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Best Poems Written by Terri Stiles

Below are the all-time best Terri Stiles poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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The Cookie Lady

The old cookie lady lived in an old house, on an old street in a very old part of the city.
She wasn’t tall, she wasn’t thin but she was very pretty.
She had silver hair in a silver bun held with a silver clip.
Every day at 2 PM she would bake her cookies and put them in silver tins-On Monday chocolate chip.
On Tuesday oatmeal raisin, On Wednesday sugar cookies with jimmies blue and red,
On Thursday snickerdoodles and on Friday gingerbread.
Why did she bake them at 2 PM? Well, they had to be done by 3.
That was when the kids from the school walked by and she offered her cookies most cheerfully.
Years went by, but one day on the porch there was just an empty silver tin.
The youngest boy on the block shook it to be sure there nothing was in.
The oldest girl on the block,
Walked up the front steps to the door and gave it a knock.
The old cookie lady answered. She still wasn’t tall, but now she was thin
and she apologized and said that could be no more cookies in silver tins.
The oldest girl on the block had an idea-one that was great.
She told all the kids to come to her house at 8.
They made cookies galore.
Peanut butter, macaroons, sweet meringues and more.
They took the cookies to the old lady’s house after school
But when they knocked on the door the old lady’s daughter answered it-uncool.
They thought the old lady was dead.
But the daughter said no, the old lady would come and live with her instead.
They, the old lady and her daughter, said goodbye and drove off north.
The younger kids cried as they sat on they sat on the porch.
They ate the cookies they had made and felt a little better somehow.
The oldest one said, “maybe she left because she knows we can make our own cookies now”.

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Blue Lobster

A blue lobster was saved at Red Lobster today
From the usual fate of lobster ways.
The zookeepers came and took her to the zoo
Where everyone said, “Look she’s blue”.

The other lobsters complained,
"We’re all red-we’re all the same."
And one by one, they ended up on plate
As the dinner a hungry customer ate.

So next time you feel overlooked,
Be thankful that you weren’t cooked!
To get attention, you now know what to do,
Simply dress in something blue.

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Someone Had To Create It All

It’s our responsibility,
To help the world survive you see,
It’s urgent, because after all,
Someone had to create it all.

Of every leaf on every tree
Reflecting pure symmetricality
Throughout the spring, summer and fall.
Someone had to create it all.

Of flower petals perfectness,
Roses next to zephyranthes,
Tiny mum, and sunflowers tall,
Someone had to create it all.

What of the ebb and flow of tides,
Life to all the creatures inside,
From Giant Squid to fish so small,
Someone had to create it all.

From zebra stripes to leopard spots,
How eagles fly and how frogs hop,
Mountain goats balance - rarely fall,
Someone had to create it all.

So, we need to give thanks each day,
That God designed the world this way,
And promise to put out the call:
Someone had to create it all.

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Aunt Dee's Daisies

There were daisies at the funeral home, just like the daisies from her garden.
The funeral was so sad. A world without aunt Dee would be a world much less bright.
Aunt Dee served the best macaroni and cheese and the yummiest noodles and butter.
She painted the most beautiful pictures and played the most delightful songs on the piano.
She raised her children, her nieces and her granddaughter-the one I climbed the oak tree with.
The same granddaughter who played hurricane with me-we would dare each other to see who could 
stay outside longer during a thunderstorm.
6 months after the funeral it was spring. 
I was cleaning winter away from my garden and noticed that a strange new plant had appeared between the pink azaleas.
I was going to pull it out but you know-I got busy with work and forgot about gardening.
Well, a few weeks later I realized that even though I had forgotten about my garden, Aunt Dee had not 
forgotten about me. 
Now, between the pink azaleas were the most beautiful daisies-just like the daisies from her garden.

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Lost and Found Green

In a field that once was green, now building takes its place.
An apartment and four stores that are having a race
To be the first one that will open so the parking is laid down
And this becomes, very quickly, the start of an innovative new town.
Soon the train ads more track and a station is raised.
And the cars, for all the people, will need roads to be paved.
A small boy and his dog meander by the stores 
But he feels like something’s missing, something that was there before.
So, he strides to the mayor’s office and requests to see her that very day.
And the mayor listens to him and she likes what he had to say.
About one month later, he notices his idea becoming true.
All along the paved road they are installing something new.
It’s a path, leading to a common that is bursting with beautiful flowers, bushes and some trees.
Soon the birds alight, then the squirrels arise, then appear the buzzing bumblebees.
In a field that once was green a small town grew and grew.
Thanks to a young boy and a fine mayor there is now some green, too.

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Greed Has a Dinner Party

Greed Has a Dinner Party
Evil seething greed sits down to dinner with his guests.
He serves them humungous helpings of hubris for an appetizer to set the mood of the evening.
For the main course, he mesmerizes them with tales of his ambition and success and piles them on his own plate, yet he serves the guests-somewhat less.
He explains they must be more like him to get even more. He assures them that they have the makings to be just like him.
Dessert is of course licentiously sweet self-serving compliments for all and the promise that if they took everything they wanted in life, without concern for anyone but themselves, they would be most efficacious.
After dinner, he says goodbye. Then he grins as they pass by the urn containing Icarus’s ashes on their way out the door.

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Signs of Life In a December Forest

Footprints in crisp snow, delightful signs of life in a silent forest.

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Ambition Broken

We make up our minds and fight so hard to be who we want to be. We play the games and take our parts and change reality. When finally we've reached the point where we are who we admire, we look back at what we are and all we are is tired.

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The Bird Feeder

A birdfeeder hangs on the oak tree.
The sparrows all come there to eat free.
One day a Blue Jay,
Chased them all away.
The Hawk said “Hooray” dinner for me!

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How Could They

Yesterday, I drove by where we used to live.
I remembered when we lived there everything was fine.
But I couldn’t believe what I saw when I got there.
They tore the farm up and built a mall.
How could they do it, to the farm?
They wrecked the forest, with a road right through it.
How could they do it, to the forest?
They built a highway next to where our house was.
Now the trucks race by in an endless line.
How could they do it, to our neighborhood?
All the little stores, on the wrong side of the highway,
Now all boarded up, with no-one inside.
How could they do it, to the businesses?
How could they do it, to the people?
How could they do it at all?
When we lived there, everything was fine.