Best Epicentre Poems
Boys don't cry,
I felt my soul collapse and concave into a black hole located in the epicentre of my white heart.
They never told us that when you let pain nibble on your sanity you lose yourself to the gluttony of pain.
They never told us that pain never seeps out from the pores of hope,
Or that thick ropes make for comfortable ties that clog up pain from condemning your head.
Boys don't cry,
They only taught us to seal tight the bottle that encages our emotions so that they can live like freedom-deprived animals in these cages.
They told us to drown in shallow glistening pools of tears that defy the laws of gravity,
Taught us to be barbarians and never display weakness on our plain faces.
But they should have told us that
Boys do cry.
Maybe it will take time to unfasten the 'nots' of society but until then...
Boys do not cry, they simply sweat through their eyes
Categories:
epicentre, cry,
Form:
Free verse
Exploring the suburbs at Melbourne
Glad are the late nights’ burnt
Bustling Bourke Street Mall
Epitome of a retail therapy’s call
The archaic Flinder’s Station
Scheduling warrants attention
Cho-chooing to Sydney
Never costs a kidney
The surmountable Clothes Hanger
Climbing it is not a head-banger
The romantic Sydney harbour
Releases lovers’ masquerade and cover
The stunning Opera House
Pit stop onwards to the south
The flora of the Botanical Garden
Seemingly children running at kindergarten
The national parks of Wollongong
Hitting the musical notes of the gong
Rekindling memories of Bosman’s Bay
Is a paradise comes what may
Forgoing the isle of Tasmania
That would be the fear of Cradle Mountain mania
In the southern city of Hobart
Where we could relish a tart
Sailing off to Perth
That was never my berth
Discovering the untouched Fremantle
Goes to show an adventurer’s mantle
Diving the Great Barrier Reef
Provides a temporary relief
Coasting the white beaches of Gold Coast
The locals are but good hosts
Annihilated by the waves of the Pacific
Almost make thee panic
Crisscrossing the plains of Adelaide
Part of the best plans’ laid
Allure of the Red Centre
Australia’s stunning epicentre
In the midst of a red desert
Harbour hopes to return and not divert
Discovering the monumental Alice
Go head to head with some malice
Sailing across Katherine’s Gorge
The fissures is a sight to watch
The northern tip of Darwin
Just like the pinnacle wanting to win
Ode to the Northern Territory
A journey of national geographic really
Viva the land of Oz
Paradise and grandiose she was
Categories:
epicentre, holiday, red, kindergarten,
Form:
Enclosed Rhyme
They say there's a first time for everything
My first time ever feeling the unsettling effects of an earthquake
Albeit, it was ONLY 5.8 on the Richter Scale
It happened during our holiday in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
We were roughly 60 km from the epicentre
But still found it a little unsettling to say the least
The locals didn't even break a sweat
They experience on average 150 of them a year
However there was definitely some rocking 'n rolling going on
At first I thought it was one of those people movers going by
Transporting folks around the resort
Then realized... YIKES!
That was a FREAKING EARTHQUAKE!!!
All's well that ends well
And I'm still alive to tell my tale!
Great place to vacation but you wouldn't wanna live there!
© Jack Ellison 2014
Categories:
epicentre, holiday, natural disasters,
Form:
Narrative
I only had a glmpse of you -
a glimpse, the night before you died:
A once beautiful lady, still beautiful,
preparing to die - such grace, such poise.
There was an aura about you -
an aura of peace and serenity.
No fear. No expression of anxiety.
just a deep committed faith, a knowledge.
We shared a secret you and I.
We shared a hug; a tranquil moment.
Not knowing, yet knowing so much,
saying little except by look or touch.
No last rites - no time.
No consecrated bread or wine.
No oil to annoint or prayers
to guide you home - just me.......
Just me, sitting with you on your bed.
Just a stranger's hand to hold,
yet nothing strange -
A deep unspoken understanding,
A unity of spirits. A conjoining of souls.
You touched my heart with your grace.
Your eyes penetrated my intrinsic epicentre
and imprinted in my mind, your face.
When I heard you'd gone I wept inside -
I didn't know you, why?
Death is no stranger to me
I meet it every day -
Yet sometimes, a departing soul pauses for a while,
and there's a glimpse, a clue,
like you when you were still here - or there
when you were in death's waiting room.
Strangely, I was too.
Categories:
epicentre, inspirational,
Form:
Epitaph
What a sight to behold! A home to immigrants,
a spectacular city rolled with a wealth of arts!
predominantly Catholic with its many facets
its historical resonance and genesis of existence.
While it’s a welcome contrast from other countries,
there’s evidence that it’s replete with triumph and fall;
just after Bolzano, Trento, Rovereto, Verona Porta Nuova,
Peschiera del Garda, Desenzano della Garda-Sirminione and Brescia.
That from Milan Central Station the train arrives in Monaco.
Indeed, I was so impressed to see the main city
its combined history and culture; a satisfaction
just on the horizons they gave me an enormous impression
to the so-called civilization that München defines its soul.
Churches can be found almost in every corner
with their baroque or lavish rococo architecture,
some artifacts and gothic designs in some parts
in the eye of the beholder, they’re indeed a treasure.
People from all walks of life converge at the epicentre
the bustling footpaths, crowded shops and restaurants
with families from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Pakistan
Asians or other Europeans in common desire
this place holds a promise for future and families.
Germans in general, love to drink and hang out with friends
a place like Hofbräuhaus where huge crowds can be found
a good description, the best picture to recall.
Deutsch, the language spoken but difficult to learn
gave me an impression of its beauty in articulation.
With their conventional greetings like in many other cultures
respect is the by-word along with courtesy and reason.
like the Olympic Park, Marienplatz, Nymphenburg palace,
English Garden, Königsplatz and many other sights
They’re beautiful places steeped with history and connection
to the people of München who love their own culture.
I may not be keen about other European cuisines
however, as a person drawn to taste them all
with a sweet tooth I couldn’t resist a typical German version
of the American pancake served in the morning
kaiserschman, its name and it’s common to all.
Categories:
epicentre, friendship, imagination, introspection, life,
Form:
Narrative
In the middle of the universe, I stand
deep in my chamber of death, resurrected
with no recollection of the life before
no memories of past civilizations
no planets, no comets, no Ra
In this dark vastness, my pyramid is a spaceship
launched from the Sahara desert, seeking companionship
carrying the hieroglyphics to map the cosmos
pointing to infinity from this epicentre
guided by an interstellar compass
I peer into the vacuum through the ventilation shaft
into the continuum with no soul insight, no stars right or left
I stand alone, unconscious and omnipresent as a GodKing
surrounded by silence and confusion,
I break down the walls with a big bang!
My complexion bares lashes of solar winds and sandstorms
my scarred eye sockets carry two insignificant helium atoms
they split into magnifisance to allow me instant sight, with a profound vision
with time stretching, with no hesitation,
from nothing take to the force of gravitation
To recreate anew, my ultimate universe
to set in motion galaxies and create a new paradise
to start a perfect system based on irrefutable laws of physics
pouring out light into the empty, dark space,
at the speed of light, to split the seconds
Categories:
epicentre, science fiction, stars, universe,
Form:
Rhyme
Perspiration beads my beleaguered brow,
running in rivulets down cheeks aglow.
A hazy miasma the air does plough,
electric energy begins to flow.
Distant rumblings, crowned palm trees start to shake,
gorgeously lush green fronds partner their dance.
Waves rippling the ground harbinger earthquake,
eerie silence, then lightning’s jagged lance.
An earth shrieking crescendo tears dark skies,
a tsunami of sound deafens each mind.
Birds of Paradise scream with fearful cries,
as two tectonic plates viciously grind.
Silence resumes, a young friend lifts his head,
widened eyes white within a dusky den.
I speak, “See brother we live we’re not dead,
dispela wantok bilong Jackson Ken.”
Footnotes:
I lived in Papua New Guinea for four years in the 1990’s.
The earthquake was 6.5 on the Richter scale, epicentre within 50 mile away.
Jackson Ken is a young Papua New Guinean man whom I befriended and who ended
up working for the company that I was managing.
The last line is Pidgin English, widely spoken in P.N.G., its root bases are German,
Dutch and ‘modified’ English. It basically means that this fellow/man (dispela, which
is me) is a cousin brother (wantok, usually associated with another member of your
own village) belonging (bilong) to Jackson Ken.
Categories:
epicentre, nature, people, placesbrother, brother,
Form:
Quatrain
Two love birds collide
Different world
Different cities
Different colour
A tale of two cities
Like a
cinderella
story...
The groom
chocolatey
The bride
lights up
What an
attraction
Between
Unlike
poles...
When the
chocolate
enters
The bride
lights up his
world
He said he
loved her
He pursued
determinedly
He was
focused
and
patient....
And he got
his "Prize"...
As the day
drew nigh...
For the walk
on the aisle
Everyone in
high spirits...
Preparations
all the way..
To make it a
day
Dat lasts
long in the
memory
Trumpets
blowing..
Drums
banging
Dancers
strutting
their stuff
Standstill...the
order of the
day
All nooks
and
crannies
filled
For just two
people
Destined to
be *father
and mother*
Of many
nations*
Union that
has been
God-
ordained
To
transform
and mould
lives
With Jesus
at the
Epicentre..
The rivers of
excitement
flows
through my
bloodstream
Now its a
month of
God-fulfilled
promise
Tick tock
says the
clock....
A month in
no time
Will lead to
a year
And to a
decade....
Double
decades...
and
many more
If Jesus
tarries....
God will
*jinki* you
with seeds
That will
continue
your vision...
And your
parental
roles fulfilled
You shall
not lax
in
your
responsibilities
To
yourselves....
And seeds....
You are an
eagle
Destined to
soar...
You shall
shine...
Brighter
than the sun
You shall
walk with
God
Like never
before
*jinki*
yoruba word
for enrich...
(An
indigenous
language in
nigeria)
Categories:
epicentre, best friend,
Form:
Free verse
Gale force winds have blown away the top of his skull
Impaled by a fallen tree with the prison of his mind exposed
Tim’s pierced splintered and dismembered fragments
mash freely with mushed grey matter ready for take off
A lobotomy of sorts a wholesale removal of a vanishing soul
‘Do not worry, this too will pass you cannot fight nature’
but his thoughts and emotions are lost in oblivion and void
‘After thunder comes the rainbow’ but his colours have faded
Blank paint on black canvass and no light in havoc and pain
‘Take those pills they are pink orange purple and yellow’ yet
braindead waves guts gore pillage and plunder have followed
the storm and Tim lies numb naked dissected and ruptured
Electro-convulsion as last resort has failed as the straight jacket
burst at its motionless seams and beams have nailed him to a cross
and cross fire frying lightning and thunder into hot ashes and gashes
Angels found no right nor rite of passage with all traffic suspended
The eye of the storm's euphemism in contempt of torrential calm
as a mental Hiroshima engulfs him at the epicentre of destruction
Fully enshrined in atomic radiance Tim has neither time nor energy
left for the I-Self in tempest’ turmoil and blesses his very own death
Categories:
epicentre, depression,
Form:
Free verse
Notre terre qui est à Votre taille
Forgive us please our enormous bilious hubris
The quasar-lit heavens smile only down upon us
For Our Master he presideth over the Universe
Our Architect-Father he beds down in the blackest holes
Our temple bells and lodges’ knell toll only for Thee
While Thou slips from one parallel universe to another
Yeah, notre terre qui est à Votre taille
The muezzin’s cry reaches far into the darkest cloud
From turret to galactic turret resounds the prophetic call
Colliding antennae make a murky Baghdad morass
The fallout heralds the bigcrunchy messianic massage
Our Master who art the shine on the Brahmin’s head
Which knows no limbs feet chest nor shivering loins
Forgive us our cowering at the spewing Purusha mouth
For Thine is the thunder exploding forever and ever
Did not a bodhi prince once keep a damning silence
He saw no need to undo Thy mighty male tie
Lest he’s forced to traverse this soil again in rags
Notre terre qui est à Votre taille
As for the other fully bearded nodding mates
They are those who first invoked Thy game
They’ve now bought the world over in Thy name
But prefer to run the banks ‘ere Thou cutteth the rates
Notre terre qui est à Votre taille
Is the epicentre of the roiling boiling might
Where domes echo for the right to languish at Thy side
And watch the Goya geek chew the heathen to shreds
Notre terre qui est à Votre taille
All the stars you see out there in the ever-ever
Are but the conjurer’s balls dancing up in the air
The illusory waking dream of the never-never
Notre terre qui est à Votre taille
Give us every day the fireworks in the sky
For Thine is the show and ours the joy
For ever and ever spinning a lie !
T.Wignesan, November 3, 1997, Fresnes-Paris (Rev. 2012, Paris)
From: T. Wignesan
Copyright ©: T. Wignesan, rev. November 3, 1997 (from the collection: longhand notes (a binding of poems), 1999.
Categories:
epicentre, faith, satire, november, universe,
Form:
Light Verse
Struck nine on Richter scale, seismic waves so
cruel and wild
From epicentre, shot in circles and created
immense terror
Wrath of earthquake, none could escape- be it a
child or to- be bride
Lives lost, families shattered with every devastating
tremor
Sky-scrapers, schools, heritage buildings, homes
reduced to mere rubble
Catastrophe of this kind, sent down the spine
shivers of intense fear
This place lost links from rest of the world like a
vanishing bubble
State forces and rescue teams rushed to help and
save with verve
Shrouded this place, smell of death ; sounds of
pain- cries, screams, grumble
Reached here, medical aid, food, blankets and
people with will to serve
In fond remembrance, flowers , cards, candles
placed for souls departed
Prayers made to the Supreme power, to restore
peace and conserve
These jolts are Mother Earth's cues to remind that
man is not the only celebrated
Reins of control of this globe still lay in her hands
and man needs to stay grounded!!
Categories:
epicentre, anger, earth, holocaust,
Form:
Terza Rima
I knew my heart had been set alight with passion,
that memorable day I cast my very eyes on thee.
Your slightest rebuff to my endless advances
would pose a more formidable challenge to me
than Europe's invincible combined vast army.
The day you unlocked the sealed entrance to thine heart,
was like opening the world's palatial epicentre.
The access you gave me to your love's citadel,
was like the lofty achievement of a world conquest.
Categories:
epicentre, love,
Form:
Irreplaceable!
This world that I know of, is, - 'the family's' living room,
visitors, weaving fabrics of many designs in this loom!
Generations searched, yet - still unaware 'where from'!
But, established a relationship and a working decorum!
Every equation made in, been reproduced or morphed,
every working dimension thence, replaced or swapped!
All of it is just titular, that has to move-on and change,
from moment to moment in time, but, that ain't strange!
Environment rolls-on, all over playing perfunctory a role,
inducing circumstances, staving us - off from our goal!
Mind incessantly vying, measure-up for one's relevance,
forming opinions, judgements, ever claiming prominence!
Change is constant, in all animate and inanimate forms,
transforming all and sundry, the most basic of all norms!
Nothing and no one can ever be exempted from this code,
delve deep-in to realise - its a commonly travelled road!
Seers looked around for and searched, in ways accessible,
looking for something or that someone, ever, 'irreplaceable'!
Gleaned, it is not about the world that's 'visible and invisible'!
but, the noumenal presence to look for, almost untraceable!
Raise questions obversely beyond, about time and space,
transcending our temporal, the mind and intellect's chase!
Thinking, not on 'the thought' or about 'the physical thinker',
transfix thyself on 'urge', the one that prompts 'the thinker'!
Going past layers after layers with a single minded focus,
you will stumble upon 'I' - 'the Self' amidst all as one locus!
In a trance, enthralled in an all encompassing bliss 'n' joy,
discover 'That' - 'the Irreplaceable', an epicentre of all ploy!
Categories:
epicentre, allusion, how i feel,
Form:
Quatrain
Dedicated to the best poet of us all.
I dive into you
The mud-coloured heaven
Fragments embracing with age
A dull rock and hammer shadow
Your small mouth
Free and feline with words carrying
The strength of the cartillage they cling
to. Ochre barnacles, love letters
In their cordless vowels
Unrounded and rolled off the tongue
Like liquid.
The many monsoons inward
I woke dull in my ditch this brown
Morning, and only an hour since
The epicentre has starved cotton-thin.
I see it before me as a road
Passing longingly into forever
With the dull mists of dead grey
And slow greens of the blue
Bleeding flow of the water's
Nurtured body.
Numbed by only one vowel bursting in
The red-emblem face of another
Rising on thin strings like pearls
So many lifeless words
The only satellites on an otherwise
Starless day.
Categories:
epicentre,
Form:
Free verse
The road
is
Death's open yawn
epicentre
of strange treaties-
mist of starched martyrs
in trajectory's startled
steep,
mangled contortions
in frozen screams
Categories:
epicentre, confusion, death, loss,
Form:
Lyric