The power of poetry
the world is our Muse
No part unimportant
no win and no lose
Alive and unending
she waits to be born
Inside what we’ve written
with joy — and forlorn
From Everest to Mariannas
her messages lie
Above and below us
to welcome inside
Reborn with each musing
her power to save
inside every passage
— from birth to the grave
(The New Room: September, 2026)
It Shouldn't Be You.
That Makes Everyone
As Mad As A Hornet,
Including You!
You're Gonna Hurt Yourself,
Being Mad!!! And...
That Makes More BEES!!!
B FAIR BFAIR BBBBFAIRER!!!
Every Time, "Kinda'"...
It's A No Win Condition.
It's Not Supposed To Be Fair
That’s Expected... By All Your Thoughts...
Can You Hear Them? Is It Fair?
Unexpected Is Even Better, Every Time.
That's Why We're Not In Charge!
Tuh-Duhhhhhh....
You Know... Whatever's Fair...
-Gray Squirrel
07-04-2026
Race starts
horse darts
Fast pace
good race
Dismay
wrong way
Ran fast
came last
Dont grin
no win
No lucks
lose bucks
The night caves in I am as tired as original sin
its a no win situation for I'm tired from within.
Gaza is a burning house,no end in sight.
Diplomacy is a water moccasin .
Israel maims their victims- a horrid plight
Bitter is a rank lime ,this war a no-win.
The Nerthus folk shout Gaza is not right.
Benji's far right politics surely a stinking sin,
Stop the maelstrom Now !Give peace as an olive branch
Benji's war talk to Congress -he is such a liar.
Biden sends troops to Isreal to fight.
AntiDems and the 'cons both conspire.
Risk is a slick road- its American might.
Palestines anger is a raging fire.
No Gaza cease fire that is in sight .
Judgement is Lady Liberty-comes for all
The guilty combatants finally will fall
Stop the maelstrom Now !Give peace as an olive branch
I spread the news using X and Substack.
I am just one man. I do the best I can.
I spread the news using Tribal too .
All of Humanity could stop this fire.
Either all live as one State with equal rights.
or as two States equal else perish together.
Stop the maelstrom Now !Give peace as an olive branch
I do not want you burning stuff, my husband says
this is tantamount to waving a red flag in front of a bull
you already set fire to the dumpster he reminds me
not once or twice, but twenty-six or seven times
I do not reply, because a reply would be a no-win.
I believe in a win-win; especially after my husband goes to bed
I stack up a little pile of boxes and begin my fifth bonfire this week
In New York City- Nineteen thirty-six,
the crowds had gathered for a final show;
none playing the next day- no more to see
of organ grinders coming to their streets.
Throughout the city, all those places where
they came around to play- silent would be.
The citizens protested- with no win;
Mayor LaGuardia- ruled they must leave.
Renew their licenses, he would not do-
that radio and concerts were enough.
A nuisance, these musicians he declared;
he did not want them on the city streets.
As poor Italian immigrants, for them
their talent was the means to live and earn
a pittance from the coins left in their tins;
as songs, the sadness of their lives, unveiled.
On this last day, the organ grinders came
to greet their waiting fans and play for them.
When done, all waved goodbye with teary eyes
as the musicians gathered up their things.
With monkeys in their arms, they walked away
to leave their lifetime art of playing songs-
as each last organ grinder bid farewell;
to dwell as history from New York's past.
What do we get from battles and war,
Nothing, a no-win score
Causing war is a sin,
Not to be entered in,
Pain and suffering felt by all
Soldiers' backs against a wall
Where evil and corruption thrive
Struggling to stay alive
It was not in their life plan
To shoot or maim their fellow man
All aspects of life are lost
At an unaccountable cost.
All who live in the war zone
Feel devastated, lost alone
And those of us who are standing by
Unable to help but pray and cry
Needless the loss of kith and kin
What is there left to win?
Nothing because there will be nothing left
Both countries and man will become bereft,
Evil reigns, sad to say
Has this monster come to stay
Perhaps we all have much to learn
Before we see this Devil burn.
They will never know,
The pain that sits in these bones,
My recovery is not as simple as it seems,
Mentally i'm falling apart,
I watch those the same age as me,
Smiling, and enjoying one another,
As I sit here locked in these four thin walls,
I can’t leave,
I tried but there is no escape,
My midnights become my afternoons,
As I try to picture the end,
The one where everyone wins,
But I know in my story there's no win,
Because when you think you're almost there,
Someone comes along and hold you under,
Under the cold dark waters,
Should I try to breathe,
Or should I let it be?
There hasn’t been anything but black and white,
Everyone is picking fights,
Why don’t they see,
There slowly killing me,
I tried praying,
I tried changing,
Nothing has worked,
Sometimes I lay here as I would when I take my last breath,
Because they say practice makes perfect,
I’ll never be perfect,
They will never know,
They will never see,
But here they are,
Slowly killing me.
We were told we were fighting for democracy
but there was no democracy,
just two evils one greater than the other;
only people handed bad choices.
It kicked off cold with a lot of hot patriotism.
Many knew we were being pushed into a no-win situation
while the military industrial complex grew fat
on endless war.
The bodies kept piling up, until news from the front
got commonplace and tedious, then one day
it all blew up and blew away.
Many did not survive but no one died,
not anyone we knew anyway.
The free world walked into its newly built jails
much larger than the old prisons,
more space; less people.
Now the Festive Season is over,
That false bonhomie game,
It’s on to the NewYear and
More of just the same.
The Pandemic continues,
Life restricted as it before
(How would this population
Have reacted to five years war)
For the Why Me Generation
In this age of No Win No Fee
Everybody else is to blame
Everybody, that is, except me.
The workers will still work
Exploited by their bosses,
For some sector has to pay
For the Pandemic’s losses.
Global warming effects
Many a far foreign land
While most of the population
Hide their heads in the sand.
So Happy New Year one and all,
May all prosper and thrive
The likely prospect being many
Will barely be able to survive.
2 years old, but still just as relevant
No Win No Fee they call it
And it’s such a cause of shame
In todays strange society where
It’s somebody else to blame.
Nobody wants to accept
Responsibility for any action,
Who can I sue these days
Being the usual reaction.
Burn yourself spilling coffee
Blame yourself not
Just sue the vendor for
Selling it to you too hot.
He should have realised
You’re probably a clumsy fool
And sold you a coffee
That’s more than a little cool.
Somewhere a Legal Advisor
Rubs his hands with glee
Raking in his slice of
Your award, No Win No Fee.
The soldier in combat
In the modern day strife
Reacts as he’s been trained
To save his comrades life.
Many years later
Over passage of time
Can find he’s been accused
Of historic War Crime.
And the past is revisited
As he fights to stay free
From an action that’s funded
Courtesy of No Win No Fee.
The hard eyed legal functionary
In his well tailored business suit
Watches the cash roll in
From his speculative fruit
And cares not a fig about
Any ex squaddie like me
As he continues to exploit
His Golden Apple No Win No Fee
Les Braves
(Iambic Pentameter)
Tan sands conceal deep furrows of their pain,
As churned emotions scream on the light breeze.
The rushing lather bubbles with red stain,
While mortar clouds suppress the dying wheeze,
That madly dared to reach the cliffs in vain.
The hostile bluff still taunts a flying skein,
Where warriors bravely tried to scale the crest.
The rock secretes long tales of plaintive strain,
Of ones that fought abreast for the oppressed,
and finally achieved the winning gain.
Yet no win comes without a shocking loss,
As the escarpment holds the treasured sons,
That fought the menace of the iron cross,
to fall heroic to opponents’ guns,
but proudly rest in peace ‘neath the grave’s moss
Note: Just came back from a visit to the D Day beaches and the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-mer, a great place of reverence.
3rd place trophy winner
10.21.22
Contest: 3 stanza poem in quintain (Sicilian)
Sponsor: L. Milton Hankins
You have been accused, no more do we need
Point the finger at mother and daughter
Two Sutton girls with no chance to be freed
An impossible test, trial by water
They think you are spawn of the devil’s own seed
Sacred water denies you, twice you float
Only that of a witch, feet and hands bound
Would rise to the top in only petticoat
Perhaps better off as an innocent drowned
No executions at the bottom of the moat
A no win situation, death guaranteed
Guilty or not, your last breath is taken
By an ignorance with illogical creed
Who pointed your way, spiteful or shaken
And called out Witch. - Now the test will proceed
October 11, 2022
THREE STANZA POEM IN QUINTAIN (SICILIAN) Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: L MILTON HANKINS
Max it's no secret
Your shoe talk vote stinks so walk'
No more time Biden'
Afgan so no win'
Disguise maybe hair afro?
The jigs up Mr Smart
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