Oli Nejad: Favorites

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Restless

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Canaan Massie

Restless

I sit watching the clock.
Restless. 30 hours. No sleep.
I cannot go back to that place.
I cannot let my mind take over.
I cannot let my subconscious,
Reignite itself and blaze,
The images back into my head.
I cannot venture into my own mind.
So I stay awake for as long as possible.
Because I fear sleep.
I fear the nightmares.

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Alone

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Siegfried Sassoon

Alone

I’ve listened: and all the sounds I heard
Were music,—wind, and stream, and bird.
With youth who sang from hill to hill
I’ve listened: my heart is hungry still.

I’ve looked: the morning world was green;
Bright roofs and towers of town I’ve seen;
And stars, wheeling through wingless night.
I’ve looked: and my soul yet longs for light.

I’ve thought: but in my sense survives
Only the impulse of those lives
That were my making. Hear me say
‘I’ve thought!’—and darkness hides my day.

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Introspection

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Carl Gene Hardwick

Introspection

The cavern where the secrets lie,
Can make us laugh, or make us cry,
But that is where the soul can dwell,
Hidden deep in darkness we might tell.

The moments when we find us fools,
When blistering hot can sometimes cool,
We look at us in mirrors with hope,
How does the human race so cope?

We laid our plans and navigated the course,
With lofty praise and some fine discourse,
Lifted high our images on weakened thrones,
The arrogant, or how they still can drone.

Through clouds of conscious with mirky lies,
We plow beneath the ground the weak who cry,
March onward with fervent, eager lost thoughts,
The price of destruction, oh what the cost.

Then marauding time still forges fast,
This world we created will perpetually last,
Until the last human being can admit to say,
We lived in darkness just one more day.

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

I Want To Live 2000 Years Ago

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Anon C

I Want To Live 2000 Years Ago

Seven billion people on Earth
Why the hell are so many of us alone
Searching within one another for our worth
Love would appear to be a combat zone

Would you not think with so many of us
A soul mate might actually exist
Quite distressing it is, I must confess
A world revolving around trysts

Souls too caught up in lust
Gallivanting about the city
Contact for many an absolute must
While some lie wallowing in self pity

What the hell is love, might I ask
I am not seeing it in the world today
Seven billion people wearing seven billion masks
All hiding within their own cliche

Such a large world we live in
And still unable to ever truly connect
It must be human nature, a deadly sin
Thus true love will never interject

Envision real love all we may
It would appear not to be our nature
Always something will lead one astray
So in our dreams will it lie forever

We all want to be proven wrong here
We scream our own sad story into the night
Begging for someone to come, adhere
To bring some amount of respite

But despite our relentless screams
We continue on this vicious circle
Ignore the one who may answer our dreams
Falling victim to this eternal obstacle

The one that is our denial of love
To fill some void we cannot be free of

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

I Am Yours

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Anon C

I Am Yours

You may not be mine
For you are not property
And I also lay no claim
Over your being
But rest assured I am yours
I do not mind belonging to you
I will make it known
That my soul belongs to you
Along with my heart
Until the day may come
That it stops beating

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

THE WEDDING PHOTO.

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Terry Collett

THE WEDDING PHOTO.

Is this you in the wedding
Photograph? Yes. St Mark’s church.
1951. Late June.
Your hair looks nice, and the dress

Looks fine. Not mine. It was the
One my mother wore and her
Mother before her. A white
Handed down family gift

For marriages that end in
Doom. Your husband looks dapper
Hanging onto your arm like
Grim death. Don’t waste you breath on

Him he’s gone now. Was he no
Good? He thought he was the dog’s
Dinner but he was the pig’s
Backside and no mistake. Gone

You say? Dead? Long since and no
Regrets. Why keep the photo
If it was bad? To remind
Me of that fateful day and

His thin sickly smile. Why so?
Why keep it thus? To remind
Me of his premature death,
The grimfaced miserable cuss.

(Poem composed in 2008.)

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

To Rosa

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Abraham Lincoln

To Rosa

You are young, and I am older;
    You are hopeful, I am not—
Enjoy life, ere it grow colder—
    Pluck the roses ere they rot.

Teach your beau to heed the lay—
    That sunshine soon is lost in shade—
That now’s as good as any day—
    To take thee, Rosa, ere she fade.

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Shopping for the Apocalypse

Nov 2012 Oli Nejad

Leigh McGuire

Shopping for the Apocalypse

Bottles of water, gallons of gas, blankets,
dried beans, rice.  Use cash, don’t spend it all
in one place, two, or three.  Unload supplies
quietly into the basement, maybe at night.

Mail-order a hand-cranked radio, solar lamps,
seeds.  Buy Q-tips, kerosene, candles.  Books,
downloadable music,  seasons of X-Files on DVD.
What’s important?

Have friends bring you antibiotics from Tijuana.
Buy vitamins, batteries. Tuna, salt, barley.
Sweep the chimney. Get new shoes.
Get that cavity filled.

Stock up on bourbon and bullets.
Acquire trade goods –
cigarettes, wine, marijuana.
Watch the news, read the blogs,
find time for target practice.

Keep cash on hand.  Don’t forget
dog food.  Think about God.

Hurry.