Best City Block Poems
IF POETS RULED THE WORLD
If poets ruled the world
laws would be written with panache and...
oh yes, compassion;
civil liberty in fashion.
Carpetbaggers fold up your tents and cash in.
Poets. like mothers,
would never send their brothers to war.
Poets don’t have voices that sound like guns,
words can bite, incite,
but history is made by men who fight
not for wrong or right but might.
If poets ruled the world
every city block would have a park
for birds and dogs alike,
with a path for bikes and soft ice cream.
Trees would be everywhere, cars even fewer.
The whole damn system flushed down the sewer
if only poets were the rulers.
If the world by poets was ruled
hunger would feed on the deeds of honest men,
perhaps not Zen but a blend
of now and then, form and function.
Tear down the walls of corruption in government,
make way for equanimity, grace of femininity.
So let it be known and forever shown
that poets should rule the world.
Dec 21/18
NOTE: This style is one I developed and is called a SCIRPO which is Italian for weave or twist.
It is characterized by a rhyme scheme that wraps around itself in no particular order.
Also, each stanza adds another line moving from 5 to 6 to 7 to 8 lines and so on
How I now long to sing a song
With "guns" as its only word
A solitary droning tone
Fiercely sung such it need be heard
Higher than half its height
Should our banner fly
As this sorrowful summer simmers on
And slaughtered June becomes corpse of July
Nightclub, traffic stop, city block
Muslim, blue, black, gay
Tiny lives that matter not
To congressmen and NRA
For in America the highest law,
Ready must we always be
With God-given rightful arms bared
To throw off imminent tyranny
July 8, 2016
Spring Paintings by Kinkade
purple sky at eve
a log cottage by a stream
with windows aglow
after vietnam
my old familiar path home
lights and chimney smoke
lilac carnival
decorates each city block
it must be springtime
a splendid stone bridge
arched over a placid flow
june night memory
blue wildwood steeple
with many a wagon track
june morning service
dusk in the city
rain soaked streets thrusting up light,
cars, shops and people
I was a self-admitted misanthrope
unwilling to lose or drop a case.
I often threw a rope-a-dope
just to win; I never lose face.
I worked the dark streets
for dark, and even darker, clients
while the cops walked their beats,
shadows showing giants.
As far as I was concerned,
they were all a bunch of losers.
They were bad; they’d get burned.
The lot were boozers or bruisers.
I had caught a difficult case
The man was stabbed and shot.
He deserved it; he was debase,
but the perp would be caught.
The lawyer was my client,
he was dirty; the worst he could get.
Damn, he was mighty defiant!
Still, I didn’t think he did it.
He had no motive, but also no alibi.
So why were the cops after him?
He was a jerk, but had no reason to lie.
But for him the outlook was grim.
I might have to pummel every john
on the streets to get to the truth.
It wasn’t unpleasing to use my brawn
and I was a hellava good sleuth.
I’d search every city block.
I’d find the filthy little perp.
I’d find the lowlife and knock
the truth out of the twisted twerp!
26 August 2022
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Sandy Springs is a quiet town
Not much really to be found
Except at the end of main street
A Great House you will greet
Gothic height with pointed tower
A skirt of pillars commanding power
Windows long and tightly shutter
Pale white stone in shades of butter
Bluish slate roof with chimneys six
Grand front porch and path of bricks
Trees full and saluting in line
Shading their trail with scent of pine
Balconies inviting but sadly bare
Emptiness bequeath minimum care
Stories of three basement below
Once a rich baron grandly owned
Sits by itself on a whole city block
All gates are chained and locked
Such a shame for waste of space
The Great House stares out of place
Once the very center of town life
Magnificent balls dominated nightlife
Officials were made bribes paid
Everything of importance it swayed
Now stoic silent and fading alone
Stripped of it's riches walls bone
The Great House accepts its fate
Grandly in style it deteriorates.
Fireworks are still popping in my neighborhood
Long after July 4th; I keep thinking they’ll stop,
And hope so soon for the sake of brotherhood!
Celebrations are meaningful on their special day
Noisy and loud merriment are par for the course
But now, I wish the noises would simply go away!
You might suggest I am getting old and crotchety
And I suppose you wouldn’t be far from the truth
Can you imagine a city block blasting ubiquitously?
Written July 10, 2022
I tie the perfect noose
Pull tight on the cord
Kick the chair from underneath me
As my feet both touch the floor
I take the electric toaster
Set it on the edge of the tub
Knock it into the water
But forget to plug in the plug
Laid myself down on the train tracks
Waiting for the 9:05
Little did I know my watch had stopped
Right at a quarter till 9:00
I step out into traffic
Sure this is my last deed in life
Not knowing it was a crosswalk
And I was at a red light
I found the tallest building
On my city block
Made my way to the top floor
Where none of the windows unlocked
Never had such a hard time in life
Trying to do myself in
Apparently I need a new tactic
Apparently I need a new plan
Think I'll just go to bed
Catch me some much needed winks
Maybe when I wake up
I'll have died in my sleep
Walking to grade school without a care
Each morning at the same spot
Freshly baked bread scent filled the air
Straight from the oven, savory hot
Aroma so sweet, I never forgot
Laub's Bakery, a city block wide
It looked like a factory instead
I'd peek in the door ajar on the side
Where that lovely smell filled up my head
Etched in my brain, the essence of freshly baked bread
The old man could barely walk
Bent over on his cane
And there beside him
Man's Best Friend
It wasn't in him to complain.
One-half a step -sheer agony
For the old man on his cane
But he must walk
His Best Friend's walk,
Each day it was the same.
The labored pace was not a race
It scarcely was a walk
But man's Best Friend
Kept pace with him
Along each city block.
Friends never ever let you down
Devotion! That's the deal
And man's Best Friend
Until the end
Is right there at his heel.
The fact is plain for all to see
They're comrades sun or rain
Man's Best Friend
And Best Friend's man
Are on their walk again.
Friends can and will endure the pace
And love ignores the pain
Man's Best Friend
He will wait
For the Old Man on his cane.
This goes out to everyone who has ever lost someone to the streets.
I cry a tear for everyone who has ever lost someone to the streets.
So when you look to the floor that's why there is a puddle at my feet.
Please my fathers brothers sons boyfriends husbands wake up.
We have to live better do better.
Once your gone there is no coming back.
Your killing for money and jewels non of which you take with you when your gone.
We need to lift each other up not bring each other down.
If we don't who will?
My heartaches because so much is not understood.
Killing someone for coming to what you call your "hood."
I cant find the words to get you all to see the light.
The rate were leaving is just not right.
Babies never getting to be boys boys never getting to be men
We must not let evil win
Day after day same thing on the news another young person gunned down on a city block
Make a change the foolishness must stop
Speaking to you all from my heart take negativity and make positivity
None of us want to die so why be so quick to take another's life
Leaving lonely mothers sisters daughters and someones wife
Put the guns down find another way there's a lot on your mind I know you want to say
Lets turn this around Baltimore starting with today
in the city that never sleeps you walked from day to night
from hustling on the corner to running business state to state
some call you a looser others say your bad news
but to me your a man who grew up doing what he had to do
you were raised in the ghetto of the worst city in the east
brooklyns very own son became a self made millionaire
long nights ducking on the corner behind trash cans
playing cops and robbers with the men in blue
when it was time to go home you left work outside
taking care of your wife and children and retiring
in for the night never forgetting what is right
the fight for a dollar meant more blood shed
the daylight is your enemy as the nighttime is your friend
every city block has a name to the name belongs a hustler
every hustler has soldiers that will die claiming their hood
for every loss theres a gain for every gain there is a loss
you became the king of new york with a hefty price
the people you trusted are the ones who took your life
now your gone forever but the game still plays on
your memory i hold dear to my heart
we should of stopped you before you ever began!
"
dedicatecd to the memory of PRESTON "two shoes"
One of my favorite sayings,
one you may have heard before
Is from a movie that's set in the Depression era,
it's my personal verbal encore
It expresses my exasperated feeling
of being powerless and poor
That I would worry a lot less,
if I thought you worried more
Politicians always check the public's pulse
to find out what's goin' on
They always want the inside take
to know exactly what is wrong
But when it comes to poor people like me,
they really could care less
To them I'm just another unproductive voice
suffering from imaginary duress
They don't care about my trivial concerns,
like what am I goin' to eat
Or if it's really cold outside,
what am I goin' to put on my back and feet
They always say things are 'bout to get better,
and there's gonna be plenty of jobs galore
But I would worry a whole lot less,
if I really thought they worried more
Their economists say I'm making my woes
to be more than they really are
But in my 'hood all the stores are closed,
and to shop, I have to to travel very far
Let me give them a sad statistic
about the crime on my city block
911 is a lottery loser's joke
when you're in need of help from a cop
The rich say I'm just cooking up another scheme
with my assorted problem du 'jour
But I would worry a lot, lot less,
if I thought they worried, really worried more
Like the character in that movie,
who didn't use any sugar-coated finesse
Just putting into words all my frustrations,
how I feel about things more or less
Indian Girl
The next train is to India to a big crowded city, Calcutta. I am a Desi girl called Prittima Desmona. I am thirty two and live near a small town called Kajoy.
You may ask who I am. I am a typical Indian girl. I work in a call centre and drive a small car. I don’t own a smart phone or computer. I have a simple mobile with buttons on it and have enough of computers at work.
I’m going to meet my parents in Calcutta by train, a journey that will take a day or so depending on the weather and landslides. I lived with them till I moved to Kajoy five years for my new job. I get to see them every few months due to work. My job is very busy but the pay is good.
Kajoy is a developing town. It’s by the coast and the local government signed a decree not to allow the town to become overcrowded and polluted like Calcutta (now Kolkata but I like the old name or New Delhi). Only so many buildings can be built per city block and there is a height limit and population limit too. Time will tell if this works or not.
NIPPLE PASTE 2020
JIMMY BOOM SEMTEX
Computers computing have pinpointed here
This planet, it seems, has something to fear
I look to the skies and they’re beautiful…… now
The stars are quite static, yet I mop my brow
A spacecraft is coming; I can’t see it yet
It’s out of control, so it’s a good bet
That no chutes, no thrusters and no reverse gear
Are going to stop it from crashing so near
Gravity, might you please assuage my fear
Of this plunging artefact that cannot steer
Could it perhaps splash down in pools of mud
Or maybe come down with a fairly light ‘Thud!’
It’s them blinking Ruskies; that’s who it was
Sent that thing up and then it was lost
They sent that big firework into the air
Because, much like Everest… Venus is there
It’s coming our way, of that we are certain
Let’s hope it will head for the old iron curtain
The west has been reticent to put the boot in
Please Kosmos 4-8-2, crash down on Putin
The experts are feeding us all with the notion
That K 4-8-2 might come down in the ocean
But everyone’s gonna be in for a shock
If it crashes unhindered on some city block
So everyone, everywhere… here is the craic
Some of us may have a cross on our back
So if you look up and you see it, best run
For though it’s quite small, it weighs half a ton
Of course, every cloud has a silver trimmed edge
And whilst I shall hide behind some nearby hedge
I savour the slim chance that Putin is tremblin’
In case space should dump its old trash on the Kremlin
But if it is I who gets royally splattered
Perhaps I should be posthumously flattered
So, if its huge shadow finds me unawares
It’s been good to know you… I’ll see you ‘upstairs’…
Listen Up
Hobbes
*Quick note*
This is a song I wrote a few months back
Attention to the greater population,
Hear me as I offer you Redemption.
Kneel to me and surrender your nation,
Or prepare for complete aniahlation.
Hear my voice as I speak,
This is a day that we devour.
Dealing out damage,
It's a shame that they cower.
Blinded by the light,
By the Fight, by the truth.
Why would I care
When I'm condemned by fellow youth?
Dealing out death like we've got no choice,
Our time has now come so stand up and rejoice.
We are the voice!
(Chorus)
We are the voice of the nation,
We demand solicitation.
Ya we're the voice of the nathon,
Rebuke emancipation.
I am the voice of the nation,
Advocating procreation.
We are the voice of the nation,
Demanding all participation.
I just wanna be heard,
The time has come, what's the word.
Keeping up morale is hard
When minds are so obserd.
Trapped in the dark,
With a shark and a nark.
Keeping up the action,
Never get a bad remark.
Dealing out death like we've got no choice,
Our time has now come so stand up and rejoice.
We are the voice!
(chorus)
Now listen up,
And hear my voice a I corrupt.
The time is coming near,
When humanity will erupt.
I will win, let me in,
Do not fear its not a sin.
The time has come
And I stand before you wearing a grin
Dealing out death like we've got no choice,
Our time has now come so stand up and rejoice.
We are the voice!
(Chorus)
Listen as I give you my commands.
Prepare to suseed to my demands.
I am the master of the whole domain,
My compassion allows you to remain.
I am the voice (listen up)
It is my job (to disrupt)
I am the voice (hear me out)
It is my life (scream and shout)
The time has come,
My will is stone, my body numb.
Mow we're marching off to war,
To the beat of my own drum.
Killing in the name,
For the fame, All the same.
Leveling a city block,
And pushing off the blame.
Dealing out death like we've got no choice,
Our time has now come so stand up and rejoice.
We are the voice!
(Chorus)