Best Merchant Poems

A swallow swoops for flitting flies
While Johnny rubs exhausted eyes
(As morning clasps the rising sun)
Confirming Captain’s day’s begun:
Slow streams emerge from melting snows -
The Merchant Ship’s in stark repose...

As Johnny frets with tingling tongue
A Vulture fleeces fields far-flung
 (Beneath a bleeding sun above),
And Captain culls the dead with love:
Yes, while the silent water flows,
The Merchant...

Continue reading...

Jane Merchant (2)

Invalid of flesh (but not of soul),
She saw Creation whole,
And hymned the seasons come to pass
Beyond her bedroom window-glass—
December trees—and April rain-wet grass.

                        ~

    Jane Hess Merchant...

Continue reading...

Moneylender 

You were rejected by your fellow man
A pound of flesh to heal your wounded pride
A just reward for squelching on a loan

Your hatred toward these men-- I understand
Burns deeply in your heart and it resides
You were rejected by your fellow man

They bully you, so now you take a stand
Measured by Scale of Justice you...

Continue reading...

Deep ocean of azure blue

Overhead seagulls circling flew

In constant motion, heaving sides

The old merchant ship upon it rides

Rust scorched it's barnacled coat

Salt encrusted railings forever afloat

On the horizon's sinking sun's amber glow

Beckons enticingly along the flow

New moon appearing from out of the west

Silvery waves splintering against foamy crest


Figures emerging from the hold below

Peering skywards at...

Continue reading...

My friend is shy, ‘cause we call her ‘Pumpkin’.
With great trepidation, she enters the gym
A look at her behind;
And the instructor declined.
“By the time ‘YOU’ are thin, fat will be ‘IN’”...

Continue reading...

O Serenissima,*fabled city 
guarding the bluest lagoon, remain
the Queen of the Adriatic Sea;
on a gondola I glide while
the gondolier sings to luminous stars.

Under bridges of moonlight,
mysteries increase by the dozen;
standing on the Bridge Of Sighs,
a fair-haired girl leans forward 
blowing kisses to a gorgeous boy 
who stops and smiles back tenderly.

On the topmast he awaits...

Continue reading...

He was turbulent, fearful, and a dipsomaniac. He was dead to the target, undeniable emulation of his father. So I've been told.

Equated with many of his uneducated and socially stigmatized peers, starting at an early age he worked menial jobs until he married and asserted himself to a position on a cargo ship as a...

Continue reading...

Are money and blood not just signs,
Of vitality, of love, sex and family?
‘Cos your relationships should be stable,
By definition they should be believable.

Just being related by blood to someone,
Doesn't mean you love them in motion,
And so you must engender the pipers,
Of goodness: trust, dignity and emotion.

Your father should also be your role model,
To endorse your...

Continue reading...

Time comes in waves,
People, in places.
Words come out of their shells
as true colours always change them.
God is given to glory,
to glory- destination lands in two:
In the right hand of a creature that has breached its reading code
And in the eyes of a teacher,
leading a school of fish back through the fundamental basics

The latter lathers loosely...

Continue reading...

There was a merchant who sold and said: -

Milk, white milk, give me silk?
Honey, golden honey, give me money?

And

There was a man who shared and spoke: -

Wine, red wine, for all divine
Fish, grey fish, five thousandth dish
Bread, brown bread, arise the dead




07/04/2010...

Continue reading...

When in Spring with leaves turned to green
Eyes, hands & face
There lived one man with a thirst
To live in the moment between space & time
Selling his pots and pans to get by
Although the years would pass he had every reason to grasp
The true message of his heart was found in a book

Inside was filled with...

Continue reading...

Fish flesh ceiling marinades evening in mandarin
  Paprika streaks Alaskan sky, an exploded pumpkin
  Garish stretch marks bruise tumid buttocks
  Jack-o'-lantern flicker silhouettes summits 
  
  Door open draught steers me over masts, a compass
  North chill Turmeric tingle bitterness burns sun jus
  Snuffs frail wick candle into...

Continue reading...

Love is not a merchant
it doesn't keep count
it's not how much or what
but why and how it counts

Better dandelions
from heart of love
than diamonds
from heart of stone



Third Place Winner - Jack Webster: Workshop Adjectives Deleted...

Continue reading...

Now, I suspect the economics teacher
But he suspects me and
The case goes on into the term
As we gently move 
From one story to another 

But I've got all the other plays, so they look good
Break time and lunch time 
Offer time for time to call witnesses 
Or suspects one by one 
They file in looking...

Continue reading...

He taught in stone temples 
bricks built on law,
in the streets, he preached
and the people did thirst
at his heavenly decree,
that could raise nations 
from the daunting sea.

Found on the highway
of the king of Jerusalem,
Jesus Bar Joseph,
crown of crowns
on his fabulous mane,
He was like a merchant
buying goods for our souls
selling in the marketplace
old memories, old songs.

Till...

Continue reading...