Best Reprise Poems
Before I scarred the page
Raging what your letters cannot invent
Let me invite you to other books
I wrote before you owed me wage
For all maladjustment and discontent
Tettering on tentacles on hooks
Invite you to an open age
Of change and discourse transfigurment.
In a quiet moment read again
Shards of clay and artefacts beyond
A material functional disdain.
Look at the words like old bones
Bringing chromosomal tablets to rinse
The eyes of prejudices and conceit
You may wince
At what your arrogance did delete.
I have winced for years in broken jars
Unleashing rivulets of tears
For I gave you humanity as a gift, stars
Gave you dust and vessel for it
Time etched your abuse against this spirit
As you idolized barren observations
As if them alone could tell truths
Without the presence of experience.
Strange how you so prone to the material
Destroyed so much of its substance
In us. Yet it is inescapbale in the footprints of dust
The chromosomal bridges in our bodies
Linking us, reaffirming the gift again
Documents on my body like a stain
Irreducible by Mercator's illusions
There is no survival without the spiritual.
After protests, marches, firehoses and ropes
Still hanging from leftover branches of fear
I have earned the right to forgive you
The inherent gift make me your brother, here.
So now let us turn the map upside down
And draw again the latitudes unbending
In a straight line to your old thoughts,
Can we agree about the silence of the moon
Is a prohibiting noise in our head, a blind despair.
When I say: "Love and more love" to you,
What I’m also saying is,
I bestow a brotherly double blessing upon your soul
so faithful and true
When I say: "Love and more love" to you
What I’m spiritually saying is,
I send a Resurrection greeting kiss unto you,
delivered always faithful and true ...
A double blessing born again each day anew
Abundant love given to you, from me, in this life;
and more abundant love given to you, from me, in the next life
My deepest wishes of a double blessing for you,
are sealed with a holy kiss from my two lips
This poem is my tribute to the talented poet, James Edward Lee Sr.
Hot passion ties hearts in tight knots
Its heat roasts with thousands of watts
Instead of the norm
Drop this love and feel warm
Consumed with lust for chocolàtes
Simple to fall apart,
the dry broken skin.
The sunken eyes will tell you lies,
you can't hide that kind of fire,
once its blazing, its blazing.
Madness, sadness,
manic panic,
pressure, pulsing, pounding, pain,
you can only pray for rain.
If your lucky you'll go numb,
before your face turns to dust.
Hope your legs move,
when your head decides to run.
Disease received,
in the air that breathes,
the life into the lungs of humanity.
When the sunlight burns your eyes,
at least you know that your alive .
George Washington chopped down a tree as a lad
Then told his dad that he'd been bad
With the stroke of a pen, Thomas Jefferson kick-started a nation
Touting revolution every so often with his Declaration
Andrew Jackson had a penchant for whiskey
Native Americans found him way too frisky
Abraham Lincoln was thin but brave
Reunited the nation and freed the slaves
As a child Teddy Roosevelt was always ill
But as President he led the charge up San Juan Hill
His cousin Franklin took over in the Great Depression
And then three times won reelection.
JFK and Jackie ushered in 'Camelot'
'Til in a Dallas motorcade he was shot
Ronald Reagan demanded the Soviets end their stall,
"Mr. Gorbachev, please, tear down that wall!"
Bill Clinton said, "It's the economy, Stupid!"
Before he was cut down by Monica and Cupid
And now Mr. Trump draw lines in the sand
Saying, "Let's make America great again!"
And did you know that Yankee Doodle preferred apple strudel
To a leftover dish of cold, wet noodles?
Hope you've enjoyed this reprise of Presidential history
Which to the majority of Americans is an absolute mystery
P.S. Rumors have it that Yankee Doodle is considering a
comeback run for POTUS in the 2020 election.
His slogan reportedly will be, "Make America
handy with Yankee Doodle Dandy."
The "Me-too" movement has already
dialed in death threats ...
In cooler time the sun still slept,
The clock stood still, an angel wept,
The covers stirred, then breath no more,
The man was gone, the silence roared,
Now calm the rain this summer's day,
Let hidden light break sodden gray,
Oh, why, we ask do some go, some stay?
Are human hearts built to break away?
Of this, be sure, he'd not have us weep,
Mourn a man who does not sleep,
He's passed the veil, in shining fields,
Smiling joy at mysteries revealed,
This story's beginning had to end,
Hello, before. Now, farewell friend,
Together, here, we loved, we cried,
But stand alone when laughter died,
But what we were will never fade,
What God creates cannot be unmade,
For love, triumphantly, you'll see,
Will be there when you next see me.
The dawn is near
The sun is almost setting
And darkness, soon be scattered
No matter how you try to stop it, it will come to pass
The colorful world we once knew
No matter how colorful it is
Will soon be gray
And we forget
Day after day
Will make us feel it’s so fast
And then we hope to go back through time
But the least we can do is to reminisce
Our eyes become dimmed
Skin that are smoothen in time soon be roughen
Our strength shall pass
And then our mind will be willing but the body will not.
Our memory will fade
And the only thing you will remember is today
And those beautiful ones, we kept in are heart
And cherished in our lifetime
Like a candle burned out
And so do we
And as the light is almost through
We turn to our maker
We become lonely and sad
Thinking it is through
But then it is just the beginning
In our Master’s Grace, forever will be laughter
© Philippine Copyright 2005 (11/04&15/05) by Michael Hilario
The first time I lost my mind,
I was standing in the rain.
The second time the song remained the same.
My brother told me all you’ll ever need is family,
Then he walked away and was never seen again.
And that old record always skip the exact same place,
33 1/3, or 45, or even at 78.
It only skips when it’s raining.
.
My daddy taught me how to never care.
My mother taught me how to talk to the ones that were not there.
Yet I’m still looking every time and everywhere.
And life has taught me not to trust the ones that say they care.
And all my black eyes came from shadow boxing in the air.
.
So I walk away,
And I don’t cry.
Spend my days and my nights,
Practicing goodbye.
Goodbye can only hurt you when it’s raining.
The stakes are being raised.
Mistakes are being made.
And the song remains the same it never changes.
That old record always skips at the same old place.
And I guess it’s time to say goodbye it’s raining.
... first time I lost my mind I was standing in the rain.
Each time the song remained the same.
If I could only whet my mind,
And simply turn the page.
Green fields of grass and black boys in white
Sir Lancelot and round table and frolic sights
The children of slaves so bedecked as knights
Spectators shadeless sizzling in fusion of light
O come let us play upon the green, cricket lads
O take the ball at its seam, break wickets lads.
Go have your summer of sweet lemonade, spill
Your laughter like rivers rinsing fresh the glade
Hearts will be broken but new bonds will be made
I will be where the subtle game of cricket's played
O come let us play upon the green, cricket lads
O take the ball at its seam, break wickets lads.
Give me a ball like a globe flaming red, I'll face
My oppressor with his wooden lance, cloth armour
Because of magic he does not perceive the danger
Steedless let me charge for the valour of my race
O come let us play upon the green, cricket lads
O take the ball at its seam, break wickets lads
Bowling and jousting, all the same to me, the game
Is what I love to play, this sportsman debonair
The feelings padded down by civility of the stare
Summer's sun against me too, but I'm above shame
O come let us play upon the green, cricket lads
O take the ball at its seam, break wickets lads
When the game is done we will meet under a tree
Cajoles one another prowess, and feast on the fete
Bring the bammy, the fish, breadfruit, rundung sweet
We are friends again and children of the democracy
O come let us play upon the green, cricket lads
O take the ball at its seam, break wickets lads.
Winter
Out there
Again
Cold hearts
Rulers
Setting hearts
Afire
Cold out there
Night rules
The sun
And
dark
You must rest
Caged birds sing
I didn't have any reason to love her,
I just loved her.
But ispite of my true and pure love,
Today I have countless reasons to
leave her.
Like heaters with thousands of watts
Hot passion burns hearts into knots
Instead of this norm
To find love that’s warm
Form relations with chocolàtes
A honeyed and candied sweet taste
Entwined under lingerie laced
As valentine treat
Is the finest eat
Lucky tongues have ever embraced
Now Autumn
————————-
I can see beyond
the open ivory curtains,
the trees being
blessed, dressed
in the laced edges
of this day’s dawn:
a beauty-gift,
a heaven-graced lift,
a scene with a slight
magic mist
as if stars were
still flaring in sight
as in the mid-night,
with their tails adorning veils
over the trees from their
silently descending trails,
to cover all the groves
of Earth in a wonder
of star-wishes and kisses
of dew on the leaves,
beginning their yearly turn
from green to red and gold
— a nature’s reprise season
in time —
a way to praise:
a raising of colors to meet
autumn’s violet skies.
———————————————-
(c) sally young Eslinger 9/28/21
Glory to God
The sword is the pen,
that cuts the page open wide,
the ink that is spread,
is the wisdom of the life.
I hear her calling to me softly
Her gentle voice is like a spring breeze
Wafting on the scent of fresh lilac,
A lifetime of memories in a reprise
Her gentle voice is like a spring breeze
Whispering my name from heaven’s portal
A lifetime of memories in a reprise
Assuring me that life goes on, immortal
Wafting on the scent of fresh lilac
I inhale her essence; I know she is there
For her presence lingers effervescent,
I reach to run my fingers through her hair
A lifetime of memories in the reprise,
Every waking moment I draw her near
Reliving all those special times we shared
Savoring all the best with Deborah, my dear.
Written November 21, 2022