Richmond Poems | Examples

Fifa

It’s been a few months now
Since you don’t greet me at the door
Sleep on the couch next to me

Still find your hairs in the couch
Your crate is still in the laundry room
Empty

It’s quiet now

We all said goodbye
I drove to Richmond to bring one of your boys home 
We dug a hole in the backyard
Said a prayer together

I asked, “When you make the world right will you give me back my dog?”

Then we put  you in a box
In your new bed 
favorite toy
And favorite blanket

Sherri wrote you a sealed letter
“From Mommy” 
We all feel your unwritten absence

Buddy Was the Youngest and Bravest of Soldiers

Buddy was the youngest and bravest of soldiers,
he left Richmond Hill and his adolescent dreams;
on European battlefields he fought and earned
valor in Argonne and dominated the combat with gallantry:
he was the boldest one, pushing forward and gaining ground,
never bared defeat in front of an assailant enemy!

Buddy was the most brazen of all and tried to hide his tears,
he saw too many bodies fall in the clashing, blasting harbor
and on barren hills: he was undefeatable with a tactic so clever;
he instilled battle trance in each fearful and unwilling soldier:
did those shouts of encouragement earn him ample honor?
He buried many of his comrades without white tombstones!

The Buddy statue stands out for its elegant style
and insightful awareness, and while kids play
around it, they look up in awe and admire
this young hero who wasn't an ordinary doughboy;
I have seen hoards of people stand before it and honor
him for his valiance as he feels sorrow for his comrade... 
gazing down at the small cross that he put on his grave:
Buddy died for an ideal so precious, but fate wasn't fair!
.

Manatee

Machiavellian schemes besmirch a murky mangrove calm
A propeller breaks the tranquil glass over an underwater farm
Neath the broken still, a peaceful giant stirs with alarm
and no consolation is found as noise churns it's quiet charm

The serene spots need to be augmented for they are our balm
Ecosystems need protection from greedy developers’ harm
Empyrean Earth for all, is in our active palms, giving alms…


(5/12/21: Custom ketch; KKMI Richmond)

Passing Through

I’m passing through a bad part of Richmond,
a long trip almost over. Night rain drizzles
wipers creak monotonously,
the blacktop no longer flying
but crawling over my eyes.

On the edge of the city
there’s a liquor store, maybe the last
before the dark interior of Ohio.
I park under its low neon shadows.
Two belligerent drunks
are fighting, both missing each other
in slow motion.

Inside the store
more unsteady men argue,
there arms gesticulating
like broken windmills,
plus one sleazy feme yelling silently
but I can lipread most swear words.
The nightshift counter-clerk is a kid
and he looks like he’s ready to bolt.

Maybe I could slip in there unnoticed
past all the sweaty mayhem.
Maybe make do with a cold beer,
throw some dollars down
make off into the night unscathed
by lashing tongues or flailing fists

More imagined nocturnal scenarios
scatter in my head like dandelion seeds
dispersing on a dry wind.
I still need a drink.

O, Youth of Today

Rev up your engines
  O, youth of today
The challenge before you
  Is to find a smooth way

To ease out the old
  and bring in the new
Without transforming the world
  to a dark witch's brew

You've seen what can happen
  when we cave in to emotion
The protests of Summer 2020
  dissolving into unbridled explosions

Where he who shouts loudest
  or longest claims victory
Wherein Seattle, Portland, Austin
  and Richmond are awfully sorry

Please equip yourselves well
  Mark the landscape of the age
Your hand steady on the wheel
  of Improvement - not rage

Song of a Traveling Man

I flop at truck stops
hid by other sleeping truckers.
I like the loneliness.
Amarillo, Detroit, Tacoma, Richmond,
places packed and stacked
with the bad and the good.
I scoot by paying no heed,
to features, just forms,
how bodies once glimpsed
sometimes return inside of me.
Cities of light, death-heads hidden
no one is looking.
I’m not looking either — just driving through,
hauling and honking.
No one looking.
Launderettes and liquor stores;
five finger fandangos in the back,
chicken wings and Jack D.
Atlantic City, Apalachicola,
soaking in the slipstream
while America looks somewhere else.
What are you watching America?
Sometimes I think
only the coyotes are paying attention.
Roads thread through my fingers.
The Great Lakes shimmer,
Rockies rear-up and ripple. 
Moving along not looking,
just driving.
Old men on benches stare
as I hammer on by, and blare,
as if I were an 18-wheeled rolling exhibit
of America itself.

Beyond Your Grasp

One of life's challenges
is to find your own speed

Where travel is constant,
 destination in sight

Too fast,
 and yesterday abandons your future

Too slow,
 and memory stretches beyond your grasp

(Airplane to Richmond 10/14/2016)

As You Speak

Your audience may not be able to listen,
  in the fashion that you speak

Your readers may not be able to discern,
  those meanings that you preach

Your lovers may not be able to hold
  your feelings in their hands

Your future may not be able to serve
  —what the present can’t withstand

(James River Writers Conference: Richmond: October, 2016)

Heaven's Wings

Power…
  the father of choice

Emotion…
  the mother of love

Freedom…
  lost child of betrothal

Returning
  —on wings from above

(Richmond Virginia: April, 2019)

A Gentle Wind

Never shout into the void
  —when you can whisper to the heart

(Richmond Virginia: April, 2019)

Rhyming Male Names

These are the male names I rhymed.
It has taken some thyme.
Tome-Jerome, Guillaume
Richard- Redford,Clifford,Conuford
Willard-Gerard,Barnard,Cunard
Wilton, Parton, Clayton, Keaton
Wayne- Dwane,Germine,Jermaine
Rolland-Gilbert,Eabert, Delbert, Norbert
Ronnie- Johnny, Lonnie
Jerry- Barry, Gary, Harry, Larry,Geoffery
Derek- Garrick, Eric, Herrick, Fredrick
Raymond- Grimond, Richmond, Osmind

My Home Virginia

Carry me to my home Virginia
Headed south through Arlington
We can stop off in Manassas
On our way to Lovingston

Take me back to the Peaks of Otter
Let's return to Mabry Mill
We can drive the Blue Ridge Parkway
From the Meadows of Dan to Charlottesville

We'll stop in Schuyler on the way to Richmond
Watch the trees on the mountain sway
Ride the backroads of Campbell County
And see the small towns along the way

We'll raise some cane out in Bedford
In a field over near the county line
Ride the rails to Appomattox 
And stop by Mama's at suppertime

We'll go cruise down the Eastern Shoreline
We'll lay a blanket out on the sand
Watch the ships sail out of Norfolk
And stroll down the beach hand in hand

Let's return back to our hometown
We'll float down the mighty river James
There we remember our favorite memories
And visit with old friends at a cafe on Main

Carry me back to little old Lynchburg
No matter how far I may roam
It's where I made my fondest memories
I'm proud to call Virginia my home

The Day After Christmas

The Day After Christmas 

1811
Richmond Theater...Fire!
Last act pantomime 


©deborah burch
12.26.16

___________________________
Senyru 
My inspiration:
Google: "Richmond Theater Fire Richmond Virginia 1811"
Many references online: even Wikipedia!!
On 12.26.1811, the Richmond Theater Fire, became known as the "worst disaster in American history" (at that time); "598 people":
'518 adults/80 children'...72 lost and several heroes emerged. The stage curtain hid more than props from the audience that night...
If you like history... check it out on google.

Walking the Line

Blood,
fires from my pen
like a well shot round

14 karat penetration, 
mighty wound of 
self aggression

Letters,
reducing armies 
into a special force

Time dying,
as mortared ink strikes 
the page

The raw edge of battle, 
...new combatants die, 
leaving their mark

Cursive warriors of the
spoken word,
martyred sentinels of a bigger truth,
—walking the line 

(Richmond Virginia: December, 2002)

All Wonder Returned

Writing for the ages,
—not for the agent

Answers became questions,
—all wonder returned

(James River Writer’s Conference
  Richmond Virginia: October, 2016)

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