she always wants to mollify, placate and please.
I roll my eyes, wondering if she is but a tease.
No one loves being more than a doormat than me and my twin.
It is a game we learned early, taught to us by overbearing kin.
If words would wear resistance down,
trust me, I would use them.
Fine phrases mollify that frown?
The agile adverb, the nimble noun?
I would not refuse them!
If poems charmed your soul, you
may depend upon it,
I'd eulogize, extol you,
compel, convince, cajole you,
in silken sonnets.
But what can words achieve?
Nothing, I fear, that matters.
Though I would fain believe
the word webs which I weave
can knit again love's ravelled sleeve,
I'm really not quite that naive.
And so I feel I have to leave
this thing of ours in tatters.
The most important
Fine drizzle over the bay, falling slowly and hesitantly
as preparing for a proper deluge
Who knows, perhaps it will not happen, and the sun
will shine even if it is a day older
Dry slippery cobblestone pavements for the aged
Since it is Saturday, the ships' tugs are at their anchorage.
as they want to be nearer the shore
One vessel has run out of meat and potatoes, a stable
Diet, the chief steward, had bought a lot of cakes
because he was depressed at the time and needed
cheering up
To mollify the crew, he told of a famous woman who
said when the people were hungry, "let them eat cakes."
The crew didn't think that was funny and threatened
to throw him overboard
From the shore came a motorboat loaded with pears
oranges and cabbage, but no potatoes and no meat
The chief steward was trying to swim ashore
the circle of evil
Christianity is embedded in Europe's mind
alas, it is losing its grip under the influence
of other religions and heathen life
The clerics have nothing to offer, only
platitude and sex abuse behind glorious
brocade and oily words.
Love, charity, and forgiveness are
forgotten in the melee of free expression
We are served a TV that lacks humor
banality seeking to mollify the masses
Comedy is no longer ironic but is about
using filthy words to harvest laughter
Politicians are self-seeking and corrupt
even when wrong, go on telling lies
Newspapers, too, served as gospel truth
because we have lost the real meaning
which is about respect and love
peace and forgiveness; the rest is humbug
spoken from pulpits, in churches, that
has lost all credibility
On dreary morns when rain is nigh
I'm weary of the misty sky
when Autumn's season comes to call
and russet leaves begin to fall.
To Summer I whisper, "Goodbye."
The lilacs petals wilt and die.
Blustery winds cause me to sigh.
Can't cajole them to stop or stall
on dreary morns.
No slumber when things are awry.
Maybe an etching I should try.
Strumming my guitar won't forestall
time that now has come to a crawl.
Foul weather I can't mollify
on dreary morns.
The unbearable grief he never wished for or imagined
made him a secluded man shunning all Humanity;
he clung to a feeble breath so void of each certainty,
telling himself he had to fight harder and be admired.
I saw him chasing clouds out of his bleary sky
with an urge stronger than desire, " Let no hope
be held from me, I deserve joy unlikely anybody."
What made change his mind staring at that rope?
How many bottles of rum he had stored in his hut?
Did the small paycheck he earned cover the hefty price?
At no vail, he tried to rob the local liquor store twice;
nobody bailed him out, prison brought despair not guilt.
He sits in the coldest room staring at the darkest sky,
who dares to shake his hand and lift him up to mollify
his confined spirit not emboldened by actual reality?
Help him overcome his dire loneliness and sobriety!
Smooth sweet delicious memories
Awaken the beautiful mysteries of my mind,
And trapses through my musings
Without even a notion of bitter taste.
Sing with me the most succulent songs
That linger with absolute tones
Of magnificence and splendor
Just as the rise of my hastening heartbeat
Continues along the current of my veins,
And my satiated body tingles
While the most agreeable tastes delight,
And the awe of its mere existence
Enriches like the savory first bite
Surrounding itself with unnecessary resilience
Without the populace quiet awareness.
Yes love is like chocolate the people exclaim
As out of various hues of brown erupt
Just enough light to capture what was hidden
Beneath the richness of sugary beauty
Where solids mollify and are eagerly swallowed
Delivering deep affection for all that is.
A dog's job is to foes terrify,
Actors of scary films horrify,
The police a rogue identify,
Insurance firms one indemnify...
Science would laymen's claims verify,
Panels rigged elections nullify,
Microscopes to microbes magnify,
Deodorants to bad air purify.
Witnesses in courts to testify,
A counsel to trial judge mollify,
Big stereos to music amplify;
Flowers one's surroundings beautify...
The Angels Lord God glorify,
Nudists the public mortify!
Intermezzo
I was in Huelva in 1958, a poverty-struck town in Spain
there were Tivoli carrousels and all that
I met a beautiful gipsy girl barefoot in the dust.
We laughed a lot; I don’t know why and she kissed me
passionately in the park.
Her father came, he was grim, she cried, to mollify him
I gave my Ronson gas lighter, no one else on the ship
had a lighter like this.
The father was pleased but walked off with his daughter
and my lighter
That’s ok 40 years later, I stopped smoking
Soul Starving in the Midst of Plenty
By Sy Roth
Just a slit where air,
Some air can find a way to creep in
Replenish the foul exhalations of the horde
Crammed to the rafters
Airless beings
Dazed by the machinations of others
Deus ex machina
To starve them of what is fresh to others.
Clickety clack fly the miles
Unasssuming chorus of the rails
In tandem with their moans
And groans, seeking some small blast of air
To mollify a condition
That binds the soulless traveler to a fate
Yet unknown.
Little blink of light
And the hungry molecules
Bits of flotsam
Find ways to crawl to it,
To beat a path toward the light
Which may bring air to starved lungs.
Alveoli beg sustenance
But their cries rain down emptily,
Empty against the clicking and clacking from below
And the miles of breathless wonder
At their condition.
Too heady to begrudge the snakes that found
A way to slither to the errant light,
And for brief moments
To catch wisps of smoky air that cleanse
For an augenblink,
A soul starving in the midst of plenty.
Dreading is pointless once a glorious light slithers our sight.
Vanishing years of yearning, a pure heart laden with optimism.
Gleaming soul with a bright angel at the crown of his right.
Fading vivid hearts, As we clean tears in mysticism.
Mumble concerns in the head as going off to slumber.
The time for effort is passed; we'll not live in eternity.
We will meet up with the truth of our ultimate cumber.
Predicting a possible outcome of the eulogy.
Faint tones of sorrow inspire the shapes on display.
Uttered to hush once we are given an abode transition.
Gold domes and flushes of magical bliss are to mollify.
The cold rise of the soul is apace, natural, and not an illusion.
Written: June 18, 2021
A Brian Strand July 10 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
Once upon a time
In the distant past
There was a country
Built by the sweat of her adopted children
And painstakingly through thick and thin
Became God’s own country
The light of the world
Whenever she spoke, the international community stood still
Enemy countries quaked and trembled
While allies scampered to mollify
The police officer of the world
Once upon a time
His Excellency epitomized leadership in times of global emergency
Today that is no more
Glory has departed from God’s own country
She has become a laughing stock in the comity of nations
A vicious and unscrupulous dictatorship is on the prowl
A clown in the mold of Donquizote is holding sway
Executive mendacity has become the order of the day
Don't cry to me America
Rescue your country from American dream gone awry!
I went to bed a mouse,
Scared to be immersed,
I ran through a wood
Of above unseen whispering owls,
Thinking I would not know,
But I know
taunting
when my heart raced
as a squirrel
skittered through the leaves,
I laughed also
at my skittishness,
Like a comfort,
like whistling,
like singing,
Shining your light,
See here,
Everything alright,
There there,
Woman in white,
Come now,
Where did you come from, angel?
Now now,
Beyond a desk,
Rest here a tick,
Fill out these forms,
In the terrible gone
I’ve been here before,
Ooh, what you did!
To one with my eyes,
I got out of bed,
And took them out and put them on the table with the car keys by the door,
and asked if you would be so kind as guide me to the sea-surmounted cliffs,
To be mercifully immersed,
What you tell me,
What you say,
I believe,
I believe in miracles,
And you make-believe,
mock-mollify
us both,
that a blind man can see.
My strides left shallow imprints 'pon a sandy shore
Gulls cried out in alarm and swarmed cornflower skies
My thoughts turned to Avalon of King Arthur's lore
while dawn broke as an amber yoke in morn's sunrise
I shielded my eyes from the sea's shimmering waves
sauntering restlessly with a sorrowful soul
mourning my aggrieved heart, a heart that love enslaves
My grief spills in the shallows of this rocky shoal
Salty breeze, please chase away my tears of despair
Tell me how to heal or in anguish I shall die
Wounded by pillaged love, my emotions laid bare
I walk this shore, begging my ache to mollify
My footprints 'pon the sand and hope submerged in doubt
I plead for a flood of faith to end passion's drought
October 1, 2022
2022 Marathon Mile 15
Sponsored by Mark Toney
As sunset starts to prophesy
And kaleidoscopically vivify,
The day's agonies mollify--
To Sweet Mother's lullaby!
Ages have gone since the dawn,
But time still moves on and on;
Night lures as strength is gone,
And all fears have withdrawn.
This ancient song I know well;
Is one that memory will retell,
When the sky's once more pastel,
And blooms blush in the dell!
Sweet Mother, she sings to me,
Exotic nightingale rhapsody!
Like the moonlight on the sea,
No one's lovelier than she.
Since gold sunrise first began,
She would always help me stand;
A symphony of the heart's at hand--
For it's where all love began!
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