Best Put Aside Poems
Running beauty rippled in crystal white
No whisper in the air, just a wondrous sight
My eyes ascend in awe to a far light
Small and empty observing such a height
Nature in colours captured in delight
Ready to be filled with bliss and insight
Melt in silence, a faint soul to excite
Drifted with music, poem to recite
My thoughts wrapped into words and put aside
My fancies are now poised set for a flight
A heart into throbbing beauty subsides
The summit I can reach and meet my fright
Exultant to feel not gems but a mine
Yearning to have peace seeds sown deep inside
Sweet lyrics bring my very soul to life
Soft music tunes me to mountain nine.
*Note - I posted this some time ago on PS and it got POTD, resulting in over fifty comments of support. Social media is a fickle animal, sometimes dangerous. We poets like to imagine ourselves artists, dreamers, even visionaries. In fact, we are simply a microcosm reflecting the larger world around us. A world filled with prejudices, biases, animosities and yes, even hate. It is my sincere hope that the poets of Poetry Soup will put aside underlying tensions and hurt feelings to unite as one voice, one heart. It won't be easy, but with effort it can be done. Agape love is the key.
There’s a new sound in the air
Can you hear it?
It’s a song we all can share
Will you sing it?
It’s a lyric full of hope
Words of peace to help us cope
There’s a new sound in the air
Can you hear it?
There’s a new vibe all around
Can you feel it?
If you’re lost you can be found
Will you trust it?
It’s a safe line of defense
from harsh words that cause offense
There’s a new vibe in the air
Can you feel it?
I’m a dreamer can’t you see?
We are poets you and me
Can we sing in unity?
Let the music set us free
There’s a new sun in the sky
Can you see it?
Free your mind and don’t ask why
Just accept it
Let the rainbow guide us home
Life is dull in monochrome
There’s a new sun in the sky
Can’t you see it?
I’m a dreamer can’t you see?
We are poets you and me
Can we sing in unity?
Let the music set us free
We’re all dreamers you and me (yeah)
And we share one family tree (yeah)
Let’s agree to disagree (yeah)
Sing in perfect harmony (yeah)
In the silence; haunting echoes I can hear
A choir of angels soft and sweet,
Gently, I wipe your mournful tears.
Eternity beckons, drawing you near,
Strains of harmonious refrains that repeat,
In the silence; haunting echoes I can hear.
Worries and regrets no longer will appear,
Heaven has prepared an eternal royal seat,
Gently, I wipe your mournful tears.
Rest my dear, put aside your doubt and fear,
Though shadows fall, you rise and claim your feat,
In the silence; haunting echoes I can hear.
Regret no more, the lonely years,
You will be home, an eternal place, replete,
Gently, I wipe your mournful tears.
A vision shrouds the room and it appears
There is a table being prepared, a blessed fete,
In the silence; haunting echoes I can hear,
Gently, I wipe your mournful tears.
Date: March 1, 2022
For: Original Villanelle Contest Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: L. Milton Hankins
Placed 10th in contest
Was the Poem of the Day (POTD)on March 3rd, 2022
Some people wish for more life
with their last dying breath
Others hate what they’ve got
and they just wait for their death
Imagine what you could do,
without the fear or regrets
Please stop wasting your time
it’s not as good as it gets
There are too many souls
void of the light of day
They just dwell in the dark
it shouldn’t be that way
Place your trust in the lord
he has paid all your debts
Please start living your life
it’s not as good as it gets
We will all have that day
when the sun grows dim
Put aside all your fears
and place your trust in him
When your last moment comes
I pray you have no regrets
Raise your head up and smile
it’s not as good as it gets
I choose to be
the last to speak.
Then other’s answers I can seek.
Each one of them is unique!
There is power
in embracing my meek.
When my thoughts don’t leak,
into their hearts I can peek.
Being quiet,
doesn’t make me weak.
I learn more,
when not talking a blue streak.
No nodding,
or pretending to listen.
Not trying to think of gems,
so that I can glisten.
Truly listening,
is my mission.
Without knowing their perspective,
how can I or we make any decision?
Can’t we strain to hear all their voices?
Hear the loud and quiet speak,
Muslim, Buddhist or Christian.
Maintaining myopic vision,
leads to a philosophical collision!
Upon Holy ground,
can we not avoid division?
After all, isn’t inclusion,
the reason for Religion?
We go to a church,
a mosque or a temple.
Sacrifice meat,
or eat freshly made lentils.
The core of humanity,
is still elemental.
Each in our own way is sentimental.
We are the same,
in the ways that are essential.
We crave light,
a sense of belonging.
Sunlight music and singing.
We loved one another once,
in the beginning.
Before our hearts became,
intoxicated by winning.
Recognition and ego,
the foundation of our sinning!
So can we put aside the “I”,
and begin again, by truly listening?
With our mouths closed and ears open,
Witness a beginning worth noting!
Susie Lee done fell in love.
She planned to marry Joe.
She was so happy 'bout it all,
She told her pappy so.
Pappy told her, Susie Gal,
You'll have to find another.
I'd just as soon yore ma don't know,
But Joe is yore half brother.
So Susie put aside her Joe,
And planned to marry Will,
But after telling Pappy this,
He said, Thar's trouble still.
You can't marry Will my gal,
And please don't tell yore mother,
But Will and Joe and several mo,
I know is yore half brothers.
But Mama knew and said My Child,
Just do what makes ye happy.
Marry Will or marry Joe,
Ye ain't no kin to Pappy.
Author Unknown
(Jes like Pappy)
(Kinda brings a tear to yer eye, don't it)
To truly love myself- this I resolve
To guard with zeal my tenderness of heart
Of every sin and doubt myself absolve
And fortify and strengthen every part
To cherish and accept the inner me
To know and relish every single dream
The woman that I am, to set her free
To put aside each hindrance to love’s theme
I do resolve to be my dearest friend
To celebrate the wonders that I own
To spend time in my world and not pretend
To shine around the goodness I’ve been shown
A short time have I left to truly shine
And thus I vow to make my living fine
Midfall and nearly all the trees
Stand brown as broken sticks
Against a sky impossibly blue,
I in shirtsleeves a walking go
With love and longings as my companions
Kicking through the drifts of colored shards
Fallen with another Summer's stealthy fading
Feeling, marveling at this piece of heat
That dropped unnoticed from Her pocket.
I could believe today
In America untamed,
A place full of wild things and untamed peoples
A place where Spirit spreads
To ride the clouds
To sing its songs unhindered.
Nature has let down her locks today;
Who will look on her
To let themselves be consumed, entranced
By the beauty that lives on in spite of all our assaults -
Who will be distracted by the miracles we move through,
Feel the surge of the sea of life all around us,
Hear the whispered prayers
In the windsigh of the sleeping trees
Watch the sacred night come on
Announced by the rose glow behind the thumbnail moon -
Who will stand amid such things,
Yet not put aside for the moment
Those little cares we circumscribe our lives with,
To stand amazed to be here breathing,
Alive to feel how loving-close
Infinity holds us, claims us for its own;
Surely, not I alone.
I rest a hand on my sleeping child's chest;
Feel the heart fluttering beneath the skin;
I can sense a great wheel turning.
I wander out in the still warm darkness
That follows this day,
To look up at the starstrewn sky
See that great wheel begin its turning,
Stand amazed to be here breathing.
Stand, amazed to be.
why i write
I sit here now and think about today,
Tomorrow and yesterday.
The choices I have made both good and bad,
The one that made me happy and
And the ones that made me sad.
The people I have known and the friends I have made,
Some have left my life and some have stayed.
Some by choice and some by fate,
But all the times we had were oh so great.
The memories I have tucked away in my mind,
Will help me through this difficult time.
For where I am now is not where I want to be,
Moreover, my future is unknown and I cannot see.
However, I will try to be strong and overcome,
This path that that feels so overrun.
With loneliness and heartache and tears,
For I may not have left too many years.
I write my poems to ease and clear my mind,
To leave my thought and feelings behind.
But not to forget or put aside,
All the things I feel inside.
Someday I will make a book
Of the poems that I have took.
From in my heart so deep inside
And share them with the world with pride.
Written by
Nancy Stoy
06/25/2013
I’d love to say that ‘Crusher’ Webb is one good mate of mine,
but old ‘Crusher’s’ temperamental and can act more like a swine,
and it don’t take much to set him off; that’s when we all show fear,
so we don’t know how to take him, ‘specially when he’s on the beer.
I’ve been there when he’s lost the plot and really gone to town,
and it’s taken more or less four blokes to try and hold him down,
when the trigger’s been so trivial, that most would put aside,
but not old ‘Crusher’, he goes mad, so the berth he’s given’s wide.
I hate to think how many nights that ‘Crusher’s’ spent in gaol,
from throttling blokes and busting pubs when he fell off the rail,
but the fear we have means nothing for he’s just part of our life,
so what must Deb be going through - his darling homely wife.
She’s just the nicest person, so it’s a bit like chalk and cheese,
the schizophrenic husband and his wife, who looks ill at ease.
It must be a living nightmare when old ‘Crusher’s’ at his best,
storming ‘round the family home with dirty water on his chest.
Thank God they don’t have children for this brute to terrorize.
It’s bad enough when he’s around to see the terror in our eyes,
but it was on a brief occasion when I spoke to Deb alone,
that I was shocked with what she said in quite a sombre tone.
Deb’s voice shivered lowly “These days I must be so alert,
that I don’t become child bearing” and my answer is quite pert,
“But didn’t ‘Crusher’ have the ‘snip’, so no ‘hiccup’ would apply?”
and Deb replied, “Oh yes he did, and that’s exactly why”.
It’s time to put aside my pen and pout awhile.
Forty years of dreams squashed like a beer can
under the wheel of a wild vintage car.
It’s time to sulk, to bathe myself in self-hatred.
Brooding on my past failures to create,
a box I created and can’t escape.
Let the gloom of the night roll slowly over me.
Showing the failure, I was born to be.
Hang on the cross for all eternity.
But just as Prometheus, bore his daily due,
Liver picked, torn, a bleeding tatter.
I return expecting a difference.
Please allow to me my daily state of morose,
doesn’t last longer than a cigarette.
Now ready to strive forward once again.
A REDNECK LOVE POEM
Susie Lee done fell in love,
She planned to marry Joe.
She was so happy 'bout it all,
She told her pappy so.
Pappy told her, Susie Gal,
You'll have to find another.
I'd just as soon yore ma don't know,
But Joe is yore half brother.
So Susie put aside her Joe,
And planned to marry Will;
But after telling Pappy this,
He said,Thar's trouble still.
You can't marry Will my gal,
And please don't tell yore mother,
But Will and Joe and several mo',
I know is yore half brothers.
But Mama knew and said, My Child,
Just do what makes ye happy.
Marry Will or marry Joe,
Ye ain't no kin to Pappy.
Author Unknown
(Jes like Pappy)
I didn't write this but it was so cute I had to share it.
Judy Ball
Community, what does it mean
And how does it come into being
Well what does the dictionary have to say
“A group of people living together in one place”
I guess that means were all in community
Though if I were to speak in honesty
It feels like we try to live separately
Living by the culture of our country
Which tells us, do it yourself
If your strong, you don’t ask for help
Life is about personal advancement
About money and accomplishments
Hold onto your hardships and pain
Keep striving for personal gain
So many lies deeply engrained
How will we create change?
Well I start with myself
I ask for help
I start with me
I be the change I want to see
I become an infectious contagion
In all of my relations
That could spread across a population
Even across the nations
I model my life after the master of love
Who dwells in the heavens above
He has brought millions even billions together
Over decades, centuries, even millenniums
So what else could be better
Than to faithfully follow him
He who said, I was anointed
to proclaim good news to the poor
to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free”
and I say yeah that’s who I want to be
But unless I engage in community
Unless I get to know my fellow human beings
How can I help to set them free
So its time for me to put aside
Popular culture, foolish pride
Social codes, selfish ambitions
Old roads, and useless traditions
And blaze a brand new trail
With my life, write a new tale
Introduce a new theme
Add in a few more characters
And then dare to dream
About how my story could impact theirs
And their’s impact mine
Because maybe just, maybe
It might be better, might just be
Not to say, I did it on my own
All this, look I did it alone
No maybe it would be better
If we did it together
So that no matter what my lot
I can always know that I’ve got
Friends, right until the very end
Help, ready to be sent
Hands willing to be lent
So what need would I have for advancement
For money and accomplishment
I can find all that I need
Everything I seek from this life,
In relationship with fellow human beings
Community, Maybe this is what it means
The mirror reflected her face, pained with
Hate and self-loathing
Rueing her actions from the night before
On waking to find herself naked, lying beside him
Under the influence of alcohol, she had
Given in and made love to him, now, she chastised
Herself for letting him make his move
There had once been a time, when
His touch was all she desired, but that fire had been
Extinguished many years ago
Love had disappeared in an instant
Once he had started playing his game and his
Omnipotence had came to the fore,
King had taken Queen
In his opening play and he’d taken control
Now he was on the offensive again and
Giving herself to him, had gained him the upper hand
Gathering her resolve, she put aside her
Lamentations and regrets, closing her door silently
As he lay quietly, still deep in sleep;
She stepped into the shower, the water removing all trace of him as
She contemplated her next strategic, defensive move.
Little boy with a toy gun
Dreams of all that might be fun
To be fully clad in combat gear
And go into battle with no fear
A hero he would like to be
Even though he cannot see
That heroes today are hard to discern
From the victims created without concern
By politicians who think it fine
To support an economy based on crime
Who is it that wins in war
Politicians corporations so many more
Who never see the horror and gore
Just sit at home adding up the score
Measured by profits next quarter’s gain
Riding the military gravy train
Little boy think real hard
You mustn’t ever disregard
What life would be like to come home scarred
Or in a box with an honor guard
The government issues you combat boots
Then leaves you homeless and destitute
TBI PTSD paraplegic or amputee
The VA tries to serve them well
But the government that sent them to hell
Makes many promises then builds a wall
Cutting off resources creating a pall
So many veterans waiting in pain
Ignored by their country
Such a great shame
Little boy with a toy gun
War really isn’t very much fun
Put aside your dreams of glory
Listen to the veterans sad true story
H Tunick July 2015