SYMBOLIZED SUBJECTS-:-
colourful
palpably
distinct
abstract
impressions
of MEMORIES
identified
remembered
recorded
haphazard
happenings
now BURDENED WITH MEANING
particular
concerns
explored
expositional
exaggerations
Asinine Asymmetry
abysmal
vapid
pedagogue
impulsive
advocacy
with FLUSTERED TORRENTS
blindly
indicting
scapegoats
subpar
dogmatist
in DEMONIC DIATRIBE
eschewing
impartial
testament
veracity
disparaged
Asinine Asymmetry
raucous
sweeping
presage
emanating
palpably
from VEHEMENT ESPOUSER
flagrant
vacuous
utterance
neurotic
trivialist
with FATUOUS FLAMBOYANCE
underpinning
risible
posture
detachment
anathema
A fly on the wall sees nothing at all
apart from the dung on which it will crawl.
But people will say I wish I were so,
then they could know what others don’t know.
Stare at the grifters, the losers, the cheats
while sitting quite still and sucking some sweets.
For life on a wall that is not your own
is palpably simple, when mud’s to be thrown.
But now we’re ALL flies caught in the wide web,
watch twenty-four seven our chosen celeb.
Was it off-white?
A cavity on the hem of my socks
Undulation,but palpably grazed
like the letters you never unfastened
I set sail for my untrimmed toenails
A cavity on the edge of my nail plate
“Ma, its uneven”
Notes, chords, and bolted doors
Inaudible, I pulled more thread
Attenuated, I pulled
The darkest possible color
Reached my wavering fingers
“Ma, it wouldn’t look good”
Chortled, was something funny?
I couldn't catch it
“Ma…my needle broke”
Rainbows glimmered after a laugh
I'm thirsty
My sock is missing
Two large figures left the room
Loose clothes
And covered feet
“Ma, my thread is thin”
See, faced with no one,
yet in my mind I see him everywhere.
The best thing for me;
do not name it,
stitch my mouth,
say nothing.
But silence is never nothing.
Silence is the loudest thing he gives me.
What seizes the eye at once
makes the heart beat between lines.
Utmost, inexplicable, perpetual stimulation.
Now the wind blows mournfully,
and I let it.
Naturally, flagrantly, palpably,
replaying each line,
bona fide, constantly, truthfully, carefully.
Beating through language,
an ache written sideways,
pain grammar cannot hold.
Devil-may-care.
On the edge of a single smile,
he walks through my thoughts.
Every gesture is an answer.
Every lack of gesture is an answer.
I build whole futures
out of unfinished sentences.
Between my wanting
and his unknowing,
through life's clenched jaw,
I cling to the unrequited knowledge
of reciprocity.
25th high school reunion
Big Beaver Restaurant 1997
You somehow found
the seat next to me.
Showed me a picture
of your husband
Doesn’t he look like you?
--No—well---maybe--No
Later, I wanted to talk to you
--all night--
Hands in my pockets
by the dance floor
Unrestrained, we might have
taken a room out on Rt. 18
But that’s only me.
The next morning
my wife at the time
said that you were
still in love with me
Fast forward to the coming
55th and I will not entertain
Attendance at your beckon.
Our virtual cyber reunion
in recent years has covered
the things we might have
uttered over those motel pillows
in Beaver Falls by the truck stops,
those reasons why our youth at the time
was such a mutually delicious flaw
You are in a good place, now,
with bad knees,
While I am palpably exposed
Out Here in the ether
on the dance floor,
where
we might attend
to our mysteries.
He guides her hand from just beyond
With a ready black ink pen they share this bond
The words flow effortlessly as if not her own
Seems to hesitate longest at line’s end as shown
Palpably affected by the last words that were spoken
Without rhyme or reason, thinking of him now, her heart is broken
She briefly pauses above the page for a lingering thought
Smiling at all his wise advice that she always sought
His protégé daughter dwells in metaphoric squalls
Raised by a loving father whose rhyming poems she still recalls
As she closes the pages, she can almost hear a poetic sigh
As if her father from just beyond softly whispers his last goodbye
*I wrote this poem on January 14, 2024, as part of a ’30 days of poetry’ January challenge. This was day 14 and the prompt was: Something you have in common with your dad. My dad and I have always had a love of poetry and this poem was written for my late dad with love.
You guide my hand from beyond
with a posed, black-inked pen.
The words flowed effortlessly
as if not my own.
They always seem
to hesitate the longest
at the end of the line.
Palpably affected
by the last word written
without rhyme or reason.
If I briefly pause
for a lingering thought
and listen closely enough
I can almost hear
a troubled poetic sigh—
your final goodbye.
Until my verbose reflections,
once more lie exposed
on the flesh of the page.
It’s there I’ll feel you again.
Nature the suture
that palpably stitches
the wounded souls...
P.S This is the title of my poetry book published on Amazon Kindle...
In the eerie hours of dawn,
slumber envelops
and stillness speaks
It's resonance sweet .
The air slips in and out of rooms
like the vapory clouds
merging with the skies.
The marbled floors
palpably breathe
mystic sensations
heard by the inner self,
stirred by friendly
embers of stillness.
In the busy hours of
my mundane life
having traversed
half the span of life
I have never paused
to meet the
silent companion
inside me
and to hear
its soulful rhapsody
reverberated by the subtle
strings of stillness.
A wondrous spirit of true love now softly murmurs its echo
On the wings of God’s angels, as they ascend heavenward.
This and more occurs as radiant cultured pearls begin dancing
Their magical-mystical dance deliciously in the oceans deep.
With this, the bright-blue-mirrored waves of the oceans move
In a melodious tempo of love with the pearls as they dance.
Caressing the heavenly sparkles rippling deep in the oceans’ waves,
An enchanted diamond-cut glass now trembles and shatters loudly!
At this moment, a mermaid of angelic pulchritude takes her divine
Throne as the mystical dance continues throughout the late night.
Crystal chimes begin sounding pure with a fire and fury of emotions
Within our hearts, as they excite our passions palpably and exquisitely!
The candlelight’s effulgent reflection in this moment transfixes me true,
By your warm and loving touch and the magic of your presence with me.
Coloring and scenting the air surpasses all others as the breathless and
Honeycombed eminence of your being touches the depths of my soul!
Gary Bateman and Liam McDaid, A Collaborated Poem
Copyright © All Rights Reserved – July 21, 2018
I’m hooked, taken, I need social media,
A regular dose of cyber space.
I need it to relax my nerves every day,
Exist in a cloudy ethereal place.
My worries are real, palpably true,
I worry I am not what I type,
Those hours of printing opinions on the screen…
They only ever keep up the hype.
Yet to alleviate this stress, I get on the net,
To relax even for a little short burst.
It quenches my need to feel important,
It quenches my primitive thirst.
Actually, I’d love to stay and tell you more,
But I feel the need to surf like a pro,
And discuss everything political word wide,
My username’s: The Flying Scarecrow.
The Sweetest Starlight
You are the sweetest starlight shining across the ocean so pure
Moonlighting and enchanting my dreams with warmth aglow,
Touching gently my heart and soul with your beauty and wonder;
If we were together—I would hold you so gently in my arms and I
Would forever kiss your adoring lips with a passionate goodnight.
Love is a faraway queen rising in the morning sunshine’s warm rays,
And your light glows brilliantly as the dewdrops glisten on my dreams
Of pure sweet surrender and kiss the very depth of my immortal soul;
You are the light of Heaven's dream of a rainbow's flight of angels
Arriving at Heaven’s gate and coming to me on a beam of silver light.
Mesmerized I am as I embrace you as the heart, soul, passion and
Desire of my life—I see you as my true dream and my heart’s delight;
Feeling palpably your wonderful caress as you ask me to kiss you,
And to place your ethereal lips upon my very own knowing that
My heart and soul are open now to your loving heavenly embrace.
Gary Bateman, Liam McDaid, and Michael Clarke
A Collaborated Poem, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
August 2, 2015 (Unrhymed Quintain)
The Sweetest Starlight
You are the sweetest starlight shining across the ocean so pure
Moonlighting and enchanting my dreams with warmth aglow,
Touching gently my heart and soul with your beauty and wonder;
If we were together—I would hold you so gently in my arms and I
Would forever kiss your adoring lips with a passionate goodnight.
Love is a faraway queen rising in the morning sunshine’s warm rays,
And your light glows brilliantly as the dewdrops glisten on my dreams
Of pure sweet surrender and kiss the very depth of my immortal soul;
You are the light of Heaven's dream of a rainbow's flight of angels
Arriving at Heaven’s gate and coming to me on a beam of silver light.
Mesmerized I am as I embrace you as the heart, soul, passion and
Desire of my life—I see you as my true dream and my heart’s delight;
Feeling palpably your wonderful caress as you ask me to kiss you,
And to place your ethereal lips upon my very own knowing that
My heart and soul are open now to your loving heavenly embrace.
Gary Bateman, Liam McDaid, and Michael Clarke
A Collaborated Poem, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
August 2, 2015 (Unrhymed Quintain)
Morning opens her intimate heart to the poet
ever faithful is she
life the road you follow
her eggs of possibility palpably present
waiting only for your deepest feelings to pour out
Now!
climax spurs
new fingers and toes
your woof added to her warp
you wear your role as new parent proudly
earth’s future glows with yet another shimmering child
love the genetics that formulates beauty greater than the sum of parts
All of your children together the progeny of so many stars, she smiles too.
Brian Johnston
April 22, 2015
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