Short Roark Poems

From Somewhere…
                          by Odin Roark

Pathos remained in shadows
Pain wasn’t invented
Suffering rare to nature

Then

From somewhere came man...

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A Whispered Blink
            by Odin Roark

The poet lives the allegory of a whispered blink
Knowing the harsher the voice
The less one hears
The longer the eye dwells
The less one sees...

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Naked Be---
by Odin Roark

lettin’ the words drip
crosstown
uptown
downtown
any town

through alleys
valleys
hustle-street tallies

tell it like it is
‘cause if it don’t read
it’ll never breathe

teasin’ is pleasin’
and dreamin’ has meanin’
and no one wants naked be
what naked sees
uh uh...

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The Neediest
                     by Odin Roark

Still life furnished room
Broken chair
One dare not sit on
Narrow bed
Hard to sleep on
Table leaning
Daren’t eat on
Two-burner
Caked hard with spilt on
Out the window
Hope often stomped on

Someone’s present year 
Destined to be long gone...

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Dying Alive
             by Odin Roark

Cultivating
Seeding
Nurturing
Weathering
Gathering 

How generous the bounty
Bruised and perfect
Life’s full basket 
Hoisted upon the shoulders of experience
Carried as pain’s reward
Needing not a marketplace
Accepting fruition as recompense
Knowing wealthy are those
Who die healthy of mind...

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Dying Alive
             by Odin Roark

Cultivating
Seeding
Nurturing
Weathering
Gathering 

How generous the bounty
Bruised and perfect
Life’s full basket 
Hoisted upon the shoulders of experience
Carried as pain’s reward
Needing not a marketplace
Accepting fruition as recompense
Knowing wealthy are those
Who die healthy of mind...

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Poem as Surrogate
                    by Odin Roark

Streaming messenger
With expression unchecked
Imagined ink yet to dry
The page fearful of touch
Find the eyes
Beneath which awaits the meaning

For

This frame that lives also as picture
One's fleeting first-person impulse
A captured inner focus shared
Clings tenaciously
To the world's lenity
Every poet's temporary forever...

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Rolling Dice
            by Odin Roark

Natural selection
Can’t help it

Way back
Necessity abounded
Creating proceeds by chance

Expanded into nonrandom reality
From random happenstance

Amassed complexity from
Cross-thatched simplicity

Spark-lit some consciousness
Through unconscious irony

Popped out creatures
Demanding purpose and discovery

And science/common sense labeled it
Evolution...

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Memories Mirrored
                  by Odin Roark

A Boy Scout essential
The polished metal card mirror
The unbreakable monitor
Made to master Morse code
Used to measure wanna-be whiskers
And such

So it went
From puberty to manhood
Hall locker
To gym locker
Toiletry bag
To duffel bag
Afghan's mountain-dead
To triage hospital bed

Wrapped eyes needed little
Of the metal card mirror now
As blindness tearfully engaged
The enslavement of memory...

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Saint James the Fisherman Day

Rohr family was nicest and kindest;
They had found it so hard to resist;
High point there,
They would share;
A new Episcopal Church does exist.

James Thomas Horn
Member of St. James Episcopal
As well as a retired veteran
Bolivia, NC

Church is currently located on
highest point in Shallotte, NC.
We are very thankful to Rohr family.

Messed up. Property was donated by
Chandler Rourk.

https://www.geni.com/surnames/roark...

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Time’s Echo
                      by Odin Roark

Arrest
Your today, as you
Allow
The forgetfulness of tomorrow.

Respect
The pain of yesterday, as you
Embrace
The now which thrives not on the past.

Seek
Beneath the jewel of the moment.
Cherish
The facets of reflective memories.

Reify
The forever-resonant as halos above the abyss.
Let free
The shackles of attachment.

For just as infinity knows but time’s echo,
So too Creativity’s countenance seeks no end....

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Samurai Honor
             by Odin Roark

He wandered about
Finding that reason
To commit
To dedicate
To protect

What was it
Where might the purpose be
Why was it important
Who needed such integrity

Thus 

Came the spirit of the samurai
Willing to be wounded
Embracing his own spilt blood
Honor prevailing
At any cost

By the river’s edge
He did bleed
Losing life as he knew it
Yet those he protected
Remained respectfully with bowed head
Even as they too died...

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