Best Lower Poems
He had no teeth and neither did his girlfriend.
We’d sit in his apartment in the dark drinking margaritas and watch Jeopardy.
He’d answer every question correctly and his girlfriend would cackle.
He’d shoot at the mice with a pellet gun as they scurried in the shadows.
He rarely missed.
Their heads would explode and I would feel queasy.
Then he’d turn back to the TV leaving the brains splattered on the floor and wall.
We’d stay up all night talking and drinking.
He’d stand out front of the building in the snow in slippers always laughing.
He was always laughing.
Even after I moved 3,000 miles away I’d call him up to talk over the phone he’d tell outrageous stories always laughing.
Sometimes those people that are hurting the most laugh the hardest.
He had no one in the world.
His girlfriend and myself, we were his family.
I figured when he someday died his body would simply turn into a skeleton in his apartment.
And he’d still be laughing.
Categories:
lower, 12th grade, death, loneliness,
Form:
Free verse
The sound of an ambulance
in the distance
Some poor soul is
in trouble
A warm day has led
to a moderate August
evening
I feel the tomorrow
sill be a good day
A friend invited me to
listen to a poetry CD tonight
I shall join him shortly
Poetry can cut like
a knife into the soul
If you are willing to let it
The city has is own
has its own type of poetry
Pictures of our
urban life
Let us see the human face
behind the crowds and the tumult
This city is exciting and dangerous
Here on the Lower East Side
we await fall
This area has been the home of
the famous and the obscure
Spanish people play dominoes
while Talmud scholars pour over
holy works in the House of sages
Bicyclists ride by
as runners race by the East River
Losaida - The Lower East Side
Visit us here soon!
Take a walking tour
So you can see the history
of this essential New York neighborhood
Categories:
lower, summer, urban,
Form:
Ballad
I live on the fabled
Lower East Side
Spanish people hanging out
and playing dominoes for money
Children playing ball
in the schoolyard
An Orthodox man
complete with black hat
ambles past the House of Sages
A young Chinese couple
passes by
They look like they are in love
From my apartment I see
light from other apartments
where the people in those apartments
are living the Lower East Side lifestyle
As I ride on the bus
I note people crossing themselves
when they pass the Roman Catholic church
I hear music coming from car stereos
In the park squirrels scurry up trees
A small sparrow
stops momentarily
to eat a piece of food
then flies off into
one of the trees
which is growing in the park
in this most urban of neighborhoods
Categories:
lower, city, urban,
Form:
Ballade
while shaving my beard
in a public library,
i become humbled
Categories:
lower, growth, life,
Form:
Haiku
Halloween Night October thirty-first,
twenty-seventeen. A wet night of lit
cut out jack-o-lanterns, parties, games, cursed
ghouls and goblins, and witches shadows flit.
Children dress in fun or scary costumes
going door-to-door round the neighborhood
shouting, "Trick or treat!" running on sweet fumes
being good, but they eat more than they should.
Today was different; it was a day
of grief and sorrow over an act of
terror; Innocent lives taken away
too soon with families. Where is the love?
An act of sheer terrorism meant to fright
it will not discourage, but make us fight.
11/1/2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Lower_Manhattan_attack
Categories:
lower, bereavement, children, death, halloween,
Form:
Sonnet
Past the bodegas
the House of Sages
Past the children playing
in the yard
Past the drugstore
chains
Past the basketball
hoops - - which remind
me
of a class at Brooklyn College
Past the ice cream trucks
and the kosher bakery
Past the supermarkets
Hearing people
discuss old politics
I head to my home
The Lower East Side
seeing my friends, avoiding my enemies
Looking for peace - as night falls
on Losaida - my home on the Lower East Side
Categories:
lower, urban, home, home, drug,
Form:
Chant Royal
Sitting here listening to
a baseball game on my radio
I feel the joy of a new autumn
The season of the high holidays
Halloween and leaves changing colors
The season of the high holidays
Halloween and leaves changing color
The season of the world series and football
The brutal heat of
the New York City is gone
Cold breezes caress our mortal frames
My team - the New York Metropolitans
are winning
I feel like I will
be a winner this season, too
A season with a new lover, hopefully
I've got women on my mind this fall
Sitting here writing verse
feeling a tinge of anticipation
This late September afternoon
on New York's Lower East side
I feel like I will
Categories:
lower, autumn,
Form:
Concrete
This morning
as I awake
cattle prod
right in the
sacroiliac.
Moooo.
Categories:
lower, humor, pain,
Form:
Pot holes,
dust devils,
Wind sweeping off the ocean onto the oil field by Lower road.
Quiet Field,
Filled with fuel and man's black gold,
Quiet Field
of prosperity and far off plight,
The oil field by Lower road.
Machines of might roll the lands of the oil field.
Pushing dirt, moving land,
rigging chains, trains, boats and trucks
painting the tanks dirty drown
Standing tall, at the oil filed by Lower road.
Men stride the field, like armies in battle, surveying, slow going...errors are costly down at the oil filed on Lower road.
Pine tree dotted, with houses lining the perimeter of the oil field by Lower road awaiting the master and commander after a day, a centurion of the field,
The plot of gold outside the door adjoin to Lower road.
Day in, day out it holds its gold,
pushing it free for a fee,
powering the land in all directions that it can see
The oil field by Lower road.
Categories:
lower, world,
Form:
Light Verse
After listening to a Pharaoh Sanders recording
I pick up my pen to write an ode
I am a published poet
as are all of us here on the "soup"
The Lower East Side is
home to Spanish, Jewish, Chinese with some African Americans thrown in
I see people playing dominoes
I see children playing in the schoolyard
The rain has stopped and I must decide
whether to head to the Y for a swim
or just do some yoga in my space
Writing poetry is not a bad way to pass the time - do you agree friend?
No money in it
Unless you are lucky enough to win a contest
Or are a featured reader at some e reading
Last Saturday afternoon
I attended the "Nomad's Choir" reading
Got up in front of a crowd
Read the my verse
Today I am relaxing on the fabled LES
Just ended a romantic
relationship a few days ago
There are plenty of "Fish in the Ocean"
Not a few of whom live nearby on the
LOWER EAST SIDE
Categories:
lower, break up, urban,
Form:
Ballad
a tick is crawling
in hairs of my genitals
scaring me awake
Categories:
lower, growth, life,
Form:
Haiku
A little south of Heaven
On the Gulf of Mexico
Here in the Heart of Dixie
The living's easy and slow
The weather's mostly nice here
Round Mobile Bay
Sunshine when it ain't raining
It's beautiful today here in L.A.
Living in L.A.
Lower Alabama
Spanish moss, azaleas
A deep south panorama, Lower Alabama
So far south, can't get no farther
Off the map, feet hitting water
A little taste of the bayou
A little twang in our talk
Folks are friendly when they greet you
We say sir and maam and y'all
We love sweet tea, our chicken fried
Shrimp and grits, and pecan pie
And watermelon in season
Man, I love the smell of bacon
Smells like Sunday morning
Like America, tastes like freedom
Living in L.A.
Lower Alabama
Spanish moss, azaleas
A deep south panorama, Lower Alabama
So far south, can't get no farther
Off the map, feet hitting water
Now, some might say we've got it all
Hidden treasures to be found
Bellingrath and Mardi Gras
(The first one, mind you) and the USS Alabama
The stuff of dreams, music scenes
Golden beaches, island streams
Fresh seafood to die for
Piggly Wigglys, there's a few
Foosackly's, can't fake the Foo
A sea of Shunarrah billboards, oh Lord
Living in L.A.
Lower Alabama
Spanish moss, azaleas
A deep south panorama, Lower Alabama
So far south, can't get no farther
Off the map, feet hitting water
Alabam, here where I oughtta be
© 2017.
Categories:
lower, song,
Form:
Lyric
There once lived a lady named Grace
She sure had a gorgeous young face
The laddies would swoon
And howl at the moon
She would set their lower regions ablaze
© Jack Ellison 2015
Categories:
lower, humorous,
Form:
Limerick
grooming in my car
in a dark, dawn parking lot,
again i'm humbled
Categories:
lower, growth, life,
Form:
Haiku
those golden oldies
got me through many
sundays
of ripe raw sadness
Categories:
lower, growth, joy, life, music,
Form:
Haiku