Posted by 2025 Writer Digest Chapbook Challenge
This is my fifth annual Writer Digest November PAD chapbook challenge, writing one poem per day in November following the given prompt, then picking 20 to submit to the contest, I also participated in their April annual Poetry challenge.
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2024 Writer Digest November Challenge writer’s Digest Chapbook
2023 Writer Digest November Challenge writer’s Digest Chapbook
Cosmos’s Reading List 2025 Cosmos’s Reading List 2025
writer digest november chapbook challenge
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Index
What Is Going On?
Committing Random Acts Of Kindness
Just Three More Love Poems
Christmas In Berkeley Memories
Why Epstein’s Ghost Haunts President Trump
Hard To Stay Optimistic At Times
The Zombie Apocalypse Becomes Real
Nightmare
Who Knew?
The Color Of Justice Is Green And Gold My Friend
You Are Prefect Cherita
Dems Where Do We Go From Here?
What More Does He Want?
Quit Talking About Communism MAGA Dudes.
How To Deal With People Who Lack Principles
Smell Of Korean Food
The Future Is Yet To Be
How Much Do I Love You?
Too Many Madmen With A Gun, It’ Aint Fun
What is Going On?
Everyday
I turn on the news
Wondering
What the …
What fresh H…
Will be going on
That day?
As the news gets
Weirder and stranger
And one norm
After another norm
Is broken
One bonker idea
After another bonker idea
Is announced
As political madness
Descends upon the U.S>
Who knows what
The Future may bring
But the end
Is unlikely
To be good
That is all
I can say
Today.
What the…..
Is going on?
Committing Random Acts of Kindness
24 lines
In a world filled with random acts
Of violence,
Cruelty in the name
Of Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed
Widespread hatred and despair
There is one simple thing
That we can all do
That we all must do
A radical yet simple action
Every day, commit one or more
Random acts of kindness
Give someone a seat on the train
Let someone pass your car
Randomly pay a stranger’s lunch
Or dinner bill
Forward inspirational memes
Far and wide
Write love poems and share them
The list is endless
In other words
Today
Do something nice
For someone else
Follow the Boy Scout motto
Do a good deed everyday
Just channel your inner goodness
Commit a random act of kindness
Be nice to one another
And that will begin to turn
The tide of cruelty, despair, and hate
Into compassion, kindness, and love
Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, your parents
Your friends, siblings
Classmates,
random people on the street
And fellow Scouts
If you were a Scout
Would all
approve of this message.
Just Three More Love Poems
Love Poem One
Sometimes
My lovely wife
complaints
That I spend way
too much time
reading romantic poetry
and watching romcoms
with her
my not-so secret vice
and writing silly love poems
About her and me
And that my poor readers
Must think she has
Totally brainwashed me
She has a point
As she always has
Our true love story
Would make a great
K Drama,
Two star-crossed lovers
Met in a foreing land
And nothing can stop
Their love
Adding in the whole
Fairy Tale Dream
That started it all
And voila
A great K Drama
A Great American Rom-com
Or a Bollywood epic
Minus the song
and dance scenes
The problem is
that no one believes
that fairy tale
In this cynical world
Of ours
Something like that
Just does not happen
Second Love Poem
Our fairy tale
Love poem
Is proof
That dream
Loves come true
That true love
Still exists
Somehow
The only people
Who believes this tale?
And her and me
Love Poem Three: The Dream that Started It All
The dream that started
It all is a true tale
which started in 1974
or in 1982 when she walk
off a bus into my life
or in 1983
when we got married
or yesterday
or just a few minutes ago
it is all confusing to me
How it all happened
But know that it did.
Enough no more
I am busy!!!!
She smiles
And her love mojo
Still working overtime
She still laughs
A lot
And I do too
As she has every day
When I recite a love poem
Or two or three or four……
Christmas In Berkeley Memories
I grew up
In Berkeley
In the turbulent 60s
But at our house
My mother
Who was from Arkansas
Always treated the family
To a traditional southern style
Thanksgiving and Christmas
Turkey dinner
Roast turkey with stuffing
Cooked in the bird
Gravy
grits
Mash potatoes
Sweet potatoes with marshmallows
Southern-style greens cooked with ham and molasses
Bacon
Ham
Corn bread
Cranberry sauce
Salad
Apple pie with ice cream
Pumpkin pie with ice cream
Last time I had a Christmas dinner
At my father’s and mother’s home
Was in 1985
I miss my mother’s feast
To this day.
Why Epstein’s Ghost Haunts President Trump
It seems that Epstein’s ghost
Is haunting American politics
Especially the president
Who can’t seem
To escape
The ghost of Epstein
Trump and Epstein
Were best friends
For almost 15 years
They had a falling out
The president said
He turned on Epstein
Who he described
As a creep
Epstein died in prison
Under mysterious circumstances
No one believes he committed suicide
Too many powerful men
Wanted him dead
For dead men
Tell no tales
And Epstein knew
What they did
Including Donald Trump
And so someone
“Assisted him” in dying
Murdered him
In plain English..
The files will be released
Congress voted 445 to 1
The Senate unanimously
But no one believes
The whole story
Will come out.
Epstein’s ghost
Will continue to haunt
The President
for the rest
of his life.
Hard to Stay Optimistic at Times
It is hard
Watching the news
Unfold
To remain optimistic
About the future
Of this world
So many challenges
AI taking over
Climate Change running amok
Dysfunctional politics
War against political dissent
War against the LGBTQ community
War against women’s rights
Out of touch leaders
Daily life is too expensive
For most people
And I am getting old
Looking at the future
Wondering
where it is going
And what will happen?
In the end
One should not worry
Too much about
Things beyond
One’s control
And in that sense
I can be somewhat
Optimistic
About my personal life
Still alive
And in good health
At age 70
With the love of my life
Still in love with me
And I am still happy
To be with her
The Zombie Apocalypse Becomes Real
The next pandemic
Is the dreaded and feared
Zombie apocalypse
A bio-weapon
Combining COVID, Rabies
And other weird diseases
Escapes from a bio-weapon lab
70 percent of victims die
20 percent turn into
rabid zombies
ten percent are immune
it is incredibly virulent
and within weeks
The zombie flu
as it is called
spreads around the world
within a month
80 percent of humanity dies
10 percent live on
For a while as zombies
And ten percent are immune
those immune
flee the cities
which soon become
ghost towns
The zombies run around
eating the dead
and wild animals
but soon they run out
of victims
as civilization collapses
the immune gather
in smaller towns
high up in mountain areas
living in neo-feudal forts
run by warlords
a few college towns
continue to try
keep the knowledge
of the past alive
a few even have
Solar power and wind power
but most people
live on without electricity
living on what they can grow
and salvaged food from stores
Wildlife comes back
and neo-savage cannibal gangs
also appear
That is the future
that we all feared
the zombie apocalypse
Nightmare
Joe Lewis
divorced, retired, US Gov bot
on a last fling trip in his life,
after drinking too much
in Soi Cowboy, Bangkok, Thailand.
passed out at the bar
woke up
He found himself
in a dark, forbidding,
hot, and humid jungle
with a foul smell
of death and decaying
vegetation everywhere.
He sensed
that creatures
in the jungles were
looking at him with evil,
hungry, malicious intent,
then he saw them
as the dark fog lifted,
and a bright red moonlight
lit the jungle forest.
He saw a terrifying
nightmare vision, –
seeing giant apes, space aliens, banshees,
bats, Bigfoot, centaurs,
Cerberus, cheetahs, crows,
coyotes, Cthulhu with tentacles,
dragons, demons,
dinosaurs (raptors and T. rex),
devils, dwarfs, gangbangers,
gangsters, gangster rappers.
Gators, goblins, ghouls,
ghosts, giants, giant ants
, giant wasps, giant spiders, giant lobsters,
gunmen, hellhounds, big game hunters,
government bureaucrats, holocausts, imps,
Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars,
naked incubus, leprechauns, jihadis,
Lucifer, lions, politicians, mafia made men,
ravens, monsters, orcs,
reporters, bewitching beautiful yet deadly sirens,
Satan, satyrs, snakes,
winged monkeys, serpents,
special forces soldiers,
tigers, werewolves, wolves,
witches, warlocks, wraiths,
wild things, yeti,
and zombies all staring at him.
A half-centaur, half-pig monster
with two heads–Putin and The President
led the mob.
The Putin-The President pigman yelled out, “After him.
All humans must die. Kill Joe.”
Even the trees came alive,
trying to trip him up,
as the nightmare creatures
ran after him, the hunters,
and soldiers firing
flaming arrows
and semi-automatic weapons
lighting up the night sky,
and the birds
dive-bombing him
trying to get his eyes
and face,
and the other creatures
getting closer
and closer screaming.
Death to all humans.
Death to Joe Lewis.”
They were gaining on him !
Just when they grabbed him
He woke up
In his bed
In Berkeley, California
Realizing it was a nightmare
But to be on the safe side
He cancelled his planned trip
To Bangkok.
Who Knew?
Who knew
That Trump 2.0
Would be more chaotic
and out of control
that Trump 1.0?
Who knew
That he would fall
Into Biden’s trap?
Claiming the economy
Is going great
When average people
Know the truth?
Who knew
That he would show signs
Of severe mental decline
Like Biden did
And his senior aids
Are running the country?
Who knew
That the President
Is tied up with Epstein
And his ghosts
Still haunts us to this day>
Who knew?
We all did
And yet
70 million people
Still voted for him.
The Color of Justice is Green and Gold My Friend
The color of Justice
Is green and gold my friend
For those with the green and gold
Get the justice they need
Because they can buy all the justice
That they need
And those
without the green and gold
in a pay to play world
Can’t afford to buy
The justice that the need.
And lawyers work
For money
Show them the money!
And you can buy your justice!
If you have no money
No honey
Nothing for you.
Green and gold
Rules the world.
That’s the way it is
The color of justice
Is green and gold.
You are Perfect Cherita Chain Poems
You are just
As God intended
So, relax, my friend
You are perfect
You are you
You are perfect
—————————————————————————-
God made you
In his image
He made us
So relax
Dance your life away
Enjoying nature’s wonder
————————————————————————————–
God wanted us all
To be happy
So put on the music
Put on your dancing shoes
Drink some wine
And dance the night away!
———————————————————————————
Dems Where Do We Go From Here?
Dems
Where do we go from now?
The public wants you to fight
For them
And to stand up to them
You need to frame it
As the Democrats
And the can do crats
The republicans
Are for the fat cats
demand that they show
that they care
that they understand
and their policies
will work
when they denounce you
as a communist, radical leftist etc
ask them this simple question
WTF are you talking about
Communist menace
Have you been asleep
Since 1950
Communist ended
A failure
A long time ago
The Berlin wall ?
Remember that?
Cold war ended
We won
Apart from what is wrong
Ensuring affordable health care
And building the green energy systems
Of the world?
Why give that away to China
Germany, Japan, and other countries?
We should be the worlds leaders
In solving the climate
and other global crisis
But know when you must fold
Accept reality
And move on
They need to end the shutdown
Two weeks ago
They made their point
Time to get ready
For the next battle
That is where we go
From here.
What More Does He Want?
The news that Trump
Wants to name
The commander’s new stadium
The Trump Stadium
Should be ignored
If he persists
Say
“ well
Our standard policy
Has been selling naming rights
It will cost you 250 million dollars
From the Trump corporation
And not a dime from the taxpayers
Nothing is free
In this world
As you well know
That’s the price.
If he persists
Which he won’t
Tell him
“Show me the money
Honey
Then we can talk“
If he coughs up
250 million dollars
Go for it
Call it
“The Trump
Commanders formerly
known as the Redskins stadium
or TCFKRS stadium
pronounced TRUMP FK RS Stadium
Who cares if he pays
For the naming rights
As every other corporation does,
Always Remembering Marrying the Lady of His DreamsLinked Cheritas format Sam Adams always recalledThe date that he met his fate When he met And married the lady of his dreams. He had been dreaming
Of this date She haunted His weekly dreams. ————————————————— ever since she first appeared
in his dream when he nodded off in class
and saw the most beautiful lady in the universe speaking to him in a strange foreing language —————————————————– at that moment
she mesmerized him putting a love spell on him
As she stared at him Love blazing from her eyes She love mojo working overtime ———————————————————— He yelled out,
“Who are you?” She beamed out of his dreams.
As he fell out of the chair Amid the laughter Of his teacher and classmates. ——————————————————–
He told his best friends
About the dream
Saying I just met The lady of my dreams
Some day, somewhere Somehow, we will meet And I will marry my dream lady
When he had to decide
Where to go in the Peace Corps Korea or Thailand
She said Come to Korea Love I am waiting there for you. —————————————————
And off he went Spent two years Looking for her
Spend another year Teaching for the US Army Looking for her in the wrong places ———————————————— In Early September 1982 He had the last dream
He had to decide To give notice and return To go to graduate school
She told him that morning
Don’t worry we will meet soon
then that night she walked into his life the next day
she was waiting for him she said she had to talk to him
they went out after class she said she was madly in love with him —————————————————– and he was hers forever
he told her he felt the same way He proposed to her He called his best friends
Said I met the dream lady And I am proposing to her this weekend.
They said “Man, that is impossible But don’t tell her about the dream, yet.” ———————————————— He postponed
Going to graduate school For two years ——————————————–
She said yes they married two months later Had a huge ceremony
His father came To the wedding Held at a Korean Army base ———————————— Where he was now teaching
And they began Their life together
He spent the next 43 years —————————————————— For that date
He met his fate When he finally met
And married The lady of his dreams 50 years after he first dreamt of her.
Based on my true love story. |
©
Sam Adams’s Final WordsSam Adams He saw the grim reaper And sent him home But the grim reaper He went home He penned his epitaph The text read “Sam Adams met His last words were “see you in my next life” |
© a
Quit Talking About Communism MAGA Dudes.
The democrats
Need to start attacking
The MAGA right-wing
Troll attacks on them
As being radical left
Communist Marxists fascists
Suggested talking points
MAGA Folks
Hey Dude!
Quit talking about communism
Bro
It just makes you
Sound as old
As F…..
Which is not a good look
These days.
Does Granpa even know
What year it is?
Communism menace
He sounds like he is
Stuck in the 50’s
Was he alive in 1990?
Does he not remember
The fall of the Berlin Wall
The spread of democracy
Across Eastern Europe
And too briefly
Even in Russia?
Is he aware
That even the
The Chinese are not
Communists in the old sense
Russia is a crony capitalism
Oligarchy
As is China perhaps
North Korea
Is Kimilsungism
Even Vietnam
Is not communist
In the old style either
Only a few places left
Cuba perhaps
Venezuela Perhaps
Some aging college professors
In Berkeley and Harvard
perhaps
only 20,000 US CP members
left alive
the communist party of China
is not working with George Soros
who is not a communist either
nor is Bill Gates
the democratic leaders
Bernie Sanders etc
So please do us all a favor
Shut up already
About communism
And don’t call me
A communist
For writing this
I am not a communist
Although I grew up
In Berkeley
And read
Das Capital
In high school
How to Deal with People Who Lack Principles
In life
It is hard to negotiate
Or deal with
People who have no moral compass
Those who have no guiding principles
Other than extreme self-interest
Narcissistic, self-serving
sociopaths
scoundrels,
scumbags
In other words
Typical politicians
To be fair
in both parties
if you fight to uphold
your principles
you will lose
to people with no principles
that is the way it is
in this corrupted world
where power makes everyone
corrupt
and no one
is seriously following
the teachings of Christi
other than perhaps
“republican Christ”
Where compassion
And empathy
Is seen as a weakness
Or a “woke mind virus”
And the color of justice
Is green and gold
Those with the green
And those with the gold
Make the rules
And only woke losers
Complain
That is the way
The game is played
Smell of Korean Food
I first ate Kimchi
In 1974
Fell in love
With Korean food
At first taste
And smell
Intoxicating blend
Of spices and flavors
Exploding in my mouth
Then I joined the Peace Corps
And went to Korea
Beginning a lifelong
Affair with all things
Korean
That has continued
For almost 45 years
I still love
Korean food
The smell, the fragrance
The taste
Of Korean food
Never subtle
In your face
As Koreans
tend to be
a sublime mixture
of spices
pepper, red chili powder
trangjang powder
soy sauce
Korean alcohol
Garlic
Mushrooms
Tofu
Eggs
Beef
Pork
Chicken
Rice
and I have learned
to love
Korean food
And Korean culture
And even married
A Korean lady
Who has given me
Decades of love
And great Korean food
Every night.
The Future is Yet to Be
They say
We should learn
To live in the present
Because the past
Is in the past
Lost in the multi-verse
And in our memories
Of the past
The future is yet to be
And there are multiple futures
In multiple universes
And we can not see
The future
Only see the suggested
Possible future
That changes constantly
Depending upon our actions
Or inactions
As we make the future
Based on what we do now
So it is best
To live in the moment
In the here and now
Let the past
remain the past
And let the future
Take care of itself
As it will do
Despite our hopes
And dreams
How Much Do I Love You?
How much do I love you?
Let me count the ways
I love you more than anyone
Has ever loved another
I love you more
than all the flowers
In the world
I love you more than
All the stars in the sky
I love you more
than time itself
and will love you
after the end of time
Too Many Madmen with a Gun, it’ A’int Fun
These days
There are too many madmen
Walking about with a gun
Shooting things up
It is just not fun
To be alive
In the new wild west
That America has become
When will this madness end?
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