Best Telephones Poems
Human ingenuity leapfrogs beyond ordinary
Buoying upon wings of intellectual curiosity
Sustaining innovation, creative imagination,
Breaking barriers once thought impenetrable,
Daring to conquer the arduous, unknown~
Resistant to understanding, inert to inquiry.
Unfathomable is force of scientific curiosity
That opened doors to discoveries, inventions:
Telescopes that explore the origin of universe,
Space flights landing on Moon and Mars,
Defying gravity, exceeding the speed of sound;
Telephones, electricity, computers, automobiles,
Untold preventive medicines, therapeutics,
Vaccines holding in check reign of pandemics,
Treatments for diseases, cure for hepatitis,
Nuclear fusion searching new source of energy
Reducing emissions to sustain life on earth.
Curiosity is the flame of wisdom, inspiration,
Lifeline for mortality pursuing life and liberty;
Promise of yesterday, today, and tomorrow,
For explicating phenomena less understood,
For guiding aspirations of cognitive intellect,
For directing journey on roads not traversed.
January 8, 2023
Placed 1st: This or That, Vol 15 Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
I hear Africa weeping
gnashing her teeth in cold
but custodians sit in glory
Cows mooing
bulls bellowing
trees whistling
wind blowing dust in eyes
land cracking and dusty
insects invading crops
women labor in vain
children- new market goats afar
young- girls cakes of pleasure
water migrating to the heavens
but custodians sit in glory
Tell me, weeping Africa
what went wrong?
two generations after Uhuru
Africa telephones heaven, no network
Is Africa blacklisted by God?
Tell me weeping Africa
why do custodians sit in glory,
citizens eat dust
children orphaned
foxes feast on dead meat
why, why?
what went wrong?
The other day while rummaging in a closet I was instantly overcome with joy
when I ran across our storage bins filled with our children’s once used toys.
Toys our children and grandchildren played with when they were young and new…
Toys that don’t grow up…like children and grandchildren do
A set of nesting cups for the bathtub, noise makers and little bouncing balls
plastic telephones where every child made imaginary calls.
Toys that at one time were their favorites…
toys they once adored.
Toys that served their purpose
but don’t get played with anymore.
A bunch of bendy action figures…which much to our elation
our children and grandchildren used…
to fuel their imaginations.
Those thick little baby books, a stuffed doggie, soft and brown
wooden blocks with painted letters they'd stack up…
then knock down.
As I picked up a plastic microphone and a bunch of different tiny cars
I thought how every toy inside these bins are part of who they are.
Because each of these toys was special once…
because each had their own heyday
there’s no way we could ever throw them out…
no way we'll ever give them away.
So they live in quiet comfort…
who knows…
we may live to see the day
when great great grandchildren come to visit…
who will no doubt want to play.
“Hey I remember playing with this when I was your age!”
We imagine their parents will say
and we’ll sit back and we'll smile
as we watch a new generation at play…
I imagine there are toys like these
in closets all across the USA…
quietly resting in bins of their own…
patiently awaiting that day.n…
patiently waiting for that day.
Love me like you mean it without pretending smile
don't need a stroke of genius or conversation style
your presence is required, the telephones a rue
don't need you constantly but never just won't do
love me like you mean it without pretending smile
Love me like you care enough to give the very best
believe in what I say and never put me to the test
I'm always here, slow to anger quick in every turn
so share it now while I'm alive, no ashes in the urn
love me like you mean it without pretending smile
Love me like you mean it come raise me off the floor
relationships aren't easy, you can't buy one at the store
so here is your VIP, message me a signal see to see
all is good when we're together drinking Red Rose tea
love me like you mean it, without pretending smile...
December 6, 2019
Contest Name: Love Me Like You Mean It
Sponsor Name: Julie Leigh Rodeheaver
Love Weighs Souls, Says Both Hearts And God Above
They say that the human soul has no weight
They that have not felt heavy hand of fate
Shouting man is born but a fleshly shell
And there is no heaven, there is no Hell
The soul once broken sets a heavy load
As many a crushed heart has showed
We are more than what we see- skin and bones
More than our chatter on our telephones!
Soul in mourning bears the weight of the world
Crushed by weight of boulders Fate hurled
Within man rests that which cannot be seen
Infinite depths not shown on any screen
An invisible link- soul, heart and mind
A unique force- a most passionate kind
A seed sprouting in the soul to emerge
That which becomes a very human urge!
Look at life, the in-between set by Fate
Soul connection, that lovers can relate
Far more than a mere desire or a spell
A power thus born- oft nothing can quell
Yes, the invisible soul does have weight
Its great power is it can alter Fate
I should know that well, it did so with mine
Freed both hearts, gave us love on which to dine
Proof is in the pudding, or so they say
We both have sworn love until our dying day
As dawn's breath each golden beam brings anew
That dearest paradise found by we two
I thank God and willing soul when I pray
With the sincerest words a man can say
For that blessing of life and her sweet love
Love weighs souls, says our hearts and God above.
Robert J. Lindley, 12-18-2020
Rhyme, ( Of The Light Found And Proof In The Pudding )
Remembering Old-Time Telephone Service
By Elton Camp
Only a few decades ago, the wireless telephones that have become so much a part of our lives were inconceivable and remained so until the advent of Star Trek in the 1960s. Seeing the crew of the Enteprise in easy, constant contact struck a responsive cord in the public mind. Nevertheless, few of us even imagined that similar technology would become readily available to individuals in our lifetimes.
Outside of towns, telephones were not at all common in private homes. When I was a child in the 1940s, not a house in our immediate community had a telephone. We all used the one at the crossroads grocery store. It paid the phone company to run a line only because Gilley’s Store was on the main road between two fair-sized cities. The more scattered rural areas had no phone lines and thus service was unavailable.
In 1951, when I was in the sixth grade, we finally got a telephone. It was on an eight party line with all eight homes receiving the ring whenever any house in the group got a call. The rings were coded: one through four long rings and one through four short rings. All calls “rang in” at every house, even if it was midnight or early morning.
Zero privacy could be expected on calls. Distinct clicks announced pick-ups by multiple eavesdroppers. The practice was called “listening in.” Actually, nobody seemed to particularly mind as long as the listeners refrained from commenting on the conversation.
Many of our neighbors didn’t have a phone at all. They came to ask to use ours. Even worse, their incoming calls sometimes came to us. “Can I speak to Ronald,” the caller asked. Ronald lived three houses away. Yet, we were expected to go get him while the caller waited. By current standards, that sounds like an outrageous imposition, but nobody objected. People were more inclined to help each other in those days.
Older folks tend to long for the “good old days,” but I think few would want to go back to that type of telephone service.
Hubby works for a Corporation called the... Well, I’m not allowed to say.
He answers telephones. Really! EVEN with his great degree, every day!
But, now, remember this is a Corporation, and they do stuff differently!
They leave the air conditioners on, when it’s still winter at, 10 BELOW!
A worker controls the temperature… from 8 states away, so has his fun!
Everyone works in parkas, gloves, and earmuffs, every, single day, bar none!
It wouldn’t continue if the Uppity Ups, didn’t work in warmer rooms above!
Darn those Corporations, they have no common sense, what-so-ever, at all!
All the chairs are broken, that’s hard, since they’re rocks from a prehistoric age!
And all have to scavenge for working earphones, around the room, every day!
The computer tools aren’t working, someone mysteriously, turned them off.
But they still want one call resolution, of all problems in ten minutes or less.
The pay is next to nothing, so the Company stock looks SO good, by gosh!
Benefits and HR are in India, where they don’t understand any English, at all!
All the pay increases were capped, oh, about eight or maybe, ten years ago!
Now they’ve quit hiring those who finished high school, and want to work.
There’s even been fights in what has now, been designated, as Hoodlum Row.
They’re here, for the long run, and don’t even bother, to answer their phones!
The entire town was shut down due to snow, and if you didn’t come in that day…
Well, you know the story, someone in another state, simply, docked your pay!
They had asked to use vacation time, but that took 2 months to fix, by the way!
Quitting time is obvious, as all the bosses mysteriously, suddenly, drift away.
The penguins came with Hubby one day, and have come back, every day since.
Their snowball fights, in the aisles, are legendary each and every day! Amen!
They don’t complain, love the cold, answer the phones, and people quickly hang up!
Since the customers can’t understand what they say… they’re handle time, rocks!
Hubby snuck a plastic spoon from the lunchroom, which he guards with his very life.
It helps him tremendously, as he digs out thru the ice, when it comes to quitting time.
Collaboration Carol and (Hubby)
Earth is becoming something different, something more.
For millions of years proto-humans strode its bounties until
*****sapiens arrived. Once here, humans took millennia
incrementally building improving its lot in life. Step by step,
developing new ways of improving, one change building upon another.
Cooking food, better nutrition, better weapons for hunting and protection.
Hunter-gatherers working as teams for better outcomes,
feeding and enabling larger populations. Development of farming, enabling villages to take root.
More improvement, villages become towns then cities, city states to countries.
Communication develops, improves, writing, printing books for the masses, new ideas, morse code, telephones. The planet communicates.
Medicines, industrial revolution, humankind spans the globe.
Technology improving, quality of life improving, living longer.
Science, ever probing every aspect
pushing the boundaries of capabilities. Traveling further and faster, trains, automobiles, planes
Spacecraft. Computers, internet, global neural net, global mind, artificial intelligence, human cyborgs. The pace of change ever quickens.
Humankind, on the cusp of change
so explosive the consequences of which are unfathomable.
I had to sit through it all
the conversation that was inevitable
What they did
Where they went
What they saw...
My brother and his wife
On the their expensive trip to see Roger Federer in the flesh
My husband and daughter
On a trip joining work with sightseeing
And then there was me....
I listened...
Big Ben and its imposing height
Parliament's alluring might
Pics there at Downing street
Fish and chips, a tasty treat
Outside Westminster Abbey
The Thames in its flowing glory
London Bridge, Trafalgar square
Harrods and all the goodies there
The Shard and the tennis match
Souvenirs that were a catch
Brollies forgotten here and there
Poppies bobbing everywhere
The Palace and the Rosetta stone
Red booths housing telephones
Tussaud's latest entries
Baker Street and revelries
All this, and so much more
Stories of the trip...galore
I sat and listened to it all
Saw even more pics
In my heart a twisted ache
My teaching schedule and other things
Made me stay back home
It didn't make this night easier
I thought of all I'd missed
Sure, I'd been to London years ago
But somehow...this still hurt
I'd been left behind
The night blissfully came to an end
And here am I...writing this
with London in my mind
"London, BABY!"
Not for me...
Eileen Manassian
Yup....I'm having a pity party. Didn't go to London with the fam. I was all by my lonesome! I'm happy my daughter and husband got to see the sights. We'd been there when Shereen was six or seven, but now at twenty, she could appreciate it all more. It still hurts a little that I couldn't go along. Now all the talk is done...and I can put it behind me, till the day I go to London and experience it on my OWN! ;)
Telephones.
These things cause more aggro thanb any single object in the universe,
Firstly if you ring a service you're afflicted by a sadist female voice telling you to know your
place and follow the instructions,
Secondly if you phone someone with a mobile then its practically impossible to reach them
because they're high on cocaine,
Thirdly if you try to phone a friend they say 'I'm busy can you call back later,
And fourthly if someone phones you then its probably a company's recorded message saying
congratulations you've won the east coast of majorca,
Fifthly if you haven't been totally p##### off by now then the devil calls and tells you,
You're going to hell for eternity.
I've thrown mine out.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Once, long distant calls would cost
You, your friends and family so many voices
had to wait, anticipate the budget and the worth
of words said out loud to ride rapid electric lines.
Still sentiments of love freely fly on telepathic planes
while prose and poetry remain yours truly.
When present face to face do you speak truly?
Conversations branch out, chip, splinter into stories, that's the cost.
Fish stretch past arms' length and record breaking climbs pass clouds and planes.
Tell me again how it all began, how many voices
sang out from heaven: Forgiveness for sale! Limited supply, form lines.
Greedy practice, selling soul's salvation, who figures out what it's worth?
Fear can make us pay the selfish who decide our worth.
Are our souls and spirits make-believe, a magician's trick or God's, truly?
Conversations of belief from heart or scripted lines
brainwashed or sincerely swayed, choice has a cost---
Cross your fingers, chant the scriptures, sing with all your voices
until it's real or a lie you can live with, insured for your departure in heaven's plane.
If a soldier's plane crashes, angelic eagles soar, swoop like planes,
nose dive to every soldier because lives are worth
remembering. Telephones shoot words-- bam, bam, bam, fire voices
on ears that bleed worst fears, shattering those who love them truly.
Nothing will ever be sweet or innocent again, this is an impossible cost.
War kills conversations, steals final farewell lines.
Songs please draw forgiving lines,
to rise over hatred in unarmed planes
for a bird's eye perspective to consider the cost
of love lost in doubt, its worth.
Love lights up any sort of soul, truly.
It's power hurls bolts through nerves that revive the mystic voices...
Devils, misfits, do-gooders, cherubs and chumps-- let's hear all your voices!
Call out to love, it won't resist, will cross any line
to save who is good or bad-- it desires everyone, truly
Here comes the light, hear comes our flight, listen for the plane
Remember it's insane to worry about your worth,
to be, to be, is miracle enough, we can't comprehend the cost.
Solo fly or get in line formation with you plane
Lift off, blast past hatred to reach Love's treasure of unimaginable worth.
Truly precious, so protect it, Love in all your actions no matter what the cost
Happy Birthday Delightful Daughter of the Dawn
~Designed from the embers of my mind~
Pull down the shades of your blue eyes
Drifting towards evenings soft lullabies
Supportive bunny pillow 'neath your head
A fable story that I read
Snippets of cuddling as I tucked you to bed
Moments shared stitched in my heart
Of your precious life that I did chart
You were so much older then your younger then that now
Funny shadow figures on the wall
How we made them look so tall
A puppet show outside, bay window as your stage
Until you fell and puppets accidently plunged
That expression of sheer outrage your face did engage
When your tiny head suddenly accusingly lunged
I laughed 'til I cried as I intuited your desire to expunge
You were so much older then your younger then that now
Bubble baths, Pig tails and worn melted slippers
as you sought warmth from forced hot air
On chilly mornings standing atop the simple heaters grill
As I viewed your nightgown floating up, such a thrill
Precious moments etched in time beyond compare
Simple cans for telephones with knotted plastic wires
As you and your sister shared your different desires
Embers of love that fuel my minds fires, sweetness inspires
You were so much older then your younger then that now
Pummel horse, beam, bars and floor
so many things you wanted to explore
You danced and sailed through the air
So many proud moments we got to share
Index cards for spelling bees
You were always eager to please
Snippets in time we can not freeze
Yet when they circulate from time to time
My minds eye is genuinely appeased
You were so much older then your younger then that now
~ I LOVE YOU~
Sweet Sixteen
By Franklin Price
12/31/2016
Sweet sixteen is moving on; tonight will be its last.
Tomorrow is another year, today will be the past.
A hundred years ago tonight, World War One was on at will.
Horses drawing caissons on mostly dirt roads still
Radios were barely blaring, no television yet,
No computers in our lives, of course no internet.
Operator assisted telephones, used by the upper sect.
Birds were the ones who tweeted, not the president elect
My how times have changed since then, is it really for the best?
A whole new set of challenges to put us to the test.
The world is now much smaller with Internet and instant news;
Provided by most anyone, some lies, some truthful views
ISIS recruiting wirelessly, from the lost and searching throng
Politicians with their pockets full, asking, “Whatever could be wrong?”
The last trains that are running are about to leave the track
No respect is left for anything, “Will we ever get it back?”
The world is now a different place, most accomplished by cell phone;
Conversation, text and tweet; seldom face to face alone
We meet with friends on Facebook or some other cyber way
The expense of transportation limits traveling today.
With sixteen coming to an end, as the clock strikes twelve tonight,
As the ball drops down in Times Square, pray that things will be alright.
Seventeen will be another year, let's work together for the best.
Work with those who work with us, contend with all the rest.
Happy New Year to you; whether a stranger or a friend.
Strive with me to make you, the latter, by the end.
In the Year of seventeen, be the best that you can be.
Offer a friendly hand to all, it will be better, you will see.
like wisps of smoke whispering, flickers hope whistling, to misty hopeless whimpering
physically choked sickened, with too much oh no, sunny gone, downhill, wrong side like mono, life can be so cold, I heard the oboe solo, in the motherland flute plays you, ways of making waves and rays when oceans arent blue, monochrome foam the root here not beer shaking up a flurry of sparkles, tears in snow globes, three cheers I don't know, cause bliss can be addicting fixed on asphyxiating whilst in a mix of medicating, anything to ease what my pain is instigating, kill the messenger cause telephones are useless as they are insinuating
telephones
ringing with telegrams
I answered and received a body slam
bubble gum used to fix a cracked dam
rhymes grown weird
sexy and funky, smeared
like mushroom toe jam
enjoy chocolate milkshakes
with a juicy rare rack of lamb
please stand here while i give you
a close glove inspection body scan
I love sticking my beef hotdog
inside her tuna clam
honey glazed pineapple blazed
smacking that glistening ham
make sure to stream it on your webcam
clicked on the link
but those ***** pills were a total scam
bamboozled
hoodwinked, duped a sour global sham
now you're salty like canned spam