Day to remember those who served
Vietnam, Korea, Middle East
Our gratitude is well deserved
By all who live and those deceased
Remember tours, hiding fear
Vile ambushes in plain sight
Them backs recall the tons of gear
Extraction with the heli flight
The ruthless sun and blowing sand
All in day's work where work is war
Reproaching looks in foreign land
And guarded sleep on earthen floor
Live chats while missing kids and wife
Oh, silly troubles way back home
A soldier, living grueling life
While facing combat stress syndrome
It stays with you, forever more
Long after battles go away
Our guys and girls, they are postwar
Salute our Vets on their day
November 11, 2025
I
A portly man out on a stroll
approached an egg and ate him whole.
II
When he saw what he had done,
he ate another one.
III
This man, beyond reproaching,
was thrown in jail for poaching.
Serious Neck
Camelopard Tongue Exploring
Tender Newborn Shoots Bore Prone
Cantilevered From A Rival
Pond-Mate Reproaching.
-Gray Squirrel
06-21-2025
The universal, eternal Atman, the endless soul
Resides in me as my breath, and makes me a single whole.
As the breath of the almighty, it is born without sin.
It drives, as a life changer, the physique it enters in.
When my physique is devoured by the detrimental death
My soul takes flight, and in a new life after, it takes birth.
With no color, form, shape, taste, or odor in its pure form
Its nature shifts to a flower, bird, or beast with its norm.
Commanding and demanding, approaching and reproaching
With peaceful, pleasant consciousness and conscience, heart-broaching
Within physical flesh, bones, and veins like blood, it would flow.
When and to which universe it would fly, I do not know.
Day after day
Night after night ...
We recite poems from memoirs, lose or gain
Again and again ...
You fix one
Another comes!
We twit our time!
Reproaching nowadays.
We often blame others not ourselves.
We rode.
We grow old reciting a list of bad and good.
We should not or we should!?
the personification of maturity
that gradually takes shape
obeys the rite of ancestral paradigms
it was already anger, rebellion and hate
as if the fact of avoiding the sun
stop him from meeting it's fate
every caterpillar on the flower sleeps worm
and wake up butterfly
and going back is impossible
see the dark squall that floods the land
and then paint it green
contrasting with the blue sky
or the volcano that explodes into lava
which later leaves the soil fertile
I seriously looked back
and gave up reproaching my own way:
were the difficult and emblematic moments
those who built the human being that I am today
Invisible to the naked eye
traumatization (courtesy
chastising and reproaching -
by fellow classmates
and later in life
birth parents and inlaws
dealt hefty figurative jab)
tremendously impacted yours truly
analogous to him moving bajillion miles away
compounded by his withdrawn demeanor
diagnosed when he reached middle adulthood
as schizoid personality disorder,
thus exhibiting obvious developmental delay
bullied courtesy nasty brutes,
who scapegoated and rejoiced
with hip hip hurray,
meanwhile I experienced
terrible psychological melee
escaping to safe confines of bedroom,
where I wanted to stay
for mine remaining years of life.
Retrospective review
now approaching my doddering old age
constituted more'n one cruel (cheap) trick
played on super tramping urchin,
who traipes across virtual global stage
ensnared within whorled webbed wide
spending his hard earned itty bitty wage
spinning one strand after another.
Blaming the innocent…
a form of insanity
Armed with good intention
—reproaching the night
(Dreamsleep: June, 2021)
courage
valiant, heroic,
summoning, praising, mustering
determination, fortitude, timidity, coward
hiding, reproaching, displaying
disgraceful, pitiful
cowardice
Date created: 05/24/2021
Hovers he for long hours,
Like a solitary quail
Lingering in bowers
like a drunk drone
Reproaching flowers
And
Like a weary worm
Wriggling with creepers.
He whispers to every tree,
Every brook, every flea,
Like a conjurer
Kissing them in glee,
Like a loony lover
Sitting on his knee,
And being stung by a bee,
Swearing his act of feeling
Hearing and seeing
Forms, sounds as the key
To invoke Calliope,
To write epic Poetry.
*7th Place* (Out of ten placements in the following contest; Judged on Aug. 27, 2020)
Aug. 21, 2020
Pareidolia Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Craig Cornish
Amidst fuel crisis that makes us down
God’s merciful ears are never shut down
Ready with His power to reach us down
Fortifying faith from being knocked down
Though miserably tempted to slow down.
Vanquishing attacks of reproaching doubt
Our souls desperately persist to hide pout
While cheered up by the Lord’s exhorting shout
For tenacious triumph against gloom’s bout.
We thank the Almighty Who grants great grace
Along ceaseless heavenly greeting rays
Warming our hearts to offer worship praise.
Beyond engulfing panic shines peace-light
Of care and sharing with prayer delight…
Our faith exalts* Christ in His supreme reign.
Bountiful blessings indeed pouring down
Celestially flowing with no time-out
Guaranteed devoid of scarcity’s trace
Driving us above mediocrity-flight
Propelled by His hand for stewardship gain.
*Psalm 34:3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
April 14, 2020
Honorable Mention, "Minuanetta Poems" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Emile Pinet; judged on 4/23/2020.
Wondrous miracle of majestic height
Christ’s resurrection* vanquishes death’s blight
Assuring redemption for celestial flight!
Beautifying indeed Gospel story
Christ arose, and such exalts Deity’s glory
Verily sealing believers’ blessed victory!
Sufficing eternal life’s divine extravagance
Blissfully offering peace-abundance
The resurrected Christ anchors faith’s elegance!
Freedom against sins’ grievous lockdown-chain
Prevails midst grace, devoid of hatred stain
Through Jesus Christ Who does forever reign!
Resurrection triumphs heaven’s Almighty voice
Silencing skeptics with their reproaching noise…
Now, grateful, in CHRIST* we trust and earnestly rejoice!
1Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
April 12, 2020
3rd place, "STRAND PICK 10,any theme,any form" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand; judged on 4/12/2020.
He once met a girl named Divestment,
She once heard a boy name Detachment,
they tangoed as two
and tangled til blue,
Then bore a misery child of deportment
divisioned DePartment.
S/he once met a god for Attaching
and heard herself named for Reproaching,
they tangoed as two
then tangled til through,
Then bore a hope for encroaching
healthy YangYinning
There once was a feminist
gorgeously named for Courageous
who met a patriarch named Curious,
they tangoed as two
then tangled, tis true,
Creating compassions less Furious.
I would like to dance
in a midst of an African party
wearing masks, half-nude,
feeling the beat,
the rhythm,
and the heat across my chest.
Then I would like to fly
under the infinite Asian sky
liberating my soul, heart, and mind
under the effect of the Indonesian rice wine.
Then I would live for the white tundra
in a solitary confinement,
reproaching myself differently,
maybe in a more philosophic aspect.
Returning, I would go to the Caribbean,
praying the life,
hugging the sea, kissing the sun,
and singing, singing for the humanity
far, far in infinity.
Offering sanctuary,
a soulful sea summons me.
And uttering soothing sounds
promises to set me free.
Cascading breakers mimic
the applause of clapping hands.
A whisper on the wind, She
draws me to her shifting shores.
Reproaching insanity,
I turn my back on the sea.
And start to admonish Her
for the way She beckons me.
Death awaits me; the moment
I acquiesce to Her plea.
Yet amidst my tears and pain,
She speaks of tranquility.
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