Best Bend Poems
Around the river bend
Near the edge of the woods
There lives a Lakota tribe
Celebrating the latest rain
The steady pounding beat of the drum
The women dance a sacred dance
As the men pass the pipe
Nodding in happiness
The ponies whinny in the background
With feathers in their flowing manes
As they toss their heads about
Their hooves ponding the earth with the drums
The celebration can be heard now
As a hundred years have gone by
They will never be only a memory
For their future generations will never forget
Time Runs On Past Every Bend
Down new trail with purpose and gentle ease
chasing hope and new morn's glowing smile.
Flowing along with a sunrise breeze
heart stopping awe, every once in a while.
Branches overhead wrapped in deep forest green
bird songs filling this emerald isle.
Sun gracing the screaming sky blue sheen
above this leaf carpeted aisle.
Hoping time here never dares to end
as wanting heart finds its needed glow.
Yet find that time runs on past every bend
and brings Nature's all, along in tow.
Down new trail with purpose and gentle ease
spirit flows along with a sunrise breeze.
Robert J. Lindley, 7-05-2016
Up Around The Next Bend, Walking Our Traveling Bones
I long for those days when body was fast, mind was faster
earth was a wonderful place and I was its master.
Reality was what a youthful mind and soul made it out to be
we yearned to have it all and still live our lives free.
What wonderful dreams that fantasy world once held
until the forest was no more, every tree was felled.
Time was the great enemy we thought we could defeat
we found we could not, even if we dared to cheat!
Up around the next bend, walking our traveling bones
no talking around the world on our handy cell phones.
We said our sweet words to pretty gals face to face
I regret sweet times that Time changes did so erase.
I sit here, dreaming of wild youth and my distant past.
Crying out loud- O' why- why the hell couldn't it last!
Robert J. Lindley
3-05-2018
I dream of the wind
blowing through my hair,
that's how I win
the rush of air is heaven sent
cold or warm;
Gods breath is my friend
a power with great might;
that can threaten any town
and tear down any gate,
let a twister form within my soul
the weather is splendiferous
oh, how I love it so,
car windows rolled down;
zipping down the freeway
my hand stuck out;
being forced back by this whim
I inhale the particles
swishing around in the wind,
but I never choke
to the trees
I want to sway and bend.
Let me give you some advice
It is never worth the price
You pay when the vices take over
Leaving friends to duck and cover
From your anger and attacks
Drugs and alcohol will smack
Caring ones out of your way
Every night and every day
Because there is no escaping
Once your on a bad rampaging
Train of terror that will crash
If you do not stop the trash
You've been putting in your body
Its a never ending party
In your life that will destroy
All the love and all the joy
Friends and family try to give
Through a nightmare they relive
Every time your on a roll
More and more out of control
Pushing them away from you
You don't have a single clue
They will not be there one day
Because of actions you display
wind rises behind me,
a gentle insistence
against my spine~
not a command,
but a direction.
it threads through the grass,
touches my shoulders,
and nudges me toward
whatever waits
beyond the next bend.
no map.
no promise~
only the soft certainty
that some paths
are chosen
by the wind itself.
window dark - sunset iris
haunted hour - odd waltz
slow envy - eleventh cradle
broken just - revenge deeply
purple circle - light candle
places blind - between stars
follow whirlwind
3-18-2014
Cut Up Contest
©Donna Jones
I could see the bend in the road ahead
and I could feel my stomach twisting with its presence.
This would be my new beginning,
my new home,
and I was afraid of what this life change could bring me.
As I began to get nearer
my hands gripped the wheel tighter.
I could feel my palms begin to sweat
as I white-knuckled the wheel.
I slowly pressed the brake as I entered the curve
and I felt my whole body tense.
Then I quickly accelerated,
and in one swift motion I was through the curve
and speeding down the road toward my new home.
As I watched my surroundings change,
I knew that bend in the road
would be a joyous point
for every time I came home.
Got referred to a female Urologist
After which I needed a Psychologist
"I'm a licensed physician
Now resume your position!"
Next appointment? Her sister Proctologist
The time has come to string the lights and decorate the tree,
Fix-up the barn an' house a mite for all the folks to see,
Cause Christmas time's around the bend, an' Santa's underway
A-makin' toys for girls an' boys, an' gifts to fill his sleigh.
The widder Jones, from down the road, her cook-stove's bellerin' smoke,
She makes tamales ever year for passin' city-folk.
But through the year she cusses 'em for just a-passin' by,
An' raisin’ dust she’s gotta to sweep when that ol' road is dry.
The school put on their annual play and that turned into fun.
They cast my nephew as the babe; he played the Holy Son!
The Wise Men never had a chance. They got a real surprise,
When baby Jesus tossed his milk an' caught one in the eyes.
But ever year I'm still amazed by changes folks can make,
Like Mister Groves, a stubborn coot I'd often like to shake.
He turns a leaf at Christmas time, an' acts just like a saint,
He'll drive to town an' do for folks that's crippled, sick an' cain't.
On Christmas Day, the kids in town get stockings filled with loot.
For some it's still a mystery but it's that "stubborn coot".
I saw him late one Christmas Eve a-tendin' to the chore;
For ever kid, in ever house, he left one at the door.
It never snows on Christmas Day, it's mostly never missed.
No sleighs to ride or sleds to slide, the things could fill a list,
But there's no other place on Earth at any time of year
That holds a light to what we have, the people livin' here.
We've shared our lives an' memories, each dream, desire an' plan.
We've touched each other ever way that God designed for man.
With all their strengths and weaknesses, we love 'em still the same
When Christmas time's around the bend, an' times that have no name.
Know that you can't bend
the date palm down on knees
and crouching meekness like
supliant pines bent low by
brazen hands and bronze
wires wound on
kiln-glazed
vase.
Know it will
with straight trunk,
task your patience, will
and power, ere it lays
down on the sun-scorched
sands its straight-ribbed,
lethal-bladed leaves.
Know for sure,
there's grace and beauty
in a bonsai-ed tree
to quench your thirsting
heart. Alas! for dates,
for always, you will scale
the heights to harvest
sweetness hungered for,
or be just there content
with dust-caked windfall
strewn on desert dunes.
We Bend but Never Break
Stand your ground the Monarchs cry
defend our power, do not ask why
Know we rule by our divine right
murder so easily with our might!
Bow down to kiss our Godly feet
we are the best you will ever meet
Know your place and all is fine
now pick the grapes, stomp the wine!
We stand above the shining light
ordering peons to slave and fight
Get cracking , do as you are told
if lucky, you'll work until very old!
the refutation......
Stand there in your deep disgrace
vainly thinking to be a better race
We searched and found freedom's call
you bow or else you will fall!
On bended knee beg for our help
bark, bark , you surly little welp
Learn your place to stay alive
tread water or else take a dive!
We stand in great defiant cause
no longer obey your stupid laws
Obey meekly and you just may live
that's most you get , more we'll never give!
Robert J. Lindley, August 3rd, 1974
Written when I was 21 years old, so full of piss and vinegar!
Youth has the advantage of - energy and eagerness....
the table listens
dred forcing glue and nails to
throb and melt
as the color red is shunned
in public
claw feet
embedded for grinning centuries
stand silent
as birds with no feathers
drift silently to earth
with only sonic flashes
to remind the trees of their collusion
branches fall without warning
stunning rushing rivers
direction pre-determined
a gathering of hearts bend
but
their capacity for love
is never breached
as
goodness
only
grows
01/16/14
Across the valley
A train whistles its presence
Quickly rushing on
A deep longing in my soul
To see what’s round the next bend
5/26/16
The serpentine and ageless liquid
mercurial possessed snake
eternally swallowed
since the beginning of time
one unquenchable thirst to gorge and slake
slurping up an icy cold mountainous pebbly shake
yet fresh as an irish spring
using thy tongue o gaelic spake
then tumbling down into the cavernous abyss
subsequently carving
a deep criss cross patchwork
across the rock hard rugged topography
like the handiwork of some invincible force
commandeering a humungous rake
affixing legendary signature
quasi-indelible grooves
only for the near indomitable
chiseled masterpiece
to be erased, twisted then wrenched
by that natural landscape altering phenomena
identified as an earth quake
creating a fresh tabula rasa to begin anew
inviting waters from on high to carve
from the ebbing and flowing millennial currents
which eventually find a more direct course
beginning as trickling creek
swells from winter rains
and thence in summer while the sun doth bake
when flora blooms and fauna prance
the firmament then abandons
bent elbow oxbow lake
as a former bend in the river.
frum - thhis hen pecked bantam
which spouse will never hush
and let me concentrate at some endeavor
but please DO NOT consider me a lush
nor believe this mainline/ lower merion resident lives plush
for his values quite out of sync with majority in a rush
to chase the ole might buck
if quiet, you can hear the whoosh!