Best Surfaced Poems
(This is a universal story of mother’s sacrifice for their children, be it material, emotional, or intellectual.)
It was during the Korean War
Father was taken away by the Communists
Months ago
He never returned
Mother and I were left alone
In an island as refugees
Without anyone supporting us
One day
Mother brought a cup of rice
For me to eat
Only three spoonful
In the cup
I gobbled it up
Without much thought
Feeling still hungry
Mother took the cup in the kitchen
Closed the door
Through a crack
I saw Mother scraping
Scraping the bottom of the cup
For a few grains left
She licked the spoon over and over
How long has she been hungry
To feed me?
I froze
Really froze
I quietly left the room
To a beach nearby
Looking at the horizon
Where ocean met the sky
Far far away
Wanting to swim
Toward it
Until my strength
Sapped to nil
So that Mother didn't have to
Feed another mouth
Then a question surfaced
Will she be happy without me
So she can feed herself?
No way
Was my answer
She has already lost
Many of her loved ones
Without me
She will not go on living
I stood
With my heart filled with
Opposing forces
Resumed my walk
Toward Mother
Along the shores of distant dreams
beyond horizon’s stare,
of stardust eyes and ventured seas
in timeless journeys fair
I call out in a desperate tone
afloat this ocean view,
on waves eternal cast alone
in thoughts of only you
For if these waters claim their prize
in white capped angered form,
to fall in fear, dark clouded skies
in passion's mighty storm
And when the deep shall take my breath
below its surfaced chill,
I’ll hold your love with me in death
and I forever will
JED.
Jed the horse thief was a bit of a dope
Stole a pretty horse and tried to elope
Folk declared him a horse thief
And for giving them much grief
They dangled him at the end of a rope...
PADDY O'HARE.
A deep sea diver called Paddy O'Hare
Was on the sea bed without any care
His watch he forgot to check
Coughed and said" oh flippin heck"
Never surfaced cos he ran out of air...
BARTHOLOMEW LOTT.
The great explorer Bartholomew Lott
Was in the jungle with Jimmy the Scot
Cannibal's came in the night
They both put up a great fight
But were outnumbered and put in a pot...
FRED.
Fred tried to run away with his lover
Was caught in the act by his dear mother
She said this cannot be
T'will end in tragedy
His lover was the wife of his brother...
JIHADI (WON'T BE MISSED).
Bin Sayed said everything will be fine
Told a Jihadi bomber to cross the line
But Jihadi didn't know
Something was about to blow
A loud kaboom when he stepped on a mine...
LOUISE.
An old woman by the name of Louise
Had a fur coat that made everyone sneeze
Also they'd start to twitch
And scratch raw from the itch
She found out it was infested with fleas...
KEITH THE TROLL
There was a vile and nasty troll called Keith
Bullied the weak and shy into defeat
He lived in a small town
A victim tracked him down
Now he's seen walking around with no teeth...
Written 26th February 2020.
Death to a once known soul
A heart torn from the beast below
Tragedy a live in the eyes of fire
Rage sets off their desires.
Broken face to you unknown
Life is lived now all alone.
Fear believed to be alive
The body has yet to die.
My blood has surfaced into sight,
Forbidden demons struck that night.
Walls of courage began to break,
Foundation of my strength the demons take.
Sick visions seen when I try to rest
Night after night a demon's nest.
To live another day to see,
Their reasons are unbeknownst to me.
Sick thoughts of three demon's deaths
Is what now my mind and soul possess.
A truth in rage of insult furrows my mind
For it is only an offense given to me by myself
In the mouths of others far innocent than I
I feel the tears trickle down my cheeks
For I have surfaced into an ugly mistake
I am always inadequate in this brain
I try to shine like the advice of grace given
But confidence rarely rears its head my way
There’s a sort of shade blocking its way
A shade that darkens everyday
That very shade led me to believe my feelings are wrong
That I will never belong so long as they are not controlled
I must be careful—for the lines of love and lust run cold
I hate myself truly this night
And no one but myself will give me the right
The very right to degrade my every being
Because you are not seeing what I am seeing
There is no point
My lines run cold
Can I be so bold as to say
I still love with a pang of indistinguishable doubt
All feelings enter in
As my truth blurs and checks out
Your words pierce me so deep
I cannot describe the pain I feel
God it hurts so bad
It can’t be real
Much like the love I have come to embrace
The very love that links to your face
Tears don’t give it justice
It can’t be real
Much like the love I will never face
The boatman jabbered, “Ten rupees for each,
For a cool ride down the Chilika Lake”,
We egged on the elders, their child within,
The wooden boat, barely a few feet long,
Holding hands, brown and sturdy we climbed on,
Through the obtuse bending, welcomed us warm,
The boatman oars, stirs still waters about,
Tall grasses tickle the sides of the boat,
Nudging it slow, out of the serene shore,
The soft mud surfaced, soon bubbled away,
A leaf large of lotus gladly made way,
The frog caught lounging, swiftly dived away,
The evening sky, bright orange and gleaming,
A beautiful sun preparing to ease,
Right under the horizon, cackling geese,
Jellyfish soaring to breathe in the play,
White bodies against transient amber haze,
Surrounding our boat to pay their homage
Graceful ivory cranes, their young and new,
Downy feathers fluff, their eyes start to droop,
In the tangerine sundown, sight to scoop,
The bank reached, the journey hypnotic,
As the beauty of nature, exotic,
A mystic boat ride on Chilika Lake!
Cougar trouble
In 98 I was free again,
Thanks to wife stealing cousin Wayne.
At work the boss was an older chick,
Who moved on me, so very quick.
Though I had found other ladies great,
And was a dating several called mate,
Two ladies were there at work,
One married chick, who called me jerk.
It was hard to concentrate.
The Cougar kept me back one night,
Seduced me once, and it was nice.
Until I spoke of other girls,
Venom surfaced, plates were hurled,
What would be your advice.
Woman scorned, she did her best,
To move me on, till I had left,
No longer even Cougar blest.
Moved on to new horizons.
A History Of One Day Poetry Contest
Don Johnson
A springtime fawn found a placid pond and knelt down for a drink.
She bent her knees into the mud,
And placed her velveted chin
parallel to the pond
and the dawn found
the edge of the earth.
The touch of the fawn’s
Mouth made the water wake.
(and all things in it).
And as she drank,
the orchestra played the pond-song play.
The whole pond awoke to the sound of the little, lapping,
fawn’s tongue-song.
A tadpole was freed and ...Swam in the song.
He surfaced.
Greened in the dawn.
And surprised the fawn.
He saddled her sweet new nose
With his bright green clothes.
And she sneezed him
Aloft a red virgin rose.
Sunlight surfaced at the breach of dawn
It climbed salty rungs to emerge from the sea
When fully risen, what had been spawned?
A molten fireball cast from the dragon's breath,
a firey yawn exhaled in languorous flight
searing tangerine flames across the horizon
Daylight drifted over waking valleys and hills
in dappled luminance of shimmering gold
It danced in pirouettes upon my window sill
and chased shadows from my bedroom wall
until it tumbled on the bed where my love slept
He stirred, I smiled and then wept with emotion
at the passion glimmering in drowsy jade eyes
With each rise and fall of his muscular chest
the heated flush of desire within me burned
Sinewy arms reached out for me...
"Come back to bed," whispered from his lips
and my gown lay puddled upon the floor
I'd had enough of watching sunlight's strolling
for it had stolen too many moments next to him
My toes were cold from morning's chill
but it was not from Winter weather that I quivered
It was time to savor the sweet warmth of love
from his fingertip tracings upon my skin
Sperm Whale Dementia.
Here I am an old Sperm whale,
A swimming in the deep,
Sucking on the Crill, inhale,
As fearless I do leap.
And then I come to surface,
And clarity does seep,
Dementia nursing home this place,
Me poor old bones do creak.
Back beneath the water,
A swimming in the deep,
Happy as a tadpole,
More Crill to maybe eat.
Back up to the surface,
Who is that woman here,
She says she is Molly Brown,
A rellie so sincere.
So come visit sweet Molly Brown,
I may be far away,
Or surfaced with a puzzled frown,
A sperm whale here today…
Don Johnson 22-aug-11
My eyes are veiled
No hint of wild seduction
No hungry look of passion
No gleam of admiration
No twinkle of satisfaction
My eyes are veiled
Nothing from my soul passes through
The curtains of this window are drawn
I peek through unseeing
Colorblind to the hues
Selective of the view
I peek unseeing
My eyes refuse to betray me
Veiled by wet black lashes
That dam my tears
The salt of surfaced fears
My eyes are veiled
I will not unveil
Not my eyes
Not my dress
Impervious to caress
Burka bondaged am I
Passion urges, I deny
My eyes are veiled…
My lashes will part
Eyes revealing my heart
My soul will lay bare
Exposed without care
For the one
Whose love is true
Tell me,
is that someone...
You?
Eileen Manassian
A word of caution: The beauty of poetry is that there is inherent mystery in it. That's why we ask our students this question: "What do you THINK the author meant?" Do we ever truly know? If we did...there wouldn't be so many books written by authors trying to decipher Shakespeare's mind...trying to determine who the mistress was that he wrote about...who was the young youth that he idolized. Did he have homosexual tendencies? If we were to know all of this...he poems would lose that sense of wonder. Let the mystery remain mysterious...
When an angel would flow into our breath
That golden moment seldom we can know
Whenever that sublime sunrise occurs
A happiness glow builds its nest on our face
The police sergeant was controlling traffic
In spite of green signal he suddenly stopped all cars
Grin surfaced on the initially annoyed drivers
The sergeant walked an old man across the road
The teacher loved his pupil's mother
Her husband asked her to sleep with him
Looking into her eyes in question he said
The cancer patient is on the verge of death
A couple of days back I lost my purse
With two debit cards along with PIN record
I lost my balance of mind in a trauma
All advised me to report it to the police station
I was about to drive for the station house
A domestic aid appeared like an angel
With the purse in hand and smile on his face
I had dropped it when alighting from the car
Rain clouds lodge in certain souls' DNA
At the slightest heat and dust of exigency
Pearl like drops of pink and green empathy
Moisten their heart towards a rose garden
Out of the blue sometimes a golden hand
Warmly holds your anxious palm in sweat
Reassured you look with green gratefulness
Like a full moon a random help has walked in
________________________________________________
09/02/2017
She laid in morn’s dew light resting
her head on his chest-
for love can never be b r o k e n if
given a second chance.
The days grew longer and romance
grew stronger and the reasons for
making sweet memories proved to be
a reason for breathing.
Within a deep breath's moment he
gazed at nothing except her eyes-
they were deep chestnut holding such
w i s d o m, yet grace-
he knew there'd never be another,
another lover...
for him.
He knew she was the one;
she knew he was the one...
and in an instant they
e n t w i n e d
into marital bliss.
Like dew drops on a rose,
she completed him,
like pebbles on a shore he surfaced her-
like sand in an hourglass they s l o w l y
took their time with ease to show intense
LOVE IN THE MAKING.
He sparked her fire-
she ignited his lust.
She needed him in her youth, and the more
they aged the more they fed each other's
desires.
For life is but a charcoal etching-
ebony and white mixed
with shadows of grey
e x p a n d i n g into deep
artisan memories…
he engraved her soft glowing
silhouette on parchment
leaving an impression of passion.
The outline of her raven figure
released his affection framing
her within a...
lover’s m a s t e r p i e c e.
Your Best Poem in the Last Year Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Silent One
June 1, 2017
Lol she replied to my joke that went over well
I paused in reflection thoughts of what the hell
LOl? Really lol instead of a giggle or laugh
My inner a--hole surfaced on English’s behalf
Why would you say that in a conversation I said
You’re killing English which is almost already dead
Um.. I really don’t know I guess it’s like a laugh she said with slight hesitation
No. not the slightest bit at all with an obvious frustration
OMG are you mad at me for an expression I used
OMG? Not another one and I’m upset with you for a language you abused
And by the way what’s OMG stand for
Oh my God, it’s another one we use, I’ve got more
No please don’t continue, heck omg who woulda knew
Well now you know so they can be used by you
Yeah I guess your right I’ll give it a try F.U.
Earth element
Driven by instincts feral
Self-centred stance
An animal in human form
Gravity pulled me down
Material possessions
I seized by any means
Territorial behavior
In an imaginary cage
Yet in this density
In moments of silence
Love within stirred
Signalling God's presence
Water element
Lust and domination
Testosterone oversupply
Insatiable hunger
Danse Macabre
Brutal savagery
Plunder, rape, violence
Sadism at it's peak
I dwelt in the darkness
Yet in this density
In moments of silence
Love within stirred
Signalling God's presence
Fire element
Head and heart discord
Chaos and uncertainty
Conflict and self-doubt
Desire entwined with fear
Anger and remorse
Striving for balance
I was blown like a leaf
Powerless but in denial
Yet in this density
In moments of silence
Love within stirred
Signalling God's presence
Air element
A subtler realm
Of vanity and pride
Jealousy and dark envy
I was a black magician
Flickers of recognition
Appeared and disappeared
Whispers of conscience
Were sometimes audible
Yet in this density
In moments of silence
Love within stirred
Signalling God's presence
Ether element
Art and poetry
Grazing the vibrant void
Flirted with the ethereal
Breath by breath thus
Right brain oriented
Selective empathy surfaced
In but not of the world
I had lost my bearings
Yet in this density
In moments of silence
Love within stirred
Signalling God's presence
Epilogue
From gross to the subtle
As yet chained to form
The dance of polarities
Clouded heart and mind
Upon reaching exhaustion
There being no option
I plunged into the void
Relinquishing identity
Here within the bardo
Vaporised as a bliss mist
I became love's elixir
As a witness to myself
10-January-2023