grimy gremlins gathered in a gloomy glade
giggling guzzling grapeade they’d greedily made
with gadgets gone wild
and gizmos defiled
they gambled on games with tricks they’d displayed
It started in three thousand BC
When for survival, warning sounds were key
These utility communications
Building sender-receiver relations
Secular signs, religious ritual
The use of bells became habitual
Calling to worship or tolling the hours
Announcing events all from bell towers
Locating bells for pet rabbits and cats
For goats in the hills and cows on the flats
Such animals of all manner and form
Even the lead camel in a sand storm
What news of the ship in faraway seas?
Lutine strikes two as it sails on fresh breeze
Westminster must keep to the where and when
By the hour bell of the great clock, Big Ben
Times have changed, we live in this modern place
Technology seeps and invades our space
Now digital gizmos replace the bell
All that’s left is to sound its own death knell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2nd place in the Bells premier contest. Sponsored by Kim Rodrigues. Contest Judged 12/12/2023.
The sequel to this poem is Bell rings which you can find in my poems.
Pens, and pen knives,
minor gadgets and gizmos,
chopsticks
old zippo lighters,
motheaten books
that crumble an old-fashioned wisdom
into the mush of a quaint twaddle,
words to muddle over
on a day locked into a raincloud.
He collected all sorts -
mostly useless things,
mostly the unimportant, the worthless,
gathering together
all the small curiosities of the bygone,
things often broken and long discarded.
His poetry is a collection also,
a jumble of oddments and offbeat widgets,
stuff he finds hazily dreaming
beside unpaved roads.
In the world, two gizmos are welded.
An unreversible truth, same as a soul in a body
Love and poetry that cheers and arrays.
Raining longings with promise, not averring.
Nothing provokes poetry like passion;
Nothing replenishes him like warmth.
And a full moon is a verse for love.
Written: January 20, 2022
Love to live in a digital world
To rap electronic gizmos has become unfurled
Here is my poem to pen my tone
Why should I blame mobile phone
Go on surfing to ponder world news
Frequent buffering make me blows
if the network is ever failure-prone
Why should I blame mobile phone
Downloads and uploads,I prefers to do
Thinking, what next to be in the Data queue
If the memory card consumption is unknown
Why I should blame mobile phone
Ever ready to peek new WhatsApp messages
Gradually switching to scrolling images
If excess indulgence makes me lazybone.
Why should I blame mobile phone
Watching videos on YouTube round the clock
Cannot go on ,Without a glimpse on tiktok
If Pressure on eyes make my sight worsen
Why should I blame mobile phone
With all wishes, happiness,friends and leisure
Still I find flaws in an electronic treasure
My conscience questions me in a halcyon
Why should I blame mobile phone.
A SELFIE WITH ME
Good looks
I swear
I don't possess,
With a flower pot face I think
The creator had forgotten
To trim my zygomatic process.
Still I wonder why
Inside deep inside me
Like a young lover
A queasiness brews,
With some clicks
And self's mirror image
To be the cynosure
In social media news.
Is it only the game of gizmos
Like mobile phones
Front cameras and selfie sticks,
Or else self-love
Great admiration for oneself
Where narcissism licks.
Some even say Modi
The charismatic extrovert
Indian prime minister,
Narcissist because
A suit worth ten lakhs
Name engraved in gold he wore.
Tell me who is
Not a narcissist
In human species,
The latent exposed
With the advent of
Front cameras and selfie sticks.
Childhood then was full of fun
as kids played outside in the sun
So different then, unlike today
with their gadgets and gizmos
that’s all they want to play
On rising with a picnic packed
we trekked all day with no route mapped
Made camps amongst the bushes and trees
as the sun went down, dashing home for our teas
No watching TV night after night
we played board games, did puzzles
maybe had a pillow fight
With fluffy white feathers
strewn over the floor, feigning sleep
as Ma banged on our door
We played conkers and jacks and hopscotch too
there was never a day we had nothing to do
The sun always shone from morning till night
when the moon shone down what a beautiful sight
We saw little green men having fun on the moon
and one day we dreamt we would fly there soon
So next day a space ship we built in the garden
made with rope and old boxes
we had claimed from the foxes
could be launched the next day ~ as we floated away
on another adventure, well what more can I say…
Contest Strand Choice M
Sponsor Brian Strand
It was a hazy, hot humid evening
with the air conditioners all humming along
as the tube gave us a severe weather alert
like a vortex here came the violent thunderstorm
We heard the wild wind whistling dixie
as the gusts blew in from the southwest
so we hightailed it to the basement
our hearts rapidly beating in our chests
Our hearing senses were heightened
by straight line winds in our backyard
with the pounding rain hitting our roof
the storm downed some power lines
The tempest finally passed over
as we struggled in the dark
and turning on our flashlights
we finally ventured back on up
Looking out the back door
we noticed three fallen trees
relieved they didn't fall on any structure
as we felt the cool breeze on our cheeks
With no gizmos or gadgets to keep us entertained
like the Amish we retired to our beds
the now opened windows served as our air conditioners
as a slight cool breeze blew in
The next morning technology again thrived
as all the power in the house came back on
with my bedside clock flashing like a neon sign
with 9:17pm ingrained in my mind.
6-20-18
Bugs Bunny was a hero that wore no mask
That rascally rabbit, "What's up doc?", he'd ask!
The Flintstones Fred yelled,"Yaba daba doo!"
Wilma, Barney and Betty there with him too!
Popeye would always say, "I'm strong to the finish!"
Do you know why? "Because I eats me spinach!"
Rocky and Bullwinkle almost all of the time
Kept spies Boris and Natasha from doing crime
The Jetsons had all the space gizmos to get
George, Elroy, Jane, Judy and Astro their pet
Mr. Magoo clearly the most near sighted of men
Would say, "Oh Magoo, you've done it again!"
They said, "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a frog!"
He answered , "It's just little old me, Under Dog"
Then we knew it was the end of the jokes
As soon as Porky Pig stuttered, "That's all Folks!"
Golly, yes and gee whiz,
Go get app that and this.
Gizmos rule galaxies.
Gift life the wizardry
Gateway marvels should be.
Gain I not from apps game,
Gaps in brain are to blame.
Date: December 2, 2016
Pleiades G - Kim Merryman
howmanysyllables.com used
I just happened to find this Gizmo
In my bottom left hand drawer
Now I take it with me
Everywhere I go
I take it out to play
I take it into work
I spend time with my Gizmo
For all that Gizmo's worth
It changes color often
Like a woman changes moods
So I can wear it with any outfit
On any day I choose
It also hums Broadway tunes
If ever we get bored
He and me tap our feet to disco beats
When dancing is in store
I hear that no two Gizmos
Excatly are the same
If you care to show me yours
I promise to show you mine
Life for me has not been the same
That I can guarantee for sure
Every since I found that Gizmo
In my bottom left hand drawer
All alone and wanting a bite to eat,
she made herself a special treat,
but needed the finishing touch,
and that was to add a pickle...
all the while thinking,
they can be very fickle...
Grabbing a new jar,
trying to screw the lid off,
she twisted and she let out a shout;
"This is like trying to break into Fort Knox!"
And also wishing that she had a nickle for
every time she tried to pry open
a jar of pickles!
Feeling frustrated and dismayed,
when she turned to put away
the jar of pickles that day,
she was stunned to find
a large jar of nickles..
with a note on it saying:
Now if you can open this jar,
here are some nickles
to buy you
one of those
rubber grip gizmos!
P.S. And some more pickles!
Ability to face his fears, gone!
Bewitched by a demon for so long.
Could not conceive a positive thought.
Doom and dread was all he sought.
Echoing hallucinating voices in his mind.
Friendships meaningful, he could not find.
‘Go ahead, end it now!’….
He’d hear them say.
Interdict he should live to see another day.
Just then, he concluded what to do.
‘Kill myself undoubtedly, then I’ll stop feeling blue’.
Longing though to change his mind.
Moods flared up, of every kind.
Never had he felt this low.
Only solution is to merely let it go.
Pick a course; blade, gun or poison?
Quickest approach, without a reason!
Reflecting nothing, he simply acted.
Sanguinary wound, self-inflicted!
Thoughts of despair as he laid there bleeding.
Utter commotion, so very misleading.
Veils of black line the chapel floor.
Weeping eyes, dry no more.
Xylophonic gizmos the performers played.
Yawning a soft sweet serenade.
Zany acts could not be predicted, resulting in death, ‘self-inflicted!’
PASSION FOR FASHION
We live
We continue to pretend
We copy
Because that’s in fashion
Painted Face
Leaving no trace
Fiftyish women,
Pretending to be
Forever Thirty,
Obsessed by age
Not finding grace
Men from Metro-sexual
To Retro-sexual
Proving Substantial,
Gizmos Essential
Looking Influential
Faking Credentials
Doubting Potential
Half-Truths
Outright Lies
For motives of profit,
The lies of materialism
Succumbing to manipulations,
For notions of happiness,
Financial Strains
Come with long term Drains
Eligible Singles
Readily Mingle
To Romance and Jingle
Then come Expectations,
Anger and Frustration.
Lousy sex
Eternal vex
Killing the Passion
Divorces and Affairs
Becoming a Fashion
Relationships are broken
Through SMS and Faxes
Marriage then Fixes
To save on Taxes
The key to Liberation,
Is not in “Passion for Fashion”
But in knowing that
What does not contain LOVE
Is only an Illusion!!
Nowhere to go but vertigo
Going vertical on weary tippy toe
Tinker and thinker
Of time traveler gizmos
Warping
Escaping
Jumping ship on life saver worm holes
Colliding lips of psychos doing the calypso
Wearing colorful straitjacket calico
I see everything using eagle eye ego
Playing peekaboo peeking through
The peephole seeing the truth
Behind all the lying people
Who pretend to be sincere and humble
Anti-hero with a mouthful
of marihuana sour diesel
Sweet magnetic mouth massaging
Your modem mental muscle
No more simple fast food rhymes
Overdue on eating your complex
Edgar Allen flow vegetables
Lines like these are instant
Movie star action figure collectibles
Vintage
Classic
Top-notch like a shot of aged scotch
Shocking, leaving a tingling feeling
In your aging genitals
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