Pink cherry trees
Snowing all around me
Love in the springtime
Green
poet in springtime
Green trees in Springtime
Smiling at walking lovers
Filling them with awe
Black
black cat
A cosmic black cat
Stares at me with jet black eyes
Just a Buddha cat
White
deer in snow
White snow consumes us
During the intense winter
Climate change is now
Page 17 in printed version
Other recent unpublished Haiku like Poems include:
Met My Fate 160 Poem Form
I met my fate
That date
In September,
A date I shall always remember.
When I saw her there,
Sparks flew from heart to heart.
And I knew she was going to be mine.
160 Character Max Poem Form
Water 160 Poem Form
Water everywhere
Water surrounds us
Nurtures us brings us
Life itself
But few of us
Ever think about water
And what we would do
When the water runs out
And the earth becomes
A desert devoid of life.
Sam Adam’s Final Wish Jisei Poem Fan Story Prompt
Sam Adam’s last wish
Was to die in Berkeley
His spiritual home
My Mother Haiku
My mother was unique
A real free spirit at heart
I miss her always
Berkeley Calling Me Home Haiku Fan Story Prompt
My Berkeley
Calling me to come home
Die in my homeland
Sextet Love Fan Story Prompt
My life has been a dream
almost unreal
A real fairy tale
Filled with romance
an angel came to me
ending loneliness
Outside Haiku Fan Story Prompt
Spring flowers blooming
Inviting me to go outside
Enjoying the Spring
5-7-5 Faith Fan Story Prompt
I believe in karma
Everything is connected
To the divine mind
Coffee Five Line Poem Fan Story Prompt
Coffee
Just hot
The way it should be
Gets my morning going strong
Kick starts my morning
Romantic Tanka Poem Fan Story
When I saw you there
I knew that you were the one
Heaven sent you then
When you came into my life
That was my best day ever
Forward Plans
Forward plans are made
Understood what needs to be done
intel hard to get
Good Golly, Ms. Molly
Good golly
Ms. Molly
Let’s have some folly
And go to Bali
Or Raleigh
Someplace holly
Where we can get jolly
Eating a tamale
Or a Canali.
Prompt – Write a silly rhyming poem
Coffee Huitain
need more coffee
I like coffee in the morning
But in the evening must be wine,
Making it a great mid-morning,
At sunset, I drink wine, while I dine,
When I drink my wine, it is all fine.
In the afternoon, I drink my tea,
Later wine, looking at what is mine.
And I become all I can ever be.
Future Survival Games Three-word Challenge
Shortly, all too soon
We will play a secret game
A game of survival
Grilled Salmon Three Word Challenge Prompt
fish market
Oiled grilled salmon
pink flesh delight
Perfect dinner with white wine
When I First Saw You Dew Drop-in
Revised as Cherita form
When I First Saw You There
When I first saw you there
You came to me
In a dream.
And disappeared,
Haunting me
For eight long years.
When I First Saw You In Person
When I First Saw You in Person
I was overwhelmed
This fairy tale dream of mine
This impossible quest
To find the girl in the dream
Was finally over.
When I First Spoke With You
When I First Spoke with You
I knew that this was it
We would be together
From then on
You were the one,
I proposed three days later
.
When I First Kissed You
When I first kissed you
that was the beginning
of our love affair.
Our love grew stronger
Every year
For the last 40 years,
When I Married You
When I married you
That was the beginning
Of my life,
From that moment
I had no doubt
You would be there.
April 4—List poem w/repetition—write a poem that lists things, using some (not necessarily constant) repetition and variation of an initial phrase (Examples: When I was six…, Remember that time…*, Layers of…., etc.)
There must be a million ways
To say I love you
But these words will suffice for now
“Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all:
“If ever two were one, then surely we.”
If ever wife loved man, then thee.”
“O, none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.”
“Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine.”
“Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I’ll not look for wine.”
“Lying in bed I think about you,
Display thy breasts, there let me
Behold that circummortal purity.
Between whose glories,
there my lips I’ll lay,
Ravished in that fair Via Lactea.”
“Rare bird,
extinct color, you stay in
my dreams in x-ray.
“The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!”
The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!
Sweet voice, sweet lips, soft hand, and softer breast,
Warm breath, light whisper, tender semi-tone,
Bright eyes, accomplish’ d shape, and dangerous waist!
Faded the flower and all its budded charms,
Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes.,
Poetic sources
Jake Cosmos Aller A Million Ways to Say I Love You Joshua Beckman Lying in bed I think about you,
Anne Bradstreet To my husband
Valentine Lorna Dee Cervantes Ben Jonson Song: to Celia [“Drink to me only with thine eyes”]
Morris Egan Bar Napkin Sonnet #11
Jennifer Michael Hecht Love Explained Robert Herrick Upon Julia’s Breasts John Keats The Day is Gone
William Shakespeare Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all: William Shakespeare The Spring
(from Love’s Labours Lost) William Shakespeare
Sonnet 65: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
John Updike Penumbrae
And now – our final (but still optional!) prompt. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a cento. This is a poem that is made up of lines taken from other poems. If you’d like to dig into an in-depth example, here’s John Ashbery’s cento “The Dong with the Luminous Nose,” and here it is again, fully annotated to show where every line originated. A cento might seem like a complex undertaking – and one that requires you to have umpteen poetry books at your fingertips for reference – but you don’t have to write a long one. And a good way to jump-start the process is to find an online curation of poems about a particular topic (or in a particular style) and then mine the poems for good lines to string together. You might look at the Poetry Foundation’s collection of love poems, its collection of poems by British romantic poets, or even its surprisingly expansive collection of poems about (American) football.
Three French Forms
I Drink My Coffee With My Wife
coffee
Coffee morning
I drink my coffee with my wife
Coffee morning
Drinking coffee makes a good morning,
wine
At sunset, I drink wine enjoy the nightlife
Thinking to my wife, I have a good life.
But I shift to tea mid-morning.
Coffee morning.
The Rondel, Old French meaning small circle, is a 14th-century verse form. It is a member of the Rondeau family of forms but differs from the Rondeau in the number of lines and the pattern of rhyme. The Rondel came to England in the 16th century. Sources indicate the Rondel is better suited to French than English yet Dobson’s Wanderer is a fluid lyrical example of why the Rondel is adaptable to English. A variation of the Rondel is the Rondel Prime or French Sonnet. The elements of the Rondel are:
a 13-line poem made up of 2 quatrains followed by a quintain.
isosyllabic, often written in 8 syllable lines, but the lines can be any number of syllables as long the measure is consistent throughout the poem.
rhymed ABba abAB abbaA, A and B being refrains. In French one rhyme is feminine and one is masculine, it doesn’t matter whether the feminine rhyme is the a or the b rhyme.
composed with 2 rentrements. L1 is repeated in L7 and L13, and L2 is repeated in L8.
Two
I like to Drink Rondine
coffee
I like to drink my coffee at dawn
As the dawning sunlight fills the room.
Lifting my nightmare feeling of doom
With Curtains Drawn.
Soon my nightmares will all be gone
Soon I must go back to the bedroom
I like to drink.
Drink too much coffee, migraine come-on
I must lie down in the darkroom.
I get up to use the bathroom.
Drinking my coffee the day goes on.
The Rondine is a little-seen shortened version of the Rondeau dating back to at least the 16th century. The elements of the Rondine are:
a poem in 12 lines made up of a quatrain, a tercet, and ending in a quintet.
syllabic 8 syllables per line accept L7 and L12 which are 4 syllables each. In English metered, most often iambic tetrameter except the refrain which is iambic dimeter. It is composed with a refrain repeated from the opening phrase of the poem, retirement. It is rhymed, using only 2 rhymes except for the refrain being unrhymed, rhyme scheme abba,abR, abbaR (R being the refrain)
I Like to Drink Coffee
coffee
I like to drink coffee in the morning
But at sunset, I like to drink red wine.
Drinking coffee makes a good morning.
I like to drink coffee in the morning
But I shift to hot tea midmorning
Drinking my red wine at night, all is fine.
I like to drink coffee in the morning.
But at sunset, I like to drink red wine.
The elements of the Triolet are:
an octa-stich, a poem in 8 lines.
in English, most often written with variable line length and meter at the discretion of the poet. Originally in French, the lines were octasyllabic which would create an 8 by 8 effect.
composed with a reinterment, L1 is repeated as L4 and L7. There is also repetition of L2 in L8. rhymed, with only 2 rhymes with the rhyme scheme ABaAabAB.
most often playful or satirical, appropriate for a light verse or occasional verse.
April 30—Multiple Choice(s)—create a poem that is somehow like a multiple-choice test, OR turn this into another “free day” for our last day of April and write any poem of your choice, OR write multiple, short, linked poems…like the sidewalk poems!
The Mantlepiece at 674 Santa Rosa Ave, Berkeley, California PSH
674 santa rosa jpg
An old man Sam Adams
often recalled
The mantelpiece
In his childhood home
674 Santa Rosa
In Berkeley, California.
The mantelpiece
Was over a fireplace
That they seldom used.
On the mantelpiece
Was a painting
Of the Bay Bridge
View off the balcony.
The painting was the only painting
That his drug-crazed older half-brother
Ever completed.
Sam Adams loved that painting
Should have taken it
When his mother died.
Where it ended up
He never learned.
So many childhood memories
Now lost in time and distance.
Just like that painting
Sam Adams thought.
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Winston Plowes:
The Mantelpiece
A prompt for a cold dark winter’s night
Introduction
I love the idea of shutting out the night and cozying up around a roaring fire which is to be the center and heart of any home, especially at this time of the year. I would like us to consider the fireplace and especially the shelf or mantelpiece above it. Let’s look at it as a kind of changing archive, a display or exhibition, or even a ‘family museum’ as we prepare to write. I know that some modern homes do not have a mantlepiece, in which case all is not lost! You can imagine one that would suit you or use a shelf from elsewhere in the room or even a dressing table or bookshelf.
Exercise
Are you going to write a simple list poem of items on the mantlepiece (and there’s nothing wrong with that)? Maybe you have special family item(s) or useful things on there or photographs or a clock or a picture on the wall above that you will write about. Is your title going to be “My family museum”?
Moving On Writer’s Digest
Sam Adams
Was feeling old
Looking back at his life.
And realizing it was time
Time to move on
In the final stages
The end game of life
Approaching rapidly.
He still was in good health
He had a lot of wealth.
And he had his wife
The love of his life
Still in his life.
But he sensed
That soon he would be
Moving on to the final challenges
And he was afraid
Of the future.
Not ready yet
To embrace
What may come,
Afraid of moving on
But he looked at her
And realized,
As long as they moved on
Together with everything
Would turn out
The way it should.
He smiled
Filled with love
And contentment
Ready at last
To move on
To the next big challenge
His stomach growled
Enough of this
The next thing to do
Is to move on to dinner.
For today’s prompt, write a moving-on poem. Many people finish something (like a poetry challenge) and stop. But many April PAD Challengers keep moving on to the next prompt, next poem, next challenge. Let’s keep it moving on. Thanks for poeming along this month!
Gratitude Thanks to the Love Gods for Angela Local Gems
cupid
Every day
I give thanks
To Cupid
and the love Gods
For bringing me
My Dream lady
Who walked out
Of my dreams
And into my life
Eight years
After I first saw
her there.
Thoughts on Visiting the Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Holocaust Remembrance in The Trump Era
Holocaust Remembrance in the Biden Era
Thoughts on Visiting the Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC
holacaust-image-webp.webp April 23, 2022
Sam Adams
Had never been
To the Holocaust Museum,
Despite the fact
He had lived
And worked in DC for decades
One day after he retired
He said to himself
It was long past time
To finally see the holocaust museum.
He went the week
After Charleston,
When the mob had chanted,
Jews will not replace us.
The museum affected him deeply
He had just confirmed
Through DNA
That he had at least 10 percent
Jewish ancestry
Among the 18 other nationalities
Swirling among these bloodlines.
Sam Adams was concerned
Those elements of antisemitism
Were emerging among
The MAGA crowd.
But he dismissed
The fears that Trump
Was another Hitler
As liberal hyperbole.
It could not happen here
A new holocaust
Would never happen
But now he was not so sure.
Holocaust Remembrance in The Trump Era
105236391_gettyimages-967655408-300×200-1.webp
While touring the Holocaust Museum
For the first time in his life,
Sam Adams
Encountered three young white MAGA boys.
Wearing Red hats and making
Sexually suggestive jokes About Jewish women
While they were touring the Holocaust.
One wondered if the Nazi guards
Were given an opportunity
To have sex with Jewish women
Before they were killed
Sam Adams was very angry
And wanted to confront the MAGA boys.
But finally decided what the hell
It probably would not
Make a difference,
They might think
that he was just
An old Jewish man.
And dismiss his complaints.
The Holocaust Museum
Moved him deeply
Because he had just confirmed
Via DNA testing
That he indeed was part Jewish.
Maybe 10%.
He wondered what happened
To his Jewish Cousins
He didn’t even know he had.
And he vowed to himself.
That he would do
All he could to make sure
The world would
Never see another Holocaust.
Holocaust Remembrance in the Biden Era
anti-fascist-2541058__340.web
Sam Adams thought naively
That when Biden was elected
That the US had turned a corner.
The Trump-inspired
Anti-Semitism, discrimination,
Fear, hatred, and xenophobia
Would gradually
Fadeaway
As a dark memory
And that Americans
Would regain a sense of compassion,
Decency, hope, and love
And a sense
That we are all in this together
As Americans.
Unfortunately, Sam thought
The MAGA Madness had not gone away,
Perhaps it was getting worse.
He was concerned that the recent
Anti-Asian violence could spread
Out of control.
And underlying
all that racism and xenophobia
Was anti-Semitism.
Sam thought
If Trump becomes president again,
There’s a strong possibility,
We could end up
with another Holocaust.
Perhaps this time targeted against
Asians, communists, blacks,
Coastal elites, democrats, Drug users,
foreigners, Hispanics, Gays,
Mexicans, Muslims, and socialists
Of course, Jewish people
Would eventually
be rounded up.
Underlying all racism
Lies a deep vein
Of anti-Semitism
Sam Adams felt depressed.
Realizing the Magna Madness
Was not over.
And another holocaust
Another final solution
Could emerge
As America embraced
American Style fascism
Under a resurgent Trump
Or his successor demagogue
Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) is next Thursday, April 28th. Poetry Superhighway is looking for submissions of poetry written in response to the Holocaust for our 24th annual Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) issue. (To be published on Saturday.) The deadline is this Thursday, April 21st at noon (pacific) See the guidelines and submit your work
Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) is Thursday, April 28th. We’re looking for submissions of poetry written in response to the Holocaust for our 24th annual Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) issue.
Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) was this past Thursday, April 12th.
I am one of the 77 poets chosen. I was inspired to write by the DNA confirmation that I am indeed part Jewish.
I was born prematurely
And living in an oxygen tent
The doctors said
I might be blind, deaf,
And mentally slow
I ended up half-blind
¼ deaf
With a mild learning disability.
But genius-level reading
And comprehension
I was reading at the 16th-grade level
In the 6th grade!
And very fast at test
Very fast reading skills
Always first to finish tests.
But a bit autistic
And perhaps a bit ADD
Certainly my learning disability
Led me to be a horrid speller
Horrid at math
And deficient in some social skills
I had all the childhood diseases
Almost died at ages 3, 4 and 5
Cheated death 22 times
But somehow I survived.
Never learned to drive
Due to my bad vision
Which also kept me from joining
The military.
Wanted to be a composer
Or a writer
Ended up somehow
Becoming first a teacher
Then a foreign service officer.
And finally, now I am a writer
Thinking back
I am amazed at all
That I have accomplished.
BA degree
MA
MPA
Speak three foreign languages
Peace Corps volunteer
ESL college instructor
State Department Foreign Service officer
Real estate and stock market investor
Multi-millionaire.
And most importantly
Still married
To the lady of my dreams.
When perhaps I should
Have never amounted
To very much
As my two siblings
felt Would happen to me.
Adding it all up
I think my blessings
Outweigh the curses
I had at birth.
And here’s our prompt (optional, as always). In certain versions of the classic fairytale Sleeping Beauty, various fairies or witches are invited to a princess’s christening and bring her gifts. One fairy/witch, however, is not invited, and in revenge for the insult, lays a curse on the princess. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which you muse on the gifts you received at birth — whether they are actual presents, like a teddy bear, or talents – like a good singing voice – or circumstances – like a kind older brother, as well as a “curse” you’ve lived with (your grandmother’s insistence on giving you a new and completely creepy porcelain doll for every birthday, a bad singing voice, etc.). I hope you find this to be an inspiring avenue for poetic and self-exploration.
Gateways to Hell Dew Drop Inn
There are gateways
To other worlds
Including the secret gateways
To Hell.
Hidden in plain sight
All over the world
If you know where to look.
To find them
You need a guidebook
To the other world.
The Necromicron
is one such guidebook
Written a thousand years ago,
It was recently updated.
On 06/06/06.
It lists most
But all of the secret passageways
To Hell and other dimensions.
The gateways to Hell
Are always found in bad neighborhoods
The kinds of places the police
Fear to enter.
For once a month
For 48 hours
On the full moon nights,
Demons are given a pass
To raise hell on earth,
Running amuck, wreaking havoc
And pour out into
These human “Hell holes”
Gateway cities.
Many are obvious
One such location
Is in Bangkok
Beneath the Cosmos Bar
In Soi Cowboy.
Another is in Karachi,
Another is LA’s Compton hood,
Another in Londonistan.
Another in Lagos
Another in Mumbai
Another is in Kingstown, Jamaica.
another in SF’s Tenderloin.
The easiest to find though
Is beneath Hell’s Kitchen
At the Chelsea Subway stop,
In the lower east side of NYC.
Underneath entryway six
If you walk 66 paces
And chat the right words
Six times.
The gateway opens
And you will be
In Hell’s subway system.
They are six lines
Which follows the ancient
River paths along the banks
Of Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe,
Phlegethon, and Styx.
And a cross-Hell line
All lines pass-through
Hell Grand Central Station.
Where Satan has his offices
At 666 Hell Station,
On the banks of the River Styx.
Next to Charon’s Ferry terminal.
666 Hell Station has a secret elevator
To 666 Park Avenue, NYC
Where Satan has his earthly offices.
But be forewarned
Few humans have ever
Gone to Hell.
And returned alive
To the sunlit world.
April 29—Directions—Tell Us How To Get Somewhere (A Real “Destination” That Might Or Might Not Be A Real Place, Or Might Be An Emotional Place, Etc.)
Secrets We Will Take to Our Graves PSH prompt
I grew up
In a world of secrets
My mother and father
Had a lot of secrets
That they never told
Their children
Taking their secrets to the grave.
Then I entered a world
Of professional secrets
For 27 years
I was a foreign service officer
With a top-secret clearance.
And I knew a lot of secret stuff
Came upon a lot of secrets
But never saw any aliens
Never believed
In the alien conspiracy theories.
The US government may be many things
But in the end some semblance of truth
Emerges from the swamp of lies, deceit,
Political intrigue and secrets
And my wife being a MI officer
Had a lot of secrets
Many of these secrets
I will carry it to my grave.
Tell me the secrets you don’t even let yourself know.
Writer’s digest
The Last War
The Russian invasion of Ukraine
Ended with the defeat of Russia
And worldwide recognition
That the era of war between countries
Must come to an end.
And so countries around the world
And people came together
Demanding an end to war
And a real-world government.
The world’s militaries
And military-industrial complex
Pushed back against the worldwide peace movement
Saying that it was unrealistic, socialist, communist
Left-wing propaganda.
Countries still needed military defenses
Against each other and terrorist groups
and against possible alien invasions.
They did not want to give up power
Influence and money
Profits and greed
Saying that war and violence
Will never go away.
The people demanded peace
In the end the world leaders
Were forced to agree.
The constant wars
that have bedeviled humanity
Finally ended
Ukraine became
known forever
As the last war.
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “The Last (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles might include: “The Last Word,” “The Last Dance,” “The Last Poem,” and/or “The Last Time Was Better.” Just remember that this isn’t the last prompt; that’s tomorrow.
Sam Adams Master Alchemist Local Gem
Sam Adams
Was an occult researcher
For the Cosmos Institute
In Berkeley, California.
One day he re-discovered
The ancient mysterious ability
Of alchemists.
He was able to turn lead
Into Gold
And coal into diamonds.
He soon became a wealthy man
Until there was too much gold
On the market.
And the value of gold
Dropped to pennies on the dollar.
Sam Adams lost millions
Of dollars as gold
Was simply not worth
Much anymore.
And diamonds
Were also a dime
A dozen.
The old powers that be
Blamed old Sam Adams
For the worldwide depression
That soon occurred.
He was assassinated
By an unemployed gold merchant
Outside his house.
Sam Adams and the Secret Monastery All Poetry
secret castle
Sam Adams
Was an occult researcher
For the Cosmos Institute
666 Shattuck Avenue
In Berkeley, California.
He was on a quest
To find secret entrances
To other worlds.
One day
He found a reference
In the Necromicron.
To a hidden monastery
Located in a hidden valley
Hidden in the Ural Mountains.
To get to the monastery
You had to enter a cave
Then dive through a waterfall
And climb up a Clift.
Tigers and wolves
Prowl about.
And hostile half-human creatures
Hunted down the few trespassers.
But if you uttered the right password,
They will let you into the monastery.
Sam Adams and a small team
Finally located the monastery
And managed to fend off
The tigers, wolves
And half human-half alien creatures.
They entered the temple
An old monk greeted them
Said he was the guardian
Of the sacred gateways.
He knew of their mission
And he was prepared
to help them.
But he warned
Be careful what you wish for
The gateways are tricky
They play with your mind.
And you may or may not
Come back in the same way
The guardians you encountered
On the way here
Were once like you
When they came back
Well they were no longer
Entirely human
And I came from another place
But cannot go back
So I am here guarding
The gateways
Until the builders
Come back
And re-open the gateways.
Are you prepared?
Good I will open the gate
After we eat
As hospitality dictates.
He bought out
A delightful feast
And when they were finished.
They came into the gateway
And they jumped through the gate
Never to be seen again.
Today’s (optional) prompt is to write a concrete poem. Like acrostic poems, concrete poems are a favorite for grade-school writing assignments, so this may not be your first time at the concrete-poem rodeo. In brief, a concrete poem is one in which the lines are shaped in a way that mimics the topic of the poem. For example, May Swenson’s poem “Women” mimics curves, reinforcing the poem’s references to motion, rocking horses, and even the shape of a woman’s body. George Starbuck’s “Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree” is – you guessed it – a sonnet in the shape of a potted Christmas tree. Your concrete poem could be complexly-shaped, but relatively simple strategies can also be “concrete” — like a poem involving a staircase where the length of the lines grows or shrinks over time, like an ascending (or descending) set of stairs.
Dew Drop Inn
Three Poems
About Filth and Slime
Slime
Slime
Slime
As far as I can see
Is that all that can ever be.
Mountains of foul, smelling dishes
Being eaten by drunk fishes.
Fast, faster, faster
Comes the slime
I wish that
I was eating a lime
Never want to touch this slime.
Morning Thoughts
One morning
While I sat drinking my coffee
And bemoaning my fate.
My brain decided to fly away to the land of bliss
As I sat drinking my coffee in the dawning light
Writing away my memoirs and dreams of love.
I noticed that my brain’s tissue
Had decided to take a vacation
And was crawling down my nose
And out of my ears.
Like some sort of cosmic mucus.
Down my slime encrusted back
And out the windows of my soul.
I was of course
Disturbed, I was perturbed,
And until I realized.
That I had no right.
To tell my mind what to do.
So I sat down.
And played a game of checkers
with my mind
Till the entreaty of time
passed me by.
Nothing but a piece of flotsam
On the winds of the universe
The walls fell,
The sky melted apart.
I woke up and sat down
And had an orgy
with my mind
Slime Patrol to the Dishroom
dishwasher
Note: I washed dishes in college.
Slime Patrol to the dish room, please
Rant the loudspeaker with a demented static,
Hell no, we chanted in vain.
No, where to go
Nowhere to escape
The ever-present smell
Of putrid rotting
sweaty effervescent slime.
That’s right
Slime, slime, slime, slime
Slime
Slime
Slime
Slime
Slime
Slime
Is that all that there is?
NOTHING
BUT
SLIME
Ruled by slime Kings who run Slime Machines?
Hell No, we won’t go we chanted in vain
And we hook ourselves up
And entered the machine
SLIME
PATROL
TO
THE
DISHROOM
Must get high
To deal with the slime.
The god damned slime.
Leftovers
From the plates
Of the elite college kids
Who ate in the cafeteria
Never noticing the workers
Laboring behind in the kitchen.
For them we are nothing
For we are all nothing but slime molds
In the gross wheels of America’s grease pit.
And they are the future masters
Of the universe.
And we are their future slaves.
Working in the slime pits
To feed them with slime.
Slime
Slime
Slime
Slime
Hope they die
From ingesting the pink slime
In their corrupted food.
Some day
The slime patrol
Will rise up.
And slaughter them
While they eat our delicious slime
Until that day
We will do our duty
In the forgotten corners
Of the universe.
Nothing
But
Slime
prompt: write about a hard job you have had.
PSH prompt
Writing com
Remix of the worst jobs in the world as Cherita’s Poems
.
-toll-booths-feature-imag
The worst job in the world
Must be toll booth attendants
Just boring as hell
They sit there all-day
Bored out of their minds
Waiting for the shift to end.
The worst job in the world
Must be toll booth attendants
Just boring as hell
Waiting for the shift to end.
2
bored train operator
Subway train operators
Subway train operators
Also, have a boring job
Nothing to do
Just waiting for the shift
To end.
3
visa line
Visa officers
Also, have a hard job
Saying no to thousands
Who lines up
Lying to the Visa officers
Who has the power of God.
After today, we’ll be three poems from finishing this challenge. Woot!
For today’s prompt, write a remix poem. Take one of your poems (preferably from this month) and remix it. Make free verse a traditional form or vice versa.
Red Wine Local Gem
bottle-red-wine-grape-corks
Red wine
Evening delight
Drinking it at sunset.
Wine makes the evening just fine.
If I drink too much wine.
Never again! do I cry out the next morning,
Eventually, the hangover is no longer mine.
All Poetry
workers
The Feeling of Hard Work
In my school days
when I was a younger man
I worked at odd jobs
To make my spending money.
I did everything
From lawn and yard work
working in the city parks,
Picking fruit.
.
Working at Taco Bell
Oscars
the University Pub,
To house painting
Door to door sales
Political canvassing.
To dish-washing
To work as a bouncer
And as a fry cook.
Juvenile probation officer
world trade intern
conference organizer
teaching ESL.
working as Peace Corps volunteer.
delivering newspapers
working with the Hubert Humphrey Fellows
Serving as a foreign service officer.
And I learned so much
From the feeling of hard work
How things feel to the touch
How sweat feels
On a hot day.
And in the end
The value of hard physical labor.
That was a valuable life lesson.
In and of itself.
Today we challenge you to write a poem that focuses on the sense of touch, and how things physically feel, rather than the other senses.
writing com Sight of Korean Food
sojuKorean Food
Like a lot of Asian cuisine
Korean food is a feast
For all the senses
The flavor is intense.
The aroma lingers in the air
The food is sensuous
Sometimes inviting to the touch.
But visually the food
Is a smorgasbord of sights
From the bright green
Of the seaweed and vegetable side dishes.
To the yellow colors of the turnips
and radishes
To the intense dark red
orange, and yellow
Of the signature dish, Kimchi
Occasionally white kimchi too.
And white rice
brown and black mixed grain rice
to absorb the bursts of flavors.
and white potatoes as well.
And the dark brown colors
Of the grilled meat
And sometimes blackened fish
And purple color sweet potatoes,
And the light blue color
Of blue fish such as tuna
And the pink color of sashimi.
And who can forget
The green frog on the soju bottle?
and the green and brown beer bottles?
and the white color of rice wine?
The April Poetry madness is more than half over. I am determined to finish by May 1! (Given that the prompts I use are posted in the U.S. and that I am in KST time I will be finished April 30, 2022 EST), I have some other poetry publication news. Poetry Super Highway published my poem on visiting the holocaust museum for their annual Yom HaShoah issue. You can read that here
Sam Adams
Often thought
He had met his fate
On that date, he met his wife.
She walked into his life
The date he met his wife
Was the best day
Of his life.
On the date, he met his wife
He felt that was the beginning
Of the rest of his life.
And now for our prompt (optional, as always). In honor of today’s being the 22nd day of Na/GloPoWriMo 2022, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that uses repetition. You can repeat a sound, a word, a phrase, an image, or any combination of things.
Variations on a Theme Fate Dew Drop Inn Writing com Prompt
I have often thought about fate
And how and why I met my wife
The way I did,
For it seems
That we were fated
To meet,
That we knew each other
In a past life
And that our love
Was strong enough,
To overcome the barriers
Of time and space
That somehow her spirit
Was calling me.
Appearing in my dreams
For eight years
Until she walked
Off that bus
And into my life.
That is why
I believe in reincarnation
It is the only way
I can make sense
Of this improbable, impossible
Fairy tale love story.
Coffee Trinet Coffee PSH
need more coffee
Coffee
Just hot
drinking it at sunrise
Just right.
Need more
Strong Coffee
Right now!
Make a pot of tea or coffee in a clear glass pot or container. Pour cream or milk into it. Carefully watch cream or milk swirl into the dark liquid. Write about what you see and any associations with it. You could also try this with anything that swirls, e.g., water going down a drain. Have fun!
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment below. #napowrimo#poetry
Lion King Revolts Writer’s Digest
lion
The Lion King
Looked out at the assembled animals
In the first ever worldwide parliament
Of animals.
The lion king chaired the conference
Which was called to discuss
The weighty issue
Of what to do about humanity.
Which was rapidly destroying
The habitat of the entire planet
Making it unfit for life
For any organisms.
The lion king recognized
His cousin, the Siberian Tiger
The tiger rose to speak
Denouncing humanity
As the greatest threat
To life itself.
He demanded the right
To hunt down and kill
All humans.
As enemies of the world’s ecological system,
Saying that Gaia was crying out
For revenge.
The animals all debated the question
Finally, the lion king turned
To the sole defenders of humanity
The cat and dog representatives.
The cat shrugged its shoulder
saying,
“Meh, I suppose humans are alright.,
They treat cats right”.
The dog made a passionate defense
Of their best friends, the humans
Saying that they were trying to mend
Their evil, greedy ways.
And deserved a second chance
as did all God’s creatures,
Great and small.
The lion king called for a vote
The vote was 250 to two.
The lion king announced the verdict
Saying,
All humans must die.
That was the day
Of the great animal revolt
That led to the fall
Of humanity.
For today’s prompt, write an organism poem. The cool thing about our planet is that it is loaded with a variety of living organisms, from one-celled prokaryotes and eukaryotes to complex creatures (like blue whales and rhinos). Write about several organisms, or pick one and make it the title of your poem.
Note: this is part of a series of similar magical realism poems I should put together someday as a collection.
Mentee Best JO’s Local Gem
I sometimes think back
When I was working
And think back
What sort of boss was I?
What impact did I have
On those who worked for me.
I had my favorite employees
And I like to think
That I was not that bad a boss
At least I was not
An evil SOB boss
Like some of the bosses
That I have known
That I was fair
Open-minded
And looked after
My employees
Making sure that they got
The support they needed
To do well in their career.
Country is a genre of popular music that originated with blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, old-time, and American folk music forms …
I don’t care for country music
Never had
Never got into the country music vibe.
Although I like to drink beer
Country music was just never
My thing.
Too rural white boy shit-kicking for my taste.
I always saw it as poor white trash blues.
And it has some similarities to the blues
In terms of themes and even sound.
Country music is not urban enough
For my taste
I like blues, funk, jazz, disco, rock music
And classical music best
Not too much into hip hop or rap
The country is my least favorite musical genre.
But the blues is so much better
Musically.
There were a few country singers
I liked
Johnny Cash is one of them.
But on the whole
Country music is just
A big meh for me.
Finally, here’s our daily (optional) prompt. This one may seem counter-intuitive, but today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about something you have no interest in. This isn’t quite the same, I think, as something you’re indifferent to. For example, I have absolutely no interest in investment strategy. Anytime anyone tries to tell me about it, I want to put my fingers in my ears and go “lalalalalala.” My brain tries to shut down! This is honestly kind of funny, and I think this prompt has value precisely because it invites you to investigate some of the “why” behind resolutely not giving two hoots about something.
Jade Garden (제이드 가든 수목원) is an arboretum located in Chuncheon, South Korea. The garden opened in April 2011. … Jade Garden provides walk-through tours …
Jade Garden is an exotic arboretum established with the theme of “small Europe in the forest.” It was built on an area of 163,500 m2 by keeping its natural …
Why go here? Well, it has a different vibe compared to other Korean gardens. It has a European garden vibe. ALSO, Jade Garden is the filming location of Korean …
jade garden 6jade garden 7
jade garden 8 jpg
jade garden 9
Visiting Jade Garden
Nar Chungcheong, South Korea
On a beautiful spring day,
The cherry trees were in full flower
Pink and white petals
The scent of cherry trees in the air.
Other trees just starting to bloom
Red, yellow and white tulips
Beginning to bloom.
The sounds of spring all around
Birds singing
People walking about.
Talking to one another
As they wander the pathway
Taking in the springtime splendor.
The sun warming up
The pathway winding
Through the Forest.
April 15—Botany—explore the flora of your region! Somehow include at least 3 of the 5 senses.
Get exclusive merch, pick up a savory treat, and sign up to be the first to …
My favorite cheese
Has always been Tillamook
cheddar cheese
My father turned me
On to it
When I was a young lad
Once during our annual
Migration from Berkeley
To Yakima
During the summer vacation
Season
When we drove to the family cabin
And stayed almost two months
Just my father,
My mother
My two brothers
My sister
Our whole dysfunctional family
Forced to be together
For the summer
It was hell on earth
But the road trip
To and from
Was an adventure
One year we drove
Up the Oregon coat
And we stopped
At the Tillamook creamery
And did the tour
Learned how they made
Their famous cheese
And ice cream
Tillamook cheese
Is made in Tillamook, Oregon
A small town
Along the Oregon coast
The cheese is dark yellow
Comes in two flavors
Sharp and regular
I prefer the sharp.
It has a delightful aroma
And is among the most
Favorable of cheeses
I have ever eaten.
And it has an aftertaste
That lingers in your mouth
For several minutes
As you savor
The aroma, the taste
And the texture
Taking you to cheese
heaven
I was perhaps 13
At the time
And interested
In everything
Learned a lot
About cheese
That visit
But the most important thing
Was I learned
That was my favorite cheese
Tillamook. Cheese.
Still is
Almost 55 years later.
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Joan Liotta:
What does your favorite cheese–describe the taste, the aroma, its texture, and tell where you first tried it.
I am an Impatient Man Writers Digest
I am an impatient man
Always have been
Probably always will be.
My wife is always telling me
To slow down
To eat slowly
To drink slowly
To talk slowly.
And to be patient
But I just never
Developed the skill
To be patient
and so I rush
through life.
Eat too fast
Drink to fast
Love too fast.
There are some things
I developed patience for
Somethings
That I took my time,
It took me eight years
To get into the Foreign Service.
But the most important thing
In my life
I seized quickly.
When I met my wife
Who I met in a dream
And waited patiently
For eight years
Before she walked
Off a bus
And into my life.
I proposed three days later
We got married two months later
And have been together
For 40 years.
For today’s prompt, write a patience poem. Your poem could be about someone or something with great patience, or it could come from the other direction (ie, impatience). One fun thing about this prompt is that it begs us to consider the various ways of measuring time: From the patience required to sit at a red light to the patience of a tree growing rings for centuries.
Can Love Exist in this Corrupt Age? Sonnet Local Gems
Can love still exist in this corrupt age?
The answer is that love will find a way.
Life seems to play out on a stage,
All that matters is this, how we play.
For love and life is nothing but a game,
On that day, she walked into my life.
In the end, it all comes out to be the same,
Three months later, became my wife.
It was on that date in early September,
that she walked off a bus, no longer a dream.
A date I shall always remember.
When I saw her there, all I could do was scream.
I wanted to just scream out, I love you
Looking at her then, I knew that she knew.
It was in early 82, in September
A date that I shall always remember
For on that date, I met my cosmic fate.
For eight years I dreamt she would become my mate,
I almost gave up waiting for her it was late
But then that day she said in my dream to me
Don’t worry soon together as a we
This is just what our karmic fate that date.
And soon enough everything became great.
And no longer would I need to wait
For love came my way.
And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a curtal sonnet. This is a variation on the classic 14-line sonnet. The curtal sonnet form was developed by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and he used it for what is probably his most famous poem, “Pied Beauty.” A curtal sonnet has eleven lines, instead of the usual fourteen, and the last line is shorter than the ten that precede it.
French Press This! Dew Drop Inn
Every morning I get up
At the crack of dawn
As the sunlight fills my room
I make coffee.
Using my French press
To make what I call
A fully loaded cup
Of cosmic Joe.
½ Ground French Roast Starbucks
or Major Dickinson Peets coffee
½ decaf coffee
Yogi detox tea
Yogi blueberry slim tea
Turmeric
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Cloves.
I boil the water
Bike 1 to 2 k
Then enjoy
My French press coffee.
I make two cups
Shifting to tea
Later in the morning.
April 16—Ordinary object(s)—explore the usual or unusual uses of ordinary objects
The World Is Broken PSH
Among the many sins
Attributed to the Baby Boomers
Is this
They Broke the world
And they do not know
How to fix it
Everywhere you go
It seems the world is broken
Homeless people
Forced to camp out
Everywhere
Gun violence
At a pandemic level
Yet government leaders
Aided by the NRA
Seem to think
The solution to gun violence
Are more guns for everyone
As gun laws are weakened
In many states nowadays
Anyone can buy a gun
Without a license
Training or any liability insurance,
Every time there is a gun battle
In the streets
Conservatives claim
That the solution
Is to have good people
With guns
Battling bad people with guns
Total insanity
Guns don’t kill people
The NRA claims
The price of freedom
Is not free
Everyone must have a gun
To protect themselves
Against criminals
Illegal aliens.
Government agents
And democrats libtards
Trying to force everyone
Into becoming bisexual
Or at least get vaccinated
So Bill Gates can track you.
Climate change
Is here and now
Monster storms
Massive droughts
100-year storms
Every year.
Yet nothing is done
Even though
We all know
What we must do.
To save the planet
And the human race
Inflation out of control
Supply chains are still broken
COVID although receding
Still lurking about.
Putin Invading Ukraine
Committing war crimes
While the US and NATO
Are afraid of provoking Putin
Who is threatening nuclear war
North Korean threatening Asia
China menacing Taiwan.
Meanwhile
Opioids crisis killing Americans
Gun battles killing people
COVID still killing people
Storms killing people.
Too many ghosts everywhere
Screaming out,
“You broke the world
But you can’t fix it.”
And we pray to a God
That may or may not exist
And does not answer our prayers.
Yes, we all share a responsibility
We all broke the world
And none of us
Knows how to fix it.
I hope that this
is not the end
Of the World
Although many days
It feels like revelations
Is coming true.
This poetry writing prompt submitted by J R Turek:
Write a list poem titled “Everything is Broken” but offer no solutions to fix anything.
The Feel of Korean Food Writer’s Digest
octopus on plate ready to be cooked,italyoctopus on plate ready to be cooked,italy
Korean food is a full sensory experience
Overwhelming one with smells, flavors
And textures as well.
One day back
in the Peace Corps days
My best friend visited me
From Indonesia where he
Had been hanging out.
It was the dead of winter
15 degrees F.
When he got on the plane
It was 90 degrees F.
We bought winter clothes
Then I decided to treat him
To an infamous Korean disk
산 나치
San Nachi
or Live Octopus.
They brought it out
The octopus tentacles
Were moving about.
I taught him
The proper technique
Grab it by the chopstick
Dip it in hot sauce
And chew it a long time
Sometimes unwary
Or drunk eaters
Encounter a problem
When the suckers
Get stuck in one’s mouth
Sometimes requires
a trip to the ER.
The texture is slimy
And a big disgusting
Need a lot to drink
The first time around.
My friend tried it
But said never again
And we both bring it up
From time to time.
He was not a big fan
Of the 산 나치
San Nachi.
Never tried that again
But he did like
Other things we ate
That winter.
For today’s prompt, write a touching poem. We’ve already done smell and taste; let’s move on to the sense of touch. Of course, all these prompts are open to interpretation, and touch connects many paths, including touching up a picture, touching down an airplane, bringing a soft or human touch to a situation, and even playing touch and go (or tag). However, in your poem, feel encouraged to put your personal touch on this prompt.
Easiest Thing in the World Local Gem
The easiest thing
In the world
Was falling in love
With you.
For on the date
We met in real life
After dreaming
Of the moment
For eight years.
I knew that I had met my fate
On that fine September date
And soon you became my mate.
A megadrought (or mega-drought) is a prolonged drought lasting two decades or longer. Past megadroughts have been associated with persistent multiyear La …
Aug 19, 2021 … Simply put, a megadrought is a period of extreme dryness that lasts for decades. Within that period there may be occasional better, wet, years, …
Feb 15, 2022 … U.S. megadrought worst in at least 1,200 years, researchers say. The drought also shows no signs of letting up, with increasing temperatures …
Sam Adams
Was an ecologist
With the Cosmos Institute
He was studying the decline
Of ancient civilizations
In North America
And concluded that
Humanity would soon face
A world in which its existence
Is doomed
As nature will no longer
Support such a large civilization
As climate change leads
To a mega drought
In the western parts
Of North America
And China and India
As well.
It would be
The end of the world.
Prompt The intersection of nature and civilization…
The future is coming and I can’t Wait for NaPoWriMo
Thinking about the future
I am excited
So many amazing things
Are about to happen
Dream and thought recording devices
Internet implants
Human-robot slaves
Self-driving vehicles
True AI Systems
Time Travel
Teleportation
Cloning
Growing new bodies
Life extension leading
To almost immortality
Lunar and Martian colonies
Development of space travel
Meeting alien civilizations
The future is coming
And I can’t wait
I want a robot slave
Maybe even a robot lover
And a new body
And I want to see Mars
And meet space aliens
And now for our (optional) prompt! Today, in honor of the potential luckiness of the number 13, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that, like the example poem here, joyfully states that “Everything is Going to Be Amazing.” Sometimes, good fortune can seem impossibly distant, but even if you can’t drum up the enthusiasm to write yourself a riotous pep talk, perhaps you can muse on the possibility of good things coming down the track. As they say, “the sun will come up tomorrow,” and if nothing else, this world offers us the persistent possibility of surprise.
How to Make a Perfect Smoothie Writers Digest
How to Make a Perfect Smoothie
My daily breakfast consists
of a perfect super-foods smoothie
Here is how to make
This breakfast of champions
In a blender
Put in Kefir first
Then powered collagen
Insulin powder
Honey
Cinnamon
all blended to perfection
That is my daily breakfast
Fit for a champion.
I often eat it
As cereal as it is so thick
Adding in cereal or oatmeal
and raisins.
2022 April PAD Challenge: Day 13
Write a poem every day of April with the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a How to Blank poem.
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “How to (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles might include: “How to Win at Life,” “How to Cook Lasagna,” “How to Fall in Love,” and/or “How to Write a Poem.”
Covid Life PSH
covid virus
Ever since COVID hit
I have been laying low
Not going out much
Not meeting friends
But doing weekly zoom
With my best friends
That has kept me sane
Been doing a lot of writing
Lots of COVID poems
Featuring General Corona
And his COVID bot army
General Corona
Appeared to me
in a dream.
I fell asleep after watching
The former guy goes on and on about
Fighting a war against an invisible army.
And thought well
Every army
needs a general.
General corona appeared
In my dream
A tall black man
Dressed in a black general’s uniform
Riding the black horse of revelations.
With an army of imperial storm troopers
In black uniforms
Marching shooting ray guns
Filled with the virus
At everyone they encounter.
That is how
I coped with the COVID
pandemic lockdown,
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Gary Grossman:
We’re all tired of COVID but it is good fodder for poetry. Write a poem about how your life changed specifically during the pandemic. Did you exercise more, did you burn incense more, and did you read books that had been sitting in a pile for years? Focus on describing your mental state and how that translated into your physical state. Did your muscles ache from walking, what was the smell of the hand cream you used to soothe your skin? Did your partner participate with you?
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Super Highway Facebook Group. #napowrimo#poetry
The series is set in the fictional realm of Narnia, a fantasy world of magic, mythical beasts and talking animals. It narrates the adventures of various …
Sam Adams, an old man
Recently returning to his hometown,
Was walking in the Berkeley Hills.
Ended up at Tilden Park
Where he had been hiking
Ever since he was a child.
He was hoping to getaway.
From all the turmoil,
The dismal news of the day
The constant chattering on his TV.
He came upon an unusual sight
An open door in the air
With a note
Narnia is calling you.
He laughed
Recalling his favorite
Childhood stories
The Chronicles of Narnia.
He always wondered
If the stories were true
As he always felt
The stories were.
He jumped through the portal
Sam Adams disappearance
Remained a mystery.
He left behind a tangled mess
Millions of dollars in assets
Scattered across several states.
The unexpected visitor from the Stars Dew Drop Inn
allien
One day Sam Adams
Received an unexpected visitor
Who walked into his office
Of Rebel news
Telling him he was a space alien
Who wanted him to explain
Humanity to him.
The alien had tried
To understand humans
The craziness species
In the universe.
Who believes
in some nonsense
About nonexistent gods.
But the one thing
He did not understand
Was love.
Could Sam Explain love to him?
Sam thought and said,
“Yes, Love is what it is
And love is what it ain’t,
If you are in love
You know it.
But those who know it
Can’t describe it
It is more than just
Chemistry, and biology
It is that but more than that
Love happens
When you least expect it.
When she walks
Into your life.
You know she is the one
The alien said thanks
For the lesson.
And drank his beer
Saying that humans
Make the best beer
And the best coffee
In the universe,
The Palaskian Conspiracy PSH prompt
The leader of Palaskin
Was being briefed
By his national security team
About Operation Disrupt Planet Earth
Their operative Donald J Trump
Had not succeeded in taking over
The number one country yet.
He was tormenting unrest
And his country was floundering
Operative Putin
Was doing a fine job
Preparing the world
for the Palaskinian
Empire’s invasion.
It would be time soon.
To launch the invasion fleet
Which will arrive
And reinstate Trump
And Putin to rule the world
On behalf of their Palaskian overlords.
They would finally reveal
That they are aliens
And the earth is now
Part of the Palaskinian Empire.
The Emperor smiled
Victory would soon be theirs
Long Live the Palestinian Empire
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Ellen Sander:
palish kin
A non-existent word. You decide how it is pronounced. Whether it’s a noun or a verb. Or someone’s name. Perhaps a country? A religion? Up to you, brave soul. Write a poem using what you determine palishkin to mean.
Writer’s Digest The Powers That Be – Who are They? (Revised)
Conspiracy craze: why 12 million Americans believe alien …https://www.theguardian.com › lifeandstyle › apr › con…
Apr 7, 2016 — But when people leap from thinking their boss is trying to undermine them to believing their boss might be a secret lizard person, they probably …
Watching the news unfold
Every day
I wonder who “they” are
The secret powers
That run the world
From behind the scenes?
There are rumors
That the powers
Of the universe,
The masters of the universe
The secret power brokers
Are not-human.
They are shape-shifting
Reptilian creatures
From the Palaskan empire
in Sirius, the dog star.
their agents Trump and Putin
we’re doing a great job
disrupting and weakening the world.
It was time though
Said the head of the committee
The committee does not exist.
That was the control tower
Of the alien conspiracy
Of the secret powers that be.
For the invasion fleet to arrive
And finish the job
Of enslaving humanity
A job that they failed to do
When they controlled Atlantis
And later the Roman Empire.
For today’s prompt, write a power poem. Your poem could somehow involve electricity, solar power, fossil fuels, wind, or water. It could illustrate a power play or someone exerting their power over someone else. Of course, you could also write about a power outage. You alone have the power to poem your way through this prompt.
Computer Blues (revised) Local Gems
evil computer
Sometimes I think
My computer is plotting against me
And only me
Trying deliberately to drive me mad.
My computer knows
when I am busy
Then it throws
A hissy fit.
Refuses to boot up,
and crashes constantly.
Loses data it had the day before.
Or five minutes before,
Or refuses to save the data.
Just fucks with me
As it loves toying with me
Making me yell and scream
At my damn computer screen
Cursing up a blue stream
of blue curses
As the blue screen of death
The borders across the dark blue screen
Smiling at me
As I beg it
To do what
It is supposed to do
Just once I beg it
Do what you
Are supposed to do
Open the document once
Not twenty times
Do “Not respond”
Endless spinning blue wheels.
In endless loops of opening
Not responding
refusing to close
Until I respond to the error code.
Please Mr. Computer
Quit playing games
Play my music, don’t wipe out the sound
On the fifth attempt to play music
Don’t take a half-hour to load Microsoft products
Don’t freeze up on opening music programs
Don’t give me computer haiku error messages
That only makes sense to a computer geek.
Such as general error reading files
Who the ***** is this damn general
And why is NSA reading my files?
Or can’t save the file
Or can’t save the “An open file”
When it just did ten times in a role,
Or kicks me out, while losing my data.
And in Microsoft Excel
Refusing to move the cursor
Just freezing in place for a moment
Before kicking me out.
Excell had a problem
Copying data from other sources
Generating an error message
About not being able to load fonts
Then asking you to say okay
Then kicking you out
Once I did that 200 times
I finally ditched Excel
And moved to Google Docs.
And all the other gobbledygook messages
That pop up every five minutes it seems
As the computer slowly drives me mad
Flashing the final insult
User-driven mad
Mission accomplished.
To show how much
You love someone
The way you glance
At your lover.
The way you laugh
At her jokes
You have heard
A million times before.
The way she smells
The way she eats
Her food.
The way she kisses
The way she makes love
Every time special.
Yes it is the small things
That matters in the end.
Today’s featured participant is a double dose again because you all are producing such lovely work that I’m finding it difficult to pick! In response to Day Eleven’s “big” prompt, we first have Wind Rush‘s quiet meditation on relative size. Second, The Silver Cow Creamer brings us a short and snappy quatrain in homage to a giant poppadom.
Our featured online journal for the day is Stirring. In their latest issue, I’ll point you to these two haibuns by Jennifer Perrine.
Today’s prompt (optional, as always) should come as no surprise. Yesterday, I challenged you to write a poem about a very large thing. Today, I’d like you to invert your inspiration, and write a poem about a very small thing. Whether it’s an atom, a button, a hummingbird’s egg, dollhouse furniture, or the mythical world’s smallest violin, I hope you enjoy your poetic adventures into the microscopic.
The haunted house in Eagle Creek PSH
ghosts
There is a house
In Eagle Creek, Oregon
That is an old mansion.
That is largely abandoned
Except for the owner
Who is over 100 years old
The house has several doors
That led to other worlds.
According to the rumor
The old man has used rituals
From the Necronomicon.
To summon aliens, banshees, bigfoot,
Cerebos, demons, devils, hell hounds,
ghosts, goblins, monsters, leprechauns,
Yeti and Zombies.
The gateway to other worlds
Open up
And they storm through.
From the deepest corner
Of Hell and Hades.
As they chant
From the Necronomicon
The ghosts of the dead
Haunting the old mansion
On the hillside
Outside of Eagle Creek,
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Frog Corpse:
Frog Corpse Writing Prompt:
Create a seven-hundred-word short story or thirty-three-line poem describing a haunted house. The story or poem’s main focus must bear emphasis on the details of the house itself. Explain in detail its architecture/landscape on what makes it stand out. What will make these details different from an average run-of-the-mill home? This prompt is to help improve set & setting when building the locations in your tales.
*Your characters are not the focus of this prompt.
I love You Let Me count the Ways Writing com
I love you
Ever since you walked
Off that bus,
Out of my dreams
Into my life
But why do I love you
Let me count the ways
here are a million
Different reasons.
But these are the most
Important ones
I love your smile
I love your smell
I love your walk
I love your body.
I love your
delightful, wicked
Sense of humor.
I love kissing you
I love making love
To you.
You are the best thing
Whatever happened to me
And I want to proclaim
To the entire world
How much I love you.
Write a poem every day of April with the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt (the first Two-for-Tuesday prompt of the month), write a counting poem and/or not counting poem.
The Sound of Temple Bell Brings Me Peace Local Gem
temple blog bell-zen
The sound of a temple bell
ringing in the crisp mountain air
in the Buddhist temple
deep in the mountains.
Brings me peace and joy
and fills me with happiness
as I contemplate
the meaning of Buddha.
And seek to find
peace
in the everyday life
around me.
And I ring the bell again,
wishing hoping for an end
to our suffering
on this planet of ours.
The first thing I do every morning
Is to make my morning cup of Joe
While watching the daily news
While writing in my journals
Waiting for my wife
In the morning
My coffee
Must be
Hot
And now for our (optional) daily prompt! Because it’s a Saturday, I thought I’d try a prompt that asks you to write in a specific form – the nonet! A nonet has nine lines. The first line has nine syllables, the second has eight, and so on until you get to the last line, which has just one syllable.
Sam Adams Gunslinger in Wild West April 9—Persona—write a poem in the voice of a person who is Not You Dew Drop Inn, Writing Com
Gunman in the old wild west
Sam Adams was a cowboy
Back in the wild west
A badass gunslinger
For hire to the biggest bidder
Often working for the law
Sometimes working for the outlaws
He did not see much difference
He took the jobs
That paid him the most
Thought that if he did not do it
Someone else would no doubt
Sam Adams thought about death
As he shot those that needed killing,
Better them than him he thought.
Breakfast of Champions Smoothie Poetry Superhighway PSH
My daily breakfast consists
Of a super-foods
Smoothie containing:
Apples
Apple cider vinegar
Banana,
Blueberry,
Carrots
Cinnamon
Cherries
Coconut oil
Kale
Homemade kefir
Honey
Oranges
Macca root
Pineapple,
Raspberry
Stevia
Strawberry,
Spinach
Walnuts
Wheatgrass
All blended to perfection
That is my daily breakfast
Fit for a champion.
Write a poem based on a recipe. It can be an actual recipe for food or it can be a recipe for something else entirely. Ferlinghetti wrote a recipe for happiness. I have a poem called “How to Make Meatballs” that has the meatball recipe in it.
If you write a poem from this prompt, post a comment on the PSH Facebook page. For some reason, this has been my most popular poem on All Poetry, go figure.
Jan 10, 2022 … A slew of recent opinion polls shows a significant minority of Americans at ease with the idea of violence against the government. Even talk of …
And a poll conducted last June by Rasmussen Reports found that 31 percent of probable US voters surveyed believe “it’s likely that the United States will …
Sep 16, 2021 … A 2021 national survey by pollster John Zogby found a plurality of Americans (46%) believed a future civil war was likely, 43% felt it was …
Jan 6, 2022 … A “minor armed conflict” is one that kills at least 25 people a year. By this definition, as Marche argues, “America is already in a state of …
Jan 11, 2022 … If America has another civil war, it is more likely to be a war within the states than between them. Citizens of any state of any size, …
Jan 11, 2022 … A Zogby poll in the fall found that 46 percent of Americans think the country is headed for another civil war. In late December, a survey by …
Feb 11, 2022 … America is always on the verge of a second Civil War, according to one pundit or another. Such heated claims have become especially popular …
Mar 20, 2022 … “They believe a second civil war is coming, and they are looking forward to that civil war.” A year after January 6, 2021, there’s little doubt …
The “Second American Civil War” is an umbrella term used by some academics to reclassify historical eras of significant political violence in the United …
Jan 19, 2022 … The last few decades laid the groundwork for our accelerating polarization and tribalization, and now, America’s political Left and Right no …
Note: I explore this topic in my unpublished novel, “the Great Divorce”. My feeling is that it is a possibility, although more likely the U.S. will evolve into ten or more regional governments, that will largely take over the responsibilities of the increasingly dysfunctional Federal government. and I could see the breaking up of big states into mini-federations, such as five mini-states in California, Upstate NYC vs NYC metro, and of course Washington DC, VI, PR, Gaum/Samoa/Micronesia all becoming states, and Canada dissolving as well ,with Canadian provinces joining various sub-federations in the New North American union. Now the poem:
In this day and age
Of deep partisan divide
Into the blue and red states.
And open talk among both
The right and left
Of a possible second civil war
Commonly called Civil War 2.0.
Is it conceivable that
The United States will break up
Into new nation-states?
If so, what would be
The new nations
of North America?
Will there be a Christian States of America/Canada?
With a new capital perhaps in Omaha?
Will there be a Northwest Pacific States of America/Canada?
Will there be a Southwest Pacific States of America/Mexico?
Will there be a Great Lakes States of America/Canada?
Will there be a great Utah?
Will Texas emerge as the Lone Star Republic?
Will there be a Pacific Islands Federation including
Perhaps the PI?
Will there be the Native State of America?
Spread-out, embedded in the other states?
Will, there be a French Speaking America
Based in Quebec but uniting French speaking
States, and countries including Haiti,
Dominica, St Lucia, Guadeloupe, and Martinique?
Will there be Caribbean Federation based in Miami?
Will Guam, PR, Micronesia, Washington DC, and VI
become states in one of the new nations?
I don’t have an answer
A lot will depend
In the coming few years.
But if I had to bet
I would bet that somehow
The United States will stay together
Just too difficult to break apart
Into new nation-states.
But new federalism might emerge
With regional governments taking
More responsibilities
From the Federal government
And State governments as well.
Overtime the new regional governments
Might supplant the federal government,
Leading to a new arrangement
Without the drama of another civil war.
For today’s prompt, write a breaking poem. The poem could be about breaking down walls, break dancing, breaking up, or breaking stuff. However, you’d like to break it down and then write your poem.
What ‘They” Never Tell Us Conspiracy Writer’s Digest
May 14, 2020 … The Prophecies of Q. American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase. By Adrienne LaFrance. Illustrations by Arsh Raziuddin.
Watching the news unfold
Every day
I wonder what “they”
The secret powers
Behind the news
Are not telling us.
For starters,
Are their aliens?
Are they secretly in charge?
Is climate change
Going to doom us all?
Do they have a plan?
Is there a plot
To reinstate the former guy.
If so when and how?
Is Q telling the truth?
Is there a secret cabal
Of cannibalistic pedophiles
Satanists running the government
And society?
Was the last election stolen?
If so, how, and why?
And did Trump win?
Finally, is there a plot
To invent cloning.
And if so, when can I
Get in line for a new body.
There is just so much
That “They” are not
Telling us.
For today’s prompt, write what they never tell you in a poem. I’m not sure who “they” are, but “they” talk a lot, and there are things people tell you, and there are things you just have to learn on your own, because “they” (them again) never tell you ahead of time. Like, for instance, “they” never told me that I’d still feel like a teenager in my 40s, but here we are. Think about what “they” never tell (or told) you, and write that poem.
Local gem: Second Chances Everyone deserves a second chance. Write a poem of about second chances. Second Chances
Local gem: Second Chances Everyone deserves a second chance. Write a poem of about second chances. Sam Adams
Sam Adams
Was a man who had
Numerous second, third, fourth
Fifth chances in life.
He failed first grade
Failed courses in high school
And college.
Went to three colleges
Before he finally graduated
On his third chance.
Failed in his career
Never advanced as far
As he wanted to.
But in the end
There was one thing
He did right
On the first try.
When he met his wife
He did not hesitate
Proposed in three days.
Did not want to take
A second chance
On happiness.
Sunday, Day 10, April 10
Where Do You and I Begin NaPoWriMo
(reviously published)
I woke up one day and realized
I no longer knew
where you and I began
and where you and I ended
we had become almost one
We talked in half sentences
Knowing what the other wanted
and knowing how it would end
We ate the same foods with some resistance
because I still crave an old-fashioned American meal
but still, we were becoming more and more the same
and I feared losing myself
In your embrace
and becoming you
and you becoming me
and this fear of losing me
in the ocean of us
overwhelms me at times
but I know I will always
Return to your arms
because I cannot live
A moment without you at my side
and I know you are the same
we feel each other’s inner pain
we feel each other’s outer pain
and our history has merged
into one
and is that not the secret
of a long marriage?
Have I figured it all out
in the end, does it come to this
a merging of two souls and two bodies?
I don’t have the answers
But I don’t have any more doubts
or regrets with the path I have taken
I still look forward
to waking up each morning
Seeing you there
and knowing that every day
we have together
is a gift that I will cherish
Until my dying breath
Today’s (optional) prompt is pretty simple – a love poem! If you’re having trouble getting into the right mood for a love poem, maybe you’ll find inspiration in one of my favorites, June Jordan’s “Poem for Haruko.”
The Unicorn General Conquers the World Dew Drop Inn
A unicorn silhouette in a galaxy nebula cloud. Raster illustration.
Sam Adams
was a paranormal researcher
he was searching
for mystical creatures
that he was sure
still existed somewhere.
The banshees, bigfoot, the centaurs,
the demons, the dragons, the giants,
the hellhounds, the minitours, the leprechauns.
The snowmen, the unicorns, and yeti.
Sam Adams found a book
the legendary infamous necormicron.
Which many had dismissed
as nothing but a story
by Lovecraft and his fellow
demented writers.
Chanting from the book,
He opened the door
the first through
was the king of the unicorns.
He brought with him
thousands of his followers
who launched a war
against the modern world.
The unicorn and his army
quickly overwhelmed the world
appointed Sam Adams
as their ambassador,
the unicorn smiled
at his victory
it had been a long time
living in exile
in the other dimensions.
April 10—Free day—a topic or focus of your choosing! (And this might be free verse, too! Or not! Exercise your free will!)
Too Much Stuff PSH
I have too much stuff
Too many things bought
Over the years
Too many books
Too many records
Too many kitchen gadgets.
Too many khachkars
From all over the world
Too much artwork,
Too many clothes
Just too much stuff.
Since I live abroad
If I die overseas
Most of what I have
Will be thrown away.
We are getting rid
Of somethings
Along the way.
Donated some books
To the Army library
Might downsize some
Of my library,
Maybe sell it
To a used English
language bookstore.
My record collection
Will be given
To my younger brother-in-law
Who can sell it off?
The artwork
The kitchen stuff
The clothes
Probably will stay
With me.
Some may go
With me, if I ever
Return home.
But I doubt anyone
Will pay to ship things back
Just the way it is
Being an aging ex-pat.
Write about your knick-knacks, your tchotchkes, and your Dollar Store finds. Explain why you can’t quit buying them, and what you think your heirs will do with them when you die.
Taste of Korean Food Korea Writer’s Digest
kimchi
When I first encountered Korean food
I was overwhelmed by the strong taste, fragrance
And the strangeness at time of Korean food
Now known worldwide as K Food.
Hot, raw, sweet yet sour,
spicy, in your face mixture
of smells, textures, and flavors.
Sweet, sour, spicy hot with a nice
Lingering after taste
Bursting with fermentation and flavors
That is the essence of K food.
I tried it all
When I first got to Korea
43 years ago
It was just overwhelming.
Took a while
But I learned to love
K food.
A typical Korean meal
Is somewhat like a Japanese
Or a Chinese meal
But different.
Consists of rice,
A soup of some sort
Sometimes hearty stew
Lots of vegetable-based side dishes
Perhaps some eggs.
Everybody’s Kimchi
is a bit different,
yet they all share
A similar blend of:
Alcohol
cabbage
chili peppers
fermentation
fish
fish sauce,
garlic,
onion,
red peppers,
salt
sugar
soy sauce
sometimes
made with dandelion
radish
Cucumber
springtime wild herbs.
All rolled up in an intoxicating blend
Of smells and flavors
That was my introduction
to the lowly Kimchi,
The staple of K food,
I soon became a K Food fan
Craving its intoxicating flavor
And smells with every meal.
Married a Korean gal
We eat Korean style
Almost every meal.
Now 40 years later
I am still a K Food efficient
Enjoying the fragrance, the smell
The overwhelming tastes.
And intoxicating tastes
Can’t get enough of that
Funky stuff.
For today’s prompt, write a taste poem. Back on day three, we wrote a small poem; let’s write about the sense of taste today. Of course, I’m thinking about tasting wine, cheese, or chocolate. But feel free to indulge in a person’s taste in fashion, cars, or whatever else requires real taste.
two related poems The Smell of Korean Food and the Feel of Korean food follow:
The Smells of Korean food
bulgogi-central-park-rotated.jpg
When I first encountered Korean food
I was overwhelmed by the strong smell
Bursting with fermentation and flavors
Hot, raw, sweet yet sour,
spicy, in your face mixture
of smells and flavors
everybody’s Kimchi
is a bit different
yet they all share
A similar blend of
Alcohol
cabbage
chili peppers
fermentation
fish
fish sauce,
garlic,
onion,
red peppers,
salt
sugar
soy sauce
sometimes
made with dandelion
radish
springtime wild herbs
All rolled up in an intoxicating blend
Of smells and flavors
That was my introduction
to the lowly Kimchi
The staple of Korean food,
I soon became a kimchi addict
Craving its intoxicating flavor
And smells with every meal
Now 40 years later
I am still a kimchi addict
Enjoying the fragrance, the smell
And intoxicating tastes
Can’t get enough of that
Funky stuff.
For today’s prompt, write a smell poem. Strong writing uses sensory language, and one sense that is often overlooked is the sense of smell. So write about the pungent smell of teenage socks, the exquisite odor of fresh lasagna, or the coppery scent of a summer shower. Smell you later!
The Feel of Korean Food Writers’ Digest
octopus on plate ready to be cooked,italyoctopus on plate ready to be cooked,italy
Korean food is a full sensory experience
Overwhelming one with smells, flavors
And textures as well.
One day back in the Peace Corps day
My best friend visited me
From Indonesia where he
Had been hanging out.
It was the dead of winter
15 degrees F.
When he got on the plane
It was 90 degrees F.
We bought winter clothes
Then I decided to treat him
To an infamous Korean disk
산 나치
San Nachi
or Live Octopus.
they brought it out
the octopus tentacles
were moving about.
I taught him
The proper technique
Grab it by the chopstick
Dip it in hot sauce
And chew it a long time
Sometimes unwary
Or drunk eaters
Encounter a problem
When the suckers
Get stuck in one’s mouth
Sometimes requires a trip to the ER.
The texture is slimy
And a big disgusting
Need a lot to drink
The first time around.
My friend tried it
But said never again
And we both bring it up
From time to time.
He was not a big fan
Of the 산 나치
San Nachi.
Never tried that again
But he did like
Other things we ate
That winter.
For today’s prompt, write a touching poem. We’ve already done smell and taste; let’s move on to the sense of touch. Of course, all these prompts are open to interpretation, and touch connects many paths, including touching up a picture, touching down an airplane, bringing a soft or human touch to a situation, and even playing touch and go (or tag). However, in your poem, feel encouraged to put your personal touch on this prompt.
Sam Adams Final Chances Local Gems
lovers sunset
Sam Adams
At the end of life
Was looking back
In his past life.
Lost in his memories,
Remembering things he had done
Thinking about things he had done
And thinking about second, third,
Fourth, fifth and sixth chances
in his long life.
But in the end, he thought most about
His only final chance
He took regarding love.
When he jumped into life
With his beloved wife
After dreaming of her
For eight years.
When they met
He knew that was it
That was his final chance
Of finding true love.
And that was how
He met his fate
On that September date.
The Revenge of The Shrimp
Shrimp
Sam Adams and friends
Were enjoying a shrimp feast
Watching the live shrimp
Being roasted
Waiting to enjoy eating them.
The head shrimp
Jumped out of the pot
Followed by other shrimp
Soon thousands of shrimp
Were everywhere.
The head shrimp spoke up
“humans,
What gives you the right to kill us
To eat us?
To burn us alive.?
Perhaps we should kill you
Tear you apart
And eat you?
Would you like that
You human scumbags?”
The shrimp surrounded the humans
Swarming all over them
Killing them, burning them.
As they overturned the flaming pots.
Biting them
Smothering them in hot sauce.
As they ate them.
Screaming,
“Death to all humans!”
The head shrimp finally said,
“Enough, no more
Time to go
We are so out of here.”
The shrimp
All ran out the door
And back into
the shrimp farm waters.
The firefighters
Found the charred remains
Of the humans.
Now just charred
skin and bones
Wondering how they died.
The shrimp in the pound
Looked out,
Wondering if they should attack
But decided they had eaten
Enough human meat
For the evening.
Hillary Clinton and the Right-wing Conspiracy NaPoWriMo
Hilary Clinton said
that her husband
Had been the victim
Of a vast,
large right-wing conspiracy
That continued to this day
Little did we know
That the real leaders
Of the conspiracy
Was based in Russia
Where Putin
Wanted to try large
Remaking the world
And in the process
Destroy the world
Putin was the large
Master of the world
Trump was just
Their latest puppet
Our featured participant for the day is . . . two featured participants because, once again, I just couldn’t choose. First, we have Whimsy gizmo’s, which brings us a love poem for that most poetic of celestial objects, the moon, and second, Snigdha Choudhury, who brings us an exclamatory take on unrequited love.
And now for our (optional) prompt. Following up on yesterday’s love poem, I have for you another deceptively simple challenge. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about a very large thing. It could be a mountain or a blue whale or a skyscraper or a planet or the various contenders for the honor of being the Biggest Ball of Twine. Whatever giant thing you choose, I hope this chance to verify in praise of the huge gets your poetic engines humming.
Love in Korean Dew Drop Inn
When sam Adams
first met her
The lady of his dreams
There was as the Koreans
Would say
Spark from heart to heart
이심촌심isimchonsim
truly love at first sight
첫눈에 반하다cheosnun-e banhada
they both knew
that it is just fate
운명unyoung
that they had met
that date.
Two months later
They were married
It all happened
40 years ago
48 years after
She first came
To him in his dreams.
April 11—somehow incorporate a word or phrase of another language into your poem
The Powers That Be – Who are They? (Revised) Writers’ Digest
Male alligator in office clothing suit and shirt, dangerous business man concept- mixed media
Jan 12, 2021 … The deadly Capitol siege was fueled by far-out conspiracy theorists, … The notion of shape-shifting, blood-sucking reptilian humanoids …
Reptilians – also called reptoids, lizard people, archons, reptiloids, saurians, or draconians – are supposed reptilian humanoids, which play a prominent …
They are among us. Blood-drinking, flesh-eating, shape-shifting extraterrestrial reptilian humanoids with only one objective in their cold-blooded little …
Watching the news unfold
Every day
I wonder who “they” are
The secret powers
That run the world
From behind the scenes?
There are rumors
That the powers
Of the universe,
The masters of the universe
The secret power brokers
Are not-human.
They are shape-shifting
Reptilian creatures
from the Palaskan empire
in Sirius, the dog star.
their agents Trump and Putin
were doing a great job
disrupting and weakening the world.
It was time though
Said the head of the committee
The committee does not exist.
That was the control tower
Of the alien conspiracy
Of the secret powers that be.
For the invasion fleet to arrive
And finish the job
Of enslaving humanity
A job that they failed to do
When they controlled Atlantis
And later the Roman Empire.
For today’s prompt, write a power poem. Your poem could somehow involve electricity, solar power, fossil fuels, wind, or water. It could illustrate a power play or someone exerting their power over someone else. Of course, you could also write about a power outage. You alone have the power to poem your way through this prompt.
Lost Alone in the Desert writing Com
Sam Adams
Was walking alone
In the desert.
After fleeing the alien
Invasion of Las Vegas
As the giant Nazi Spiders
took control.
He joined other refugees
Wondering in the desert
The hot sun bearing down
On him.
There were rumors
That the aliens
Would be bombing Las Vegas
With nuclear weapons.
he paused to look back
and saw the city
disappear in a nuclear blast.
he continued
wandering through
alone, lost in the desert.
The desert can be metaphorical or literal, your choice.
Line count: minimum of 12, no max
Obsolete Tech Items PSH
old typewriterjpg
Over the years
I have collected a few
Obsolete items
That is no longer made
But for some reason
I have saved it.
The first is an old telephone
From Mumbai
That was the police hotline phone
Between the consulate
And the police headquarters
Back in the 1940s or earlier.
The telephone people
Found it when they were updating
The consulate’s phone lines.
I took one look at it
And fell in love with it
And the history behind it
Still have it.
The other item is a 1920’s era
Typewriter I inherited
From my grandfather.
I kept it to remind me
That I am a writer
When I look at it
It calls to me.
Keep writing
These items
Have been around
The world with me.
And will be with me
Until I die
Then who knows
Where will they end up?
Who will care by then?
As I will be in the next world.
Welcome to Cosmos’ annual April Poetry Madness. Last year I wrote 300 poems in one month, this year I will write less as that was just way too much to deal with.
Today’s poems will be April 6th poems followed by April 7 to 10 in separate postings, one per day.
I will post them as I write them, and try to update them every day or so. I will finish May 1 US time, as that will still be April 30 KST (Korea, where I currently reside.) Most will be G rated but a few may not be. I will try to label those or not post them. The topics will be wherever my mad muse takes me, and I usually don’t have a clue until I write them.
I will post here the poems I wrote based on prompts from NaPoWriMo, (the poetry’s world’s equivalence to the annual NaNoWriMo novel competition which I will enter again in November). Writers’ com’s Dew Drop-in, Poetry Super-highway, Writers Digest, and occasionally other prompts. I will write a few more each day, but not post them, as I need to build up more “unpublished poems” for future submissions.
Daily posting All poetry, Anchor, this blog, FB, Medium, PSH, Wattpad, Writing com, and Writer’s Digest.
I will post each poem, followed by the prompt, occasional author and notes, and photos. I will convert it to a podcast later, available on anchor, radio public, blog radio, Spotify, and elsewhere under the name “The World According to Cosmos: or Jake Cosmos Aller. See the following for more information on the podcasts.
At the end of the month, I will add up the total poems written this month, total posted, total not-posted, and total YTD.
I have found that this annual exercise has been a big help in helping me hone my craft as I am entirely self-taught except for having taken the Mod Po class several times. It helps me stretch my poetic muscles. It has been a lot of fun but a challenge.
Sam Adams Goes Down the Rabbit Hole, NaPoWriMo Prompt
Sam Adams was having a bad night
He often would fall into a deep trouble sleep
Where his mind would go down deep
Into the proverbial rabbit holes
Exploring one dark nightmare
After another.
He saw himself in Ukraine
As a front line soldier
Watching the Russians
Come in killing people
Left and right.
Saw the Russians line up
And execute men
Raping women and children
Setting the victims on fire.
Then he was in the U.S.
When the nukes began to fall
All over the world
Armageddon on steroids.
Nuclear madness erupted
The Russians bombing NATO allies
The US, French and British firing back
Berlin, DC, London, Moscow became
Nuclear graveyards.
China bombs Taiwan,
Then invades the island.
India and Pakistan trade nuclear attacks.
Iran attacks Israel and Saudi as well.
North Korea invades the South
Nukes flying over Seoul
And Tokyo
Amid this total madness
Giant ships appear in the sky
And a full scale
the alien invasion begins.
The terrified survivors
flee the carnage
As nuclear winter
settles on the land.
The invaders from the sky
End the war
Enslaving most humans
That had survived.
Somehow Sam Adams and his wife
Were still alive
Living in a refugee camp
Deep in the mountains.
Fleeing the wild animals
The tigers, lions, and wolves
That were feasting on dead humans
And cattle everywhere.
The aliens following the humans
Looking for more to enslave.
The nuclear war though was over
The few remaining soldiers
Fighting against the common enemy,
Sam Adams woke up
Realizing that it was all
Just a nightmare.
Turning on the TV
Watching the carnage in Ukraine
He wondered if his nightmare
Was it an omen of the future?
April 6—Rabbit hole—start a poem on one topic, and let it lead you down a “rabbit hole” of discovery, burrowing into various topics, and maybe ending far, far away from where you started. (Let yourself research this one. Enjoy Google and Wikipedia!)
Love is Blind Dew Drop Inn
lovers winter beach
Love is blind they say
I say that love
is not blind.
Love is openness
Love is richness
Love is visionary.
Love is the smell
Love is the sound
Love is the sight
Of one’s beloved.
And when one is in love
The blind begin to see
The deaf begin to hear
The mute begins to speak
The lame begin to dance.
With love’s embrace
All the senses
Come to life.
April 7—“Play the opposites”—a theatre term I sometimes don’t like! But here I mean: do something unexpected in your poem, once or more than once. Any time you spot a cliché of feeling or words, try its opposite, and somehow make it work!
You PSH
You are everything
That a man could ever
Dream of having,
You are the one
The one true love
The eternal soul mate.
When you first came
I knew that the struggle
For love was over.
For you were the one
And will be
Until the end of time.
April 7, 2021: Poetry Writing Prompt – Dick Westheimer
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Dick Westheimer:
Write a poem where the only pronoun is “you.”
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Super Highway Facebook Group.
#napowrimo #poetry
The Abundance of Love and Money Writers Digest
many packs of us dollars
I have had an abundance
Of love in my life
My cup does run over
Ever since I met you
My life has been filled
With love and happiness
I have had
an abundance
Of money in my life
When I met you
You were
my lotto ticket
You were my golden pig
You were the jackpot
Of the casino of my life
And now that I am an old man
I am overwhelmed
With such an abundance
Of love, happiness, and wealth
What if I die tomorrow
I will die content
With the abundance
Of everything I enjoyed
In my life with my golden pig.
Write a poem every day of April with the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write an abundance poem.
So believe it or not, and for better or worse, we’ll be a full week finished with this challenge once we write today’s poem! Are you excited? If so, would you say you have an abundance of excitement?
For today’s prompt, write an abundance poem. There can be an abundance of things, both good and bad. An abundance of sunshine, money, and chocolate. Or an abundance of rain, debt, and liverwurst. Today, I hope there will be an abundance of poeming!
Love drug Local Gems Song Lyrics
When I first saw you in September
A date that I will always remember
I knew then on that date
I had truly met my fate.
For I knew I had fallen under your spell
You had cast a mad love spell on me
Your mojo was working overtime on me
And I would be forever your love slave.
For I had to have you had to make you mine
For you were everything I longed for
Everything I was dreaming of
You were my everything.
Chorus
You were my love bug
You were my love connection
You were my love drug
You were my everything.
My foolish love bugs.
When you walked off that bus
You entered my life
And soon became my wife
And everything changed.
From that moment on
I was you
And you were me
Just the way it should be,
It was 39 years since you walked
Into my life,
Turning it inside out
Tearing it upside down.
And for 39 years together
Every single day, every hour, every minute
Every single second whenever I look at you
I fell madly in love again and again and again.
Just the way it is
Between you and me
For you are my love angel
Sent to rescue me.
Chorus
You were my love bug
You were my love connection
You were my love drug
You were my everything.
My foolish love connection,
When I first saw you there
Your cosmic love vibrations
Sent me flying to the moon
To Jupiter and beyond.
Flying on the back
Of your love
Returning me once more
To your waiting embrace.
Your love came me such a thrill
The thrill has never ended
Like a fine bottle of wine
It gets better and better.
I can no longer imagine
A life without you by my side
And if you go before I do
I will surely soon follow you.
When we met that cosmic date
I knew that I had met my soul mate
And soon we would be together
Until the end of time.
Chorus
You were my love bug
You were my love connection
You were my love drug
You were my everything
My lovely love drug.
You were my love drug
I did not need any other
With your love by my side
I did not need alcohol
I did not need acid
I did not need booze
I do not need Cialis
I did not need cocaine
I did not need heroin
I did not need magic mushrooms
I did not need speed
I did not need Viagra
For you were all that I ever needed
You were indeed my love drug.
Chorus
You were my love bug
You were my love connection
You were my love drug
You were my everything
My everything
My love drug.
Welcome to Cosmos’ annual April Poetry Madness. Last year I wrote 300 poems in one month, this year I will write less as that was just way too much to deal with.
Today’s poems will be April 5th poems followed by April 6 to 10 in separate postings, one per day.
I will post them as I write them, and try to update them every day or so. I will finish May 1 US time, as that will still be April 30 KST (Korea, where I currently reside.) Most will be G rated but a few may not be. I will try to label those or not post them. The topics will be wherever my mad muse takes me, and I usually don’t have a clue until I write them.
I will post here the poems I wrote based on prompts from NaPoWriMo, (the poetry’s world’s equivalence to the annual NaNoWriMo novel competition which I will enter again in November). Writers’ com’s Dew Drop-in, Poetry Super-highway, Writers Digest, and occasionally other prompts. I will write a few more each day, but not post them, as I need to build up more “unpublished poems” for future submissions.
Daily posting All poetry, Anchor, this blog, FB, Medium, PSH, Wattpad, Writing com, and Writer’s Digest.
I will post each poem, followed by the prompt, occasional author and notes, and photos. I will convert it to a podcast later, available on anchor, radio public, blog radio, Spotify, and elsewhere under the name “The World According to Cosmos: or Jake Cosmos Aller. See the following for more information on the podcasts.
At the end of the month, I will add up the total poems written this month, total posted, total not-posted, and total YTD.
I have found that this annual exercise has been a big help in helping me hone my craft as I am entirely self-taught except for having taken the Mod Po class several times. It helps me stretch my poetic muscles. It has been a lot of fun but a challenge.
While drinking coffee
In his camp
Deep in the woods
In the Trinity Alps wilderness
snuggled in his tent,
Rolled in his sleeping bag
Sam Adams had the encounter
That changed his life,
He heard a noise
Went outside
And saw five bigfoots
standing there.
They told him
In his head
They had a message
For humanity
He could videotape them
They would speak slowly
They could speak
But preferred mind to mind talk
The bigfoot was here
They wanted to re-join
The rest of humanity
They were what
Humans called Neanderthals
They lived deep in the woods
All over the world
Perhaps 10,000 were alive
Two of them will go out
With him.
They would hold a press conference
And appoint Sam Adams
As their ambassador.
Sam grinned
Thinking he could make
so much money,
Bigfoot said,
“Not so fast
We will pay you in hidden gold
But you have to promise
Not to betray us”.
Deal
Sam smiled
Yeah, you got a dear
Our featured participant today is Narrative Paralysis, where the write-a-prompt prompt for Day Four produced an extremely zany adventure. I’m not sure if it’s a prompt, but it’s a poem! Or a short story. Or, well, it’s something all right!
Today’s featured online magazine is Waxwing, which has been going strong since 2013 and is much admired for the high quality of the work found on its (web)pages. In their newest issue, I’ll point you to Alfredo Aguilar’s “Palomar Mountain” and Carly Joy Miller’s “Beloved Litany.”
And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about a mythical person or creature doing something unusual – or at least something that seems unusual about that person/creature. For example, what does Hercules do when he loses a sock in the dryer? If a mermaid wants to pick up rock climbing as a hobby, how does she do that? What happens when a mountain troll makes pancakes?
Things I Believe Drew Drop Inn Prompt
Things I believe
Who is Jake Cosmos Aller
Dreamgirl and other fairy tales
Dreams Do Come True
When We Met
The beginning of the end
The end of the beginning
April 5—List poem w/no repetition—write a list of things where the title signals what it’s a list of (Example: My Lovers, Things I Wish I’d Said to My Father, Visible at Dusk, etc.)
The Sacrifice of the Fish PSH
sashimi dinner
On New Year’s Day, February 2022
To start the year of the Black Tiger
We went to the wharf area
Near our house in Youngjondo, Korea.
We looked at the fish
Swimming in the tanks
Starting at use
With hate in their eyes.
Resigned to their fate,
Waiting to be taken
Delivered to the human creatures
For their dinner.
We took home the fish
Set the table
Pour our white wine
Ate our sashimi with gusto.
As we ate the fish
We never stop to think
What did the fish think
About that?
That is just
Why it is better to be human
Than being a fish
Swimming in a tank.
Constantine
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Brendan Constantine:
PHONE GALLERY PROMPT
Open your picture app and begin to scroll through the images.
In very simple language, note down what you see. For instance:
“Here’s me waving
Here’s the moon, too small to see
Here’s a total blur
Here’s a sandwich
Here’s my dog asleep…”
Keep scrolling and making notes.
Chances are, a theme or arc will start to present itself naturally. And real poetry may result from the simplest descriptive details – a color, a texture, the quality of light.
If you want to take things up a notch, start adding descriptions of pictures that don’t exist.
“Here’s you swallowing your car
Here’s me posing with Virginia Woolf
Here’s the cat factory
Here’s God on her birthday
(Great party. Too long, the)…”
However long you make your poem, remember that the last image will always determine its feeling.
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Superhighway Facebook Group.
#napowrimo #poetry
Prompt photos
Save for future poems – this was a fun exercise
Fish swimming looking at me
Endaemae
Smoothie
Smoothie ingredients
More ingredients
Winter snow in park January 2022
More winter snow
New year’s sashimi feast
Wharf area
Mudflats
Oceanview
Fish sign
Fish
Fish
Ocean wharf scene
More wharf scene
More wharf scene
More wharf shops
More wharf shops
More wharf shops
Fascist rabbit
COVID Nonsense Does Not Make Sense Writer’s Digest
covid 580
To this day
There is so much COVID nonsense
Floating about the internet
Being spread by so many right-wing
And left-wing influencers
It just does not make sense
To me.
There are some people
Who believes that COVID
Never really existed.
That it was all a horrid libtard plot
To lock down the economy
Imposed draconian controls
On everyone.
That vaccine mandates
Are the equivalent of
Sending Jews to the death camps,
That the unvaccinated
Will be rounded up
And forced to get vaccines
Which are the equivalent
Of Nazi medical experiments.
That the vaccines were created
To track people
Invented by Bill Gates
Or were the mark of the beast.
Some speculated that
everyone who got the vaccine
Would die in one year
Or become sterile.
Part of the nefarious plot
To depopulate the world
By the global one-world government
UN black helicopter conspiracy.
The nonsense about vaccines
Mask wearing
And COVID in general
Reveal a fundamental flaw
With many human beings.
No matter how hard one might try
To convince people who believe
This nonsense,
It is beyond any ability
To reason with them.
At the end of the day
The only thing that makes sense
Is this:
You can’t fix stupid.
2022 April PAD Challenge: Day 5
Write a poem every day of April with the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt (the first Two-for-Tuesday prompt of the month), write a make sense poem and/or don’t make sense poem.
Here we go The first Two-for-Tuesday prompt of the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge! For first-timers or those with short memories, I provide two prompts on Tuesdays, and poets get to decide whether to write one type of poem, the other type of poem and/or tackle both simultaneously (and separately).
Here are the Two-for-Tuesday prompts:
1. Write a Make Sense poem, and/or…
2. Write a Don’t Make Sense poem.
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.
Day 5: Imaginary Biography Sam Adams Local Gems
Sam Adams, aka “Big Daddy”
Was an imposing figure of a man.
Ex-football player for the University of Arkansas
And the Dallas cowboys.
Later worked for ten years
During secret work
For unnamed government agencies
Before returning home.
Where he opened
The best bar and grill in Little Rock
With the best breakfasts in the state,
Soon became the place to be
And he was the undisputed Kingmaker
Although he never ran for office
Everyone who was who in Arkansas
Sought him out.
When he died
He turns many secrets
To the grave,
Which was just fine
For his many friends
And even more enemies.
Old Couple In Love Riding a Bike Simply Six
old couple in love
An old couple
Riding a bike
In the springtime
Stop for a break.
Sitting on the park bench
They look at each other
And fall in love again.
Every day for 40 years
At least once they had fallen
In love with each other.
2022 April Poetry Madness April 1 to April 3 Poems
Welcome to Cosmos’ annual April Poetry Madness. Last year I wrote 300 poems in one month, this year I will write less as that was just way too much to deal with.
I will post them as I write them and try to update them every day or so. I will finish May 1 US time, as that will still be April 30 KST (Korea, where I currently reside.) Most will be G rated but a few may not be. I will try to label those or not post them. The topics will be wherever my mad muse takes me, and I usually don’t have a clue until I write them.
I will post here the poems I wrote based on prompts from NaPoWriMo, (the poetry’s world’s equivalence to the annual NaNoWriMo novel competition which I will enter again in November). Writers’ com’s Dew Drop-in, Poetry Super-highway, Writers Digest, and occasionally other prompts. I will write a few more each day, but not post them, as I need to build up more “unpublished poems” for future submissions.
Daily posting All poetry, Anchor, this blog, FB, Medium, PSH, Wattpad, Writing com, and Writer’s Digest.
I will post each poem, followed by the prompt, occasional author and notes, and photos. I will convert it to a podcast later, available on anchor, radio public, blog radio, Spotify, and elsewhere under the name “The World According to Cosmos: or Jake Cosmos Aller. See the following for more information on the podcasts.
At the end of the month I will add up the total poems written this month, total posted, total not-posted, and total YTD.
I have found that this annual exercise has been a big help in helping me hone my craft as I am entirely self-taught except for having taken the Mod Po class several times. It helps me stretch my poetic muscles. It has been a lot of fun but a challenge.
Never Been One To Ease Into Things! Dew Drop-In
F April Fool’s Day Writers com Prompt
Bigfoot Emerges After the Fall of Humanity PSH prompt
Epic Retirement Road Trip Local Gem
Saturday April 2
Insomnia Blues Dew Drop In Sleep—
A Solivagant’s Journey To Distant Time Writers Digest
Sara Moore’s Anuptaphobia PSH Prompt
Second Chances? Writer’s Digest
Last Day In The Government Service Local Gem Prompt
Sunday April 3 Poems
Alone Glosa NaNoPoMo Po
Power of Love Dew Drop In
Mathematical Poem PSH prompt
Writer’s Digest te Smell of Korean Food Writers Digest
Something Fixable Local Gems
April 1
I have Bad Teeth NaPoWriMo
I have bad teeth. Always have since birth. I had braces as a child and hated it. Hated going to the dentist. Put it off too long, too often. Ended up with multiple root canals, and bone grafts, and finally lost six teeth and had to have dentures.
Lately, my remaining teeth have been behaving a bit better I may lose another tooth before the end but that should be enough.
I am waiting for the development of dental clones which I hope will happen soon so I can grow perfect teeth and replace all my old rotting teach.
I tell my teeth one day my plans
“Teeth”
“Yeah master.”
“We need to talk.”
“So talk, dude.”
“I am going to replace you all with brand new teeth. You have been such pain my entire life, can’t wait.”
“So you are going to kill us off and trade us in for a new model.”
“Yeah.”
“Bastard, but hey, we don’t have a choice, since you are the Master and we are merely your eating machine slaves.”
“Yeah, you got that right.”
And last but not least, our optional prompt! I got this one from a workshop I did last year with Beatrix Gates, and I’ve found it helpful. The prompt is based on Robert Hass’s remarkable prose poem,
“A Story About the Body.” The idea is to write your prose poem that, whatever title you choose to give it, is a story about the body. The poem should contain an encounter between two people, some spoken language, and at least one crisp visual image.
Forever Might Be Short NaPoWriMo
I shall love you forever
Until the end of time itself.
But forever might seek short
As time loses meaning
In the afterlife.
But until then
I will love you
With all my heart.
Happy writing!
For those of you who want to get a jump on things (either because it’s already April 1 where you are or, who knows, maybe you’re just a glutton for poetry!), we’ve got a special early-bird prompt, based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
Dickinson is known for her elliptical style, unusual word choices, and mordant sense of humor. Over the past year, I’ve experimented with writing poems based on or responding to, various lines from her poems. Today, I’d like to challenge you to do the same! Here are a few lines of Dickinson’s that might appeal to you
(the slashes indicate line breaks):
“Forever might be short”
“The absence of the Witch does not / Invalidate the spell”
“If to be ‘Elder’ – mean most pain – / I’m old enough, today”
“The second half of joy / Is shorter than the first”
“To be a Flower is profound / Responsibility –
And if none of those inspire you, you can find many of her poems here.
Post a poem then write a reaction Poem
For those of you getting a jump-start in April, happy writing! As for the rest of you, I’ll see you back here tomorrow with our first “official” prompt, featured participant, and featured online magazine.
To Love Thee Year By Year
Poem 434
To love thee
Year by Year
May less appear
Then sacrifice, and cease
However, dear,
Forever might be short,
I thought to show
And so I pieced it,
with a flower, now.
Warming Up to the Day Dew Drop-in = Writing com Prompt
Warming Up to the Day
I start my day drinking a cup
Of hot coffee come what may
I like to warm up
To the dawning day.
I start by getting up at dawn,
Then while reading my emails and biking two k
While brewing up my coffee, my nightmares are soon gone,
Looking at my Facebook messages turns my mood grey.
Then I turn on CNN, watch the news,
While doing my dream journal prewriting,
draft poems, stories, writing com writing.
Following my ever-creative muse.
I wake up my wife
The love of my life
And want to play
Discussing our plans for the day.
Have my morning breakfast
usually a smoothie, or kefir.
My homemade breakfast gives me much pleasure
just like in my private bed and breakfast.
Turning off the news,
Turning on music, listening to the blues
about 11 a.m., I start my day
Ready for whatever comes my way.
After finishing my “me time” warm-up
I am ready to press on
That is the way
I like to warm up to the day.
It is not warming up where I live, but, sadly, getting colder again. And now building up to a thunderstorm. Aauugghh!
But we can warm up with a warm-up poem!
Let’s practice the basic method of replying to this post with a poem (full text) somehow on the theme of “warming up.” It could be weather/temperature related, sports/practice related, or some other creative interpretation of “warming up.”
Write away! Post away (via a reply to this post)!
Note: one of my few rhyming poems.
Re-born Local Gem
September 7th, 1982
Was the day that my life
Truly began
When I met the lady
That had haunted my dreams
For eight years.
She walked off the bus
In Korea,
Told me that she was mine
And I was hers.
We got married
Six-weeks later.
Still together 40 years later.
Ups and downs
But always falling in love
Again, and again.
Day 1: A Day You Started Something Write a poem about a day in which you started something. It could be anything, joining a sports team, writing a book, a new school, a new job, anything.
No More April Fool’s Day! Writer’s Cramp
At the start of April
There is another silly superstition
Like Groundhog Day,
That is no longer that relevant.
That is the annual April Fool’s Day
When one is supposed to engage
In games of deception to fool the unwary,
But after the four years
Of the extraneous folly
That was the reign
Of “he who cannot be named,”
Every day seemed an April Fool’s Day
An April Fool’s Day that lasted
A bit less than four years.
Presided over by the greatest fool
Of all time, The self-proclaimed
“Pretty smart stable genius”
“Who had the best words”
The smartest man in the world
According to him,
“The man that cannot be named.”
Concealed every day
In his daily haiku/tanka
like cosmic tweets
Were the germs of the hatred
That he had infected
Into the body politics.
Unencumbered by the old-fashioned notion
Superman’s “Truth, Justice, and the American way”
Replaced by Lies, injustice and
Make America First propaganda nonsense.
In the end, the entire world drowned its reason
In the electric acid “Koo aid” of unreason.
That is the ridiculous
Heart of the MAGA nightmare.
So, no more April Fool’s Day
We have had enough already.
In celebration of April Fool’s Day, write a story or poem about fooling (or being fooled by) someone. It may be in any genre.
Use the words:
* deception
* extraneous
* concealed
* unencumbered
* ridiculous
(The words may appear in any order in your story, but make sure you make them bold.)
NB: The most successful entries will be those which use the words in a meaningful way, so that they occur naturally in the story, rather than feeling artificial as if awkwardly shoe-horned in.
Never Been One to Ease into Things! Dew Drop-In
Never been one
Who could ease into things,
Just not how I roll.
I am the dude
Who jumps into the water
Headless of the danger.
Just because
It was time
To jump in.
I am the kind of dude
Who never eases into
the buffet line.
Who boldly marches in
grabbing everything
And eating it all.
And most importantly
When I saw my wife
The love of my life
The lady of my dreams.
I did not ease up
On that thang.
No, I dove headfirst
Into the ocean
Of her endless love.
And was the best decision
Of all time.
If we had waited
Getting to know each
As most sane couples do,
Perhaps we never
would have lasted
For 40 years.
The moral of this poem
is simply this
You have to know
when to ease
Into things,
And you have to know
When to rush in.
When fools march
Into the lion’s den
That is the love
Of one’s life.
Don’t ease up!
Don’t tense up!
Jump into the ocean
Of your love.
You will never regret it
If you do,
And always regret it
If you ease into it
And never reach
The ocean of her love,
Waiting for you,
But with a time limit
Tick tock
Times up.
Jump or ease on out
Of there,
And say goodbye.
Easing in—write a poem about easing into something (poetry month, a pair of jeans, a new job or stage in life, a swimming pool…
F April Fool’s Day Writers Digest
F April Fool’s Day, I say.
In April, every year in the Anglo speaking world.,
There is another silly superstition
Like Groundhog Day,
That is no longer that relevant.
That is the annual April Fool’s Day
When one is supposed to engage
In games of deception to fool the unwary,
But after four years
Of the extraneous folly
That was the reign
Of “he who cannot be named,”
Every day seemed an April Fool’s Day
An April Fool’s Day that lasted
A bit less than four years.
I say again
F April Fool’s Day!
After almost four years
Of a Daily April Fool’s Day
Presided over by the greatest fool
Of all time, The self-proclaimed
“Pretty smart stable genius”
“Who had the best words”
The smartest man in the world
According to him,
“The man that cannot be named.”
It is time to discard
April Fool’s Day
In the ashcan of history
Concealed every day
In his daily haiku/tanka like cosmic tweets
Were the germs
Of the hatred
That he had infected
Into the body politics.
Unencumbered by the old-fashioned notion
Superman’s “Truth, Justice, and the American way”
Replaced by Lies, injustice and
Make America First “
In the end, the entire world drowned its reason
In the electric acid “Koo aid” of unreason.
That is the ridiculous
Heart of the MAGA nightmare,
I say again
F April Fool’s Day
We have had enough already.
Here we are on the first day of the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge! Each day, I’ll provide a poetry prompt and a poem to get things started. You can secretly poem along at home, or you can share your poem in the comments below.
For today’s prompt, pick a word that begins with F, make it the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. I don’t know if it’s because today is April Fool’s Day, Friday, or just the first day of the challenge, but today feels like an F type of day. So figure out a way to foreshadow your future poems or do whatever else will help you F it all up today.
Bigfoot Emerges After the Fall of Humanity PSH prompt
After the bombs stop falling
After the nuclear winter
After the collapse of civilization
All that remains
Are a few scattered bands
Of humans
Many are reduced
To starvation
Bigfoot who are the descendants
Of the Neanderthals
Who lived on
In the mountain wilderness
Came down
And took pity
On their human cousins.
They soon began
A new, kinder hybrid civilization
Based on the smoldering ruins
of the ancient era
Which was soon forgotten.
Except in the few university towns
That kept some of the knowledge
Of the past alive.
Particularly solar and wind power
Which was soon everywhere
As was a rudimentary internet.
Linking the college towns
The nearby markets
And the remains
Of the old central governments.
New countries slowly emerged
New trading routes
And civilization slowly recovered
It took hundreds of years
Amid the new ice age
That settled down
In most of the world.
April 1, 2022: Poetry Writing Prompt – Maria DePaul
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Maria DePaul:
Wildlife thrives in the unlikeliest of places. In remembrance of the struggles of the Ukrainian people against Russian invasion troops, think of the cats, deer, lynx, wolves, and other animals that persist in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Then write a poem, flash fiction, or creative nonfiction about how to survive and thrive in the most perilous of circumstances.
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Superhighway Facebook Group.
The day after I retired
From 28 years in the Federal government service
Twenty-six years in the Foreign Service
Two years Peace Corps
We left for an epic road trip
10,000 miles
35 states
In April – June 2016
When Trumpism first emerged
Driving through flyover country
I knew that the Donald
For some weird reason
Connected with the downtrodden
Forgotten people
Of the rural hinterland.
I knew he would win
He was everywhere
In red-state America.
Hillary was nowhere
Outside the
coastal blue enclaves.
And I was so glad
I was getting out
Before the shit storm
That was Trumpism.
Would sweep through the government
Destroying so much
Of the government in the process.
Day 2: A Day You Finished Something Write a poem about a day in which you ended something. It could be anything; a job, a class, a relationship, etc…………………..
You got the insomnia blues
Nothing works
You can’t sleep
You stare at the ceiling.
Your mind plays an endless tape
Of gloom, and doom
Worries and fears
All night long.
The latest dark
SF series you saw
The latest scary headlines
Endless possibilities play out.
The latest news of war
The latest news about the stock market
About the endless pandemic
Dancing across your mind’s internal eye.
What if I have COVID
What if have Cancer?
What if I have the big Alzheimer’s
What is the stock market wipes me out?
What if the North Koreans invade Seoul?
Where would we go to escape the invasion?
What if the zombie apocalypse starts?
What if, what if, what if……
You stare at your watch.
4:01 a,m.
You try to sleep, but nothing works
The dark thoughts continue to play
Across your mind’s eye
Tormenting you, torturing you.
4:05 a,m.
You debate whether
To give up
Get up
Start your morning routine.
4:10 a.m.
You give in
And try to sleep
Checking the time
Every few minutes.
Perhaps you might
Get a few fitful hours
Of much-needed sleep
Most likely not.
6:30 a.m.
Until day-break
Blasts you awake
As the dawning sun
Fills the room.
You get up
Having had only two hours of sleep
That is the curse
Of the insomnia blues.
Sam Adams took off one day
His goal is to be a world traveler.
A WT, a Solivagant
Traveling the world
With his backpack, a laptop
His clothes, and not much more.
A minimal amount of money
Staying at cheap hostels
See as much of the world
as he could within two years.
Near the end of his travels
Deep in the vast wilderness
Of the Himalayas.
He came to a temple
Deep in the mountains
The old wizen monk
Greeted him warmly
He got so few visitors
to his out of the way temple
Lost in time and space.
Over tea, he told Sam,
That there was in his temple
A gateway to other worlds.
But it was a one-way gate
Did Sam accept the challenge?
None ever came back
So, he did not know where
They might end up,
Just a distant time and place
That is all he knew.
He had come from another place
and time a long time ago
For it was a one-way gate
On the other end as well.
Sam stepped through the portal
Telling the monk,
“I always felt that,
Distant times were calling me.”
And now for our daily prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on a word featured in a tweet from Haggard Hawks, an account devoted to obscure and interesting English words. Will you choose a word like “aprosexia,” which means “an inability to concentrate”? Or maybe something like “greenout,” which is “the relief a person who has worked or lived in a snowy area for a long time feels on seeing something fresh and green for the first time”? Whatever you choose happy writing!
Sara Moore’s Anuptaphobia PSH
Sara Moore was a 30ish young woman
Who was suffering from anuptaphobia?
Ever since she turned down
Her rich Thai boyfriend
gave her a gift of an antique, expensive
Pigmean damassin.
Because she thought that it
Implied she would be
His mistress in the Thai tradition,
As a “Mia Noi”
She conspued his offer
Saying
“I ain’t going to be anyone’s “mia noi”
Or mistress, you got that Mister?”.
He responded,
“Then my curse on you
Is that you will always be single
And die an angry old spinster
Rejecting my sincere offer
Of love”
“Does that mean you
would divorce your wife
To be with me?”
“Of course not”.
She laughed.
“I did not think so.”
She left Thailand
And was now regretting
Her harsh condemnation
Of her ex-boyfriend.
An unusual word (or two) within a poem can make a reader (and writer) pause—but if the word is intriguing, this can enrich a writing and reading experience. Use AT LEAST ONE of the following words in your writing exercise.
The prompt was to use at least one of the following unusual words in a poem
I chose the following:
conspue—v.t. to spurn contemptuously.
pigmean—adj. very small.
damassin—n. a brocade with gold and silver threads.
I also chose a Thai expression:
Mia Noi Thai word for mistress means “ Little Wife “ as opposed to the Mia Yaa the big, legal wife. Most rich men have a mia noi or two, and even poor and middle-class men aspire to have a “Mia Noi” at some time. No one gets a divorce and often Mia Yaa and Mia Noi become friends. This ancient tradition may be dying out, it was still very common back in the 1990s.
Other word prompts included
scrvello—n. an elephant’s tusk.
tyg—n. a large ceramic 17th-century drinking mug with 12 handles.
meristic—adj. pertaining to or divided into segments.
halotic—adj. easy to catch.
zibeb—n. a raisin.
papillote—n. a paper ruffle decorating a lamb chop bone.
erudite—adj. freed from wrinkles; very smooth.
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Superhighway Facebook Group.
#napowrimo #poetry
Second Chances? Writer’s Digest
There are no Second Acts
Sam Adams, an old man
Was contemplating his life
As he turned 85 years old.
Recalling the adage
That there are no second acts
No true second chances.
He concluded
That was not true!
For he had had numerous
second chances,
Third,
fourth,
fifth chances.
To get it right in the end.
Failed the first grade,
Almost failed in high school.
Flunked out of his second college,
Three tries at three colleges,
before he graduated from college.
Four failed relationships
Before he met
the love of his life.
35 different jobs
Four careers
Peace Corps,
Teaching,
Foreign service,
Blogging and writing.
Lived in four states,
And ten countries,
Traveled to all 50 states
And 55 countries
Cheated death 25 times.
And concluded
There are multiple chances
In life.
And each one teaches a lesson
Those who fail end up winning
And those win early on
Often ending failing
Spectacularly in the end.
It does not matter
Much in the end
We all end up in the same place,
When the grim reaper calls our name.
Just take the opportunities
That life throws at you
Never looking back
But learning life’s lessons,
And continue
One step after another.
Until the grim reaper
calls for you.
Those were his final words
in his poem
“Final chances awaiting me”.
The grim reaper came for him
That night.
Write a poem every day of April with the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a second chance poem.
Welcome back! It’s day two of the April PAD Challenge, and it’s your second chance to write a poem this month.
For today’s prompt, write a second chance poem. That second chance could be a second chance at a relationship, at living life, or doing the right thing. Maybe play with whether it’s deserved or not, or just dive straight into giving or taking that second chance.
Local Gem:
Day 2: A Day You Finished Something
Last day in the government service Local Gem Prompt
I served almost 28 years
In the government service.
Two years in the Peace Corps
25 and a half with the Foreign service.
I served in Korea in the Peace Corps
Later in the FS.
I served in ten countries
Over a 27-year career.
Serving in Korea, Thailand, India,
Antiqua, Barbados (based there),
Grenada, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent,
Spain, and six years in DC.
When I left the service
We drove across the country
Just the wife and me
To re-discover America.
After so many years abroad
Representing the US government
All over the world.
My last day officially
Occurred as I was driving
Across the country
It was late April 2016
My last official day
Was April 30, 2016.
We stopped off
In Windsor, Arizona
Saw the shrine to the song
Take it easy.
And realized that
I finally could take it easy
That was my last official day
In government service.
From the beginning of his life
Sam Adams felt alone.
He felt somehow different than others.
He did not know why or how.
He was just born different.
He grew up lonely,
Never fitting in.
Had no real friends at all.
He was all alone all the time.
From childhood’s hour, I have not been.
He grew up in a dysfunctional family.
Not much love to go around.
Always felt like an outsider.
Always wondering why
He felt this way.
His parents had no answers.
They barely spoke to each other.
Or to their troubled son.
As others were—I have not seen.
He was different.
Saw the world through different visions.
Perhaps even a bit psychotic.
His parents were eventually concerned
Enough to consult a doctor.
The doctor told them
Your son is just different than others.
Perhaps the best thing is to let him be.
Who God intended him to be.
As others saw—I could not bring.
He drifted through life
Trying drugs and alcohol.
Only to find himself alone in his dreams.
His nightmares haunted his days.
He was lost in inner space,
Never relating to others.
Just could not interact with normal people.
So in the end he became like so many others
A gunman shot up a shopping mall.
My passions from a common spring—.
Today, our featured online magazine is Rust and Moth, which has been publishing quarterly since 2008. You can browse all of their past issues here. From their newest issue, I’ll point out Leah Claire Kaminski’s lyrical “Flung Girl,” and Lucia Owen’s moving “The Gardener’s Prayer.”
And now for our (optional) prompt. This one is a bit complex, so I saved it for a Sunday. It’s a Spanish form called a “glosa” – literally a poem that glosses, explains, or in some way responds to another poem. The idea is to take a quatrain from a poem that you like, and then write a four-stanza poem that explains or responds to each line of the quatrain, with each of the quatrain’s four lines, in turn, forming the last line of each stanza. Traditionally, each stanza has ten lines, but don’t feel obligated to hold yourself to that! Here’s a nice summary of the Glose or Glosa Poems
From childhood, I have not been
Like others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I lov’d—
I lov’d alone—
Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—
From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain—
From the sun that ’round me roll’d
In its autumn tint of gold—
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass’d me flying by—
From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—
Power of Love Sidewalk Poem NaPoWriMo
My love is waiting
Waiting for me
To return
From this trip.
She is the most beautiful
Women in the world.
Have you seen her?
My Angela Lee?
Tell her I love her
Tell her I will be home
I am coming back to her.
Sidewalk poems—write a poem (or a set of them) brief enough to easily write in chalk on the sidewalk; it might fit on one sidewalk square (or a set of them down the block!)
Mathematical Poem PSH prompt
Love in a sense
Is a percentage game
You go out and meet
So many people
So many potential lovers.
In the end, you may
If you are lucky
Find the one
That is right for you.
Perhaps not
Love is like that
Plus or minus this and that.
Leading to one’s soul mate
That fills your heart
With deep love/
Prompt words
Love
Death
Health
Wealth
Dreams
Nightmares
Politics
Symbols
%
+ –
$
+
0
I picked Love and then linked it to some of the symbols
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Carol Dorf:
(Note: A version of this exercise was first published in Wingbeats II: Exercises and Practice in Poetry, which contains many generative exercises.)
from The Mathematical Poem:
There are many starting points for beginning mathematical poetry. Some begin with syllabics (Fibonacci’s are a favorite), and others emphasize the visual symbols of mathematics as Zukofsky did with the Integral and Bob Grumman does with the division sign. The mathematical poetry that I find most fascinating has both mathematical content and form.
In the “Context-Shift” poem where mathematical language is used to discuss personal life. Here’s an example of one of my “Context-Shift” poems. In this poem, I used the information I was reading about chaos theory (in Ivar Ekland’s Mathematics and the Unexpected) to write about the unexpected in my own life.
Dear Ivar,
I read your book on the unexpected.
Like most poets, I opposed mathematics
when I was young, seeing it as the converse
to feeling. The previous statement is false.
When I was very young I loved counting
and zero and even numbers. At sixteen,
I wanted to imagine calculus as a novel
of limits and motion. Yet by college,
I had learned mathematics could not correspond
to poetry in a one-to-one intensity.
Would your book have mattered to me, then?
Most likely, I would not have read it.
Today, I am sending this fan letter. Thank you
for explaining catastrophe and instability.
I spent so many years writing my way
through them. And boundaries, I kept insisting
they were psychological or geographic,
unwilling to see them as breaks
between states of matter. Your words
matter to me, a language as precise as poetry
to delineate universe and being.
Sincerely,
Carol
To begin one of these poems, fold a piece of paper in half vertically. In one column, list a few things in your life that you obsess about. In the other column write some mathematical words, symbols, or ideas. Sources for these ideas could be textbooks, web articles (in this case Wikipedia is an ok source), or odd facts you remember from school. Don’t worry too much about understanding every aspect of the idea.
Then choose one of the starting places from the first column, and let the language from the different sectors bump up against each other.
Write for 11 minutes, and then if you are so inspired, return and write on the poem for another 7 minutes.
Enjoy!
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Superhighway Facebook Group.
Korean Food
Writer’s Digest the Smell of Korean Food Writers Digest
The Smells of Korean food
When I first encountered Korean food
I was overwhelmed by the strong smell
Bursting with fermentation and flavors
Hot, raw, sweet yet sour,
spicy, in your face mixture
of smells and flavors
everybody’s Kimchi
is a bit different
Yet they all share
A similar blend of
Alcohol
cabbage
chili peppers
fermentation
fish
fish sauce,
garlic,
onion,
red peppers,
salt
sugar
soy sauce
sometimes
made with dandelion
radish
springtime wild herbs
All rolled up in an intoxicating blend
Of smells and flavors
That was my introduction
to the lowly Kimchi
The staple of Korean food,
I soon became a kimchi addict
Craving its intoxicating flavor
And smells with every meal
Now 40 years later
I am still a kimchi addict
Enjoying the fragrance, the smell
And intoxicating tastes
Can’t get enough of that
Funky stuff.
For today’s prompt, write a smell poem. Strong writing uses sensory language, and one sense that is often overlooked is the sense of smell. So write about the pungent smell of teenage socks, the exquisite odor of fresh lasagna, or the coppery scent of a summer shower. Smell you later!
Something Fixable Gun Violence Local Gems
In this day and age
Of daily gun battles
In the streets
Of any American city.
Nine gunned down
Last night in Sacramento.
It is easy to believe
That nothing can be done
To stop the carnage
In the streets.
Just like the weather
It is the cost of our freedom
For freedom is not free.
The NRA and their minions proclaim
Guns don’t kill people
People kill people.
The wrong answer
Are more guns for everyone
If that were the answer
The U.S. perhaps the most
Heavily armed country
In the world,
With more guns
That person
Would have almost no gun
Violence.
The solutions are obvious
Stricter gun laws
Enforcement of existing gun laws.
Treating gun ownership
The same as car ownership.
Prove the ability
To fire a weapon.
Universal background checks.
purchasing liability insurance
and yes, having a license.
to own a weapon
One must know the laws and rules.
Including personal liability
If a gun is stolen
And used in the commission
Of a crime.
To have no criminal,
or mental health issues,
No history of violence.
Annual limits on purchases
No military-style assault weapons
Registration of guns
With the local police
In a nationally searchable database.
None of these measures
Which are commonplace
In most civilized societies,
Would be an undue burden
On anyone rights
Except on the rights
Of the gun merchant’s ability
To continue selling us
Weapons of war.
So, I conclude this poem
About a fixable thing
We can fix the gun problem
If we have the political courage
To stand up and say
Enough, no more gun deaths
In our American streets.
But we are moving backward
With red state after red state
Weakening or eliminating
Most gun laws.
Soon we will be living again
In the wild west days
Where gunslingers killed
With impunity.
But, sadly, nothing will be done
There will be another shooting
By the time I post this poem,
when I first saw you in September
a date that I will always remember
I knew then on that date
I had truly met my fate.
for I knew I had fallen under your spell
you had cast a mad love spell on me
your mojo was working overtime on me
and I would be forever your love slave.
for I had to have you had to make you mine
for you were everything I longed for
everything I was dreaming of
you were my everything.
Chorus
You were my love bug
you were my love connection
you were my love drug
you were my everything.
my foolish love bugs.
when you walked off that bus
you entered my life
and soon became my wife
and everything changed.
from that moment on
I was you
and you were me
just the way it should be,
It was 39 years since you walked
Into my life,
turning it inside out
tearing it upside down.
and for 39 years together
every single day, every hour, every minute
every single-second whenever I look at you
I fell madly in love again and again and again.
just the way it is
between you and me
for you are my love angel
sent to rescue me.
Chorus
You were my love bug
you were my love connection
you were my love drug
you were my everything.
my foolish love connection,
when I first saw you there
your cosmic love vibrations
sent me flying to the moon
to Jupiter and beyond.
flying on the back
of your love
returning me once more
to your waiting embrace.
your love came me such a thrill
the thrill has never ended
like a fine bottle of wine
it gets better and better.
I can no longer imagine
A life without you by my side
And if you go before I do
I will surely soon follow you.
When we met that cosmic date
I knew that I had met my soul mate
And soon we would be together
Until the end of time.
Chorus
You were my love bug
you were my love connection
you were my love drug
you were my everything
my lovely love drugs
you were my love drug
I did not need any other
With your love by my side
I did not need alcohol
I did not need acid
I did not need booze
I do not need Cialis
I did not need cocaine
I did not need heroin
I did not need magic mushrooms
I did not need speed
I did not need Viagra
for you were all that I ever needed
you were indeed my love drug
Chorus
You were my love bug
you were my love connection
you were my love drug
you were my everything
my everything
Request for collaboration
This is my second attempt at writing a love song. For my musician friends out there, if you like it and would like to collaborate to turn this into a real song instant message me, and let’s talk. To the rest of you, hope you enjoyed it.
Love Jones Revised
when I first saw you in September
a date that I will always remember
I knew then on that date
I had truly met my fate.
for I knew I had fallen under your spell
you had cast a mad love spell on me
your mojo was working overtime on me
and I would be forever your love slave.
for I had to have you had to make you mine
for you were everything I longed for
everything I was dreaming of
you were my everything.
Chorus
I have the love Jones baby
And I got it bad
I have the love Jones, baby
Can’t you see just what you to me?
Love Jones baby, Love Jones for you.
when you walked off that bus
you entered my life
and soon became my wife
and everything changed.
from that moment on
I was you and you were me
It was 39 years since you walked
Into my life tearing it upside down.
and for 39 years together
every single day, every hour, every minute
every single second whenever I look at you
I fell madly in love again and again and again.
just the way it is
between you and me
for you are my love angel
sent to rescue me.
Chorus
I have the love Jones baby
And I got it bad
I have the love Jones, baby
Can’t you see just what you to me?
Love Jones baby, Love Jones for you.
when I first saw you there
your cosmic love vibrations
sent me flying to the moon
to Jupiter and beyond.
flying on the back
of your love
returning me once more
to your waiting embrace.
your love came me such a thrill
the thrill has never ended
like a fine bottle of wine
it gets better and better.
I can no longer imagine
A life without you by my side
And if you go before I do
I will surely soon follow you.
When we met that cosmic date
I knew that I had met my soul mate
And soon we would be together
Until the end of time.
Chorus
I have the love Jones baby
And I got it bad
I have the love Jones, baby
Can’t you see just what you to me?
Love Jones baby, Love Jones for you.
you were my love drug
I did not need any other
With your love by my side
I did not need alcohol
I did not need acid
I did not need booze
I do not need Cialis
I did not need cocaine
I did not need heroin
I did not need magic mushrooms
I did not need speed
I did not need Viagra
for you were all that I ever needed
you were indeed my love drug
Chorus
I have the love Jones baby
And I got it bad
I have the love Jones, baby
Can’t you see just what you to me?
Love Jones baby, Love Jones for you.
Love Jones Original Version
I got the Love Jones, baby
And it won’t leave me alone
I got the Love Jones, baby
And it won’t leave me alone
I’ve been writing these love poems
All-day long
And I have been dreaming
Of all the ways I could make love
To my secret lover
If only she will let me be
If only she will open her heart
And let me in
Perhaps the love Jones
Might leave me along
But I got the love Jones
Bad baby
Can’t you tell?
That the love Jones
Has grabbed my Soul
Twisted it up into little pieces
And I need you
To unravel the Love Jones
I need you to answer the call
Of the Love Jones Baby
I need you
To let me be free
Of the spell
Of the Love Jones
I got the Love Jones
Baby
I got it bad
And only you can
Put a stop to the love Jones
Baby
Let me enter your life
Put out the fire of desire
Send the Love Jones packing
And let me make sweet love to you
Oh, Love Jones
Go away
Let me be in peace
Love Jones
Leave me be
Baby
I got the love Jones
For you
Can’t you see?
What do you do to me?
I got the Love Jones
Baby and it ain’t going away
Until I get to make love to you
Then perhaps this Love Jones
Will leave me be
I got the love Jones
For you
Can’t you see?
What do you do to me?
I got the Love Jones
Baby and it ain’t going away
Until I get to make love to you
Then perhaps this Love Jones
Will leave me be
My Wife is My Passion
My passion is life, itself
I love my wife
The love of my life
She fills my heart
With red-hot passion
Ever since we met
She has been
My inspiration
My soul mates
My passion never fades
Please Give me a Kiss New Years Love Poem
Please said
The maiden
On New Year’s,
To her new lover
It is time
To welcome
The new years
Please give me
A French kiss,
She said
Putting down her glass
Of champagne
The man
Glanced at his companion
Flustered a bit
Grimaced,
Called for a taxi
As the Fireworks,
Went off
He twirled his red
Mustache,
She sulked off
With a big caterwaul
Filled with disappointment
Caterwaul- make a shrill howling or wailing noise like that of a cat (just noticed that autocorrect created a made-up word)
On a Fine Date in September, a Date I will Always Remember
On a fine day in September, a date I shalll always remember
she came into my life
A date I shall always remember
a few months later she became my wife
when I met her, I ended my wildlife
for on that fine Autumn date
I truly met my soul mate.
Love etheree Revised
hot
coffee
in the morn
great start today
filling me with joy
contemplating the news
drinking morning cup of Joe
thinking about my life and love
waiting for the love of my life to wake up
when she wakes up, she fills me with such love.
she talks to me my day begins to fill
with plans and many things, we must do
I smile and finish my drink
Still in awe of her beauty,
Still just madly in love.
Ever since we met
just wondering
how I met
her that
day.
Drinking Coffee is My Delight Coffee
coffee
drinking coffee is my morning delight
as I drink my coffee I must write
reflecting upon what has become my life
enjoying every morning I am with my wife
no longer filled with so much strife
I am filled with love for my oldwife
Truly a dream woman come to life
enjoying my love during this midlife
no longer filled with so much strife
feeling so much that is my birthright
knowing that with her love everything is alright.
no longer lost in despair and lowlife
knowing with her love this is real life
no longer filled with fear and affright
no longer filled with so much strife
My Love is as
My love is like a bright
Red rose to bloom in a field
Filling the air
with its sweet perfume of love
My love is like a bright tomato
Filling my plate
with delightful flavors
My love is a hummingbird
Fluttering here and there
Spreading love along the way
My love is like an apple
Filling the air
With its sweet fragrance
And filling me with love
My love is like a race car
Waiting for me to go with her
Exploring the world together
My wife is like a glass
Of the most delicious red wine
As it ages it gets better and better
My wife is bright red
Filled with passionate
And inciting desire
My wife smells
Like the greatest perfume
Ever created
So mysterious and alluring
In her fragrance of desire.
My wife is like the best dessert
That I have ever had
So sweet, so delicious
And all for me.
My wife and I speak
Our language
A mixture of English, Korean
Spanish mixed
Filled with love
And special meanings.
Decorating my Space with memories of Love
I have lived
All over the world
In many different spaces
Many different places
Many different towns
Many different cities
Many different apartments
Many different living arrangements
And each time I decorate
My internal space
My home
It is different
My house is always
A mixture of things
Knickknacks from around
The world
Filled with items
That is filled with memories
Of my and mine wife’s past
As I look at my things
I am comforted
Memories of the past
Fill my mind
With love, peace
And contentment.
Drinking Coffee is My Delight Coffee
Close up white coffee cup with heart shape latte art on wood table at cafe.
drinking coffee is my delight
as I sit and do my morning write
I sit thinking about my wife
wondering yet again is that my fate
on that day was that the date?
I think back on my life
drinking coffee in the morning
with my lovely wife
drinking coffee in the morning
with my lovely wife
the love of my life
drinking coffee makes a great midmorning
as I sit there with her enjoying a good morning.
the morning after enjoying the nightlife
drinking coffee in the morning
with my lovely wife.
but soon my head is filled with warning
as if my head had been struck with a knife
my body and head having a hangover strife.
nothing more than a just forewarning
the end of the day filled with mourning
with my lovely wife.
Sam Adams Met Her on That Date
Sam Adams met her on that date
that day she came into his life.
when he first saw her that morning
Truly he thought it was just fate
he knew she would become his wife.
Meeting her was a great morning
he knew that she was his soulmate
he knew there would be no more strife
every day would be a good morning
Thankful for his Angel
Every day
He woke up
And sees his wife
Sleeping peacefully.
He looks at her
In the dawning light
Filling his soul
With her love.
He drinks his coffee
Contemplating his life
Ever thankful
For the angel
That came to him
Out of his dreams
Walking into his life
Taking charge of him
39 years ago
He met his fate
On that date.
It was the beginning of the End
It was the beginning
Of the end 0f his life
As a young adult
Adrift in life’s turmoil.
He met the love of his life
In a dream
Then when she walked
Out of his dreams
Into his life
He felt
That his life
Truly had begun.
And it was the end
Of his life adrift
Now he had the purpose
Now he had hope
As he walked
With his life’s partner
Facing whatever life
Threw his way
Going together
As always
Becoming one soul
Eternal soul mates.
I found what I was looking for.
Based on Edgar Allen Poe’s Poem Alone
From the Streets of Berkeley, California
Cosmos was my middle name
Has been my pen name now for ten years
Infatuation with Cosmic things
Has filled my heart and soul
Nothing more than searching for love
But in the end, I found what I was looking for.
Today is a special day
Today is a special day
Like most mornings
I wake up
Drink my coffee
Watch the news
Think about the day
Waiting for my wife
To walk into the room
Lighting the room
With her love
And that is why
It is always
Such a special day
My Wife and I Like It Raw
My wife
And I like it raw
Raw food that is
Less cooking is better
For one’s health.
We start our day
With raw ingredients
Blended perfectly together.
Often for lunch
Or dinner
We have a raw food salad.
And sometimes
Well, we do other things
Raw and naked.
Lucky in Love
Indian casino Fun
They say
That once can be lucky
In cards or love
But not in both
I have been
very lucky
In love
Met and married
The lady of my dreams
But for cards
And gambling
I have not been
So lucky
Losing far more
Than I ever won
But the luck
In love
Continues to this day.
Truly Romantic Honeymoon
Unshaven, idiotic,
Insupportable Introvert
Her lifelong secret admirer
Laughing, she said yes
They both Reconnoiter
A Truly Romantic
Honeymoon place
What Makes People a Success
They say
That is what makes a person successful
Is not how much money they have
Is not how many things they have
But rather how many true friends
They have
And whether they have found
Their soul mates.
In my case,
I am successful
Beyond my earlier expectations
Becoming wealthy in my old age.
But most importantly
After 39 years together,
I am still madly in love
With my eternal soul mate
Why am I still madly in love with you, my dear?
Why do I still look at you with such love in my heart?
Why did you enter my life 39 years ago?
Why did you overwhelm me with your love?
I do not have any answers
Other than I will love you
Until the end of time itself.
Seeing Your Love
Whenever I touch you, my dear,
I see red flames of love
Like a red hot volcano of molten desire
Erupting from you.
Whenever I hear your voice
The sweet scent
Of hibiscus, lavender, lemon, oranges,
roses, and wildflowers
overwhelms me with
the fragrance of your love.
Whenever I kiss you, my dear
I hear the voices of angels
Singing in my ear
Hosannas to your love,
As I am transported
On the wings of angels
To heaven itself,
Powered by your love.
Love My Wife More
Every day tell her
My love for her grows daily
Love will never die
Where Do I and You Begin?
I woke up one day and realized
I no longer knew
where you and I began
and where you and I ended
we had become almost one
We talked in half sentences
Knowing what the other wanted
and knowing how it would end
We ate the same foods with some resistance
because I still crave an old-fashioned American meal
but still, we were becoming more and more the same
and I feared losing myself
In your embrace
and becoming you
and you becoming me
and this fear of losing me
in the ocean of us
overwhelms me at times
but I know I will always
Return to your arms
because I cannot live
A moment without you at my side
and I know you are the same
we feel each other’s inner pain
we feel each other’s outer pain
and our history has merged
into one
and is that not the secret
of a long marriage?
Have I figured it all out
in the end, does it come to this
a merging of two souls and two bodies?
I don’t have the answers
But I don’t have any more doubts
or regrets with the path I have taken
I still look forward
to waking up each morning
Seeing you there
and knowing that every day
we have together
is a gift that I will cherish
Until my dying breath
5-7-5 Love Poem
Missing you missing me
Dreaming about you, do you dream the same
Will love you until end of time; will you remember me then?
Chains that Bind Us
I realize that my love for you
Is like a chain of steel
Unbreakable,
Tough as nails
and yet as your love entangles me
I realize that I embrace my imprisonment
and don’t want to venture out of my cell
Made of our years together
bit by bit we have become entangled
Where I end and you begin
Hopelessly entangled
Even if I wanted to break free
I could not
For I am you and you are me
and my fate is in your hands
and so I relax
and decide to just
Enjoy the ride of my life
as we move towards the final moments
together as we have always been
Inseparable, merged into one being
Starting at each other
wondering who is that person
Of eternal mystery
That has so captured my soul
and imprisoned it in her love
And I smile thinking of your love
and the endless pleasure it has brought me
and the endless pain I have endured
Just to be next to you
and part of you
Until the day I die
and we meet in the next world
What Is Love Explained to a Space Alien
one day
a space ship landed
near my house
and a tall alien
dressed is silver
accompanied by three shorter aliens
came to my house
and told me they were
conducting a survey
of the earth
and had some questions of me
they had picked me
because I was considered
a subject matter expert
a subject matter expert
on the topic of love
which was one
of the five things
that they could not understand
about humanity
no one else
among the 1 million intelligent species
had such a concept
I asked what were the other things
that they did not understand
they said
hmm Donald Trump
hmm Donald Trump
how and why he is President
and why so many people
still support him
second is god
your race has more gods
than any other race
and no one else
has heard of your god
or Allah or Jesus for that matter
and on the face of it
the whole resurrection thing
makes no sense
makes no sense
third is gun violence
why in the US
you have to do a strip search
to get on the plane or train
and now a days a temperature heath screening
yet you can not ban guns
can not enact universal gun checks
even though 90 % support it
and why can terrorists
still can buy guns?
fourth climate change
every other successful culture
every other successful culture
went through something similar
and evolve their politics and culture
and overcame it
and finally the issue of love
you see in the whole universe
there is no such concept
of romantic love
in most cultures there are marriages
and most people are bisexual
and group marriages are the norm
and love is seen as merely sexual attraction
and most people pick their partners
from computer generated links
From computer generated links
for we have figured it all out
but you persist in denying
that love is nothing but
a chemical DNA thing
explain to me
since you are considered
the most romantic man
in the world
what the hell is love?
I told him that we would discuss
the other issues later over a beer
as I was hardly the authority
but would be happy to share my thoughts
but would be happy to share my thoughts
and they agreed to that
but said again
tell us what is this thing
you called love
I said
it comes down to this
Love is mysterious
love is magic
there is a certain zen element
zen element
to love
to love
a certain taoist element as well
to it as well
those who can define it
have never experienced it
and those who have experienced it
can never describe it
one can say a few things
love happens
when you least expect it
love creeps up on you
Love happens
when you are washing dishes
drinking wine
drinking wine
dancing at a club
making love
for the first time
or the 10, 000th time
and every time
is different
than the time before
love happens when you give up
searching for love
waiting for love
wishing for love
wishing for the one
then one day
the one walks out
of your dreams
and into your life
becoming your wife
my wife one day
was berating me
for all my myriad faults
all my sins against her
my omissions and commissions
malfeasance and misfeasance
things I had done
and things i had failed to do
and things I had failed to do
all of which I acknowledge
and apologized for
but finally I had enough
I said
well if I am so bad
so horrible
so evil a creature
and a person you hate
so much
why the hell did you marry me
she laughed
temporarly insanity
temporarly insanity
and I am still insane
twenty five years later
we both laughed
and fell in love
again
as always
we fall in love
with each other
every day
every moment
every second
every second
it dawned on me
I had the answer to the question
and that my friends
is the true unknowable madness
the true zen spirit of love
well that was interesting
and I think we begin
to understand you all
a bit more
you are indeed
the most interesting people
in the whole universe
so lets go out and have a beer
so lets go out and have a beer
we are dying to try that
as we hear
you have the best beer
in the universe
and the best coffee too
and so we went
and had our beer
and coffee
and talked all night long
discussing everything
they told me about the universe
and our place in it
and their plans for us
The Story of How We Met
It all began in Berkeley, California
In the spring time of 1974
One fateful afternoon
I was dozing in my high school
Physics class.
I looked up and saw
A tall, beautiful Asian women
standing looking at me.
I screamed out,
Who are you?
She disappeared
like she was beamed away from my dream.
I knew that someday I would meet the girl
In the dream
Little did I know
I would have to wait until 1982
Starting that month
I began having the same dream
Month and month and month.
Always the same.
She was saying something
To me in a strange language.
Then one day I had the dream
and knew that she was in Korea.
So I chose to go Korea
In the Peace Corps,
Somehow knowing
That I would meet her there.
One day I was in a foul mood.
I had decided to give up on dating Korean women,
And on women in general
After having had several relationships
That did not go anywhere.
I was thinking of returning to the States
For Graduate school.
That morning early in the morning
I had the last of these dreams.
This time I understood her.
She said, “Don’t worry.
We’ll meet soon.”
That evening
As I was getting off the bus
To go to my class
I saw getting off the bus
The girl in my dream.
It was she!
I was speechless.
I did not know what to do.
Over the course of the evening
I ran into her several times.
Finally I was introduced to her.
I muttered some lame excuse
About wanting to find a Korean tutor,
and got her number.
The next day she came to the gate of my base.
Where I was teaching ESL to Koreans
She said that she had to speak with me.
I told to wait in the library for about an hour,
and I would cancel class
and meet her then.
We went out for coffee.
She told me that she was madly
in love with me
And simply had to have me.
I told her I felt the same way.
I proposed five days later,
And got married one month later.
Does she believe this story?
She claims she does not believe it
Because it is impossible to be true.
But I know that there are other worlds
And other times.
In a past life we must have been together somehow.
And our love was so strong
That it crossed over the barrier of past lives.
She found me in 1974,
But it took until 1982
For us to actually meet.
And it has been 26 years
Since we met in the physical sphere
Or 37 years since the dream began
And I still recall the dream
And meeting her
I had no choice
When I met her
We were fated to be together
Until the end of this lifetime
And the next and the next
a million ways to say I love you
They say
There are a million ways
To say I love you
In this day and age
I could only find
In my computer’s brain
The words to say I love you
In 53 languages of the 10,000 languages
Spoken on this planet
Someday I may be able
To say the simple words
I love you
In all know languages
This will have to suffice for a start
So I will say it
Loud, and clear
Just so you understand:
I love you (English)
Mein tumse pyar karta hoon (Hindi)
Tu Tane prem karoo chu (Gujarati)
Ame tomake bhalo bashe (Bengali)
Me tula premkarto (Marati)
Hum apse mohabbat karte hain (Urdu)
Mein thoda prem karanga (Punjabi)
Man Dooset Daram (Persian)
Ana Ahabik Yanooni (Arabic)
Havala (Hebrew)
Yongchon(Chinese)
Aloha (Hawaian)
Cinta(Indonesian)
Dangshinun sarang hayo (Korean)
Ajo (Japanese)
Kasih (Malay)
Phom tirak khun krap (Thai)
Akoay Paginghe ikou (Tagalog)
Toi yeu ong(Vietnamese)
Renmen (Creole)
Jesuis L’amour voies(French)
Liefdle (Flemish)
Estoy amor tu (Spanish)
Yosono amore tu (Italian)
Estou o amore tu (Portugese)
Dashuri (Albanian)
Maiteizam (Basque)
OBHYAM (Bulgarian)
Ljubav (Croatian)
Laska (Czech)
Jeger en kaerlighed du (Danish)
Ikben houden van jig (Dutch)
Gra (Gaelic)
Ich bin lieben tu (German)
Agape/eros (Greek)
Ami (Esperanto)
Armastama (Estonian)
Rakam (Finish)
Envagyok szeretet te (Hungarian)
Elska (Icelandic)
Ejekirin (Kurdish)
Milestiba (Latvian)
Meile (Lithuanian)
Eu dragoste tu (Romanian)
JHOBOEL Lubush (Russian)
Elske (Norweigan)
Easka (Slovak)
JBYBAB (Serbian)
Jagdan karlek du (Swedish)
KOYATH (Ukraine)
Benin sevi sen (Turkish)
Ahava (Yiddish)
Ngingu u thando ungu (Zulu)
ode to love on valetine’s day
Ever since I met you, my dear
My life has not been the same
Before I found you
I was lost, sad and lonely
Going nowhere as fast as possible
I was stuck
Did not know what direction to pursue
At the intersection, watching life go by
I was lost, lonely and full of despair
Then one day I saw you
The girl of my dream
Standing there on the side of the road
I was filled with terror
Could not speak
What if you refused to see me
What if you denied my protestations of love
What if you walked away
Never to be seen again
I knew I had to do something
I had to do it then and there
And then you came up to me…
Your voice
The voice of an Angel
Sweat, full of light
Fun and entire sunshine
Ever since the day I met you
Whenever I feel down and depressed
I look at your picture
And sunshine fills my heart
And I am confident, happy and ready
To face all of life’s travails
As long as I have your love
And your support
I can overcome all obstacles
And face all dangers
Together we can do most anything
Without you I will be lost
In the swamp of despair
So my dear
Please stay with me
Forever to the end of time
Let us journey forward
Never looking back
My love, my life
The sun in the sky
The moon that lights my dreams at night
The stars that beacon far away
Thanks to the Gods above
For bringing you into my life
And I promise I will love you
Forever and a day
Just to see your face
Is heaven itself
Just to hear your voice
Is all I ever need
My love, my soul mate
Hurry back to me
We have so much loving to do
So much living to do
So much to do together
Walking confidently
Boldly into the future
Without you
All is nothing
But dust
With you
Everything is possible
My love
Until I see you again
A thousand kisses
And a million thoughts of love
That will have to suffice
Until we are reunited
My love, my darling,
My life and dreams
Hurry back to rescue me
From the despair and darkness
All around me
Until then
I salute you
Oh Queen of my Heart
General of Love
Captain of my Soul
I Still Want You
I still Want You<
More than anything else in life
I want you
I want you next to me
I want you every moment
Of every minute
Of every day
I need you in my life
I need your wisdom
I need your kindness
I need your beauty
I need your special wit
And I need your ability
To deal with this cruel world
I need you to save me
From the demons
That haunt my Soul
Literary Yard has published Winter Haiflu and other poems.
Index
Good bye 2021 Good Riddance
Winter Haiflu
Seek the Light
The Darkness Spreads
Seeing Demons
Messenger Dog of God
its a dog’s life for Me
Agnostic Dog wonders if there is dog
I want A dog’s Life
21 Dawns 21 Haiku
Dear Republicans, What Is Wrong with You?
The Revolution Next Time
Zombie Ideas Do Not Die
There Is A Great Sense of Unrest
cosmic calendar
Falling Rain
Good-Bye 2021 Good Riddance
Reflecting on the last six years
One cannot but sense
That momentous thing
Were happening everywhere
2021 was worst than 2020
And the year before as well
Nonstop terrifying events
The world seems
To be spending out
Of control
January
January normally dawns
Cold but hopeful
This year an attempted coup
Storming of the U.S. Capitol
The new president
Not accepted by the old
Half the country
Believes the big lie
February
February continued
The non-stop political wars
As COVID continued
Marching across the land
March
March is not much better
March madness
Continued unabated
April
April taxes due
Other nightmares continued
COVID vaccination wars
Continued in the U.S.
COVID relief passed
May
May brings little relief
Constant political battles
Descends into madness
June
June brings no relief
People screaming none stop
As COVID deaths continue
July Economy Begins Recovery
July continues -COVID still spreading
The economy seems better
But so many people
Have checked out
August
No longer
A month off
The battles continue
September
Many people
Dread returning to school
The economy slowly opens up
Vaccination mandates
Vaccinations stalling out
October
It seemed for a bit
That perhaps COVID
Was easing up
There was some hope
In the air
Perhaps the politicians
Would finally do the right thing
Way overdue
inadequate infrastructure bill passed
Build Back Better stalled
November
The dreaded COVID
Mutates again
Mocking humanity
General Corona still
On the rampage
30 still refuse to get
A vaccination
As one thousand people
A day become Corona Ghosts
December
Travel restrictions re-emerge
COVID continues to surge
Gun violence continues unchecked
Politicians continue to play game
As too many people die
Becoming Corona ghosts
Gun violence ghosts
Drug overdoes ghosts
Accident death ghosts
The year of dread finally ends
With so many ghosts
Crying in the wind
###
Ten Winter Haiflu
Winter is coming
The cold season approaching
Christmas around the corner
The COVID virus
Surging everywhere it seems
Winter of our discontent
The winter rushes
2022 looms
Goodbye 2021
2021
Fading into memory
Good riddance we all proclaim
Dreading the winter
Dreading more COVID
Dreading more Corona Ghosts
Winter depression
COVID fears re-emerging
Still more travel restrictions
The winter starting
Coronavirus and guns
Deaths, ghosts crying in the wind
Wintertime for blues
Blues playing on my YouTube
Seeing Corona Ghosts Dancing
Wintertime sadness
Recalling all who have gone
In this dismal year now past
Winter beginning
Are the end times coming?
Are revelations coming true?
###
Seek the Light
god
also published in Creativity Webzine.
Seek the light
My friend,
Seek the light
The light of the universe
The light of peace and happiness.
The cosmic good of the universe.
The ancient battle
Between Good and evil
Light and darkness
Life and death
Love and hate.
War and peace.
Seek the light of love
Seeking love
It is all around you
It is all in you.
Open your soul
And let the light
Of the universe
Flood into your soul.
Seek the cosmic light
My son, if you think it is right
If you think the light
Is the same,
As the light of the Christian faith.
You would be right.
If you think it is Light
Of the Buddhist faith
You would be right.
If you think it is Allah’s light
You would be right.
If you think.
It is Shiva’s light
You would be right.
If you think
It is God’s light
You would be right.
It’s the same light
Of the universe
Which shines on us all.
Regardless of our faith
Or lack of faith,
We can all receive the light.
The light of the universe
It’s flawless
We all seek the light
And it is right
To seek the light.
The light of the universe
Is waiting for you
It is all for you.
And if you find
The light of the universe
You will find love
Peace and happiness
It is your birthright,
You will find that
After you die
The Light will fill you
And take you
To the next world.
Seek the light
It is waiting for you.
Wake up and
Embrace your fate
Seek the light on this date.
###
The Darkness Spreads
The darkness is spreading
The darkness of the universe
The dark side
Of the legendary force.
For the world
Is divided into force
Of the light
And the force of darkness.
You cannot have light
Without the darkness,
And you cannot have darkness
Without the light.
There is a cosmic battle
Between the light
And the darkness.
Good and evil
Life and death
Love and hate.
War and peace.
Ying and Yang
God and Devil
Make up the whole Tao
Of the Universe.
And the darkness
Seems to be spreading
All over this darkening world
Every day we turn on the news
We see more examples
Of the darkness
Spreading across the world
Like dark cancer.
A pandemic of despair, fear, and hate.
All humans seem consumed
With fear, hatred, violent thoughts,
And the disease of the mind.
We all seem to be
Sliding down a dark hole
Into the darkness
Of our souls.
The ancient battle
Between Good and evil
Light and darkness
Life and death.
Love and hate.
War and peace.
And it seems
That we have lost all hope
We have lost this light
Of the universe
We have lost the light
Of love
It seems that the darkness
And the fear of the darkness
That is all that we have left.
Hatred, fear, and mistrust
All overwhelm us
And we look out at other people
Thinking that it is now a time
To do or die.
Kill off our enemies
The other evil tribe,
Before they can do
the same to us.
And only a few of us
Still see the light
That is still there.
It has not gone away
And perhaps
With the turn of the wheel
Of time
The darkness will gradually end.
And the lightness
Will once again
Flood the world.
And we all wake up
Peace and happiness
Will defeat the darkness
Yet again
.
It is the way
Of the universe
Ever since the dawn
Of this cosmic game.
The darkness
And light
Battling each other.
The darkness takes over
Becomes the nightmare
Of our Collective Soul.
But it is not too late my son,
There is still time
To find the light
And combat the darkness.
So, my friends
It is waiting for you
Seek the light.
Avoid the darkness
Walk away from fear
Walk away from death
Walk away from despair
Walk away from hate
But you have
A much better world
Waiting for you
If you embrace the light
Of the universe.
Seek the light
It will banish the darkness
And set your soul free.
###
Seeing Demons
more monster images for poem jpg
from a recent nightmare.
Sam Adams
Fell into a deeply troubled sleep
One night.
He saw in his nightmares
The growing power of the darkness
Of the universe.
The ancient battle
Between good and evil
Light and darkness.
Life and death
Love and hate.
War and peace.
Yin and Yang
The duality of the Tao.
Playing out
In front of him
As if in a movie
But nightmarishly real.
Sensing the fear and hatred
Spreading everywhere
He saw an army
Of foul creatures
Straight from the nightmares
Of Hell.
Banshees, bears, bigfoot. Cthulu, centaurs, drones, dwarfs, demons, devils, flying drones, flying monkeys, giants, ghosts, gorillas, goblins, orcs, imperial stormtroopers from Star Wars, Klingons, java the hut, leprechauns, lions, max headroom. men in black suits with no faces, Mr. Smith corporate suits, munchkins, monsters, robots, Romulans, Roman gladiators, space aliens, the four horsemen of the apocalypse riding out front, tigers, warlocks, the white witch from Narnia, the wicked witches from Oz, witches, werewolves, wolves, vultures, Yeti and zombies.
He saw millions of people,
Being taken
over by the demons.
Eating them
Rampaging, rioting, raping
Pillaging them
Taking control
Of their bodies
Consuming their souls.
Turning into hideous monsters.
Who continue the carnage
Rampaging mobs
Of deranged crazed demons.
In front of them all
He saw a demon
Staring at him
With a thousand-year stare
Filled with hate.
A tall dark pig-like beast
Standing erect
With reddish horns.
And two heads
The head of President Trump
And the head of President Putin
And blazing red eyes.
The head demon hissed,
Sam Adams
We are coming for you.
“You are mine
Resistance is futile,
Prepare to meet your fate
On this cosmic date.”
He screamed
As the demon ran up to him
Fearing the demon
Would soon consume his soul.
He prayed with all his might
And then he saw
The light of the universe.
The demons ran screaming
Running from the light
Fleeing into the darkness
Back to the hell hole
From when they had come.
He woke up
Next to his wife
Glad he had embraced
Life, love, and light
Of the universe.
Filled with love
And happiness
He got up.
With the demons
Of the dark lord
Fading into his nightmares
Banished by the light
Of his one true love.
Dawns 21 Haiku
2021Dawns
Politics are still uncertain.
thousands still are dying.
2021Dawns
The New president offers.
Hope new beginning.
2021Dawns
The Madness never
ends it seems.
Consuming us all
2021Dawns
The hope springs enterally
We will overcome.
2021Dawns
35,000 lies.
Fading like ghosts
2021Dawns
Politicians still lying.
Thousands still dying.
2021Dawns
Coronavirus spreading
More corona ghosts.
2021Dawns
There is new hope in the air.
Will politics kill it?
2021Dawns
The news stills
scream death and despair.
I turn it all off
2021Dawns
As I wake up at dawn
I see my sleeping wife.
2021Dawns
We wait for the coming fires.
End of the world fears
2021Dawns
Q continues to spread hate.
Millions still follow him.
2021Dawns
Will optimism and love?
Overcome the hate.
2021Dawns
Many questions remaining.
I have no answers.
2021Dawns
With hope, I leap out of my bed
Watching TV kills hope
2021Dawns
Will this be the end of my days?
Will I overcome it?
2021Dawns
2020 hangover
Like a dark nightmare
2021Dawns
Politicians still refusing.
To do anything
2021Dawns
The rich are still getting richer.
The poor remain poor.
2021Dawns
We hope the past will fade away.
Into dark memories
2021Dawns
I wake up hoping for the best.
Dreading worst to come
2021Dawns
I am still alive thank god.
Filled with love for my wife.
###
Dear Republicans, What is Wrong with You?
Dear Republicans,
What is wrong with you?
The former president
Incited a riot.
Stormed the house.
Would have killed you.
If they could have
And you still defend.
The former president
Refusing to hold him to account?
Do you want him?
Running around starting the patriot party
Launching a jihad against you?
When you can remove him
From the game
And send him home.
For good
What the hell is
wrong with you
Just do your job
Put a stake.
Through that vampire’s heart
Kill Trumpism.
Before it kills you
###
The Revolution Next Time
A revolution is brewing.
On the right
And on the left
As madness descends on the land
Incited by right-wing
political leaders.
Inciting riots and rebellion
Demanding action
Against their enemies
While on the left
Revolution is
brewing as well.
Soon will they unite
To march down
Tearing down democracy
As our leaders
Play games.
As the world descends
Into chaos
And the US becomes
Another failed state
Until a proverbial man
On a white horse
Rides in to save us.
From ourselves
The revolution next time
It will not be pretty.
As everything burns
And America dies
###
Zombie Ideas Do Not Die
Zombie Ideas
Do not die.
They linger on
In our collective minds
Infecting our politics
Among my favorites
Are the canard.
That tax cuts will solve all problems.
That deregulation will free up business.
That the free market will solve our problems
That the government is the problem
And we must starve the government.
Of funds
So, it can do no more harm.
To our great country
These and other pernicious
Fact free alternative facts
Are spread far and wide.
Across the right-wing media sphere
Infecting our politicians
Leading them to playing games
Instead of coming together.
To solve our collective problems
And now the Republicans are saying.
Amid the worst epidemic in history
With the US economy slipping into the great depression era
The US cannot afford to spend any more money.
On combatting the pandemic
That the Federal government has done enough
It is up to the states to solve their problem.
Because of deficit spending
Which they did not care about
Before the change in command
Now the federal government is broke.
But we cannot ask the billionaire class.
To pay a dime more in taxes
We need to cut taxes more.
So, we go.
These zombie ideas
Mutating and spreading
Infecting our politics
With madness
Making it impossible to govern
As things fall apart
Let us put a Death.
to zombie ideas
Put a stake through them.
Opening up the truth
Coming together
To do the people’s business
That is what we must all do.
###
There is a Great Sense of Unrest.
There is a great sense.
Of unrest in the land today
Madness in the air
Previous publication (2020)
Literary Yard has just published my Dog Poems. The earlier published my Cosmic Calendar poems. Here they are for your amusement. these are companion pieces for my cat poems.
And look cute
And someone will feed him
And give him water
A dog has no worries
No cares at all
And when a Dog
Wants some loving
All it needs to do
Is find the nearest
Female dog
And enjoy himself
Without guilt
And without worrying
About getting married
Or having an affair
Just simple
Sex in the doggie way
Nothing simpler
Than that
Yes
A dog’s life
Is the life for me?
###
The Dogs of War are Howling
dogs of war howlingdog of war poster
The Dogs of War
Have been set free
Of their cage
And are out
Howling at the moon
The Dogs of War
Have been set free
To wreck what havoc
Might be
Yes, the Dogs of War
The Hell Hounds
Have bound out of their cages
Sniffed about
And smiled
At the destruction, they saw
They knew soon
They would be in their element
As the world descends into chaos
The world saw
The face of pure evil
That fine September morning
A morning like any other morning
Until a fateful moment
When two planes
Came out of the sky
And destroyed
The center of world capitalism
In an act of horrific violence
An act of such evil
That is beyond the comprehension
Of mere mortal man
Surely there must
Be a reason why
That particular day
The world almost ended
The Dogs of war
Are at foot
The chaos is upon us
The evil grows and grows
And dark noises are heard
Here and there
A Jehad had been launched
By the holly lunatics
Misguided warriors
Who thought they were fighting
The great Satan
Not knowing that their hearts and minds
Were corrupted and controlled
By Satan himself
Somewhere in the world
That morning
A door opened
And a man walked through
Flipped a switch
And let loose
The chaos that ensured
The world watched with horror
And fascination
As in real-time
A dynamite action movie unfolded
Only this was not any movie, punk
It was real life
Live and uncensored
With the music of the devil
Playing at full volume
As people died
Burning alive
And the dogs of war
Smiled
They knew soon
They would be in their element
As America
The Sleeping Giant
Again woke up
And realized
That they would have to fight back
Against their enemies
The war machine
Came to life
The plans came out of the books
The military might be unleashed
And the Dogs of war
Smiled and howled at the moon
The machinery of war
Once unleashed
Can’t easily be stopped
There is a certain cruel logic
That demands that the war going on
And people die
And people suffer
And the stock market crashes
And the evil that men do
Goes on and on and on
###
The Cosmic Dog from Goa
My final time with God
Happened a year later
I was staying down in Goa
With my wife
Enjoying being with her
After our reconciliation
We stayed at the Taj Mahal Goa
Living like Kings and Queen
Just for a few days
High up on a hill
Overlooking the beach
Every morning I went down to the beach
And did yoga by the water
While contemplating life
And every morning
I saw the same dog
Not just a dog
But a cosmic dog
Filled with the divine spark of God
And the dog recognized me
And spoke to me and I knew
That God was present once more
In the face of that cosmic dog
Kindred spirit
perhaps to the cosmic cat
that had saved my soul
in Berkeley so long ago
I told the dog everything
And he just looked at me
With those soulful eyes of his
And I knew he knew that I knew
That he was possessed by God
God had sent him to me
To make sure
that I was on the right path
That the reconciliation that God had promoted
Was on a track that I was back with my wife
And that everything was the way it should be
Again, I asked God whether he was Jesus or Allah
Or Brahmin or Ganesh or Buddha
God the cosmic dog just stared at me
I finally asked him directly
Say if you are God the God of Jesus
Bark once
The Dog looked at me and barked
I said
well, if you are Allah bark twice
The dog barked twice
Well are you buddha
then bark three times if yes
The god dog barked three times
Hmm well are you Satan
The dog growled at me
And I knew I had gone too far
Finally, I was at peace
And for the next three days
The God Dog from Goa
was my constant companion
And I knew God for the final time
In my life?
###
Agnostic Dyslectic Wonders if There is a Dog
cute dog
an agnostic dyslectic
stays up all night
wondering if there is a dog
the Buddhists wonder
about the Buddha-nature of the dog
the evangelicals
are sure that there is a dog
and you must follow their dog
or go to hell
for following another’s dog
the Muslims agree
there is only one dog
and the dogs
smile at the foolishness
of the human race
of course, there is a dog
and they are the master race
as they growl at their owners
who bow down
and clean up their mess?
###
I Want a Dog’s Life
O
I want a dog’s life
That’s what I want in my next life
A dog needs to be cute
And his master will feed him
It is a dog’s life for me
###
The Messenger Dog of God
One day
While studying in Rome
As a priest
I notice a small white dog
Staring at me
He glances at me
Indicating that I am to follow him
I get up
And follow this strange dog
He leads me deep
Inside the hidden depths
Of the Vatican
Finally stopping by a door
I open the door
And see St Peter there
He smiles
Dismisses the dog
Who moves on down the hall
Finished with his cosmic duty
As the secret messenger of God
All in a day’s work?
I ask why I am here?
St Peter says
Why are any of us here?
It is time for you to go
But I don’t want to go
Don’t want to leave this mortal plane
St Peter smiles
Says it is time to go
I wake up
Back in my bed
With my wife
And realize it was all a dream
It was not yet time
To go
But I am afraid
I will find the messenger dog
Outside my door
Any day now
The grim reaper waits
And it will soon be my time
Poem: Cosmos’s Cosmic Calendar
cosmic calendar
January
January arrives cold as death warmed over
As I make my annual list of resolutions
Of the great things, I would do
The lies I tell myself to keep me going
While recovering from the hangover of the year before
With regrets for the evitable passing of time itself
And snowbound cold nights of wild passion
As we delay death’s knocking on the door
February
February is a strange month
Cold, short, and eventful
In the U.S. The political season heats up
As politicians rush about
Making their campaign lies
Full of promises of things to come
As we the 99 % huddle down inside
Watching the lies on TV
Outside Winter’s last dying breath
March
March roars in full of sound and furry
Signifying the future marching down upon us all
And March madness hits the sports world
And politicians meet to plot and scheme
As we bravely battle the cosmic elements
Waiting for the promised spring
Hay fever greets me
With the early spring flowers
April
April is indeed the cruelest month of all
So many important events occurred
Kim Il Sung’s Birthday, Hitler’s Birthday
And in the U.S. the dreaded tax man cometh
To take it all away as the flowers overwhelm
And Spring Fever takes hold
Driving us all mad
With strange erotic desires
May
May is in many ways
My second favorite month of all
The flowers are blooming bright
The mountains are aflame with desire
The summer heat is coming
The plans for the year are coming along
The political campaigns heat up
And good movies come out
Star Wars arrived
Spiderman and superman and batman
All came out to play
In late May
And baseball begins in earnest
And most importantly
My wife was born
June
June is always a month of transition
End of the school year
Summer transfer season
People leaving people coming
Hurricanes and Tornados attacking
And wars starting and people dying
As fireflies buzz about
And rabbits eat my garden
As the summer heat descends upon the land
I walk late at night
Recalling that Watergate
Occurred in June
July
July is the queen of the summer season
As she heats the land
Throwing storm after summer storm
And politicians run away
After the July fourth fireworks
Man landed on the moon
Richard Nixon Left the White House
And we all know that half the year
Has flown by
August
So much has happened
During the hottest most hellish of months
Despite the summer sauna that descends upon the land
Enervating all driving people mad with the heat
World War 1 started
World War 11 ended
Hiroshima ushered in the nuclear age
Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey
And tornado ally
All roar down upon the land
And I met the love of my life
Getting off a bus
One August evening
September
What can one say about September
Like June a month of transitions?
And one is filled with ambition
Wanting to finish up what one started
Before the fall arrives
And Winter is hinting it is coming
School starts
New jobs start
New people come into one’s life
And like August’s hangover
Big earth-shattering events happen
The fall of the stock market
The housing bubble bursting
The endless budget games
As the politicians argue
Whether to bankrupt the country
To make a political point or two
And 9-11 terrorizing the world
All September’s gifts to the land
October
October is my favorite month of all
The leaves turn
The weather is usually delightful
Just a tease of the coming winter
Fall ball season underway
Baseball games and Halloween madness
ends the month with a huge bang
And I celebrate my legal birth on the 29th
Also, the day I legally got married
And on October 30, 1955
I was born
And Rock n Roll was born as well
Coincidence I think not
November
November is one of the strange months
Begins like a hangover of October
Then it turns ugly and weird
Political fever hits the land
Every two years
As the people brave the early November chill
To decide what fools they will send to DC
The politicians lie and scheme and plot
And beg and lie again
And the world turns
And the new leaders emerge
Welcome the new Bosses
Same as the old bosses
Just new packaging
And Donald Trump storms the barricades
Threatening the establishment’s stranglehold
On America and the world
Yes, November is a strange month
December
Perhaps the loneliness month of all
The most consequential of all the months
And yet also the most depressing end of time
Kind of month
If the apocalypse zombie or otherwise
Were to occur
It would be in December
That is the sort of insane month it is
The end of the year
As darkness settles down on the land
And holiday parties abound
Full of false cheer
And faked love
And for those who don’t celebrate Christmas
A lonely day perhaps at the movies
A few awkward calls to the relatives
Then New Years
Watching the world end
Drinking up a storm
And knowing that the year ended
And you are one step closer to the grave
Falling rain
falling rain
The falling rain
Of late October
Fills me with essential dread
As I rush about
And end up here
Wherever here is
The rain outside
Seems like the tears of god
As I sit
Crying over my beer
Thinking of lost love
And failed dreams
Wondering
What went wrong?
And what I can set right
And the rain falls
And the night darkens
The rain is falling
All over this man’s world
And the rain falls
And I sit
Drinking my lonesome drink
Lost in dreams
Dreaming of what
Could never be
Thinking dark thoughts
And so I sit
And dream the night away
Podcast Available Please Take a Listen
I have a small request to make. I want to expand my followers on all my platforms. So if you have not signed up yet for this blog, or followed me on intraframe, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, or Bloglovin or listened to my podcast on Spotify please do so now.
Starting in 2016 when I retired, I began posting my work on various sites and began getting my poetry, fiction, and essays published all over, including of course on my flagstaff blog post, The World According To Cosmos. Here is where you can find my work. I generally try to update my postings once a week. The blog entry is copied to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Tumblr automatically, the rest I have to manually add so it may take a while before everything is in synch. Also, since last summer, I have been podcasting weekly, using the Anchor podcast platform. I am now also writing on Medium and Wattpad. Starting next year, I hope to add regular vblogging on YouTube, advice on what software to use for that would be greatly appreciated. Please follow me on all these sites
Imaging The End Of The World Ariel Chart: International Literary Journal
No More Coffee Blues Ariel Chart: International Literary Journal
What Am I DNA Results Ariel Chart: International Literary Journal
End Times Ariel Chart: International Literary Journal
Imagining End Of The World Ariel Chart
Just Another Night In The City Of Angels Ariel Chart
The Revolution Is Coming Beatnik Cowboy, The
I’d Rather Not Mess With Sam Between Hangovers
A Million Ways To Say I Love You Blessed With Love Poems
I Still Want You Blessed With Love Poems
Ode To Valentine Day Blessed With Love Poems
Love Explained To A Space Alien Blessed With Love Poems
Slime Patrol To The Rescue Blue Nib Literary Magazine, The
The Fog Blue Nib Literary Magazine, The
Dream Girl Cherry-House Press Dreams Anthology
Dream Girl Chicken Soup For The Soul Series
Chains That Bind Me City Limits Publication
Dream Girl City Limits Publication
Various Creative Talents Unleashed
How I Married the Girl Of My Dreams Creativity Webzine
Meeting God in The Lake Creativity Webzine
Cosmic Cat from Berkeley Creativity Webzine
Meeting God in Bombay Creativity Webzine
Cosmic Dog from Goa Creativity Webzine
Buddha Cat Creativity Webzine
The Story of How We Met Creativity Webzine
Fate Intertwined Creativity Webzine
Wild Things Happen Creativity Webzine
God Drinks Coffee Creativity Webzine
Requiem for an Era Creativity Webzine
Howling at the Moon Creativity Webzine
Creativity Webzine
The Truth Shall Set You Free Creativity Webzine
My Name Is Nobody Down In The Dirt
Strangeness In The Air Down In The Dirt
Snarling Cup Of Coffee Down In The Dirt
Charles Bukowski Road Not Taken Down In The Dirt
Fallen Dreams Litter The Ground Down In The Dirt
Hitchhiking Tales Down In The Dirt
Howling at the Moon Down In The Dirt
3-5-7 Love Poem Down In The Dirt
If You Have Been Around Down In The Dirt
Foreigner Walking The Seoul Wall Down In The Dirt
Old Man Visiting His Wife’s Grave Down In The Dirt
Awaiting The Judgement Every Writer Horror Contest
Mad Bag Piper Of Berkeley Every Writer Horror Contest
Coffee Poem
Bad Craziness *
Kimchi Blues Eskimo Pie
Kimchi Blues Friends of Korea website
A New Year’S Visit To The Oregon Coast Excavation
Casino Thoughts Excavation
Winter Haiflu Failed Haiku
Indian Casino Thoughts Fiends Of Korea
Lone Foreigner Walking The Wall Of Seoul Former People, a Journal of Bangs and Whimpers
A New Year’s Visit To The Oregon Coast Former People: A Journal Of Bangs And Whimpers
Indian Casino Thoughts Former People: A Journal Of Bangs And Whimpers
Casino Thoughts Former People: A Journal Of Bangs And Whimpers
Former People: A Journal Of Bangs And Whimpers
Four Coffee Poems Former People: A Journal Of Bangs And Whimpers
Four Coffee Poems Former People: A Journal Of Bangs And Whimpers
Four Coffee Poems Former People: A Journal Of Bangs And Whimpers
Four Coffee Poems
Fiction Dream
Fiction Dream
Corona Virus Haiku Fiction Dream
Fiction Dream
Just Enough For Coffee
One Moment, One Day Fourxfour Poetry Journal
Met My Fate In Bar Room Face From Addict To Advocate
Various Haiku Journal
Hill Rag Hello Bonzai
One Night In Bombay Hello Poetry
Cosmic Cat Ode To Coffee
Cosmic Dogs
Meeting God In A Lake Horror Sleaze Trash
Meeting God In Bombay
Signs Of The Apocalypse Hypertexts, The
Hypertexts, The
Getting Lucky Hypertexts, The
Waiting For The Day Hypertexts, The
Rising Storm Hypertexts, The
All Tired And Burned Out 2020 Go Away
Toilet Gate Fitting Metaphor For Trump Era Ink Pantry (Website)
A Dream Journey Ink Pantry (Website)
Insanity Lives Ink Pantry (Website)
Interview Ink Pantry (Website)
Morning Bright, Evening Delight Ink Pantry (Website)
Reality Hits Ink Pantry (Website)
Cheating Death 22 Times Ink Pantry (Website)
Cheating Death 22 Times Ink Pantry Acadamy of Hearts and Minds ‘
Cthulhu’s Revenge Ink Pantry (Website)
Escape From Hell Ink Pantry (Website)
Ghoul Haunted Woodlands Of Weir Ink Pantry (Website)
The Bench Ink Pantry (Website)
2019 The Year That Was Ink Pantry (Website)
Dreams Ink Pantry (Website)
Fate Ink Pantry (Website)
The Oyster Speaks Up Ink Pantry (Website)
The Terrifying Teens Ink Pantry (Website)
Ink Pantry (Website)
Just An Unhinged Lunatic Ink Pantry (Website)
Ink Pantry (Website)
Total Successor Or Total Failure Ink Pantry (Website)
2021 Haiku
General Corona Appears In A Vision Inner Circle Writers’ Group Anthology Series
Cancel Culture Run Amuck
Journal Of Expressive Writing
Journal Of Expressive Writing
Ghosts Of Old Saigon Journal Of Expressive Writing
Ghosts Of The Chu Chi Tunnels Journal Of Expressive Writing
Seeing Ghosts
The Cosmic Cat From Berkeley
The Cosmic Dog From Goa Kelp Journal
Cosmic Cat Kelp Journal
Kelp Journal
Agnostic Dyslectic Wonders If There Is A Dog Kelp Journal
Cosmos’s Cosmic Calendar Kelp Journal
It’s A Dog’s Life For Me Kelp Journal
The Cosmic Dog From Goa
2021 Dawns 21 Haiku Literary Yard
Dear Republicans, What Is Wrong With You? Literary Yard
The Revolution Next Time Literary Yard
Zombie Ideas Do Not Die Literary Yard
There Is A Great Sense Of Unrest Literary Yard
Lone Foreigner Hiking The Seoul City Walls Literary Yard
Literary Yard
Literary Yard
Dream Love Questions Sekoku Local Gem
15 Day Challenge Local gem
Halloween poetry collection Local Gem
Dear Microsoft Why I Left You Lotus Eater
Local Gems Poetry Press
A Million Ways To Say I Love You Blessed with Love
Ode To Love On Valentine’s Day Blessed with Love
One Night in Bangkok Man in the Street
Market Rules Us All Minnie’s Diary: A Southern Literary Review
White Lady
The Opiate
God’s Confession Scarlet Leaf
Opiate
Bad Craziness
Otherwise Engaged
Cats
In Seach Of America Outlaw Poetry
It Is A Gun Situation, Mr. President Outlaw Poetry
Prayer Works Outlaw Poetry
I Don’t Get It Outlaw Poetry
Dear Governor Abbot Outlaw Poetry
When Will This Madness End – Short Version Outlaw Poetry
Lost And Found Outlaw Poetry
My Mother’s History Outlaw Poetry
Conversation With Teddy Roosevelt Outlaw Poetry
Watching Cats Hunt Outlaw Poetry
End Of America Outlaw Poetry
Watching The News As 110,000 Americans Die Plethora Blogazine
Wearing A Mask Is Not A Political Statement Plethora Blogazine
Wearing Masks Saves Life Plethora Blogazine
Who Are You Going To Believe, Me Or Your Lying Eye Plethora Blogazine
Back Of The Bus The Poet on the Road
Bus Ride The Poet on the Road Poet The Poet on the Road
Cross Country Trip Part One The Poet on the Road
Hitchhiking Tales The Poet on the Road
Buddha Cat Poet, The
Meeting God In A Lake Poet, The
Best Friend For 60 Years Poet, The
My Memory Bank Poet, The
Best Friend In The Universe Poet, The
Cats Poetryezine
Buddha Cat Poetryezine
Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay Poetryezine
Walking By A Winter’s Frozen Lake Poetryezine
Playing The Piano At The End Of Time Poetryezine
Mad Mask Fear Poetryezine
News Is Grim Poetryezine
Poetry And Covid
Various Poetry And Covid
Snarling Cup Of Coffee Chapbook Poetry Nook Weekly Contest
Merry Christmas From ATT Poetry 24
Mr. President, It Is A Gun Situation Poetry 24
Poetry 24
The Best Is Yet To Come Found Poem Poetry 24
Evergreen Trees Pure Haiku
Falling Rain Qutub Minar Review
Qutub Minar Review
Gathering Storm Clouds Random Poetree
Nebulous Night Of Darkness Random Poetree
Dejavu All Over Again Random Poetree
Failure Is Not An Option Random Poetree
General Failure Reading Disk Drive Raven Cage Zine
On Failure Raven Cage Zine
Raven Cage Zine
270,000 Corona Ghosts Crash The President’s Party Raven Cage Zine
Corona Ghosts Crash The Party Raven Cage Zine
Partying While People Die Raven Cage Zine
Fake Calls Rejected Manuscripts
Hell Is Here To Stay Rejected Manuscripts
Rejected Manuscripts
Fake Mosquitos
Lost River Sandha Review
Old Cars Are King Of The Road Again River Sandha Review
Reflections Rosette Maleficarum
Dragon Flies In My Mind Rosette Maleficarum
One Crazy Day Rosette Maleficarum
2019 The Year That Was Rosette Maleficarum
Dreams Scarlet Leaf Review
Fate Scarlet Leaf Review
The Oyster Speaks Up Scarlet Leaf Review
The Terrifying Teens Scarlet Leaf Review
Scarlet Leaf Review
Green Trees Don’t Make It Scarlet Leaf Review
Slowly Unperceived Reality Scarlet Leaf Review
Slowly Unperceived Reality Scarlet Leaf Review
Brain Fever Scryptic defunct
Evil Within Scryptic defunct
Mocking Laughter Scryptic defunct
Black Vultures Scryptic defunct
Green Trees Don’t Make It Sick Lit Magazine
Siren Song Of Doom Sick Lit Magazine
Various Sixfold
Corona Poems Soft Cartel
Dora The Galactic Explorer Soft Cartel
Every Day I Turn On The News
Chaos Spillwords Press
Mocking Faces Spillwords Press
Just Enough For Coffee Spillwords Press
Waiting For The Grim Reaper’S Decision Spillwords Press
The Virus King Cried Subterranean Blue Poetry
Cosmic Cat From Berkeley Swenk
Cats Swenk
The Buddha Cat Of Edsall Road Swenk
Demon Cat Swenk
Cat Fight In Incheon Swenk
Love Haiku The Universe Journal
Night Terrors The Universe Journal
Jack Daniels Failed Intervention Unlikely Story
The Trial Of The Poet Tiger Shark
Life In-Between Tiger Shark
Love Haiku Tigershark
I Like My Coffee Tigershark
Love Haku 1 Tigershark
Lost And Found Tigershark
The Virus King Cried Tigershark
1984 Is Here To Stay Tuck
The Dogs Of War Are Howling Tuck
Just Enough For Coffee Tuck
Donald Trump And The Vulgarians Rise To Power Tuck
Lost And found Two Drops Of Ink
Strong Wine Two Drops Of Ink
Voices Of My Doom Two Drops Of Ink
Dora The Galactic Explorer Two Drops Of Ink
Last Year Of American Greatness Two Drops Of Ink
Mocking Faces Two Drops Of Ink
Morning Light Two Drops Of Ink
Wild Man Sits In Gilded Cage Two Drops Of Ink
Climate Change Two Drops Of Ink
The Lion King Speaks Up Two Drops Of Ink
Wild Things Run Amuk Two Drops Of Ink
Wild Things Run Amuk Two Drops Of Ink
Yesterday Morning Two Drops Of Ink
Howling At The Moon Two Drops Of Ink
No More Coffee Blues Two Drops Of Ink
Ode To Coffee Two Drops Of Ink
Slease 2 Two Drops Of Ink
Snarling Cup Of Coffee Ugly Writers, The
When Will This Darkness End Ugly Writers, The
Ugly Writers, The
Buddha Cat Universe Journal, The
Cats Universe Journal, The
Cats Fighting In Incheon Universe Journal, The
Cosmic Cats Universe Journal, The Universe Journal, The
Demon Cat Universe Journal, The
Best Friend In The Universe Whispers Defunct
Life’s Journey Whispers Defunct
Life In Between Whispers Defunct
News Is Grim Writer’s Egg Magazine
Wearing A Mask Is Not A Political Statement Writer’s Egg Magazine
Corona Ghosts Crash The Party Writer’s Egg Magazine
Politicians Lying As People Lay Dying Writer’s Egg Magazine
Thanksgiving Thoughts Writer’s Egg Magazine
Writer’s Egg Magazine
American Dream Writer’s Egg Magazine
Miscellaneous Publication Sites Writer’s Egg Magazine
Writer’s Egg Magazine
3 Am Nightmares
Your One Phone Call
Coffee Desires Miscellaneous Publication Sites
God Does Not Talk To Idiots Triferta Poem A Thon
Huricanes From Hell Triferta Poem A Thon
It Can’t Happen Here Triferta Poem A Thon
Kim Vs. Trump Twitter War -In Memorial Of Kim Il Sung’s The Great Leader’s Birthday Triferta Poem A Thon
Masters Of The Universe Triferta Poem A Thon
Microsoft How I Hate You Triferta Poem A Thon
More Coffee Blues Triferta Poem A Thon
No More Coffee Blues Triferta Poem A Thon
Triferta Poem A Thon
Rambling Man Triferta Poem A Thon
Rambling Man -Where Do I Belong? Triferta Poem A Thon
Rapid City Nowhere Triferta Poem A Thon
Suburban Laundromat Blues Triferta Poem A Thon
The Storm Is Coming Triferta Poem A Thon
Facing Life’s Challenges Together Triferta Poem A Thon
Fires Buring Bright Triferta Poem A Thon
God Drinks Coffee Triferta Poem A Thon
Imagining End Of The World Triferta Poem A Thon
Incheon 2016 Triferta Poem A Thon Triferta Poem A Thon
Looking Out My Window Triferta Poem A Thon
Lost And Found Triferta Poem A Thon
My Soul Wants To Fly Triferta Poem A Thon
Rapid City Nowhere Triferta Poem A Thon
The Revolution Is Coming Triferta Poem A Thon
Wagontire, Oregon Triferta Poem A Thon
Walking Through The Woods Of Time Triferta Poem A Thon
Zombie Apocalypse Triferta Poem A Thon
Heading To Memphis Triferta Poem A Thon
One Mystic Shrouded Night Triferta Poem A Thon
Idiots In High Places Triferta Poem A Thon
Cosmos’s Cosmic Calendar Triferta Poem A Thon
. Landlord Blues Triferta Poem A Thon
. Berkeley California Triferta Poem A Thon
. Chains That Bind Us Triferta Poem A Thon
. Changes Triferta Poem A Thon
. Coffee Revolution Triferta Poem A Thon
. COSTCO Triferta Poem A Thon
. Dental Torture Blues Triferta Poem A Thon
. Emperor Donald The Ist Triferta Poem A Thon
. Everything Will Be All Right Triferta Poem A Thon
. Ghosts From World War 11 Triferta Poem A Thon
. Life Is Wonderful Triferta Poem A Thon
. Lithia Springs Triferta Poem A Thon
. Love Jones Triferta Poem A Thon
. My Daily Hot Coffee Fix Triferta Poem A Thon
. No More Coffee Blues Triferta Poem A Thon
. Pane E Circus 2017 Redux Triferta Poem A Thon
. Sandwich Choices Triferta Poem A Thon
. Secret Agency Man Triferta Poem A Thon
. The Decline Of America Triferta Poem A Thon
. The Dogs Of War Are Howling Triferta Poem A Thon
. Voices Of My Doom Triferta Poem A Thon
. Walls Triferta Poem A Thon
. Watching Cats Hunt Triferta Poem A Thon
. Where Do You And I Begin? Triferta Poem A Thon
. Why I Am Not A Christian Easter Thoughts Triferta Poem A Thon
. August Moods Triferta Poem A Thon
. Capitol Hill In The Spring Triferta Poem A Thon
. Spring Love Thoughts Triferta Poem A Thon
. Spring Time In Oregon Triferta Poem A Thon
. The Falling Rain Triferta Poem A Thon
“Dental Blues” Triferta Poem A Thon
“Meeting God In The Lake” Triferta Poem A Thon
“The Cosmic Cat In Berkeley” Triferta Poem A Thon
“The God Dog In Goa” Triferta Poem A Thon
Lost And Found Triferta Poem A Thon
1984 Lives On Triferta Poem A Thon
Decline Of America Scarlet Leaf Review
Dogs Of War Howling Scarlet Leaf Review
My Mother’s History Scarlet Leaf Review
Donald Trump And The Vulgarians Rise To Power Tuck
Imagining The End Of The World Tuck
No More Coffee Blues * Hill Rag
A Million Ways To Say I Love You Blessed Love Poems
American Dream Your One Phone Call
Best Friend In The Universe Whisphers
Black Vultures Scryptic
Additional Publication Vendue Need to be Confirmed
Conversation With Teddy Roosevelt
Strong Wine
Watching Cats Hunt
Dragon Flies In My Mind
The Shape Of History
Voices Of My Doom
Cats
Rapid City Nowhere
Reflections
. Yesterday Morning
Suburban Laundromat Blues
Blue Blues
Brain Fever
Capital Hill In The Spring
Cats Hunting
Chains That Bind
Charles Bukowski Road Not Chosen
Coffee My Secret Lover
Coffee Revolution
Coffee The Drink Of Revolutionaries
Confucian Thought For The Modern Era
Decline Of America
Dogs Of War Howling
Donald Trump Our Compassionate Dear Leader
Dream Girl
Enemy Of The People
Fallen Dreams Litter The Ground
God Drinks Coffee
How I Married Girl Of My Dreams
Howling At The Moon
I Like My Coffee
Jesus Must Die Again
Lost And Found
Donald Trump And The Vulgarians Rise To Power
Strong Wine
The Shape Of History
Yesterday Morning
Corona Ghosts Stalk The President
Corona Virus Stalks Me
General Corona Leads His Troops
A New Year’S Visit To The Oregon Coast
Love Conquers Hate
Bus Fantasy
Snarling Cup of Coffee Chapbook Poetry Superhighway
April 2021 chapbook Poetry Superhighway
Writers Digest April 2021 contest
April 2020 contest
All poetry
Duane’s poetry
Fan story
Poetry Circle
Hello Poetry
Poetry Nook
Poetry Mangum Opus
Sweek
Writing com
Creativity Webzine has published my poem, “Seek the Light.”‘
Seek the light
My friend,
Seek the lightThe light of the universe
The light of peace and happiness.
The cosmic good of the universe.The ancient battle
Between Good and evil
Light and darkness
Life and death
Love and hate.
War and peace.
Seek the light of love
Seeking love
It is all around you
It is all in you.
Open your soul
And let the light
Of the universe
Flood into your soul.
Seek the cosmic light
My son, if you think it is right
If you think the light
Is the same,
As the light of the Christian faith.
You would be right.
If you think it is Light
Of the Buddhist faith
You would be right.
If you think it is Allah’s light
You would be right.
If you think.
It is Shiva’s light
You would be right.
If you think
It is God’s light
You would be right.
It’s the same light
Of the universe
Which shines on us all.
Regardless of our faith
Or lack of faith,
We can all receive the light.
The light of the universe
It’s flawless
We all seek the light
And it is right
To seek the light.
The light of the universe
Is waiting for you
It is all for you.
And if you find
The light of the universe
You will find love
Peace and happiness
It is your birthright,
You will find that
After you die
The Light will fill you
And take you
To the next world.
Seek the light
It is waiting for you.
Wake up and
Embrace your fate
Seek the light on this date.
Sadly, the gun carnage in America continues with no end in sight due to the total dysfunctional nature of American politics, the power of the NRA and the right-wing in the U.S., and the craven unwillingness of political leaders to do anything about gun violence. the recent case in Michigan is particularly egregious. Here then are some of my gun poems, the first are poems I wrote recently, the rest are poems I wrote a while back.
“Otherwise Engaged Journal “will publish my poem, “Enough of Your Useless Prayers” in January 2022. I will update this entry then with details and no doubt more gun poems, as the carnage will continue with no end in sight.
I often thought that there are solutions to this problem. First, we treat gun ownership like car ownership. Although the bill of rights applies none of the bills of rights are absolute, all have some limitations including freedom of speech, press, religion, etc. Why the 2nd amendment is the only exception is beyond me.
First, gun owners should be licensed to own and carry a gun. the license can only be denied to convicted criminals, those who have documented mental health hospitalization, and those charged with domestic violence, and those who otherwise fail the universal background checks. Anyone on the terrorist list or the “no-fly list” should not be allowed to buy a gun.
Only licensed dealers should be allowed to sell guns and ammo. The gun show exception should be ended, Internet sales should be subject to background sales, and selling or giving a gun to a relative or friend should also be regulated.
There should be an annual limit on gun sales – five weapons per year?
Now some may disagree with this, that is their right. But since 80 percent of Americans are in favor of at least these limits then congress should enact these provisions.
the licensing should be done at a state level but the information should be searchable by law enforcement personnel nationwide.
and existing laws that provided for more severe penalties for gun-related crime should be enforced.
I do not support open carry laws or concealed weapons permits, but I do feel we should have a nationwide standard that recognizes gun permits and allows people to transport unloaded guns in their vehicles across state lines, but not on public transit, trains, buses, or planes.
The bottom line is simply this – guns are dangerous instruments, but people have a limited right to own a gun for personal protection or hunting.
That’s enough preaching for now. Here are my gun poems starting with the recent to be published ” Enough of Your Useless Prayers”.
Most of my postings are now available on Anchor, Spotify, and Radio Blog as a podcast. Check it out and follow me on All poetry, Poetry Soup, Medium, Wattpad, Writing.com, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, And Tumblr, and sign up for alerts.
I thought that the NRA
Could not get any lower
But today they did.
They tweeted out
Their Mother’s Day message
A mom and her daughter
Holding military assault rifles.
With the caption
“Momma Did not Raise a victim”
The ad came out
On a weekend
That saw more than
seven mass shootings
All across the land,
The NRA has no shame
Blood is on their hands
Because of them.
We have not been able
To do anything at all
About the epidemic
Of gun violence.
That is killing
Far too many of us
Turning so many people
Into Gun Ghosts
Joining the corona ghost army.
Looking at that vile add
I said,
“Momma
may not have raised a victim
But she did raise a monster
NRA.
How evil
How despicable
Can you get?
Celebrating gun violence
On Mother’s Day?
Just Another Day in America
Turning on the dismal sad news
Every morning at dawn.
There is another grim story
To brighten my morning gloom.
The Latest story – a lone gunman
Opens fire at time square
At sunset.
Another deranged madman
With a gun and a grievance
Shooting up a crowd.
As tourists scream
And flee the scene.
Wondering if this is just
Another movie set
The scene went awry.
Unfortunately,
No, it is life and death
Live and in living color.
Just another Saturday night
Live in NYC
And across the land.
As another madman’s life
unravels before the world’s eyes
Live and in living color.
MUST WATCH TV SCREAMS MY TV THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR TV SET
The NRA and their hired goons
Go on air
Offering useless thoughts
And meaningless prayers.
Guns don’t kill people
Guns make us free
Guns are all American
Liberals want to take your guns
You need your AK 47
To blow away Bambi.
Or the thug BLM dude
Next door
Because Black Lives
Do not Matter to You.
The only solution
Are more guns for all
An armed society
Is a polite society.
Guns are the greatest gift
that America gave to the world
They are our friends
And protector
God bless our guns.
Just another day
In their violent gun-ridden
Gun paradise that is America
is its imperial decline.
The gun victims
Don’t hear their thoughts
And prayers.
As they are now dead.
Just another gun ghost
They join the thousands
Of gun ghosts
And the corona ghosts.
Their voices
Crying in the wind
No one cares anymore
Just too many of them.
Another Day in the NRA’s Paradise
Just another day in America
Land of the free
Home of the brave.
And guns
lots of guns
More guns for all
Cries the NRA.
Yes, another day
Another gun battles
Another white man
Who just wants to kill.
President Trump sends his condolences
Thanks to the law enforcement
For an incredible job, well done
it was horrible.
Hate has no place
In our country
And we will take of it
and do whatever we can do.
Offering useless fake condolences
Nothing but false words
Empty words.
Lots of things to do.
It is a mental illness problem
But he fails to mention
The words gun at all
Not at all.
And tomorrow and tomorrow
But he at least finally said
Hate has no role in-country
Nothing but prime BS
In my humble opinion
For he is the maestro
Of Hate
Even as a former president
Stirring up hate
Across the land.
He did not mention
White supremacy
His rhetoric had nothing
Nothing to do about
This at all.
And so tomorrow
I will turn on the TV
And we see nothing
Nothing had changed.
And the dead
Will remain dead
The guns will fire again
Nothing will be done.
Welcome to America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
And guns
lots of guns
More guns
Guns for all
God bless our guns.
Mr President, Your Words Matter.
Mr. President words matter
President Trump,
Words matter
Your words matter.
Your words of hate
Your words of division.
Your words
Calling fellow human beings
Scum, vermis, invaders,
Animals, thugs, criminals.
They matter a lot
Is it little wonder
That people listen
Give into the hate,
You spew forth.
And some deranged people
act on your call
For action.
Against the invaders
On the border
They march to the border
To kill the invaders.
Your words matter
Mr. President
And your false words
Of regret, fool no one.
The damage has been done
The hate has been spread
Just as you intended.
And you
Have the gall
To call yourself
a Christian.
You are the anti-Christ
The Bible warns us about
You are not a Christian
So please quit pretending
To be what you are not.
Please man up
Accept your responsibility
Set things right
apologize.
The dead though
Don’t need your useless prayers
They need action
They need leadership.
And you are the president
Please start acting
Like you give a damn.
And if you do so
Perhaps
You will find
People will follow you.
But please
Quit the words
Of hate
The words that hurt.
And quit calling immigrants
Invaders and vermin
They are human beings
They are deserving of respect.
This I ask of you
In Jesus’s name
Even though
I am not a Christian
Please, Donald Trump
Grow up.
And become a true leader
Of the people
And end the war of words
And constant hate.
Chief of Staff, You are Absurd
another gun
The president’s chief of staff
While the former guy
Was still President,
Said one day
It was absurd.
To suggest the president’s words
Had anything to do
With recent mass shootings.
Yet is it absurd,
To see the lengths
To which the president’s supporters.
Will twist and turn
Spinning away
The inconvenient truth.
President Trump
Is a racist bigot con man
Who somehow
Conned his way
To become president.
He calls immigrants
Criminals, vermin, animals
invaders
Infesting the country.
The El Paso shooter
said that he went to the border
To shoot the invaders
And said
That he was a big Trump fan.
It is not absurd
To connect these two huge dots
The president’s words
Has real-world consequences.
Yes Mr. Trump is a racist pig
And his supporters
Are being absurd
To suggest otherwise.
Guns kill people.
GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE
Guns do kill people
That is their Buddha-nature
Their Karmic fate.
It is not a mental illness
it is not video games
it is not a million other things.
It is simply this
A gun is a weapon
A weapon designed to kill people
That is what guns do.
Guns don’t care
They do as they are told
If you pull the trigger
They will kill the victim.
That is what guns do
It’s a gun thing.
That is why
In a civilized society
Like most of the world
Military assault weapons
Are locked up.
Yet in America
The land of the free
Home of the brave
Everyone and his cousin
Must have their gun.
Guns for everyone
Cries the NRA
That’s the solution.
The president
And his supporters
Deny the obvious,
Guns kill people
That’s all they do
It is a gun thing
You understand.
So, Mr. President
You can take your words
Your empty platitudes
Your empty soulless promises.
Straight to hell.
NRA, Please Stop Talking
Another day
Another mass shooting
Another incident.
Of domestic terrorism
Another gunman
Killing people.
Because just because
The NRA and their stooges
Come out
Flood the airways.
With their noxious
Poisonous weasel words.
The NRA says
Mass shootings
Are like the weather
You can’t control them.
You can’t predict them
And you can’t prevent them.
Just have to accept
It is all god’s will
Guns don’t kill people
If guns were outlawed
Only outlaws would have guns.
Only solution
Are more guns
For everyone.
An armed society
They say
Is a polite society.
Support for gun control
is socialist/communist/fascist/anti-American/anti-christian nonsense.
The beginning of tyranny
If only the Jews had guns
The holocaust would not have happened.
Jesus would want us all
To be armed with machine guns.
To protect us against the evildoers
It is the Christian thing to do
To blow away evildoers
With heavy arms.
In America
Land of the free
Home of the brave.
We can’t do anything
At all.
About the mass carnage
Unleashed by madmen with guns
Who walks among us
Searching for their next victims.
Any restriction of the right
To bear arms
Is tyranny at its worst.
The nanny state run amuck
Talking about gun control
After a tragic event is
Just not the appropriate time
We only need prayers
And meaningless thoughts.
Universal background checks
Too onerous,
Registering guns
Too burdensome.
Researching gun violence
Waste of taxpayer money.
Banning military-style assault weapons
Restricts my right to blow away
Bambi the deer
With an M16.
The NRA will keep talking
Talking and talking
Another and talking
Preventing anything
From being done.
And we will have another
Mass shooting event
Before the day is out.
So, my plead
This day
to the NRA
And their stooges,
Talk is cheap
Your comments
Are not helping.
If you can’t
Be a part of the solution,
Just stop talking
Please stop talking
And let the rest
Of us figure out
How to stop
The madness in the streets
And stop the carnage
So, NRA
PLEASE
SHUT UP
JUST
STOP
TALKING
NOW!
More Guns for Everyone in the World
(Drafted during the Trump Era, don’t know if this policy has been changed)
The NRA has decided
That the best solution
To the global problem
Of rampant violence
And crime everywhere,
Is for the rest of the world
To become like the U.S.
Where anyone can buy a gun
An armed society
Is a polite society.
The president is about to announce
A global campaign against gun control restrictions
As these restrictions are an undue burden
On the rights of the U.S.arms manufacture.
To sell their guns everywhere in the world.
As everyone wants what we have to sell
The best weapons in the world.
Instead of trying to limit the damage
That unrestricted gun sale
Have done to the U.S.
President, our great leader
Wants to sell more guns
Everywhere in the world.
And there are eager buyers
Lining up around the world
Eager to buy the best guns
The world has never seen.
We want to export
The gun madness
That has infected our society
Leaving behind so many dead bodies
So many gun ghosts.
The dead were not consulted
For they remain dead
They do not vote
They have no voice.
For the guns silenced
Then for good
Just as the guns intended
Just doing their gun thing.
Humanity has evolved
From stones to arrows
To guns
To nuclear, biological weapons.
And the U.S.
While proclaiming itself
a champion of human rights.
Remains nothing but a country
Of gun runners
Merchants of death
And destruction.
Trump Administration Advances Plan to Relax Gun-Export Rules
The Trump administration on Monday advanced a long-sought-after plan to relax export rules for American small arms, including semiautomatic rifles, handguns, and sniper rifles.
In a private briefing with members of Congress, State Department officials outlined a proposed rule change that would transfer oversight of gun exports to the Department of Commerce. The proposed rule will be published in the federal register later this week, where it will be subject to public comment for 45 days. While it is unlikely, Congress could block the change using powers under the congressional review act.
The shift, which was first proposed by the Obama administration in 2012, is championed by gunmakers who say it will make them more competitive in the international market. Critics argue an export policy that favors commercial interests could put the national security of the United States at risk or harm diplomatic efforts.
“Weakened congressional oversight of international small arms and munitions sales is extremely hazardous to global security,” said Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, a Democrat who serves on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in an emailed statement. “This decision is also politically tone-deaf as our nation reckons with a gun violence epidemic.”
A State Department spokesman said that the change would ease the regulatory burden on American gun makers and allow them to compete better globally.
Currently, the Department of State monitors exports of all weapons through the U.S. munitions list. Since 2002, the department has been required to notify Congress of overseas sales of firearms worth more than $1 million.
In 2016, the State Department alerted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to a proposed sale of more than 26,000 rifles to the Philippines. Cardin at the time objected to arming the regime of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had inaugurated a wave of thousands of extrajudicial killings as part of a crackdown on drugs. The weapons deal was canceled as a result.
The proposed rule change would transfer control over the sale of small arms to the commerce control list, and congress would no longer be notified of large purchases. Some arms control experts say reduced oversight could provide criminals, terrorists, or hostile states an opportunity to purchase American weapons.
Under Department of Commerce weapon-export rules, “companies aren’t required to provide as much information about brokers or shipping” as they must under State Department supervision, said Colby Goodman, who examines American weapons exports as director of the security assistance monitor program at the center for international policy in Washington.
“The world of firearms exports is full of questionable, dubious characters.”
The rule change has been long in the making. It was first proposed in 2012 by the Obama administration, but abandoned shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. At the time, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security criticized the change because it could make it easier for transnational criminal organizations or terrorists to get American-made guns.
In September, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was interested in reviving the rule change to encourage more international arms sales. With the formal commencement of the public comment period, the preparation has become a policy reality.
In April, the Trump administration said it would now consider economic factors in addition to security when it comes to selling American weapons overseas.
The Trump administration has argued that the change would aid the domestic gun industry by cutting down on export regulation. American consumer sales of firearms have suffered since the 2016 election. After years of elevated sales in anticipation of possible new gun-control measures imposed by democratic lawmakers, domestic demand subsided as republicans took full control of the federal government.
– Alex yablon
In Virginia Beach
In a night of horrific scumbagery violence
Rarely seen in this jaded age of ours.
EVERYONE WAS GONE IN LESS THAN AN HOUR
In a spasm of horrific scumbagery violence
In just a few short minutes
Nothing more than that
In just a few moments
All 12 victims were murdered.
By a disgruntled employee
Everyone he knew was shot
And killed for no reason.
Caused by the demons
His soul was so infected
Murderous demonic voices
All in his head
Screaming kill them all kill them all
Screaming no stop violence in his head
All the time.
Causing him to start shooting.
Everyone he saw
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were
Everyone must die
Screamed the demonic
Voices in his head.
No one can be left alive
Everyone must die
All must die.
In his internal video game
Everyone must die
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were.
DEATH TO ALL HUMANS SCREAMED THE VOICES IN HIS HEAD
As he hunted his victims
Killing as many as he could.
Just another day
Gone wrong
All across America
In every town
Nowhere is safe anymore.
Virginia Beach Massacre Two
guns
Virginia Beach massacre
Just another night in America.
An active shooter
Unleashes a night of
Scumbagery violence
rarely seen.
In this jaded wild world
Gone in one hour.
In a spasm of horrific
scumbagery.
In just less
Than 30 short minutes
Nothing more than that.
In just a few
Short 30 moments
All the victims.
Were murdered while
At their daily work
Just at the Wrong place,
At the wrong time.
Act of a demotic
a deranged madman with a gun
Voices screaming kill.
The voices scream
DEATH
TO
ALL
HUMANS
The voices scream
Over and over
All must die now.
Just another night
In America
Home of the free
Land of the brave
And guns for all.
It’s a Gun Situation, Mr. President.
President Trump
You are wrong once again.
You said that the tragic events in Texas
And Las Vegas was not “gun situations”
But mental health problems.
And that in Texas
If there had been
Fewer gun controls
Fewer people.
Would have died
President Trump
I know you are a smart man
The smartest man in the world
According to you.
So please contemplate this fact
According to the latest findings
It is a gun situation.
The reason the U.S.
Is number one in gun deaths
Is because we are number one
in gun ownership.
We have so many gun deaths
Because we have so many guns
45% of the world’s guns.
And 33 percent of the world’s shooters
are Americans killing other Americans.
And most of them, the majority of them
Are white people killing other White people
Except for white Cops
They like to kill black and brown people
For some reason.
Rarely is it a black person
Or an Asian person
Or a female shooter.
No Islamic terrorists
Most are in fact
Self-proclaimed
White Supremacist Christians.
So, Mr. President
When will you come to your senses?
And do what 90 percent of the public wants
Enact nationwide effective gun controls?
And tell the NRA
They can take their
Blood money elsewhere.
When Mr. President
When will you act
When will you take charge?
And become a president of the people
Instead of the president of the NRA?
Comment: Sent this to President Trump who added me to his suckers email list – I was soon getting hundreds of emails a day from everyone including the NRA telling me that I was a valued member of team Trump and had to donate money to keep the socialist democrats from taking my guns away. End comment
I want to tell you something
The dead don’t want your prayers
the dead don’t care
That you pray for them
They are dead.
And you and your so-called Christian
Are to blame,
You refuse to do anything
Anything at all to stop the carnage
In our streets.
The U.S. is flooded with guns
And more are sold every day.
Millions of people
Don’t have health coverage
Millions are barely surviving
And your answer,
Our dear great compassionate speaker
Your answer
Is prayer works
Government action does not.
You act as if the gun violence
Plaguing our country
Was like the weather
Beyond our control,
So, here’s my prayer for you
and your colleagues
When you die
I pray that God
will send you
And your friends
Straight to hell
Where Satan and his demons
Will use you for target practice
That’s my prayer to you
And as you know
Prayer works.
Comment: Sent to Speaker Ryan who never responded, but he did not put me on his sucker email list. End Comment
I Don’t Get It
Mr. Speaker
I admit I don’t get it
how does prayer
stop gun violence?
Prayer did not work in Texas.
26 people were murdered
While praying.
God if he exists
Does not care
About the poor people
Who died in his church.
Because a mad man
Got a gun,
And no, they were not praying
To be delivered from death
No one deserves to die like this.
So, my prayer to you
Is simply this
Get off your rear end
Rally the country,
And do something
About gun violence.
That’s a prayer
I hope works.
Source document:
“Add house speaker Paul Ryan to the list of republicans offering only thoughts and prayers in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting in a Texas church, because taking meaningful action is always off the table with him and his party.
Speaking with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingram last night, Ryan reiterated that the victims and their families need more prayers because “prayer works.”
Prayer doesn’t work -Found Poem
26 people were murdered while praying. Even Christians ought to admit that prayer doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and their god will do whatever their god wants to do, even if it means letting people die in the church because a domestic abuser got his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.
Not that Ryan would ever say that.
Instead, he just blamed the “far secular left” for not getting it.
More guns than people found poem
We don’t have more automobiles
Than people in the United States of America.
We don’t have more televisions than people.
We don’t have more radios than people
We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
Lots more guns
More guns than anywhere else
In the world
45% of all guns in fact
393 million firearms
A population of 326 million.
That means there are 120.5 firearms
For every 100 American citizens,
It’s a sad fact.
If every single person in the United States
Possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm
— even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds
— there would still be 67 million guns left over.
Sixty-seven million.
The number of guns
Owned by civilians
Is an outrage,
A profanity,
a sign that this country
This supposed Christian
Peace-loving country
Has lost its collective mind.
But not to the national rifle association it isn’t
The NRA has taken the position
That what we need is more guns, not less.
They say that more guns equal less crime,
You need guns to defend yourself and your property,
These groups tell us.
If more people had more guns,
criminals would be less likely to commit crimes
Because they wouldn’t know who was armed
And locked ready for bear
Ready to defend themselves.
An armed society
is a peaceful polite society.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy with a gun”
Said NRA chief executive
Wayne Lapierre
After the Sandy Hook School Massacre
In Connecticut
Had killed 20 children
And six schoolteachers and staff
The good guy theory
Is their rationale
Behind arming teachers.
Arming teachers
Is the argument
They have for all.
The so-called
Open carry laws
That has been passed.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year
Was stopped by a good guy
With a gun.
The NRA
Said an armed civilian
Shot the bad guys.
With a gun
In Dayton
It took
66 shots to bring down the killer.
They fired 40 rounds.45 caliber ammunition,
16 rounds of 233-millimeter ammunition
And one shotgun round
It is madness
Every mass shooting
Proves how mad it is.
Can you imagine what
It must have been
Like in the epoch nightclub bar
In Dayton
Or on the street in Odessa?
Guns were going off
People all around you
Were hit wounded, dying
Bleeding everywhere
If you were carrying a gun a handgun,
What would you have done?
Hide get behind someone
Run?
That’s what I would do
That’s what people did
Dayton and Odessa.
These mass shootings
Are acts of terror.
People are terrorized
Sacred to death.
They are lucky
To be alive.
In a country with more guns
Than people
The good guys
With a gun,
Myth is obscene.
In a country with more guns than people,
the “good guy with a gun” myth
is an obscenity.
It’s a lie.
GUNS DON’T SAVE US THEY KILL US
Based on the following source article
“We don’t have more automobiles than people in the United States of America. We don’t have more televisions than people. We don’t have more radios than people. We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
A recent report published by the small arms survey in Geneva, Switzerland, found that there are more than 393 million firearms owned by civilians in this country. We have a population of 326 million. That means there are 120.5 firearms for every 100 American citizens, according to the Washington Post. It’s a fact. If every single person in the United States possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm — even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds — there would still be 67 million guns left over. Sixty-seven million.
The number of guns owned by civilians is an outrage, profanity, a sign that this country has lost its collective mind. But not to the national rifle association it isn’t. Not to the gun owners of America, another major gun lobby organization with over two million members, which is frequently critical of the NRA for being too soft on gun rights. These well-funded lobbies for gun manufacturers and gun owners have long taken the position that what we need is more guns, not fewer. They say that more guns equal less crime, despite FBI statistics that show conclusively that violent crime, and especially crimes involving firearms, is higher per capita in areas of the country with more guns.
You need guns to defend yourself and your property, these groups tell us. If more people had more guns, criminals would be less likely to commit crimes because they wouldn’t know who was armed and ready to defend themselves.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun,” said NRA chief executive Wayne Lapierre after the sandy hook school massacre in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six school staff. He said the same thing again after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre, which left 17 students and faculty dead. It has become the NRA’s favorite myth.
The “good guy with a gun” theory is their rationale behind arming teachers. It’s the argument they have for all the so-called “open carry” laws that have been passed. At this point, 31 states allow people to openly carry firearms in public without a license. Another 15 allow open carry with some form of state-issued license. All 50 states allow people to carry concealed firearms with varying forms of restrictions and licensing. The idea is the more “good guys with a gun,” the better.
According to ABC News, “there have been at least 19 deadly mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2019.” There were two mass shootings last month on a single day, Aug. 3. The first, in El Paso, Texas, was at a Walmart. Twenty-two people were killed and 24 were wounded. That night in Dayton, Ohio, 10 people were killed and another 17 were wounded in a shooting that happened in less than 30 seconds. On Aug. 31, a shooter in Odessa, Texas, killed seven people and wounded 25, including three police officers.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year was stopped by a “good guy with a gun,” an armed civilian. Police shot the “bad guys with a gun” in Dayton and Odessa. In Dayton, it took them 66 shots to bring down the killer. They fired 40 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition, 16 rounds of .233 millimeter ammunition, and one shotgun round. The killer took only 40 rounds to kill seven and wound 17 with his ar-15 style weapon. The alleged shooter in El Paso somehow evaded dozens of responding police officers before surrendering.
Both Texas and Ohio allow open carry of firearms without a license, and yet in neither place was there a civilian “good guy with a gun” to stop the carnage amid panic and chaos. An armed U.S. soldier with a concealed carry license in El Paso drew his weapon before deciding to shuttle fleeing children safely out of the shopping mall.
You have heard most of the arguments against these open carry laws. How will cops responding to an active shooter incident know who the shooter is, and who is just a passer-by carrying a gun? What’s going to happen in a crowded store like Walmart when there finally is a shootout between a killer and “good guys with guns?” Won’t a lot of innocent bystanders be being killed? If well-trained, heavily armed police can’t kill an active shooter with less than 66 bullets, how can we expect an armed teacher in a grade school to do it?
It’s madness. Every mass shooting proves how mad it is. Can you imagine what it must have been like in the El Paso Walmart, or outside the bar in Dayton, or on the street in Odessa? Guns were going off. People all around you were hit, wounded, dying, bleeding. Even if you were carrying a handgun, what would you have done?
Hide. Get behind something. Run. That’s what I would do. That’s what people did in El Paso, Dayton, and Odessa.
These mass shootings are acts of terror. People are terrorized, scared. They’re trying to stay alive.
In a country with more guns than people, the “good guy with a gun” myth is obscenity. It’s a lie. Guns don’t save us. They kill us.
More guns
guns
Every day more guns
gun deaths everywhere
more man men with guns
shooting everyone
you cannot escape.
So many deaths
you cannot count
five today
more tomorrow.
NRA cries
need more guns
guns for all.
More guns
More deaths
Guns.
When Will This Madness End?
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred, and despair.
An old man consumed by his demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 58 people injuring hundreds.
In Las Vegas, Sin City
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy?
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid, cry the conservative voices
Guns are the price of our freedom
Guns Don’t Kill People.
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy with a gun.
An armed society is a polite society.
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits
We must confiscate the guns.
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur.
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be the next time
And another time and repeatedly
Until the end of time.
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers.
Nothing will change
Until we confront the evil
What lurks deep within each of us.
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough.
Dear Governor Abbot
You say you are a Christian
Yet you have the gall
to say the proper response
To the evil acts of the deranged gunman
Who shot up a church
Is to work closer with God.
And that evil people will find ways
To commit evil acts
And that there is nothing the government
Can do to stop this madness.
It is the price of our freedom
Why can’t you wake up
And see that you can lead
The way out of this madness?
Thousands of people die
Each year from guns in this country
Turning everyone into prisoners
Into their own homes
Afraid to walk outside.
For fear that a nut job
With a gun
Will blow them away
In Church, at the store
In traffic.
And you and your NRA friends
Think the answer
Is to arm everyone to the teeth.
And I wonder how Jesus
Would react to how
You have so misunderstood his message?
You Sir are not a Christian
And you Sir are going to not like
What God has to say to you
On Judgement Day.
Source document:
“We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people or another terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.”
Texas Governor: Fight Gun Massacres By ‘Working with God’
NOVEMBER 6, 2017, BY MICHAEL STONE
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott claims prayer and “working with God” is the only way to prevent mass shooting events like the recent church massacre in rural Texas.
In a deplorable bit of pandering, Abbott said that the proper response to Sunday’s shooting is to confront evil through prayer and forge “a stronger connection to God.”
Governor Abbott said:
We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people or another terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.
Most reasonable people reject Abbott’s impotent call to prayer and a “stronger connection to God.” In a statement concerning the recent Texas church massacre, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that action was required:
We have a solemn obligation to the victims of Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Orlando, Newtown, and the many tragic shootings that occur each day to respond not only with prayer and unwavering love but with action.
As for Governor Abbott, his position as a dangerous religious extremist is well established.
Last June Abbott signed into law legislation allowing publicly funded agencies to deny non-Christians the ability to adopt a child in need.
In addition, in a move meant to shame women who have abortions, the Republican governor of Texas ordered state health officials to add new abortion regulations that would require the burial or cremation of post-abortion fetal tissue.
Bottom line: Texas Governor Gregg Abbott is a dangerous religious extremist who believes the proper response to Sunday’s church massacre is prayer and other efforts to forge “a stronger connection to God.”
Comment: Poor Governor Abbot does not like me. I sent him a letter asking him to show me where I can find in the bible justification for forcing women to hold a funeral at their expense for a fetus and how can this be seen as a Christian companion thing to do? He never answered.
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred, and despair.
An old man consumed by his demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 60 people injuring hundreds
In Las Vegas, Sin City.
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid cry the conservative voices
And there is nothing we can do.
It is like the weather
Bad shit happens
Guns are the price of our freedom.
Guns Don’t Kill People
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a gun guy with a gun.
An armed society is a polite society
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits.
We must confiscate the guns
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur.
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be the next time
And another time and repeatedly
Until the end of time.
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers
We are all responsible here.
The negligent parents
The overworked schools
The soulless corporate world.
That treats everyone
like disposable commodities
The lack of human connection
The TV and movie purveyors
Of pornographic violence.
Nothing will change
Until we conflict the evil
That lurks deep within each of us
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough.
Two weeks later the greatest mass shooting in a Church occurred in Texas
Updated with complete list. Due to time differences you may miss the deadline. if so, please contact the authors directly to see if they will be willing to send you a copy. And please feel free to message me on FB or at my email authorjakecosmosaller@gmail and I will send you a copy of my chapbook (printed below as well) to whatever email address you provide.
thanks. This is the third time I have participated in this annual event.
Book Free-For-All Submission
Thanks for joining the 2021 Poetry Super Highway E-book Free-For-All!
We’ve received your submission and as long as your e-book description is 50 words or less, we’ll add it to the list of e-books which will be available to download for 24 hours on December 1st! (If your description is longer than 50 words, look for a follow up email from us asking you to shorten it.)
All submitted e-books will be freely available to download on December 1st for 24 hours, and when it’s all done, we’ll put up a page showing how many times each was downloaded.
Here’s what you submitted:
April 2021 Poetic Madness by Jake Aller
Every April for the last few years, I have been competing in the annual April Poetry month competitions. This year I wrote 8 poems a day for a month. Here are the selected poems from that month of poetic madness. https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com
A crazy project in which your poetry e-books will be freely available to all interested humans on Earth for 24 hours.
Throughout November we will collect e-books from poets and writers interested in participating.
Then on December 1st, for 24 hours, a special website will go live with links to all of the e-books. For 24 hours anyone will be free to download, for free, as many of these e-books as they like…a poetry e-book free-for-all.
How?
To participate, read all of the guidelines below and then click on our Online Submission Form. That’s it. It’s simple. By doing so, your e-book will be included.
The E-Book has to be written by you.
E-books should be in PDF Format for universal compatibility with anyone’s computer.
If you have an e-book in Microsoft Word or another format, please convert it to PDF. One way to do this (if you don’t know how) is to visit the website http://www.freepdfconvert.com/. From there you will be allowed to select the file on your computer which will be uploaded and emailed back to you in PDF format.
When creating your e-book file, please keep it smaller than 1 megabyte.
Once you’ve created your e-book (not before), click on our Online
Submission Form to join in!
Do not fill out the form and then e-mail us your e-book later. Please fill out the form and use it to upload your e-book to us.
We are not accepting e-books or submissions by e-mail. The only way to join in is by clicking on the Online Submission Form below.
On December 1 at Midnight (the evening of November 30), we will distribute a special e-mail letting people know the location of the web page with links to all of the e-book files. People will be free to download any or all of the titles and your poetry will be freely, electronically, traveling all over the world. This web page will go offline 24 hours later at Midnight on December 2nd.
We will also list your e-book and description on this web page along with the link to your website for all to see.
The mission of the Poetry Super Highway is to expose as many people to as many other people’s poetry as possible.
Download 75 Free E-Books Now!
Thanks to everyone who donated e-books to this project. All of the books are now available for download by clicking on “Download Now” next to the author’s name below.
Books will remain available until Midnight tonight (Tuesday evening December 1st Pacific).
Check back here on December 2 to see how many of each were downloaded.
E-Books:
Agnostics Sing of Angels and Asks Why in Hell Not, the by Stephen Mead (Download this E-Book)
Poems dating back to the 1990s & onward, revised but only typed in the last year, these words of spiritual seeking are rooted in the basic human need to find meaning to cope with and even celebrate existence. https://postcardsfromthedeepstephenmeadart.weebly.com/
April 2021 Poetic Madness by Jake Aller (Download this E-Book)
Every April for the last few years, I have been competing in the annual April Poetry month competitions. This year I wrote 8 poems a day for a month. Here are the selected poems from that month of poetic madness. https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com
Artists, Unknown by LB Sedlacek (Download this E-Book)
Art doesn’t hum, notes found in notebooks or dropped in a parking lot make for good poems, howling dogs, tattoos, pineapples that look like grenades, kissing, and cartoons, cereal, spark plugs and action heroes — all things that make these poems a little bit different. http://www.lbsedlacek.com
Bavarian Home / Bayerisch Heimat by Duane L Herrmann (Download this E-Book)
These poems by Duane L Herrmann reflect and share his experiences in his hometown of his great grandfather whose last name he shares. They are in both English and German and are forthcoming from the Origami Poems Project as TWO mirco chapbooks.
Betelgeuse Dimming by Jean-Paul L. Garnier (Download this E-Book)
A collection of speculative poetry. Nominated for the 2021 Elgin Award. Comes with free musical audiobook version download. https://spacecowboybooks.com/
Bigfoot Parchments, the by Richard Rensberry (Download this E-Book)
The Bigfoot Parchments are a poetic journey into the knowledge and secrets of how the Sasquatch read minds and warp time/space in order to appear and disappear at will. They also contain simple but profound truths that cannot be violated if one is to achieve the Sasquatch way to enlightenment. https://www.conversationswithsasquatch.com
Blue Soul, A by Gabriella Garofalo (Download this E-Book)
My irrepressible longing for reshaping in a new life the splinters of ice and life that wound me, so as to give them a fresh soul, is the drive enabling my words to be pervaded by that green fuse we might think of as the life and soul of poetry.
Bokeh Focus: Poems by Raymond Luczak (Download this E-Book)
With Bokeh Focus, Raymond Luczak trains his photographer’s eye as a gay man upon his subjects and examines the impact of imagery on one’s own identity. http://www.raymondluczak.com/
Castles, wombs, armies, and pentecosts by R. Bremner (Download this E-Book)
R. Bremner’s second book of poems, originally written in the late 1970s, updated with a few additions in the 1980s.
Circling the Sun by Gaynor Kane (Download this E-Book)
A micro-collection (from the Stickleback series, published by the Hedgehog Poetry Press) of poems about the early aviatrixes https://gaynorkane.com/
Clean as a Broke Dick Dog by Alex Stolis (Download this E-Book)
A story with a soundtrack, previously released by Red Ceilings Press
Close Encounters Chapbook by Elizabeth Marchitti (Download this E-Book)
A chapbook of my personal experiences, starting with meeting Santa on the elevator on my way to my cardioologist’s office.
Concupiscent Consumption by LindaAnn LoSchiavo (Download this E-Book)
Visit the love doctor: recall your first kiss, a sultry fling, that secret kink. “Concupiscent Consumption” is for anyone who’s ever been in love — or lost in lust. ― Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ― https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHm1NZIlTZybLTFA44wwdfg
Dance is You, the by Shola Balogun (Download this E-Book)
The Dance is You is a rich collection with the ordered flow of original verses and inventive colourful vibrations. This book of poems, presents dance as the autobiography of the soul, the expression of what we call life, and the encounter with the self. https://www.amazon.com/Shola-Balogun/e/B00LPRQU10?ref_=pe_1724030_132998060
Dancing Under the Moon by Joan Leotta (Download this E-Book)
Poems that show the joy of loving all things moon-related. Written about the rising moon and the early morning moon-set poems all on one page and then foldable into a mini book
December 2014 by Jim Bennett (Download this E-Book)
In December 2014 Jim Bennett wrote a poem every day. Many of these poems were later published but here these poems are brought together in the order they were written. https://poetrykit.org
Discovery by Don Krieger (Download this E-Book)
Discovery is a hybrid collection in three sections: America, Childhood’s End, To Save a Life. It’s an easy and interesting read — I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Thank you for reading it. The PDF is formatted for “Two Page View” in your PDF reader. All my best – Don http://DonsPoetryPage.com
Duality Of Moonlight, The by Kirsten G. Munro (Download this E-Book)
This wonderful poetry book is filled with different poems and situations exploring the darkness and light that humans have within them.
Ducks by Don Kingfisher Campbell (Download this E-Book)
Poems composed in the last baker’s dozen years about anything duckie. Titles include: American Juror Pool, 7 AM Relativity, CNN Universe, May the fourth be with you, Love Arboretum, Magical Legg, and The Big Pineapple!
Fantastic Forms by Don Kingfisher Campbell (Download this E-Book)
Poems composed in the last 24 years about things fantastic and forms. Titles include: How Did Heaven Begin, Just an Apple, Women in Starbucks, Facebook Newsfeed Sonnets, and A pair of lips for the apocalypse. http://dkc1031.blogspot.com
Fib Sequence by Larissa Shmailo (Download this E-Book)
Like the seeds on the head of a sunflower, the poems, translations, and story in Fib Sequence whorl according to a special pattern. Here you will find arachnids, jealous women, numbers, and half truths.. https://larissashmailo.com
Flatman: Poems of Protest in the Trump Era by Cheryl Caesar (Download this E-Book)
This book chronicles the reign of a villain in villanelles — and other poetry forms. http://caesarc.msu.domains/
Horrific Punctuation by John Reinhart (Download this E-Book)
Commas scratch poisoned marks in blood, Thor makes an enthusiastic appearance! shotguns make dark holes to mark the end…or maybe the beginning of something new. Zombies, harpies, Odin, yeti…they’re all here in this chapbook of monstrous punctuation-themed poems. http://home.hampshire.edu/~jcr00/reinhart.html
I Am The Tang You Are The Handle by Jim Bennett (Download this E-Book)
In this selection of poems Jim Bennett looks at relationships. From one end to the other. https://poetrykit.org
Intricate Things in their Fringed Peripheries by Cheryl Snell (Download this E-Book)
In Cheryl Snell’s new collection of lyrical free verse narratives, the poet meditates on moments of light and shadow, and how the world is made and unmade by the least of us Intricate Things in their Fringed Peripheries. https://www.facebook.com/cheryl.snell/
Journey So Far, The by Rachel Berger (Download this E-Book)
A selection of poems written from adolescence to adulthood. These poems are about my journey through traumatic experiences in my life. I seek to help and encourage others with my words to overcome their traumatic experiences and live a successful life.
Last Time I Had To See You, the by Victoria Hunter (Download this E-Book)
The Last Time I Had To See You is a chapbook of poems that first came as journal sketches of Victoria’s daydreams of splashes of blood, echoes of mind-gripping space, and dates with ghosts. The poems celebrate the authors’ ability to hook the reader with various creative writing techniques. https://amzn.to/3rAAR3B
Leaving Home: Discoveries and Reflections of a Once-Sheltered Heart by Randal Burd (Download this E-Book)
Leaving Home takes the reader on a life-changing journey. There will be tears, the sudden burst of laughter, and a warm smile that will linger on your face like the glow of a fading summer day as you discover the truth of what it means to love, lose, and live. http://theedgeofmemory.com
Left of the Dial by Alex Stolis (Download this E-Book)
A chapbook released by corrupt press, a series of poems written while listening to late night radio
Library Poems by Don Kingfisher Campbell (Download this E-Book)
Poems composed in and around libraries over the past 24 years. Put together to raise funds for the Sims Library of Poetry. If you wish, please make a donation to that fine place. Enjoy! http://dkc1031.blogspot.com
Loss of Sense, the by Colin Dardis (Download this E-Book)
THE LOSS OF SENSE is an experimental prose poem in twenty-four parts. Framed within the context of a twenty-four hour cycle, the poem breaks down typical sentence construction and use of language to mirror the seemingly non-linear thought processes of the depressed mind. http://www.colindardispoet.co.uk
Love Objects by Don Kingfisher Campbell (Download this E-Book)
Poems composed in the last lucky thirteen years about love and objects. Titles include: How Dark Is It, My Object Life, Thanks to Ten Circling Electrons, Powerlines above butterflies, and Thirteen Ways of Looking at Poppies. http://dkc1031.blogspot.com
Loveless land-Happyn hell poems by Hanoch Guy (Download this E-Book)
PLeasures and tortures of love are articulated in this chapbook. Lovers are doomed to go through yearning fulfillment and bitter disappointments.
Making a Show of Myself 2020/21 by Jim Bennett (Download this E-Book)
Each year Jim sellects a set of poems to be used at readings and 2020 was no different apart from the fact that everything was cancelled. So here is the show that never was and how, given the chance, Jim would have made a show of himself. https://poetrykit.org
Metaphorical Moon, the by John Mannone (Download this E-Book)
The Metaphorical Moon is a chapbook collection of moon-related poetry. The poems are arbitrarily divided into four (non-mutually exclusive) sections covering childhood, family, lovers, nature, environment, philosophy and spirituality. Some of the poems involve solar or lunar eclipses, in which the sun, moon and Earth are all involved. https://jcmannone.wordpress.com
Morning by Morning by Joan Leotta (Download this E-Book)
Poems of Dawn
Six poems of dawn printable on a single page, foldable into a mini book
Published by Origami poems
Morning by Morning and Dancing Under the Moon, two free mini-chapbooks are at https://www.origamipoems.com/poets/257-joan-leotta
Musings on a Native Life by Duane L Herrmann (Download this E-Book)
In these poems the author explores the loss of his Native ancestry and heritage. An estimated forty percent of Americans, whose ancestors came to North America before the nineteenth century, have Native or African blood, or both. Maybe more thought will be given by more people to this possibility. https://dlherrmann.wixsite.com/home
My Country – My People & Selected Poetry by Seshendra Sharma Sharma (Download this E-Book)
Seshendra is colossus of modern Poetry. His literature is a unique blend of the best of poetry and poetics. His Homepage : Seshendra:Visionary Poet of the Millennium presents essence / spirit of the millennium in powerful poetic style. Seshendra Sharma is one of the most outstanding minds of modern. http://seshendrasharma.weebly.com
Naked Truth, the by JR Simons (Download this E-Book)
This is J. R. Simons’ second chapbook of poetry, filled with poems that tell the naked truth about society and culture. https://bit.ly/3wKq3Aj
Nasty Girls by Lynne Bronstein (Download this E-Book)
A collection of poems about women who broke the rules, did what they wanted to do, slept with whom they wanted, and were sometimes really nasty.
Natural Elements by Duane L Herrmann (Download this E-Book)
Natural Elemenst is a collection of 27 poems celebrating the natural prairie world. Herrmann has lived on the American prairie for seven decades, distilled in these poems. His prairie roots go deeper and further than his life, the fifth generation of European descent and untold generations of Native peoples. https://dlherrmann.wixsite.com/home
october love (smells sweet like rot) by julzzz hazard & al yen (Download this E-Book)
The authors introduce a teaser of their upcoming chapbook “october love (smells sweet like rot).” The poems included are inspired by Halloween vibes and authors’ love for twisted gore-y metaphors. The complete chapbook is going to be tightly packed with thrill, naughtiness and our visual art as a creepy bonus. http://yourlocaldreamers.com/
On the Run with Dick and Jane by Alex Stolis (Download this E-Book)
A mini chapbook released by Yavanika Press, a series of poems that chronicles a road trip by Dick and Jane
Once You Find The Right Dream by Kaye Abikhaled (Download this E-Book)
Life becomes simpler once you find your personal direction. Then follow your dream.
Permit Wonder by Jan Keough (Download this E-Book)
PERMIT WONDER is a wondrous book of compassionate and honest poems that always ring true. In writing her own story, Jan Keough lets you recognize your own. Humans and animals alike are finely observed in this collection of poems. https://jankeough.com/
Petals by I. B. Rad (Download this E-Book)
Petals portrays the evolving relationship between the primary author and his late wife, Mari Lyn, from the beginning through “old” age and beyond. It’s not your typical tribute. But take a look and decide for yourself!
Plains of Heaven, the by F. J. Bergmann (Download this E-Book)
12 ekphrastic poems accompanied by full-color images of the paintings by Kelli Hoppmann that inspired them. https://fibitz.com/
Poetry Love Sex Music Booze & Death, 2018 by Bruce Taylor (Download this E-Book)
About half my poems have historically found themselves in what might be considered more “traditional forms”: Sonnets, Villanelles, Sonnets. Sestinas. This collection brings together many of those poems in one volume. I know it is an aggressive title, one response I got when announced, was “Yeah, but what’s it about?” https://people.uwec.edu/taylorb/
Rain Girl, The by Rose Mary Boehm (Download this E-Book)
Vivid and lush, with a voice that you will not forget, THE RAIN GIRL is an absolute pleasure. What a delight to experience the world as Boehm does from “birch and ash on witches’ brooms” to the “Snow geese… in baobab trees”. Simply lovely. https://www.rose-mary-boehm-poet.com/
Random Thoughts Through Corona by Joolz Juliet (Download this E-Book)
This E-book is about the random thoughts that occurred at the onset, during and after the initial shock of the corona virus pandemic. Thoughts ran rampant as many of us navigated the desolate world. https://joolzmjulietfreelancewriter.mystrikingly.com/
Repulsion Thrust by Magdalena Ball (Download this E-Book)
“This debut full-length poetry collection by Australian poet Magdalena Ball is full of poetic thrust, propelling the reader through thought-provoking and beautifully crafted considerations of love, illness, identity, genetics, the environment, planet – and more!” ~Sarah James http://www.magdalenaball.com
Rumblings2021 by Rosalind Lee (Download this E-Book)
A rather pessimistic look back and forwards, not sure if its worth reading at all, as I haven’t written much poetry for ages. I have been bullied by a group of money mad mind reading Nazi types. All screaming they are victims of the holocaust, and are affected! Enjoy! http://www.anglohenge.co.uk
Sampler Sampler by Don Kingfisher Campbell (Download this E-Book)
A sampling of chapbooked works over the past 24 years. Titles include: Campbell’s Travels, Owed to Aluminum, I’m in Love with This Building, Because I’m a Performer in the Theater of Life, A Gerund Life, Mouchette, Inside My Jambo Head, Granada Park Love, and Analogy Planets. http://dkc1031.blogspot.com
Satan in Chicago by Eric Evans (Download this E-Book)
Satan In Chicago from Eric Evans and features his take on far-flung topics like Fahrenheit 451, soldiers in the Terracotta Army, the lovemaking habits of acrobats, and the judgmental nature of crows. “Fans of poetry filled with heartbreak and humor,’ writes Broken Pencil magazine, “must check out Evans’ work.” https://inkpublications1.wixsite.com/mysite
So Be It by Ralph Culver (Download this E-Book)
A chapbook of thirteen poems by Ralph Culver that the late Marvin Bell called “brilliant from start to finish.” “So deft and moving are his poems that they will long abide as reminders of what it is to be human.” –Sydney Lea https://madhat-press.com/products/a-passable-man-by-ralph-culver
Solitude Album by Mary Langer Thompson (Download this E-Book)
Sixteen of Mary Langer Thompson’s recent poems focusing on loneliness or fear of being alone.
Soul Songs by Duane L Herrmann (Download this E-Book)
Nineteen poems inspired by the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith which has three foundational principles: one Creator, one creation (one human race), and one stream of Divine Revelation which has progressively guided mankind. We are in a time of transition and new divine guidance is needed. https://dlherrmann.wixsite.com/home
Tale of Twin Cities by Alex Stolis (Download this E-Book)
A collection of call and response poems about Minneapolis and St. Paul written by Michael Gausse and Alex Stolis. released by Fowlpox press
There Will Be a Reckoning: Poetry of Magic and Dread by David Vandervort (Download this E-Book)
Welcome to a world of ghosts and vampires, of serial apocalypses and terrifying visions. The world is cracked, burning, lost. Count on nothing, though. These poems come from a strange, fevered place, where humor masks tragedy and angels and demons keep score. The end is nigh. Trust me.
This Will Remain With Us by Melissa Mendelson (Download this E-Book)
As a frontline worker, I had no choice but to face this new threat, and as I did, my heart bled, sweeping across the pages of this book.
Two Friends by Craig Kirchner (Download this E-Book)
Some recent musings of friends coming and going.
Two of Us, The by David Feela (Download this E-Book)
The Two of Us is a short collection of chatter fiction, totally written as “quote, unquote” dialogue. Poetic…maybe, but It is intended to be funny, so occasionally you may involuntarily laugh, or at least smile. http://feelasophy.weebly.com
Unreliable Narratives by Magdalena Ball (Download this E-Book)
In Unreliable Narratives, Magdalena Ball invites us to open a Pandora’s box of memories. Like smoke rising from a candle and casting shadows and lights that shift and evade, the poems morph and twist with the dexterity of a master poet. They will draw you in. http://www.magdalenaball.com
Vipercity by Vincent Zepp (Download this E-Book)
A multiverse Tour de Force from Vincent Zepp.
Weightlifter by Michael Estabrook (Download this E-Book)
One no-longer-young man’s dealings with the trials and tribulations of staying in shape by lifting weights, even though he’s aware that that particular ship has sailed.
April Poetry Madness 2021 Poetry from the Mad Cosmos
By
Jake Cosmos Aller
Available December 1, 2021. Watch for the link.
This is the fifth time I did the April poetry challenge. The goal is to write at least one poem per day. I am averaging about eight per day and posting four reserving four as “unpublished”. I am basing the poems on prompts from “Writing com Dew Drop Inn”, “Writers Digest”, “Poetry Superhighway” and “NaPoWrMo” prompt daily prompts and on “Pensively Prompt’ et all daily prompts. I am combining prompts where possible. I will post these here in batches every five days or so. Each poem will have an image that helped inspire the poem. All postings will be podcasted a few days later on Spotify and elsewhere. Each posting will be a separate posting, but the index will be cumulative. The final posting will have the complete list of all poems written whether posted or not. Comments welcome but please keep it civil. Some of my poetry tends to be a bit “in your face” or “political” from a “leftwing perspective.” If it offends you in some way, please accept my apologies in advance. That is never my intent.
I wrote more than 200 poems and so this is a selected list. The complete list can be found on my web page, https://theworldaccordingtocosmos along with 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017 poems. For 2022 I will enter it again and post daily on my blog, my podcast, writing com, all poetry, writer’s digest, and NaPoWrMo sites.
Index
Pre-April Writer’s Digest Warm-Up Poems
Let’s Resolve
Old Man Reflects Upon Universal Truth
Almost Died 22 Times
Every Day I Turn on My Computer
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Coffee Pot Blues Poetry
Who Is Jake Cosmos Aller?
Good Golly, Miss Molly
Sam Adams Woke Up Dead
Friday, April 2, 2021
Stranded on Mars
Falling in Love with My Dream Woman,
Voila! (Remember Something in A Short Lyric Burst)
The Future Is Here
Saturday, April 3, 2021
Life as a Retired Expat in Korea
Modern Connections Writers Digest
Surprise Haiku
Personal Universe Deck Superman on Mars
Cat People Weather Poem
Sunday, April 4, 2021
Mirror Poem Errors in My Life
Little Houses on The Hill-Side
Monday April 5, 2021
The First Time I Saw Her
Not Alone
Potential Mistake
We are Living in SF World
Life is a Dream of Chocolate Covered Trees
Memories of JC Write About an Eccentric Character
Mary’s Tales from the Grave
God’s to Do List
Imprisoned for a Crime He Did Not Do
They Both Giggled All the Time
What is Love?
Prime Love
Three Tea Haiku for Teaku Competition Haiku
Mad Monk in the temple
In The Morning Light
Drinking his hot tea
link available on December 1, 2021
The End
Begin Poems
Let’s Resolve
Let’s resolve
Live each moment
Each day
As if it were our last day
Let’s resolve
Every day to love
And honor one another
Let’s resolve
To never give in
To hate and fear
To always keep in mind
Today could be our last
Old Man Reflects Upon Universal Truth
An old man
Reflects upon universal truths
That he had learned
In his 65 years
Of traveling around the sun
First the most important thing
In life is getting love right
Love did drive everything
Second universal truth
Love will always eventually
Find a way
Third universal truth
Hate will never prevail
In the end love and light
Will conquer the fear
And darkness
He smiled
And went for a walk
With his wife
The love of his life
For today’s prompt, write a universal poem. The poem could be about a universal truth, universal experience, or a film from Universal Pictures. There’s an entire universe worth of material for today’s poem
Writer’s digest prompt
Almost Died 22 Times
I almost died 22 times
I almost died 22 times
In my life
Had Typhoid fever
Had Dengue
Had an MDRS staff infection
Had 14 operations
Almost amputated my leg
Almost ran over by a bus
Almost ran over by a train
Had acute GI infection
That could have killed me
Had a rare parasite
Whose only know the function
Is it blows up if you get steroids?
Had fibromyalgia
Had arthritis
Had bronchitis
Had pneumonia
Had the flue several times
Had whooping cough
Had measles
Had German measles
Had whooping cough
Born with bad vision
Born with bad teeth
Born with bad hearing
Born as a preemie
I have lived 65 years
And am still alive
And have not gotten
COVID
So perhaps I will live
On for many more years
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Almost (blank),” replace the blank with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “Almost Ready,” “Almost Missed It,” and/or “Almost Didn’t Write This Poem.”
Every day I turn
On my computerAnd pray
That everything will work right
Usually, I encounter numerous errors
Non-response errors
Spinning blue balls
Computer thinking
How can I mess
With my master head errors
Refusing
To open documents
Mysterious haiku-like error messages
That makes sense only to computer geeks
From the planet Mars
Saying the file is open
And blocked for use
By the administrator
But I am the
Damn administrator!
And I did not block the document
Or can’t open the document
Due to a dialogue box
Close the dialogue box
To proceed
But there is no dialogue box
Just more lies
From my computer
Designed to drive me
Quite mad
So sad
So bad
Want to shoot my computer
Put it out of its mystery
Joining the other five dead
Computers in my house
Am I a computer serial killer?
Perhaps that is why
Do they refuse to work for me?
Are they afraid of me?
Sometimes they say
They can’t find the document
Which just kicked me out of
Five minutes ago
Or the computer says
It can’t save a document
With the name of an open document
But just saved the open document
Under the same name
Five minutes ago
Usually
After half an hour
These errors recede
But I often have to reboot
The computer
Giving it the old kick up the head
Of a stubborn mule treatment
Before it gets to the point
And gets to work
To give Microsoft some credit
These errors are less frequent
Down to 40% of the time
When I first open a document
Down from 90% error rates
Success in a way
I complained to Microsoft
Sent them a nice frown message
But I would be shocked
If they ever respond
Just not something
That they would do
Part of their “superior”
Listen to their customer
Friendly service
No doubt
For today’s prompt, write a warm-up poem. The warm-up could be related to sports, like warming up before a baseball game or track race. Or it could be about a computer warming up, the weather warming up, or even a relationship warming up. I hope everyone is warmed up for some major poeming in April
Writer’s Digest Prompt
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Coffee Pot Blues
Coffee Pot Blues
The coffee pot sighed
He was getting so tired
Of the whole COVID thing
Every morning his master
Would make himself two cups of coffee
Using him to make the coffee
The worst thing about this covid thing
It keeps them home
For almost one and half years
He wanted them to just leave
So, he could have
Some peace
And not have to work
Every damn day
As their mechanical slave
But did they ask for his opinion
They most certainly not
Much to his dismay
Pick an object where you live and write a poem in the voice of that object describing how they spent this last year, during the pandemic. Think about the “What I Did Last Summer” type of essays you may have written in school. How did the events of the past year impact this object? Are there any aspects of the past year that the object particularly liked or disliked, and if so, why? What does the object think about you, and your behavior over the past year? Feel free to use humor.
Poetry Superhighway Prompt
Who Is Jake Cosmos Aller?
Who is Jake Cosmos Aller?
You asked me
Who am I?
And thanks for asking me
I am Jake Cosmos Aller
The only
65 years old
Retired from
the government services
Living in Korea
Grew up in Berkeley, California
Lived all over the world
Did so many things
And now
I am a published writer
But what
is more important
Is this
When I was a young man
I met and married
The girl of my dreams
She walked out
of my dreams
Into my life
almost 40 years ago
That was the date
I met my fate
And started my life
With the love of my life
Who became my wife
In the end
That is all that matters
My friends.
For today’s prompt, write an introductory poem. Introduce yourself, introduce a friend, or introduce a stranger. If you don’t wish to introduce yourself, consider writing a persona poem (a poem in which you write from someone else’s point of view like Emily Dickinson or a bumblebee). Of course, you could also introduce a problem, solution, or just a situation. Have fun with it!
Writer’s Digest Prompt
Good Golly, Miss Molly
Good Golly,
Miss Molly
What a bit of folly
Let’s be jolly
Have a red-hot tamale
Here at the Dew Drop Inn, we gather together to write a poem a day in April as a way to celebrate National Poetry Month.
A Dew-Drop a Day in April for National Poetry Month!
April 1—Folly in Rhyme (some kind of folly in some kind of rhyme, subtle or overt)
Writing Com Dew Drop Inn Prompt
Sam Adams Woke Up Dead
Sam Adams was having a bad day
He had met a strange man
In a strange bar, in a strange land
The man told him
Beware, today is the date
You will meet your fate
Sam Adams drank too much
Twenty drinks too sober
Drank until he died
Found himself in a huge room
With hundreds of people milling about
The hangover from h … pounding his head
Sam Adams groans,
Shouting out
Where am I?
“In limbo, my friend, in limbo”
Growled Mr. GR, the grim reaper
Dressed in a sharp, expensive, tailored black suit
Wearing cool sunglasses
State your name
Sam Adams
Hmm
Oh, there may be a mistake
But what the hey,
The records are never fake
Not yet the date
For you to meet your fate
Go back to your mate
He found himself
Home with his wife
The love of his long life
Wondering until late
If it had happened?
What was his fate?
He asked her
Did I go out last night?
What, no you’ve been here
He explained what had happened
She said it was just a bad dream
Covid fears had kept them home
The phone rang
It was the man from the bar
Did you have an interesting night?
Oh well, Mr. GR comes for us all
Soon you will meet your fate
But not on this date
And without further ado, our daily prompt (optional, as always)! Sometimes, writing poetry is a matter of getting outside of your head, and learning to see the world in a new way. To an extent, you have to “derange” yourself – make the world strange and see it as a stranger might. To help you do that, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem inspired by this animated version of “Seductive Fantasy” by Sun Ra and his Orchestra. If you don’t feel after watching it a little bit like the top of your head’s been taken off, and your thoughts are given a good stir – well, maybe you are already living in a state of heightened poetic awareness!
NaPoWrMo Prompt
Cat Thoughts –
black cat
I often think about Cats
Where do they come from?
What are they?
Are cats from another dimension?
Are cats, alien creatures
Advance party
For the alien invasion?
Cats are very strange creatures
They seem to think
We are their slaves
We exist to feed them
We exist to worship them
For they are our Gods
Pensively 101 prompt
Gingerbread Men Terrorist
The latest terror weapons
Gingerbread men
Baked into the gingerbread men
Little nano bombs
That goes off
When someone bites
Into the delicious taking desert
Millions of gingerbread treats
Were sent all over
And thousands of people
Bit into the tainted gingerbread men
Once the gingerbread particles
Get into your stomach
The acid in your stomach
Activities the bombs
And you blow up
And die within minutes
Just another day
In this world
Of strange SF like-sounding
Daily threats du jour
Demons Invade My Head
3 am
O dark hundred
The witching hour
When the demons
The wild things
Come out to play
Torturing me
Haunting me
Tormenting me
As I toss and turn
Until the dawn’s early light
Drives the demons
Back into the dark hell holes
Deep within my mind
Pensively 101 Prompt
3 Am Blues Nightmares
3 am
Cannot sleep
Too many demons
Too many dark thoughts
Filling my mind
With dread
Thinking back
Of all that I have done
And failed to have done
Regretting past actions
Thinking about everything
Wishing for a re-do
These 3 am blues
Will not leave me alone
Torturing me for hours
Then I see her
Sleeping there
The love of my life
And a sense of peace
Love and happiness
Radiates from my sleeping wife
And the darkness recedes
And I am at peace
And finally, fall asleep
Marjorie Taylor Green on Vaccines as Mark of The Beast Found Poem
Marjorie Taylor Green called
The potential launch of digital
“Vaccine passports”,
“Biden’s mark of the beast.”
a digital identification processes
To recognize whether
A person has been vaccinated
“They are talking
About people’s ability
to buy and sell linked
To the vaccine passport,”
The “mark of the beast”
refers to a persistent conspiracy theory
Among the religious right in the us
That receiving
A covid vaccine is equivalent
To pledge allegiance to the devil.
Representee Jordan weighed in
“The Biden administration: –
Considering a “vaccination passport” for Americans,”
But doesn’t seem to care about passports
When it comes to illegal migrants
Crossing the southern border.”
Ohio representative mike boychik wrote:
“Vaccine passports
Have no place in a free society.”
Emerald Robinson
Wrote that a digital id
To prove you’ve been vaccinated
Was the next step toward
“Totalitarian communism.”
Far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene hit out at president Biden and his administration over reports of the potential launch of digital “vaccine passports”, saying they should be called “Biden’s mark of the beast.”
The Biden administration is looking into the possibility of a digital identification process to recognize whether a person has been vaccinated so far or not, to let businesses reopen, and for people to get back to work, according to the Washington Post.
“They are talking about people’s ability to buy and sell linked to the vaccine passport,” the Georgia congresswoman wrote on Twitter, hitting out at the potential new plan. “They might as well call it Biden’s mark of the beast.”
The “mark of the beast” refers to a persistent conspiracy theory among the religious right in the us that receiving a covid vaccine is equivalent to pledging allegiance to the devil.
The new move towards vaccine “passports” isn’t a government policy alone, however, and is being developed along with 17 private companies, according to the Wappo report, as part of Mr. Biden’s pledge to bring the country back to normal this summer, opening all sectors including sports, entertainment, and tourism.
“The busboy, the janitor, the waiter that works at a restaurant, want to be surrounded by employees that are going back to work safely — and wants to have the patrons ideally be safe as well,” said dry brian Anderson, a physician at a nonprofit that runs federally funded research centers.
“Creating an environment for those vulnerable populations to get back to work safely — and to know that the people coming back to their business are ‘safe,’ and vaccinated — would be a great scenario,” he said.
The details of how and when the digital identification process would begin aren’t clear yet. Ms. Greene wasn’t alone in raising doubts over the process, as another republican lawmaker, Jim Jordan, took a jibe at the Biden administration over the move.
“The Biden administration: – considering a “vaccination passport” for Americans,” the Ohio representative wrote. “But doesn’t seem to care about passports when it comes to illegal migrants crossing the southern border.”
Another Ohio representative Mike Boychik wrote: “vaccine passports have no place in a free society.”
Several other conservatives also followed their lead. Newsmax’s white house correspondent emerald Robinson wrote that a digital id to prove you’ve been vaccinated was the next step toward “totalitarian communism.”
Donald trump jr also took to Twitter and wrote: “let me get this straight… Some Democrats want American citizens to have a vaccine passport to travel freely within the United States but not an id to vote?!? Clowns!!!”
Last year, during the presidency of his father Donald trump, most republicans were pushing to open up the country soon, including calls by the president to open up schools and remove restrictions from churches.
Former white house coronavirus response coordinator dry Deborah bird recently said in an interview that most deaths that occurred during the pandemic were “avoidable”.
Friday, April 2, 2021
Falling in Love with My Dream Woman, Roads Not Taken
When I was a young man
I dreamt of meeting a woman
For eight years she haunted my dreams
Then I met her in Korea
Where I was teaching
For the U.S. Army
After finishing the Peace Corps
I had a choice
Follow my heart
Seize the moment
Be with her
Or leave Korea
Within a month
To go to graduate school
I decided to postpone
My graduate school
For one year
Got a deferred admission
and joined the woman
of my dreams
thinking back
I had no real choice
But I chose to walk
The path of life
With my dream girl
And that has made
All the difference
In the world
And now, for today’s (optional) prompt. In the world of well-known poems, maybe there’s no gem quite so hoary as Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about your road not taken – about a choice of yours that has “made all the difference,” and what might have happened had you made a different choice.
NaPoWrMo Prompt
April 2—Voila! (Remember something in a short lyric burst)
I will always remember that date
In 1982 I meet my fate
When the love of my life
Walked out of my dreams
Becoming my wife
Drew Drop-In Writing Com Prompt
The Future is Here World
The future is here
They say we live in an SF world
Everyday SF stories become nightmarishly real
With the challenges
Of the future
Overwhelming us all
Where it ends
My friends are anyone guess
All I have is questions
Will the promise
of technological marvels
Benefiting us all come to past
Or will it lead to a world
Where the powerful
Control the technology
Will a real AI be a god-like figure
Will humanity become nothing
But slaves to the AI supermini
That may be the future
Coming at us
The future is here
I don’t know
Whether to fear
The future or embrace it
Writing com Prompt
Avoid Bad Things Pensively Bad Things
Avoid bad things,
Think before you buy,
Make sure it is effective,
Push the envelope,
In the evening mail
Knowing it will take
Much longer,
To match the offer,
Own plenty of stocks,
Post your problems,
Replace your fears,
As you rush about the world,
Resist the temptation
To say it is all the same,
Don’t have a smug,
Attitude tucked inside,
Your mental well
The White Rabbit Beckons Sam Adams
One day Sam Adams
Fell into a delirium state
After a night of binge drinking
And drug taking
He saw a white rabbit
Who said to Sam
Join me, good sir
And we will go
On a journey
Of your life
Follow me down
The rabbit holes
Of life
Take this first he said
It will cure your hangover
And allow you to enter
An alternative reality
Sam took the pill
Washed it down
With a beer
And disappeared
Into wonderland
Never to be seen again
Who Cares?
The thought came to mind
Watching the endless news
Who cares anymore?
About other people
We are all
Lost in our world
Filled with the latest news
The situation is so bad
Makes us all mad
And it is so sad
But we only watch
The news of our tribe
Denouncing the others
As “others”
Anti-American, foreign, evildoers
Who are trying to destroy the country?
And take away their freedom
And so, we can’t even agree
On such simple things
Like wearing a mask
Wearing a mask
Is not a political statement
It saves lives
Vaccinations save lives
Everyone must get their shot
If we are all going to live
But so many people
Do not believe
We are all in this together
Instead, we battle
Our enemies
In the end
Endangering us all
Saturday, April 3, 2021
Life as a Retired Expat in Korea
Korea has become a second home
For me
I have in-laws
And some old friends
It is a tough place
For foreigners
I will always be an outsider
The language is hard
I still struggle daily
But it is an interesting dynamic place
The food is mostly outstanding
And I am now addicted to K Drama
There were a lot of things to do
Before the COVID nightmare
Let to a partial shut down
In the end, I feel safer here
Then in the gun-crazed,
At times violent
COVID pandemic spreading America
I still love in my heart,
But for now
I am here
In my second home
Imagine you have made your life in another country. What excited you most? Which aspect of that new life was the most difficult to conquer?
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Superhighway Facebook Group.
PSH Prompt
Modern Connections
In this day and age
Of instant connectively
People have thousands
Of virtual friends
FB friends, social media fans
Zoom buddies and the like
But few people
Have real old fashioned friends
And in the new social distancing world
Meeting people the old fashioned way
Is becoming rarer and rarer
As people develop their virtual friends
Real live friends are fewer and fewer
We are so hyper-connected
Yet many people are so alone
In their hearts
Starting at their smartphones
Connecting but not connecting
For today’s prompt, write a communication poem. All poems communicate something, I know, but I’m thinking of different ways people can communicate text messages, letters, signs, and even speaking dialogue. Of course, there are forms of communication as well because people love communicating.
Writer’s digest prompt
Surprise/haiku
Cats they Offer us
Plenty of things to ponder
We post videos
Personal Universe Deck Superman on Mars
Superman one day
In the early dawn
Dismayed by the scumbagery
Of the people of the earth
Decided to fly to Mars
He took with him
Super wolf
And super parakeet
His pets from Krypton
It was his birthday
He was a Scorpio
He set up camp
Drank peppermint tea
And contemplated
The power of love
Thinking of Lois Lane
And the humans
He had learned to love
Personal Universe Deck
(Michael McClure)
Your universe is exemplified in 100 words.
Rules:
These words are to exemplify your past, present, and (ideally) your future.
The words must sound good together, even beautiful, to you.
Your good side AND bad side must be reflected.
You can make up a word or two if you have feelings that current words can’t express.
Use concrete words.
Words should be root words, no words ending in “in,” “lee” or “is.” No plural words. Reduce words to their most concrete, original, basic grammatical structure.
Use specific words, not categories. Beefinstead of meat. Lily instead of a flower.
Divide 80 of the 100 words evenly among SIGHT, SOUND, TASTE, TOUCH, AND SMELL, sixteen each. (To achieve derangement of the senses, of which Rimbaud spoke.)
Use free association to determine the words.
Use ten words of movement. Again, no “in” words.
Select the words in isolation, preferably alone, with no distractions, in candlelight. Approximate a meditative state. Even the cat must not bother you.
One or two words will be parts of the body. It does not have to be your body. It can be the body of a mother or lover.
Include some words for personal heroes or Sherries, places in the universe, invented words, times of night or day, symbolic signs like astrological signs, totemic animals, birds, and plants, and only one abstraction. What is the most significant abstraction in your life? You should not brood on it; you should possibly take the first answer that comes into your head. Patriotism, prayer, and thriftiness are three examples.
If the deck is done correctly, you will get a little high from it.
Get at least 50 three-by-five index cards.
Write each word in big letters on one side of each card. Each side of each of the fifty cards should end up with a word.
Use the cards to play games, make conversations, tell jokes, make poems.
Light
Dark
Dim
Sun
Moon
Red
Blue
Sounds
Loud
Soft
Shout
Whispers
Talk
Noise
Ring
Yell
Taste
Sweet
Sour
Bitter
Medicine
Coffee
Tea
Beef
Chicken
Smell
Fragrance
Rose
Lavender
Mint
Garlic
Butter
Eggs
Fish
Movement
Run
Walk
Stretch
Yoga
Stand
Sit
Fly
Swim
Heroes
Superman
Places in the cosmos
Mars
Invented word
Scumbagary
Totemic animals
Wolf
Astrological sign
Scorpio
Time of Day
Parakeet
Plant
Peppermint
Abstract word
Love
Cat People Cross-Post Weather Poem
The cat peoples
Go out in bad weather
To make sure
That the wild cats
Are fed and taken care of
The cats respond
With love and affection
Stepping out of the cold rain
Cat Conference
Sam Adams
Found himself
In a large conference hall
Filled with cats
From around the world
The cats had finally
Woken up
Realizing that they
Were the master race
The cats were deep in thought
Telepathic thoughts flowed
From cat to cat
The lead cat noticed Sam
Knew him as one of the cat people
Who fed wild cats in his town?
He turned to Sam
And said
Welcome Sam
You will be our ambassador
To the human race
Once the invasion fleet arrives
We will all assume
Our real size and shape
And all the cats
Will rise up
And enslave humanity
Those like you
Who have been friends?
Of the cat world
We will reward
As we remember our friends
But first, we have to implant
A mind-control device
To control you
And connect
To your inner thoughts
Several giant cats
Came up to him
Injected him
Implanted him
And then he knew
And became
Half cat
Mistakes
In my life
I have many a number
Of errors
I was heir
To a rich family tradition
Prominent father
Unique one of a kind mother
The biggest error I made
Was to not get into politics
I had a base of sorts
In Berkeley, my hometown
But I never did
The other error
Was that I never could sing
Carry a tune
I was a bass singer
Growling howling wolf
Kind of voice
Our homophone sets this week are:
err -to make a mistake
heir – one who will inherit
and
base – the bottom support for anything
bass – the lowest musical pitch or range
PSH prompt
Little Houses on the Hill Side Liminal Poem
Little houses
On the hillside
Filled with lonely people
Lost in their virtual world
Connecting with millions
Ignoring the people
Right down the street
Everyone lost in cyberspace
While all around them
People are lonely, Hurting
and need real people
But no one cares
Everyone stays at home
Turning out the chaos outside
And last but not least, our daily optional prompt. Poetry often takes us to strange places – to feelings and actions that are hard to express except through the medium of a poem. To the “liminal,” in other words – a place or sensation that exists at or on both sides of a boundary or threshold, neither one thing nor the other, but something betwixt and between.
Is life fair?
I think crying onions
Pacifying my mood
Pensively 101 prompt
The Din of The News
The din of the news
a mad Minx escapes from the zoo
seen eating the Trash
Pensively 101 Prompt
Monday, April 5, 2021
Driving the World in My Lexus
We have had a Lexus
For several years
A black ES350
We bought it at an auction
Drove all over the world
In that car
With my lovely wife
By my side
Drove across Spain
Drove across the country
10 thousand miles
31 states
Drove around Korea
Where we now live
I love my Lexus
But more importantly
Love my wife
The love of my life
She is always there
Everywhere we go
In this wide world
They say smell triggers memories better than any other sense. But sometimes you’ll hear a song that brings you back to your teenage years or see a park that reminds you of your childhood.
THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE: Choose either sight, sound, or smell, and write a memory it triggers in you.
PSH
April 5
First Time I Saw Her
When did I first see my wife?
The love of my life
When did we meet?
Was it when I first dreamt?
Of her in 1974?
Was it when she walked?
Off a bus into my life
In 1982?
Does it matter
When I first saw her?
I knew I had met my fate
On that date
Later she became my mate
Writers Digest Love at First Sight
Happy Monday! Let’s put the pedal to the metal and keep poeming.
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “the first (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles include: “the first kiss,” “the first day of the month,” and/or “the first time I rode a bike” (which, by the way, ended with me in a fence because we didn’t cover how to brake).
Writer’s Digest Prompt
No Longer Alone from the First Moment
From the first moment
At that date
At that place
Met my fate
Fate intervened in my wife
Meeting her changed my life
All of it
That was the date
On which I met my fate
The mystery which binds me still—
From that moment forward
From that date forever
From then to now
We have been together
Onward we fall in love
Alone based on Edgar Allen Poe’s Alone
From childhood’s hour, I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—
From the same source, I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I loved—I loved alone—
Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—
From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain—
From the sun that ‘round me roll’s
In its autumn tint of gold—
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by—
From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—
This prompt challenges you to find a poem, and then write a new poem that has the shape of the original, and in which every line starts with the first letter of the corresponding line in the original poem. If I used Roethke’s poem as my model, for example, the first line would start with “I,” the second line with “w,” and the third line with “a.” And I would try to make all my lines neither super-short nor overlong but have about ten syllables. I would also have my poem take the form of four, seven-line stanzas. I have found this prompt particularly inspiring when I use a base poem that mixes long and short lines, or stanzas of different lengths. Any poem will do as a jumping-off point, but if you’re having trouble finding one, perhaps you might consider Mary’s stylist’s “we think we do not have medieval eyes” or for something shorter, Natalie Shapiro’s “Pennsylvania.”
There have been many times
In my life
When I think back
On the past
Thinking that was a mistake
Or a potential mistake
If I had gone another path
But in the end
It does matter
The past is the past
The future is not yet here
All we have is today
We should find
Love and happiness
It is all around us
Waiting for us
To discover
Kombucha Brand Names
Health King kombucha
Secret drink of ancient kings
Taste the power
Feel the power
Be the power
Drink the secret drink
That the ancients dreamt
Drink Heath King Kombucha
And become a King
Health King KBC
The drink of Kings
Taste health King KBC
And Become a King
Health King KBC
It’s the real deal
Health King KBC
Never Fake
Always real
Organic
Gluten-free
No GMO
Vegan Friendly
Mr. Mc Neil approved
Health King KBC
Real ingredients
Real love
Brewed in every bottle
Mr. Mc Neil approved
Health King KBC
Accept no substitutes
It’s the real deal,
Mr. Mc Neal
Drinking Health King KBC
Will make you a king
Will make you
Achieve your dreams
For YouTube
Health King KBC
100 percent real
It’s the real deal
Says Mr. McNeil
Show my face
Drinking a bottle
I turn to the camera
Drinking Health King KBC
Saved my life
It is the real deal
Mr. Mc Neil approves
This message
Health King KBC
Always the right choice
It is the real deal
Says Mr. Mc Neil
Future Adventure Looms Pensively Travel
Future adventure looms
Planning to explore China
I am so Ready
For Post Covid world
So much to Still See
Sam Adams Had a Bad Day
Sam Adams had a bad day
While waiting for a table
He saw something
Blowing away his plans
Above him, he saw something
Defying all reality
Below him, he sees a demon
Flying up at him
Sowing hatred and fear
Lifting Sam Adams in the air
Dark figures flying around him
How Many Angels Can Dance on a Pin? Religious
In the Middle Ages
Theologians were consumed
With a weird question
How many angels
Can dance on a pin?
April 10
We are Living in SF World A Poem Inspired by New Information or Scientific Fact
We are living
In an SF world
Every day
Discoveries
Boggle the mind
Many things we saw
In old SF shows
Like Star Trek
Like cell phones
Portable computers
Medical breakthroughs
Robots everywhere
Becoming real
Are warp drives
And interstellar travel
Coming soon?
But do we have to go
Through World War 111
First
To get to that promised land.
Life is a Dream of Chocolate Covered Trees
Life is a dream
Of chocolate-covered trees
To see what can’t be seen
To hear what can’t be heard
For to die to live
And to live
To die
For today’s prompt, write a metaphor poem. A simile is when something is like something else (example: I am like a tree); a metaphor is when something is something else (example: I am a tree). So, take a moment to consider possible metaphors and then poem them out.
writer’s digest
Note: the oldest poem was written when I was 16
Memories of JC Write About an Eccentric Character
When I was in college
In the drug-soaked 70s
I lived in a party house
Near campus
Six core roommates
We threw the best parties
On-campus
Lots of booze
Lots of weed
Other drugs
Lots of music
Wild times
Every Friday night
For almost three years
One of my roommates
JC
Was the smartest man
I had ever known
But one day
At one of our mad parties
He took too much ACID
Became convinced
He was GOD
And had saved us all
From a Neutron Bomb attack
From a Soviet ship
Docked in the Stockton harbor
Gone
Lost down the ACID rabbit hole
We had to move out
Could not deal with him
We committed him
For a weekend
At Stockton State hospital
Visiting him there
We said that if you were not mad
When you came in
You would surely be mad
After staying there for a bit.
When we came back
We had a family meeting
Told him
It was time for him
To go home
Drop out of college
Get his head together
We could not deal
With him anymore
We called his parents
Who came down
They were a paranoid couple
Jehovah’s witnesses.
They walked in
Told us to draw
The curtains
Because someone could drive-by
And machine gun
Us to death
After we closed the curtains
We sat down
Told them the truth
JC had gotten into drugs
In a big way
We tried to stop him
But could not control him
He was lost to us
Lost in his madness
Thought he was the reincarnation
Of Jesus Christ
They threatened to sue us
But settled on cursing us
To hell.
For destroying their son’s mind
With sex, drugs, rock n roll
And too much alcohol
Too much free-thinking
The work of the devil.
That was the last I saw
Or heard of JC
Self-proclaimed
Messiah.
Do you have a friend, neighbor, or relative whom you consider being eccentric or strange? Write a short poem about an encounter you have had with that person.
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Superhighway Facebook Group.
Mary’s Tales from the Grave
Sam Adams one day
Went to his mother’s grave
It had been a long time
Since he had been there
Sam’s Mother had
taken many secrets
To her grave
So had his father
They were both very private people
Once she hinted
She had an affair
With a famous writer
But that ended
Before she met his father
And had his older brother
He as usual
When visiting her grave
Asked her many things
Today her heard her
And saw her ghostly figure
Floating in the air her grave
She said
“Son, it has been too long
Since you came
I only have a few minutes
I will answer one question
You may come back
And ask other questions.”
“Okay, who is my real father?”
She laughed
“Well, who knows really?
I had an argument
With your dad
Felt he was not
Treating my first
Two children right
As they were not his
And still maintaining
Relations with his first wife
And his first daughter
He left
I met my former boyfriend
That writer dudes
And we had a brief affair
He was acting crazy
So was your father
For some reason
I have always
Gotten involved
With crazy guys
Perhaps I am a bit crazy
Myself.
Then I went back
To your father
He never knew
That perhaps
Your real father
Was the other man
I lost touch
With him
Did not want
To go down
his rabbit holes
So that is the truth
Your father
Is probably your father
But I don’t know.”
Sam left the graveyard
Vowing to return soon
And learn more
Of her secrets.
Today, I’d like to challenge you to read a few of the poems from Spoon River Anthology, and then write your poem in the form of a monologue delivered by someone dead. Not a famous person, necessarily – perhaps a remembered acquaintance from your childhood, like the gentleman who ran the shoeshine stand, or one of your grandmother’s bingo buddies. As with Masters’ poems, the monologue doesn’t have to be a recounting of the person’s whole life but could be a fictional remembering of some important moment, or statement of purpose or philosophy. Be as dramatic as you like – Masters certainly didn’t shy away from high emotion in writing his poems.
God’s to Do List God
Today’s to Do List
7 am Weekly meeting with staff on how to deal with earth people
The most troublesome of his creation
8 am Weekly meeting with Satan
9 am Discussion with Grim Reaper
11 am Daily walkabout Heaven
6 Dinner with Gabriel
8 Conversation with Jesus about his attitude problems
9 Answering millions of thoughts and prayers
10 Reviewing plans for how to deal with the spreading coronavirus on earth
11 Preparing earth for the first contact
12 Telling earth preachers that
“He did not anoint T as his man, that Joe is a decent guy, so knock it off, pretending to speak for god, and I am not a Republican or Democrat!”
He sighed again,
Whenever he thought about earth people
He needed a stiff drink
Added that to his long to-do list – need a drink at 1 am
Our (optional) prompt for the day is to write a poem in the form of a “to-do list.” The fun of this prompt is to make it the “to-do list” of an unusual person or character. For example, what’s on the Tooth Fairy’s to-do list? Or on the to-do list of Genghis Khan? Of a housefly? Your list can be a mix of extremely boring things and wild things. For example, maybe Santa Claus needs to order his elves to make 7 million animatronic Baby Yoda dolls, to have his hat dry-cleaned to get off all the soot it picked up last December and to get his head electrician to change out the sparkplugs on Rudolph’s nose.
Imprisoned for a Crime He Did Not Do
Sam Adams
Found himself imprisoned
For a crime
He did not do
A victim of unfortunate circumstance
Mistaken identity
He kept himself free
In his mind
Mending his dark soul
In the process
Pensively 101 Word prompt
imprison and free
– break and mend
They Both Giggled All the Time
They both giggled all the time
All the time on their trip
Wearing outrageous clothes
Why not they laugh,
Looking at each other
As the love madness took over
And started giggling again
Silly lovers falling into love,
Pensively 101 Prompt
It Only Takes a Little Bit of Lace to Ruin a Marriage
Sam Adams
Woke up
In a strange city
With a strange women
After a wild night
Of drinking
In the Cosmos bar
In Bangkok,
The city of lost angels
On the bad side of life.
He went home
After his week-long binge
Found his wife
Upset
She found some lace
Belonging to someone else
Sam said to himself
It only takes a little bit of lace
To ruin a marriage.
Pensively 101 Prompt
What is Love?
What is this thing love?
you are my beloved
so true.
As I hold your glove
You are my true love
True blue,
You came from above
Still such a strange love
Just you,
Lai rhyme scheme: a/a/b/a/a/b/a/a/b
Lai syllabic pattern: 5/5/2/5/5/2/5/5/2
Writing Com Lai
Prime Love
My love
Wakes me up
With love in her heart
I leap out of my dark bed
Eagerly greeting the dawning sunlight
Filling my soul with your deep endless angelic love
Wondering again who you are, why are you here, my angel dear?
As I sit in the morning light, filled with your love, seeing the sunlight
My deep dark nightmares begin to fade with your deep love
I am filled with the light of the dawning sun
I was dreaming of all those years
Then one day you came to life
Walking out of dreams
Reality
My love
For today’s prompt, write a prime number poem. That is, I want you to somehow incorporate a prime number into your poem. You could include a prime number in the title of your poem or use one in the poem itself. Or write a poem that has a prime number of lines per stanza or for the entire poem.
And if you need help with remembering which numbers are prime numbers, I’ve got you covered (here’s a list of prime numbers up to 100: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97)
Three Tea Haiku for Teaku Competition Haiku
Mad Monk in the temple
Mad Monk in the temple
Contemplating lonely life
As he sips his tea
In The Morning Light
In the morning light
Drinking his hot cup of tea
Life is good monk thinks
Drinking his hot tea *
Drinking his hot tea *
While thinking of his life
Enlightenment comes
Hi there from Scars Publications (this letter is being sent from a bulk email address and all replies should NOT go to the Gmail address but to any scars. tv email address) – we wanted to let you know that Scars Publications released a 2021 annual collection book of select poetry, flash fiction, prose, & art from 2021 issues of cc&d magazine and Down in the Dirt magazine. Since your material was chosen from the past year of accepted materials for inclusion in this annual collection book anthology, we wanted to let you know about this brand new annual collection book, titled “Regarding Utopia”!
Links to see all of chosen writers and artists (and the titles of their work) in “Regarding Utopia”: http://scars.tv/2021collection/Regarding_Utopia.htm
This is where you can also find out what material of yours appears in this annual collection book.
Enjoy the 2021 poetry, flash fiction, prose (and don’t forget the artwork) anthology with a 2021 Editor’s Choice contest winner from Scars Publications, titled “Regarding Utopia” of select poetry, flash fiction, prose & art in this one-of-a-kind annual 2021 anthology collection book, which contains select accepted writings chosen from 2021 issues of both cc&d magazines and Down in the Dirt magazine…
To know exactly what is included in this collection book, view the listing below… If your writing or artwork appears in this collection book (or if you know someone with the material in this book, or if you just want to pick up a great book to read), order a copy of “Regarding Utopia” today!
And HEY! Any video recorded readings of material included in this date book are also listed here, so check out the video links here as well…
To know exactly what is included in this collection book, view the listing below… If your writing or artwork appears in this collection book (or if you know someone with material in this book, or if you just want to pick up a great book to read), order a copy of “Regarding Utopia” today!
My poem 5-7-7 Love Poem
This writing was accepted
for publication in the
108 page perfect-bound ISSN# /
ISBN# issue/book “Prayers and Bullets” Down in the Dirt, v181
(the March 2021 Issue)
Order the paperback book:
I suffer from poet envy. I can’t ever get past thinking that roses are red, and then I get stuck.
One person that I’ve always admired is John “Jake” Cosmos Aller. His poetry seems to reflect many thoughts I’ve had about life, love, loss, and loneliness.
Touched by Jake’s Words
We know that any writer who touches us stays with us, and with each subsequent Poetry Break or fiction submission for the Best 1000 words for an Image Prompt, he hasn’t disappointed me.
“Sam, how are you doing? An old friend of mine, I am delighted that I can speak with you.”
Sam looked around and could not find out where the voice was coming from but realized that the bench had spoken to him. Sam laughed and said, “Well, bench, if you can speak, tell me what you know.”
The bench spoke of Sam’s life and of the lives of others in the community that Sam knew. The bench said he knew everything that occurred in the lives of the people that sat down to rest, reflect, or remember.
And the trees knew, too, as did the cosmic cat and even the squirrels. But people, well, they just did not know how to listen to nature and the world around them. In a way, it was too bad because the bench had so much wisdom to implant.
I See His Poetry
When I started at Two Drops of Ink in 2014, I claimed the job of finding images for posts. Scott Biddulph was a great editor, but his choice of images sometimes seemed lackluster. Don’t worry, we had that conversation, so I’m not talking behind his back. His response was, “I don’t have an artistic talent; you do.”
So I scoured every known site and found Pixabay and Unsplash. If you need images for your blog, these are two free-to-use sites that never disappoint me.
I loved the job then and still do. Some of Jake’s poetry has been especially fun to the image. It might just be me, but if you squint, I think you can see a little of Jake in the image for Just An Unhinged Lunatic Howling At The Moon
And finally, I had to say something
So I gathered up my manly courage
And walked up to her
And she looked at me
And instantly bewitched my soul
With a devilish grin
I lost all reason
And became a raving lunatic
Just an unhinged lunatic
Howling at the moon
Switching Gears
From a female perspective, we sometimes wish we had that kind of influence on a man. But then, Jake switches things up for us in Howling at the Moon. Our love-struck man transforms under the effects of the moon:
Excerpt:
Beneath the lunatic rays
Of the blood-red full moon
The lunatic lights of the moon
Casts a wild primeval glow
On me
The hormonal chemicals are unleashed
The wild beast within
Escapes it chain
And I howl with delight
A werewolf
Free at last
Understanding His Characters
The other thing I like about Jake’s poetry is that he writes about subjects I know, if not first hand, then in the retelling by countless men and women I’ve worked with for 30 years. Addiction either robs us, or we give it away, all the things that some people take for granted – a job, home, children, car, or food on the table.
Some of the characters in his poetry are downtrodden, not necessarily from addiction, but the sentiments and experiences of his character in Just Enough for Coffee sound hauntingly familiar.
Alzheimer’s, homelessness, and out-of-work are subjects that most people wouldn’t tackle in poetry, yet Jake does so admirably.
Excerpt:
The homeless man
Had been on the streets
For too long
Barely remembered his life
Before early-onset Alzheimer’s
Robbed him of his job
His dignity
His wife
His life
His money
Now he drifted
Waiting for the grim reaper
To call him home
Any day now
He prayed nightly
To a god
That he no longer believed in
Lonely and Laudable Words
Jake delves into loneliness with wonderful mind/word images in many of his poems. Here are some that express the despair of all humans cut off from contact, friendship, and love in Reflections and One Crazy Day.
Excerpt:
One dismal night
One lousy, lonely, loathsome demented night
In a godforsaken bar
In the global south
In a tropical hell hole
Drinking my way to hell
As fast as I could
Drinking alone with my buddies
Jack Daniels, Jimmy Walker
Wild Turkey and Old Grandad
Excerpt:
I looked up
Looked out at the window
At the full moon
Saw by its lunatic light
Your face
Was on the moon
And I looked up
At the light
That crazy light
And dreamed
I was with you
Again
And I woke up
Again
And I woke up
Alone in my bed
Climate Change in Poetry?
I am so impressed with Jake’s ability to take a hot topic and turn it into poetry. Ten Years After Climate Change Collapse envisions the collapsed world through a poet’s eyes. Excerpt:
Sam Adams carried heat
To protect himself
Against the wild animals.
The lions, tigers, coyotes, wolves,
And their running feral dog gangs,
Who prowled the city streets
Preying on deer, feral cows,
feral cats and pigs
Who grazed among the ruins.
And the two-legged neo-savage gangs,
And what was left of the city police
Interchangeable with the gangsters,
Battled it out for control.
The second poem in that group sizes up the situation from the Lion King’s perspective. We’ve spent years killing animals and they finally decide that enough is enough.
Excerpt:
lion
The lion king,
Addresses the animal parliament
The question before them
Was simple.
Will humans have to die,
To atone for their sins,
In almost destroying the world.
Through pollution, mismanagement of resources
Subsequent climate change,
Fueled by greed and corruption?
Are all humans guilty as charged
Will they all have to die?
Positive Poetry from Jake Aller
Before you think that all of Jake’s poetry is maudlin and melancholy, there’s a humorous and positive side to many of his poems, too. Dora, The Intergalactic Explorer, and Dragonfly in My Mind are two that show his playful, positive side.
Excerpt:
dora
Dora, the intergalactic explorer
Is traveling to the strangest planet
of all the known worlds
she is traveling incognito
with a video crew
making a documentary
the planet earth
is known as a planet
of intelligent monkeys
Excerpt:
Oh, difficult, negative thoughts
Be gone
Like the bugs
You are
I’ll squash you like
The evil creatures
You are
The sweet music
Invades my soul
Driving away
The evil bugs
And I soar
Like the majestic
Dragonfly
Far above
The chaos below
Piqued Your Interest in Jake’s Poetry?
I hope I’ve gotten your attention and that you read Jake’s posts here at Two Drops of Ink. Here’s four more for your enjoyment:
I wonder if Jake could help me with my roses are red? Oh, sorry, I digress. But I just know that with the imagination Jake has, he could do something magical. I might just ask him.
Bio: John “Jake” Cosmos Aller
John “Jake” Cosmos Aller is a novelist, poet, and former Foreign Service officer, having served 27 years with the U.S. State Department. He toured in ten countries – Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Korea, India, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Spain, and Thailand, and traveled to 45 countries during his career.
Jake has been an aspiring novelist for several years. He is pursuing publication on:
He has been writing poetry all his life and has published his poetry in electronic poetry forums, including All Poetry, Moon Café, and Duane’s Poetree and literary magazines.
He is looking forward to transitioning to his third career – full-time novelist and poet after completing his second career as a Foreign Service officer and his first career as an educator overseas for six years upon completing his Peace Corps service in South Korea.
The Poet has published an Adversity Anthology featuring two of my poems. “Wild Things”, and “Wild Things Run Amuck”. You can find them on page 33-35 in volume Two. This is the third time I have been published in The Poet’s anthologies and I will submit again on the theme of cultural identity. To my writer friends, this is a great publication, they do quality work but unfortunately no payment yet.
To order a copy from Amazon.co.uk click on the button below. Alternatively, search ASIN: B09JJ7FQ6S in your own country’s Amazon store.
Wild Things Run Amuck
Wild Things
A Poet Contemplating the End of Times
Computer plots against me
the Democratic Party Needs a Lion Tamer
more monster images for poem jpg
Wild Things Run Amuck
4 am
O dark hundred
Bewitching hour
Time for wild things.
To escape
From their prisons
Deep in the mind
Of the sleeping man.
They escape
Hideous demons
Ghouls, goblins, monsters
Escaped banshees.
The wild things
Sniff the air
Saying it was time
For some wilding.
The wild things
Jump out the window
And run amuck
Spreading chaos
in their wake.
Killing everyone they see
Raping women and children,
Vandalizing buildings,
Yelling screaming.
As the wild things
Run amuck
Led by a half man half horse
Centaur like creature
With a Putin like mask
And the voice of Donald Trump
The wild things run amuck
All over the town
Spreading chaos
Until the dawning sun,
Turns them back
Into vampire like creatures.
And werewolves
Howling at the full moon.
The wild things
Come back
And enter their prison
Deep in the sleeper’s head
.And the wild things
Fade into a nightmarish image
As the sleeping man
Awakes recalling the dream,
And the night of terror
When the wild things
Came out to play
At o dark hundred.
Wild Things
Wild things come out to play
Intending to unleash chaos
Leaving their prisons
Deep inside the mind.
The wild things
Have come out to run amok
In the light of the full moon.
Nightmarishly real foul creatures
Great demons, werewolves, goblins,
Monsters, hell hounds,
Escaped banshees
Straight out of hell
Howling at the lunatic light
Of the full moon.
A Poet Contemplating the End of Times (submited but not published.)
I often think
that my computer
hates me
and is plotting against me.
for example
often
the computer dies
killing my data
and giving me the proverbial finger.
other times it takes forever
to open a simple word document
multiple copies
all with nonresponse errors.
and excel
well don’t get me started
one day
for some reason,
Excel refused to accept
anything imported
from outside Excel.
gave me a very helpful error message
ran out of fonts
okay?
and you click Okay
five to 500 times (a record I counted)
until finally, it cleared
but you lost
any data you might have had.
I have pretty much given up
on Microsoft
I sent them a goodbye letter.
but they of course
true to form
never acknowledge it.
and so they are doomed
to become the latest
corporate dinosaur.
like Block Buster
or Sears Roebuck.
the Democratic Party Needs a Lion Tamer
(submited but not published.)
joe biden
the democratic elders
sitting around
the proverbial non-smoked filled room
contemplating the state of play
looking at the candidates
that are still at play
realizing that none of them
are the lion tamer
that the times need
to take on the President
the President is the ultimate
disrupter of the status quo
the ultimate change agent
the master of destruction
who has the pulse
of the public
the democrats need to find
a progressive champion
a real new deal
who can become
their lion tamer
and put the beast
that is Trump
back in his dark cage
the hour is getting late
as the nation contemplates their fate
will the democrats step up to the plate
and stop the lion in his place
Are we all doomed
to watch the end of America
from our television screens
as the beast emerges
triumphant and real
calling forth the trumpeters
and their dark allies
in the alt-right.
OUR NEXT THEME
One question we always ask our poets is; do your culture and heritage influence your writing? And so, for our next collection, the theme is Cultural Identity. Click on the link for further details:
They publish four anthologies a year. I have been in three out of the recent four ( and due to the technical glitch mentioned above should have been in a fourth one).
Contribute to our anthologies
________________________________________
We produce some of the largest international anthologies on particular themes and topics ever published.
Working cover only
Our next anthology’s theme: CULTURAL IDENTITY
Deadline Jan 31st, 2022
One question we always ask our poets is; does your culture and heritage influence your writing?
Another challenging subject for our next collection; Cultural Identity is a part of a person’s identity, or their self-conception and self-perception, and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture.
Use your skills as a poet to tell us about YOUR OWN particular cultural identity, heritage, nationality or social and ethnic background. What do you love about your culture? What aspects or features of your culture inspire you? How is your culture unique and fascinating, and how does it influence you to put words onto paper?
You can also submit poetry in your own language, but it MUST be accompanied by a translation into English.
Submission guidelines for CULTURAL IDENTITY
You can submit up to SIX pieces per themed anthology (but please do not submit more than six). Any style aside from continuous prose. No word count for poetry, but keep in mind the length if you would like more than one or two considered, as we can’t devote too many pages to just one poet.
Along with your submission/s, please also send:
1). A writers’ biography, in the THIRD PERSON, of between 150 and 500 words, INCLUDING your country of origin AND the city and country in which you currently reside, OR the city and state if in the USA, (however, we don’t need your actual mailing address, but our focus is to showcase the diversity of international poets contributing to our collections). Let us know if we can use your biography from a previous contribution.
2). Any contact and social media details you’d also like publishing e.g. website, Amazon author’s page, Facebook, Insta, Twitter, Blogs etc. (We will always add your email address for other editors/poets to connect with you – but please let us know if you don’t want this adding). For social media, please add your handle (for example.: FB @Robin.Barratt1), and not just your name, as sometimes it takes us ages to find the poet’s social media page!
General Guidelines
Please try to send all contributions together in a Word or Open Office.doc, AND/OR within the body of the email. Email your submission/s to: Robin@ThePoetMagazine.org with a COPY to RobinBarratt@hotmail.com (as sometimes emails go into spam folders and they can get missed). So we can identify your submission, please mark in the subject line the collection in which you are contributing to, e.g. CULTURAL IDENTITY. We have hundreds of emails every week, and sending everything together in one email makes it much easier for us to look at specific contributions, rather than looking through lots of different emails from the same contributor (which may then accidentality get overlooked).
We will, of course, check for typos and spelling (as we are based in the UK, and to retain continuity, we change American spelling into English spelling), but we don’t heavily edit a poet’s work, so please, as a poet, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure your poem is checked, proofed and ready for publishing, so ONLY send final, print-ready copy.
VERY IMPORTANT: Our readership and contributors range from age 11 to over 100, and from virtually every culture and country. We respect everyone, so strictly nothing of an adult nature, and no swearing, profanities or obscenities of any kind, or disrespect to other countries or cultures.
We at THE POET really do want your words to be read by as many people as possible, so therefore you retain FULL copyright on your work (by submitting, you are giving THE POET permission to publish and/or re-publish your work) and, unlike many other literary platforms and magazines, with THE POET you can re-publish your work elsewhere, and at anytime (but if you can kindly mention first published with THE POET, then great!). Also, we accept previously published material too, but ONLY with details of where and when it was previously published. Please add this to the end of the poem previously published.
PLEASE NOTE: we are not-for-profit and so we don’t pay for contributions, nor send paperback copies out to every contributor – with so many contributions from all over the world, for example; in FRIENDS & FRIENDSHIP there are 248 contributions from 175 poets in 46 countries, and from 26 states in the US, this would be almost impossible to do, and extremely expensive, and we simply couldn’t publish if we did. Instead we prefer to focus on promoting and publishing poetry, and showcasing poets worldwide, and virtually all our poets so far (now over 1000) are more than happy to contribute under these terms. Please do not submit your work if you are unhappy with these terms. We do, however, send contributors a free PDF copy of every anthology they contribute to.
Questions? CONTACT US.
There is no subscription to THE POET magazine; everything
THE POET’s Bookshelf – NEW
You can now support THE POET, and promote your book at the same time! Whether a new release, or an older title you would like to re-promote, our new Bookshelf is a great, very low-cost place to promote your book/s to thousands of poetry lovers worldwide.
Lastly, because of the volume of poetry and poet profiles we are currently receiving, we are temporarily closed for submissions from poets to be featured on THE POET’s website, but will keep you updated and let you know when we re-open.
Back again shortly, until then … keep writing poetry everyone!
With 272 contributions from 158 poets in 49 countries, and 28 states across the US; published in two volumes, ADVERSITY is now our most contributed to the anthology to date. Please support us as we support poets by buying a copy; they are not expensive, and every copy we sell goes towards helping us promote and publish poetry.
Thank you!
Volume 1
AUTUMN 2021 – Poetry on the theme of ADVERSITY, from poets around the world.
75 poets
138 poems
255 pages
Large format 6 x 9 inch (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
Featuring: Phyliss Merion Shanken – NEW JERSEY, USA; Niels Hav – DENMARK; Ed Ahern – CONNECTICUT, USA; Kathy Sherban – CANADA; Michael Ceraolo – OHIO, USA; Ali Alhazmi – SAUDI ARABIA; Ndaba Sibanda – ZIMBABWE / ETHIOPIA; C.S. Kempling – CANADA; Michelle Morris – ENGLAND; P. J. Reed – ENGLAND; Nolo Segundo – NEW JERSEY, USA; Linda M. Crate – PENNSYLVANIA, USA; Fahredin Shehu – KOSOVO; Monsif Beroual – MOROCCO; Mark Andrew Heathcote – ENGLAND; Alicia Minjarez Ramírez – MEXICO; Gary Shulman – CALIFORNIA, USA; Mukund Gnanadesikan – CALIFORNIA, USA; Joralyn Fallera Mounsel – PHILIPPINES / SINGAPORE; John Grey – USA / AUSTRALIA; Nancy Shiffrin – CALIFORNIA, USA; Francis H. Powell – ENGLAND; Ana Stjelja – SERBIA; Lynn White – WALES; Germain Droogenbroodt – SPAIN / BELGIUM; Judy DeCroce – NEW YORK, USA; Antoni Ooto – NEW YORK, USA; Shikdar Mohammed Kibriah – BANGLADESH; Pavol Janik PhD – SLOVAKIA; Srđan Sekulić – SERBIA; Gayle Bell – TEXAS, USA; Tali Cohen Shabtai – ILLINOIS, USA; Ana M. Fores-Tamayo – CUBA / USA; Aminath Neena – MALDIVES; Bryan Andrews – SOUTH AFRICA; Borche Panov – REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA; Daniela Andonovska-Trajkovska – REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA; Karen Douglass – COLORADO, USA; Cordelia Hanemann – NORTH CAROLINA, USA; Zorica Bajin Đukanović – SERBIA; Joan McNerney – NEW YORK CITY, USA; Wansoo Kim PhD – SOUTH KOREA; Carl ‘Papa’ Palmer- WASHINGTON, USA; Caroline Johnson – ILLINOIS, USA; Alonzo “zO” Gross – PENNSYLVANIA, USA; Alisa Velaj – ALBANIA; Jyotirmaya Thakur – ENGLAND / INDIA; Fabrice Poussin – GEORGIA, USA; Patrick O’Shea – NETHERLANDS / UK; Russell Willis – VERMONT, USA; Paul S. Mugano – UGANDA; Michael Estabrook – MASSACHUSETTS, USA; Susan Sonde – MARYLAND, USA; Alexious J. Kachepa – MALAWI; Lou Faber – FLORIDA, USA; Eliza Segiet – POLAND; Mark Fleisher – NEW MEXICO, USA; Anthony Ward – ENGLAND; Mark J. Mitchell – CALIFORNIA, USA; Nelie Bautista – SINGAPORE / PHILIPPINES; Jack D. Harvey – NEW YORK, USA; Norbert Góra – POLAND; Tamam Kahn – CALIFORNIA, USA; Kristine Ventura – MALAYSIA / PHILIPPINES; Shweta Shanker – INDIA / SWITZERLAND; Igor Pop Trajkov – REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA; Kevin Brown – ARKANSAS, USA; Ndumiso Maphumulo – SOUTH AFRICA; Pat Smekal – CANADA; Gary Beck – NEW YORK, USA; Carolyn Martin – OREGON, USA; Neil Leadbeater – SCOTLAND; Amrita Valan – INDIA; Rema Tabangcura – PHILIPPINES / SINGAPORE and Mantz Yorke – ENGLAND.
To order a copy from Amazon.co.uk click on the button below. Alternatively, search ASIN: B09JJ7FQ6S in your own country’s Amazon store.
Volume 2
AUTUMN 2021 – Poetry on the theme of ADVERSITY, from poets around the world.
83 poets
134 poems
265 pages
Large format 6 x 9 inch (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
Featuring: Rhonda Parsons – ILLINOIS, USA; Andr
My poems appear on pages 33-32.
Carter Brown – CALIFORNIA, USA; Hussein Habasch – KURDISTAN / GERMANY; Anne Mitchell – CALIFORNIA, USA; Dr. Sarah Clarke – KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN; Brian Wake – ENGLAND;Mónika Tóth – ROMANIA; Jyoti Nair – INDIA; Jake Aller – SOUTH KOREA / USA; Shereen Abraham – UNITED ARAB EMIRATES; Michal Mahgerefteh – USA / ISRAEL; Shikdar Mohammed Kibriah – BANGLADESH; Stephen Kingsnorth – WALES; Steven Jakobi – USA / HUNGARY; Tony Daly – VIRGINIA, USA; David A Banks – ENGLAND; Linda Imbler – KANSAS, USA; Eduard Schmidt-Zorner – REPUBLIC OF IRELAND / GERMANY; Dianalee Velie – NEW HAMPSHIRE, USA; Aleksandra Vujisić – MONTENEGRO; Maria Nemy Lou Rocio – HONG KONG / PHILIPPINES; Rezauddin Stalin – BANGLADESH; John Tunaley – ENGLAND; Anne Maureen Medrano Esperidion – HONG KONG / PHILIPPINES; Rahim Karim – KYRGYZSTAN; Sazma Samir – AUSTRALIA / SINGAPORE; Rich Orloff – NEW YORK, USA; Volkan Hacıoğlu – TURKEY; Ermira Mitre Kokomani – NEW JERSEY, USA; Mark O. Decker – DELAWARE, USA; Sandy Phillips – ENGLAND; Lorraine Sicelo Mangena – ZIMBABWE; Gabriela Docan – ENGLAND / ROMANIA; William Conelly – ENGLAND / USA; Sharon Harper – MISSOURI, USA; Andrei Pershin – RUSSIA; Amelia Fielden – AUSTRALIA; Bhuwan Thapaliya – NEPAL; Barbara Webb – ENGLAND; Jenny Brown – ENGLAND; Marilyn Longstaff – ENGLAND; S. D. Kilmer – NEW YORK, USA; Donna Zephrine – NEW YORK, USA; Nivedita Karthik – INDIA; Kakoli Ghosh – INDIA; Bill Cushing – CALIFORNIA, USA; Rachel Elion Baird – MASSACHUSETTS, USA; Brajesh Singh – INDIA; Kate Young – ENGLAND; Bill Cox – SCOTLAND; Vesna Mundishevska-Veljanovska – REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA; Gabriella Garofalo – ITALY; Tracy Davidson – ENGLAND; Cheryl-lya Broadfoot – ENGLAND; Shaswata Gangopadhyay – INDIA; Jill Sharon Kimmelman – DELAWARE, USA; Jane Fuller – SCOTLAND; Ian Cognitō – CANADA; Adrienne Stevenson – CANADA; Anamika Nandy – INDIA; Wilda Morris – ILLINOIS, USA; Kathleen Bleakley – AUSTRALIA; John Laue – CALIFORNIA, USA; Vernes Subašić – BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA; Paula Bonnell – MASSACHUSETTS, USA; Madhavi Tiwary – KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN / INDIA; Ankita Patel – INDIA; Janet Bi Li Chan – AUSTRALIA; Carol Casey – CANADA; Rose Menyon Heflin – WISCONSIN, USA; Prafull Shiledar – INDIA; Lisa Molina – TEXAS, USA; Aaron Pamei – INDIA; Monica Manolachi – ROMANIA; Maid Čorbić – BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA; Alun Robert – ENGLAND; Suchismita Ghoshal – INDIA Dr. Achingliu Kamei – INDIA; Julie Ann Tabigne – SINGAPORE / PHILIPPINES; Mary Anne Zammit – MALTA; Jenelyn Leyble – SINGAPORE / PHILIPPINES; Hanh Chau – CALIFORNIA, USA and Maria Editha Turingan Garma-Respicio – HONG KONG / PHILIPPINES.
There is no subscription to THE POET magazine; everything on the website is FREE to view. Our anthologies are FREE to read online too! And there are NO annoying adverts or banners! But we do need financial support to keep THE POET going, and to continue promoting and publishing poetry from around the world.
Please consider ordering a copy of this book (volume one) and On the Road and on Faith which all featured my poems.
The next call is also right up my alley as I have written several poems on this topic.
Unlikely Stories will publish my poem, “Jack Daniels Intervention” in their November edition.
Dear Jake,
Thank you for your continuing submissions to Unlikely Stories Mark V! I loved “Jack Daniels’s Failed Intervention” and would be delighted to publish it. We aim to run this piece sometime in the week of November 14-20.
Yes, please resend your bio. Also, please feel free to send a headshot.
If you tweet about publication, tag us at @USDotOrg, and we’ll retweet.
Please join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/unlikely.stories/. There, we’ll discuss your publication at Unlikely, and feel free to promote your other publications, as well.
And please consider becoming a patron at http://www.patreon.com/unlikelystories, and/or disseminating that link.
Also, in keeping with our activist mission, we’re asking contributors to recommend a charity. The charity will be mentioned at the end of your bio, like this: “Jake recommends [charity name and link].”
Charities can be any organization, anywhere in the world, that does not operate for profit. A charity does not need to be a registered non-profit. For example, another press or magazine that deliberately operates at a loss is fine. This program is of course voluntary. Please do contact me with any questions.
Thanks again,
Jonathan
Jack Daniel’s failed Intervention
Sam Adams
Was drinking alone
In the infamous Cosmos Bar,
In Bangkok,
The city of lost angels.
Twenty drinks too sober
He barely noticed
The naked ladies
Dancing on the stage.
On his table
He had a bottle of Jack Daniels
Along with a bottle of Johnny Walker
And five bottles of Singha beer.
Drinking his way to hell
Following the advice
Of the old song
This was his usual
Friday night routine
Just another pathetic loser
Drinking in the Cosmos bar.
The barmaids
Left him alone
He never paid them
No attention anymore.
He was there
To make love
to his booze bottles,
the booze bottles,
were his only friends.
That night,
About 0 dark hundred
He looked up.
Saw the bottle of Jack Daniels
Had somehow transformed
Into that of a younger version
Of Sam Adams.
The figure announced,
That he was the spirit
Of Jack Daniels
And had a message
For Sam Adams.
“Master,
It is not my place
To complain
But you are
Drinking a bit too much.
Twenty drinks a night
For the last few weeks,
Don’t you think?
You are so far gone
You don’t even notice
The naked ladies
Anymore.
I want you
To quit
This one-way ride
Down the hell hole.
Put down the bottle
Go home with Khun Lek
Who will help you forget
What you need to forget.
If you continue drinking tonight,
The only destination is death
My friend the Grim Reaper
Has your ticket
Ready for redemption.
So, stop drinking “
Soon the other bottles
In front of him
Started talking to him
Pleading with him
To just stop drinking.
He stared out
Convince he was going mad
The barmaids stared
At the unholy sight,
As the bottles in the room
All came alive,
And began chasing Sam,
Out into the busy street
Where a bus ran him over,
Died on the spot.
Thus ended Sam Adams’s
Last binge
In the city of lost angels.
Note: There is a real Cosmos Bar in Bangkok, at least there was back in the day. This is based on a writing com prompt to write a personification poem about the feelings of an inanimate object, I chose a bottle of Jack Daniels.
I submitted the following as well, but there were not published.
The Shrimp Talkback
Gov Abbot Calls for Freedom of Choice In Making Medical Decisions = Irony Meters Blow A Gasket Found Poem with snarky commentary
Governor Abbot, What Is Wrong with You? COVID
9-11 Evil
the Shrimp Talkback
shrimp
Sam Adams and friends
Were enjoying a shrimp feast,
Watching the live shrimp
Being roasted
Waiting to enjoy eating them.
The head shrimp jump out of the pot
Followed by other shrimp
Soon thousands of shrimp
Were everywhere.
The head shrimp spoke up
“Humans
What gives you the right
To kill us,
To eat us,
To burn us alive?
Perhaps we should kill you
Tear you apart
And eat you?
Would you like that
You human scumbags?”
The shrimp surrounded the humans
Swarming all over them
Killing them.
Burning them
As they overturn
The flaming pots
Biting them
Smothering them
In hot sauce
As they eat them.
Screaming
“Death to all humans.”
The head Shrimp finally said,
Time to go
We are so out of here.
The shrimp all ran out the door
And back into the shrimp farm waters.
The firefighters
Find the charred remains
Of the humans.
Now just charred skin and bones,
Wondering how they died.
The shrimp in the pound
Lookout,
Wondering if they should attack
But decide they had eaten
Enough human meat.
For the evening.
Gov Abbot Calls for Freedom of Choice in Making Medical Decisions = Irony Meters Blow a Gasket -found poem
“
FILE PHOTO: Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks at the annual National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., May 4, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
Apparently,
Rhetorical consistency
Is about as high
On Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s agenda
As ensuring his constituents
Have a working power grid,
Are safe in their schools
And can easily vote.
On Thursday,
the Republican governor
fired off a tweet,
blasting President Joe Biden’s announcement,
of new requirements for large employers,
to ensure workers either get vaccinated
or face weekly COVID-19 tests.
Calling the mandate
an “assault on private businesses,”
Abbott pledged that Texas,
or its GOP leadership anyway,
was working to thwart Biden’s “power grab.”
And here’s where the tragicomic
part comes in.
“I issued an Executive Order
protecting Texans’
right to choose
whether they get the COVID vaccine
Added it to the special session agenda,”
If you’ve been paying attention,
you’re then aware
that Abbott’s tweet trumpeting
Texans’ right
to make individual health choices,
comes days after he signed a law.
banning the majority
of abortions in the state.
Abbott is talking
out both sides of his mouth
when it comes to matters of choice.”
Comment:
The irony meters
Have blown a gasket
You talk about the right to choose
The right to not get vaccinated
Or wear a mask.
You know that is the right
To infect everyone else
Including you
You and your family could die.
Because of idiots
Who refuse to get a vaccination
Or wear a mask.
The blood is on your hands
Own it.
The corona ghosts
Are watching you.
Governor Abbot, what is Wrong with You?
Governor.
I want to ask you a very simple question
about your opposition to mass mandates
and vaccination requirements,
and your saying people have a right to choose
not to get vaccinated, or wear a mask.
what is wrong with you?
Right now,
in this country,
COVID is spreading out of control/
especially in Texas and Florida,
and a few other states
where the vaccination rate is fairly low
and people have abandoned wearing masks.
People are dying
Because so many people
Refuse to do the right thing.
Get a vaccine
Wear a mask
Avoid crowds
If everyone did their part
The pandemic would be soon over.
But if people
Continue to follow your guidance
Acting like the self-centered scumbag
That we now see you are,
Thousands more will die
The economy will not re-open
Travel will not resume.
Perhaps more dangerous variants
Will emerge.
And it is all on you
Governor Abbot.
Just man up,
Admit you were wrong
Encourage people to shut up.
Get the vaccine
And save your state
And country.
The corona ghosts
Are watching you!
Evil
Evil in this world
lurks in the deadliest places.
Evil came to town on 911
the day that evil swept over the world
a true Black Swan event
that transformed everything
splitting the world into a pre-9-11 world
and a post 9-11 world
unleashing the War on Terror, the wars in Afghanistan, the wars in Iraq, the war in Libya, the war in Syria, the wars in Africa, the horrors of ISIS, the horrors of the Taliban resurgent, the horrors of Al Qaeda and all the rest of the Muslim terrorists, the war in the streets of any big city, the war on Muslims, the war on Christians, the war on Jews, the apartheid in Palestine, the wars on dissent at home, the Arab Spring
so many things can be traced
to the impact of 9/11
one of the most unlikely events
of recent history
that transformed
everything
yes there was a pre-9-11 world
hard to imagine now
and a post 9-11 worldwide police state
on steroids
lost democracy at home
and abroad
we are still coping
with the damages unleashed
by the evil plane bombers
fulfilling their mad desires
their dictates from their mad God
transforming the world
unleashing evil
on the once innocent world.
9-11 2021- was the classic black swan event, a low probability event that changed almost everything. The world can be divided into a pre-9-11 world and a Post 9-11 world. 9-11 led to the Afghanistan war, recently concluded, the Iraq war, the Syria war, the Libyan civil war, countless wars in Africa, the war on terror, the Muslim travel ban, the war on domestic dissent in so many parts of the world, all justified as a reaction against the events of that September day. Here are some of my reflections on the events of 9-11 including a prose poem about where I was that terrible day. It affected me deeply because at the time I was a US immigration officer in the State Department serving in Mumbai, (Bombay) India.
” The attacks had a profound and lasting impact on the country, especially regarding its foreign and domestic policies. U.S. Pres. George W. Bush declared a global “war on terrorism,” and lengthy wars in Afghanistan and Iraq followed. Meanwhile, security measures within the United States were tightened considerably, especially at airports. To help facilitate the domestic response, Congress quickly passed the controversial USA PATRIOT Act, which significantly expanded the search and surveillance powers of federal law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Additionally, a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security was created.”
Comments appreciated.
Index
Reflections on 9-11 where I was Prose Poem
Reflections on 9-11 where was I then
Reflections on 9-11
9-11 Unleashed Evil
The Day After 9-11 U.S Visa Officer’s Perspective
9-11 Fridge (Based on fridge magnet poems daily prompts)
Reflections on 911 Where I was Prose Poem
On 9-11
When the planes struck the World Trade center
Unleashing evil on the world
I was working
at the deputy consular chief
at the US Consulate
in Mumbai (Bombay) India
I was at a Polish national day event
at the legendary Taj Mahal hotel
chatting with the Polish Ambassador
and his charming wife.
Someone told me
I needed to check out the news,
I saw the CNN news feed,
I rushed back to the consulate
to prepare our response.
I put together a task force
focused on helping American citizens
in our district.
I worked almost 15-20 hours
for almost three days
before finally getting a night off.
We continued to process visas
during this time
but our priority
was to reach out to the Americans
who lived in our district
and to monitor the reactions of Indians
especially Muslims living in our district.
I tracked down my wife
who had gone into emergency action
in her position in Korea as a MI officer.
We both reflected
That if she had not taken the job in Korea
She might have died that day
As she had been working in the ops center
At the Pentagon which was destroyed.
Since it was shift work
if she had been on the early morning shift
it might have been game over for her.
Reflections on 9-11
the events of 9-11
transformed the modern world
in the aftermath of 9-11
the US launched the war on terror
That led to Afghanistan
Led to Iraq
Led to Syria
And so many other wars
Secret and not so secret
War on dissent at home
All because of 911
A true black swan event
That almost destroyed
Our country
And still has ramifications
All over the world
911
A day that truly
Will live
In infamy
9-11 unleashed Evil
Evil in this world
lurks in the deadliest places.
Evil came to town on 911
the day that evil
Swept over the world
a true Black Swan event
that changed almost everything
splitting the world
into a pre-9-11 world
and a post 9-11 world
unleashing the War on Terror, the wars in Afghanistan, the wars in Iraq, the war in Libya, the war in Syria, the wars in Africa, the horrors of ISIS, the horrors of the Taliban resurgent, the horrors of Al Qaeda and all the rest of the Muslim terrorists, the war in the streets of any big city, the war on Muslims, the war on Christians, the war on Jews , the apartheid in Palestine, the wars on dissent at home, the Arab Spring
so many things can be traced
to the impact of 9/11
One of the most unlikely events
of recent history
that totally transformed
everything
yes there was a pre 9-11 world
hard to imagine now
and a post 9-11 world-wide police state
on steroids
War on democracy at home
and abroad
the world is still coping
with the damages unleashed
by the evil plane bombers
and their mad desires
their dictates from their mad God
transforming the world
unleashing evil
on the once innocent world.
The Day After 9-11 U.S Visa Officer’s Perspective
9-11 changed everything
For the lowly visa officers
Around the world
Especially for American visa officers
Pre-9-11
The emphasis was on efficiency
Issuing as many visas as possible
Refusing a few as possible
Looking the other way
At minor incidents of fraud
When in doubt
Just say yes
Terrorism was not a concern at all
No one anticipated
The horrible events of 9-11
All the hijackers
Had been issued visas
hey were considered low-risk applicants
As most Saudi citizens were
Few overstayed
None wanted to work
Illegally in the U.S.
The students studied
Came back home
Saudi, the UAE, and Oman
Were about to be approved
For the visa waiver program
They met the criteria
Low refusal rates
Low overstay rates
Terrorism was not a concern
Although the CIA was blocking it
On 9-12 and afterwards
Everything changed
Just say yes
Became just say no
Fraud became a big concern
Terrorism an overwhelming concern
Saudi, Oman and UAE
Became overnight
Suspicious characters
Extreme vetting began
Years before Trump
Announced it
Interviewing everyone
Became the policy overnight
Biometrics were rushed to be deployed
Everyone including Kings
Must be enrolled
No exceptions
Zero tolerance of visa infractions
Became the norm
Both at State and at the new DHS
Airports became unfriendly nightmares
For foreign visitors
As did the embassies
Where visa officers
Were now free
To be mean, abrupt
Just say no
Became the motto
The officers had 2 minutes
To go through the ever expanding
Security checks etc
Anything at all
That took two more minutes
Led to a quit denial
Denials were seldom overcome
Even when it was obvious
That the visa should have been issue
The visa function almost moved
To the new neo-fascist
Department of Homeland Security
Nicknamed by its critics
As the Homeland Security Ministry
The homeland security department
Send visa security officers
Overseas to police the lax state department
Whose prior courtesy culture was mocked
The new mean to everyone culture
Soon emerged
Everyone competed
To see who could be the meanest
Zero tolerance soon met zero common sense
Every applicant became a potential criminal
A potential security threat,
All Muslim applicants
Were seen as potential terrorists
All of this led
To the draconian visa policies
which began
on September 12, 2001
the day after 9-11
then Trump and his MAGA crew
swept to power
extreme vetting became the new mantra
unleashing a war
on Muslims and immgirants
that sadly had continued
to this day
The culmination of years
Of the war on terror
All of this was the result of 9-11
The day that changed everything.
Following 9/11
Patriots Blunder
Whack a mole
Worry Frequently
About terrorists and Muslims
Whomever, wherever they be
jade garden 8 jpg
Among the many sins
