Signature poems

I was reading the post by Mary Fairy Poppins regarding whether or not poetry can die in us and Sir Larry made a comment about what he considered his signature piece.....this got me to thinking and I wondered what you consider your signature write, which write embodies you or a part of you the most?

This is actually my life story, most people don't know who Jimmy dean was, but anyhow, I've never written anything close to reflecting me more than this does.

You Can't Hurt Me

Resounding echoes awaken the child
demons in the attic beckon unto him
stark fear grips his Vick's laden chest
shivers vibrate rusty springs of down

footsteps creak closer upon loose floorboards
while steamed filled pipes play taps
a somber teddybear snarls
causing the world to be still

foolish nuns, God doesn't want to "get me"

the sting of a ruler splinters a left hand
blood spurts upon faces of laughter
evil little boy too wicked for a mother
affliction runs in the family

Florence became flop because she always fell
polio never whipped her ass
just abused her now and then
she healed with a smile

Even humility has its price

Jimmy Dean wore sunglasses
maybe his eyes were bloodshot
or maybe he was a child of an alcoholic
and they became part of his attire

degenerate eye disease, masturbation
spattering or battering
does it really matter when you can't see
or understand the difference between ADD and ADHD

Psych 101: Crack can be Prosac

Iron gates surround a new residence
protecting the innocent who peer from outside
rehabilitation means refining bad habits
like those on the outside who have mastered them

twelve years of bars and games people play
provide an education unto itself
seclusion can be the deciding factor
between murder or suicide

self righteous judges choose life

recidivism is a revolving door
of vicious cycles with no engines
only propellers called co-dependants
or co-defendants, take your pick

life repeats itself over and over
only the circumstances change
yet the merry-go-round stops
when the flowers are arranged

Why are most tombstones gray

scared, afraid to die
are you saved?
from what, ourselves
you can't hurt me

If I'm honest I don't have any signature piece but all my pieces are parts of me. When I've been up and Down etc so I'd say they are all signature pieces in their own ways, in that aspect.

We all have many poems that define us to a degree, when you write your "signature" piece, you'll know it. It will knock your soul for a loop.

I don't think I've written that, yet. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing lol.

As I said on the other thread I wrote one poem, The Red Shift of Distant Lights (aka We Live in an Expanding Universe) and had to break it into six entries for this site.

It defined me.

I changed, Then wrote Earnest Heartways. It defined me at that point.

I'm working on something now that is important to me. I am no longer the person who wrote either of the others. That person has gone ahead.

I love how the mechanics of this works, how at one point part or even all of us (depending on the poem) can be portrayed by what we write and then through a short passage of time we evolve and it all changes again, when I look at my own writing I see it so clearly and ilove to hear other people's views/experience of it.

My Signature write would be "The Shooting Star That's Never Seen".

I'm with Larry.

I've written things that defined me at a certain point in life.

I'm not sure I have a definite signature poem.

That's awesome, Larry.

And Britt, that would my answer as well lol. I think it's about the journey (boy does that sound cheesy). I don't think I've come to that point yet, and who knows if I will, where something will so strongly define me. Then again, I have those moments where I go through older poems, even from a few months ago, and it's like experiencing it again. Like I feel it all again but forgot I wrote it if that makes sense.

I don't think I've written a 'signature' or defining poem yet. I don't know if there is a combination of words out that I'll ever feel define me. A lot of my poems I can barely relate to, never mind call them defining.

One poem I wrote does stand out a little, for the reason that I felt it was a clear step up from what I had written before that, or a least a clear tweak in style/direction. It just felt a bit more polished and I felt like I was progressing in my writing when I finished it.

Pandora

If you were a planet, I bet
you would dance around the sun
like a ballerina - and be the Pandora
of a distant stretch of cosmos,
where comets try to slingshot
themselves to you, where the star's
gaze would be fixed upon your aquatic pearl.

I am a more straightforward existence.
Threads of matter, tissues, cells.
I can't always be the glow of the night sky
you wish upon, your gravitational constant,
or a lunar Siegfried.

All I have are two atoms, tiny and violent.
I'll leave them here for you.

I have two that I think are my signature poems

'He tears time like paper'

which triggered the whole fallen angel malarky

then 'spinning my wedding band'

which typified how I felt at that time, (I seemed to have deleted that one though)