Best The Commonwealth Poems
Oh! Virginia
Come travel back with me to Old Virginia
The namesake of Elizabeth: the Queen
No other state possesses such charisma...
Oh! Mother, of this nation... evergreen.
The Old Dominion, (fifth realm of the Crown),
Birthed many 'Declaration' signers here
As well as Presidents...heroes abound,
From battles fought for Freedom we endear.
The Commonwealth is full of history:
From Jamestown...Williamsburg...and even Poe;
Virginians' Honour and Integrity...
Are still the code for living--not just show.
The Blue Ridge, Country Ham, and Brunswick Stew...
Virginia! Oh! Virginia! I love you...
deborah burch©1.3.2017
Form: Sonnet
Quote By Poet "Money like honey is sweet to taste but money can sting you."
If money was the way
we would be happy everyday
then why are so many sad
they need more work and less play.
Work is good for you
makes you happy and not blue
brings in the money
now you can eat beef stew.
Why are the rich so unhappy
with their many riches they should be happy
somethings money can not buy
they sure dress very snappy.
They say money equals wealth
one can not buy health
money is just paper and coins
no mansion living in the commonwealth.
An Affirmation is that you say to improve your health today.
It’s a prayer and potent, because you are willing something to happen.
The seek and you will find part as Jesus said ….and it works!
Why is Queen Elizabeth so healthy and long lived?
Because…
The Commonwealth peoples recite her affirmation daily.
God save our gracious Queen
Long live our noble Queen
God save our Queen
Send her victorious….etc
As a result of this good will, prayer she is very well and “long to reign over us.”
Because millions will this to be???
So make your own affirmation…recite it daily..and it will happen
I will get down to my chosen weight!
Yes I bloody will old mate!
Keep them chokky bars away!
I am bloody strong today!
Don Johnson
Long Live Queen Elizabeth II
Queen of England and realms of the Commonwealth,
she’s a symbol of grace and enduring strength.
God blessed Elizabeth with longevity,
intelligence, poise, and stately serenity.
Through major challenges of the 20th Century,
Her Majesty has been a beacon guiding her subjects dauntlessly.
Never in all her reign has she wavered,
ever with a stiff upper lip and using the gifts God gave her.
Regally well-dressed in her own unique style of attire,
Lilibet’s not only a wife and mother, but also an inspiring leader.
From her dazzling coronation to her Diamond Jubilee,
she remains the jewel in the crown – all hail to The Queen Bee!
Long live Britannia!
Vivat Regina Elizabetha!
05-25-2015
Contest: Long Live the Queen
Sponsor: Judy Konos
Placement: 1st
You're going to be amazed here
comes the commonwealth games.
professional athletes putting on the
finest displays, what breath-taking
arrays of the fittest and the brave
We look on in awe, the devotion such
concentration to perform faultless
techniques, spot on!
Form:
Kill! Kill the enemy with no mercy and commence!
Charge! Charge with your heart immense.
Arise! Arise Men of the Commonwealth!
We will approach with great stealth
Let the fiery heat of the sun burn
in your hearts that strongly yearn
as you level your rifles
Be enchanted with the pride that stifles
your hesitance. Be fearless, like the lion
who knows only to kill to feed on.
When you hear the trumpet call remember
to shoot their horses
and to shoot their heads.
You'll see when we've won
When the supply column is over run
If they break formation,
Then they are done.
An extra shot of whiskey,
To keep my hands steady,
A potent dosage of psycho,
To kill everyone in this fermented grotto,
A torrent of tears,
To drown my homicidal regrets and masochistic fears.
Sadistically driven by revenge claimed so long ago,
Sewing makeshift stitches over my gaping emotional wounds,
Accumulated from years of abuse that created our antihero,
Performing nightly spectacles of barbarity to receive my dues,
I am a woman consumed by vendettas yet hollow to the core,
Trapped within empty bottles and dirty syringes,
Desperately searching for any hope to restore,
A fragmented psyche from becoming completely unhinged.
Another round of glaring lights,
To soothe the intoxicated patrons demanding a fight,
Another bottle downed,
To loosen the limbs and lose track of the ground,
Another match between the violently stupid and the hopelessly depraved,
To find out which ones which after I've vehemently raved,
At my booze for not buzzing,
At my chems for not lifting,
At myself for not quitting,
At my life for not ending.
How many more nights can I take of this,
One more shot and I'm bound to burst,
One more chem and I taste death's kiss,
Since leaving the womb my life's been cursed,
I should end it all with one good shot,
Scream a final "screw you" to the world through my double-barrel microphone,
Not like anyone's gonna listen whether they be across the Commonwealth or within earshot,
So it's either throw the match and die with the last laugh,
Or crawl into a corner and let my splattered brain write my final epitaph.
A sudden muzzle flash,
With the sound of cracking whips and roaring thunder,
The fragrant aroma entices my nostrils with the perfume of rabid gunpowder and easy cash,
A fight to the death interrupted by a hail of gunfire? Yea, sounds like my usual drunken stupor,
Maybe it's my guardian angel coming to save me,
Well she's got red hair and a nice ass so call me a believer,
Looks like you won't be taking me out tonight Reaper you old thief,
I've got a prior engagement with my shotgun,
And a date with destiny.
My Father Took me to the Menin Gate
lest I should not know that lives were lost
to make me free.
Then at the cemetery I fell asleep
while he walked along the rows on soft grass between the crosses
Then I heard the tanks roll around
a heavy grinding hell raising sound
that crunched the gravel.
Before the echo died came boots of soldiers.
I seemed to see them travel
along the road ahead all brown
and swinging trouser legs
Above the sound of boots
and breathless gasps of marching men
were wheels and wheels
and rumbling trucks
the swish of lighted flares
gunshot glow and bombard shoots
I could not wake myself, I had to hear
those boots upon the gravel
Then as I woke myself it seemed like blood red rain
was falling down. But through the mist
those white crosses rose, arms out, began to fly
above the cemetery up into the blue sky.
Like flocks of swans they rose
with strange gladsome sound
and disappeared into the blue-grey sky
time passing as so many joined
the upwards wave of spirits
above my exhausted self.
Soldiers of the Commonwealth lie here
black and brown and grey and white
in peace, I hope, not hearing what I heard,
the rosary of sorrow, Passchendales site
that kept off foreign troops from Belgian Soil
until another night.
We no longer own an empire
We no longer rule the waves
We rarely show the Dunkirk spirit
We no longer free the slaves
We are not the world's bold policeman
With the strength to control with will
The turbulent forces surround us
And this earth does not stand still
We can't stand in isolation
No matter how splendid the idea might be
We'd drown in a sea of troubles
That's not a choice to me
Our own trade area and the commonwealth
We tried all that before
In more certain times, with loyal friends
Then turned to Europe to level the score
And no, it isn't perfect
Democracy's a weak and feeble elf
Swamped by bureaucratic chatter
But is the answer to talk to oneself?
If control of immigration
and sovereignty is the aim
Then can we really trust our own politicians
To improve the rules of the game?
Too many questions are thrown their way
For any political force
To cope with needs of humanity
And tackle each problem at source
There are gaps to be plugged if we stay inside
Sensible arguments to be begun
But 60 years of peace tell me
Many heads can be better than one
The seas of the future look choppy
Unseen dangers may lurk therein
So I'm choosing a ship, not a dinghy
I'm voting for staying in
II
I was thinking ... Absences
Used to make hearts grow fonder
Or so the proverb said, in my youth
True in some ways ... Untrue in another
Some have departed poetry and breath
Such is human existence
Absences makes a heart stronger
But only if we survive the heartbreak
(I no longer spend time with pets
Lest I get fond of them in Africa
Where crime pays ... Stealing
A post-Mandela culture here - sad to confess ...
( I fought apartheid too)
And so did the late Queen Elizabeth
The Commonwealth is her baby, growing again
After apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia
Tried to murder her Commonwealth of the nations
Having taught GCSE’s, A-level’s and degrees,
Sue switched to primary teaching with a PGCE,
And won the Yorkshire/Lincs Sportsperson twice,
Was given the MBE for her services to charity.
She’s a patron of Rainbow House, disabled kids,
Which offers them conducive education, trying,
And she organises fundraisers for cancer research,
Along with encouraging sports games by coaching.
Sue has attended every Paralympics since 2000,
And at the Commonwealth Games in 2002, 2006,
Won two gold medals in the Women’s EAD Singles,
Where she did not panic, tense up or get into a fix.
Originally as a child, she played as able-bodied,
But her Ehlers Danlos muscle, ligament disease,
Meant that Sue used a wheelchair from age 17,
And her debut was the Euros in 1998, a release.
By 2005 she was the European Champion, gold -
Sue had won silver in 2003 as a pregnant lady,
Gold in 2013 at the Bayreuth Open in Germany,
And she took a bronze in the Europeans heady.
At Vejle in Denmark, 2015, she won the bronze,
In the team class 4-5, and at Lignano’s Master,
She won a bronze for the same event, the team,
But Sue won another bronze for the singes caster.
She just missed out on a podium finish in Rio,
She comes from Dodworth, Barnsley, S Yorkshire,
She was born on the 19th day of August in 1972,
And trains in Barnsley. She’s a mum of two, on fire.
Beverley is a professional at the Paralympics,
Because she’s been to five of them including Rio,
And in London she made the podium’s antics,
Since she won discus third with a lush glow.
Born the 17th of October 1974 with Cerebral Palsy,
She made the 2000 Sydney Summer Paralympics,
‘Cos back then she was a sprinter of great agility,
Coming 4th in the 100m and 8th in the 200m bricks.
She ran in the T38 class of running and sprinting,
But after these games she also competed in track,
The F37/38 shot put took her, it was challenging,
At the 2005 Worlds she won shot, 100m, 200m tack.
In 2006 at the CP Worlds in Conneticut USA, again
Three golds for the shot put, 100m and 200 metres,
And at the IPC Worlds, Assen, also in 2006’s pen,
Beverly set a shot put WR of a huge 10.57 metres.
At the Commonwealth Games in 2006 in hilly Wales,
She won the only event that she entered, sprinting,
When she took bronze for the 100 metres, T37 pales,
To see her climb the podium, Wales remembering.
Then she dropped running and just focused on track,
To build up her shoulder muscles for a fluent arm action,
So in 2011 at the IPC Worlds in Christchurch, jack,
She threw a discus 30.62 metres for silver convection.
In London she came third with a score of 30.99 metres,
To win a bronze, and in Rio de Janeiro she placed fifth,
“You have to switch…off [the crowd with all your litres],
[and] think [of] what you’ve been doing in training, [sith].”
A Games Maker at London’s Paralympics 2012,
Stephanie used to be a competitor able-bodied,
In the Great Britain team, mind on the Olympics,
Even tho’ since 11 her eyes were bad, crummier.
One day when she was training in a 50m sprint,
She felt a sharp, sudden pain shoot down her arm,
Which she just ignored, but it soon re-emerged,
Such that today she’s possesses nerve damage.
She’s a para-swimmer and competes in contests,
With other disabled sportsmen and sportswomen,
Her first competition as such was in Sheffield city,
2013, the British International Swimming Champs.
So at the Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow,
2014, Stephanie won a silver for the 100m freestyle,
And then in Eindhoven which is in the Netherlands,
7 golds: 1 for back, 1 fly, 3 free, 1 relay, 2 medley.
In Funchal which is on Madeira, Portugal, in 2016,
On this approach to Rio Stephanie won 2 golds,
At the European Championships highly spirited,
1 for the 50m freestyle and 1 for the 100m butterfly.
In Rio Stephanie won the silver in 1 min 10.32 secs,
And sealed gold along with her familiar colleagues,
In the 4x100m medley relay 34pts. From Preston,
She practices in their Club, born 7th February 1991.
Sarah Storey was the first disabled athlete,
In the Commonwealth Games to compete,
As an English competitor, and she’s thrice,
Able-bodied national track champion of ice.
She was born without a left hand, entangled,
But she was firstly a swimmer, she jangled,
Then she became a cyclist on road and track,
And is still pedalling strong, not to look back.
She swam in Barcelona in 1992 and won,
Two golds, three silvers and a bronzed one,
Then in 2008, again at the Paras her fifth,
She won the individual pursuit with much pith.
Sarah Storey won Britain’s first gold in the C5,
In the women’s individual pursuit she’d thrive,
And in the C4-5 5000m, C4-5, and on road,
She won each one with a gold that was owed.
In 2014 she founded a sports cycling team,
Which supports a breast cancer charity keen,
And she became a MBE in 1998, OBE in 2009,
Then she was made a dame in 2013, long line.
She married Barney her coach and duel pilot,
For the tandem duel ride, which could be a riot,
And was on the 2012 Celebrity Mastermind IQ,
With Sex & The City, and also has a girl to coo.
Bury your gems,
Hide your wealth,
Across the commonwealth,
Map out your co-conspirators,
And paintings on the walls,
Speak to each one,
About what is going on.
Form: