Best Check Poems
Had she looked back at me
Even for just a second ...
Our encounter might have been the stuff of tabloid frenzy.
But she left quickly a coffee in one hand,
A shopping bag in the other,
And I waited for my turn next in line.
I am standing naked on a crowded street
But nobody seems to be noticing me
I am less embarrassed by my nakedness
Than by my invisibility
They all seem to be looking right through me
Or staring down at the concrete walk
With iPod plugs shoved deep into their ears
Nobody can hear me talk
I try flagging down a taxi
But their “Off Duty” lights are on
On the black and white checkerboard
I am the sacrificial pawn
The Queen moves in every direction
The King is rooted in place
I try catching the eye of a policeman
But he has mirrored glasses upon his face
The world is swirling in circles
The Bishop runs off with a boy
My wife no longer lies with me
She prefers her electrical toys
The teacher wakes me up in class
Why am I in school when I’m fifty-five
I don’t remember being captured by the Rook
Is it possible I’m no longer alive
The King has no more safe squares to go
Laying him down is his only fate
Tangled up in a sticky spider web of life
I’m stuck in a permanent check-mate
What should I say to describe this empty feeling,
like I'm missing something I could call Home.
How would I come to deny a thought revealing,
given time and place, I'd invent my own.
A time spent in a state of agonizing pain,
A place of worship I would not forgive.
Only the mind undoes the past through vision gained,
in boundless timeless Love it all but lives.
Go ahead and make the first move,
but take care
One or two spaces so I can move
to my square
Game of life, I’m queen defending
my king
Pawns, so many seem such
insignificant a thing
I’ll stay in my castle with my
bishop for a lil while
As my knights ride to fight the
enemy in style
I’ll rush about you see when my
king Is in need
Watch for your next move, hope
I don’t misread
Sacrificing so many pieces attempting
to defend
Not a game it’s so real, you see
I won’t pretend
Soon the enemy will deplete my
trusted army
As they attempt to not let
anyone harm me
My role important, my moves
so unrestricted
Game of chance while their moves
I’ve predicted
I hate losing pieces but it’s for
me the Queen
End goal is to sit beside my
king ruling supreme
I’m very loyal down to the very
end, I will fight
Even when I watch fall my last
trusted knight
Each piece to the end will
fight so valiantly
Dying a noble death against those
who challenge me
I must keep my kingdom from
being overthrown
A mind game challenging so many
great unknowns
Hoping my king is truly the one,
and its fate
Because if not...it’s games over,
check mate
10/2020
A musician splits a chord of would
Super Hero where's a bright read hood
The baker gently needs his doe
A gardener has her cede to sew
Something old, something gnu
something borrowed, something blew
I play with sorrow hide-and-seek
For love will hide and I am weak,
And when I locate the pot of gold
I find the rainbow has been sold.
I explore the real life of this fairy tale
The gingerbread house is up for sale.
The frog is not what he proclaims to be
A wolf in grandma's nightie is all I see.
The prince is having a bad hair day
The beauty is not in the beast I say.
The carriage 'till midnight will not last
I'll have pumpkin pie to break my fast.
I climb the beanstalk way up high
Open Sesame I cry and cry,
Look there's a dragon at my door...
I don't believe in fairy tales no more.
So tell the seven dwarfs to stay away
Tell the ogres I don't want to play.
The damsel in distress I'll never be
For I'm the ugly stepsister, you see.
You were placed on the planet
to write rhymes
but to many times
people tried to fit you
in between their lines
Their prefect pairings
not caring or wanting to be fair or kind
They couldn’t possibly see you
They were bonafide blind
not understanding you
unable to peek into your multifaceted mind
You say “Darkness and Negativity”
But you are starting off in the right place
praying on your knees
No, not needing the societal disease
Who cares if it’s man you please
Only God has the answers
He holds all the keys
He gave us the birds and the bees
and lets us build our houses
out of his trees
Change is coming
I can feel it cold blowing
on the breeze
Maybe God will show us
what He sees
I know sometimes
That mirror feels cracked and broken
The image you see is frozen
Words stuck on the other side of the glass
your reflection has never spoken
When you stare into those eyes
You wonder
What things will be discovered
as your spirit is awoken
Get on the love yourself train
God’s blessed you with a token
Don’t worry, I think all of us
feel incomplete
doing the life sad shuffle
just off a bit by a half beat
yet we get off our asses and repeat
Nothing ever got done
spending to much time in a seat
Get moving guy
bring out those happy feet
You’ve got things to do
and people to meet
Put words down on paper
Take all those thoughts
the good, bad, bold and beautiful
flow-fully fill up that stark white sheet
Like yours “my reality”
is imbedded within my insanity
sometimes I’m the victim
of my own voracious vanity
I think I need to go it alone
While needing something
to fill up this heart cavity
Sometimes I feel like floating far far away
yet I can’t escape emotional gravity
My loneliness is my own preferred prison
I am my own worst enemy
Is this a strange self fulfilling prophecy
Do I need to be separate from society
If so why do I want people to look and see
To read the essence that resides in me
It’s only when I write that I totally feel free
I guess in the end I’m who I am born to be!
Inspired by Christen Foster’s “My Reality” piece.
Join me in welcoming a new poet to our family.
A world in need of spiritual balm
Many have lost the way,
Your faith may give you a lift
When from the truth you start to drift
The prophets have told us of the times to come
Where beastly motives will prevail,
A new world order to mark the times,
And a 3 digit number will rule the day
Economies ruled by a beastly mark
No cash or card needed at the register,
Raise your hand, get it scanned
It's time to check out!
5-22-2023
Some believe that the correct spelling of a word is more important then the meaning behind that word, education is not a spelling contest it is the knowledge you have acquired and how you use it. If your only ability is how to spell correctly then your verbal communication will not survive in the real world, to correct another in the spelling of a word does not work in a verbal conversation it only works in written communication. If all you can see are misspelled words written then you will never see the heart that wrote those words.
Too small,
for two of us.
Wanting to run away,
I was reluctant to stay here.
Our pay checks did not reach far in those days,
I had a place to rest my head.
Needed more rent money,
please rain dollars.
Too small.
My brother is a teller
Of tales so tall,
He wishes Google
Didn't exist at all!
Trust implies openness
Mutual decency and honesty.
Trust is obligatory in friendship
Or romantic relationship.
Trust is based on agreement
Clear meaning of message.
Trust is core in life.
I trust you. I trust myself.
Trust is risk taker
Justify danger, warn vulnerability
Support emotional crisis.
Form:
The Check is in the Mail
Authored by Chuck Keys
At the beginning there was no rain,
Only the thundering noise and bright bolts of lightning.
The trees and bushes trembled with the cold winds
Pouring sheets of rain soon followed.
The stones and the ground cover cringed,
Everything echoed and shook from the hard driving forces present.
There was no place to run or hide. God
Was making his statement.
There will be no peace tonight,
Everything is in play.
Someone is in pain, searing aching ever increasing pain,
Like the agony of a toothache, thumping, pulsing, thud, thud, thud
Louder and more intense with each breadth
The body and spirit is consumed, tightly wrapped up,
Absorbed in the discomfort of now.
And it's not going away on its own.
There will be no peace tonight,
Everything is in play.
He was stolen, placed in chains,
400 years ago,
Brow beaten from the beginning, in and out
Never allowed to be his own,
Not like whites, he was property, owned and operated
But different non-white, (why are we still talking of color?)
Yet beings we all are.
There will be no peace tonight,
Everything is in play.
We cry for what was taken but can never be returned
Not wanting to be raised above or over,
Wanting not a victory, but delivered equality.
Through love and nonviolence Martin and they forged ahead,
No more waiting for the check in the mail,
But expecting the expected.
There will be no peace tonight,
Everything is in play.
The storm is here and now.
A debt of honor is due,
With the passing of time, where is restitution?
We accept love, education, pride and joy,
We can't accept the hatred of crime, violence,
The lack of housing and work,
Pain never fades on its own.
It needs attention.
God’s values our values,
The one constant, never becomes vague.
Without compromise. Without compromise.
There will be no peace tonight,
Everything is in play.
The storm continues with its blinding rage,
Waiting for an answer, not patiently, but expectantly,
There will be no peace tonight in their lives as in our hearts,
Everything is in play.
Talking to God is
like writing to Santa but
without the presents.
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