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Best Poems Written by Mark Halliday

Below are the all-time best Mark Halliday poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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My Only Flame

My Only Flame

Love, like fire, is all-consuming,
And forever should be blooming.
Endless courtship is not a game.
As we watch each year’s seasons turn,
My torch for you will ever burn.
No regrets giving you my name.
You always will my soul inspire,
Forever be my one desire--
My first and last and only flame.

Originally posted in June 2014

Copyright © Mark J. Halliday | Year Posted 2014



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Suicidal Humanity

Our supposed modern scientific genius
May in fact just be our last fatal weakness.
This technological house of cards we've made
Left humanity walking along the edge of a razor blade.

How much could you buy or sell using debit or credit
If someone or something wiped out the internet.
A computer virus, terrorists, hackers, or an E.M.P.--
Will wipe out our hard-earned wealth eventually.

Killing beneficial insects is almost like fratricide.
Think really hard again about ever using insecticide.
How many fields of vegetable plants and fruit trees
Will ever bear fruit if there are no more bees.

Rather than organically producing more living topsoil,
We're killing what remains with chemicals derived from oil.
As chemical contaminants follows their downward motions,
Choral reefs and plankton are dying in the oceans.

As a species, we've all become germ-o-phobic neurotics,
Religiously trying to kill all microbes with antibiotics.
But pharmaceutical medicine will never defeat every bug,
So one of these days there's certain to be a super plague.

So will we all starve because we cannot buy or sell,
Or because the oceans and farmlands have all gone to Hell?
Will we be extinguished by some invincible virus?
What ever it be, the fault will probably lie in us!

I wish I could offer some brilliant inspired solution,
But remember that extinction is also a part of evolution.
You may write me off as some kind of nutty alarmist,
But people that know me consider me to be an optimist.

Copyright © Mark J. Halliday | Year Posted 2016

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Don'T Stress Christmas

The northern skies are turning gray -- 
Seems the sun just doesn’t linger.
Christmas is just a month away, 
And the nights are getting longer.
That Thanksgiving spent with family—
A briefly pleasant holiday—
Was forgotten all too quickly 
By pushy crowds on Black Friday.

Our gift checklist seems like old Saint Nick’s, 
But our staff is lacking Elves.
Shopping trips cause daily panics. 
I wonder how we’ll feed ourselves.
We must buy more decorations, 
So the yard looks like it’s snowing.
We fall deeper in depressions 
As our credit keeps on growing. 

Lord forgive commercialism 
For ruining every Christmas.
Lord forgive consumerism 
For dumping on us all that stress.
December is a dreary time, 
Even when little angels sing.
The irony of Christmas time 
Was that Christ was born in the Spring. 

While standing in the checkout line, 
Remember what the carols told.
Think of how Bethlehem’s star once shined, 
As Israel’s prophets foretold.
Think of the awe of the shepherds 
When they saw angels fill the air.
Coming to the stable, entered, 
To meet the Holy Family there. 

Instead of spending all you have, 
Next November and December,
Spend time with all of those you love, 
And teach them what to remember.
"A Savior born in Bethlehem" 
Should bring us joy and happiness;
And “ Peace on Earth, goodwill to men” 
Should set us free, not bring us stress.

Copyright © Mark J. Halliday | Year Posted 2014

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Around the Corner

Around the corner (20141010)

What’s around the corner?
What’s just beyond our view,
For the soldier and the foreigner,
What’s ahead for me and you?
Two terribly tired turtles
Which wearily weathered wars,
Survived cyclical separations, 
Regretfully raised rebellious rascals.
Seemingly securely safe-shelled,
Ironically intently imagining inside
Future failures, follies, fallouts
Won’t waste, wreck, wipe-out their world.
Keeping cool.  Keeping calm.  Keep continuing!
Blindly burroughing.  Blindly blustering, believing
Learning lingers, life lingers, love lingers.
For the soldier and the foreigner,
What’s ahead for me and you? 
What’s around the corner?
What’s just beyond our view?

Copyright © Mark J. Halliday | Year Posted 2014

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Stressing

Stress is starting to overwhelm me;
It’s certainly wearing on my health.
To many stressors all surround me:
Lack of time, lack of wealth,
Adult children always sponging off me…
Are pushing me into early death.

My landlord is not helping;
He’s forcing us to leave.
The mess my children made
Is something nobody would believe.
I’ts too late for cleaning.

I’ll be changing occupations
If interviews go well.
The uncertainty amplifies frustrations…
Certain Purgatory, uncertain Hell.

Hoping for tomorrow,
A better day…
Beg, steal, borrow.

I’m stressed.
I’m stressed!

Help!

Copyright © Mark J. Halliday | Year Posted 2014



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Valentine

Valentinius--
Not much is known about him,
But all girls love him.

Saint Valentine's Feast,
On February fourteenth:
Mostly chocolates!

It would make more sense
To honor Aphrodite...
So then, why don't we?!

Copyright © Mark J. Halliday | Year Posted 2015

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Lorraine Cemetery

Near Saint Avold, France,
More than ten thousand heroes
Whisper from the soil.

Copyright © Mark J. Halliday | Year Posted 2014

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A Storm Is Brewing

A storm is brewing.
Humanity is itself undoing.
No common good are men pursuing.
Anyone who stand for morals we're booing.

All focus on taking.
Every taboo we're breaking--
Self-control mankind is forsaking.
Godless science accelerating, never braking.

Media families so amusing!
Gender lines deliberately confusing.
Their hidden agendas subtly diffusing.
Enough is enough is enough.  Start refusing!

2016-04-16

Copyright © Mark J. Halliday | Year Posted 2016

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Moi-Meme

Mark 
Creative, artistic, musical, analytical
Brother of Michael and Susanna; son of Fred and Marlyn
Lover of Nelly (Bourieau) H., science fiction novels and films, private serenity 
Who feels respect for God and humanity, love for nature, worry for the Earth’s future 
Who fears mediocrity, retirement, economic collapse leading to a popular insurrection
Who would like to see successful sons, grandchildren, his songs produced/recorded 
Marina, California (for the moment) 
Halliday

Copyright © Mark J. Halliday | Year Posted 2014

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Bedroom Eyes

BEDROOM EYES    

I think you think I’m thinking something I shouldn’t;
That somehow I’d put you in a compromise.
You know I must be thinking something indecent,
Because I looked at you too long with my bedroom eyes.
 
I admit to giving you the old ‘once-over’.
If you think I’m being rude, I apologize.
But I’m not on the hunt for a one-night lover,
In spite of what you think you saw in my bedroom eyes.
 
(Chorus)
But when I look in your eyes, I see something to hope for:
Children, then grandchildren . . . maybe longer even more.
So if I look at you too long, I hope you’ll empathize--
There’s more than just desire in my bedroom eyes.
 
If you could read my mind instead of my gaze,
I think by then that you’ll come to realize
That I’m thinking about you in terms of decades.
I want to look at you for years with bedroom eyes.

Copyright © Mark J. Halliday | Year Posted 2014

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Book: Shattered Sighs