In the raffle
That is life
Strife is rife
Moral blindness
Snaffles kindness
But passion
Can fashion
Empathy
Rations for a while
Vile bile denial
Come on
Charity not depravity
Compassion
Turns
Guile, wiles & trials
Into Cheshire cat smiles
Sympathy
Shrugs become hugs
Affinity
Muddled huddles
Become
Cherished cuddles
Sensitivity relished
Pokes at folks
Now
Rib tickling jokes
So
Don’t fall behind
How
No need to look above
Refine your mind
Rewind & you will find
What
Defined Fab Four rapport
No
Don't push & shove
Why
"All you need is love"
Really..you sure
Yeah go on…try to be kind
This town is old and cold and sick and sad
It’s every dark lit street
you’d never walk down willingly
It’s every gas pump in the rain
With drain pipes working slowly
It’s every face that sags in knowing
They will always be this way
It’s every promise made to no one
Of a better life some day
It’s every desperate raffle, every bet, every gamble, every trade
And It’s wishing on a star to take it far far away
The squirrels always ate the seed
I’d used to fill the feeder.
They’d shimmy up the pole to follow
One brave soul, the leader.
Whenever I glanced out and saw
A squirrel up there munching,
I’d step outside and stomp my feet,
Which stopped unwelcome lunching.
But in a minute, they’d be back,
With cunning and with daring.
My foot stomps and some yelling
Didn’t seem to do much scaring.
Yet at my son’s today I felt
Like I had won a raffle.
The birds were at the feeder
‘Neath which hung a brand-new baffle.
The squirrels searched the ground below
In hopes of cast-off smidgens,
As baffled by the baffle as
Their world would be to pigeons.
O pilot of my whole being! O Soul! Spirit! Atma!
O, you that leads me to the absolute Paramatma!
O, I yearn to connect with you! Communicate! Converse!
O, I long to touch you; feel you; in you to get immerse!
I'm as weak as a jellyfish; unable to hold me,
I try all the ways, to go within, like novice rishi;
I explore my self - like a saintly sage - my past, present,
I try my focal point; to this my energy I spend...!
Do I, like greedy rich, lean on my material wealth?
Or, like hypochondriac, overanxious about health?
Or, as orthodox mice, raffle-rousing, terrorizing?
Or energy wasted thinking of adversely acting?
Now, like an alchemist, I tread into my magic lands,
Like a researcher - study, synthesis, weigh wetland sands;
Like a naturist, explore beauty; ponder! Contemplate!
Like farmer, plow; manure; cultivate; irrigate; harvest!
I examine my frequent existence; stop, look, and walk!
I wait for signs from within; only inner voice I talk!
I place my hands, on my heart, and question my intentions,
I make my yatra within; walk moved by intuitions...!
02 January 2022
Fathering a baby after surrendered hopes,
Alive remaining after wearing the ropes,
The Surviving Staff of a job- relieving Shuffle,
A beggar winning a million dollar raffle.
A chance to live again from a charity medication,
A missing valuable finding in a busy location,
A free ride t a far- off town,
Whose trekking would we invited a frown.
Free bottles of one’s choice drinks
At a time of aggressive thirst but no chinks,
Fortune smiling at one in a neighborhood
One Next-door had yet to oblige one brotherhood,
Goodies at one ceaselessly rushing,
After dumping a job and about thrashing.
Grace-driven luck makes a somebody,
Of a written-off nobody.
Early morning I stumble around
Half asleep I make no sound
Coffee machine gives a groan
It’s beyond repair hear my moan
Decided to brew a cup of char
Prop myself up at breakfast bar
Toast, I think so put in bread
Electric flare now toasters dead.
Usually patient but now am shattered
The post arrives with bills that matter
No,no what’s this before my eyes
It seems I’ve won a raffle prize.
One thousand euro ‘tis a windfall
Morning looks better I’m walking tall
Entirely dumbfounded but what the heck
Finger’s crossed it’s not a bad cheque.
Poetry Contest
Dumbfounded
Sponsored
By
charles messina
a narrative with alliteration
Royal radio reviews the Rainbow Raffle Rally planned to raise rubles
for the rugged racetrack recently recommended ‘round Rybinsk Reservoir.
One rich ruler, who runs the Ragweed Railway resists with red-ribbon resolve.
His rogue reaction to a ring of rubber stamp rednecks
left realistic Regnum reporters in a rush to rock their readers
regarding the rift between the Ragweed Roadblock and the Rainbow Raffle.
Rather like a rabbit racing a rhino, such rivalry is not reasonable.
Rally is off the radar - racetrack has been royally rejected!
February 10, 2020
Brian Strand, host
STRAND Select J, contest
Mum's just made a lovely cake
She has just put it on the table
I wish I could have a slice
I'll ask Mum if I'm able
She said no emphatically
And please do not snaffle
I did not make the cake for you
I made it for a raffle
If
Promising
Damning
Cleansing
Demeaning
100 possibilities
Some have past
Some remain
If
Some waste away over it
Some constantly pursue it
It's just a game of chance
Life is the lottery
And if is the raffle
If you're ready to play the game
Plug in, baby, it's a wild ride
If
If only I were better
If only I had done this
If only I had done that
If only it were 10 years ago
If only it were a nice day
If only they were still alive
If, if, if, if, if
If
It has no power
Unless you give it
Think not in if
Think in what is
Think in what will be
And you will be free
If only you let go
Nineteen-0-Nine World's
Fair in Seattle, a one
month old orphaned boy
was raffled off and someone
won, but nobody claimed him.
*The event was the introduction of an incubator for premature births. Unfortunately, the ultimate destiny of the child was still under investigation at the time, to-date, his whereabouts still remain unknown.
Date: 06/22/2019
Huge raffle prize proved quite a shock
A chocolate bunny in a 2 pound block
Son nibbles its ears and then its ...elbow
Dirty minds cease - this rabbit's a doe!
5/11/19
In the evening, strolling back from work,
the leisure in the walk,
the calming silence and the frightening peace
in the midst of the roaring vehicles,
wailing kids, stomping adults, bing bing
of elevators moving up and down.
Sometimes it is the lack of peace
in the silent minds
the riffle raffle of right and wrong
scramble desires and wants,
deserved yet deprived
in the time that went passing by.
The angst never took shape of words,
but the confused heads curse all,
The girl who left the one
at the railway station justifies her actions.
The guy working at the desk,
believes the world would stop; if -
Have you ever eaten an apple
By sitting on a speedy bicycle?
Difficult? Sympathy is like sizzle
Shouts when not got in coddle;
Smiles if given in time subtle.
Shrewd! With poor does giggle
With rich it does struggle.
How can I, Poor Soul, entitle
Sympathy with me in puddle
Of sadness which hardly ignoble?
My friend, Hardik, never finagle
Stood by shoulders to face unstable
Time, with me, removing a pustule.
Sympathy can’t be won at a raffle.
They’re virtues divine which ripple
With love of God even in middle
Of sufferings, and appear in bubble
Lasts for few moments in swaddle.
Sympathy, moves slowly like turtle
But reaches surely like Rakesh recycle.
Hardik or Rakesh will never diddle
You in need, let it be Prafulla baffle.
I found sympathy for peons little
Swanking abound in both to fiddle
Sonorously growing quadruple.
The only big struggle
Is for money bristle
Finishes like a bubble
When we see Sin puddle.
Is this so thing doddle?
Actually it is a circle
Vicious; none to fiddle
As it makes one nuzzle
In their cozy castle.
Earlier there was raffle;
Making us quite subtle
In all innate our struggle.
Money’s single ripple
Can conscience straddle
Into treachery subtle.
So dear when see boodle
Don’t forget to whistle;
And flee away with chuckle
From this vicious girdle.
Father McMann was sweeping away
the leaves from the church house walk
When McGee strolled by, said McMann with a sigh
"McGee, I think we should talk"
He asked McGee, how in Gods name
could he get so drunk last night
So McGee gave in, confessed to his sin
and did so without a fight
"Well, you see now father, at the raffle in town
I won me a bottle of whisky
Then fell in the company of dubious blokes
although I new it quite risky"
"But you were with Mike and Pat and Shawn,
and I know that none of THEM drink"
"That's Gods own truth" moaned McGee
and that was the problem, I tink"
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