R.M. ENGELHARDT

Poet Writer Author Albany NY

  • FOR THE ANIMALS

    Why does the world at night not see you?

    In the fields and in the moon’s light?

    Gentle, and taken away from these forests

    And separated from others of your kind

    Why does the world at night not see you?

    Or even in the daylight care about your existence?

    I will give you food in the harsh months cold
    And without mercy, become the caretaker
    And the sacred voice, protect you like you were my own, my kind

    Undomesticated & unrecognized by the less
    Intelligent creatures in machines
    Who do not recognize your beauty and lives

    Why does the world not see you?

    Protect you?

    Because they are selfish and sometimes blind
    Lost in a world of their own making

    Cruel
    And sad

    The wind whispers to them and in their hearts
    They feel nothing

    This is the way

    This is the loss of what is all holy
    And all that once shined upon us
    In it’s own relevance & awe

    The cars rush by as time moves swiftly

    The roads & highways the divisions,
    Graveyards

    Where all the dead & bodies lay

    Where the night air frees your soul
    To another place

    Wakan Tanka

    ~ R.M. Engelhardt©2022

  • follow the words …
  • BAD OMENS:
    MONDAY NOVEMBER 14TH, 2022
    OR
    THE DAY OF THE ASSHOLE

    The tarot cards have
    Foreseen the horrible future

    And his return

    All the signs

    Impossible
    To ignore

    The first hint
    Was The Tower card
    The second? A
    Loud & long wailing inhuman fart
    Sound eminating from the
    Downstairs neighbors
    Apartment

    Who’s a staunch
    Republican with a
    Make America Great Again
    Sticker

    On his pickup truck

    The candles

    Immediately started
    Flickering and all the
    Dogs in the neighborhood
    All took a massive dump at once

    All

    At the same exact time

    And from a place unknown
    Perhaps another dimension
    Or the spirit world
    A loud screaming voice came through
    The walls which said in an errie, frightening &
    Mournful voice

    OH NO, OH NO!

    It’s That RACIST ASSHOLE AGAIN!
    And He’s Running For President AGAIN!

    ASS-HOLE

    ASS-HOLE

    ASSSSSSSSSHOLLLLLLLEEE …

    11 … 14 … 22

    BEWARE !

    BEWARE THE FAT & UGLY
    ORANGE ASS-HOLE !

    And then?

    A book on the U.S. Constitution
    Mysteriously fell off the shelf

    And opened up to a page
    Which said:

    AMENDMENT 14

    Which must be read
    In an exorcism

    To rid him

    From this world

    For good

    ~ R.M. Engelhardt ©2022

  • In the beginning was the word, the word
    That from the solid bases of the light
    Abstracted all the letters of the void;
    And from the cloudy bases of the breath
    The word flowed up, translating to the heart
    First characters of birth and death.

    ~ Dylan Thomas,
    In The Beginning


    NoPe

    The 1st poem wasn’t
    Written in English
    In fact it wasn’t
    Written in any words
    At all

    The 1st poem
    Was a flower that
    A hairy cave man gave to
    His beloved

    Who thoughtfully
    Pondered it’s meaning
    & then ate it
    And without emotion
    Left him

    For a muscular
    Neanderthal

    Named Chad

    So the first poem
    Was actually a failure
    A gesture

    Of heartbreak & love
    Loneliness & longing

    But not enough to
    Convey it or even
    Reach it’s destination

    The heart

    Or the soul

    And on the cave walls
    Were painted crude
    Drawings depicting mating
    To let a woman know
    That she was desired

    To which their response
    Was ” Ew” and a new
    Word which they created called

    ” NO”

    But the art approach
    Didn’t work
    Quite well either

    NOTE:
    (*See Bathroom Poetry
    History of)

    WIKIPEDIA

    But once humans
    Could speak? Talk?
    Well the game
    Was on

    Hunter gatherers
    & Future jock types
    Started getting angry
    Because skinny guys
    In fur beret hats starting
    Stealing their women

    But they couldn’t figure out how
    And to this day

    Still cannot

    And that’s how it
    All began

    Poets & artists
    Being treated
    Like outcasts
    Unwanted & disliked
    (Musicians soon to follow)

    Because they had
    Higher IQs
    And first somehow knew
    That words could be turned

    Into “Magic”
    & Into light

    Spells that could
    Invoke what feelings
    They held urges they felt
    And the things they could see
    Or could not

    Like the silent moments
    Of trees swaying in the distance
    Like the beauty of colors in the air
    And sea, animals & nature

    And within these words
    They worshipped all
    The mysteries which they
    Couldn’t fathom or understand

    And turned them
    Into something
    Called poems

    Myths
    And gods

    So in the beginning
    Poetry wasn’t really popular

    And still isn’t

    But without it
    We’d all be lost

    For it is the whole
    That makes us all human
    And what it means to be
    Human

    And that
    Is all we know

    That and that throughout
    Human history that muscular guys
    Named Chad and with similar names
    Still hate us

    And want to beat us up

    Without knowing

    Why?

    ~ R.M. Engelhardt

    © Copyright 2022

  • davidlonan1's avatarFevers of the Mind

    part of the “The Empath Dies in the End” series

    Backwards Until When (5)

    1 (David L O’Nan)

    I keep dreaming of a backwards red balloon floating in a bleeding sky, a paper sky

    I keep envisioning a backwards red balloon floating by, telepathically I know it is you.

    5 years before, 5 years before that, 5 years before that and the years are crumbled pebbles.

    Many men have come and put a forever ring on your finger, they stare at you with narcotic eyes.

    They have stared in your eyes with wandering eyes, they have seen you float away into the darkness.

    By yourself, spinning in your head.

    By yourself, the dreams of children. The children only helped before the yelling killed the heart.

    And left you remembering you were on that road, that you have been travelling away in your head for years

    And left you remembering the…

    View original post 405 more words

  • I SING OF THE BODY DISSECTED. A Poem By R.M. Engelhardt
    art*poem by r.m. Engelhardt ©2022

    I SING OF THE BODY DISSECTED

    So let us now all
    Sing or if you believe

    Pray

    Not of these golden days
    But in this dead choir of reprieve
    Of anguish of suffering of days

    Let us all sing of the 21st century
    Of all our failures & the false
    Triumphs & of the true progress
    Of men

    Unmade

    Undone

    Unseen

    Watch &
    See how we
    So easily destroy

    Ignore

    Incite

    Our own defeat

    And on repeat
    Like a bad news story
    Like history
    Still worship greed
    And money
    The holy dollar
    And all the fat politicians
    On all sides taking
    Away what we once
    Called ” Freedom”

    As a quaint, dismembered idea

    As wars are still waged
    Poverty still a slave
    We post all our success
    Stories

    But never our shame

    As a dead earth
    No longer of beauty
    But of a violence unimagined
    And obscene

    Disgusting.

    Weapons
    Unimagined & unseen
    The end of everything
    The end

    And the tragedy
    The murder of all days

    Like all the animals dying &
    Loosing space

    Oh how inconvenient

    How 1980s
    And Green

    Our voices & our
    Votes now all dead and
    Useless worthless things

    Without any real power for
    Truth or change

    Countries & governments
    In decline still crumbling
    And arguing, fighting
    Killing over race

    And over oil

    A disgrace

    A disfigurement a
    World burning
    Forests dying
    No gods answering
    No gods listening
    No god here

    Because
    No god cares
    Or listens
    Anymore

    This planet
    This rock
    Used up &
    Separated

    Dysfunctional
    Diseased

    Destroyed

    With hate
    With rage

    Peace
    Now just
    Another trendy word

    Forgotten

    So for thee I Sing
    Of this body
    Dissected

    Damaged by
    Monsters & corrupt men
    Fake patriots & grifters
    Looking for trophies
    And hiding behind a flag

    And blaming
    All other living beings
    For everything
    They’ve done

    More convenience
    More sorrow
    More lies
    The scapegoat
    Followed by the
    Image of the Tower card

    Falling

    As the seasons change
    The leaves remain
    But we never change

    And never will

    So for thee I Sing – Scream

    For the impoverished
    Families and their children starving
    I Sing for the ignored
    And uneducated the unemployed
    And for all those
    Guilty of being
    Human beings

    With hope
    With dreams
    With love
    With faith

    I sing for humanity
    I sing for change

    For Black lives
    For all lives
    For Suicides
    And for all those buried
    Beneath us in unmarked graves of
    Unrest & genocide
    And for all those who
    Believe in a Jesus Christ

    ( Or not )

    I Sing for
    The Great Spirit
    That once roamed
    This land now a mere
    Figment of imagination
    Lost in the blood of
    My ancestors

    The flags all at half mast
    Concealing the sadness
    The truth

    Of a nation
    Once called America

    Ashamed

    I Sing of the body
    The whole of the soul
    Dissected

    Diseased

    Where Walt Whitman
    Would now if alive
    Weep over it’s reality
    And in it’s sorrow
    Walk away

    Where Lincoln would
    Crawl up into a ball
    And simply

    Choose to die

    I Sing of A Nation of the
    Body dissected

    By cannibals
    Who’ve erased all of
    It’s glory

    And where there
    Is no honor, spark of
    Democracy, decency
    Or even electricity

    Left

    ~ R.M. Engelhardt
    ©2022

  • The Common Man By R.M. Engelhardt

    THE COMMON MAN

    The Common Man
    Sits in the workplace
    Breaks his back in
    The factory & writes
    Poetry

    On the side

    Doesn’t give
    Two shits about
    What the big wide world
    Thinks too busy
    To deal with those
    Who have superiority
    Complexes

    Issues

    & Destroys them
    All with a mere
    Sentence

    Moves on

    Keeps writing

    The Common Man
    Sees what is & what
    Could be

    Could’ve been

    Celebrates
    Life & freedom &
    Lives in the moment

    Doesn’t have time
    To deal with other
    Writers writing issues
    Theories, speculations
    Negativity, anger

    And Just writes
    Just lives

    For himself &
    Whoever with his words
    Might find

    Touch

    Don’t like what he says?

    Doesn’t matter
    To him

    He just writes
    Just cares about
    The voices in his
    Head that say

    “THIS”

    Because he
    Knows, realizes
    That poetry is
    Spiritual poetry is
    That which is a part
    Of the mystery
    Of being human

    Without compromise
    Without explanation

    Because
    The Common Man
    Or the Common Woman
    Has more to say than
    Those who cannot perceive

    Cannot connect

    From all walks of life
    From all colors, religions
    Places & souls

    For these are the real voices

    From the real world
    In which we live

    The Common Man

    ~ R.M. Engelhardt
    ©2022

  • Updates & Books.

    Tbe Dying Time .

    Poems By R.M. Engelhardt 2026

    Published by Valhalla Shelter Press

    https://www.amazon.com/R-M-Engelhardt/e/B00ARLU4S0/ref=aufs_dp_mata_mbl

    Book cover showing a red and black skeletal figure with title 'The Dying Time' and poet's name R.M. Engelhardt
    ‘The Dying Time’ by R.M. Engelhardt
  • Poetry Lives In Albany NY
    Invocation of the Muse At Lark Hall

    ATTENTION!!! HEADLINE!!!

    THERE’S A POETRY SCENE IN ALBANY, NY!

    POETRY STILL LIVES IN THE 518

    Yes, and in fact, there’s a HUGE Poetry Scene and a Poetry Open Mic happening almost everywhere in the 518, Capital District area and that scene unknown to many has been going on for quite a few years. Decades in fact. This area’s writing and poetry scene is rich in its history & legacy and unless you’ve actually ever been to a local poetry open mic or event then you are missing out on something truly great which is area poets & writers sharing their words, voices, and work with others …

  • The World Doesn’t Stop

    THE WORLD DOESN’T STOP

    The world doesn’t stop
    If you’re angry

    The world doesn’t stop if
    You’re old or tired

    It doesn’t stop

    Regardless of your love
    Or humanity

    The earth spins

    Keeps turning despite
    Your lack of conformity
    Or caring, your belief or
    A non belief in a God or
    Charity against war or
    Poverty

    The world doesn’t stop

    Even if someone pulls
    The trigger or sets a church
    On fire

    You can love or not love
    Live or stop living
    Hope or not hope

    Dream or stop dreaming

    It’s all up to you
    The choice is yours

    And no one else

    You can protest
    Write endless songs or
    Poems or be whoever
    You want

    But in the end?

    The final verse
    Falls upon us all

    An act of infinite
    Gesture or a passing
    Without thought or
    Voice

    And the earth
    Shall still carry on
    Without you

    The birds shall still
    Chirp in morning light
    & the trees shall still
    Sway in the wind

    And the world
    Doesn’t stop

    So the most you can do is
    Write your name upon
    The rocks

    And leave your message
    For the lost

    With instructions
    For a better world

    And hope
    They listen

    The World Doesn't Stop Poem R.M. Engelhardt
    The World Doesn’t Stop

    ~ R.M. Engelhardt ©2022