Drumbeat – A Poem by Stan Morrison
I want
I need
but life doesn’t
last that long
I’ve been longing
I’ve been planning
but life doesn’t
last that long
I was thinking
I’ve been saving
but life doesn’t
A Quiet Death – A Poem by Roy Pullam
I saw a student die today
His eyes grew vacant
In a transfixed stare
Robbed of any interest
He did not tumble
From his seat
But slowly wormed his way
Ever lower in his place
He did not answer
To my query
Nor respond
To my mild rebuke
Others did not notice
They were so accustomed
To each death
For it to merit
Any significance
Yet I always will…for
He is the child
I killed
Raindrops – A Poem by Roy Pullam
I do not understand
A raindrop
Its chemistry so precise
Though unique
Yet it has the conformity
Of millions
Kindred element combinations
What coaxes it
From the clouds
The subject of prayers
Both before and after
First reluctant
Then with a rush
Becoming a flood
I can’t fathom
How it can help
So much
Then turn in rage
Carrying hopes and ambitions
Downstream
It is the nature
Of water
To be
A blessing and a bane
To defy both
My beseeching
And my curse
Fruitcakes – A Poem by Roy Pullam
We raked the leaves
With our shoes
Like children
On Easter
The same zeal
For finding treasures
Pecans in twos and threes
Where they fell
Beneath the brown
An angry squirrel
Barked his disdain
From the top
Of the tree
We made search circles
Making sure
We covered the circumference
Of the tree
Gathering the nuts
With the knowledge
Of their destiny
When we would
Crack them
Before the grate
Separating the meat
From the shells
Digging reluctant pieces
From the fist
Of the covering
With the pick
Rustling the kernels
Eliminating the shells
That might
Break a tooth
Mother would combine
The different nuts
Adding other ingredient
To make the wonderful
Fruitcake
We so enjoyed
Its richness
So great
That no matter
How delicious the taste
One piece
Was all
I could take
How I think
Of that desert
Not matched
By store-bought
Fit only
As door stops
The memory fresh
The promised dried
Gone
With the other skills
Of my mother
Travelling Light – A Poem by Paul Tristram
Slender is the night
when you are tightrope walking
the ‘Straight and Narrow’
as a means of escape.
The Past is snapping
at your ankles
as you stuff your pockets deep
with items reserved strictly
for future use.
Memories, photographs,
the jaded parts of yesteryear
are cast swiftly
and (Finally) unemotionally
into the small, cleansing hearth fire.
Which you have lit
to say goodbye to that ‘Old Life’
with the last
brittle pieces of nostalgic kindling.
Then out the door…
you’re moving swiftly…
like a cat
shadow-walking the alley’d evening.
Across the border
of ‘Here’ to ‘There’
into the New Life Chapter
that’s been just waiting
for you to cast your gambling dice
in its ‘New Chance’ direction.
More at https://paultristram.blogspot.co.uk/.
Parthenon – A Poem by Roy Pullam
My knowledge
Of democracy rests
On Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
And a pile
Of broken stones
The beginning
Of western culture
On a hill
In freedom’s birthplace
I walk gingerly
My footsteps uncertain
On the wet rocks
Leading to the temple
Coming closer
To the skeleton
Marble columns
Two millenniums old
Reminders of a great civilization
That wrote the rules
That taught the world
And though in ruins
Enough remains
To give us a glimpse
Of the true greatness
That was Greece
Boredom – A Poem by Stan Morrison
I’ve been dying to tell you
What you’re dying to know
One cannot really die of boredom
Sometimes it seems quite possible
One cannot die laughing
Or die dying to find out
Yet many have died trying
Last minute pardon of one’s sins
Brings a guarantee of eternal life
Eternal laughing, eternal trying
And eternal dying to find out
Hallelujah
Storm – A Poem by J.K. Durick
After it blew itself out, the mood lightened
brightened enough like the light rain it left,
we go outside and walk in the gentle rain
it left, a reminder of sorts, now we pick up
the branches and bunches of leaves it left,
tattered pieces left over, things affected but
easy to deal with, like the light rain it left.
Bow-Taut Volition – A Poem by Paul Tristram
As others chased the tail
of life’s endless circles.
Changing mental and emotional
direction and objectives
with the fickle, half-hearted winds.
She nailed that Target
down tight to a fencepost
in the imminent future…
aimed and focused, completely,
gambling everything
upon one perfect bullseye shot.
The ‘One’s’ before
had been merely playmates,
practice necessary to the cause.
There was not a ripple nor kink
of her appearance and personality
which had not been Silversmithed,
honed and crafted,
the many disciplined hours
of training spent alone.
She exhaled, deeply, slowly…
with clarity of mind
and a sureness of will and soul.
But, her Approach
bounced clumsily off the Mark
with a dull, all too human, thud…
he turned in her direction at last,
and with cold disdain, spoke the word ‘No!’
More at https://paultristram.blogspot.co.uk/.