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Best Poems Written by Eric Erb

Below are the all-time best Eric Erb poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Details | Eric Erb Poem

What Remains Are Only the Values of Culture

their youth are blaring rock bands from ipods
in electricless village bamboo shacks
their adults bemoan the loss of culture

our youth are blazing on ahead, consuming
in never sleeping cities of credit and commerce
our adults are lost in mezmerizing ragas

Copyright © Eric Erb | Year Posted 2016



Details | Eric Erb Poem

The First Fire

Small shards of Flint stone, picked from the quarry’s rubble
Blacksmith-bent bit of iron, wrapped around my fisted knuckles
Strike strike strike spark!
Charred cloth poised to catch, glowing grows with gentle breath
Introduced to fine fibered tinder, Suddenly aflame, yabba dabba doo!

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Copyright © Eric Erb | Year Posted 2016

Details | Eric Erb Poem

Fuel of Life

How you burn the fuel
 of life-  As faint slow smoulder
Or raging bonfire?

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Copyright © Eric Erb | Year Posted 2016

Details | Eric Erb Poem

Elephant

Little elephant guy Ganesh
Facing out up on my dash
The traffic cars seem to part
And speed me on my way

And as the miles roll away
I notice he has turned
now he's facing me
On this endless highway

As I come up on the backs of trucks
Elephants of the highway road
Under his carved watchful eye
The truth begins to unfold

Behemoths keep their pace
Much too slow for me
No room for the passing
What will this strain avail?

So I let his presence guide me
This figure serves to remind me
And the blockages he removes
Are the ones inside me

Copyright © Eric Erb | Year Posted 2016

Details | Eric Erb Poem

Winter's White Cloak

Winters white cloak
Rent torn sliced open wide
Thrown aside
Expose the black top
That wounded hem
Where the white fields end
Crusty and soiled with exhausted specks
And detritus of Vulcan

Copyright © Eric Erb | Year Posted 2016



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Her Shoes

She slips her feet
Her soft soles
Into high heeled shoes
Rises up into her power
So she boldly strides
Courtroom decides
She thinks it's in the shoes
It's not the stilettos
But what's in them

Copyright © Eric Erb | Year Posted 2016

Details | Eric Erb Poem

A Sonnet: On Boundaries

Dawn draws her line along mother earths face
And she turns to bask in her lovers light
And so Dawn comes in turn to every place
She brings us forth from the long dark night

Here is where the ocean meets the land
Vast and deep and so different from the dirt
Crashing on the rocks, lapping against sand
Pebbles pushed to and fro, the globe she girt

Steepening mountains come to abrupt end
Where they scrape against the blue blue sky
the cliffs stand and harbor no foe nor friend
And here the very earth just falls away

this is where the day unfurls
this edge is where souls uncurl

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Copyright © Eric Erb | Year Posted 2016

Details | Eric Erb Poem

Love Is More Than We Know

Some may think that love is nothing but pain
Jealously guarding, owning their lover
If they just let go, There’s much more to gain
Lean on love with dependencys cover

Or, in thinking love is endless, though true
Flit from one to another, like a sport
Loves deeper places they never come to
Buttresed by the stories, the next one they court

We know the ocean is deep, but how much
We know the sky is wide but not how far
The road goes ever on, lay down your crutch
Let your heart unfold, thus we reach the stars

In my heart this one thing I know, that love
Is always more than we can ever know

Copyright © Eric Erb | Year Posted 2016

Details | Eric Erb Poem

The Palinend

The Palinend
the Palinend is a form of poetry that the last word of each line is spelled backwards from the last word of the line before.

as such it always has an even number of lines.
ideally the words are spelled exactly, but the order of the sounds is paramount, that is, deer and reed is ideal, but dear and reed are still properly within the form.

Minimally there should be at least six syllables per line, and at least six lines per poem.

A variation would be where the reversal would be spread across more than one word.

Here is an example:  Steve Irwin, Moses’s Mom, and Me  

in amongst the Nile reed
she trusts what she held most dear

out along the barrier reef
is where he faced his fear

though through this world we strut
it is in God that we trust

thus we discover how powerful we are
in this moment, or any era

if i can stay in the now
then i’ve truly won

In this example, the first two couplets are good examples as they have the sounds in order (but not the exact spelling)  The third couplet is weak, Strut and Trust are not exact reversals of each other.  The fourth and fifth couples are spot on.

here’s another: reward

the part of me most reviled
is the part that will deliver

so with my spirit i will tinker
and together my parts will reknit

so i’ll dig back into that dark drawer
and there find my great reward

  This one is a bit tighter, as all the pairings are exact.

If you give this a try, please post a link to your effort here in the comments, or at erbiage.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/the-palinend/

Copyright © Eric Erb | Year Posted 2016

Details | Eric Erb Poem

A Riddle

Two wooden gangways
Jutting out onto the waters
Identical in every way, and yet…

Boats have long since ceased to come
What once arrived every day
No more the fisher’s poles and traps
Come to reap the bountiful bay

Yet there they are, rising still
Above the water, bridging bounds
Between the worlds of water and land
Lapped by waters gentle sounds

No difference between them can be discerned
Solve this riddle young acolyte and you’ll become
The bridge of all that was ever begun

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Copyright © Eric Erb | Year Posted 2016

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Book: Shattered Sighs