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Best Poems Written by Bartholomew Williams

Below are the all-time best Bartholomew Williams poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Tell Them Now

If you appreciate others, tell them now,
While it still can add to their sense of self-worth.
To wait is a mistake many make because
No one knows how much time they have left on earth.

If you admire her kind generosity,
Or how he selflessly gives to those with needs;
Letting them know sooner rather than later, 
Encourages them to do other good deeds.

Gratitude has positive ripple effects;
Expanding circles - lives we affirm and touch.
Avoid regrets about dearly departed,
By telling them now they matter and how much.


Submitted: February 10, 2017

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Freedom

Freedom is never free.
Respect our liberty.
Enjoy its many rights.
Expect it may cause fights.
Democracy survives,
Only if backed with lives.
May we not let it die.


10/27/16

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Looking To Sea

I walk along the ocean shore
Seeking refuge from all my strife.
The wave-soaked sand serves as my floor.
Stars guide my reflections on life.

I cast my gaze to ocean’s roar
In search of helpful solutions; 
Like countless other souls before,
Wanting more than trite locutions.

Just then a vessel passes by,
Its lights merely a few dim specks;  
Its dip below horizon nigh,
Concealing those who ply its decks.

The steady din of waves breaking
Washes my consciousness to sleep;
‘Til seagull’s squawk gets me waking,
And pondering the ocean’s deep.
	
Now back to my thirst for answers,
For enlightenment from the seas;
Distant waves break – tiny dancers, 
Possibilities in its breeze.
 
Maybe that’s the sum of it all -
The shore’s a retreat from our fuss; 
A harbor from life’s random squall,
But the steering is up to us.


5/29/2016

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Glaciers Are Weeping

For thousands of years, ice giants were sleeping.
But now, these dense “blue ice” glaciers are weeping.
Warnings that in many ways bear repeating.
Global climate change speeds glaciers’ retreating.

In Alaska and Glacier National Park,
The melting of ancient glacial ice is stark.
Half the world’s glaciers – in Land of Midnight Sun*, 
But in Glacier NP**, soon there will be none.

Years hence, will Alaska have any at all?
Loss of these ice bodies a clear wake-up call.
Value majestic Alaska, like Seward***?
Care for glaciers; each of us a good steward?

Alaska’s Exit Glacier – leaving for good?
Will black stone stand where Blackstone Glacier once stood?
In Montana, Blackfoot Glacier shrinks each day.
The other twenty-four headed the same way.

Glaciers’ demise may get more than them crying.
Their loss may mean earth’s human life is dying.
Glacial and polar ice death no mystery;
If we do nothing, glaciers are history.
Signed, Saddened for the Sobbing, Shrinking Glaciers

6/1/2017

* Alaska is known as the Land of the Midnight Sun.
** National Park is often abbreviated “NP”.
*** Then U.S. Secretary of State, William H. Seward, negotiated the United States’ purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.

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Stargazing Reflections

Stargazing, I sense

the enduring universe

and my mortal self.



6/12/17

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To Uplift, Or Live Adrift

I ponder my existence beyond the breakers,
Navigating depth’s perils past shallows of youth.
Will I rise with the tides and lift up those near me,
Or will I drift along unanchored by the truth?

Avoiding a solo Melville-penned fate, or wreck,
Depends on my “see man” skills and good attitudes.
Striving to be a vessel of encouragement,
As my life’s journey marks increasing latitudes.

Experience stored as miles pass under my keel;
To have all the answers I surely don’t pretend.
With care and service among my mental cargo,
I am ready to help any mariner friend.

And so it is for all who sail upon life’s seas;
Constant watch on the horizon, helm, and radar.
Make no ties, steer alone, try to stay on course; or
Give the hope and guidance of a familiar star.


February 9, 2017

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Elusive Poet

No rhyme
	This time.

Re-thought
	Still naught.

Read books
	Got looks.

Brain nap
	A sap?

More rest
	Flunked test.

Online
	Not fine.

Didn’t learn
	Still yearn.

Free verse
	Got worse.

Poet?
	Forget.

Tried hard
	No bard!



10/29/17

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Solitude In Academia

Homer, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Goethe, and Crane;
Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolstoy, Whitman, and Twain;
Whose imagination and toil helped to unfold
Stories, philosophies, and lessons to be told.

The inquisitive student absorbed in his books,
Contemplating and learning while everyone looks
At him with judgmental glances, as if to say,
“Strange seeing him indoors even on this fine day.”

But to him, the weather is of little concern
While he is satisfying his deep thirst to learn.
Taken in by tales of peasants, lovers, and knights,
And those waxing on people’s and government’s rights.

Just then, he feels a chilly draft, but no matter,
As he tugs at his worn jacket collar’s tatter.
Off in the distance, he hears children playing games,
But no match for his fables with fanciful names.

Lost in some fiction, he really can’t help himself,
He thirstily reads his way across his bookshelf.
Hungry – but his knowledge appetite can outlast,
He ignores stomach growls as the lunch hour has passed.

The reader pores on in utter fascination,
As if in a trance, but not caused by libation.
Searching, grasping, he is mentally enraptured,
With meanings bold to subtle all being captured.

In deep translation of the scenes, plots, and faces
Scribed in earlier times and in other places.
He can wait for frolic, frills and things of that kind.
For now, the scholar will sit and enrich his mind.


2/26/17

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To Be With Her

I struggle nobly to describe my love.
Her voice! It calms my soul like peaceful dove.
Desire for her burns deep within my heart. 
Her beauty shames a priceless work of art.

To be with her is much of my life’s joy;
I feel for Greeks who saved Helen from Troy.
I think about what life was like before;
Glad I’ve no other lover to look for. 

Do I compare my love to starry night?
The countless lights that strive to be so bright?
Her grace and elegance cause me to sigh.
I am a better man when she is nigh.

To pass the time away from her is pain,
But worth it all when I see her again.


11/27/17

4/1/19 / 2019 Poetry Marathon Final Placement / Sponsor: Mark Toney

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Learning - a Good Investment

A lazy student known as Burt, 
To parents and teachers was curt.
        With little knowledge,
        Flunked out of college;
Played stock market and lost his shirt!


12/22/18