Your own terminal illness
Though you have reasons to dread
think good thoughts instead
Your own terminal illness
Though you have reasons to fear
keep your loved ones near

  Can’t sleep at home
    feeling all alone
    Thoughts do roam in
    dark places unknown
    Thoughts of no tomorrow
    fuel uncontrolled sorrow

  Overwhelming stress
    from so many tests
    Under duress
    with no success
    Lost hope of recovering
    Now death is hovering

Don’t stay discouraged
Face it with courage …

Your own terminal illness
Though you have reasons to dread
think good thoughts instead
Your own terminal illness
Though you have reasons to fear
hold your loved ones dear

  Can’t sleep at home
    feeling all alone
    Thoughts do roam in
    dark places unknown
    Thoughts of no tomorrow
    fuel uncontrolled sorrow
    Lost hope of recovering
    Now death is hovering

Face it with courage …
Your own terminal illness

  Don’t stay discouraged
  Face it with courage
    Beware of rancor
    Hope is an anchor
  (Don’t stay discouraged)
  Face it with courage
    Hope is an anchor
    Face it with courage …


© 2024 Mark Toney

We lived for the
next drink; the elixir to
erase the memories of
a thousand cruel dawns.
It took work when we
were broken and bedraggled.
Creativity and thirst drove
us through the day.

"Do you have anything to pawn?"

"Hey, why don't we stop by the
old carnival guy's place, he's
always good for a belt."

"Big Brenda will you give you a
10 spot to go down on her,
are you
up for it?"

The **** we did to stay liquid smooth.
We redeemed cans for nickels, It took
hundreds to get a bottle.
In and out of dumpsters filled with
the most vile trash imaginable.
Me and those aluminum cowboys,
knee-deep in the filth just to
get a drink.

Winter was bad, frostbitten hands and
hearts, but summer was worse.
Something about the way the sun
cooked the trash had a hellish putrid
effect on the soul.
That smell was the seed of my
sobriety.

Cat
no tail
walks

sideways
along the porch

black or blue

in this light it's
hard to tell

hurling
sliding

with finesse
effortless

so it seems

all my life I've chased
watching

you swoosh and cut
a path

I wish was mine

heavy
burden

weary

as the world
turns

with

progress—
slow

but steady

hopeful

What does this mean?
This place I find myself between
A love I’ve waited lifetimes to find
To another he must bind

A joyful lament, a sorrowful laugh
What an untterly absurd sort of path
If the gods did tell a joke
It would be in lines of code

An embrace more tender and so true
Comes from a love I can’t imbue
With not but longing, hot and bright
Which can but scarcely see the light.

Devotion like bees in my veins
My blazing heart in love remains
True to love as sure as a spark
Illuminates the coldest dark

A seasoned poet realizes
Through embellished disguises
Marked by complexity
Driven by calculated uniformity
Filled with minute details
evaluate while riding the rails
The goal is to work hard to achieve
A story poem believably perceived

To exaggerate a structured process made
Is when vivid imagery fades
Interesting concepts inevitably played
Muddy clarification  pictures portrayed
Without stress comes blessed
Fantastic lines flourishes
As words nourishes our souls

We build organic sentence structure
from simple ingredients.
Adjectives provide ample sustenance.
As the art of the story is told
embellishments never grow old

Usually, a poet will know
When they’re on a roll
A smile concluded at the end
For a poet, it’s easy to pretend

When did embellishments become bigger than life?
Every subject kernels of nuggets of human strife
With twists and turns as the poet’s story jack knifes
Yet Never seems too deep as they grow old
A well planned story for told

A poet strives for elusive perfection ,
Avoiding at all cost negative rejection
Finding their self in their written word
Their true voice even IF the topic is absurd

Vivid imagery shows leaps and bounds
When a story read out loud has perfect sound
With a basic premise solid as the ground
Fluidity in motion can be found

Their poetry gift establishes imagination
Only limited by their lexicon, word creation 
power required to overcome friction
and the inertia of the moving parts proper diction 

Spy a girl cross the sea
Come sailing with me
Simply beautiful let it be
The love, we will create
Finding our soulmate

My sail boat
roams restless
upon the ocean
Smooth sailing
Poetry in motion

Inspired song
1) Come Sail Away
By Styx 1977

2) Sail Away
By The Oak Ridge Boys 1979