It's hard to strive,
to find my goals,
it's hard to even think.
But there is this woman,
that i must make proud;
and so i sing myself some praise,
i sing it strong and loud.
With this woman behind me,
I can do anything.
I am just glad it was my mom who taught me how to sing.
By Elizabeth Kathleen Bickford.
CHANGING SEASONS
CHANGING SEASONS,
IN TIME.
MEMORIES OF A CHILDHOOD,
AS IF IT WAS JUST YESTERDAY.
THE RUSTLING OF WAVES,
AS THEY BREACH THE SHORE.
THE SUN AS IT BEAMS DOWN,
WARMS MY SOUL IN ITS ESSENCE.
OVER THE MOUNTAINS,
AS THE WIND BLOWS.
ITS LEAVES,
BRUSH AWAY LIKE AN EMPTY PAINTING.
A WORLD OF WHITE,
BLANKETED THE EARTH WITH ITS COLD.
LIKE ANGELS FALLING FROM THE HEAVENS,
SUPRESSING THE WORLD OF NEW.
WITH EACH DAY THAT PASSES,
WE REMEMBER ITS OLD.
AS WE CHERISH ITS HAPPINESS,
WE AWAIT A WORLD,
OF NEW BEGINNINGS.
By Anon.
ONUS
One word, one sound, my arms fall, my heart sinks, my tears flow.
On such a day, I do recall. When the barrel looked upon my face. It was so tempting with just one click. How I will forget my pain and sorrow. ONe body dropped but it was not mine. The sound echoed throughout my mind. Like a record repeating. I wanted it to stopp, to end, just to leave my head. My heart ppounding, my eyes flashing, my hands shaking.
Click...click...click. How stupid an act so small. My life shall end just one more time. After that moment I couldn't sleep. For my eyes were closed. People gathered. Tears were shed. The closed the door. Put me to bed. I felt a pain so deep inside. The pain I felt when I had died. A flicker was flashed alive once more, my spirit lifts and walks away, through the open heavens door
written by Jenn Arbour
Oil Rigger's Prayer
Dear Lord-
Thank you for the infernal combustion engine,
Without which no one would need our oil.
Please make Detroit ramp them up a smigeon,
T'would be a shame for all that lovely black stuff to spoil.
And God-
While I'm askin'. Do we really need all those environmentalist, treehugger
do-rights?
And if we do,maybe you could have them do it some other place- like outerspace.
yeah that's the ticket Lord.
Space is the place for 'em.
And God-
Thank you for drilling rigs.
And Lastly Dear Lord here's the Biggie-
You put most of the oil in all the wrong places.
I mean gee whiz, let's face it,
A barrel of oil never did much good in the deserts of Arabay.
So since it's all going to end up here anyway,
Maybe next time you redo the earth,
You could save every body a whole lot of trouble
And just put it all in the good ole USA.
Thank you for whatever its worth
This Dear God I pray.
Amen,
P.S. and bless my drilling crew, and my Suburban,
and oh yeah the weatherman for predicting a freeze.
Any thing to get those Yankees to turn their thermostats up a few degrees.
Thanks again God. Amen again.
Copyright D. Messler 1999.
THE JOURNEY
The winds of autumn have taken thee from thy lofty place and time has changed thee from thy budding of tender green
to brittle gold with such tender grace.
Entwined are we in similar state....
having been....and then to go....midst the furrows of time
forgotten,
unremembered,
as if we never were.
I will remember thee if thou wilt remember me.
Poet: Charles L. East
IRON KNIGHT
I met Aphrodite yesterday..
and felt those warm eyes bathe my soul with radiant light...
rid the shadows, for they lurk inside..
make the statues, oh so gray, with frowns of grief,
and mischevous mischief...
smile upon their creator, the old man with a chisel,
even their gloom has been taken...
the garden which is my soul..
has been watered to and fro..
thus the dead grass.. so easily lighted ablaze..
has been lighted..
and the seeds spread.. thus green life grows forth..
the sky still holds its gloom,I said somewhat worried
not to worry.. she cooed,
"for my cloak will coat your smile..
and lot no one spoil these days...
for loyalty I believe you have proved"
we walked upon the garden, landscape of flowers
with delicate thorns..
yet I noticed some weeds..
and her face turned pale..
it seemed as though she had tasted bitter ale..
I took her to my arms and whipered then.
"Sometimes the weeds grow along side the roses,
thus I choose to water these roses, and let the weeds feel the hunger"
By Anthony Stark
Untitled
Walking alone along the dark empty streets
store windows like blank empty
eyes,
staring back at me
manaquins,
half dressed in their finery
like frozen dancers locked in the semidark
laugh quietly to themselves and whisper
ALONE....ALONE
The streetlights pool at the edges of thestreet
dirt and garbage blowing at my feet
and a drunk lays sprawled at the mouth ofan alley
and he cackles to me as I walk slowly by
ALONE.......ALONE
I long for sleep,but sleep doesn't come
a punishment I guess for some longforgotten sins
a life spent in my own private hell
from the mainstreet with its accusingwindows
to the dark of the side streets quiet ohso quiet
and on to the park,where I sit and wait
ALONE....ALONE
At last it comes dawn's soft clear light
its finally put an end to the dark of thisnight
so I will go home such as it is
and wait again for the darkness and the streets
for they both never end
By Bob Q
[Untitled]
When I see you,all the pain you put me through
freezes into your icy blue eyes.
And once again I scream out in anger,
because we can't make it though a simple
conversation without them melting.
By Stephanie Clark
Untitled, BY JENNIFER Z.
Each time you prick my heart
with venemous thornsof a hell-bound rose...My eyes enlarge
like pools of sheer terror...My head bowsto the
Earthin a minute defeat...
Until my patient sensescall me to attention once more
And for more and more
I come prancing back...Like a child to his candyNo
matter how much
the tears swelledin the dentist's chair...Hot and
cold signals
penetrate the air....I sit, strugglingBalancing
your ups and downs
like a Libran scale...Turning away,but snapping
back with the sweetest smile
Frowning...
crossing my arms
Letting in your embrace...
As if i haven't been touched
affectionately for centuries...
You dispel my fear and lonelinessfor minutes at a time...
But each hiatus lasts
through and through...
And brands itself in my mind
Until you reach over with your strong arms...and masculine hands again
And I am lost....in the pinkest cloud of love-borne mist....
This is truly not what i needI do not need to
feel like the lonest star
but a star, nonetheless....If I am not to be the brightest,
hottest star your eyes can admire...then, to hell with your means
and motivation...
And to hell with wreckless tears and aggrivation...
My tears poured like salt from a can,this night...
You made me feel simple
My situation, trite...A detail to be dealt with later...
For I always seem to forgiveand forget the heated poison
that blackens your aura...and corrupts your innocent desire...
As much as I write of empowering thingswhile you are far away
and not here to fool me....I have a strange prediliction
that your caresses and embraceswill ring my romantic depths once more....
And I'll let you inand let you pry...Until everyday and everynight
I'll sit in my lonely roomand cry....A lost waterfall of golden tears
Precious, precious Priceless tears...My precious, priceless tears.
I wish I was "braindead"as you often seem to say...
but I'm not that lucky.
A Rose Among Thorns
A single red rose
among a multitude of thorns
A lifetime of craving acceptance
All to be returned by alienation
For she is but one, and they are many
Her quaint and dainty manner
Is hidden by the obscurity of their roughness and
harshness
She has all but relinquished her own identity,
Submitting to their ways
For she is but one, and they are many
But suddenly she blooms
And a new age is born
Away with the roughness
Away with the harshness
Away with the filthiness
In with the aroma
with the radiance
and with the eloquence
All that is radiant
For she is one, and they are but thorns...
By Lyer
Untitled
Cool breezes caress lonely shoulders hidden
forever from the suns warm touch of rays...
Spring lightly teases the air with fresh dew
playing amid the new green in the branches
The darkness turns to gray in the mornings
mist of chilliness over the map of dawn...
Sleep turns to awareness of a new chance
at the hours increasing enlightenment
The song of life just on the other side of darkness
Beyond the coverlet of dawn has begun...
All around a fresh, clean ark of brilliance on
the beginning sound of birth in the ear
The taste, the smell, and sight, the touch of new
thought across the horizon of the soul...
Fades the fear of eternal gloom in the halls
of empty solitude
*****
By Rhonda
GODDESS POEM
I love your mouth....for words come out that teach and soothe.
I love your hands....for they heal with their touch.
I love your feet....for they bring you to me with your gifts.
By Stephen Rosen
The Wing by Tanjanala
She soars shrouded and obscured
She lives in a world created by her
Only entrusting her mind and body
By satisfying and motivating herself
She finds gratification and satisfaction
She does not have to ever appear
She flies above the clouds towering
From the sententious decline of the wing
Each flight more exciting and exhilarating than
the next
She can choose any pathway that comes her way
She skillfully and proficiently
Learns how to be self directing and self ruling
Soaring high to the heavens
And dipping to hell below
Her strength slowly emerges
Her strong mighty body
She is uncompromising and unyielding
So much control and command within her
She needs no one
Her mind is powerful and forceful
She has found peace and serenity
Through the shade underneath
Her shadow slowly disappearing.............
"We had to part"
By Elisabeth Anna East Blaumax@imagineii.net
Why did we have to say goodbye
I loved you...Oh, so much!
I loved to hold your hand in mine
and gently would I touch
your eyes...your lips..that are so sweet
your arms that are so strong.
I wish I never had to go
but stay my whole life long.
But life was very cruel and hard
before we had a chance to start
we had to part...we had to part...
No matter that it broke my heart...
We had to part.
"Good vs. Evil"
It stalks when I sleep
It stalk when I wake
It starts to silently creep
There's no more I can take
I see it in my mares
I see it my eyes
I see its lethal stares
I hear my screaming cries
It gets me with out a warning
It gets me in its grasp
Soon is the day for mourning
Me with no air to gasp
Suddenly I wake
With more chances
My pain doesn't ache
My mind enhances
Waiting for the evil race
When the prophecy for fills
Praying for what I will face,
My heart of blood lust fills
It stand besides me
Waiting for my move
I stand there as stiff as a tree
But I have something to prove
I pull out my heavy knife
Ready to kill
When I fight for my life
Blood will spill
I throw the heavy dagger
With all my might
As it begins to stagger
I blind its mighty sight
It falls faster than it stands
A grip of its large head
As its blood drips from my hands
The creature is now dead
My wounds start to heal
My body starts to burn
My skin starts to peal
Waiting for it to return
BY Derek
Manifested Rosary: (To God)
I hold your beads a breast,
you rosary manifest;
To pray my wounds will heal,
that which slowly turns
unreal.
Secretaries, tributaries,
adolescent boys and girls pretending they are married.
I await the school of secondary with zeal,
In hopes with distraction my wounds will heal.
The rally race I have run right out of,
from object to object,
searching for love.
Oh no, not the love,
of skin to skin hopes.
and mere emotional speal
The love that spins no speed the sun will turn,
this love unreal,
which when sought will forever burn.
Now the pencil shavings have fallen out of hand,
My nakedness confuses me,
My legs no longer stand.
I have my face brought out upon a platter.
And you my manifested rosary,
In a dish fated to shatter.
I pray my distraction to heal,
that which slowly turns unreal.
Still looking for you lord
unconsciously.
Copyright Jonathan Hirsch(14)
1999 JH99L3 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Untitled
They wih to silence us
To keep us from speaking
From talking of our plight
From screaming of indefference
From yelling of the hate
From whispering of the fright
That fills our every day
They prefer to see us
As the hope-filled
As the innocent
Not as those who have
Given up
And who are
World weary
We are the ones you silence
We are the ones you prefer not to see
The people you walk by
Every day
Never do you see us
Always you see what you want
Whether that be
The perfect or
The flawed or
The invisible
What you see is not us
But those you wish to see
By Liz
FOLDED WINGS By Charles L. East
NO MORE TO TOUCH THE SPLENDOR OF THE CLOUDS
OR LURE THE RELENLESS GODS OF WEATHER TO PURSUIT
BETWEEN BRILLIANT SHAFTS OF LIGHT.
NO MORE TO LAUNCH MY SOUL TO HEIGHTS UNTREAD
AND WITH HUMILITY BEHOLD
THE GLORY OF CREATION'S UNIVERSE.
NO MORE TO SLIP UNSEEN THROUGH THE UNFORGIVING
DEPTHS OF A SILENT AND BITTER COLD SKY.
TIME HAD MADE THE FINAL APPROACH
AND THE GIFT OF AGE WAS GREYING HAIR AND FAILING
EYE.
YET THE HEART STILL
...REMEMBERS...
SO WELL WITHIN MY FOLDED WINGS.
Night Rider
I gaze into their warmly lit windows
As we pass at cruising speed
Shadowy bodies move inside
Secure in their warm haven
In each split second glimpse
I wonder how their lives are spent
Each one different from the other
Are they as content as they appear to be?
Or do they gaze out their windows
Wondering about the lives
Whizzing by in steel cages
Bound for unknown destinations?
By Carrie
The Dreamer
She is a dreamer
Her life is built on dreams
In her lonesome life
Things aren't as they seem
She knows some things she can't have
But in her dreams she can
Among these many things
Is one unreachable man
He is the one she loves
With every beat of her heart
But the realities of life
Are keeping them apart
It seems as if his heart
Is under lock and key
Forcing him to be blind
For her love, he can't see
She is a dreamer
In her dreams he can see
They'll be together someday
The dreamer...that's me.
By Tonya Lacole Sandefur
Untitled
As the time passes,
My glowing face fades like color in the sun.
My clear life seems ever clouded,
Can I find my way through another storm?
I seem lost in a never ending sea....
A voyage that some call life.
By Mike Wojtalik