Best Pathogens Poems
So much contamination
needs a close examination.
take a breath of radiation
or a toxic medication
select a name with aspartame
clean your car of acid rain
eat the food with preservatives
and other long letter additives
from the air-borne pathogens
to the many carcinogens
wipe off this and sanitize that
Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch
landfills loaded with human waste
trash mountains growing at rapid pace
fish lying dead from climate change
icebergs and coastlines rearranged
and now in our existence
is the practice of social distance
Contamination of all kinds
even pollution of our minds.
3/31/17
'STRAND no 700
Brian Strand, Sponsor
Categories:
pathogens, environment, pollution, society,
Form:
Couplet
Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.”
- Mary Oliver
Poetry is my flesh, blood, body, mind and soul,
My heart and its beat; skin-bone unifying whole;
In her I talk, walk, work, rest and leisurely lie;
Without her, like fish without water, I might die...!
Do I pick my tooth-brush at rising, I don't know,
My pen, as though saving sword, ever strength does show;
Feeling hungry or full, somnolent or awake,
Pulsation of poetry, like waves, in me, break...!
As impulses pull and push to-and-fro actions,
Poetry pervades reason-cum-instinct fractions;
Self-enslaving inclinations soon washed away,
Poetry, for inner warmth of freedom paves way...!
Erasing evils with poetry might be hard,
Like razing down hardest bushes of jungle-yard;
Don't yet, drops of disinfectants do some cleansing,
When rooms go messy and pathogens do fencing...?
Poetry gives strength to my weakening muscles,
My aching knee readies to fight moral-tussles;
Each step I take is an inspiring upheaval,
Toward freeing humankind from every evil...!
21 November 2022
Poetry is a life-cherishing force Contest Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Sotto Poet
Categories:
pathogens, life, poetry,
Form:
Rhyme
black snakeroot, yew, cocklebur, poison (ivy, oak, parsnip, sumac, ryegrass, hemlock), blister bushes, daffodil, mayapple, lilium, jerusalem cherry, indian licorice, deadly nightshade, christmas rose, bleeding heart, asparagus berries, wolfsbane, tomato leaves, doll’s eyes, the suicide tree, young larkspur, blue-green algae, stinkweed, dumbcane, european spindle, blind-your-eye mangrove, manchineel, laburnum, mother of millions, elderberry root, bacterial pathogens, exotoxins, mycotoxins, grayanotoxins, rhinovirus, chicken pox, sleeping sickness, cholera, yellow fever, typhoid, rotavirus, river blindness, measles, japanese encephalitis, hepatitis (a,b & c), cryptosporidiosis, shigella infection, pneumonia, meningitis, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, malaria, influenza, herpes (1 & 2), crab louse, scabies, chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, chancroid, trichomoniasis, hpv, hiv/aids, ebola virus, marburg virus, mad cow disease, mudslides, avalanches, blizzards, storms, cyclones, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, fires, supervolcanic eruptions: evidence of absence.
Categories:
pathogens, life,
Form:
Free verse
Struggling in the dark to breathe
I flip the light switch underneath
It's glow surrounds me like a wreath
I've landed in a cave
An icy mountain cave
My pod is running out of air
I pop the canopy and stare
An ice cave lighted by my flare
I take a deepened breath
(Is that a tinge of death?)
My focus sharpens, taking stock
A hint of light there, and some rock
I grab supplies and start to walk
Along the purple ice
A cave of purple ice!
I find the sunlight, of all things
But not a sound of wanderings
No flitting buzz of insect wings
Just a horrid silence
Vacant, horrid silence
A vista spreads before my feet
A valley, lakes and trees, replete
Yet not a hint of hearts that beat
Just throbbing in my ears
The throbbing of my fears
No flap of creatures on the wing
No howls or bellows echoing
No noise from ANY living thing
There's something very wrong
Yes, something's deadly wrong
Not long ago there must have been
Here and beyond a wondrous scene
Lifeforms designed in types yet seen
Now, just death's aroma
Putrid death's aroma
Just weeks before we'd scanned this place
From our approach, not far in space
'Twas full of life and not a trace
Of ANYthing to fear
No pathogens to fear
How could this splendid landscape lay
With trees and plants, from hills to bay
Yet ALL be in such deep decay?
Not a creature living
Not a thing left living!
The smell was overwhelming rot
The more I breathed, the more I fought
To not expel upon that spot
All that was inside me
All that lay inside me
Just months behind me, colonists
Builders, couples, biologists
And naught but this apocalypse
To welcome their sad eyes
Just ghastly mass demise
What caused this ruin here was grand
A cataclysm, air and land
An answer I MUST have in hand
Before my friends arrive
Or we will not survive
No, we will not survive ...
Not one soul left alive.
Categories:
pathogens, adventure, environment, nature, science
Form:
Rhyme
5/19/17
Things considered occult
Near and far from kids, teens and adults
Working with mulch
Above a gulch
Had to turn into the Hulk
And catapult
Toward successful results
Then howl at the moon like a wolf
While in and out of gulfs
No good in being in poor form
Or disordered
Got to keep pushing forward
Above and below floorboards
Considered that there will always be more storms
Whether or not it is cold or warm
I just can't spend time in forlorn
Got to take care of business, night or morn
Ready to fight for what I believe is right, with the skills of a warlord
Regardless of if it is what I was born for
Close and beyond traces of lanthanum
I'm coming through with an effective stratagem
Show you something truly masculine
Going full throttle pushing to the maximum
Among pathogens
And antigens
As well as vehicles with headlights that are halogen
When I see an animal or human struggling, I'll lend a hand and not abandon them
By: Dalton Ogletree
Categories:
pathogens, appreciation, encouraging, poetry, rap,
Form:
Rhyme
Understandable... the sensible
(three ringed circuitous) logic
to trumpet necessity
each individual moost heed
bedecking, cloaking donning,
ludicrous interloper facial covering,
(I prefer sporting
latest custom made
invisible máscaras faciales),
when commingling amidst madding crowd,
nevertheless coronavirus (COVID-19)
makes laughingstock kickstarting
maniacal paranoid testing yapping
authoritarians blabber ceaselessly
bleak household pandemic
plagues (sear ring)
robust human specimen,
hence yours truly,
a feckless (gibbon) primate
breathes sigh of relief,
why? cuz he counts himself insignificant
absolute zero worth
versus microscopic prickly orb
aging long haired pencil neck geek
best beat hasty retreat
to his man cave
not necessarily avoiding microbial denizen,
yet any potential suffering
scouting out troubadour woefully
jackknifed inept hideaway
availed no choice
rolls out Harris tweed Scottish matt
courtesy minuscule germ man
greeting me with gotcha!,
I willingly surrender
the only thing at stake iz my life,
which would immediately
ebb fate (mine),
automatically buzzfeed chap
offer no chance
for symbiotic relationship
as pathogens indeed choreograph
(dirty deed done dirt cheap)
loft hilly doth waft
through cellular skeins comprising
garden variety/ generic gent
herewith essentially crafting
his poetic epitaph
before onset disables,
disallows, and disvalues
one humble, intelligent, jesting
kindhearted, literate, modest
nincompoop aimlessly adrift
within Brownian movement
(*****sapiens random motions
viewed miles skyhigh)
ostentatious, piteous, querulous,
ridiculous, superfluous, et cetera,
thus forward donations
and/or pledge
(I promise you -
swear to dog
portion of me ashes)
to favorite charity
and will hoop to visit thee as repurposed
noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun,
preposition, conjunction, interjection,
numeral, article, or determiner...
Categories:
pathogens, 12th grade, caregiving, heaven,
Form:
Dramatic Verse
Cancerous cell confusion
Bodies broken
Last words spoken
Passive patent pollution
Constant consumption
Catastrophic corruption
What is right? And what is wrong?
Plastic parasitic pathogens
What is real? And what is fake?
Artificial flavoring
The less I have the more I take
To satisfy this selfish taste
This to be humanity's fate
Nothing more and nothing less
Am I real or am I fake?
Is it late, to change my ways?
Or am I doomed another day?
For profit and production
I am a statistic, I am a reduction
Nothing more and nothing less
Chemical companies will not confess
Selling eco friendly "life enhancer"
Walking deadman
Ticking time bomb
Corporate caused cancer
Categories:
pathogens, cancer, change, conflict, corruption,
Form:
Iambic Pentameter
Water, in a protein sense,
salt and other substances,
make up plasma, which, in kind,
account for half of blood's design.
A mammal's blood is red and bright,
-from oxygen, when mixed inside.
Because of an iron-filled kind of protein,
Hemoglobin, it's red and glowing.
Red and white cells fill the half,
oxygen rides in small red rafts.
Compared to white, the reds are many,
born from marrow, good and plenty.
Blood supplies glucose and acids,
while carbon dioxide wastes are banished.
Coagulation is the body's repair,
as hormones message when damage is there.
It regulates the body heat,
hydro-mechanics, just like a machine.
Blood makes 7% of your weight,
red cells live 120 days.
The white cells clot the blood on site,
they help by killing parasites.
White cells come in different types,
some kill bacteria, and fungi,
allergic reactions, virus cells,
tumors, pathogens as well.
If only we could go within,
to see a white cell's origin.
We could show our gratitude,
for those that keep us strong like new.
Our health is their only mission,
their ranks are in the immune system.
The heart drives blood throughout the body,
from the ventricles, to the arteries.
-Back to the heart and through the veins,
ventricle, artery, lungs, you could say,
the blood travels far, and this would be truth,
it takes 30 seconds to complete it's route.
Oxygen brought in must be spread around,
While carbon dioxide is what's carried out.
The vein is a valve containing the waste,
which is pushed with help from muscles in legs.
Arteries branch out as smaller roads called,
Capillaries, just one cell thick is their wall.
The blood must be slowed to allow the breakdown,
of substances, nutrients, eat up the chow!
Blood is classified in 200 groups,
you inherit whichever your parents gave you.
The most common kinds are "A" "B" and "O",
Some have "A" or "B", and some people have both.
It's important to know, should you need more blood,
a bad combination will make it clot up.
Blood brings to life almost every creature,
-we could not be without, those...5...liters.
Categories:
pathogens, education, family, children, health,
Form:
Free verse
First day on the job,
you took an oath to only tell lies
Had to sign a non-disclosure agreement,
before you got the Company suit-and-tie
You're CIA now,
sworn to secrecy
You're in the world of espionage,
living a 007 reality
Illegal arms dealers,
Mata Hari babes
Foreign rogue generals,
dark net cyber caches
Toss in a few drug cartels,
and everybody's getting paid
Everybody's getting spied on too,
electronic whispers homemade
You love your job,
truth be told, yet only under oath
But you dislike the party politics of it all,
though you like the sound
of hearing corrupt governments fall
You're CIA bred,
sworn to secrecy
You're in a world of covert spies,
living a James Bond reality
Illicit black market trade,
femme fatale operatives
Pandemic pathogens made,
secret outlawed experiments
Toss in a few psychotic terrorists,
and everybody's getting death video feed
Everybody's getting propaganda-ed too,
hacked disinformation makes liberty bleed
But you didn't reveal this publicly,
because of course,
you're sworn to secrecy
Categories:
pathogens, hero, perspective, satire, truth,
Form:
Light Verse
What say you when a pig bathe in a muddy muck?
When he rolls merrily like 'tis panacea to his strain?
Don't you gawk at the amazing shuck
Could be to you 'tis a flaunt to his inert brain.
But how honey he embraces the muck-
When the sizzling lust for food slaps!
'Tis where he tanks up the lack
'Tis a divan for his daily naps
He rolls in it with sheer fun and joy,
Swaps spit with inner pathogens
To him's as sweet as the delicacy of soy
And dirt seems excite no antigens
But fools we the lookers
Who hate the act but love the actor
We're the daytime chaplains an' night's hookers
Musing the worthier and fudging the obvious factor
Don't we rear 'em and keep them?
And butcher 'em for pork?
And for sale don't we adulate 'em like gem?
Then why dub 'em berk?
With us is the knowledge and power-
To keep and care for these pigs
We can give 'em genial scour
And see 'em as moral prigs
NB: Exclusively for pig lovers.
Try to understand the natural meaning of this poem
Categories:
pathogens, animal,
Form:
Rhyme
The Lemon Wedge on the Rim of Your Glass
By Elton Camp
Exposure to germs isn’t always a blight
They make the immune system work right
In normal living, we get all that we need
But lemon wedges all good sense exceed
It’s quite likely that you are going to find
The lemon picker scratched his behind
Washing lemons, restaurants say they do
In most cases, the claim simply isn’t true
Lemons are dirty when they enter the door
In the café, they’ll get contaminated more
Slicing is done with hands germy as can be
And the knives used aren’t of bacteria free
The slices are handled with glove or tong
Think that and you’re usually very wrong
Servers pick them up with hands unwashed
And against the glass rim they are squashed
With pathogenic bacteria your drink is spiked
The risk of getting sick has just been hiked
A recent study found bacteria such as these
Pathogens from skin, saliva and even feces
Even when it’s “No lemon” that you say
It may appear on or in your drink anyway
Drinks lemon-free really ought to remain
If from drinking germs you would abstain
Categories:
pathogens, food, drink,
Form:
Rhyme
Perfect! (Hypochondria?)
I’m not sick. I’m not ill. I’m not crazy.
There is nothing wrong with being perfect.
My mommy told me so.
"illness anxiety disorder" It’s just a label….Just a name
Like thousands of other names that I can’t say, I can’t spell
Such as the thousands of lethal viruses and bacterial pathogens
Out to get me. I know they want me.
As they try to get inside to kill me.
They cross my path without a care
Don't even wipe their feet
They are here! They are there! They are everywhere!
So what. I don’t care.
I quit my job and wife and life to deal with them
And deal with them I will
They won’t find me. No sir!
I’ll never leave my house again
I hide in disinfectant waters in day
In scalding hot baths and microwave ovens at night
Me and Purdy; Purdy is my sparrow in a hermetically sealed cage
He would sing all day if he were alive today
But he never was. He never existed
As you can see he is plastic
Plastic birds don’t sing but they are free
Free from infections, infestations, nasty things found in nature
My birdie is sterilized, sanitized, purified…. like me
We wear our hypoallergenic suits and masks
Which, when applied properly, qualifies us as being clean
Keeps us alive for the time being
Categories:
pathogens, addiction, bird, crazy, environment,
Form:
Free verse
To the ground, plastics, papers and metals
To the mixture, scrap, damaged tires and dirty pieces of cloth
Amid natural ecosystems
From whose laxation natural escapes
The flammable methane gas
Triatomic is the altered range of oxygen by the action
Of electric shocks on the heights
Whose total damage, with inventing the steam engine
And the development of the industry, then started
The harbinger that future generations
Would live in fear of climatic cloister
Sometimes the abuse, it seems that conforms
When in the forests, indiscriminately to millions
Killing pathogens, exacerbate emphysema
Of the Blue planet, whose fury is magma itself
That spares nothing and all-consuming in vindictive eruptions
Categories:
pathogens, angst,
Form:
Free verse
A pro-active journalist
is like a research-committed teacher
teaching and listening to cooperative research designs
and presentations.
The opposite of the journalist's deconstruction
of events
is reconstruction through predictive narrative.
Just as the opposite of permaculture's green activist
regeneration
is pathological degeneration
emerging from past too-monoculturing memory
Back toward too much red-meat butchering
and ballistic slaughter
swimming in pathogens
about health-resilient DNA-RNA solidarity genes
for future regenerative reconstructions.
Recently
the local writer of Permaculture Opera
invited me to his and her place,
I'm still not sure s/he has chosen
Either/Or gender,
for a co-author interview.
But I need to arrive
just before dawn
and not drive in
or even toward
EarthSoul's healthy address,
if at all possible.
So, I'm riding my bike
and arrive just as pre-dawn light
could reveal river homefront terrain.
There s/he is
atop a barren maple tree,
facing East
across a valley,
rocking back and forth
from north to south
and back again...
S/he calls "Good Morning!"
as if this emerging light
has already made Earth's best day invitation
convocation
to and for those less grumpy
and feeling old-knees and hips frumpy.
S/he welcomes me up
and so I go
with all my Senior Citizen climbing years
behind me
to rest just below Earth's swaggering
Operatic sway.
Before I can ask
what s/he is doing
S/he tells me
This is Earth's centering sit spot
from which s/he greets our vibrant Sun
when clouds do not grey stand
in dark swaying way.
Here s/he waves back
as Earth's trees thank FatherSun
for waving forth
paid-forward
toward this WuWei Day
West for Ego Win
and East of EcoRooting Yin
discerning through and after dualdark night.
Like a Permaculture Opera
opening each morning,
each life,
this ego/eco centric
Western swaying
dusk-fading glory.
My Opera piece will begin
There's no such health-listening thing
as a non-teachable moment.
A local pro-active journalist
sways like a research-committed teacher
teaching cooperative research design
through re-presentational invitations...
Categories:
pathogens, caregiving, earth, education, environment,
Form:
Political Verse
We ponder what will be our fate
As Earth we over-populate.
More industry we generate
And agriculture propogate.
Many species we decimate
As Planet Earth we dominate.
Bigger cities we now create.
In high-rise blocks we concentrate.
Now pathogens grow at a rate
And fly worldwide to dissipate.
We ponder what will be our fate.
Categories:
pathogens, health,
Form:
Rhyme