The past has always been
a foreign country,
step ten decades into the future
and you will be an alien.
Time takes no prisoners,
the past wipes out legions of beings,
their humanity is a thin cloth
whipped by relentless winds.
This country of ours
is a body with endless names,
generations that we make and remake
with foreign hands and minds,
even yesterday is a stranger to today.
Our children will remember us
until a new-made world
demands they forget.
The past has always been a foreign country,
step four decades into the future
and you will be an alien to your ancestors.
Many mothers have lost their babies to remorseless time.
The ancients looked like us
but they would not recognize our manners and mores
as even remotely human.
Maybe that is why wars continue to erupt.
We don't trust history, it takes sides,
and time takes no prisoners.
Empathy needs to be a living force
not a dead letter.
'Let us not forget' translates as 'let us not acknowledge'
that the past wipes out legions of human beings,
their humanity is a fading cloth.
This country of ours we make and remake
with foreign hands and minds,
even yesterday is a stranger to today.
Our children will remember us
until a new-made world demands they forget.
Congregation of deception,
Sitting in darkness and decked out
In fineries: the silk, the fur,
Feathered dull or bright, just waiting
To be called by river’s song, rings
Of rises yet hoped into fish.
Some are returned warriors,
Blunted and twisted out of true,
Though truth’s a lie for them and blends
Somehow beyond a memory.
Some new-made catchers of the eye,
Wait for their opportunity to come.
A hundred hopes and falsehoods rest
Under one hinged roof, lined up
To do or die, and every one
With a sharp point of view,
A heartbreak to be driven home.
New Years Eve it’s party time
Sup the beer and drink the wine
Special meal with new made friends
Comedian, sometimes offends.
Food and dancing all the way
To give old year it’s last hooray
Music singing from the show
Songs and jokes and laughter flow
Countdown starts with 10 to go
Poppers an balloons to throw
At last the final seconds boom
Bells and chimes to fill the room
Hugs and kisses, Chinks and cheers
Shaking hands, smiles and tears
Special thoughts for old friends passed
Resolutions never last.
Confetti, streamers piled in heaps
Stay up late, eat Tats and Neaps
Champagne flows, fizz and bubbles
Drink too much- have some troubles.
In the morning a different story
Headache-nausea feeling poorly
Take some pills and close your eyes
Promises to be more wise
Last day today with sad farewell
Next Year to meet again we tell
Drive Safe –good trip to all we wish
Memories that last just bliss.
Take out the new-made parchment, pray,
Start the computer up.
Let pen upon clean paper play,
Let insight fill your cup.
When do we climb above past reactions,
Our limits of language and love?
When do we put our feelings in action,
Rising over the dread thereof?
The day will come when we shed our skin,
The hour when we're bankrupt of tears,
Cleansed of sin, ready to start in,
When we step beyond our fears.
December 10, 2016
For Nayda Ivette Negron's contest - 'Quote Response'
They call it shuffling of the mind
when other eyes are turned;
Other visions call upon the history
that is their very own, allowing us
to see, to share, to grow.
Onrushing Earth
will ride the tides of time
disclosing newer cries of childhood;
hearts will sing again their Kyries
while brotherhood is unrelenting,
we may join the new-made antiphon
where every song is triumph;
each surrender is a victory.
There is risk in such a stand.
There is plenitude among the powers
of the strong, righteous in their zeal.
There is challenge. There is testing.
There is no defense.
Mayhap, there need not be.
~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Primordial apparitions of ancient old cast into revolvings place....
Ageless chained amid perditions repineful matrix; cursed to roam
Once jade becomes the voice of truth wherein colours have washed unto their gray!?
Yet not today, as dreamful wanders aneath the nighttides new made moon ~
Renascence, reborn beyond merely a moment in melancholies calling....
To taunt within mockery the shattering glass of contained; cosmic
Folding twixt the colonades aligning now the reasons of detentes requiem
Destination affirmed afore the foundations of lapses times, requisition for the dead?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...."Revelation's" *
All lovely things are part of spring,
Each greening, borning, blooming thing.
A pansy face, a new made nest,
In spring God sends his very best.
How can one see and yet not know
It's God who makes the springtime Show?
Yellow chicklings, downy ducklings,
All new growings, all new sucklings.
Kitten and puppy, foal and lamb,
Each is sent by the great I Am.
In the worst of winter's fury
Spring is coming, not to worry.
God sends our needs to keep us whole,
Topped off by spring to feed our soul.
Won a 4th
millions of stars
are similar to our sun - -
teeming universe
a hairy werewolf
stands howling at the full moon - -
silver bullets fly
a new made vampire
drinks blood under the moonlight - -
ashes at sunrise
Jack Horne for Linda-Marie's haiku contest
Such lovely things are part of spring,
Each greening, borning, blooming thing.
A pansy face, a new made nest,
In spring God sends his very best.
How can one see and yet not know,
It's God who makes the springtime show;
Yellow chicklings, downy ducklings,
All new growings, all new sucklings?
Kitten and puppy, foal and lamb,
Each one is sent by the great I Am.
In the worst of winter's fury,
Spring is coming, not to worry.
God shows his love to us in spring
With all new things to make hearts sing.
He fills our needs to keep us whole,
Topped off with spring, to feed the soul.
Won a 3rd in contest
The spread is very nicely draped.
Slipping into my new made bed,
I pause to ponder how it’s shaped
And where my fine top sheet has fled.
I wonder what I’ve done to her.
Why did she put fitted sheet on top
And not the flat I much prefer?
What did I do to make her swap?
I give a muffled little moan
As I’m foiled at every turn I take.
I’m sleepy and tired right to the bone,
But now I lie here wide awake.
At last I am right on the edge
Of falling asleep, but can’t deny
That I must make a solemn pledge
Her wounded feelings to pacify.
I dwell upon my painful plight,
Then give my pillow a good shake.
If I can but get through the night,
I’ll seek the answer when I wake.
For Andrea’s contest
I used draped, slipping, pause, edge muffled, foiled, wake, deny, dwell, pillow
My favorite things are part of Spring,
Each greening, borning, blooming thing.
A pansy face, a new made nest,
In spring God sends his very best.
The loveliest things that I could know
Are sent to me in springtime show.
Yellow chicklings, downy ducklings,
All new growings, all new sucklings.
Kitten and puppy, foal and calf,
How can they help but make me laugh?
In the worst of winters fury,
I think of them and have no worry.
God show his love to me in Spring.
With things that cause my heart to sing.
Favorite things to keep me whole
Topped of with Spring to feed my soul.
All lovely things are part of Spring,
Each greening, borning, growing thing.
A pansy face, a new made nest,
In spring God sends His very best.
How can one see and yet not know
It's God who makes the springtime show;
Yellow chicklings, downy ducklings,
All new growings, all new sucklings?
Kitten and puppy, foal and lamb,
Each is sent by the Great I Am.
In the worst of winter's flury,
Spring is coming, not to worry.
God sends our needs to keep us whole,
Topped off by Spring to feed the soul.
By Joyce 11/14/09