frustrated all to hell
i know this feeling all too well
a broken record i've become
yet my words still loop
on the tongue
you say that you do
but i know that you don't
you say you believe
i know that you won't
the chance has past
and come and gone
to prove myself
that you're all wrong

i am a diamond
shining quite bright
within a cave
in deep moonlight
but because the sun
shines brighter on you
it's assumed i don't crave
the same sunshine too
i want to feel heat
the same love and affection
i like to be wanted
i want the attention
but my lack of the day
and the way i was raised
made me look in depth and darkness
for all of the good
and because that's so different
i'm misunderstood

by Arcassin Burnham


Going through a life filled with pain,
Thought Being born in this life was a shame,
In the making it was love I always wanted from my family
and friends and a girl to call my name,
cut a human being off like a speeding limit,
Only to be pulled over with a speeding ticket,
learning to do right in an economy that doesn't care
about your well-being, or your soul and spirit,
You were in it,
honorable mention,
linked up all your limits,
and the feelings, well,
they just left and did some feral shifting,
Stuck in a dark fantasy or maybe a death stranding,
i was here from the beginning and when you took your last standing,
you were,
misunderstood in a world full of impurity,
lived for the love of another in this monstrosity,
serve a near purpose for people you'd die for in eternity.

I dreamed of two men
cold as ice in dark hats
handcuffing a woman
before tossing her in the back
of a black barred truck
with stars on the sides
and a To Protect and Serve
bumper sticker stuck like
a punchline and a baby girl
and young boy were crying
standing behind the yellow lines
but two has never been
a number that adds up to
nothing because it's only legal
to pass one at a time in these
dark days of executive orders
you fear because you know
it's all the evidence they need
to make you disappear.

irrelevance hits
like a storm
long coming

welcome friend
for in that moment
of stark familiarity
comes a knowing

that all we do
and hope to do
will curl away
like some
outdated scroll

to be trodden
discarded
like so much
refuse

relic of yesteryear
times where earth pulsed
slowly
richly

and peaches tasted
like a maiden's kiss
on my startled country
lad's cheeks

as I chased
the squealing lass
around hollyhocks
hay bales and
munching heifers

now in this
hi-tech world
of plastic cups
disposable

where are
such moments
of innocence
sweetened
by blessed air

somehow
texting
doesn't
cut it

dreams
ideals
a mere
irrelevance

Socially Engaged Poetry

As an effective tool for advocacy
Creating partnerships and sharing skills
A voice to the voiceless, Split this Cliché
Empowerment to the empowermentless
Through bleats of provocation and witness
Copyrighted and stereotyped
In a World That is Forever 1968
Exploring and celebrating the many ways
We can score yet another guilt-grant
Asserting the centrality of the 501C3
Through bearing witness to diversity
As long as it behaves itself and thinks like us
Accessible and yet authentic
A n d l i k e d o s t u f f w i t h s p a c e l i k e u no

cause       spaces

                                 are authentic, and,
   like  


                 stuff
Poetry as a living, breathing art form
If you listen, you can hear its respirations
Gasping in the long, dark night of group-think
Obedient to a mission statement
And the careful construction of resumes
Committee integrate complexity
Formula dampens the authentic voice
Perform this vital work imagining
Personal and social responsibility
Revolutionary transformation
Write and perform this vital work support
Of human social justice experience
Grounded in holistic spirituality
Flouting the patriarchal something-ness
An act that requires community
If you love freedom, you dare not disobey
And let all the people say “Cogent!”

♪ ♩ ♫ ♬♪ ♪ ♩ ♫

[for Snare Drum]

Client-centered, data-driven,
yet their sins are unforgiven.
Tweaking the assessment standard
while the Word of God is slandered.
Current practice (science-based)
meanwhile, souls are laid to waste.
Evidence-based evaluations
fail to stall abominations.
Power slideshows, bullet-pointed
bypass Christ, the Lord’s anointed.
Titled expert: talking wraith,
buzzword-based, devoid of faith.
Sources cited, praxis theorized.
Mankind’s plight ignored, unrealized.
Humankind enthroned, enshrined,
entombed in shadows yet unshined.
Branding, marketing, organized crime:
brother – can you spare a paradigm?