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Best Poems Written by Neal Shannacappo

Below are the all-time best Neal Shannacappo poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Neal Shannacappo Poem

In the Coals

The sky danced a glimmer of setted sun blue
Softly through into the night
Like rafters keeping us safe on our path under heaven
Trees wove themselves over us
Breathing light from coals washed the five gathered faces
Flickered in their eyes and over their bodies
In the quiet I saw

In the south like the waves from beneath the sea
One spirit shone with a shimmering breath
And another in the west settled on the rafters there
With a sighing light barely seen and hardly felt
Amid the rafters of the north one other spirit swayed
There too an ethereal visitor echoed in the east
In the quiet I saw

Faces bright, strong and painted with a wash of . . . 
Contentment, save two, both fallen of crest
And still under the watchful eyes of Nokomis high in the skies
One rose to smile holding a light before him closely
But woe fell across the other for being there within already
As if unable to escape for eyes unseeing
In the quiet I saw

I watched a struggle between three spirit cousins
Over and all around they fought where he had fallen
So vicious this fight, it cast a shrouding over everything of him
For these two beasts snarled and slashed for dominance
While the third sat quietly as if waiting or perhaps just watching
With great patience for one to fall and it too was evil
In the quiet I saw

The sky shone softly in the ambient light of stars unglimpsed
For Nokomis with her watching eyes held us 
As only grandmothers do for having loved and loved her child’s children too
All through the night she held us as we sailed without a sound
Across and over the blue of setted sun somewhere next to here
With the warmth of coals burning nowhere save inside 
In the quiet I saw

In the quiet I saw five souls glimmering
In the quiet I saw a war cross one red road
In the quiet I saw the spirits of four ancestors
In the quiet I saw everything, nothing all that I needed
In the darkness of the madodoswun it is dark as pitch
And still, and yet . . .
Before the door whispered to open
I saw in the quiet still

Details | Neal Shannacappo Poem

Warrior

“Are you a Warrior?”

I was asked in the in the quiet solitude of day 
And I wondered long into the night

What does a Warrior make?

If by a Warrior you mean
One who always tries to do the right thing
Even when doing what is right tears my heart in two
One who does the right thing just because it is . . .

If by a Warrior you mean
Someone who always makes time to listen
Who brings you a smile when you least expect it
Who laughs with you everyday, today, just like yesterday
And cries a flood of tears so yours do not fall alone

If by a Warrior you mean
One who stands up for those in need
Who fights for those who cannot, or will not
One who turns the other cheek in the face of rage, hatred and bigotry
Walks away when my blood screams out injustice!
And a fist is all it seems I have left to choose
Because walking away is the right choice . . .

If by a Warrior you mean
Someone who will always be there for you
Always tries to move Heaven and Hell to keep his promises to you
Someone whose soul withers and screams when I cannot, have not
Supports you when you are wrong because that is when you need it the most

If by a Warrior you mean
A person of honour, of compassion, faith and humility
Someone of strength, trust, of love and respect
Someone of ethics and integrity and the will to live by them
The courage to fight for your dreams and . . . and to fight for my own
Someone who will always apologise and say I am so, so very sorry I hurt you

If by a Warrior you mean all of these things
Then all I can say to you it this, just this, only this . . .

I do not know if I am a Warrior

But I want to be . . .

Details | Neal Shannacappo Poem

Awasi-Waabang

Ni-miskwiiw shigwa ni-wiisagendam bagidanaamowaan . . .	
Gaawiin ninisidotanzii, gaawiiin ninisidotanzii			
Wiihi'ishin bangii eta						
Gego zegiziken aki ningokwan					
Bijiinaago, dibikong, noongom igo shigwa awasi-waabang

Ni-miskwiiw shigwa ni-wiisagendam bagidanaamowaan . . .
Ashebizon, daga gibichiin shigwa wiindamawishin aaniindi ezhaayan?
Gi-ga -wiijiiwin daabida shigwa awasi-waabang
Zebaa ginibo bimaadis apii kamawin anaming binesiikaa

Ni-miskwiiw shigwa ni-wiisagendam bagidanaamowaan . . .
Bidoon ninjii daga shigwa bizhishig gi- zaagi'in
Noongom igo shigwa awasi-waabang!
Awasi-waabang!!

(Here's the translation from Saulteaux)

 All the days after tomorrow 

	
I am bleeding and it hurts to breathe
I do not understand, I do not understand
Help me just a little bit
To not be afraid of the overcast world
Yesterday, last night today and the days after tomorrow

I am bleeding and it hurts to breathe
Back up, please stop and tell me where you are going?
I'll go with you, always and the days after tomorrow
This morning I died when you cried under the thunderstorm 

I am bleeding and it hurts to breathe
Give me your hand and I'll always love you
Today and all the days after tomorrow!
All the days after tomorrow!!

Details | Neal Shannacappo Poem

The Brawl

For the moment I merely watched him
Running back and forth in his home
I am patient you see
I am full of time plenty
I am the sly one in the darkness and I am hungry

So I waited, all day I waited,
All night I waited, I waited, waited, waited
And in the morning he came out of his house
I waited no more

I struck like a black bolt of lightning streaking down from the heavens
As if Death itself had ripped across space to sever everything with its scythe
I screamed down from heaven and struck

Only to find him leaping up and over me
To tumble in the air and land behind me
I landed in a crouch...
Peering around over my shoulder I gleamed at him

He for his sake I saw glaring back at me balefully with eyes and one hand beckoning me

I snarled

Spun around and lashed out with my whip as I did
He ducked it,

With the speed of sound my fist struck him
He blocked it

Out came my foot, and then the other
He evaded the first, and caught the second
I rolled and struck him across his face with the first

Again I landed on my feet

He staggered back and with a back flip he was ready once more...

He wiped his nose with one hand
Bade me come at him again with the other
A sly half grin on his lips

I charged this impudent fool
Changed direction, spun around
Out came my whip
Out came my foot
And he leaped over my whip
Flipped between my foot
And struck me twice with his own
light kicks to the face meant to shock me more than hurt me

We parted and circled each other
Looking for openings in the other's defenses

And there because I am patient I found it
A chink in his armour of skill and technique

He was mine
Again I rushed him in one smooth fluid motion
Twin kicks, the whip, my fists, and head butt, knees and elbows
In blinding fury, speed and in the space between thought it was over...

He retreated blocking the kicks,
Ducking the whip,
Avoiding the fists left then right
Catching the head butt in his hands
Countering the knees with his knees
The elbows with his elbows
And then...
He did the impossible
He

Defeated me

Rolling backwards he slammed my head into the wall,
Sliding from beneath my crumpling body with his feet
To stand ready inches from my limping body

I remember thinking then as my eyes closed to the world
"That's one damn tough hamster," I get out of the Kitty Clinic in two days

I want a rematch

Details | Neal Shannacappo Poem

From Seven Shattered Corpses

I was adopted . . . 
one morning in the mists of yesteryear
when the sun glimpsed over the pallid shone house 
next to the abode of my mother and my father 
on came a harbinger of desolation. . . 
I died that day though I knew it not, 
nor was I to understand, 
comprehend 
this death for many winters past and fallen to the way side. 

I was five summers new, 
five winters older . . .

I was born Patrick  . . . 
I was to have my name usurped 
by those wretched things called Free and land 
and this is all I have to say about them . . . 

Therein lies the beginnings of my cursed life as it was to become, 
and thereto 
you have the birth of my coined out naming of Mishiimin (apple). 
I was raised by whites, 
in a white town, 
had white friends, white schooling, 
white church propaganda indoctrination, 
and there under the unseen 
but felt 
fist of white society 
was I to be remade into . . 
apple. 

My dreams were white, 
my legends white, 
my desires always for white, 
my voice spoke and bled white, 
my body was red, 
my face red, 
my hair red, 
my past long forgotten, 
lost, 
ripped, 
shredded, 
. . .
torn from my heart, 
my mind, 
and thus eviscerated from my soul was red 
and long thereafter 
did this one Miskó Ki'zis (Red Sun) bleed and bleed 
until 
this screaming throat was heard no more, 
nay 
not even from my own lips,
my own ears 
my screaming was silent. . . 
And gone one morning did the red from my people slip away,
slip away till all was vanished leaving all this shell behind. . . 
one barely breathed two legged apple. 

So it was in hell,
I found my shattered soul,
splintered mind and ravaged heart 
and there in the bells tolling of sorrows raked across all there I did see, found I,
of all things,
in hell, 
that abyssal helix of despair dredged was . . . 
this one sighted a glimmering whisper of hope . . . 

It was in hell I learned to breathe, 
it was in hell I learned to live,
it was in hell that I was remade into all that I am now, 
will be, 
ever aspire. . . 
and never once did I dream. . . 

In the city of desolation 

I became one 
all over once more as I was born to be 
many empty nights of winter past; 
from seven shattered corpses 
I found 
my way back into the whole of one . . .

Details | Neal Shannacappo Poem

Original of the Doc Wearing Fist Cuffing Angels

Baby don't walk away
It's true that the beginning is better than the end
Please hold that smile somewhere in your heart

I will give you everything that you need
Except all that you are and will be
Cause you are the first one of your kind

And you were born with Docs already on
Smiling right under their eyes
And I see you with your fist ready to fight
Well I'll take the whole of what you got
And I want nothing else tonight

Everywhere you go I see you screaming about it
And no one accuses you of being shy about it

Somethings you shouldn't have to do alone
Like sleeping, waking and eating
Some people got way too much on their plate

I would give you everything that you need
Except all that you are and will be
Cause you are the first one of your kind

And you were born with Docs already on
Smiling right under their eyes
And I see you with your fist ready to fight
Well I'll take the whole of what you got
And I want nothing else tonight

Everywhere you go I see you screaming about it
And no one accuses you of being shy about it
You'll never be alone, no
So sugar come on show us those soles
You've been wearing out when you collect the toll

Everywhere you go I see you screaming about it
And no one accuses you of being shy about it
Everywhere you go I see you screaming about it

And you were born with Docs already on
Smiling right under their eyes
And I see you with your fist ready to fight
Well I'll take the whole of what you got
The whole of what you got, the whole of what you got

Details | Neal Shannacappo Poem

Fix Me

Words have fallen and cannot be picked up
For they are heavy and burdened with the truth 

You cannot fix me

And only one of us is broken

Details | Neal Shannacappo Poem

Dirty Kiss

The door slammed behind me and she grabbed me
Pulled me into her kiss
Hard and fast
Our lips met and so did our noses

I remember thinking
Under the flash of pain
Behind the sudden wash of tears
Within the gush of blood down my lips and chin

"This is sooo not how it looks in the movies" 

We kissed anyway.

Details | Neal Shannacappo Poem

Your Eyes Across My Soul

Its time to face the truth croons the singer on the radio and I die
Curling up in to a ball pulling my hair out and screaming
Because I know this to be true
I will be there again when it snows and snows
I will be there again if you call
I will be there again if you whisper out my name
In the eyes of my memories you're beautiful
In the breaths I stole with my camera you're beautiful
Across these lips that will never touch yours again you're beautiful

I thought I heard you call out my name tonight 
But I knew you weren't home
In the cold under the city lights beneath the blanket of night
What if it was you I think now as I linger
But you weren't home
And still... 
I wish I had turned around
To see you standing there in the gently falling snow
But I thought you weren't home

I have lost sleep tonight and I may never sleep again I fear
Because I don't know what to do
I don't know where to turn, where to go
So that I may, I might, 
Dream of your smile and your eyes across my soul
You're so beautiful, 

I let slip this pen from my fingers
Staining these last few lines I know it to be true
And I don't really care about that now
I will never be with you I know, I know... 

And this is the truth I must learn to face

Details | Neal Shannacappo Poem

The Enemy

Time is the enemy, 
leaves broken dreams 
scattered like dead leaves on the path behind us all. 

Time is the enemy, 
reaches into our souls and tears out 
that which makes us whole. 

Time is the enemy, 
steals away our smiles 
and reasons for laughter. 

Time is the enemy, 
I punch in the face 
and chortle anyway. 

Time is the enemy, 
I fight day to day and win 
every morning that I wake... 
until.