To craft a line that’s nice and tight
about a failed attempt to write…
well, something just doesn’t seem right,
but I will not put up a fight;
I shall instead call it a night.
For if I rest my head, I might
through slumbered sleep gain some insight
quick captured at the dawn’s first light
a little gem, bedazzling, bright
the pulse to race, the heart, excite
and end this literary blight.
The opportunity sparked a fierce desire
A cunning liar is trying to conspire
Plotting schemes that would require
Causing the masses tears to flood the mire
The choir sang with voices higher
Looking for a bold lady or noble squire
Capable of mending our old attire
Bake these words in an air fryer
The hissing revealed a situation growing dire
Look a devious flyer is soaring above the spire
Falsely proclaiming tales to inspire
Hiding in the quagmire as an actual occupier
Their words thickening the air like a humidifier
The supplier is attempting rewire
All of us who dare to still inquire
An amplifier’s hum drew the self-proclaimed sire
Who foolishly gazed at stars with his heart’s desire
Each promise made proved to be a modifier
The identifier called it out as a testifier
Through it all the proclamations became slier
We need to rise above the snake oil salesmen’s ire
Buckle up and find the strength not to retire
Find the heart to not back down or tire
"Mono No Aware"
Datsuzoku
Mono no aware
Wabi-Sabi
Yuugen Yuugen Yuugen
Seijaku
(LadyLabyrinth / 2023)
if Basho’s frog jumps
and no one hears the splash
katydids quarrel
does the sound
of one hand clapping
surprise the wind
cold mountain winds
an eerie sound of echoes
humming to themselves
a brown tinged cornfield
withers in the heat
as scarecrows weep
an empty birdfeeder
rattles in the breeze
a patient cat waits
city thunderstorm
awakened asphalt artist
oily painted rainbows
John G. Lawless
©5/31/20225
Imagine a pie chart
Through the middle a line
One half is your view
The other is mine
Now imagine a pie chart
All the views of mankind
Some see a small slither
Same approach everytime
appearing knowing and smart
They Self justify or deny
Never wrong and excusable
They're living a lie
Terrified insecurity
Lives deep down inside
If their flaws are seen
humiliation they'll die
These people never change
You have to leave them behind
If you don't you'll suffer more
Hurting you for their pride
In our father's house, you were doing fine,
but you did not want to toe the line.
Father, you said, 'give me what is mine.'
Leaving home sent a jolt of joy up your spine.
No more scenes of servants grazing kine,
or picking grapes off the vine.
Feasting on choice cuts with the chine,
sporting with women, and drinking wine,
living in a ritzy ranch on the banks of the Rhine.
You have many friends who love to dine,
but you are too naive to know that is a bad sign.
Poof-poverty pounces and pierces like a tine,
now broke, homeless, hungry, you start to pine.
To earn money, you take a job feeding swine.
At nights you lie on the streetside and whine,
thinking of the servants and how well they dine.
It is okay, you ragamuffin to regret and repine.
Get up my brother and toward home your feet incline.
The sight of you will make our father’s face shine.
Take me to the crystal rivers that flow
with calm pristine diamond torrents that glow.
Take me to where all seasonless yields grow
from the effortless hands of men who sow.
Take me to lands of neither high nor low,
where equality reigns with none below.
I see meadows lush that men do not mow.
I see people who do not toil for dough,
with minds innocent, and without a foe,
beaming with smiles radiant that overflow.
In gardens green where sorrow does not show,
kindness is what all men their neighbours owe.
For all men do not accusations throw
at their neighbours calm who vice do not know.
Where each man with a cheerful heart says hello!
Got tired of watching MTV
It’s now World News from BBC
I’m watching with an OAP
Who thinks I’m with the KGB
I think that she has OCD
Is that a case for A&E
Then I discovered... OMG
Her cell phone is PAYG
Can someone pass the TNT
Or get me to an SUV
I think I need a KFC
Which might soon mean an ECG
But if I get a DVT
Then show a little TLC
And bring a portable TV
Perhaps even a DVD
Get one with a USP
And pay for it with USD
But if your high on LSD
Watch out I’m NYPD
18 March 2021
Contest: Acronyms in Couplets
Sponsor: L Milton Hankins
I have been lifted up in space
I have felt so much vast grace
You have sweat roll off your face
Keep pace with me on this race
Keep me in a solace-filled space
Drop me off at my safe haven place
I sound like a high tenor, not a low bass
I need your love and I want it just in case
I need your love and I want it just in case
My heart is a black rose, placed in a vase
I have been a long-lost boy without a trace
My love for you is the song of Jupiter-dwelling, hopeful, happy-go-joyous jays
All I need, really, is God's spiritual remedy of reserved praise
Why are you a million miles away? You’re doing your own ways…
Graze in your own maze, you envious, vermillion-blotched, serpentine sea rays
Why are you a million miles away? You’re doing your own ways…
All I need, really, is God's spiritual remedy of passionate praise
My love for you is the song of Uranus-raised, Pluto-lonesome, joy-jaded jays
I need your love and I want it just in case
I need your love and I want it just in case
New year's a 'coming, lets make a toast for health, fortune and some good cheer
This is a poem about loss -
The sun and songbirds rose,
to see the snowshell soften,
to see the light less low,
to see the tropics-green
crocus leaf
spear! rebelliously!
through the thick and the heavy
white.
Green, all but forgot these last months.
Life, all but without faith these last months.
The sun and songbirds and greens rose,
this day.
trump and horn the same inner for that like billing fellow thinking close
I don't speak the language of my people, but I wish to. I am usually discriminated against because I don't.
A bird with wings that cannot fly,
A star in the sky that cannot shine…
A broken wing grabs me by the waist,
The example I am – this is my fate.
They turn their backs and look away.
My answers, not lies, are plenty brave…
But an answer can change their newly thoughts
Their demons and mines I’m soon too fought.
I’m not the same like I once was
The ones I loved – the ones I trust
Gave me fate and I’m to rot
In discrimination –
As if a devil gave me a wish of sin…
A battle of lips that’s hard to win.
I never thought that this was hard,
Their turned backs and lips sown shut
I’m left alone in a world so same,
my fate returned ready and back
Are puzzles left in the rain.
so brief flowering
sakura* will bloom again-
covering the pain
*cherry
tribute haiku for Debbie's contest
One day in a cell I threw a fit
Went to the wall and started to hit
Wasn't long until my knuckles split
I figured that maybe I should quit
That was as stupid as stupid can get
I was just so mad that I could spit
I reckoned maybe I should sit
And think it over for a little bit
Looking back now I must admit
My anger that day was not legit
The crimes I myself did commit
Allowed them to lock me in that pit
With nothing left to omit
I got on my knees to transmit
I ask the Lord to please permit
Me to finally recommit
To my Lord I did submit
The man I am is the result of it
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