And what, other than a God, should say
why days begin and nights enfold?
Could any sun, rightly, determine such a
bright thing,
with his blushing moon, while on a typical
night-fling? Perhaps a depth-sea, on a map flat,
bragging lifts of surf its tides, should determine where
and when, day rises or hides?
Maybe continents of mighty slips and slides,
would sufficiently declare if day lights~ thus
illuminatingly abides?
Independent of a God could man learn to reign
totally Free, each his own crucifixion
then clemency? Best that a God continues to keep all course,
determining when light to dark is lost. Myself included
judged by degree~ how Fahrenheit or centigrade a soul’s
eternity.
As you voiced three syllables,
sufficiently capable
to reach me seven heavens at once,
making my heartbeats to dance and prance !
Rapid pulsation rippling on crest of passion:
First verbal interaction from silent admiration.
Eternal time took pause on emerald emotion.
On that auspicious moment
my dormant desires achieved fulfilment.
I held my breath turning breathless.
With best bliss of my life I was blessed.
My ardent ardour glowed in glory and grace.
Yet sudden separation I had to face
at one corner of my path.
Meaningless life to drag on earth !
My heartbeats to run as I'm taking breath -
being always ready to welcome death.
How many poems must I write before I sufficiently capture the essence of your beauty?
I have begun to exhaust the language to depict your flawless features.
What a dilemma in the realm of poetry.
Perhaps I am not as great a poet as you made me out to be,
For your smile alone could fill ten lengthy pieces.
I have managed nine.
The words for the tenth remain quite elusive.
I grow close to surrender.
My quill falters beneath your radiance
And this time a blade won't erase its dullness
I shall step aside,
And permit another to attempt the Excalibur of Literature.
I have everything I need because of God
the one who always holds my heart
He looks beyond my faults and understands my desires
And for Him I will do whatever He requires
I give God total praise
my hands now forever raised
I shout with a joyful voice
for with Him I do rejoice
I have everything I need because God supplied
His love for me is amplified
Jehovah Jireh my provider
Jehovah Gibbor my battle fighter
I give God total praise
my hands now forever raised
I shout with a joyful voice
for with Him I do rejoice
now let it be known to all mankind
salvation in God you will always find
grace and mercy in abundancy
love and power most sufficiently
I have everything I need
my desires have been met
because for me,
my Redeemer
Jesus paid the debt
I give God total praise
my hands now forever raised
I shout with a joyful voice
for with Him. I do rejoice
I have everything I need because of
the One who holds my heart
the King of Kings, the Lord of Hosts
my Father the Lord God
Jealousy is a dastardly ugly trait
Be sufficiently content with your own lot
Don’t compare ~ just be grateful
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 1st place 2025
I’ve come to—k(now), the sobering conclusion
that I must be a lunatic; else what
sufficiently explains the smirking smut
clouding my judgment?—what viscous illusion—
outright{(diagnosable[,perhaps)delusion]},—
persuades me to heed your haughty strut?
Each inch of every corner of my gut
is begging—not—accept—refuse—intrusion.
ah!, but I budge, I give in to temptation!
why,why,why must I make the same mistake
instead of just quite well so simply break-
-ing the cycle of you?—o’ that salvation,
in what dark nook lurks it?, which saviour holds
the key that unschackles me from your folds?
there is a quickening in the forest
robins sing to us of universal sharing
as the earth calls us
to hear again the song of life
a thin brown layer of soil
is all we have
between ourselves and oblivion
a new language is needed
drums from Africa
echoing through termite mounds
to the savanna of a loving way
I made a choice
to be vegetarian, then vegan
clearing rivers from waste
and sky from methane
fear is contagious
but so is compassion
and it begins with me
how quickly it all goes by
in this moment of light and despair
I find what nourishes me indelibly:
the touch of a lover’s hand
worlds within a plant
tears as family members in silent movies
embrace Shakespearean deaths
my poems stumble
impatient to journey
as ghosts march from the tunnel
looking to us for resurrection
I have treated life
as a problem in accuracy, balance and proportion
but my careful ordering
is not sufficiently capacious
I say these things at age 80
because I burst with things unsaid and undone
I ride the waves
but do not see the stars
until I am swept under
denial is no longer possible
as a warrior traces his exit
from literal to mythic
I was naked
Who told me I was
I am clothe
I thoughtful a genius
Who told me I am
I don’t understand
Just a mere man
Pleasantries I’ve seen
Abundant yet dreams
Become nightmares, feels like so real
I am clothe in doubts
Trying to figure it out
I am naked
Who told me that I am
I see the snake on the ground
I don’t understand
Why? I believed the serpent
Pleasantries I’ve seen
Abundant yet dreams
Become nightmares, feels like so real
Now I am clothed in my righteous mind of God
Who told me I was Jesus
I am clothe in His blood, graced and sufficiently covered
Thoughtful of Who I am God told me I am
Now I understand
More than Just a mere man
6/9/24
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2024©
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dawns a courtroom closing in on midday, and a cheery sun
uncovering its place being less demanding--a sage who
dons sufficiently in her vocation that imparts one who bears
a respectable position, and one of a high office--so without
delay, the judge withdraws to his chambers for consultations
with the defense attorney and prosecutor, et al., she then
advances towards the lone defendant from her private seat
in the gallery--an officer of the court, immediately takes
notice of her movements and in anticipation presented her
with a chair for her pleasure--the defendant who sees her,
respectfully stands, whereto, she politely informs him that
he may remain seated and air him in a one-sided
conversation being the soul speaker, and he as the soul
listener. Albeit, exceptions to that disclosure evolved at the
end as there is cause for the conversation to become ironic.
*The opener of My Short Story: White Lies, in two parts; I'm
afeared of old habits unchanged as alit surface, amid dim, and
aligned depth of mired cliché, sways a gavel 'ere ...
We see ourselves unimpeded initially
Some are stricken with a view artificially
We are told by others very specifically
There is a ceiling so proceed timidly
We try in vain with no support futilely
As we age blazing the path dizzily
Sometimes we see the results dismally
Eventually we learn to climb skillfully
We began to achieve sufficiently
Eventually finding success brilliantly
Living life with dreams so vividly
Sadly, a haunting voice still speaks flippantly
Reminding us of the ceiling frigidly
We remain in the arena mistily
Each overcautious step taken judicially
We endure the voice shouting viciously
The battle to continue is done willfully
who holds the passion eyes who painted the blue skies who Embraces my soul who calls me son daughter ever so he who calls me so beautiful
Who rides this above my enemies who has sent me ever free who hung himself allowed himself to die on a tree he did this for me his grace sufficiently Mercies flea on to me as he has done me also beautiful
Who has kissed me gives me breath life it's self
Blessed
who holds the passion eyes who painted the blue skies who Embraces my soul who calls me son daughter ever so he who calls me so beautiful
11/27/23
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr 2023
There’s starvation in Africa,
In other parts there’s drought,
Putin’s still in the Ukraine
Throwing his weight about.
The Barista in this cafe
Is really annoyed with me.
I’ve ordered a black coffee,
Apparently that’s not PC.
Global temperatures rising,
Polar ice is melting down
America has a President
Behaving like a clown.
I can have coffee without milk
Or a thing called Americano
But by the look on his face
He’d much rather I just go.
Just across the road
A lad was killed with a knife,
A bloke got seven years
For battening his wife.
I’m the despair of a Barista
And others such of his ilk.
I asked a simple question.
What colour’s coffee without milk?
North Korea’s still being bolshie,
China’s threatening Taiwan.
Half the country’s under water,
Way over there in Pakistan.
In Hull I’m causing trouble
By not being sufficiently PC.
To ease an awkward situation
I ordered a pot of tea.
A school of whales beached in Florida
A few more species went extinct
And, here, honours being even,
They at last served me a drink.
What could I say
to change this kindness
you may have warmly heard
but only coldly felt?
How might my peaked
and valleyed,
top and bottom,
out and in
prelude and postlude
father spawned and mother sacred
before and after
stories
speak to your ambivalent ear?
Without hearing too much impatience
and continuing to feel
nothing
Nothing urgent
passionate
empowering
to survive dark days
of quiet lonely severance?
Where EarthMother's womb
had promised dawning reverence.
Could I sing with sufficiently enlightened passion?
Should we dance to light's bilateral integrity
flowing out communion?
Curiously nurtured Tribal fashions
if Earth would repair Her dignity
through sacred kindness
we may have lightly touched
but never deeply felt
Integrity
resurrecting powers
of ego trauma
in dialogue with eco-therapy
Where Yang meets Yin,
Truth greets Beauty
Resonance
of healthy minds
trusts wealth of resilience
co-empathic
co-invested
co-operative
organic
peaked and valleyed
opportunistic spiritual minds
inside risky natural bodies.
Diversity explores
both resonant and opposing positions
with nearly predative anticipation
And such perversely curious
reverse revisioning diversity deplores
with monoculturing anxiety
quietly crossed
and boldly violated boundaries
of personal
and familial
and municipal
and EarthTribal
indigenous integrity
Sacred space expands
mindfully perceived
this Business As Traumatically Usual place
too lose/lose dark
and too win/win blind
to keep faith with dimming starlight
Celestial Glitter Rivered Ways
majestic
yet ominously silent
shunned Spirits
of ancient silvered sentient bright
Yet momentary mortal time
feels reflective light received
sufficiently reassuring
mythically alluring
for transient transportive pleasure
tenderly insufficient
for full-ripened organic measure
depleting dissonant self-disenfranchising
failure to complete
integrity's potential Paradise.
Now absent from the body
he flies toward heavenly abode
yon celestial clouds
relieved finally from wrenching tubes
soothed against ventilator’s aid
finally liberated to bask with freedom
midst oxygen-abundance
once sufficiently sought and fought for.
Cleared from cares of this world
toward unclouded days' forever
his serene goodbye left loved ones
with blessed legacy
marked by Scripture's pledge:
"My God shall supply all your need
according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."*
*Philippians 4:19 of the King James Bible
February 23, 2023
Edited on March 8, 2023
3rd place, "Each passing cloud" Poetry Writing Contest
Sponsored by JCB Brul; judged on 3/18/2023.
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