Contributor: Richard Schnap

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Look at the sun
Bringing you a brilliance
You can never dream of

Listen to the rain
Its music is more melancholic
Than the world’s saddest song

Feel the wind
Its caress carries a touch
No lover can ever match

Smell the flowers
Their perfume can seduce
The heart of any man

All of these things
Are given without
Any hint of a price

And will remain so
No matter the cost
It takes to stay alive


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A two-time Best of the Net nominee, his poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications. His debut chapbook, "A Wind From Nowhere", is available from Flutter Press.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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The middle-aged debutante
Conned by her lover
Into giving him the funds
To the organization she ran

The housewife that brought up
An unstable daughter
In the same way her own
Mother had done

The author that composed
A biography of an artist
Trapped in a madness
Similar to her own

And in each of their eyes
Could be seen a skewed sparkle
Of a gem that was wrought
By a jeweler from hell


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A two-time Best of the Net nominee, his poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications. His debut chapbook, "A Wind From Nowhere", is available from Flutter Press.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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The woman in black
Passes angrily by
As she punishes the stones
With her heels

The woman in blue
Walks slowly as if
She is held by a
Hard burden

The woman in red
Seems eager to find
A foe that is worthy
To conquer

And the woman in white
Drifts past like a cloud
On the threshold of the hem
Of heaven


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A two-time Best of the Net nominee, his poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications. His debut chapbook, "A Wind From Nowhere", is available from Flutter Press.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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A misspelled sign
For the clearance sale
Of a local thrift store

A scribbled announcement
For a concert by a musician
Free to the public

A scrawled flyer
In broken English
Offering house cleaning services

An advertisement for
A brand new wedding dress
Saying “Best Offer”

A poster for a protest
To prevent the closing
Of a drug rehab center

And a handwritten note
For a missing girl
That ran away from home


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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There are dreams we keep
And dreams we let go
And dreams that just fade away

An album we play
Whose songs become
Fainter as the years go by

A book we read
Till its pages unhinge
Leaving only its name intact

A portrait we hang
That yellows with age
Till its face is a meaningless blur

And as the brief seasons
Go hurtling past
We cling to what does remain

A bright tiny star
At the edge of the sky
That never quite seems to grow dim


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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In art as in life
He learned that success
Is a capricious mistress

Poems rejected
By faceless editors
With assembly line hearts

Collages displayed
On the gloomy walls
Of a gallery’s bathroom

Songs that echoed
Through empty cabarets
Entertaining ghosts

But he’d heard somewhere
That if only one soul
Answered to his touch

He had changed the world
The sleeping stranger
That he had woken


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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He found meaning
In places
Where others dare not look

A blank frame
On a theater
With a sign saying “Coming Soon”

Mannequins
In a window
Wearing hundred dollar bills

A milk crate
On a sidewalk
By an empty plastic cup

A fortune cookie
Cracked open
Without anything inside

And his face
On his license
Looking like someone he’d avoid


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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In the apartment above me
I hear workmen erasing
The signs of its previous tenant

Ripping up the carpet
Where he paced on nights
When he woke from uneasy dreams

Replacing the faucets
Of the kitchen in which he
Made meals he would eat alone

Painting the plaster
Stained with the outlines
Of portraits of those he loved

And soon it will seem
Like he never had lived there
As it waits for the next to come

To make it their own
For a temporary time
As the seasons pass swiftly by


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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I used to ride
Abused buses
Past battered houses

Where faces stared
From bloodshot windows
With reptile hatred

At twisted streets
Belonging to them
Burying them

Next to vacant lots
Where ghosts found ways
To relive their deaths

But sometimes I’d see
Flowers emerge
From cold hard earth

Miracle children
Playing in dirt
Passing like dreams


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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My father once told me
That he believed I was going
To join a cult

He turned out to be right
For I passed through many
Over the years

The one with the uniform
Of faded blue jeans
And tie dyed shirts

The one where everybody
Wore black leather jackets
With matching pants

But as the days passed by
I grew tired of singing
Their dead anthems

So I learned a new one
Whose music and lyrics
Were mine alone


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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He caught the scent
Of a flowery perfume
That vanished as soon
As he smelled it

And the quiet whisper
Of a subtle voice
That echoed and then
Disappeared

And the soft caress
Of a delicate hand
That stroked his skin
And then faded

And when he turned
There was no one there
Just a shadow that seemed
Darker than most


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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The night is falling sooner
As the painted leaves descend
Like pirouetting dancers
In the finale of a ballet

While the serenading swallows
Lift their wings up to the sky
Leaving behind a silence
Broken only by the wind

But as the days diminish
There’s a final spark of light
Like a coda to a symphony
With one last part to play

When I hear the children singing
In the autumn of their youth
And hope that in the years to come
They’ll still remember how


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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There are stars
Only few can see
For they wander far
From familiar skies

And there are seas
Only few can sail
For they follow winds
To uncharted shores

And there are seeds
Only few can sow
For they covet earth
With exotic soil

And there are souls
Only few can know
For they invent ways
To speculate too


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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I am the outcast
Following the orders
Echoing in my mind

I am the student
Begging the outcast
To please spare my life

I am the mother
Answering the phone call
That freezes my blood

I am the doctor
Fighting tears as I decide
Who will live or die

I am the preacher
Wondering if my words
Do any good at all

And I am the outcast
Watching the coverage
While fingering my gun


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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I see men seeking the trails they once trusted
Only to find them erased by the rain

And I hear voices in search of the songs that inspired them
Only to discover their words make no sense

For the roads of life are not graven in stone
They change for no reason like a shifting wind

That alters the landscape until it becomes foreign
As strange as an old friend becoming someone you don’t know

But this is the burden we learn to carry
A world where all things can be taken away

So that the rivers we travel whose currents seemed sure
Can lead us without warning to black blighted seas


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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Time is not an inert entity
Marching with the steady rhythm
Of a soldier following orders

It is a creature with a will
Inching slowly when I wait
For my lover to return home safely

And as swiftly as a young child
When I count the years I’ve wasted
Trying to please my late father

But sometimes it seems to be both
A season with a wild nature
Its dead leaves lost in the wind


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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I hear the wind
And think of a has-been chanteuse
Singing to an empty room

I see the rain
And think of an old widower
Dropping tears on his wedding photos

I watch a fire
And think of a laid-off worker
Receiving his last unemployment check

I listen to a siren
And think of a middle-aged divorcee
Pouring whiskey on her broken heart

But then I find a flower
And think of a young child
Who still believes in Santa Claus

As I smell its scent
And think of a rare perfume
Whose fragrance never quite goes away


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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My ex-wife bought it
As a birthday gift
To kill the silence
That buried us both

And in its time
I strummed it for many
In museums and men’s clubs
And after hours bars

But the crowds began
To grow thinner and thinner
Until it sadly echoed
Through empty rooms

Now it sits lifeless
In its coffin-like case
A dead remnant
Of a failed love


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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She was an unborn song
Waiting to be written

As she danced to a music
That only she could hear

That mirrored the ocean
As it swayed with the moon

And mimicked the wind
With its subtle caress

But her movements betrayed
A sadness within her

For she could not find
The one to give her life

And till he appeared
With the touch to release her

The story of her heart
Would never have a voice


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

Contributor: Richard Schnap

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The old men turn up their collars
And walk even slower than usual
As the chill wind slaps their faces
Bringing tears coursing down their cheeks

And the children are lost in daydreams
Of bagfuls of Halloween candy
The challenge of Thanksgiving wishbones
Presents beneath a star-crowned tree

And the ice cream shop on the corner
Closes its doors for the season
While the flower store empties its windows
To make way for the poinsettias to come

While I look out from my window
At the trees whose leaves are now golden
And flocks of birds heading southward
Goodbye Summer goodbye


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.