Four Sad Songs for a City Slicker

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Linking with Poets United for Midweek Motif ~ City

Don't let the city steal your soul. ~Terri Guillemets




Noisy Lover

You are a lover that only some hearts can keep

with your noisy chaos and slippery streets

you have the power to make fickle the strongest of souls

making them yearn for a more green and peaceful home

though you are like an amazing poem with so much packed in a small space

you cannot compare to God's quite country of beauty and grace.

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Lost on 5th and Broadway

A trip to the city gives me shivers like frost
cause instead of arriving it feels more like being lost
getting mixed in the fabric of engines and lights
and for some that is suffocation of a different kind
a world full of people from the west to the east
an accident on Main and traffic jam on all streets
you are certain to get lost before you find your place
cause you left your heart on a field a country mile away.


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Skyscraper Song

You have designed me like gods that never knew heaven
my posture straight and strong but I am prone to disease
your blue prints seem perfect in plan and design
my stories are many and I am worth more
than some see in a a life time
then when plans change and walls mold and decay
I am disposed of like trees
for you have designed me like gods that never knew heaven
my posture straight and strong but I am prone to disease

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 The City and the Night

It is alive like a crackling camp fire
streams of light seem to melt together
moving to a pace only fast songs can play to
one street begins where another ends
yet all objects in the mirror are more distant
than they seem
still like lovers the city and the night become one
the sighs of a hundred lost lovers
hum in the distance and yet ring right in our ears
so many lonely people in one place
our love is 100 miles away
while another's bumps us as we pass.

Hearken 101

Courtesy Google Images

 

Linking with Poets United for Poetry Pantry # 410

 

The past can't see you, but the future is listening. ~Terri Guillemets

There is no school for this

no pop quiz 

nor multiple choice 

for you to pencil in the answer

no

you can't get the info on line

nor read it from a text book

no preparation is provided 

you just have to learn as you go 

Life is like that

experience is a wild horse

that you have to ride hard to earn

and falling is only a bonus

that the future will reward

no saddle needed just make sure

you have your boots

thick jeans

and an open heart.

We Trade Trees for Skyscrapers

Linking with Poets United for Midweek Motif ~ Lady Liberty and also The Sunday Muse for week #11   Come join us!


For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver. ~Martin Luther


It seems when we expand any direction something becomes smaller
like ice in a glass of water
it melts and disappears from what we see
So we trade trade trees for skyscrapers
in the name of freedom
we build in brick and mortar
high and wide
at the cost of the liberty of trees
they disappear one by one
mile by mile
acre by acre
into shopping centers and malls
one man's gain is another's loss
but in the bigger scheme of things
the loser is truly us all.


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Lady Liberty,

Her name is Liberty
and she is stoic like trees
head held high 
standing for all that is beautiful
and all we hold dear
crowned by good
and brotherhood
we remember her name
but have forgotten
the sound of her voice.

Paper Cuts and Land Slides

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Linking with Imaginary Gardens for the Tuesday Platform brought to us by the lovely Magaly also linking with Poets United for the Mid Week Motif ~ When I think about Myself brought to us by the lovely Sumana and lastly linking with The Sunday Muse
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"Many of our fears are tissue-paper thin, and a single courageous step would carry us through."
~Brendan Francis



I never could walk in the rain with the ease of a star or runway model
I am not that girl
the one that takes the dangerous path
barefoot in the middle of nowhere
unconcerned with what may come
I am the lady that arrives early
to the Dr.'s office
on the verge of sickness
with an umbrella
not because it is raining
but because it could
 when I leave the building
my bag is full of every document
known to man I could need
and my mind is even fuller
with the thought of
driving back in the rain
control is a small beady eyed old man
and no one knows his name
or where he was last
I have been trying to track him down
ever since grade school
I tried Marco Polo
but he was never listening
the only thing I have had control over
is my bladder
until about 2016
now it seems I could just throw caution to the wind
since not much remains in my hands anyway
jewel thief's have ransacked my marble collection
it seems i never had them contained from the beginning
life is full of paper cuts and land slides
and somewhere between band aids and mud boots
I lost sight of the difference between the two
uncertainty is a scary thing 
especially when you are young
if you learn to fear and dread early
all perspective can get distorted
like the view through the wrong prescription glasses
all objects get blurry
everything becomes scary and uncertain
I am learning to change what I see
but this has proved to be a slow process
like road repair done by old nuns
still I try to make control my own ordained ministry
even though I am no minister
with time I have found
it is not what one acquires
that makes it clear
but more what one
learns in the process
of letting it go.

Explorers of Hope

Linking with Poets United for Mid Week Motif ~Human
Also linking with Imaginary Gardens for The Tuesday Platform brought to us by the lovely Sanaa
and because my thyroid medicine has made me feel so much better I am also linking with The Sunday Muse Come join us!


Your children are not your children.  They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.  ~Kahlil Gibran


We fly like sparks from the flickering flame
out toward greener pastures
our cells fueled by stardust
Halley's Comet racing across the sky
we leave our mark in due time
for every sparrow soon learns to fly
by leaping wings first
 from tree limb
or giving hands
humans are souls 
that search for 
meaning
marvel
and purpose
beyond the confines of home

explorers of hope

from one generation to another
grandfather to grandson
Earth to Moon
Moon to Mars
dreams expand
like wings in flight
we are dreamers indeed
our cells are fueled by stardust
and like all loving children
we will one day return
to what our souls call home
the glittering heavens

When Players Play

Courtesy Google Images

Linking with Imaginary Gardens for the Tuesday Platform brought to us by Sanaa

Also linking with The Sunday Muse for muse # 7

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"Sticks and stones are hard on bones
Aimed with angry art,
Words can sting like anything
But silence breaks the heart."
~Phyllis McGinle

Why was your love always a cadence in E minor with a sad melody quick to come to a close?
Did you not see me here with my strong voice always holding every note?

The piano that I loved is abandoned now lost and quiet like feathers when they fall.
These days the only tone that rings out is your cell phone, but it won't be me who calls.

My love would have played you an orchestra with trombones and drums as I dance and I sing.
But all you wanted was a player piano and loud sex that technically had no strings.

Sailors, Soldiers, and Saints

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Linking with Imaginary Gardens for The Tuesday Platform brought to us by Rommy
also linking with The Sunday Muse
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“The Brave die never, though they sleep in dust:  Their courage nerves a thousand living men.”

~ Minot J. Savage

To all the lost sailors and every soldier, my attempt at thank you is like a whisper in a hail storm

. It could never be enough.

 For those who sacrifice life, and limb so that I may abundantly live in freedom’s trust.

I have never known the brunt of war, because you paid for my freedom at the ultimate price.

No earthly possession of magnificence could ever re-pay you even if I tried.

So instead of thoughts and mere spoken words, my pledge to you is this:

To take this gift you have given like a pirate’s treasure and make it a beautiful life well lived.

I shall reach out with wings like angels and eagles and soar instead of perch in place.

I will leave a mark, not like pencil nor chalk, but one that time cannot erase.

Yes, I will walk in abundance choosing to grow, blossom and truly thrive.

I will not complacently lay stagnant and just attempt to simply survive.

I will live my life with passion and purpose, like a missionary in a foreign land

I will choose to make a difference, and for what truly matters I will stand.

My offering is plain and simple; I will give back by being a blessing every time I can

That is my pledge to the brave, living and fallen and every woman, child and man.

They Call Her Gemini

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Linking with Imaginary Gardens for the Tuesday Platform, brought to us by Sanaa
and also linking with The Sunday Muse
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"Gemini is a lover and a fighter....rolled into one."
~Anonymous

She is a thicket of rare fruits and flowers somewhere in the middle of a barren land

Do not try to eat the berries dear nor try to understand

She is a snowbird that has ventured out far beyond the cold into the warm beach’s sand

Do not try to count the miles off course dear nor try to understand

She is a profound riddle written with invisible ink with a true left hand

Do not try to read it without glasses dear nor try to understand

She is a smorgasbord table with no food, but fine china from a distant land

Do not drink the wine she drinks dear nor try to understand

She is a long scarf for two that is worn by merely one like a single flag for each and every man

Do not let the flag fall dear, nor try to understand

She is a parallel universe that beckons millions, but only one may truly stand

Do not enter without knocking dear, nor try to understand.

Remarkable Calamities

Linking with Imaginary Gardens for The Tuesday Platform brought to us by Sanaa
Also linking with The Sunday Muse
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"Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable."
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr


Like an eccentric artist life re-makes me
over and over again
building me up high
like a big city skyscraper
then burning me down
to ash
just to remold me
better and
stronger
lovely to the soul's eye
but do not be foolish
for
i am an endeavor
an arduous journey
that no missionary
would volunteer for
a vessel unseaworthy
a tiger with not all my stripes
a film not yet developed
a plant with few leaves
but there is growth
it is a process
with slow progress
a becoming of sorts
the lessons re-shape me
the alchemy of scrap metal
turned to coins of a greater worth
the cost of expansion
is a heavy price
a thousand bruises and tears
one hundred skinned knees
and many sleepless nights.

Wild Journey

LInking with Imaginary Gardens for the Tuesday Platform brought to us by Sanaa

and The Sunday Muse

How stunning are the changes which age makes in a man while he sleeps!  ~Mark Twain

It has been a wild journey

 and my soul has weathered many a storm

but my heart lost the sturdy umbrella

a long time ago

this makes for a sloppy passage

and wet shoes

I used to leap over puddles with ease

but now I tend to 

wade through slowly

like a used jalopy bus

in the rain

I don't mind a little mud

just give me somewhere warm

to dry my socks

and take a load off with friends of a feather

and I am happy

there is a luxury a mature heart knows

the comfort of knowing not to rush

and of course the wild journey of the past

has given us bad knees. 

Tread the City with an Open Heart

Linking with The Sunday Muse for our first picture prompt.

Please take a look we would love for you to join us!

Also linking with Imaginary Gardens for "The Tuesday Platform"

The heart carries loads that the hands cannot. ~Matshona Dhliwayo

Give your heart to a sailor it may get lost at sea

Takes a wild soul to do such things

But hoard your heart like a bitter old coot

May be stealing your own joyous loot

Takes a wise heart to see it clear

That being a giver makes for richer years

Those that are takers and hold on tight

End up weary from such wasted might

So tread the city with an open heart

That is when angel’s blessings soon impart