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Best Poems Written by Edmund Siejka

Below are the all-time best Edmund Siejka poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Edmund Siejka Poem

Memories of a Young Girl In Blue

Head down
The old woman sews 
A dress
Nimble fingers 
Marking each stitch
The whirring of machines
Whirling and whirling
Round and round
Threading memories
Of another time
Reminding her
Of a night
Long ago
When she was afraid 
To speak to a boy 
Sitting next to her.
As her busy fingers work
She remembers more
Of that summer night
A blue cotton dress
With tiny ribbons
Lace curtains gently
Pulled by a breeze
Drifted out through opaque windows 
While musicians played a rhythm
Of their own 
And shadows pranced 
On empty walls.
Waiting that night
She wondered 
Why no one 
Asked
Her to dance.
Old memories 
Glide by
On silver sails
And today?...
She knows that today is now.
And yesterday was yesterday
Finished with her work
She catches her breathe,
Straightens her hair,
And turns off the lights. 
Pausing to look back
Into the darkened room
Shadows return her glance
With a gaping stare
Adjusting to the darkness
She begins to recognize
Familiar shapes taking form
Satisfied that all will be the same 
When she returns 
She closes the door. 
Going outside
She holds onto her purse
Waiting
For a traffic light
That has already
Changed
A smile crosses her face
As she remembers 
When the boy
Became her husband
Children were born.
And the years went by 
In a brown bag
Neatly folded in two
Is a blue chiffon dress
Almost like the one 
She wore years ago
Only this one
Is for her granddaughter 
Impatient for no reason
To go nowhere
The crowd pushes forward
But the old woman lingers
On the corner
Savoring the moment 
Glad of memories
As a busy world saunters by.

Details | Edmund Siejka Poem

Challenges

CHALLENGES

By Edmund Siejka

He faced a challenge
That forced him to use all his abilities
But doubt clouded his judgement
Caution gave way to uncertainty.
Needing help
He recalled these words:

1. Believe in yourself
Never bend your head
Hold it high
And look the world straight in the eye.
2. Smell the coffee.
3. Stand on your own two legs.
4. Life is in front of you.
5. Seize the day.
6. Get up and get moving.
7. Work smarter, not harder.
8. Save for a rainy day.
9. The tough get going when the going gets tough.
10. K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid.
11. Put a glide in your stride and a pep in your step.
12. Let’s get moving, we’re burning daylight.
13. Don’t deter from the main effort.
14. Every strike brings you closer to the next home run.
15. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
16. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.
17. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
18. Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, ‘I’m possible.’
19. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
20. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
21. The mind is everything. What you think you become.
22. The road to success is always under construction.
23. Becoming is better than being.
24. Nothing is interesting if you’re not interested.
25. Look at a half empty glass as half full.
26. Ambition can’t wait.
27. Age is of no importance unless you’re a cheese.

And last, but not least:
28. Wake the hell up.

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Girl of Mine

When I first saw her 
She was only a few hours old 
Instinctively kicking her long legs 
Howling 
To escape 
I knew then 
She was 
A fighter. 

Attracted  
To an old drawer 
I found 
Faded photos 
Forgotten pieces 
Of crumpled notepaper 
Their energy 
Taking me back 
To a time when 
Her hair was brownish gold 
Round face 
Took baths in a yellow tub 
Cradled in the kitchen sink 
And cried 
When her mother 
Worked on weekends. 

Eyes closed 
I remembered 
When she was seven or eight 
I would read to her 
While she played 
With her dolls 
Occasionally stopping 
To look up at me 
With her big brown eyes 
One night she asked 
Daddy do I have any friends? 
I told her she had many friends 
Imaginary friends too 
Like Ooh Poo Poo Doo 
Who would always be with her 
That’s a strange name Daddy, she said 
Brushing the hair 
From her eyes 
I said 
It’s not the name or how you say it 
It’s the friend that counts. 

One Spring day 
She came back home 
Tall 
Well dressed 
Confident 
Her friends crowded the living room 
As my wife and I left 
I smiled 
Remebering the words
It’s not the name or how you say it 
It’s the friend that counts. 
Words 
My daughter 
Kept in her heart.

Details | Edmund Siejka Poem

A Quiet Conversation In Church

A Quiet Conversation In Church

Someone behind me stifled a cough
Turning around, the stranger nodded back
In the dim light
I made out a determined jaw
Felt thick fingers holding on to the back of my pew
I’ve been coming here for years he said
During weekday afternoons
When the Church is empty.

I pray in the quiet
And find peacefulness 
That never stops. 
From it I get strength, a resolve to go on.

Pausing he asked I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here? 
I answered as best I could
I pass by here every day
And I thought it was time for me to come in. 

He answered
Yes, strength and resolve are important. 
But they come from the inside. No one gives them to you. 
I had some issues but I knew I couldn’t hide in a bottle
And so, I came back to the Church on my own terms. 

Still in the shadows
He whispered
I’m a veteran 
The government will give vets pills to help them forget their problems. 
The Church? 
They try in their own way and when you die, they’ll say a prayer over you
But your family is the only one you can rightfully turn to for help. 

I told the stranger 
We were new to the City
That was so crowded and expensive.
 
We parted but not before he said
When you find someone
Open your heart and trust them.

Outside, my eyes squinted 
In the suddenness of sunlight
Signs of Spring
Were everywhere
My cell phone rang
Her excited voice telling me that she got the job
She always wanted
Finally, things were going her way
I told her
We’ll celebrate
Go to the place you always wanted to go
In her breathless voice she answered
It’s so expensive
What else is new I replied
We’re going because this is special
Because you didn’t give up 
You made it happen.

And then I realized the old man was right.

Details | Edmund Siejka Poem

Memories

I used to pass an empty house 
On my way home from school
I was only ten years old then
I heard that older people lived
There
But I never saw them.

Found old photos 
Showed them to Dad
Where’d you get them he asked?
Found them in the old house I said
Then he and mother spoke 
In the privacy of their bedroom 
I saw the shadows of their arms 
Move 
And point toward my room 
This was the 1950’s
Times were different
And some things 
Were just never talked about. 

When the old house was torn down
I went inside
To look
And to explore
Kicking an odd piece of dirt
The soft rotted wood moved
And something flipped up
Bones
Some as big as my leg.
But it was the damp smell of decay
That I remembered
Vividly
Even at that time
When anything new 
Was always exciting
This was different
I had not experienced anything like this before
But I would years later
Ten years later
A decade to wait.

I was In Country
Two tours
Separated from my group
Never found
Missing in action
But really I’m dead 
Been like this for years
All that’s left
Of me 
Are bone fragments
Part of a femur
And a scratch of faded cloth 
Scattered over a vast green landscape
At the edge of a jungle.

Occasionally I hear digging sounds
Not the heavy shovel kind
But a gentle probing
Of earth 
Someone intent on finding something 
But not wishing to disturb
They haven’t found me
Yet
So I still wait.

I never got used to the damp smell of decay
But just the same I take solace
In that smell
Because it reminds me of
Long ago
When I was just a schoolboy
Coming home.

Details | Edmund Siejka Poem

Waiting For Her

I wait for her
Somewhere between
The edge of night and day
A long time ago
We were young
And birds flew overhead
In warm skies
We lived by a
River’s edge
On Summer days
She would pick flowers
And we would walk
Through the fields
Hand in hand
Content
That our children 
Were healthy and strong.

The centuries pass
Now the spirit
Is tired
Birds of prey
Circle overhead
Spiraling
Downward
Closer and closer
I remember how 
She held me
And promised that
No matter what
We would be together again.

I feel her presence
Just beyond my reach
Time has no meaning here
So I wait
And wait
And wait for her
To come to me.

In another time
And place
We will be 
Together again
And walk through the fields
Hand in hand
Content that our children’s children
Are healthy and strong
Once again.

Details | Edmund Siejka Poem

The Feeling of Being Underwater

Looking at his house
He sees nothing special
A pile of wood and sheetrock 
Bigger than others
But he owes more than it’s worth
His house is underwater
A term he doesn’t understand
In real speak the house belongs to the Bank
To the brokers and the lawyers.

Wanting a piece of the American dream
He misrepresented himself
Taking crumbs from the table 
So to speak
Fudging a number here
Adding a zero there
The smart money said it was alright
Don’t worry they told him
Everybody’s doing it.

He and his wife were barely making it
Hoping just to hang in there
Things would get better
They kept telling themselves
But it was too good to be true
The economy went south
Things went wrong
Lost a job
The bills piled up
He and the wife stopped talking
Broke, he feels pushed aside.

There are two sides to every lie
And in this one
There’s a bill somewhere
That’s long overdue
And so my friend
It will have to be paid by me and you.

Best Poems Written by Edmund Siejka

When Yesterday Was Today

The Paths We Choose

The Irishman

Memories of a Young Girl In Blue

Challenges

Girl of Mine

A Quiet Conversation In Church

Memories

Waiting For Her

The Feeling of Being Underwater