Recent Haiku

dream courageously
for before there was color
there lived the idea.

Sugar, here's the thing:
In loving you, I don't cease
to also love me.

in the beginning
we spoke by melting fluid
into each other.

in pursuit of growth
seedlings transform toward sunlight,
shells must be broken


on soaring: look up
fix eyes on destination
breathe steady and go

our harmonies burst
as giggles from nervous girls
and yet we still sing

song becomes bullet
protruding past lips and teeth
dangerously alive

Live Performances

If you feel like watching:

Lazarus - Live at Seattle Poetry Slam
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_0uS1Po8Mo


Dear Huey & Weather Underground - Live at the End the War Rally @ State Capitol
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSJUelz0kHM


Blue - Live at CCA / Poets on the Loose!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-ANM85DckU

We Have Not Gone

I have bled rivers
the words have been snatched
as the tongue from my mouth

I have known music
enough to quake and erupt
have wept hurricanes

and danced all sort of disaster
and when you are very quiet
you will hear us hum

we have not gone, could not go
any more than a heart
departs from a breast

we remain
in huddled masses, we wash ashore
from tossed at sea

it is our blood,
our bruises
made purple mountain majesty

I have known labor
and the miracle of birth
and this earth is in need of seeding

this is not invention, only call it
resurrection as the tide is turning,
we are returning

for just such a time
for just such a place
as this.

c. 2009 Suzi Q. Smith

The Rope’s Result

it's like you're all in it together





bouncing me playfully between midnight





and midnight





always with the promise of day





I am often



without a friend in the world


I am always


the only one
that knows this.

c. 2008 Suzi Q. Smith

For My Dear Ones

I love you because your heart is a homeless shelter. A refugee camp. An orphanage. A center for wayward youth.

I love you because you are the proud smile of a six-year-old child missing teeth.

I love you because you have the arms of a mighty oak.You hold them out as a fortress,stretch them low as a ladder, reach them high as a song of praise.

I love you because holding your gaze from across a roomtickles me in places I am not used to being seen or touched.

I love you because I can't help it, you unravel my armor by showing up without yours.

I love you because I never have to shrink to fit inside the palm of your hand.

I love you because the best in you never stops getting better.

c. 2009 Suzi Q. Smith

Moments (banned from youtube)

Below is the text to a track that I collaborated with Psy'Aviah on - You can find the track on their album 'Entertainment Industries' - the track was a finalist in 2007 BBC Next Big Thing contest. The video they created was banned from youtube after 3 months and 3 million views, though it did not violate any of their rules. They referenced the lyrics & the images and labeled it 'explicit'. You be the judge.


there are moments
i remember when i started to step out
you would hold me and kiss me, hard, on the mouth -
you were even jealous of my cigarette habit, determined to be my only addiction

there are moments
when i miss you so sincerely
i can nearly forgive you, bowdlerizing chapters
i would rather forget, hammer out and polish a better version

there are moments
that bring your name erupting
from my lips, abruptly as our end
i'm still calling for you, still calling him you

there are moments
i think it would be easier if you were dead,
there'd be no wondering then, i'd bury "us" with you,
let worms work your flesh the way i used to, unflinching and thorough

there are moments
when i still worry about you –
do you hate yourself enough for the both of us?
do you punish yourself, or your new girlfriends? i worry about them . . .

there are moments
i am consumed with guilt
for not giving you a proper ending, pressing
firmly upon your larynx until you are no longer dangerous, until your thrashing resigns

there are moments
i am reminded, bitterly and completely that i love you;
i slap patches of other men to my skin, it's not the same, but it helps keep me
at least twelve steps away from my vicious addiction to you
and as with any bad habit, the very passion between us
turned to poison and you couldn't stop – and i couldn't stop you,
you couldn't stop – even when i begged you to, your unrelenting fervor tore me right in two
and now
parts of me
will always be
stained the color of you

there are moments
i wonder if you can still smell my blood on the wind;
does your memory of me make your veins itch?
will it make you come calling? will i answer?

there are moments
i long to relapse toward your furious embrace
the nape of my neck still longs for your face
i remember once upon a time it was sweet

c. 2008 Suzi Q. Smith

The Rendering

I remember thesummer
we smoked dried bamboo;
found it growing
or dying in the alley,

we spent
afternoons hiding
in the garage
with the caved-in roof

burning Barbie
dolls and GI Joes,
old radios we found
in garbage cans.

That summer,
before we turned
all gray
and steely

we were sparks
and giggles and gone,
matches pinched
between fingers.

.. c. Suzi Q. Smith 2009