Best Decade Poems
The decade
that saw
end of cold war
fall of Berlin Wall.
In Asia
Tianamen Square
student bloodbath,
democracy restored
in Philippines with 'People Power Revolution'..
first big shock of my life--
Indira assassinated.
In sports
'Hand of God' goal by Maradona,
Michael Jackson--his Moonwalk dance,
Stevie Wonder--"I just called to.........."
enjoyed"Rain Man","Driving Miss Daisy".
And in my life
first love,broken heart,
fragmented pieces
still stitching..........
#Indira Gandhi,the Prime Minister of India was gunned down in 1984.
© 2011 kashinath karmakar (7th May 2011)
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Placement: 7th; (May 2011)
Contest:Magic Of Decade's Mood
Sponsor:Nette Onclaud
Back in the fifties
America seemed much calmer
McCarthy's commie blacklists
Sputnik's shocking launch
Ike's wife Mamie so sedate
That pre-historic hairdo
World War Two over
We needed some time to heal
Alan Ginsburg penned his 'Howl'
Chuck Berry goosed his walk
The West Wing conservative
White House picket-fence painted
Boom! an explosion
Cultural revolution
Sixties' deaths brought us down
Hendrix, Morrison
Jackie became Onassis
Where's JFK's Camelot
Seventies came, went
Eighties crashed, burned, flamed out too
But Jerry Rubin's Wall Street
Greed ruled the Nineties
Internet changed all of us
The world at a click-click-click
New Millenium
Rapid change hurtles forward
People do change, however
Shootings dot landscape
Retreat into our smartphones
Loneliness Unconnected
Now the Age of Trump
Rears its flame-orange mane and screams
Me-too Movement gains traction
Women come forward
Teen suicide rate rises
Society imperiled
May 07, 2019
Entry: 'Best Sedoka' contest
Sponsor: Lu Loo
Decade of Bullets
Ouagadougou, Ouagadougou, Ouagadougou
See a procession of young mothers chattering their way
From water fountains in grenade torn sandals
And blood laced bras
Somalia, Somalia, Somalia
See the moon disappearing in a mass of gun smoke
Guns splitting the stars from the skin of night
Rwanda, Rwanda, Rwanda
This is a wound from which the pus of grief flows freely
Meandering through rock masses into the valley that lost its freedom
Timbuktu, Timbuktu, Timbuktu
I hear a rush of footsteps of sorrow
Rugged peasants carrying their compounds to far away valleys of flowers
Turn up the radio and ...
It's the same ol' situation,
The same songs, same band
That raised my generation
That was then, this is now
Nothing's changed but my age,
And four numbers, somehow
On a calendar's page ...
It happened again today
In the store where I shopped,
In the restaurant, I heard it play
Proving the 80's never stopped
That was then, this is now
O, to revive a faded fad,
If we never forget how
Good times can still be had
Life, like a cassette tape
With two sides, was designed,
From Side A, Side B can't escape
If you just press rewind ...
Useless most times,thats how i feel,worthless,confused not a big deal. Hopless,annoyed,feeling cold in my heart. Not understanding why my world fell apart. We didnt have much but our love kept us whole,why did this happen to us a decade you stole. When i think of this family i still wish was there,im the one that gets burned noone plays fair. Feeling sorry for myself i guess that is true,im alone in these streets,with nothing to loose. Against my own will I had to give in,a looser since birth,theres no way to win. Stressed out,so depressed,could this be my sign,feeling this lost,all alone in this life. Noone to trust,all i ever loved went out the door,paranoia settled in me, god i cant take anymore. Im not needed anymore please take me away, god i beg forgiveness for not wanting to stay. When i needed you then you did not reply,understand this my lord im too weak to try. I once was a mom understand this please, so now i am nothing but only a freak...
It seems we have traveled a very long way,
just to end up where we started from.
Still taking most from all,
and giving it all to some.
The incompetent march and all cry foul,
and say that soon their time will come.
The farmers all hate the factories,
for putting their women on the job.
The rich white men hated black men,
they said they were nothing but a mob.
The Catholics hated everyone else,
while the rule makers just polished their knob.
The new women said they knew what was best,
that their mothers had it all wrong.
The politicians praised how all the people,
worked together to make America strong.
It was the poor that wrote the words,
but it was the rich who sang the song.
So, I ask if any one of us,
will ever know just what to do.
In a country where the left says they’re right,
but the right says that they are too.
And up in the big house around the corner,
lies are touted as the gospel truth.
History often repeats itself,
that's what the experts all say.
The way it was a hundred years ago,
is the way that it still is today.
And we still have not learned our lesson,
that the answer is to kneel and pray.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every Breath You Take — The Police
Total Eclipse of the Heart — Bonnie Tyler
Against All Odds — Phil Collins)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They dance behind my ribs, these ghosts~
Every breath you take,
Every move you make,
I hear them still, though the speakers are cracked.
The night is a bruise, purple-black,
Turn around, bright eyes,
but the stars won’t rise,
just the hum of a neon vacancy sign.
And the odds? They laugh in my face.
How can you just walk away
when the ache stays,
a cassette tape jammed in an old machine~
rewinding,
rewinding,
but never
playing clean.
Johny johny johny
Mat karyo anhoni
Neither this cricket
Nor you dhoni
Johny johny johny...
After failing to become a monk,
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin became a wanderer.
a decade is yesterday’s century
things change that fast
tomorrow a day
A group of similar cycles
a baby born in the first
enters two digits in the last
Decade of my birth
All Show and No Go,
Ankle biters were Almost Home,
Baby, Ball and Beach bunny,
Brewed bread as Boxes Burnt one,
Even the Bad pipes Bagged some food for the brain,
Chilled the Cat as Chrome dome Caught some rays,
A Chick's choice,
Clanked, the Cool head Crashed,
Daddy's car was a Deb's delight,
Funkier freaks invited Fuzz,
Hunks jazzed,
Spiffy Nifty tufted together,
Generation gap, but Rents would go with the flow,
Wiz kids never lost their Wig,
Paper shakers went out of sight,
Real people with Righteous Raps and tuning vibes,
Mod shades, Rockin' out,
Off the wall and Ultimate,
Zap! You ain't too cool,
What say !Those were the times!
Written June 25th, 2015
For Debbie's contest "Talk the talk and walk the walk"
Decade chosen- 1960s
The world was a troubled place in the '80's, home to a number of disasters
From the plight of Iran's hostages to the meltdown of Chernobyl's reactor
But in the world of basketball, the 1980's served to revive the game
From a decade, the 1970's, where drugs and crime had gone untamed
There dawned a rivalry, perhaps never again matched, the Celtic's Larry Bird
'The Great White Hope,' whose hard-scrabble heroics, the fans hearts stirred
In fierce, epic battles with the Lakers' nonpareil, Magic Johnson
Whose wizardy with the ball and no-look passes quickly became legend
All through the '80's these hardcourt warriors duked it out
Bird MVP three years in a row, '84 - '86, 'the Greatest Player Ever,' no doubt
With Johnson hot on his trail, the ultimate Team Great, fueling the debate
Leading the Lakers to the Championship five times, from '80 to '88
While meantime, the lowly Chicago Bulls were cultivating a new player still
Greater than Bird and Magic, who in the 1990's would rule
The incomparable Michael Jordan, "MJ," as he would come to be known
Whose soaring dunks and breathtaking heroics eventually put him alone
Atop the throne of basketball majesty and glory
That's how I remember the '80's, and that ends my story
Entry in 'Remembering the 1980's' Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Michelle Faulkner
When I look back in time, I recall the 1980’s;
I fell into the Rubik’s Cube and still have not escaped.
Not even upon hearing of, John Lennon’s killing, could I escape the thing, in fact, it kept me from diving into a mournful funk.
I celebrated “ET’s” visit by treating myself; I bought the video, along with Michael Jackson’s, “Thriller” and was ecstatically, thrilled by both, many times.
Then, I went to the, World’s Fair, for the first time.
I celebrated the new holiday, Martin Luther King Jr’s. day along with everyone else and the discovery of the wrecked, Titanic; a tragic example of the human ego’s pompousness.
Disco faded away, like melting snow and Rap, rapped its’ way into the Music Scene. Blondie and Devo were giving fans a thrill, as we donned our G.Q. clothes to go dancing.
“Remembering the 1980's” Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Michelle Faulkner
As I reminisce the story
Of our love’s one decade glory
I remember the beautiful things
That you and our family brings
It was your courtship and friendship
That paved a beautiful relationship
A special bond that blossomed into love
The kind of love destined by the Lord Above
You have given a new meaning in my life
When I fully accepted my role as your wife
Being married is a blissful experience
Sharing a life with you made a lot of difference
As we built our family together
My love for you has grown deeper
Our special moments through the years
Has brought me happiness and cheers
Even as we go through trials and hardship
I look forward to a stronger relationship
Even distance cannot erase
My love for you that I embrace
I made a commitment from the start
That you will always be in my heart
A promise that I intend to hold onto
For all of my life I will love only you
When the 21st century stepped into its third decade, the major tone of the world sharply switched. Internecine confrontation, cartelism and calumniation snaffled the high pitch, while comprehension, cooperation and cosmopolitanism, like ill-adapting burdens and nuisances, are inexorably pitched out of the era's finickier and finickier register.
The last 4 years, principally accountable for the bend toward such trend, has a clear pattern.
Since the moment that pussy-grabber grabbed the oval office through foreign fix, everything seemed to have been predetermined.
Needless to argue: just as a train steering along its normal route suddenly swerved into an appalling aberration under multiple symptoms of systematic failure, poped up a chain of bizzare behaviors: a row of willful withdrawals from multiple international organizations and treaties, barefaced dunning over allies for protection fees, capricious veer of trade vanes highlighting haphasard jitters of tariff rates toward countries of utterly different natures and qualities, pussyfooting pace toward putin and patronizing pose before pals as well as other unpredictable hitches and glitches in the making and implementation of policies or even nondescript whimsical whistles that had perplexed many politicians, publicists and observers who believe U.S to have relapsed into isolationism, that is, paying more attentions to or becoming exclusively occupied in its own business with less or without interventions or concerns upon external matters. Many uttered criticism over this phlegmatic position, pointing out it was the isolationism that had connived at the fascist aggrandizement and caused the inadequacy of vigilance in the pearl harbor incident before it finally gave way to requisite engagement. But I have to say the wording of isolationism is simply unfitting nowadays. One can prove this by drawing a comparison between the degree of globalization of recent times and that before world war 2. As we take a glimpse back to the period around 1940, we can find that oversea entities and links were relatively meagre and the corresponding influence and leverage upon other countries relatively negligible. At that time, pursuing isolationism was more or less of a certain venial aspect.