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I remember clearly the day we met
Which makes it seem like only yesterday
Memories cherished, memories kept
And a promise to forever, never give them away

A timeless legacy of family and faith
Between you and me to help carry it on
Adding doses of love along the way
Knowing full well we'll never go it alone

I promise you with this lasting truth
Whatever you and I are going through
I'll hold on tight and never let loose
Being more than ready to grow old with you

It's not hard to find we're still young in mind
With brittle bones that hold tender souls
We moan and we groan like we've been in a fight
And still not yet ready to give up the ghost

It hasn't been perfect, but we have been blessed
In all of the crazy that life's thrown at us
Still standing strong, last time we checked
Attributed to the power of love

I promise you with this lasting truth
Whatever you and I are going through
I'll hold on tight and never let loose
Being more than ready to grow old with you
If I could reach you
I would say
I
Believe
In you.

Its the last address
Of this life of

disappointment

They will never know.

I believe in you.

Grind my tears in the
bowls
Otherwise
So

Closed

On saving me

I am now
Utterly destroyed.

I am in the minutes
Of the

Rest

Of my life

Alone and
Shattered.

Saved from their
determination

what waits
is my future.

Now, Happen

Soon.


Caroline Shank
6.06.2025
I would like sometimes
To just up and leave
Be gone till no one
Is out looking for me
A secret hiding place
That only I can keep
Off in the distance
A fading memory

Holding onto the whisper
That's never heard from again
Unfolding the map
That leads to Neverland
Embracing the fact
That no one knows who I am
And if there's anything left
I'll leave even that

Escape from the place
That I was last seen
Permanently erase
All thoughts of me
Change every trace of my name
You would ever care to think
Do all this and call
Myself history
I apologize to those who were wrongly laid to rest,
To any graves where blood is still wet.
I respect those who survived,
Even in the face of adversity.
“When Clay Weeps”
A poetic tribute to Gilgamesh and Enkidu

Beneath a sky of burning stars,
Uruk's high walls gleamed like scars
cut into time—immense, precise—
where kings were gods, and men were dice.

Gilgamesh, carved out of storm and sun,
two-thirds divine, yet wholly undone,
bored with power, drunk on might,
wrestled shadows in the heat of night.

Then came Enkidu, beast-born and bold,
with eyes like flint and hair like mold
of forest boughs, of untouched place—
the wilderness written on his face.

They met like meteors—fierce and fast—
and fought until their rage was past.
Then, laughing, stood where blood had pooled,
and in that moment, gods were fooled.

They crossed into cedar-scented gloom,
to fell a giant, shape their doom.
And when the gods struck back with grief,
they cleaved the world with disbelief.

Enkidu’s breath fled in the dark,
his voice a ghost, his limbs grown stark.
And Gilgamesh—stone turned to skin—
sought death’s edge to pull him in.

He wandered roads where no man goes,
spoke with alewives, fought with crows,
and found the flood that washed the land,
held time’s seed in his trembling hand.

But life, a serpent, sly and thin,
stole the fruit he held within.
So he returned, not with the key,
but with the tale of what can’t be.

He carved in stone his city’s face,
a wall, a name, a time, a place.
For though we die and dust returns,
a soul may live if someone learns.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest surviving works of literature, is hardly easy reading. But Andrew George’s translation from the Akkadian is strikingly accessible – a meditation on power and mortality.

I enlisted the poetic talent of Chat GPT to craft a verse unclasping the essence of a small part of this 4000 year old poem from ancient Iraq.

A fascination unleashed.
Cheers M@Foxglove.Taranaki.NZ
they said the clown was sorrow-shaped.
so I looped up in greasepaint—
swallowed a sunbeam,
coughed out a smirk,
and called the ache comedy.

somebody whispered
i fear the bruise.
nah,
i catalogue it.
line breaks for scars,
syntax for shame,
run the hurt through a voice modulator
’til even god can’t tell if i’m praying or riffing.

i’m not dodging the wreckage.
i just built a couch in it.
named the crater: “home?”
drank laughter from a cracked thermos
and kept warm in the glow of a rerun i never starred in.

i’ll play the ghost
if the script pays in quiet.
but don’t staple my name to your healing
and call it holy.

the truth?
clowns rot too.

some nights
i wanna peel off the latex,
lose the joke,
shave the wig,
and just exist—
not perform pain
in a dialect
you can quote later.
I’m the harshest critic,
the truest of nonbelievers,
when words of love are used.
Soapy words will not deliver
so please stop trying to be smooth.

Don’t compare me to a summer’s day!
I know that’s from some Broadway play.

Waste not flattery’s rose
praise not my grace,
at least not to my face,
you’re better off praising my clothes.

Forgo sweetness, promise nothing
then you may be onto something
say it, straight up, I won’t faint
trust me, sir, I am no saint.
.
.
A song for this:
Words of love by the Beatles
.
Maddy’ Music challenge:
“Write a poem based on three words from a song.”
Song: 'Words of love' by the Beatles 1964
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