Poem for 11-2-09

Cry Freedom by David Keig

Cry freedom
With a quiet voice
Cry freedom
And rejoice.

Cry freedom
See the purest light
Cry freedom
With fresh sight.

Cry freedom
With a gentle will
Cry freedom
And be still.

Cry freedom
Till your heart does ache
Cry freedom
And awake.

Cry freedom
With a quiet voice
Cry freedom
And rejoice.

Add a comment November 2, 2009

Poem for 10-30-09

Realization by: katelynmcdougall

I figured you were a decent man
When you gave up your seat on the bus
For that elf-like old woman
In a pea coat jacket.

The kind of man who takes public transit
Because he finds it humbling.

And in that moment, I found it bitter sweet
That someone as benevolent as you are
Will die,
And that no one will speak of this moment
At your funeral.

Then this meek elucidation
Poured into my body–
That all of us will die, sooner or later;
As the bus goes plummeting
Over the edge of the cliff
With tactful implement.

And my last thoughts were not of myself,
But of what I thought your wife would look like
When she found out about your death:
Her velvet eyes clustered with tears
That would spill and smear
The romantic words you wrote to her
In love letters from long ago.

You were such a grateful man,
And when I looked at you in that last blink,
You looked at peace.

Add a comment October 30, 2009

Poem for 10-28-09

Old friends who understand me.
Who’ve travelled where I walked.
Who saw the dust I trod upon,
sat beside me at night,
and waited patiently for me when we parted.

My calloused hands touch their skin
with nary a caress,
my hastened grab fleeting and then,
I pull them in directions suiting me alone,
they comply wordlessly.

Their eyes stare up unseeing,
never blinking, never crying,
ever doing as I say.
Serving me as best they can until -
until the day they can no longer.

I survey them on this day, saddened,
ruined friends, so faithful through their lives.
Will any others ever be so perfect?
Will they know and fit my life as these did?
Will things feel right?

I start my quest to find new friends.
None I find are like the old. I wish again,
to have my friends when they were young,
before I too grew older,
and things just fell apart.

But wait, I’ve met acquaintances.
They won’t feel right for quite a time;
we’ll journey together and get to know one another,
and as days pass,
things will turn out ok.

My calloused hands touch their skin
a caress this time. A slow embrace.
A gentle tug to where they need to be,
their eyes look up at me,
the laces of my shoes, now tied.

Add a comment October 28, 2009

Poem for 10-26-09

Little Miss Tiny

By: Kaiti Piece (a friend of mine)

I cried for days after I swore

not to shed another tear,

Scrubbing sweat stains from the mirror

looking for reflections here.

I’m weaker than I thought,

the trash is filled with tissues

stronger than my lungs.

Couldn’t keep me standing

for an hour at a time.

And I should have known something was wrong

when the sky turned the color of concrete

and the walls closed in.

So the blood on the floor came up to meet me

I’m just like girls I never thought I would be.

I felt like crying

tears of blood

through every hole

of my sunken

washed out

fevered face.

But I will not, I swear.

Add a comment October 26, 2009

Poem for 10-23-09

ANGRY PEOPLE 24 september 2007

By Robert Payne

Angry people wish they were somewhere else,
not on the shelf,
too much wealth,
not enough health…
‘How can you possibly waste your words!,
and write absurdities’.
You could if you were angry.
And you would scratch and spit and bite
and how they like to criticise,
like a deadly snake at night.

’cause I won’t lie.
I really do not try to hide.
Except the pain you give to me
surpassed of course
by melodies,this keeps us free.
stop saying words for me.
Ten on my tongue that be,
and I have even conquered thee?
how angry can you be!
when you have lost the tongues in a pictured scene.
How can you speak in angr..r..ry!

Add a comment October 23, 2009