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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
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