Questions
If form follows function,
why does everything have too many bells and whistles?
Especially cell phone.
If everything is so simple a rocket scientist could do it,
why aren’t we all Werner von Braun’s?
Checkbooks are a mystery.
If the early bird gets the worm,
why are there birds out getting worms in the evening?
I get up early but I don’t eat worms.
If you are letting the cat out of the bag,
why are you telling the secret?
Why was the cat in the bag in the first place?
If curiosity killed the cat,
why aren’t more cats deceased?
I don’t like cats so_______.
If it is raining cats and dogs,
why don’t we have sturdier umbrellas?
Must get kind of messy when they hit the ground.
If we paint the town red to have a good time,
why are all towns pretty drab looking?
I only like red cars not buildings.
If someone is coming out of left field,
why don’t we just ignore them in the first place?
I played center field in little league.
If we can’t have our cake and eat it too,
why even bother having cake at all?
I just made an orange pound cake, so_______
Categories:
sturdier, humorous,
Form: Free verse
Wicked generation asks for a sign you said to them.
Could they, in their thought, word, or reach your divinity's realm?
As though puppies bark at the elephant that's on a stroll
Could any of their denouncements play on you any role?
Sown within the womb of the earth will be the sign you said.
Like a lamb that's rudely slaughtered, your blood you've got to shed.
As Jonah was free from the whale and came out of the sea
From chains that try to bind you, forever you would be free.
The wisdom Jonah preached was finite. God's wisdom is great.
Everything out of nothing, didn't he wish to create?
Jonah, or the queen of Sheba, had their tentative role.
Isn't it God who brings everything to the immortal whole?
You stood sturdier than the temple and the sacrifice.
To your affliction, passion, and death, what price could suffice?
Categories:
sturdier, jesus,
Form: Sonnet
We all stumble into sticky situations
Scratching our heads for explanations
Wishing things just simply went our way
So we can easily breeze through our days
What if we put the striving on the shelf
Replacing it with a sturdier sense of self
Rooted in reality that we will face setbacks
But they don’t need to throw us off track
Reminded of our ability to adapt and cope
As our fuel is now resiliency mixed with hope
Categories:
sturdier, encouraging, inspiration,
Form: Rhyme
Poetry determines its own form
the Anatomy of heartfelt expression
Sort of like, God choosing Moses
who objected for his stutter: “Surely,
Lord, would not my brother (Cecil, the English
Major) be a wiser choice, of far sturdier
mind; and solid, commanding voice?”
As with poetry, if a poem destined
“To Be!” let then Living Words
and not a penning prophet alone
determine whether
presentation sonnet or free....
Categories:
sturdier, inspirational, introspection, poems, poetess,
Form: Free verse
Disastrous free-fall
Into consuming ashes of heartbreak,
He landed with deafening thud.
Wounded, spirits deflated
Rivulets of tears, shed.
He soon rose like the Phoenix
To dizzying heights after
Misfortune mercilessly clipped
His mighty wings mid-air.
Down, down, down to earth
He plummeted, though
Spared Icarus' fate.
Then came his transformation,
For love worked its glorious magic.
Hemorrhage within him, stemmed.
Now he soars the open sky
With new wings sturdier
Than before; right as rain again.
Date written: 09/28/2021
Categories:
sturdier, emotions, endurance, freedom, lost
Form: Tristich
I'll walk through ice and numbing snow
Though slaying cold be its freezing feel,
And trek through roasting deserts drear,
Taxing grip betwixt soil and mortal heel.
Not lonely climes shall my strides deter
Though forbidding such motions prove;
Every steady step sturdier than the last,
Toe and sinew shall defy earth's groove.
Past shroud of searing beams and heat
Shall these wornout soles tireless tread;
Every tactile kiss knitting earth and heel
More painfully spewing its slicing dread.
Neither immobilizing blow nor chill's bite
Shall these gallant legs dampen or slow;
Against menacing pestilences and trials,
Must this walk persist past darkest woe.
Categories:
sturdier, allegory, allusion, character,
Form: Bio
A mighty fortress is this venerable plane!
A flying fortress indeed - the adversary's bane!
Though she groans as through the celestial dome she flies,
There's no sturdier old queen ruling the skies!
Though badly battered by bursting flak and shell,
She limps home from missions having flown through hell!
Mission completed, her tires gently kiss the aerodrome,
Once more bringing her valiant crew safely home.
Ground crews patch the old warrior to fly another day,
And load her belly with fuel and ammo without delay.
The crews who proudly wore the Eighth Air Force Patch,
Will argue there's not a plane yet built to meet her match!
The old veteran served faithfully during the Second World War,
But very few of these elegant birds grace the skies anymore.
Some rest their weary wings displayed in museums here and there,
To be admired by future generations. tended with loving care!
Categories:
sturdier, military, nostalgia,
Form: Rhyme
Citadel of wits and tricks
Who appears wimpish;
But your back is stronger
And harder than Olumo rock,
And the great walls of China;
Citadel of wits and tricks
Who staggers like a Kampf panzer,
Through thick and thin,
Rough and tough terrains unscathed
You who have no foundation,
But, your house is sturdier
Than Buckingham palace,
I salute you
You,
Whose legs are short
But covers miles without refueling...
You, who stump, trump, trample,
Hustle and bustle
Where the high and mighty
Fear to thread
I salute you
The day a swart of hungry crocodiles
Stumble on you,
Their knife-like fangs become obsolete
When a swarm of starving lions encounter you,
They go home angry and hungry
A black, insidious mamba
Retreats and recoil
When it confronts you
The day a stray elephant
Steps on you,
It looses balance
The panzer who cannot fire a cannon
But repels a thousand loose cannons
With it's impregnable back,
I salute you
Citadel of wisdom, wits and tricks
Whom our sacred African oracles rely on,
I salute you!
Categories:
sturdier, africa, animal, appreciation, hyperbole,
Form: Ode
Like her name, so slender and lovely;
And I recall she smiled so prettily.
She was my aunt; born with a disease;
But took life like the summer breeze.
My best friend was her son, Jose,
Until suddenly he passed away.
I was seven; he was two;
And sunny days were all we knew.
The essence of youth was our Lillie of the valley;
A sturdier more delicate bloom never you see!
She only reached age of tender thirty four,
But her liveliness has become folklore!
In a far off playground, she taught me to swing;
And taught me to dance as an easterling;
And took me trick or treating for the first time,
When I was an illiterate mime.
She was laughter and much fun;
Nothing can outshine a rising sun;
Though never physically hardy,
She was the life in every party!
Categories:
sturdier, courage, family, flower, green,
Form: Couplet
I found you
in the stars as they blinked
like fireflies in the navy velvet canopy of midnight.
I found you in the soft grassy knolls of the isles off the
California, those coastal slices of money and madness
where the weekend yachties
have their play dates.
I found you on that road when it unexpectedly
veered to the left,
leaving the beaten path in the dust,
and the last stop where the fading mirror
was nailed to the crooked oak tree with it's ancient branches
sturdier than life,
there I found you.
Categories:
sturdier, introspection, nature,
Form: Free verse
Have we dreamt the crystal morn, this day of beauteous bones,
tinkling icicles which ping, as they melt, this sun warmed day.
Lilac boughs appear egg white dipped, now over-glazed, amazed,
in the mirror-like majesty of a frosty ice draped morn.
Tinkling icicles, which ping, as they melt, this sun warmed day
licked by children as they play, sliding on a virgin crust of white
in the mirror-like majesty of a frosty ice draped morn.
All that's innocent is clothed, encased, adorned in sturdier forms,
licked by children as they play, sliding on a virgin crust of white
the ice embraces every sunlit surface with auric glow.
All that's innocent is clothed, encased, adorned in sturdier forms
too soon the skeleton of night will melt within the heat day
The ice embraces every sunlit surface with auric glow.
Lilac boughs appear egg white dipped, now over-glazed, amazed.
Too soon, the skeleton of night will melt within the heat day.
Have we dreamt the crystal morn, this day of beauteous bones?
First appeared in Mused: The BellaOnline Literary Review Winter 2014
Categories:
sturdier, beauty,
Form: Pantoum
Have we dreamt the crystal morn, this day of beauteous bones,
tinkling icicles which ping, as they melt, this sun warmed day.
Lilac boughs appear egg white dipped, now over-glazed, amazed,
in the mirror-like majesty of a frosty ice draped morn.
Tinkling icicles, which ping, as they melt, this sun warmed day
licked by children as they play, sliding on a virgin crust of white
in the mirror-like majesty of a frosty ice draped morn.
All that's innocent is clothed, encased, adorned in sturdier forms,
licked by children as they play, sliding on a virgin crust of white,
the ice embraces every sunlit surface with auric glow.
All that's innocent is clothed, encased, adorned in sturdier forms
too soon the skeleton of night will melt within the heat day
The ice embraces every sunlit surface with auric glow.
Lilac boughs appear egg white dipped, now over-glazed, amazed.
Too soon, the skeleton of night will melt within the heat day.
Have we dreamt the crystal morn, this day of beauteous bones?
First Published in Mused: The BellaOnline Literary Review January 2014
Categories:
sturdier, beautiful,
Form: Pantoum
The battle ground is smooth
and well-defined. Love is the defender.
Hate dies of its own neglect;
then when forcing its attack,
invokes the solemn rite
of stand your ground,
of casualty by friendly fire,
and of preemptive might.
Love's weapon is itself. Its arsenal
is peace to fight the demons of the wars.
Alas, it's not so popular at all.
Death and all the means we choose
to make it happen is the modus operandi
of the world, and we as western countrymen
and leaders of each blessed fray, will cheer.
Each year the marble halls of Washington
grow sturdier as we, the folks back home
affix our "yes" upon the bills
that buy the blazing guns of war.
But love is like that,
offering its kiss, and then
politely giving way to the invisible;
here it is non-entities like hate will enter,
whip-up the roaring crowd with cries
of conquest, then discretely step aside
into the void, leaving love to coalesce.
This is the true reality
that rides the wave of peace.
This is the only crown of victory,
the sole memorial of strife subdued.
Lift it high, for it must survive.
Love alone is Life!
~
Categories:
sturdier, character, , memorial, ,
Form: Free verse
Being alive, feeling the bright sunshine and breathing new air,
as this New Year approaches is enough:
health, happiness and love matter...
Lord, strengthen my desire to live happily until my death!
I wish life were as wonderful as it was then,
without worries when time flew as free as a mockingbird;
now, standing on the threshold of hope I repent of my sin...
for having been too selfish and not eased anybody's load.
Why does regret leave its footprint as mine did?
And even though harm wasn't done to anyone,
I wished I had found the time and desire to have listened....
Lord, my blindness was the mirth of youth when all seasons seemed one!
I have seen drastic changes in me...calmer, moodier and more pensive;
and examining my conscience, I can admit some faults are sturdier than rope,
that they are a part of my character and as the old year is about to leave:
I extend to all Humanity my wish for peace while standing on the threshold of hope.
Written for Francine Roberts' contest,
" Happy New Year Contest "
12/31/2011
Categories:
sturdier, father, friendship, love, peace,
Form: Rhyme