Best Mekong Poems
WHO IS THE GIANT OF THEM ALL
Animals or humans, who is the giant of them all?
Bearing a two sheathed wings, the Hercules Beetles
crash the Titans (beetle) growing more than six inches.
Down the dirty waterways of China is the Mekong catfish
extending at ten feet, tummy-filled with one
full swallow of a child... Horrible!
Godzilla in Japan's sea is the Nomora Jellyfish!
However, the tipped nightmare fuel
incorporeal spill is not at all hazardous.
Jamison Stone, an eleven year old boy,
killed almost, this wild giant hog of 1051 lbs.
Lizards like the giant Salamanders aren't cute at all--
measuring six feet long: the largest of their kind!
Nuisance to Australia's dangerous wildlife, cane toads,
originally are found in South and Central America!
Power and beauty
quiets all his challengers when Percheron
runs, runs fast in a horse race!
Savory staple is the spider Crab but warning!
Their claws can do some serious damage!
Under a tree, don't be shock of the flying fox:
vampires to sweet-juices of fruits in New Guinea...
Weighing over a ton, Trigger is the cow for truckload of macs!
Xenopos are Cameroon Goliath that can live up to fifteen years.
Yes, humans are tough but compared to these behemoths,
zings we have are just their toys!
______________________________________________________________________
***Source:
http://www.viralnova.com/giant-animals/ and
http://diply.com/different-solutions/20-unbelievably-giant-animals/30768/4
***nightmare fuel - stingray; flying-fox - bat
==Sponsor Name: Broken Wings==
=Contest Name: Trashed #2=
==6th place==
O. E. Guillermo
2:49pm, September 04, 2015
Once again, the powers that must
In rise again in what we trust
An overseas conflict, another war
Just what in the hell are we fighting for
Families are asking, Korea has just passed
Generations again reft, how long will it last
A country in need, to rebuild again
Flags at half mast, in wind and rain strain
Once again into war, sent by the Washington Post
To send back reports to hit home the most
Military observers were the first to be sent in
Another chapter of man entering existing sin
I'm witnessing our ariel power, Lam Son 719
US planners determine their incursion, saying all will be fine
Along the Mekong River, we'll carpet bomb their supply trail
Tons of munitions and napalm, this spread surely cannot fail
Many sorties are being flown, for the wounded and the dead
Whilst Nixon and his cronies, aren't thinking with their heads
The news of losses has reached me, nineteen have been killed
Eleven missing, fifty nine wounded, more American blood spilled
Seven fixed wing aircraft, more sons in action loss
Whilst back at home more protests, fading the dyeing's gloss
To to this job that I do, I was never prepared for this
To witness such bloody scenes, and ignore that life is bliss
How can I write about a soldier, whose name I'll never know
Killed at nineteen years old, his family he'll never see grow
Or even explain to his parents, when carried from the AH-1
His body bullet riddled and limp, when lifted it bloodily run
I never went back to the theatre, called the Vietnam War
Having witnessed the wanton killing, what were we fighting for
This colonial conflict that started, us on the side of France
So many came back as strangers, many to live in trance
James Fraser's entry into the contest " WORLD OF WAR: VIETNAM "
Pistols shoot
and rifles unload
thunderous banters
initiate the race
she dives
into the Mekong River
stealth head start
she leads amongst the pack
of four boys and three girls
paddles faster than catfish
other swimmers dive
chasing for the finish line
the Thailand border
no one trains for this race
many do not know
how to swim
instincts ignite energy
in their arms and legs
signals their brain to
pick up the skill
on the spot
faces
splash into
murky depths
greeting a timezone
between breath
and drowning
some legs fail to flap
some racers sink
and one boy gives up
swims back to Laos
the rest continue
down to Paiyanag's home
death cries with people
underwater
either bullets pierce their
flesh or the
breathing
seizes
water filling lungs
100 meters
200 meters
400 meters
her Olympic debut
two hours long
she peeks ahead
sand and shore
on the horizon
her feet do not give up
her hands
cup away whispers
to submerge beneath the Mekong
she ignores temptation
to call it quits
the finish line waits at
Nong Khai refugee camp
no one cares
where they place
first or second
or last as long
as their knees can
sink into dry earth
rather than their corpses
be fish food
she crawls
out the Mekong River
looks back
at her homeland torched
ammo shells whizzing
no audience present
no cheers
no celebration
only the moon
and the stars
watching her
speed
tracking her velocity
until the finish line
her medal for winning
Prison
then,
a new Life
in America
The White Mountains stand upright
Touching the clear blue sky
Fresh cool air for breathing
In the Freedom land for living
In contrast to the year-round green
Of my motherland's scene
Greenish Mountains in winter
On the bank of the Mekong River
Red blood splashes on muddy terrain:
ambushes booby traps fatigue jackets
waiting for the enemy... 98 degrees in the sun,
encountering and returning fire; life barely there
and war’s longest refrain plays on.
There is no jury within hostile grounds,
despite patriotism caught between triggers
as shadows of night weep for freedom’s balm;
no courtroom, unlike before, to defend prisoners
of the Wall, or Mekong… their scraped turmoil
diluted over canned loaf and juice, unheard.
Young knees deep in enemy ‘s clay…
a voice ringing, “ Shoot!”, a motto of allegiance
for homeland, while the instinct to live
kicks, rams into higher gear… young soldiers
too focused to see the eye of fear.
Where is the jury within hostile ground?
Only heaven can discern a topsy-turvy
sense of man's unrighteousness...
As war’s longest refrain plays on, and on.
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John Hamilton's Upside Down World Contest
Re-posted 3/7/2017
Written 3/21/2016
Here's some homework howlers,
By hilarious pupil terrors,
"An octopus has eight testicles."
Did I read that with my spectacles?
"Mozart sailed to Vietnam." For how long?
Why is there a clavichord in the Mekong?
"Rome is now in Africa." Do tell,
Didn't you learn map-reading too well?
"Mummy and Daddy's fave place is bed."
Do your parents really want this read?
Are these mud-coloured glasses, or what?
How did I survive teaching this lot?
It's hard to take them too serious,
Homework howlers, hilarious!
I meandered through the muddy Mekong
Searched in sultry sexy Saigon
Ravished in the Cat Thien Rain forest
Yet I still could not find you
I found myself haunted in Hong Kong
Caught up in the cacophony of China
Trailed my way thoughts to Taiwan
And still I could not find you
I jostled and jaunted through Japan
Hoping Kyoto would hold my Karma
It only got me caught up in Korea
And still I could not find you
So I backtracked and got tormented in Thailand
Which had me pondering Penang
Hoping you would be caught in Kuala Lampur
Yet still I could not find you
I searched for you in the East
Hoping to calm my inner beast
Believing my inner mind to be true
That maybe one day - I'll find you...
The Mariner
Crystal tears falling down my cheeks
Behind the curtain face peeks
My skin so pale with broken lips
Wait for jack-tar and daily trips
The mariner stood so great he is
My soul is jumping into bliss
His face and lips and all i miss
So great feeling cant get through this
How hard i tried to end this dream
It is harder than all it seems
My heart and soul forever scream
The thoughts of him what would it bring
He'll travel far into the north
And leave the ship into the port
No voice came out from my mouth
Cant understand what's all about
Far away in Mekong River
Standing still the pretty lover
I dont know how i can recover
Mariner's love is not forever
Form:
Power of Journeys
New horizons speak in hope and pull me to Pablo Neruda’s country
‘Twenty poems of love’ inspired by Santiago Robinson Crusoe Island
Serene landscapes volcanoes Andean mountains are outspokenly funky
I seek the space vibes vastness Chilean seduction loudly and silent
Few books opened my voice more than ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ scripted
by Alesandr Solzhenitsyn and thus my eyes have to explore the Siberian Plain
Despite all that ice a melting pot of souls minds and cultures encrypted
I need to welcome silence once more and Lake Baikal into my inner terrain
‘The Paradise of the Blind’ with heart blooded ink by Duong Thu Huong
wants exploration quiet reflection uncontaminated comprehension
Nature wrapped in philosophy the Mekong Delta is where I belong
Peace solitude reclusion at times require my full travelling attention
On this voyage Pinochet Stalin and Ho Chi Min can stay in their grave
Blending and mixing with beauty wise words Mother Earth is what I crave
Watch out for that ideology
Bad effects on your psychology
It bleeds into our sociology
‘Til we hate one another’s biology
Let’s make a pact
To get our facts together
Have no ideology
Whatsoever
Hitler and Stalin and Mao and Amin –
Terminating angels of some fantastic machine
Marx and Weber and Keynes and Rand
Raised a fist of thought in hand
But Peter and Paul and the whole Roman Church
Didn’t wanna leave anyone in the lurch
Ho Chi Minh shoved me on a Mekong barge
Meanwhile, the Castros were living large
Let’s make a pact
To get our facts together
Have no ideology
Whatsoever
Apostles, ideologues, acolytes –
Whatever gets you thru the glassy night
The world is your battleground and you must fight
Just watch for the mines under your short sights
Warm air dances in the prairie
In a hot sunny day
Arid smell comes across the barbed wire
To harm my mind
Relaxing under the evergreen
Viewing the heat of the summer scene.
A rice farmer with sunbaked skin,
His old sandals secure the feet
From the drought land.
He looks up to the bright sky
And down the waterless canals
The shallow of the Mekong River
Mother Nature or the face of Destiny
Deal with the fruitless harvest
Have to beg to feed the family
Like in a few recent years.
Warm air dances in the prairie
Blurs the farmer’s shape
Then he disappears in the air
I grasp and uproot the dry grass
The nostalgic dream has just passed.
Warm air dances in the prairie
In the hot sunny day.
The arid smell comes across
The barbed wire to harm my mind;
Relaxing under the evergreen,
Viewing the heat of the summer scene.
A rice farmer with sun-baked skin;
His old sandals secure the feet
From the drought.
He looks up to the bright sky
And down the waterless canal.
The shallowness of the Mekong River:
Mother Nature or the face of destiny;
Deal with the fruitless harvest;
Have to beg to feed the family
Like in a few recent years.
Warm air dances in the prairie
Blurs the farmer’s figure
Then he disappears in the air.
I grasp and uproot the dry grass:
The nostalgic dream has just passed.
You there!! Be happy and smile
Over sorry days don’t whine
Never lose heart, never resign
Time is sterner to the supine
Keep the faith the world is thine
Tomorrow the sun you’ll outshine
Nothing deserves a Man’s cry
Your tears for once do dry
Felicity your likes do vie
Soar the skies, free do fly
Go high, and high and high
Hope has never been a lie
Ahead for ever do go
Your head never bow
Strong, winds may blow
Recall only the marrow
Chasing a storm the rainbow
Green regenerated meadow
Come and sing along
Join your voice to this song
The world to you does belong
Life will recover erelong
Be it here, there or by the Mekong.
Form:
He stands beside this long black granite wall
broken lines accentuated reflection recalled names
It is here where he realized
that intranquility of redemption, even of prayer's forgiveness,
he do not own it any more than he owned heaven
there being no clearing of one's debts here upon it's mirrored surface.
It is here in chiseled silence that he recalled
just when and where he met himself for the first time
among the scarred remains of the killing-fields
where young men grew old far too quickly,
far from the banana boats skipping upstream the tributaries of the Mekong Delta.
In a rice bowl, horror steamed crop circles of paddy fields jungles tangled
within mind's greatest intrinsic fear
death.
It lay visible near pothered doors
where once stood life's vessels - unbroken, now carnage without vestige
of honor, standing unhinged, doors singed, crippled with every breath unnerved,
reduced now here unspoken to names
only
this is where murder is not reserved
solely for murderers many were faced without honor
within this stone their internment.
As for others, they returned home
invisible
ravaged each night a memory of unhinged doors their un-sutured wounds
opening without knocking entering without leaving unforgotten
fears of cleaving sanctity undeserved
here
where there is no vetted self-reflection, only sweat and the tremor of dream's
recollected and fractured surfaces of soul stilled distilled dying a
thousand times a night each night each day unceremoniously
hell reduced to living in heavenly reproach.
(April 24 2016)
*Not for contest...but post inspired by.
*Unceremoniously, 366 blue plastic capsules containing the birthdays that would be chosen in the first Vietnam draft lottery were drawn on December 1, 1969. There were NO winners. I was one among them. The war had been going on for several years before. A black granite memorial wall was built in Washington D.C. to the veterans of the VIET NAM WAR with the names of the fallen engraved upon and was completed in 1982. Other than this...most are still invisible.
I am so pleased to be alive...
Although the past paths
Used to be filled with flowers and thorns
Through hot or cold
Through dangers that threaten my body
And humiliated my mind.
But I live my life and stand as I am
With love for me and other creatures!
Look up to the sky and smile to the ground
Discover people while traveling the world...
From the banks of the Mekong River
Passed by Myanma to India
From Pakistan to Russia then to Germany:
The pattern from the East to the West...
From the banks of the Mekong River
Flew across the Pacific into the USA
Crossed over the Atlantic into France
Passed Germany to Poland:
The pattern from the West to the East...
I have inhaled the air around the world!
But I live my life and stand as I am
With love for me and other creatures!