The world is full of women
who'd tell me I should be ashamed of myself
if they had the chance. Quit dancing.
Get some self-respect
...
I wonder how it all got started, this business
about seeing your life flash before your eyes
while you drown, as if panic, or the act of submergence,
could startle time into such compression, crushing
...
I
My childhood's home I see again,
And sadden with the view;
...
Can I explain this to you? Your eyes
are entrances the mouths of caves
I issue from wonderful interiors
upon a blessed sea and a fine day,
...
A pathetic tale of the sea I will unfold,
Enough to make one's blood run cold;
Concerning four fishermen cast adrift in a dory.
As I've been told I'll relate the story.
...
Our life is a fire dampened, or a fire shut up in stone.
--Jacob Boehme, De Incarnatione Verbi
Outside everything visible and invisible a blazing maple.
...
Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night.
A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze,
...
Man, is the Sea your master? Sea, and is man your slave? –
This is the song of brave men who never know they are brave:
Ceaselessly watching to save you, stranger from foreign lands,
Soundly asleep in your state room, full sail for the Goodwin Sands!
...
. When first, descending from the moorlands,
I saw the Stream of Yarrow glide
Along a bare and open valley,
The Ettrick Shepherd was my guide.
...
A reign of impunity by Northern-led Federation
coupled with the anarchy of 'wild, wild west'
of mid 1960s-unrests, had ushered in the military
in a putsch that highlighted ethnic borders in blood.
...
It is not what they built. It is what they knocked down.
It is not the houses. It is the spaces in between the houses.
It is not the streets that exist. It is the streets that no longer exist.
It is not your memories which haunt you.
...
Powered by the super power
of the sun of electricity
the peace prize promoting city
the vacuum cleaner, dusts
...
In the late night listening from bed
I have joined the ambulance or the patrol
screaming toward some drama, the kind of end
that Berky must have some day, if she isn't dead.
...
No doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strain
Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course they’re ‘longing to go out again,’—
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
...
ROSALIND, HELEN, and her Child.
SCENE. The Shore of the Lake of Como.
...
'Twas on the shores that round our coast
From Deal to Ramsgate span,
That I found alone on a piece of stone
An elderly naval man.
...
.
clouds of angry concrete dust
born of rubble
born of ugliness
...
THE Argonauts now stemm'd the foaming tide,
And to Arcadia's shore their course apply'd;
Where sightless Phineus spent his age in grief,
But Boreas' sons engage in his relief;
...
THENCE, in his saffron robe, for distant Thrace,
Hymen departs, thro' air's unmeasur'd space;
By Orpheus call'd, the nuptial Pow'r attends,
But with ill-omen'd augury descends;
...
People sit numbly at the counter
waiting for breakfast or service.
Today it's Hartford, Connecticut
more than twenty-five years after
...
Steep up in Lubitavish townland stands
A ring of great stones like fangs, the shafts of the stones
...
Next morn the Baron climb'd the tower,
To view afar the Scottish power,
Encamp'd on Flodden edge:
The white pavilions made a show,
...
100th Anniversary Poem
(Considered to be the greatest maritime
disaster of all time - 14/15 April 1912)
...
If the shoe fell from the other foot
who would hear? If the door
opened onto a pure darkness
and it was no dream? If your life
...
WHEN fallen man from Paradise was driven,
Forth to a world of labour, death, and care;
Still, of his native Eden, bounteous Heaven
...
MY childhood's home I see again,
And sadden with the view;
And still, as memory crowds my brain,
There's pleasure in it, too.
...
To the chosen,
Those of evil stare,
Who spread weeds,
And administer venom,
...
all the forbidden fruit I ever
dreamt of--or was taught to
resist and fear--ripens and
blossoms under the palms of my
...
XXIV
The ship, call'd the most holy "Trinidada,"
...
To all survivors
of natural calamities,
to all sufferers
of man-created disasters,
...
Once upon a time a place fell into ruins
The mice of that place infested at once
They began playing upon the dwellings happily
...
I summon up Panofskv from his bed
Among the famous dead
To build a tomb which, since I am not read,
Suffers the stone’s mortality instead;
...
I
The coast-road was being straightened and repaired again,
A group of men labored at the steep curve
...
I’ve never owned a teddy bear (aw…)
my parents read the child-rearing bibles
of the time, maybe that’s what it was
...
What are acid attacks? What are they?
a matter of concern, or something to play.
I wonder what, can be the cause;
...
As the night was beginning to close in one rough September day
In the year of 1838, a steamer passed through the Fairway
Between the Farne Islands and the coast, on her passage northwards;
But the wind was against her, and the steamer laboured hard.
...
I am compelled to write about Mount St. Helens
Even though I sit here in Texas, in the fever of clear blue air,
Too far away to know how. I cannot write about her fitful sleep,
Restless with nightmares whose boundaries novaed,
...
The town wore a deserted look
Rubble scattered and piled
All around the skeletons
Of the once beautiful buildings
...
l. 1327) Then our Lord said unto Noah:
(ll. 1328-1355) "I give thee My pledge, dearest of men, that thou
mayest go thy way, thou and the seed of every living thing which
...
The light that spills through the crack in the door
Illumines only her face
And my grandmother smiles
If only all of life was this easy
...
Have you ever thought of...
Offing yourself..
Pardon...suiciding
By Putting a plastic bag over your head
...
The afternoon was excessively humid
The Earth seemed a seething hot furnace
Dark clouds were gathering overhead
Lightning drew fluorescent patterns in the sky
...
'Twas in the month of March and in the year of 1899,
Which will be remembered for a very long time;
The wreck of the steamer "Stella" that was wrecked on the Casquet Rocks,
By losing her bearings in a fog, and received some terrible shocks.
...
I.
White as a white sail on a dusky sea,
When half the horizon 's clouded and half free,
Fluttering between the dun wave and the sky,
...
Scars of the mind
that will never heal
things that we have seen
that don't seem real
...
NOW they sing the hero loud; --
But they sing him in his shroud.
...
'Twas in the year of 1866, and on a very beautiful day,
That eighty-two passengers, with spirits light and gay,
Left Gravesend harbour, and sailed gaily away
On board the steamship "London,"
...
A sad tale of the sea, I will unfold,
About Mrs Lingard, that Heroine bold;
Who struggled hard in the midst of the hurricane wild,
To save herself from being drowned, and her darling child.
...
Ye landsmen, all pray list to me,
While I relate a terrible tale of the sea,
Concerning the screw steamer "Storm Queen"
Which was wrecked, alas! a most heast-rending scene.
...
Every Spring I look forward to the storms
of November that roll down from up north
Green trees and warm sun adumbrates
...
A Word about Vermillion*
The Sioux Falls (SD) Argus Leader
Often presents our fair city
...
'Twas in the year of 1889, and in the month of June,
Ten thousand people met with a fearful doom,
By the bursting of a dam in Pennsylvania State,
And were burned, and drowned by the flood-- oh! pity their fate!
...
Black and white are the magic of the drama
in the world of film;
gray, the poetry –
silver-gray of Paris; sunshine gray;
...
Brother Kemal, the desperate son of a frenzied mother
Has gone furious; so the devils' dens are full of hue and cry
Looking for self-protection everywhere;
Kemal, what a wonder you've worked!
...
Why are all the survivors of the needle's eye
nude, as if their lifethread had disrobed
rather than sewn them. Sans coat-fare,
we proceed it seems only to precede;
...
Be pleased, O Lord, to take a people's thanks
That Thine avenging sword has spared our ranks-
That Thou hast parted from our lips the cup
...
We dropped the Bomb
though we apologized.
Said we’re sorry
in solid cold cash.
...
Ancient of Days! Before the Trojan Wars
You towered as now in your colossal prime,
Watching the rosy footed morning climb
O'er far Arabia's flushing mountain bars.
...
I Bow Before Beauty
The Beauty Of Age … (Prov.20: 29)
For Age, Is A Survivor
Age, Is Sage-Unafraid
...
Braver … Than All The Mighty Lions Can Roar
Braver … Than All The Spirited-Wings, That Soar
Braver … Than All The Explorers, Who Explored (Philippians 2: 7,8)
Braver … Than All Or Any Of Us … Is The Lord
...
The Dinosaurs entered Noah's Ark, two by two,
until his boat was full and Noah cried 'Shoo shoo! '
So some were saved from the Biblical flood,
and lived on a bit longer, with their cold blood.
...
I plan to start a 'showcase' on my PoemHunter site,
which will NOT be a contest; no need for a fight,
but instead a place where once a month I shall post..
a poem of your choosing, which you would like read most.
...
When we talked yesterday
your pain was so apparent
even though
you wouldn't say.
...
Again the sun kissed down
Upon the newborn buds -
Forest branches start their cycles
Of awakening, every twig is greening
...
Reminiscing the past of the memories that lasts,
Where there was once, the Power Rangers blasts…
...
The earth rumbled
Buildings by the dozen tumbled
With the hundreds trapped under the debris
Wailing like the proverbial banshee
...
'We are no fragile poets, ' he said
sipping panaceas;
no,
we bleed in these bloody times.'
...
She said
'How will I know that I love him'
and she said 'you'll know at the time.'
...
Still fields of scarlet poppies blow
on long abandoned battle fields.
The bones of dead men hid below
will feed their roots increasing yields.
...
Day heaves darkness out of sight.
The trees remaining on this ordinary
street seem scattered, haphazard.
Disease has claimed so many of them.
...
They hung him at the crack of Dawn.
No big to-do, no time for folks to gather,
a rope was taken from the man's own saddle
and within minutes he was swaying in the breeze.
...
Discussing the Pacific War, a student asked of me,
"Why take so small an island, isolated, far at sea? "
I told the class what we had done; it jogged my memory.
At home, I wrote that epic down in verse and poetry.
...
From Day one
They Both New
They Had to be Survivors
No Love
...
You lay now on your silver bed
flowers all around
and that seems right;
...
Distinctive black and red colored crawler creature
Shiny black and hourglass shaped on the underside feature,
They come in variation size, reproduces sexually
Into spermathical openings yet few remain survivors really.
...
1) Corsairs Of Old
2) Pirate Skulls And Crossbones Speak
3) Deepest Waters Of Reflection
4) Monolith Of Self
...
So, now for some information about my first SHOWCASE for PH poets:
Sorry, I've altered some things already, like the title of my lead-in poem, above. In anticipation of a great response [I sent notices to about 50 members so far from my inbox], I have added to my lead-in poem's title 'February,2015: section 'A' '.
...
There's a happiness, a joy
in one soul, that's been
buried alive in everyone
and forgotten.
...
Have you ever noticed,
That when it rains,
Or pours,
There are worms,
...
How sad that such things exist
I would rather never write
A lament for the lost souls
Or a tribute to bravery
...
Fighting for this great land
In a far off place
To fight for the freedom of all
In a war in a country not your own
...
There lies the body cold and wet
Left by the survivors less we forget
A shadow of what was and would never be again
The reminder that greatness is a fickle thing.
...
My name is James McLain I was molested by Dr. Wilson Crump Rippy at Tampa General Hospital,
And reaching out to the other survivors, this is what I received from other children now grown
Asking!
...
Asylum Seekers
(as the present situation still IS)
...
A female form
when comes out of womb
is questioned
on her existence.
...
After the Rebellion of 755, all was silent wasteland,
gardens and cottages turned to grass and thorns.
My village had over a hundred households,
but the chaotic world scattered them east and west.
...
Silent night, holy night!
All is calm, all is bright.
"Here is the 9 O'clock news,
...
What is far hence led to the den of making:
Moves unlike wildfire | not so simple-happy
Ploughman hammers ploughshare his durum dentem
Digging the Georgics
...
the ultimate survivors on this green garden, to my God
they who survive tend to conquer this whole patch
vast green lush spreading here and here, who has provided this?
to my God, to my religion, I am asking again against them
...
Sailing in the 'Endeavour', Captain Cook
named White Island in the Bay of Plenty,
'because that is how it appeared to us'.
Cook noted prophetically 'The island blew steam
...
There is a traveling Dreamcatcher
With blue beads and brown feathers.
Under the beads and feathers, you can read,
'Let us see each other again.'
...
Awake a louder and a loftier strain!
Beloved harp, whose tones have oft beguiled
My solitary sorrows, when I left
...
Peace and Love was the sign of the flower child
In the sixties, the young were passive not wild
They believed in peace, love, - giving, and sharing
...
I remember well, the curse of Sarajevo
My friends cheering, the black line
'We will be home before Christmas'.
I joined because friends had joined.
...
Tremors, Shakes, and loss of life.
My heart goes out to the people of Haiti,
My silent prayers, to the Almighty,
To give them strength and comfort in this time of strife.
...
Our old ship was sinking, very far from land
No lifeboat or floatation aid, was there close at hand
The radio didn't work, and flares would not ignite
No other vessel could be seen, on this dark and lonely night
...