Best Lately Poems
Recent events in my life have made me think about love
and saying the words ‘I love you.’
My father was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer
Every time I see him and mum I say how much I love them both
- one day soon I will never be able to say those words to them again.
The words ‘I love you.’ We use them with our partners in a romantic way,
maybe we don’t say it often enough and just take it for granted that they
know we love them.
I say ‘I love you’ to my son – maternal love – to me it is simply the best feeling
in the world
Close family – we love them but in a different way to that of our partners
and children.
Darren Watson’s unexpected recent illness has made me appreciate how
lucky I am to have wonderful friends and I just want to let people know
how very special they are to me.
You may have noticed that I always sign off my comments
with ‘Hugs Jan xx’ – two expressions of love
and we all need a hug and a kiss from time to time.
Jan Allison
22nd August 2014
I have reformatted the poem a bit so you can see my words in full
A piano being played
A donkey chasing carrots
A suitor turned suitless
A wise man turned fool
I think you cannot decide
I think you refuse to decide
I think I thought I knew
I think I think too much
About only you
About only will you
About only won’t you
About only maybe
So weary of maybe
So weary of won’t you
So weary of will you
So weary of about you
Life is short
Life is fragile
Life is precious
Life goes on…
Musing Lately
Let’s just say
with my husband now having heart troubles and my
being old (& bedridden while waiting for my new prosthetic-leg) makes for on-going thinking, remembering, observing, reflecting, tentatively concluding, believing
how the ineffable ultimately rules…and one’s
language (for all its commanding need to be used with a true Love ) finds w
o
r
d
s
to be less than their expressive task f
a
i
l
(despite even some i
divine inspiration)
n
g
to cast some light brighter
than the humble votive’s flame flickering in the heart —
Or more than the one tear — felt but unseen' — in the corner of the eye, bringing along its cathartic story …ready to fall down over the cheek…
Or to realize (especially after 40 years togerther) that devotion lives well beyond a 3-word statement in heights carried there by a tried, spiritual touching of our auras in the room: lives aligned for better or worse in the profound music that our closeness creates. The poems are born in being or feeling before the written.
(c) sally young eslinger 7/13/24**
In my youth, i was a devotee of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. (Beckett even sent me a hand-written letter in response to one i sent him.). I pretty much memorized “Waiting for Godot.” Joyce and Beckett both saw words dissolving — into the ineffable. Some powerful poems lead us there, but that there, I’ve found is in the unspeakable.
He's given you the breath of life
His Son made the ultimate sacrifice
by taking on all of your sins
so what have you done for Him?
He's awaken you to see a new day
given you instructions to guide your way
so I ask this question to you once again
lately, what have you done for Him?
God is your Creator
He made Heaven and Earth
He's been your spiritual generator
since the moment of your birth
He only asks that you give Him
honor, glory and praise
and to be an obedient sheep
one who never strays
so what have you done for Him lately?
Rudolph was a late comer to our 1823 story,
arriving 116 years later he grabbed all the glory.
His nose is red, so much for what's true.
He's just a rookie at bring Xmas gifts to you.
For Andrea's Christmas Clerihew Contest
Just to set things straight before I rant on.
I believe in God
Religion in almost any form disgusts me
They were given this earth and life in all its glory
What did they do in appreciation ?
They promptly invented a better place!
Heaven. Paradise. Angels, Virgins (why?)
And of course Satan with his burning Hell
It's like being given water to drink and defecating in it
Oh I forgot, we did that.
Then of course they branched out into sects
Protestant, Catholic, Sunni, etal
Convincing Irish men to war with each other
over how to please God
As to Earth (The Gift from God)
They war over who gets to destroy it
They die to actually own it
Complete with headstone.
Usually in the best area for living.
How do you religious ingrates live with this sin?
In blind senseless destruction of all it can be.
Lately i've been thinking
Am i blue or am i pink
Am i living out this life in real time
Or merely following the highlights
Can i or could have indeed done
anything different
Made better choices gone right
instead of left
Or is it and was it all predestined
And i just a passenger or guide
Here is where i am
Where i was simply unavoidably
meant to be
Until my clock expires and so do i
Not a second more or less to buy
Where i stand is where i die
Lately i've been thinking
I think to much
Wishing what limited time
i have away
Complaining rather than
being grateful and relishing
All the thing's i am bound to miss
Thing's i wish i should and could
have done
But put off in favour of doing
nothing of consequence
Worthy of a single memory or
anecdote to last me or keep
me company for eternity
If someone was in death to ask
When I found you in bed, you had just died.
I wept; my grieving lodged inside my head;
you clearly were gone—I was horrified!
As you lay still in bed, utterly dead,
the huge shock I felt could not be denied,
as tears gave way to muffled sobs and dread.
Mother, I always had longed for your love:
you loved the one who never for you wept.
When your tired spirit had risen above,
I knew my tears were hopelessly inept;
meanwhile, we all assembled to remove
your slumbering corpse as it quietly slept.
Hours passed when we all gathered for your wake,
a solemn event that was neither good
nor sane as we all tried (for pity's sake!)
to offer our condolences if we could.
You laid there like marble—no more awake.
A victim of fate, I felt like deadwood.
The final day arrived: the ceremony
was on Sunday, which was dark and sunless;
dream-like, bizarre, and strange, all was eerie.
Distraught, I was overwhelmed and bloodless!
As they gave your last rite and obsequy,
I, too, died more than words could ever express.
It's impossible to hum with your nose plugged
Don't try it you'll give yourself a hernia
About two hundred babies are born every minute
Guess there's not much doing in suburbia
Dust under your bed is your own dead skin
Unbelievable but that's what they say
There are more nerve cells in the human brain
Than there's stars in the Milky Way
The water you drink has already been drunk
By others, what a charming thought
Donkeys kill more people than plane crashes
That's not something I think of a lot
A million dollars in one hundred dollar bills
Weighs only about twenty-two pounds
A disposable diaper holds seven pounds of pee
That's too much information I've found
97% of money contains a trace of cocaine
Have you sniffed your dollar bills of late
The glue on Israeli stamps is certified kosher
This leaves me in an overwrought state
10 million bricks are in the Empire State Building
Masons surely had a heavy load
That's it for now but there'll be more to come
Keep an eye out for them down the road
© Jack Ellison 2013
I was looking over my stuff here, and itseems I've lost the talents I once knew here.
I write ancedotes for my column. I do journalism- always some deadline or project that I work well under the pressure of it all.
Writing is what I truly love!
There is just so many varied types I do, my poetry is suffering.
I enjoy reading the great writers here.
Sometimes I do not comment or remark because it is art and I'm at a loss of words.
It's just been enlightening to live such a full life, and to be right here, right now amazes me. I'm searching for some old therapeutic writes. I was on alot of medications at one time.
A victim of spousal abuse.
I came back up North severly medicated, drolling and my family would whisper, she'll never be right again.
Post Tramatic Stress Disorder aint no joke.
To be me, knowing what I do, and how very long it took me to recover...
When some never do.
Many men were nice to me along the way, poetrysoup has the best men in the world, they will embrace your differences, and encourage you to keep your chin up, and keep your pen flowing.
Vince I love you! Frank, you are the best friend that a girl to ever have! You've sent me so many books of stamps to write you back and also send you the latest edition of the magazine I am featured in monthly. Everyone has those times in their life, when nothing goes right. How you knew without me saying a thing.
Are you alright? a concerned letter in the mail when I was having it rough- and the presents that made me cry. It may have been a framed poem, but it meant the world to me, and still does.
And lastly John,
Why oh why did I pick the most just man to give the hardest time to?
He has put up with so much from me over the years. I love him with everything in me. If not for being a true servant of God where would I be without him.
I remember 5 or six years ago, and his lady, whats your problem?!
Well John, you are the very sweetest man I've ever known in my life... without you I would still be cold to the Lord. So many years and mile stones along the way. I can leave here, but just like the sands of Florida, you'll always see me back.
Thank You All, for reading me, but more - to support the struggling writers that fall between the cracks in society.
I love you Frank. I love you John. Don't ask which one more, because John is single and Frank is not hehehehe
Lately I feel like your ATM Machine
Instead of your daughter
Mom I know you really never was in my life
But now sense you been it just feels like you only want to use me
And when you don't get your way
you are mad at me
It isn't my job to support you
I love you
But It time for me to cut the strings
And for us to go on our ways
Because you are still not a mother to me
I hate to do this
Sorry.
"Eat poor that day, eat rich the rest of the year.
Rice for riches and peas for peace."
- Southern saying on eating a dish of Hoppin' John on New Year's Day.
The first of twelve grapes eaten
quickly at midnight was sour.
January will be bad.
Better eat one more!
Collard greens I despise are
folded large bills on my plate.
Legumes represent mere coins.
I’ll eat tons of beans!
Pigs push forward; chickens don’t.
Hating pork, I can’t progress.
Eating noodles for long life -
Oops, my noodle broke!
Fish and round foods give good luck.
I don’t eat fish. No matter.
I might find the lucky prize
in the New Year’s cake.
Note: Mentioned in this poem were some of the more common
foods of the New Year dinner and the traditions surrounding them.
For Russell Sivey's Good Luck Meal Contest
I used to love Elvis's songs and watched all of his fine concerts;
then the long-haired Beatles came from England
and he was almost swept away in his own land!
Suddenly, new artists names appeared on the Billboard Charts,
I couldn't stick to a specific artist:
I guess they all sang to the heart!
Because of my age, people think I am a square,
I listen to Maroons 5, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry;
I can name more vocalists whom I enjoy on my Galaxy phone,
but what really matters is Pop Rock influence on me lately.
Does it mean that Pavarotti is out of the picture?
No, a great performance is still a delight to hear...
even Bocelli sings pop with a conservative style:
I embrace them all, did I forget fashionable Cher?
Lately God has been showing me close-ups
His cross right in front of me
His face, his thorns
His eyes
My heart
3/17/2021
Lately it seems to be getting darker sooner.
Lately it seems that the days drag on longer.
Lately it seems all is lost in confusion.
Lately it seems to be feeling a bit colder.
Lately it seems that nothing can go right.
Lately it seems that the rain won’t stop.
Lately it seems the walls are closing in.
Lately it seems that the air has been thinner.
Lately it seems that the sunshine isn’t warm.
Lately it seems like the moon has been hiding.
Lately it seems that doing the right thing, hurts.
Lately it seems as if the pain is alive.
Lately it seems…well let just leave it at, “Lately it seems.”