Best Musts Poems
MY CLOUD by JOHN G. LAWLESS
I don’t remember asking…..
yet I am still hearing a babbling brook
of mindless chatter rolling pebbles
through my ears and across my mind.
Noisome, acridly scented, sounds,
a Charlie Brown like… wah–wah-wah
droning in the background of my life.
“You can’t say that!” “It might offend
somebody – somewhere – someday.”
“How can you even think that way??!!!”
“Don’t you care how other people feel?”
“Do you have any feelings at all for them?”
“You can’t do THAT!” “WHAT WILL
PEOPLE THINK!” “ Didn’t you see that sign?”
“Why can’t you just follow instructions, do
what you’re told, believe that we are right,
that WE know what is best for you?”
“If you ate less there would be more food
to feed the hungry.”(Yeah but then I’d be hungry.)
“If you drove less there would be more fuel
for others to burn and fewer emissions.”
(How the hell does that work???)
“If you would only follow all the shoulds
and musts then you’d know the reasons
why you should entrust the future of the
planet, the diet of your kids, to those of
us entitled to pry off freedom’s lids.”
“Every voice is equal when every voice
is heard.” (That could be said of cows
and sheep and noise within the herd.)
“What is it that you want?”, they ask
in obvious disdain and shudder when
I mention my First Amendment claim.
I wish that those who speak their minds
would allow me to do the same without
their constant reprimand “that I should
be ashamed”. When I speak, and write, and
act in a manner that I choose, I shouldn’t
be belittled by the puppets of the fools.
I do not need the politics of food, sex,
and lies, nor special interest groups that
see only through “their” eyes. I cannot
be an island, so I choose to be a cloud -
sit above the melee of “their” ever
spreading shroud. Therefore, the
conversations may be ended by
a verse, a substantial update
from the “islands” brutal curse
as I, in karaoke style, sing a
sixties refrain aloud:
HEY! HEY! YOU! YOU!
GET OFFA MY CLOUD!!**
**The Rolling Stones – Get off of My Cloud(1965)
John G. Lawless
5/30/2015
There abated consumed lust
Dusting the shelf
Off from molding musk
Due to LOVELESS rust
Lovingly I trust do fuss
With heart felt musts
Relinquish all to love
Do send loving tidings
This one day
Come this way come to
Stay falling far for the
LANGUAGE OF POETRY
Postman' s bin bring SONG
In mailbox din
There be a word a name and such
Poems bring smooth MELLOW
Velvet days
Poems bring trustingly aromatic ways
Daisies when dew point peaks
Poems bring what poets muse
Is what poets speak of song
Consumes song of lives lived
By loving lust in beautifying
Surname mine abandoned rhyme
Dry as Potter's field
Tell me your consummation REVEAL
What you will affirmation with hands
Of steel
Where you live leaves wrestle at the
Base of trees lust for life reprieve
Alive and grieve
In the stillness of morning
I can truly cherish
each sacred moment
as I am all too well aware
that it won’t last much longer
the phone will ring
everyone will soon rise
the musts and wants awaken
tugging for attention at my skirt
come midday I’ll crave
Just one tiny second to myself
A place where I can sneak away
But right this minute
Let me bask in this instant of perfection
While it’s in my hand
And hold this breath of silence
That sways in the morning air as
The sun rises in all its glorious splendor
AP: Honorable Mention 2020
Submitted on March 10, 2020 for contest STRAND CHOICE C sponsored by BRIAN STRAND - RANKED 3RD
Originally posted on October 30, 2018
Balloons they float
Across the sky
In rainbow mood
Excessive high
Intruding birds
Like cloudless thoughts
With do's and don'ts
With musts and oughts
Above the trees
Rooted, they cheer
They dream of floating
Far from here
The gusting breeze
Can guide your joy
Away from ground
That can destroy
The brightest hopes
Of friendship's love
Enduring winds
Of push and shove
But bright the sky
If dull the heart
The journey home..
Yet, first depart
From dreamscape fields
From comfort clouds
To launch away
From chains and shrouds
The freedom of
The endless blue
Of eyes and skies
So pure, so true
Lithesome lines of rapturous rhymes and torrid truths,
Written with piteous pleas and tantalized tease;
Left to others' wits to be interpretive sleuths
Of our loves, lusts, confessional musts and envies.
Rhythm ripping or cadence caressing penned words,
Weeping a caustic choice or singing a heart's rejoice;
Gathered in silken sentiments or stampeding herds
Inkwell of traipsing thoughts etched in poetic voice.
Susan Ashley
October 16, 2017
*'The Love Letter' - Painting by Samuel Luke Fildes*
~ Practicing for an address
at our local senior center ~
I stand before you today
with no magic words to say
They complain: We're older, slower; our ceiling's lower
Instead of glistening, at times we glower
Yet like fine wine that's aged just right
we have experience, knowledge and insight
that more than makes up for loss of speed
'coz sure and steady wins the race, indeed
So, whatever you do, wherever you go
just strut the stuff that smart folks know
Honesty, integrity, reliability -- they're the musts
that combined with punctuality win people's trust
Employ those relationship skills that have helped you thrive
Go have the time of your life ~ You're mature and alive
Inspired by Line Gauthier's Poetry As Legacy Contest
Not an Entry
We are all looking for the one thing to inspire
We are all on the same path, different stops waiting for the universe to conspire
embedded in our souls from the birth of our understanding
The want, the wish to be great, self-made breathing exorbitantly in our surrounding
The mistake we make is living in other people’s values
So we strain ourselves, give up our dreams and put up the same statues
Our individuality becomes transparent and we become programmed with the rest of society
Lost are the adventures so incredibly needed, packed away is our variety
We are all unique yet the same
The same yet different levels of the game
We need to climb out of the narrow minded cardboard box
Instead of being what’s expected, be the exception, don’t be the sheep choose the fox
I see my life like a black and white photograph
So much detail, it’s all about the experience instead of living by the graph
I choose the inspired path, I need to live instead of exist
I will run instead of walk, fight for the thrill and search for the experience, always I shall insist.
Stand on the edge with me and tell me the magnificence your eyes bestow
Fee the adventure and thrill sweep through your being as through your hair the wind blows
So the choice is yours, live in the box and follow the tiresome trends
Or throw away the I musts and give in to the I want to’s be the definition and decide where it ends
Mommas sorry I took you from
The only life that you knew of
Mommas sorry I took you away
From your world of friends of every day
Mommas sorry you had to adjust
To brand new teacher’s and studious musts
Mommas sorry you haven’t fit in
To a school of strangers and what had been
Mommas sorry I had no other choice
Than to sooth your fears using my voice
Mommas sorry if you feel all alone
But I’ll guide you through this fearful unknown
Mommas sorry you’ve tried so very hard
Still nothing has changed, all but new scars
Mommas sorry for the sudden change
Adapt my daughters to all that’s strange
Give me time to help you feel at ease
Give me the moment to help you please
© Stacy Lynn Stiles
I was 21 when I met you,
You painted my heart of pale grayish blue,
I remember the night how you entirely kissed me,
Our love was the best but full of uncertainty.
Ruthless crazy things were done in a cold sinful night,
Love in our first night was never really ought to be right.
We held each other’s hand out of that darkest wood,
Shameless kisses were given though our love was one doubly brood.
I did not know how those wrongful things seem to be righteous?
Our love was confused and treacherously so vicious.
I knew you were trouble when you came in to my life,
Those mistakable glasses are so wrong and rife.
I loved you so bad and that’s an endless fact,
Your hugs of unknown are immensely not tact.
I remember that date when we had everything,
We gazed up to stars and wish of everlasting.
I loved you so true when you utter mock words,
Your verses of sweetness aren’t ever but those gory swords.
We talked about us and agreed about list of musts,
I was childishly scared to do those things up until last.
You hated me, swore me and told me that I’m immature grown up,
You texted me, cussed me and finally decided to break it up.
Next days of my life were fearfully fragile,
Love was hopeless and obviously unreal.
I knew that you never ever loved me,
I was totally stupid and was so out of the sea.
So casually cruel in the name of being in love,
Every day was a joke and secretly cried it at a silent cove.
You left me in nowhere and never showed up,
I remember how love was so vague when we broke up.
You were a trouble in me for the last 2 years,
Discovering new me was trapped in small spheres.
I really wanted to blame this to God Almighty Himself,
Have no right to be peevish because it’s one test of self.
If I only knew that things would never turn out so right,
Guess I did not give myself up in that love at first night.
deep in this morning
i the processor must clean
set aside the wants of the day
and do the musts, in every dust wiping way
rub and scrub
till its all done
and hope i have time for a little fun
before the night set in
because inspection day (12-22-2010) will be coming soon
Lucky for me
I only been here, for about four months...
outside
inventoried oval-stoned
cathedrals appealing
chiming crimes of passion
woke citronella
fog
hung in cement-hamocked snowdrifts
cloaked slow on slick-stained windowsides
tenement sheets
with the pomegranate notes
of rhythms unrhymed
while all the uptown laundromarts
rising up
from insomniac-scrambled sidewalks
corked-copper moon tumbling earthward
like a sweet
sweatshredded pennants
of sun-saliva silks on rain-dribbled cotton
then
cherry-flat footsteps lust-percussive
under shamble-wracked sills
pause and then pass on
momentarily appeased in time by
blued bars on fly-fouled panes
bell tower-balanced above
taverns abutting back alleyways of
need
by fireplace mantle-pieced nooses
of nylonic shirts and poly slacks
and musts dusted-down
past stockinged-lidded faux plastic lampshades
passed on past magnolia movements
of fingertips on muscle surfaces
in-side
defoliate-spun spinnakered islands
chocked choked
in passing lynched adhesion
ignoring nicotine-papered stripteasing walls
or scotch-spat skirtings
creeping pedestal for
a moulded tangerine ceiling stuccoed into sudden mute
breath
rinsed down a night-scented-taking-stock
split-mirrored motel door
they go lunging over greasy chapels of
grit-grained
breakfast jasmine-tea-stained mock vinyl rugs
squeaking cot now like some
concreted river bed's of slump
of stun-spurned wants broken down
consciousness half-considered
stirring
truth Bails, lies Bills
the Purest speech from the Heart is a cry
Prudent leaving lengthens 'Life is Short'
Life has MUSTs to be done.
Don't fail to do or else,
Life will fail you suddenly sadly
nothing is Right everything can be Wrong,
whiles nothing is Wrong everything can be Right
the noisy bleating goat disturbs the village
at the expense of a glad soup pot ready to boil
Fear of Death denies know one of a Good night Sleep
big EYES aren’t clear sight
only Distance can tell how clustered the Stars are
not an Eye
the Blind see further in the dark than the Sighted
the Limbs of a cripple
tells nothing of his Height of Insight
Power of imagination
makes you Stand whiles sound in bed
Thinking your Shadow stands by side in the dark,
is your mind
Want to see your Mind, without the cuts and stitches?
Stand in-front of a Mirror,
what you see is not Self but Mind
©Kofi Asokwa-Nkansah
What dark and cooler distant sun
Dusk nor dawn do not disturb
The Tenacious audacious sparkling night
No startling light Except the moon
Beaming at the True loved stars of
His dreaming Gleaming starlit
Twilight life
Everything of the twilight dusk
Inspires a poet to create poetic
Verse and verbs with perfect words
A list of worldly worthy words of
Poetic musts when dark is dusk
And dawn is new
Back of the church
in the dusty pews
in a passing whisper
God said "OOPS"...
I'm sure he said it
with no "amen"
then I heard God say
"OOPS" again.
I sit in the back
near the too heavy door
cuz when I sleep
I tend to snore
'neath the fire and brimstone
of a "God" based fear
that's when I felt Him
drawing near
edging closer
through the dust
the lonely savior
of shalt nots and musts.
He whispered coldly
At the too thick books
"They left out the parts
where God said "OOPS".
John G. Lawless
3/22/2020
I Can’t Understand Why I Stay So Fat
By Elton Camp
I know that weight loss is the way to do right
So, against too much bulk I constantly fight
It’s to the track to jog at least three times a day
For I have read that exercise is the best way
I run fast, huff and puff and produce lots of sweat
But I haven’t managed to lose a single pound yet
Since I know that I must be burning lots of fuel
I have made proper nutrition the cardinal rule
A man can’t exercise unless he has enough to eat
I have developed a technique that can’t be beat
Each time when my running session is through
I go over to McDonald’s to get a bite or two
It’s a double beef sandwich with extra cheese
That my discerning palate does best please
And I always add a soda and extra large fries
Hydration and fuel are musts, experts advise
I know that such exercise is the proper way to go
But begin to think my metabolism must be low