos posted on billboards & placed in Union Square next to American flags, candles and flowers, always to be remembered and never to be forgotten. Yes, there are ghosts wandering the streets of New York, but we need to let them go, one by one, heart by heart and soul by soul so we can go on living, because that’s what they would have wanted. No more suffering, and no more grief or pain, but only the memory of all things cherished,and all things believed.

     God…love…peace and faith….always.

    ___________________

    R.M. Engelhardt 2001

  • New Work On Albany Poets, Albany-NY

    Poetry Lives In Albany NY

    By Thom Francis 

    As part of rolling out the new AlbanyPoets.com website, we are inviting the poets on the site to send us some new work that we can post. One of the first poets to take us up on the offer happens to be one of the first poets on the site when Albany Poets began in 2000.

    Albany, NY based poet, writer R.M. Engelhardt has published several books over the last decade including Nod~Logos~Alchemy~The Last Cigarette: The Collected Poems of R.M. Engelhardt & others. His current experimental book of poetry & prose is called “Versus-Lexikon” A poet & writer, Engelhardt through his ideas & visions has helped to create a large amount of the Upstate, Albany, NY spoken word~poetry scene and is the host of “SAINT POEM READING SERIES” an Open Forum-Mic For All Poets held every 3rd Monday of each month at The Upstate Artists Guild (UAG).His work has also been published by many journals on the net & in print including Retort, Verve, Industrial Nation, Sure! The Charles Bukowski Newsletter, Thunder Sandwich, Fashion For Collapse, 2nd Avenue, The Angry Poet, Danse Macabre, Full of Crow & many others.

    New Work On Albany Poets, Albany-NY

  • Working Again …

    Labor Day Workers

    Good morning …

    Just one more cup of coffee

    Take the highway

    I’m gonna make it to the line

    And put my time in

    Like my old man before me

    Died in dreamland

    With the union by his side

    But not tonight

    Tonight I’m gonna try a little harder

    But come the light I’m gonna be working

    But not tonight

    Tonight I’m gonna try a little harder

    But come the light I’m gonna be Working again …

    Talk to me

    Just don’t talk at me

    Don’t look through me

    Don’t push me to the wall

    Cause right now, right now

    There ain’t a lot left to lose

    And from where I sit It just ain’t that far a fall

    But not tonight

    Tonight I’m gonna try a little harder

    But come the light I’m gonna be working

    But not tonight Tonight I’m gonna try a little harder

    But come the light I’m gonna be Working again …

    Cause out on the street tonight

    There ain’t nothing to look up to but the sky

    It’s so close a reach tonight

    All the sellers, all the buyers All the lovers, all the liars

    And baby You keep telling me what you’re needing

    If only I just had a little more to give

    But I’m tapped out, tapped out

    Broke down and busted

    And this ain’t no It just ain’t no way to live

    But not tonight

    Tonight I’m gonna try a little harder

    But come the light I’m gonna be working

    But not tonight

    Tonight I’m gonna try a little harder

    But come the light I’m gonna be Working again …

    I’m gonna be working again…

    _______________

    Working Again —

    Words and music by Michael Stanley from “Heartland”,

    1980, EMI Records Group

  • R.M. Engelhardt Poet~Writer, Albany, NY http://rmengehardt.tumblr.com Albany, NY based poet, writer R.M. Engelhardt has published several books over the last decade including Nod~Logos~Alchemy~The Last Cigarette: The Collected Poems of R.M. Engelhardt & others. His current experimental book of poetry & prose is called “Versus-Lexikon” A poet & writer, Engelhardt through his ideas & visions has helped to create a large amount of the Upstate, Albany, NY spoken word~poetry scene and is the host of “SAINT POEM READING SERIES” an Open Forum-Mic For All Poets held every 3rd Monday of each month at The Upstate Artists Guild (UAG).His work has also been published by many journals on the net & in print including Retort, Verve, Industrial Nation, Sure! The Charles Bukowski Newsletter, Thunder Sandwich, Fashion For Collapse, 2nd Avenue, The Angry Poet, Danse Macabre, Full of Crow & many others.

  • UnSung Poets: Elías Nandino

    Elías Nandino

    Elías Nandino

    Birth: April 19, 1900 
    Death: October 2, 1993

     Cocula Mexican poet born in Jalisco, in 1900. Besides his work as a doctor, Nandino supported many young poets from the magazine he founded and directed. Edited collection of books “New Mexico” directed “Stations” and from 1960 to 1964 was director of “Cuadernos de Bellas Artes.” In 1979 he received the National Prize of Literature Award and the Poetry of Aguascalientes. Each of his poems contains a fragment of time. Poet Dreamer, linking life and death, love and hate, with an indestructible bridge of words, dreams and realities. “Wreck of the doubt” in 1950, “Triangle of silence” in 1953, “Night summa” in 1955, “Eternity Dust” in 1970, and “Night word” in 1976, constitute a significant sample of his work as poeta.Murió in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1993.

    ____________________

    POEMS :

    Love Without Death
    Dust will be, but dust in love.
    ~Quevedo

    ___________

    I love and the love I feel
    I exist, I have life
    and I’m burning my escape
    ever born.

    I love and every moment
    love, my death is urged,
    a love without measure
    in continual burning.

    But when love and do not try
    because my body off
    absorbent earth again:

    everything will be devoured,
    but not the burning love
    dust of my love.

    _________________

    Within Me


    With eyes
    highly peering into the night
    look at the stars
    and, within me,
    tireless in the river of my blood,
    the feel and discover
    reflected,
    bright and deep,
    involved was as if my
    the same sky
    where they are burning

    _________________________

    Night Sum

    Spelling space and do not understand
    the drops of light at night
    trembling, which expand, which will shrink
    and expressed from the sky
    phrases of the light pulse.

    I do not know if it is high or deep
    overlook the site where,
    or whether they are or are not, but I look
    like a swarm of islands in fire
    and suffer its attraction, its intense brightness,
    her timid look …

    The story, often many times …
    I forget the account and stop me
    has to start again
    and loses again, always falling
    in the escape of a number scattered.

    The story, often many times …
    And if joy to have, is because I feel
    that captures more and more, the Creator,
    when I add and I join in their stars.

  • Just For A Moment …

    Into The Mystic...Silence

    Take a walk into the dark

    Alone with your heart

    In silence.

    For there is no one around

    The world is at peace

    The great wind howls

    The voices have ceased.

    Rest your soul

    For it is all that

    You have,

    Among the trees

    As in daylight

    You pass on by the

    Wounded & the noise

    Of being, the rush of chaos

    The anxiety of a modern city

    New & concrete,

    Hurry now

    To catch the next bus, subway

    Train

    To nowhere or some place

    Your destination repeating.

    For the neon lights

    Are not as beautiful as the stars,

    And the stars upon the tv falter.

    Icons

    Aging without

    The grace of

    Eternity

    For the machine,

    Like the earth keeps on

    Moving

    Moving

    Without the hesistation

    Of thought.

    So

    Take a walk into the dark,

    Alone in solitude

    With your heart

    And breathe.

    __________________

    R.M. Engelhardt  2011

  • Saint Poem … Albany,NY’s Reading Series

    Poetry… Poets & Experimental Writing. Featured Poets & Their Work As Well As Themes. These Are The Things That Have Made Poetry Open Mics Interesting Over The Years & That Have Kept The Voices Returning. SAINT POEM Is A New Reading Series Which Will Encourage New Poets & Writers And Change In The Albany,NY Poetry-And Open Mic Scene. This Reading Is All About The Work…And Most Importantly, The Words! Sponsored By The UAG & MythicAlbany-AlbanyAtNight & Hosted By Veteran Albany Poet R.M. Engelhardt.
    Saint Poem, Albany NY

    Saint Poem … Albany,NY’s Reading Series

  • Our Battle …

    For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms…

  • The Queen Of Hearts

    aceofhearts

    They say in Deadwood

    Hickok’s final hand included the aces &

    eights of both black suits,

    A Deadman’s Hand, a 5 card draw

    And that death came with it,

    But in life it all depends

    Upon the cards

    That you are dealt.

    For I’ve seen the world thru

    A narrow glass,

    An empty glass

    And a terrible glance

    That revealed all the best &

    The worst…

    The worst oh love

    The worst kind of chance

    In life.

    For you can dance with the devil

    In the pale moonlight,

    You can save & save and work

    all your life. And hope… And pray or

    Spend. But either way the man

    Will come a knocking soon

    No matter what… in the end.

    For your life can be a million things but

    It all depends on you.

    For luck is only half the game,

    And the rest is up to you.

    Because the truth?

    Is that you are not

    Completely, supremely, or eternally fucked or

    Somehow destined to self destruct

    But everyone you love will fall in the end

    No matter what you do.

    So the best kind of dance?

    Your best card to chance?

    Is always the ace of hearts.

    For this, these words are both

    A warning and a blessing,

    A little bit of wisdom from a man

    Whose words will stay true.

    That your mind & heart

    Must find a chart to

    Plot your course upon.

    So

    Find a love thats

    True, find a soul thats real

    And that will never let you down.

    And that heart my friend

    Is your ace.

    So no matter what?

    Treat her right.

    Rich or poor

    Old or young

    Thru good times or bad.

     Because all life really

    Is based upon on how you play the cards

    And the winner always

    Takes all…

    ___________

    R.M. Engelhardt 2011

     

  • Quotes By Baudelaire …

    Baudelaire

    Quotes By Baudelaire …