Best Futility Poems
The Futility of War
In every little town
The names are written down
Surrounded by poppies red
The young who went to fight
To do what they thought right
blindly followed those who led
To fields of mud and clay
Where lives were blown away
A whole generation dead
“Lest We Forget”---A phrase from Kipling’s “Recessional”
Balassi Stanza
Margaret Foster Sept 29th 2011
There'll be another empty cot on the camp ground tonight.
Alas, a gallant soldier gave his all in the frightful fight.
His anguished pleas for peace were unheard o'er the battle's roar.
Will humankind ever learn from the barbarous futility of war?
There'll be a pair of empty boots at his memorial service today.
His helmet, rifle and identification tags will also be on display.
Also shown is a photo of a lad in the uniform he proudly wore.
Will humankind ever learn from the horrible futility of war?
Empty arms now hang limply that once held him in fond embrace.
Empty hearts that can only be consoled by the Heavenly Father's grace.
Just a simple marble stone will hallow his name forever more.
Will humankind ever learn from the disastrous futility of war?
At the holiday table this year there'll be an empty chair,
Tho' he'll be absent, they will e'er feel his presence there,
As they reminisce about their hero in precious family lore.
Will humankind ever learn from the merciless futility of war?
Oh! That nations would simply follow the Master's Golden Rule,
Practice brotherhood and learn unto others to be less cruel,
And eliminate for all time such savagery to its very core!
Will humankind ever learn from the brutal futility of war?
Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired (© All Rights Reserved)
Futility
my heart breathes its last breath
Embraces its own death
Ready to be reborn
and made anew
Can’t live a lie
Refuse to “do”
and I’ll DIE....
Focus now on why I’ll live
And never touch the sky.
I have to forget you
I have to reject you
But I will never love anyone
like I loved you.....
I heard you whisper
and you never knew it
I wiped the tears from your eyes
But you couldn’t feel it
You’re lost and you’ll never find you
And neither will I
And I’m so sorry--
but I’m NOT.
I'll attempt to reset
Try to forget
But you know, I never will.
Be my dirty little secret
My very worst-kept secret
Sweet, smooth, beautiful poison
My infernal and endless attraction
towards complete and utter self-destruction
I fell in love with the devil
And it will take one heck of an angel
To save me from the likes of you....
My addiction
my confusion
my nightmare
my dream never to come true
Oh, I’ll never forget the times
we never shared
I’ll never forget
how you were never there
Always me, the stars, and tears
And I ask you,
what kind of life is THAT?
I have to face the facts
I don’t know what happens now
but it happens without you.
The stains will always be there
the scars will never fade
But the memory of you----
it HAS to.
I could carry the torch forever
But it would only consume me
I can’t cry another tear for you
Or I’ll dry up completely
It doesn’t affect you
and you never deserved me
You’ll go on with your life, too
All, all alone
Because you’ll only ever be in love
with you.
No more new year resolutions,
no more lie on government restitution,
no republic can survive its dilution
no more pandemic blues,
no more wild-eyed cons[iracy cues
no more revenue that's due,
just a prayer for every ordinary me and you;
give me liberty, opinion and my own discretion
a say in the congressional gridlocked sessions
and give me my freedom of choice,
keep your Beemer, Lincoln, Lexus and Rolls Royce,
help me vote, let me speak my voice;
let me give my fair share
how much do you care
about health, hunger, poverty and medicare,
brother do you have a dime to spare,
is anyone with common sense there?
Where are the children too long missing
who's corporate behinds are you now kissing
what's with all the anger and the hissing,
end these shootings, hate fires the looting dissings
help the homeless and the poor, stop the dismissing
are your senate raging rants just visual political pissing?
Schumer, Pelosi, Manchin, McConnel and McCarthy
what is the point of your political party,
you play your little games of cat and mouse
while nothing is done in Senate or in House?
Get to work, do your jobs
stop the lobby dance and cut the hobnobs,
too long perhaps you hold power
all governments are now, equally soured
while the general population is deflowered.
I feel the futility
after decades
of my fingers flitting
like dragonflies
over the keys
my once hopeful heart
shriveled and shrunken
as a plum into a prune
Shakespeare and Miller
Marlowe and Pinter
will never again
pick up the plume
to pen another
poem or play
yet they live on today
while my words
wither in the womb
Stillborn they are silently
whisked away unread
without a funeral
to the tomb
Futility
open your eyes
open them
I demand it
words shot
across sacred boundaries
aim for the heart,
the living zone
to take it down,
you down
into my ache
tears
useless
coruscating
acidangry drops
squeezed out
between fired lashes
hot, burning
across cheeks
create deep channels
of frustration, pain.
Searches
appear for
some final answer
to the make-up of
the universe
to what makes me tick~
A wish for a
finality wiping out
all further queries~
Stories are squeezed
for their hidden
treasures~
There may be
whispers
of futility with an
undertone of
freedom~~
F or each life lost a mother grieves
U ntil the last shot is fired she will never sleep.
T ears will fall as we count the cost.
I ll winds blow as the war goes on.
L ove must prevail for peace to win
I t must stay strong to make evil give in.
T ime ticks by with each life snuffed out.
Y et no lessons are learned as the enemies shout
O f rights and power,
F orce and might,
W illing the other to acknowledge they are right.
A lways remember that for each life lost
R emains a nation counting the cost.
What CHOICE does one have at the crossroads of life
When winter sets in and SUMMER is done,
When the CANDLE does flicker with the roil and the strife,
When life seems to end when barely begun?
When does one gauge of the tides that are TURNING?
Your smile becomes a grimace, and your vision gets blurred,
Your youth is all spent in the rat race you were running,
You once had great diction but now your words are all slurring.
You've eaten of food that was worthy of kings,
Your body you've sculpted, Adonis you had become.
You had positived your mind, did other such things,
But what now you ask what is your sum?
Time is the leveler he'll undo what you've done.
Relentless he is, bereft of clemency.
From his sure clasp you just cannot run
As you turn into grist in his mill of EFFICIENCY.
~25 May 2016~
WORDS USED FROM POEMS:
1. No CHOICE
2. SUMMER heat
3.The CANDLE andthe flame
4. On TURNING forty
5. EFFICIENCY
Out into the rainy streets,
the desolate, deserted byways
far beyond any visible horizons,
he entrusted his life force--
Energy that came back to him
as so many drafts and drizzles,
accumulating over the years
as puddles that caught his feet
and pounded at his foundations.
He was asked about the saying
that what goes around, comes around;
but the query became an echo,
and his response, too hollow to grasp.
The sights and sounds
twist and twirl
only to decay
and die in peace,
upon a sea
amid the fronds of
mediocrity
borne upon the
wings of fate.
We look and cannot see
the things which bother most,
that nit and pick and boast,
and dare us to the test
of time to sit
and twiddle for a rhyme.
Then say....the heck
with all the rest.
© Charles Henderson
23 Dec. 2016
Cherry blossom lips
harpy of my clouded life,
order mocked by hips-
lashed, ocean blue eyes knife
Elegante, my unaware amour
masters the reasons I flee
archaic heroes of tragic lore-
rue their shades transpire in me.
I wonder at an angel's grin,
enrapt, hording her laughter.
Diamonds pale, like rivered stones,
incomparable company with my love.
But a bastard in rags-eyes avert!
Beat yourself back to the sot's cruel cage!
in those oceans you're but the Boatman's shirt
never noticed, consumed by tidal rage.
catch the rainbow
a pot of gold awaits
futile quest
FUTILITY TWO
Extremism
Communism
Socialism
Fascism
Bigotry
Slavery
Misogyny
All futility
Humans need to want to change their attitudes,
Tolerance taught to chicks and dudes,
Set our daily intention,
No dumb arguments for attention,
Here's a job for your 'my sons',
On every building, a roof top garden,
The future is not too far on,
Instead of guns, grow Oxygen,
Yes, a 'Silent Spring' indeed,
When we've destroyed all plants and trees,
Why not use compacted plastic for beams?
Think of your own creative solutions,
Nukes and munitions are mind pollutions,
How futile would be genocide museums,
with no one on Earth left to see 'em?
The king loves his creatures quite white
Colored beings make him uptight
From those he’ll secede
Though that won’t succeed
Since leaving this Earth’s not too bright