Excitement filled the air as the calliope played
News spread the famed steamboat was near,
Its whimsical gingerbread trimmings displayed.
The whole town would rush to the esplanade
As the wildly anticipated boat pulled into pier,
Excitement filled the air as the calliope played.
If an overnighter, folks walked the promenade,
Marveling at its size and the exquisite exterior
Its whimsical gingerbread trimmings displayed.
I had heard one could go onboard, if one paid
Even get to see a riverboat show, a premiere.
Excitement filled the air as the calliope played.
What a difference Delta Queen’s arrival made!
Soon she would be decommissioned, the fear
Its whimsical gingerbread trimmings displayed.
I remember well how by the riverbank she lade
Like a fabulous ornate coffin lying upon the bier
Excitement filled the air as the calliope played
Its whimsical gingerbread trimmings displayed.
Written April 6, 2022
[The Delta Queen, a national treasure, has not
travelled the Ohio River on a regular schedule
since the 1970s.]
doves lade the sky like stars
the snowy white peace
a starry night released
over San Xavier del Bac
the cactus fruit and prayer
alive in sanguine petals
the mission gold altar and pews
absolved en pleine air
i sip my keepsake coffee cup
2/11/2022
Passing Ships
In a bygone era;
The canvas masts hailed
As ships sailed,
Around the world.
(Like a bridge spanning
Mainland to island;
Or a Roman aqueduct
Transporting water.)
Passing each other:
Exploring,
Expanding knowledge,
And trading in commerce.
Their legacy in history
Gleams magnificence,
Of wooden vessels,
At anchor or on open water.
Conquering, settling, enslaving.
In ports of countries
They docked; unloaded and lade.
Rat infested, carrying diseases.
Nigeria ???? is sixty this is her history,
1960 was her glory and victory,
When she was freed from being a colony,
Let's now see her story.
She is the Giant of Africa,
But in her is full of massacre,
For her rulers are the British in replica,
We are not free so freedom is not our cantata.
Freedom of speech is at its Waterloo,
While employment is at its very low.
Sixty years is not 60 days.
We should be sons and not a maid,
As we serve our fatherland we may reap our gain,
So free us from our pain,
Do not be our lade or bane,
Rather show us the way,
That your leaders may not sway,
from the role which they are to play,
Unite us and do not drive us all away,
All these and many more we do pray.
Just because He made me;
Doesn’t mean He lade me;
Down by the shore, where the serpents play;
Just because He made me;
Doesn’t mean He left me;
Down by the shore, where the serpents play;
Just because He made me;
Doesn’t mean He don’t love me;
Just because I don’t see Him now;
Just because He made me;
Doesn’t mean He left me;
Down by the shore where the serpents prey?
12/1/75
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. ©1975, 2018
The Corinthian™©
BUT FOR A MOMENT
O cast not a doubtful shadow,
but run a muck in unrelenting Love-
for in the morrow, yours is Heaven above.
A Foxy Lady from down the path
hast come to borrow sugar-
and spend a moments time with Thee.
You ask her kindly to come in,
stumbling backwards over a chairs-
for none's so blind as unrelenting Love.
Rum and Cola, fancy the mind to ease
whilst but a moments conversation-
has turned the hours past.
So soon the young ones came
to fold away the years-
through chattering and meandering.
It is true only yesterady
you ran a muck in unrelenting Love !
with a Foxy Lade from down the path
who has but come to borrow sugar !
With values life will get aid
And illicit, bad, nature preyed,
Without them we remain maid
Who follow like weeds swayed.
Are we void of them paid?
Yes, but temporarily laid,
Laid with burden and stained.
With values we are under shade,
Poor, deprived but sin is out lade.
Values get immorality out flayed
Like an IT officer criminal raid.
Hence values – an important shade
Never let us or world be afraid
And always scale on our grade.
So let values reign the world jade
Precious and treasured be it made.
sink deeper deeper
within the recesses of
a dark dismal existence
that has been lade out
in front of the present
version of self
created by way of
negative self induced sabotage
brought about through years
a top of years of being controlled
by anxiety
To broaden my horizon, I begin to concentrate.
My mind entered into analysis paralysis state.
I knew that life was not such.
Therefore, why am I the anxious one?
A load of cargo I will become.
This is because I am the beast and the burden.
Striving to achieve, I thrived in thought.
As a political activist, I needed higher marks.
Therefore, I entered college.
I aspired to attain a Master of Science in Criminology.
However, my path was deterred.
A manifestation had occurred.
Negated is life.
Lade is the world.
This is because I am the beast and the burden.
Tomorrow has come.
Culprits has formed.
Weighed down by their crimes.
Yesterday has no more lives.
Laden is the universe.
Rhapsody raptures as the beast and as the burden.
________________________________________________|
Written August 06, 2015!
Chapter and Verse
Borrowed words
Overdue loans
On faded words
Tears melting ink
Wisdom's die
Collection time
Bankrupt soul
With no words to share
Overdue books
Wine splashes the pages
Of my mind
Melancholy whispers to me
Here, here
The past sings me a song
Withered books
Our collective memories
Buried in the pages of history
Sad Chapters
I danced
I drank
Love and wine
Penelope Sosa
Stole heart and mind
Debts paid
Her beauty refined
Lonely betrayal
I dine on sad chapters
As wine still splashes the page
The last Verse
Mathematical potions
Equations that dream
A soft kiss lade upon my sleeping heart
Is it you? Is it you that lightens my soul?
Spread your wings for me
I shall smell the sweet scent
Of your poetic juices
As we lay entwined
Inside the last verse
My whole life,
Not knowing,
How oblivious,
In a fog,
I saw my life,
Saw my life,
As a happening around me,
My thoughts always wondering,
All this anxiety,
How trouble surrounded me,
My time may be near,
But I am ready,
After my God surrounded me,
As the fog lifted from me,
I felt alive,
I felt happy,
I help others to glory,
To God,
Under protection,
It took God,
To raise me,
And set me,
In soft grass,
Unlike the rough seeds,
My distortion is gone,
Life is not a happening,
Life is not me,
I the branch,
Will spread leaves,
The new comers,
God set before me,
He the trunk,
The gateway down,
To the roots,
The roots of truth,
God is my love,
Not others,
Not me,
There will be a flower,
That blooms with me,
But God has not lade the seed,
For her,
To sprout next to me.
The walk down freshly gravel road
kicking up stones seeing how far they roll.
Note a huge ox cart pulling heavy load
of dried kindling and dark black coal.
The ox cart struggles over new laid stone
with its immensely oversized cart lade.
Oxen soon tire as they heave and moan
kicking up stones on the downgrade.
Copyright © 2011 By Caryl S. Muzzey
Soft snow beckoning,
Falling with deceptive lade,
collapsing my soul.
Once a child birth.
it is Saturday,
a day of a new life
hardly in suffering mind
a child once born,
born through abyss detriment
of motor contract expansion
expanding in contract pain voice
the voice in agony pain play
like a sheep playing in the ocean
of glory laughter
yet in a state of being a child
mother shout in groan of pain
deliverance
aah-i can't , i can't
complaining twice, thrice and
congealed in froze
frozing yonder outside of thy world,
in a sleeping wool of white color
the wool of which her baby lade
crying endlessly from long way of
walked
a baby mother finally relief and
ended kicking the bucket full of water.
but yet cry,shout ,yelled hilaring,commotion
all join in depravity
a child mother no longer dwelth ,nor breath
in the world humans
rather went to the world of dead
In hail may her exist in paradise.
I want to tell of manly men
and speak of brave bold deeds,
when stout men battled clime and foe
while mounted on fine steeds,
fair maidens kept their home and hearth
when they set out to war,
to expand the boundaries of their realm
win booty and spoils galore,
with manners fine and panoplied
in their finest suits of arms,
their baggage trains by squires led,
lade with trophies jewels and charms,
the martial strains they underwent,
the things they had to bear,
acted on their noble souls
and brought them to despair,
as time progressed and men did too
the things that they esteemed,
had some how under gone a change
and weren't what they seemed,
that pain and death, brutality
could never be the measure,
of the greatness of that chivalry
that great men learned to treasure,
traditions have come down to us
once used to make men noble,
when practiced proud and faithfully
make chivalry's realm global,
those inclined to follow them
and emulate their ways
will find a way of living
the remainder of their days.
New York City
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