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Short Poems


The Moderns

You blasted away the bridges to the past
Exposed the iron re-bar twisted and dangling in the center,
Left a vast smoking crater where the river once flowed.

Now we all gather around the edge,
Taking photographs, wondering what happened to the river.
Paralyzed, unable to move forward, we contemplate a leap--

But instead throw pebbles,
Listening to the echo of the silence below.

by Raoul  J. Wise



The End of the World

Begin the end
End the beginning
Forgive the insult
Forget the mistake

Right the wrong
Fight the oppression
Organize the confusion
Help up a fallen friend

Comfort the frightened
Laugh with the merry
Cry with the lonely
Love the unlovely

Help the helpless
Encourage the hopeless
Give reasons to live
To the suicidal one

Be a friend to the friendless
Give the homeless a home
For in taking their pain
You throw off your own

by Shana Renzema

Forget

She keeps me smiling
 while my soul burns.
  We draw hearts
     in the ashes.

by C. R.


Lock it

Release the heat of over pressure
Society has won

Display array of imperfections
Especially the one

Despise the rise of generations
Impossible to run

Behold, we've sold the love and land
Of those without a gun

Prepare to wear the guilty shame
Like a locket in the sun

by C. J. BoyD

K
(No Apathy)

It's been ten days now
       lost my friend
I knew him enough to
       comprehend
His wife, his fans could
          not begin
     to help enough-
    enough to mend

He's got his peace now
        piece of mind
He's got his love now
       ours and mine
    He wrote the book
  and crossed the line
         But apathy
       he will not find

by C. J. BoyD


My Nightmare

  Last night I had

                  An ugly nightmare

  “We are over,” you said.

 I screamed
 and cried. I cried.

I couldn’t believe it was true.

 I asked YOU, why?

  “I fell out of love with you,” you said while

                   YOU and She were smiling bye.

  I woke fast, teared in eyes. I called you, asked YOU over.

You came and hugged me, saying,

 “I will always be by.”

  We were kissing in the night

as SHE was waiting for

                   you outside.

by Betty Olea    9/99

 

Poetic Justice

The job of poetry
Is not to Rhyme, 
Not to Joke, nor for Reason
Nor to tell things in time.
Poetry is but a feeling
Just like happy and sad
The only small difference
Is you write it on a pad.
You can open some one's eyes
To show them what they've not seen
You can describe things with words
Like "The tree is softly green"
You can easily draw a picture
To Fascinate one's mind 
Or you can create a mixture
Of letters spaces and lines
It all depends on you
The spectrum of Your brain
You are now the creator
Of a mind mastering Game


by Martita Barrios

 

The Old Man Sits and Plays His Clarinet

The old man sits and plays his clarinet
On the corner as everyone rushes by.
Some going out for lunch,
Some hurrying back to the office,
Some just going or coming.
In the distance a young man is peddling sunglasses.
"Any two pair for just five dollars."
And the old man sits and plays his clarinet.

by Lisa Godina


Someone Once Said

Someone once said,
"I think poets are crazy."
I laughed and silently agreed.
The cars barked,
And the dogs drove on.

by Lisa Godina


Ghost Rider

Ghost rider walking the empty halls of my mind,
The great warrior extinct from time,
Like the eagle his spirit flies,
His words of wisdom passed down his tribe,
Ghost rider whose spear does point,
And kill the buffalo on the plains,
Horses run free, save one great paint,
With a name like the bear,
And all that remains is the memory in my mind,
And the ghost rider dwelling there.

by Desiree Bloodworth


Acrostic

Thinking
Earnestly
About
Rejections
Sting

by Carol Paravicini


 


Svishing in the Snow

The smoothness of the swiftness of the svishing in the snow,
Speeding through the artic slopes on hills of polar dough.

Gliding through the breezes at a speed that leads to flight,
Touching ground, that swishing sound, through the icy white.

That swooshing of the frosty air with the visshing of the skis,
Slithering like a winter snake to dodge the powdered trees.

Traversing glacial landscapes, trekking frozen lands,
Sliding and a svishing across foreign glace sands.

by Steven Aoki


Ode to Sarcasm

Man, is this poem long!

by Rene Robles

 

Cloaked Woman Before Me

Cloaked woman before me, 
Thy finger points my doom.
Thou put thy mark upon me
Within mine mother's womb.

With candle in hand thou leadeth me,
Fear within mine breast,
As those souls who had preceded me,
To mine long awaited rest.

Thou comfortest me with thy words,
As we stand before the Gate,
And beyond thy shadowed hood
I see thy loving face.

Thy beauty is that of Venus
Thy words sweeter than Zephyr's breath,
I think of those who came before me
And wonder if they too, fell in love with Death.

by Jeremiah Covarrubias


As He Lays There

As he lays there with his broken bones and crumpled teeth,
blood bathes him,
The shattered angry window stares down,
passersby hang in shock,
And in that angry window in the sky,
his drugs dance round and round,
over the chalked form of his body.

by Nehemiah Arroyo


My Peace

In a meadow filled with flowers
The minute, the second, time stood still.
A brief moment, a glance, your eyes met mine
I stood beside myself
I was watching from some distant point.

A simple remembrance of this brings a smile to my lips
Even times I'm not feeling myself.
Even a miniscule pleasure,
Is brought to me only by you

by Roberta Pursley


The Boogie Man

They told me
"You better look out,
The boogie man's coming!"
I didn't believe them
While they all kept running.

I told them
"Get outta here. No way!
There's no such thing."
And continued as before,
I continued playing.

There I sat
Saying "There's no such thing."
While in my head
I began to dread the very
Thought of being dead.

What if he is coming?
|What should I do?
How can I prevent him from getting me too?

(SWALLOW!)

I beg you
Listen when they tell you
The boogie man's coming!"
You better believe them
And follow their lead as they come running.

by Janei Nacapuy


Double

Night fades away. Faint light reveals a streaM,
Across a meadow, where a deer says hellO
To the plentiful water that provides foR
Undeniable thirst. Bright rays from the golden suN
Rise from behind a mountain to pierce through the shadows. I
Envision the battle between darkness and light and watch the frowN
Settle upon the beaten face of night. Morning has come alonG.

by Vannessa Grossman


Reminisce II

Seeing you again made me think of all my memories
Of what used to be between you and me
Now that we don't even speak
It's hard for me to not be weak.

I saw you again,
Unexpectedly
Evocations
of what used to be
Late nights together,
Conversations on the phone.
Keeping in touch with you
Wasn't always easy to do.

I think so much about how to come around
To telling you again the great relationship we found.
It's too hard though, I'm too weak
To tell you what I seek.

by Janei Nacapuy

 

Reflection

The yellow pear
                       warm
                            soft
                               delicious
                                     succulent
                                        ready to taste

But I ate despair   

instead;

such is human nature

to wish for golden Heaven
                                        yes, perfection

But to worry
                             instead

                                         to destruction.

by Eugene Simons


The Buzzards

The buzzards circle high overhead
Their black wings stretched out across the sky,
Mysterious apparitions from the land of the dead
They gape at us with hungry yellow eyes.

Knowing too well the way of all flesh
In secret conspiracy with devious time,
How moving forms shuffle off toward death
To furnish the hope on which they dine.

And we below in our bustling days
Of works and schemes and lives unborn,
Are loathe to lift our level gaze
To heed what their dark ghastly shadows warn.

by Raoul Wise


The Last Lesson

Class, take this poem
making of it what you will
no symbols themes or literary
talk
draw it into
memories, desires
Taste it secretly and 
speak of it
only if you wish.

by Judith Robinson


Fog

It engulfed my hands;
Without color

Urgently pressing through my fingers
Restlessly, sighing within my palm.
It longed to be free;
To help in the creation of thought
To flow from hand to hand
To caress flat surfaces
It came to me from a man;
A man with wind for words.
He told me:
             Create with it.
             Let it give you thought
But it was washed away.
The surface wiped of its
             Pearly presence
To be only recalled from the master;
The master Colgate.

by Vanessa Payan


I SEE YOUR FACE,
A VISAGE OF GRIEF AND PAIN:
KNOWING EYES, CLEAR BLUE, FILLED WITH HOPELESS WISDOM.
YOUR MOUTH DRAWN INTO A GRIMACE OF UTTER LOSS,
PRONOUNCING THE WRINKLES, ETCHED LIKE BATTLE SCARS IN YOUR MIEN,
A TESTAMENT TO THE WAR YOU HAVE FOUGHT WITHIN YOURSELF.
BUT I CANNOT TELL WHO WAS THE VICTOR.


When I...

When I first came to this school
No one thought that I was cool
I got straight A's, followed every rule
But later I have learned
That's the right way to have turned
I realized that those guys
To themselves were being cruel
I'm the one who's not a fool
Now they're taking summer school
While I am lounging by a pool

by Danielle Biondo