Best Going With The Flow Poems
this non conformist city
breathes a calm but edgy air
through gaps in the graffiti
and the street art everywhere
its face is sometimes brutal
but its heart and soul seem not
and it walks a sexy diverse walk
that’s cold yet somehow hot
(but I know I’m getting older
when those fun thoughts in my head
reject the swinging KitKatClub
for KitKat bars instead)
and all those wearing AirPods
sipping hot drinks on the go
pass tourists taking boat trips
slowly going with the flow
while the 'high tea' of a bratwurst
served from food trucks on the street
is eaten at tall tables
en plein air without a seat
and just like high end stores at home
the windows dress up nice
displaying bling that's priceless
- as it’s shown without its price
note too that no one jaywalks here
by crossing roads at will
not even during rush hour
when the traffic’s standing still
and when it comes to bridges
here’s a fact that crossed my mind:
there are more here than in Venice
and in Amsterdam combined
and by saving time by taking trams
that move berlin about
we spent time taking time in parks
where locals take time out
while the aiming and the shooting
by the wall towards the west
was just us aiming cell phones
shooting selfies with the rest.
but the death camp films and clothes we saw
of the many that were killed
brought tears that drowned a silence there
for the blood that humans spilled
and I cannot start to comprehend
the minds of those who kill
and just because I went there
- and just because I stood there
- and just because I wrote this
doesn’t mean I ever will.
What a lovely sight it is to see all the fish in there
Wonderful creatures swimming about everywhere
Large ones and small ones graceful as they move
They are swimming around with nothing to prove
The Hypostomus plecostomus adheres to the glass
Cleaning the tank not letting any algae pass
Colourful clashes of many tropical creatures
Blending in nicely with all the tanks features
Red tailed sharks, Angel fish and Guppies too
Relaxing to watch them and the things they do
Aquarium plants sway gently going with the flow
Bubbles full of air up to the top they go
A community of fish are living and survive
There are no real predators so they stay alive
Feeding and swimming in their own special way
Creating their own young so they will always stay
Ornamental coloured pebbles lay on the bottom
Plecky is still cleaning up so nothing goes rotten
How wonderful it is to see all the fish share
Every last bit of food and bubbles of air
Brilliant lighting and coloured bubbles rise
They feed from the food a sprinkled surprise
Characters abundant each fish has its own
From a tiny fish fry oh how they have grown
I been seeing my life through a cloudy veil.
Although it was my fault, my own sight I did curtail.
I believed in going with the flow, how could I fail?
Until my soul I taxed with a enormous bill of sale.
Hesitation became a crutch that I demurely hid behind.
Disillusionment concealed from my unconscious mind.
Instincts I ignored, to my ego, that was unjustly unkind.
Creating a hazy web of sorts internally, once all combined.
I lifted the veil and my vision is suddenly crystal clear.
Insight of self, promises an astronomical year.
Finally squelching the doubts whispering in my ear.
Thinking positively, I make a leap in my career.
Independence is now something I truly embrace.
Confidence is stronger, my fears I do solemnly face.
Life is now full of possibilities, no longer an enclosed space.
Lifting that veil, I can now contentedly say, I found my place!
Cecilia Macfarlane
They didn't rush out to greet him
When Father time made his call...
They traded house and picket fence...
For one room down a long hall
like soldiers standing watch...
They take turns staring at the clock...
And wonder where the babies are....
They used to rock!
He said....It's Grand Central Station...
Every day, at breakfast call
Between the walkers and the wheelchairs!
She said.....Be glad that you can walk!
Silence streaks across the room...
And a hush falls on the hallway...
When the announcer says...bingo has...
Been cancelled... for today!
Oh! They're going with the flow
Like candles...when he wind begins to blow...
Two precious silver tears...
....in their golden years
They are going with the flow!
Close friends and family...
Don't come around much...anymore
So they comfort one another...
'Thought that what friends were for....
They pack up to go back home.....
About once a week it seems...
And the nurse softly smiles...
As she unpacks their things...
They are going.....
Going.......Goi
Here someone goes again, blowing smoke out their pipe.
Just going with the flow, using a common stereotype.
Here's a black man, I wonder how many kids he has on child support.
If he's late to a meeting, he's always a day late and dollar short.
There is a Mexican outside the Home Depot store,
he must be illegally looking to do a gardening chore.
If you see one Mexican go into a house, I swear,
inside you'll find at least forty people living there.
What's that over there, yellow skin, yep Hong Kong.
Better hide your cat unless you want to say so long.
I bet he could build me a robot if he tries.
Yeah they are all real smart, them oval eyes.
I see a man with a turban on his head, my final doom.
Better start running away now, before he goes boom.
We know he's got to be a terrorist,
see if he's on the most wanted list.
Who else is out there that I can bash?
Oh yeah, what about the white trash.
That gosh dang redneck hillbilly.
His brain is small just like his willy.
Everything mentioned above must be true.
So you must decide, what are you going to do?
Say something back and even up the score?
Or decide that words aren't worth going to war?
I think that if we just walk and go our separate way,
then the one speaking it, will have nothing left to say.
It is not worth your time to get mad over what you heard.
At the end of the day, it is still nothing but a word.
"Screening Process"
They overtake, they overcome
Making us forget where we are from
Expansion of a new world means contraction of another
through unauthentic, pixilated possibilities
While pioneers stay in cubicles these days
They refuse to compute, losing touch, losing touch
Experience depends on going with the flow
Of electricity, pay the bill to get a thrill
how much absence of the outside do we need?
Our hearts have grown fond enough.
If we are taking one step forward,
Why does it feel like two steps back?
Sitting down we are planted, grounded
The sedentary seed supposed to grow, I merely
Wish to wash technology away
Doused in sheets and the rain of regret
To touch and smell and get a taste of the real
Let's go play a game of catch.
With glorious primordial certainty
the sun will rise, the sun will set;
likewise you languish knowing what you're about,
you know what is and isn’t so;
yet, ultimately, you don’t.
Chained to the chromium railings of
a sterile value system,
some terminal, addled suffragette,
hollow to the very core, quintessentially
punch-drunk by the ghost fists
of what you do not know;
sometimes you can dream, more often you won’t.
This is all you wanted, surely,
way back when Homer was a pup;
this thing you worked for, this cold material cocoon,
this anaesthetic cult to which you belong;
then again, maybe not.
All your wild beasts are chained and in cages
you painstakingly banged them up;
now you act surprised in a wrung-out
monochrome way
at the quiet death of your protest song
with the former self you have forgot.
Just as a virus will seek out a host,
just as water will find it’s own level;
you’re a schizoid, new age, careworn dolt
with no limits to how far your mind will sink
in unfathomable depths of self delusion.
Wrenched this way and that, going with the flow,
serving both God and the Devil;
but where now is the rebel heart,
the hedonistic happy fool,
the keeper of the demon drink?
no more than a crumbling memory,
the feeblest illusion.
Once burning with such crucial fire,
a quiver full of arrows shot with telescopic vision;
now all that burns no more, doubted by the rain
spat from black clouds of self denial;
no remnant traces of an ex-antihero.
Servile to the whims of children,
and an emasculating harpy
who regards you with derision;
you are alone your own executioner
self judge and juror at the kangaroo trial
self sentenced to figure less than zero.
Life's taken on a whole new meaning
At this late stage on my trek
If I never ever see another tomorrow
It's complete as it'll ever get
Much happier now than I've ever been
There's joy in my heart everyday
The world could end but my life's complete
There isn't much more I can say
A most fortunate soul if there ever was one
Don't know if I deserve this much joy
Not going to fight it, going with the flow
Happy as a kid with a new toy
This may sound a trifle over the top
I'll admit I'm blabbering on
But happiness has taken over my soul
Each day from the break of dawn
A happy camper am I
© Jack Ellison 2013
If anything, please know I tried
I tripped, slipped and fell behind
I came up short, with empty hands
With two left feet, I tried to dance
I never fit inside the lines
The artist had a structured mind
Inside my head, the music played
The world around, I would evade
I imagined that, it went away
To my own beat, my body swayed
But there you stood, a tiny spot
An itty bitty, perfect dot
You longed for that which can't be bought
But mama failed, she forgot
Though it is a selfish thought
Please don't hate me for what I'm not
Each day, I plan
To begin again
A fresh new hand
I dare not bend
A blank page with no scribbles
And hand full of sharpened pencils
As soon as the led on the first pencil snaps
My fingers slip and lose grasp
A perfect package of expectations
Opened a moment too soon
I lose count of my loose ends
My day, now out of tune
I've come to terms with lack of luck
Deciding things just won't look up
I try so hard but for what
Now stubborn and bruised my ego is stuck
I imagine myself going with the flow
Despite my duck's unsightly row
And the fickle nature of that we know
No worries, my darling, mom will show
But now, my love, I finally see
That what I'm striving so hard to be
Is not your mother. It isn't me
It might be the lady down the street
With red lipstick and polished feet
A fictional character, possibly
Someone better, arguably
But perhaps I fulfill a different need
So I'll pass self love down the family tree
Life is never 100% good, or 100% bad
The ups and downs are as normal as breathing
Going with the flow is pretty sound advice
It's how I've been able to stay relatively sane all these years
Each tragedy through life makes us stronger
And makes us able to laugh at all the trials and tribulations
If we could change things, most would opt for better control
But the diversity is what makes us strong
Sounds like a kind of “catch 22” situation doesn't it
We must endure hardships to help us feel better by comparison
It tells us that life is not always a bed of roses
Which is evident by all the nasty stuff
That continues to happen around the world
But if we remain strong, the result is a better understanding
Of what it takes to make it through this crazy old world
I don't profess to have all the answers
This is just my take on living a happy care free life
I reiterate, life is never all good or all bad
© Jack Ellison 2014
It starts out as a little drop of kindness
then it slowly wines its way down to a stream
That stream pours politeness, into the river of respect
which makes the sea of love, burst at its seams
So next time you're standing on hot sand
and the waves come to comfort weary toes
Remember those little drops of kindness
That comes from going with the flow
By JT Curtis July 7 2015
My soul is wild
The weed has increased my vision
Going with the flow
Puffin on my joint
Singing laughing dancing
Everything is gunna be alright
My soul has a grip
Tightly on my brain
Breath in exhale
So much love for mary jane
I do not hate
My soul is flowing
Its dancing around my veins
If I close my eyes
I might loose my mind
A Smokey haze surrounds my face
Touch me once twice
In and out
My soul is wild
I know it's frowned upon
And in certain circumstances it's taboo
I know in the past in hasn't worked out for both of us
And I question myself this can not come true
I don't know whats round the corner and outcomes change
But I am still wanting you even if all the signs are pointing to no
I want to prove the critics wrong and give this a proper go
Ok we are living in a bubble
With hardship along the way
And though I really shouldn't say this
Is this just another work relationship
That will go up in flames?
Are we just living in the moment?
If one of us spreads our wings could we carry the other?
Could we handle our eyes seeing new wonders
from once living in a closed off world together?
Is there a real decent chance for us, If not
...Then I'm not worried
Whatever will be and that is set in stone
I am living in the moment
And that moment just consists of you
So to be happy is all I ask
And in this moment it has finally come true
So i am sticking my middle finger up at all you doubters
You will never be able to put someone off
If that someone is going with the flow
“EVERY SEASON”'
NATURE HAS A WAY OF CHANGE, EVERYTHING'S PRECISE,
GOING WITH THE FLOW OF PROGRESS, PART OF SIMPLE LIFE.
TIME TO BE BORN, TIME TO GROW, TIME TO LIVE AND PASS,
TIME TO VENTURE IN LIFE'S JOURNEYS, HOPING THEY WILL LAST.
NATURE DANCES BY SUN, RAIN, STORMS, AND WINDS OF CHANGE,
CAUSING SHADOWS TO APPEAR, AND VAGUE SILHOUETTES WE ARRANGE.
ELEMENTS OF LIFE FOR US PERVADE, OUR THOUGHTS DEEPEN IN THE NIGHT,
SPECIAL SOULS GRACE OUR WORLD, OF WHICH MANY REMAIN AS BRIGHT.
Nature has a way of change, everything is precise……………………..EVERY SEASON.
“EVERY SEASON” BY: Tom C (2014, All rights reserved)
I was only a drifter,
Was just going with the flow;
My life then had no meaning,
I didn’t know where to go.
Then fate brought us together,
It was the best of my days.
In you I found the reason--
I live to love you always.
Now, what’s to live without you,
I can’t even contemplate.
With you, I can’t ask for more
For your love is adequate.
I only live to love you;
We are each other’s soul mate.
So, Darling, come take may hand--
Hold it tight, don’t let it go
‘Coz I’m afraid that if you do,
My world would lose its rainbow.
And this to you I promise:
In all of life’s ups and downs,
To you I will be steadfast
Until Death claims us at last.
*This poem is inspired by the song of the same title.
April 6, 2023
Fairview, Baguio City