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Best Poems Written by Jerry Hackett

Below are the all-time best Jerry Hackett poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Ellen's Window Sill

Ellen’s Window Sill (Nov 2017)

A little hand pulled at the curtain
And looked to see what wasn’t certain
And yes, so many years ago
All of us would hope for snow

Today the silver, make it shine
We think of family and plan to dine
This merry season with cold clime
We think of friends we think of time

That little hand did let it go
Those morning footprints in the snow
To turn around and then to see
Elf made toys beneath the tree

Today the rush, it’s to the store
Then a wreath placed on the door
We send the cards and make the call
Family and friends, we love them all.

Now pause for a moment if you will
And lean once more upon that sill
Know that which counts is not the year
It’s opening memories with all so dear

Details | Jerry Hackett Poem

My God

My God ...

I’m ancient now I’m ever so old,
As if I’m a story forever told.
Her calls a lasting bagpiped tune,
Carried upon the mist and moon.

To my left the water runs deep,
‘n to my right the cliffs so steep.
I walk the night with eyes that seek,
Her slippery path a watery streak.

The movement itself is subtle and faint. 
There is a sense of silent restraint.
The light is dim, so I can only guess.
And then a flash, my God ... my Ness!

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Coffee

I like to linger and linger I do
In the morn’s solitude
Before the sun bursts into view
I linger and linger in thoughts of you
So I think and think of you
As the sun comes into view
Passing is morn’s solitude
As I think and think of you
Beneath a sky of morning blue
I’ll start today and all day through
With thoughts and thoughts and thoughts of you

Details | Jerry Hackett Poem

In Ellen's Wake

I’ve moved amongst raging white caps
With the wind and spray and stinging flaps
A now meaningless course with little chance
The final few steps of my ship’s last dance

My hands release the spinning wheel
Now just a piece of useless steel
I now await the crash of the wave 
I'm so alone, no need to be brave 

She sailed with me across the seas
Once more I want to feel her breeze
Grant my wish my Neptune please
I miss her fair winds and following seas

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Dear Ellen

If I was a boy, not yet a young man 
I’d push some paper into your han’. 
Lined and folded it would be, 
moving words for you to see. 

With thumb and fingers you’d hold it tight, 
then angle and raise it to the light. 
Clouded words, with love as one 
All pushed out by a shining sun.

Was it ever meant to be? 
Still they wander within me. 
That note, those words, they wander in me. 
Still they wander, still in me. 

Then I was older, yesterday’s young man 
and distanced from your remembered han’
Should wooden doors with bronze mail slots
Have been the place to place my thoughts?

Those unwritten words lived in my head, 
Never sent and never said. 
Politely they sat for so many a day, 
nothing to alter their quiet stay

Was it ever meant to be? 
Still they wander within me. 
That note, those words, they wander in me 
Still they wander, still in me 

Now older still, tomorrow’s dead man 
Rather than paper I’ll move my han’ 
To you it goes, open and worn 
May yours mend my heart that’s torn 

Was it ever meant to be? 
Still they wander within me. 
That note, those words, they wander in me 
Still they wander, still in me.  
 
I'll never know if it was meant to be
She left this life ahead of me
I still hold tight that imagined note
The one with words I never wrote 

2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 9
Mark Toney
10/2017

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Ellen's Pier

Several years ago, I walked the Naples Pier with Ellen. There we reminisced and shared a cupcake, the view, and silent thoughts. Not long ago, a hurricane destroyed the pier. Below is my Poem titled Ellen's Pier.

Against that wicked stormy might
Came to pass the long-feared fight 
First standing proud and quietly brave
Then bled white by wind and wave

Her treasured timbers taken to sea
Fate can be cruel outside the lee
Those carved initials ripped away
As authors huddled ashore that day

This bridge of peace from the sand 
Once carried thoughts from the land 
A bench to rest, a rail to lean
The simplest wonder, untold serene

It gifted the site of dolphin or two
And delivered each day it’s ready view
Fondly it stands in my mind
That pier, cupcakes, and you entwined

8 December 2022
2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 22 Poetry Contest
Mark Toney

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Her Thread

Sewing machine, long idle, gathered dust
A willing victim to time’s soft crust
Dulled sergeant stripes lay on the floor
Fading remnants from a worldly war

This old, now lifeless, bricked in room
Is now but a capsule, her timeless tomb
Her future and dreams enjoined in fight
It's here she threaded her rifle each night 

The war years seemed like only yesterday
Still, both them and her have gone away
Yet here in this room Mom's candle does glow
It's here in this room she labored so

Her faint initials still etched in the rust 
Beside her machine she is frozen in dust
That wonderful lady and her vanishing mark
The candle sputtered, spent, and all was dark

Details | Jerry Hackett Poem

Rhyme Time Iii - Death

Rhyme Time III - Death (12/2017)

The foe, their ship, it must be found. 
The engine stirs, the pistons pound. 
The decks vibrate, the tone, that sound.
On the horizon a singular mast 

Alter our course n' make us fast. 
Prepare the decks, prepare to blast,
And deny the foe an ocean so vast.
Increase our speed, begin the turn. 

Spin the propeller, churn n' churn
Our guns will fire, their ship will burn
Our bow moves forward chasing her stern 
Now in range, our radars slew 

Balanced n' deadly, our guns do too.
We fire our shot; our aim is true.
The dead are many, the living few.
Their bodies now bob in crimson foam.

It is my ocean, not their home.
Now turn n’ steady, more sea to comb. 
It is my destiny the waves to roam.
The foe, their ship, it must be found.

Details | Jerry Hackett Poem

A Chance

I have but one affair
Just one to get in order
I have but one affair
She knows that I adored her

I wonder should I call
Drops splash my window pane
I wonder should I call
Wind spins the weathered vane

Again, alone I think
My thoughts are all so gray
Again, alone I think
No black and white today

I wonder should I write
Of depths that I fell in
I wonder should I write
My chances are so thin

What's it that I'm doing?
Just one last task for I
What's it that I'm doing?
I’ll give it one last try

January '19
2022 Poetry Marathon number 7
Mark Toney

Details | Jerry Hackett Poem

God's Calm Lee

Finally, finally the storm’s calming lee,
All that remains is a monotonous sea.
My body moves to its rise and fall,
As my mind still fights yesterday's squall.

Against the waves my ship rode tall.
Against the ocean’s forbidden wall.
It tore the planks and shredded her sail.
It bent the mast and left her frail.

My boat no longer the weather's slave,
It feathered down to her watery grave.
From the horizon, is that heaven's call,
or a flash of lighting and another squall?

Comforted by lullaby of lapping sound,
I pray to hope that my body's found.
Do the clouds deliver another biblical glow, 
Or is it lightning's last retreating blow? 

I must cede to the light's calling pleasure 
And join my ship as unmarked treasure.