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Best Poems Written by Donn Goodside

Below are the all-time best Donn Goodside poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Donn Goodside Poem

Birth of Rebellion

He was young, small, perhaps malnourished
Looking out from deep set eyes, rimmed with neglect
I could see, he wanted ...
To know why?
To know what? ... I did not know.

I sensed he was trying to form the words
And the questions in his mind
The words did not form on his unwashed face
He just stared.

I wanted to say: I understood
That I remembered, what it was like to be small
Surrounded by huge ‘Grown-ups
Pushed by bullies stronger than me, 
always in groups of three and whispered at 
by clean starched girls with bright blue eyes 
Laughed at or even worse, pitied.

Years later, I saw him again
Now he was taller and tougher looking
His jeans and jacket still reeked of poverty
His eyes deeper set yet, acne skin 
and oily pits around his nose.

He didn’t have that same searching stance
Now I could see he no longer cared
Now he was ready to fight
His fingers yellowed by cigarette smoke
His fingernails filled with dirt and grease
As was the collar of his shirt.

Shoelaces broken and then re-tied 
with a knot covering the shoes tongue
His own tongue tucked behind thin lips 
and decaying teeth.

Many years have since passed 
as I happened to see his reflection 
In the passing of a store front glass
Except, now I see, 
He was and has always been, me.

Details | Donn Goodside Poem

On the Wall

On the Wall
  a soldier's lament

Amid the dark of night when drunks 
Cease their raucous noise 
Murky dews come once again 
Upon the wall of stone 
Standing in doorways shadow 
Hearing Earth in its turning 
and aging timbers in their moan 
I sense the rose petal hue of dawn 
Peek its eye on the edge of a mourning sky 
I will to survive another night so that my bones 
Might embrace again the warm before I die 
The watching having been worth the while 
My tour of duty over, I could then go home. 

Author notes: 
('They also serve, who stand and wait'.)
 
John Milton

Details | Donn Goodside Poem

Curmudgeon

Knowing why, doesn't make the search go away 
Knowing how, doesn't mean you can stop 
There are alternative ways, different days 
No one gets to stay forever 

There are traps 
There are walls 
People trip and people fall 
and some never get up and walk again 

The world continues to change 
Nothing stays the same 
Tomorrow is not always better 
Bad things happen to good people 
Good things happen to bad 

and no one knows, why the wind blows 
The water rises and why everything must die 
Wishing will not make the pain of life go away
 
Life is, what it is.

Details | Donn Goodside Poem

Decadent Dreams

Every day I am born anew 
Through the mud and sludge 
Of decadent dreams 
And some vague remembrance 
That I'm connected to my past
 
I stare at a mirrored reflection 
I do not recognize 
My cold pinching shoes feel too far away to tie 
As I try to remember where I'm going and why 

I try to capture that which is lost 
The world that was meant for me 
Is not the world in which I live 

My face feels the sting of one hand clapping 
My eyes focus on the world outside of my self 
The colors change from ‘Dali-esque vibrancy 
To being all sooty and smelling of sweat 

Ahhh, ... it must be Monday and time to go back to work.

Details | Donn Goodside Poem

A Catch of Breath

Soon the falling will begin 
Sunlight will weave in and out of leaves of trees 
Changing the once dull and dusty green 
Into complex tapestries
Closer to the ground 
The grasses are cool and mute 
Death will again dance to the tune 
Of a seasons changing door
 
It seems I have heard this melody before.