Somewhere there are
Flowers blooming
Dew is trimming
each and every petal

Somewhere there are
Oceans booming
fishes swimming
everywhere

Somewhere there are
People laughing
Happy families
Babies clapping

Sun is shining
no more whining
Peace and quiet
No more riots
No more bombs
or people hating

Just not here...........

Preachers teaching
God is reaching
out to you

If  you listen, you can you hear
His sweet voice is everywhere

Extreme Poetry
Fights, fumes, resists, entices, twists, endures, seduces
Rhymes at times
Or so rarely you want it to explode, implode
Or just mellow out
But you don't stop reading
Unless it bores
Or you're just too tired
Ditties and sonnets
And ABAB and the like are all very well
But real men and women go for
The rough and tumble of truly free verse
Where words are the masonry
Spitting at you in spurts
Confounding, astounding
Welcome to consternation nation
Where assonance bucks up against alliteration
And the inevitable invasion of syllables and vowels
A perverse form of Password that traipses over diction when it wants
Because there are no rules in Extreme Poetry

They were the best of times
What we had back then
Languid nights of exploration
Getting to know the other
We became the best of friends

I was in my prime, in the zone
We both really tried, our hearts found a home
It was love for real, really good
And now it's really gone

The memories will never go away
They're stranded on some island in the ether
Leaving me to say that I still love you
Feelings never to go away
Not those best of times, no way

I would not trade our past for anything
Yes, I really miss you, and the memories bring
A kind of solace, along with a touch of sadness
When I recollect and reminisce
That I used to be your king

They were the best of times
They really, truly were

It's one after another
Big business on parade
Groveling before Congress about all the loot they made
Millions upon millions on the backs of you and me
Hurting all of us, not just metaphorically

Then there is Congress, passing laws for the rich
And the mighty corporations, how I wish
We had in real life, Jimmy Stewart's Mr. Smith

At least Elizabeth Warren is out there kicking ***
And thank God, we've still got a free press
Exposing the dishonesty, e.g. arbitration is very bad
And old Bernie sure raised a ruckus, it's not over yet

Still, I have hope, I love the USA
So full of character and characters
What did that candidate say?
Vote your conscience (and your intellect) come Election Day
We the people will finally get to play
Oh yeah, and for real, God bless each of you today.

Sometimes I am more

thorn than flower


*but a rose is a rose is a rose

I had hoped
as I had many times before
that it would not come
but the night would eventually depart
like the thousand friends I believed I had
vanishing like the shine of new paint over the course of time
sleep is better spent in daylight as the machine rolls mercilessly
over the depleting consciousness of those lingering desperate souls
and when the machine rests
I awaken
to roam the silent scenes and landscapes of the unbound thought
the minds well
this holy realm of darkness

she moves too slow
while I'm awake
yet renders mercy
for hearts that ache
she waits in patient,
silent hope
providing light
on this slippery *****

she has no thoughts
of giving in
slows your breath
when air gets thin

and as you await
the final tide
she'll grant you a glimpse
of the other side

there is no healer
I give more faith
no more a reason
this soul can rhyme
for night and day
for every season
I cherish this gift
of time

The aloe has flourished in the garden
where mine heart once beat as a white rose.

The freedom of its soft fragrance has been
smothered, petals wilted, roots dead and no longer grows.

The gardener saw it fit to **** the iris and now the poison ivy, like water flows.