So Long, Lonesome Place – New Poetry Book Available!

So Long, Lonesome by Ashlee Craft Book CoverSo Long, Lonesome Place is a collection of 63 poems about leaving behind that which does not serve you, & the search for the place that you’ve been seeking.

EXCERPT

it seems radical to me, all of this / & I’m so afraid I won’t be able to handle it (was any of it real anyways?) / but I do have to keep in mind, in all my moments of doubt & self-questioning, is how many countless others before me have done the same thing that I am doing now, & succeeded in doing so / how many others before me went off & forged their own pathways rather than following in the footsteps others had carved out before them & blindly listening to the instructions mumbled to them in poor faith / how many of them not only survived the falling out, but thrived because of it?

Publish Date // October 2, 2016
Paperback 110 Pages
Genre // Poetry

Kindle Edition
Paperback

my eyes are open

My Eyes are Open // Ashlee Craft / Assemblage, Issue 11

the real truth of the matter was bold like the business cards & the muffled sound & flashing cameras in the studios / when that type of gold lost its shine / I walked the false pathways many times before & saw the reflections on the other side of glass mirrors / hard work, & real integrity, he said, & I believed him, & loved the road-songs / I remembered the utter freedom of the time, & the way it felt driving towards the storm, & also away from the storm simultaneously

& the real falling-in-love happened, & the veil was stripped away, revealing the core of your own frequencies, sent out into the universe / I watched the facades fall away, & the clear-crystal water reflected my own face back, gently

A Beautiful Question of Where & When // New Release

A Beautiful Question of Where & When by Ashlee Craft - Coverit was the fifth of May –
I was smiling & you laughed at some joke I told,
about the fact that it was raining out –
I kissed you on the lips as we walked from the bus station –
the storefronts lit up night with neon –
watching the moon slowly rising,
above the boardwalk
& my hand was in yours

A Beautiful Question of When & Where is a collection of 42 poems.

Publish Date // February 5, 2016
Paperback 82 Pages
Genre // Poetry

Kindle Edition
Paperback

Poem for David Bowie

David Bowie - TopPop 1974 10

poem for David Bowie

I remember when I heard :
you disappeared like smoke rising; a phoenix in the open air,
a song drifting in empty through an open window
reminding me of the longing,
oh, beautiful longing,
of driving under bridges at night & through city streets
& of holding people close; oh, the beautiful longing
of reaching out to find things which are no longer there
& still hoping to feel a glimpse of them,
the things that never were but felt alive in their own heartbeats;
you disappeared the way light fades at the end of the day :
still golden even as the dark blankness of night creeps in;
a song playing on a record player on the floor
as the ch-ch-ch-ch-changes bloom inside & out,
I turned to face the music & it was there I found myself;
& the way the music sounded on the floorboards & ceiling
reminded me of why you were my hero :
reinvention, I said, over & over again repeating in the night;
you had a thousand names & a thousand faces
& like the birth & rebirth of a phoenix
you tore down & rebuilt yourself over & over
breathing life & color into the word EVOLUTION
& the flames breathed their life into you
as you became new things & new people
& found homes for all the limitless planets you wanted to become;
to prove that the outsiders were not really alone at all :
to answer your question, yes,
there is life on Mars

Poem inspired by this.

Same Person / Personal Space

Personal Space by Ashlee Craft

(from A Thousand Cranes, Volume 7)

walking tall with my
shoulders back & my chin lifted
no, no more do I cower hiding behind false bricks & pretending that I am not there
no more do I hide inside myself too afraid to speak at all
no more do I complacently go along with what I am told & never question it
no more do I take the words of others as gospel
or think that just because someone thinks I should do something, that I should
or that I have to go along with it
& never belong to anyone but me
no more am I am afraid to speak up for myself

don’t let them push you around
two people told me this in the same week
& I took it to heart that time when I finally said no
& learned to take my life back
from the hands of others to whom they thought it had been given
don’t let them push you around
stand up for yourself
stand up for yourself
stand up to all those who try to repress you
or keep you where you don’t want to be
or make you uncomfortable
or bring you down in any way
or make you feel like you’re not worth it

no more shall I avert my eyes & look down
as if I am hiding
no more shall I hunch my shoulders
as if I am invisible
no more shall I let others push me around
as if I am not worthy of respect
I am a different person now
& no one pushes me around
no one tells me what I should be
no one brings me down
no one makes me afraid
no one makes me feel invisible
no one stops me

you’ve always been good enough for me

you've always been good enough for me // Ashlee Craft / Assemblage, Issue 3

you’ve always been good enough for me,
always
& I’ve always been good enough for you
even all those times I was certain
that I’d made the biggest mistake or surely was the most
worthless, useless person who couldn’t do anything right
& would never amount to anything
even when I couldn’t see it in myself,
you showed me that I was worth it

I never thought things would be better for me
I never thought I deserved better

I would look in the mirror & see something
ugly, someone ugly who should hide their face
& try to be invisible; living in shadows, dwelling in
darkness; but you gently lifted my chin up
to face the sun
& finally made me believe that in all ways,
I was good enough,
always good enough

Reflections of Flowers

A Thousand Cranes, Volume 10 by Ashlee Craft - Cover

From A Thousand Cranes, Volume 10

rhymes floating in floodgates of windows, Hey Jude is playing quietly in the background, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road too as she’s walking across the cement, the ground below her is absorbing the sound of footsteps, & they’re echoing between buildings / cool cement in the late afternoon, long shadows / she has decided what she is going to be & walking towards it, bags packed / uncertain future in the distance, like the sun, but she runs to greet it because it is the sun

words floating in empty buildings, they are totally silent but for the street traffic outside, horns honking & the quiet lull of motors, breathe in deeply the emptiness & realize that emptiness can become anything / this building is empty, but it is beautiful / think of the geode: a plain ordinary rock that only when it is broken reveals the quartz crystals that were inside of it all along; this is you / you think your brokenness makes you ugly, but being broken was the only thing that allowed you to see beauty that would have been otherwise hidden from you

raindrops floating in reflections of flowers, you sat inside while it was raining & watched the droplets falling, thinking that you were stuck inside while the storm raged / I said something to you about how everyone must learn not to be afraid of going out to get what they want / you looked me in the eyes & got up & opened the door, took a deep breath & stepped out into the rain / “I don’t have to let storms stop me!” you sobbed, smiling as you walked barefoot in the puddles, watching raindrops bounce off flower petals, & ran through the gardens as the storm raged outside, & I joined you / eventually the clouds parted; warm rain stopped falling & the sun returned from behind the clouds, warm sun in the humid air in lush dark green garden, & the flowers were still dancing