Best Compressed Poems
My hands rough like sandpaper
Rubbed along the smooth surface
A sandstone sculpture carved by unknown hands
I looked closely many images
Each staring at me
Like a convoluted totem
The bear and sandpiper
In a tender embrace
Intelligent dumb eyes staring nowhere
Eagles talons gripping, cutting into base
The humble turtle, wisdom's companion
Images from a thousand life times
Stories told around fires
Drawing me in like quicksand
Enchanting me with ancient drums
I wish to leave my civilized self behind
A feathered sandman calls my name
"Fly with the sandpiper"
"Ride sandstone dreams"
For Frank Herrera's "Native American Collage" contest.
free breeze,
free mind,
free heart,
and free boldness,
all sail along the same projection as the world pins
them tighter together
We are red and sad,
as time rapidly tows by
And we notice that all we have is,
fees to pay,
weird thoughts,
health to compete with,
and rods to walk on,
till they blend
©kingfemi Oloidi
Inspired by Ryan Jackson
Numberless climates, the depraved world is swimming in gravy in climatic types, (Situations, Positions) the hour essences, high- and low- pressure, erring vital organ cleaning, rehearse prayer, scrub the intellect and soul in company with a air compressor. Be pleased for having lessor.
- Loverboi
Unable to deceive you--
not that I wish to hide some dark truth--
but fears are so private,
and you read me like an MGM Marquee....
Too easily you expose me,
send me stumbling
against mirror walls, shattering images....
Your lips over the sharp edges,
miraculously uncut,
with warm kisses you raise me
from cold, compressed crystals....
A time to play
A time to get serious
A time to put kid behavior away
A time to be delirious
There are times when growing up is necessary
When parents will no longer do everything
When you have to get your own
Do for yourself and be grown
You can't continue procrastinating
Take a chance and fly with your own two wings
To stand on your own two feet
And to supply your own needs
Do so before it's too late
Because time doesn't discriminate
Don't make the biggest mistake of your life
And let life pass you by
Be a success
And nothing less
Live life to the fullest
And be filled with nothing but greatness
Dive into a brain of sorrow,
for tomorrows a future of falling tears and
my hearts a target for shooting spears
its a long wait for a beautiful date,
when the waves subside and the thoughts I've cried
lay on the floor of my brain to gain myself in the darkness.
Cant you see what my words are hiding? Soon one day
through the stars we'll be riding, imagine your existence
on a plane abroad. No matter the face, no matter the taste
no matter the vessel or how fast the chase, we will all
float with grace in some alternate place...I guess it's a wait and
I will let it run through me, and I wish you could hear what my ears
whisper to me.
To all the sharks in the ocean and all the pretty notes an
the space between all we know and all we dream,
for me is falling apart at the seam.
-JLG
Rolf was born in Wallertheim, in an optimistic year
Progress seemed to be everywhere, and not much to fear.
Then the reds took Russia, shook the world to the core
Millions killed when in power, a crime you can’t ignore
Drafted in World War One, every moment was a scare
French came at him in bright red uniforms, too visible, wasn’t fair
He claims he didn’t kill anyone; I wish I could believe
He was on the wrong side of that war, a past you can’t retrieve.
Under Weimar, the dollar was worth 4000 trillion marks
That kind of inflation destroys society, opens it to sharks.
Nazis got into power, took guns from all the Jews
Rolf threw his weapon in the Rhine, and his medals too.
He left grape vines behind, took his family out, down to the wire
They rode through Palestine, saw Jewish farms set on fire.
Then a letter came from the Reich, called Rolf to the reserve
We still have it, bureaucratic time lag, an ironic reminder to serve.
If Rolf had gone back, he would have been doomed
Into the maw of the gigantic bloodshed one more life consumed.
I met Rolf in Denver, a short, muscular guy
He even flipped me on my back, with a Judo move I didn’t spy.
I watched a rodeo with him, history was in arrest.
It's a strange thing, in one man, so much time compressed
I spoke with a great-aunt who had uncles in the Civil War
A great uncle told me he saw soldiers marching to fight the Boer.
He also fought in World War One, but on the English side
Showed me wounds in his arm, to fight was part of pride.
And now I use ChatGPT, and admire Space X
In me through memories so much history connects.
And yet I’m the black sheep, so many things went bad
I’m relieved these men never knew my saga, so dismal, and so sad.
I also look at the world, there is so much bad news:
Jihad in Africa, and in Holland a “hunt for the Jews”
China, Russia on the rise, the west has seen better days
Will we end that compressed window of history in a fiery blaze?
The distance between what you feel
and what you write…
—your measure as a Poet
The difference between what you think
and how you act…
—your measure as a Man
(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2018)
My life... my life is here,
But my life isn't clear.
So many different paths,
But when I pick one, everyone laughs.
I choose and pick, but nothing sticks.
And the light for the right path never glows.
The route I choose shuts away and never shows.
I try to run, run for my life again and again.
But sometimes it feels like a knife..
Deep in my heart like an aching pain,
It feels like an overbearing chain.
To my life, and to my path
It hurts and burns with wrath.
Other people try to control,
But they simply eat my dreams whole.
No one asks what I want.
They just take and they taunt.
My old dreams haunt...
They haunt me and my choices.
All of the sounds and all the voices
Telling me nothing is right..
And maybe they might be right in sight
They look over my shoulder
And of course my feelings get smoldered.
No one cares what I think,
And their thoughts overflow my dreams in a blink.
No one cares about me, just what I grow up to be.
My life was never mine
And it never. will be