Matthew R. Stitt // The Writer’s Archive

Tag: poetry

  • Shadow – When the Clock Forgot

    The shadow of time stood upon a broken wooden deck jutting outward into a dark ocean of water.

    It stood alone.

    The tail of its black coat blowing and tethered like a tail.

    A wide- brimmed hat tilted low, shielding a ghost-pale face from a brine-infused wind.

    It stands.

    Moves — almost human — breathing salty air.

    listening

    as if the water speaks.

    Its hat tips, levitates. Rain dances on it’s black leather brim.

    A gale erupts.

    Waves lap at themselves.

    And from the thin figure’s shrouded frame, a pale hand emerges —

    places the hat upon a sea of dark hair.

    Time living in a world that never falters…

    never bends…

    never asks…

    The shadow disappears as the walls of water break over rocks beside the deck.

    Its head raised, engulfed in the mist.

    The skies clear and the shadows gone.

    Has he gone over the edge?

    … or was he ever there?

    Portal doorway graphic
    Thanks for Reading — Check this out before you go

    Enter the Fractured Archive — Art, Apparel & Myth by Matthew R. Stitt

    Step into a surreal network of poetry, relics, and digital art. At MatthewRStitt.com, the lines between myth and memory blur — discover limited-edition t-shirts, original prints, and fragments of a broken world waiting to be decoded.

    Explore the Relic Drops, browse the Artifact Vault, or decode new poetry in When the Clock Forgot, a haunting collection of verse shaped by time, silence, and return. Every piece is part of the Archive. Every visitor is part of the story.

    Ready to dive in? Visit MatthewRStitt.com and begin your transmission.

  • Changed Pages- “When the Clock Forgot”

    Every time my life changes,

    without warning, without pause.

    I turn to the worn pages of my book

    and try to make sense of it —

    a line here, a thought there,

    something that might rhyme with grief.

    Change stirs my chest,

    not like music —

    more like static,

    a skipped heartbeat.

    So I lean away,

    afraid of falling,

    of failing —

    and slip into that old darkness,

    the one no one else sees.

    But even there,

    just as I’m sure I’m gone,

    someone always finds me.

    A hand.

    A voice.

    A reason to step forward.

    And I begin to understand:

    the time I thought I lost to change

    was brief.

    The real time —

    the true time —

    was the love

    that came because of it.

  • Dreams – originally written in 2000

    I sit here thinking

    Of dreams from the past few days.

    Pen in my hand, writing works in Romantic ways I sit waiting.

    As my life moves like a slow moving train

    Cheating songs pumping through my brain.

    Thinking of you so far away,

    Of the new man who asks you to stay.

    Sometimes I wonder if your ever thinking,

    How far my heart is sinking

    When your so far away.

    I sit here thinking of so many words I could say.

    Wishing I could take back the mistakes I’ve made.

    I remember every time I’d see your smile fade

    Trying not to remember the words the whiskey made me say.

    I wish you could see the tears in my eyes today.

    When I dream of how you and me used to be.

  • Change

    Every time my life is changed; it changes all the time

    I come up to my book and put it to a rhyme

    When I think of change; my heart it skips a beat

    But every time I stop to think, I think it’s all to right

    Because I’m scared of defeat, I tend to lean away

    And into the darkness I will come

    Where no one see’s the way

    But every time I think I’m lost

    There is always someone there

    With change behind me and a hand stretched out

    I will slowly begin to realize the time I lost to change

    Was shorter than the time I won

    When love had caused the change.

  • A pair of poems from a military deployment

    Fading Flame

    Why is love too much for a man to handle

    Why do I extinguish it like the flame on a candle

    What’s so hard about telling her what I feel

    Why do I want a heart that other men may steal

    Will the one I love be willing to love me?

    What is this mind trap that will not let me free

    What internal mechanism hold me

    Why can’t I see

    She can love a man like me?

    The Birds

    As I watch mechanical birds in the sky

    I sit and watch and wonder as they speed by

    What if one day they can’t fly

    What if one day they don’t rule the sky

    What would be the world if the birds didn’t fly now

    If all these birds they didn’t know how

    It would be harder indeed

    It would leave nothing easy for me

    The birds will be flying from now till then

    They will be from now till past my end.

  • A Shadow

    A silhouette standing alone above the water.

    His black overcoat blowing in the wind.

    A large black hat tilted to cover his face.

    He stands alone on the rocks above the ocean.

    With his haves in his pockets he stands quietly.

    Grabbing his hat when the wind blows, as the rain falls.

    Living in a world that will never falter,

    He listens as if the water calls.

    Disappearing as the walls of water break over the rocks.

    Raising his head, he’s engulfed in the mist.

    The skies clear and the shadows gone.

    Has he gone over the edge?

    … or was he ever there?

  • A Poor Man’s Dreams

    An unwanted man sits in a corner,

    Thinking of the love he has lost.

    With every minute of life gone by,

    This lonely man’s thinking, “Lord, Just let me die.”

    Beautiful woman pass him by each day,

    They drop change in his hand, but have nothing to say.

    He is offered a shelter, but to proud to sleep under it.

    Eats a meal in a homeless shelter.

    Reading letters he never sent her.

    He dreams of the day he can treat her,

    Like the princess she is to him.

    He dreams of a life secure,

    In the arms of a woman like her.

    To him she’s a princess.

    To her he’s just like the rest.

    He plans out the day they’ll meet .

    She walks on the same old beat.

    Dressed up in a suit of blue,

    She doesn’t have a clue,

    That this bum’s heart is true.

    With every step she makes,

    She’s always in his sight.

    What a safer walk it takes,

    When he don’t walk with her at night.

  • My Angel in the Sky

    I seen my angel in the sky

    Bright blue sparkle in her eyes

    Seeing within her an Amazing Grace

    To brighten up my grey face

    I once had love upon my heart

    Till from this world she did part

    Eyes that sparked, hair that glowed

    and Love to me that always showed

    I hate the man who took her from me

    I wish I’d been there, I wish I could of…

    Then I would of stopped him.  Yes, I would of…

    Then my angel in the sky

    With that sparkle in her eye

    Looked upon my face

    And started to sing Amazing Grace

    Then she looked to my departed

    And upon her face a smile started

    The angel faded but pointed downward

    And she disappeared as I looked onward

    To my loved ones face of grey.

    Her eyes were open and she did say

    “I can see the sparkle in your eye.”

    I replied, “I got it from the Angel in the Sky.”

  • A Child’s Christmas

    In the eyes of our children

    Santa Claus is the man

    Who flew over the hills with his reindeer in his command

    He lands on the rooftops and slides down the chimney

    Putting presents under the Christmas tree

    As he finishes, he looks up and giggles, for on a table

    Sits cookies and a glass of milk all sitting on a Christmas note.

    Hello Santa,

      These are for you.

                  Love,

                  Mandy, John and Paul

    was wrote. 

    Santa laughed and his belly jiggled

    As he put his finger to his nose, he giggled.

    As he vanished in the air

    To another house somewhere

    Don’t you wish sometimes,

    That you were a child at Christmas time.

  • The Unfaithful Soldier

    Trust is an unfaithful soldier

    Built of the heartbreak and pain of others

    Commitment is a dream of that soldier

    A dream of a dream about the sanity of realistic expectations

    Faithfulness is a promise to yourself that you cannot honor

    Honor is an object of others and doesn’t belong in a selfish world. 

    Fear is the loss of trust.  A realization that the soldier was real to itself. 

    A realization that Trust was itself unfaithful.