Long Shirking Poems

(A both serious and fanciful encounter with God)          

1. There are so many questions that I have for God, 
Oh my love, don't you feel the...

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After serving six long hard years at Methacton State penitentiary...

as mini reunion number 
XLV fast approaches 
Saturday, April 30th, 7:00 pm 
until 10:00 pm
at The Trappe Tavern, 416 West 
Main Street, Trappe, PA 19426
regarding graduating...

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Rewind
By Julia Shaw

At seventy-two my life has been so very fine,
That I'd like to push a button and just rewind.
I'd go back to my wedding day so exciting
And marry again the man I found so...

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People often say I talk a lot, but I hardly think that is true,
Like the whispers about the bluebird, of which he never knew.

Talking helps a lot with my job, which is in public relations,
As...

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If I had to choose
would I brave that dark sea
waves crashing relentlessly upon me
knocking aside the armor I've spent so long
meticulously piecing together

My heart is a fortress
made from clay
water is its natural enemy
and you on...

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"Land's End"

All at once & with such Very Great Flair ~
So's no-one would notice what'd really taken Place~
SeaWolf & his Wench grabbed a wild Notion from thin Sea Air~
That with which they'd figured nary a...

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I also feel blasé today February 19th, 2024

Linkedin to being lax,
and shirking house cleaning tasks,
which negligence cost us
(yours truly and the missus)
a golden opportunity
to relocate to Hillcrest Village
in Boyertown, Pennsylvania
another HUD subsidized property
under the aegis...

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The water has receded
And I can see everything
in the bottom of the stream
Big pebbles of assorted colors
covering each other
frogs scampering about
and big fish meddling around
I stared in the silent water 
watching rubble floating on top...

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All efforts tabled on Nigeria;
Experiencing a fortunate miscarriage, 
Feasting Aso rock- a pizzeria 
But never admit it is the cause of this age. 

Upon the solid manifesto, 
That touches all sectors:
Picturing California's Barstow, 
To cajole...

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THE TENTH WAVE



The rain drops prick the skin of the sea
Tumble with the urchins in the water,
The black water, so heavy, tired--
Watching it tic tac toe in millions of tiny rings
Tic tac toe, three by...

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12/13/23



Secrets still buried
Stories in the wind got carried
Historical accounts occasionally varied
The truth can be sad and scary
We've barely
Discovered much so spare me
The same can be said for things happening fairly
Since the dawn of time it...

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HABITS

We wake up in the morning,
Our memory, collecting storing,
The same data over, and over again,	
It becomes entrenched – a habit is due,
What triggers habits, just a simple cue!
We pass a highway that we know well
And...

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Alone, I camp below Cathedral Peak – 

God, I know you’re not whom we say you are
and you should have a good case for slander –
What fantastic tales we tell about you; 
I wonder if...

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Poet's Notes:
My poet's notes must precede the next Echo Poem as well because the poet 
has not given me permission to publish her poems on my site. I can, of course, 
reference her poems without...

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The powers that be, undefined, ruthless, opaque authority 
Shapeless, bodiless, upstanding folk, coercing the majority 
Overseeing applications, supplications, ensuring conformity 
Specialists in quagmires, minefields, esoteric bureaucracy. 

The powers that be, model citizens, high ranking royalty...

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Got up this morning and took one look
At today’s page in my appointment book
Decided that with the rain pouring down
There was no way I could make it to town
So I called in sick to my...

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Pushed aside, location of home obscured, limited by isolation:
drifting aimlessly - subscribing to a voluntary incarceration.

Outcast by an alternative perspective, a differing sense of direction,
through a desire to develop resolutions to numerable imperfections.

Others recede into...

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Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder,
But Whiskey makes you frisky.
Clerihews and epigrams are fine but
Do not tell these to one lost in love
Except when you mean to cheer up one
Fevered with temporary  amourous setbacks.
Gift...

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"I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity
for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power
for doing good."--Socrates

BLASTING OFF

What if human beings
Were not broken sinners
But the resilience of life
Creating long-term winners
Sitting on...

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The folks in the know
And running the show
Propose there are eight human emotions.
But as far as I see,
Their lists don’t agree
And in my head causes commotions.
So since you insist
I shall make my own list
And figure...

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If you can keep your head when all about you
Others lose the will to make a stand for right
To yourself always be honest and true
To let honor win over pride and its might

Others lose the...

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If you are a poet
You already know it,
To words you forever are bound.
Your brain has them in there.
You must make them more clear.
They are music without any sound.

You didn't pick them,
You cannot evict them.
They just...

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(a lighter-hearted parody of the masterpiece poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe)

Once upon a noonday sunny, while I smiled at something funny
In the park where children play and suitors woo,
’Midst the sound of subtle...

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there is no warmth left 
in my beloved night
only a creeping cold
a cursed blight

the darkness comes and prowls
and shadows come to me, the coward

the regrets the pain
I seek to hold them off
but I hear them,...

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Big Job 

There's a big job breaking out
Time for smelling salts and focus
There is no magic wand this time
No top-hat hocus pocus 

Time to wheel out heavy gear
Flex our muscles and get busy 
Pick ourselves...

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