#bridge poems on Hello Poetry

carbonrain Dec 2018

hello there,
midnight in a stalemate hug,
you there,
flirting with the mistress of yesterday's wind,
the enraptured soul,
the solemn crowd on a bridge of flowers,
waiting for an enemy that doesn't show up,
fear is near,
dear one,
and you can taste it warm and sweet,
and what if each scar were a reminder of your good intentions,
ones you can roll between your fingers like a mala prayer bead,
and not let all they say be all you hear,
though there are sunrises you may never see in this life,
you are the mountains of clouds billowing the infinite of the all,
and you always remember to have one foot on the bedrock of the earth,
and the other on the tail of a tiger.

#tiger #buddhism #mountain #clouds #moon #insight #flowers #bridge #midnight #pain

Loser Dec 2018

Our bridge

Using the wood from the oak tree we met under, we built our bridge.

Bolting pieces together with trust, carefully, and strengthening over time

Creating a once non existent path leading from one spirit to another

Constructed far above a winding river of disloyalty and acrimony

I would meet you in the middle, its weakest point,

and still the bond we built between us would support our insecurities

I was safe with you on our bridge of companionship

I was fearless with you on our bridge of loyalty

We were indestructible on our bridge of unity

So why did I burn it down

#friendship #loyalty #love #trust #bridge

Noah Clark Dec 2018

Life is like a bridge

It seems as though,
every day, something else
decides to give way.

Like an old wooden
bridge, crippling over
top of a dark pit.
Life can break,
letting you fall into
that deep abyss.

The one wood
plank, meant to hold
you high, gives up
and lets you die.

Life is the bridge,
you are the plank.
I have fallen,
and have you to thank...

Those holding you up, are often the ones that let you fall

#happy #sad #sadness #fall #friendship #love #hate #life #dark #bridge

Jim Davis Nov 2018

Hello Jumbo

He came as an orphan
June 26th, 1865
Having seen
the death of his mother
Chased and speared by a hunter

First African elephant
in Europe
At the London Zoo
All alone
in all of Europe

How he broke and wore his tusks
In the iron of his enclosure
In night pain from toothaches
From many rotten teeth
Caused by his only grass hay diet

Given whiskey and beer to calm
Shared with his keeper
Matthew Scott, a difficult man
With no close friends
But with a deep empathy for animals

Who drank whiskey
with Jumbo
Into the late, lonely night
Jumbo liked whiskey, beer
and lots of sticky buns

A problematic elephant
With a Jekyll and Hyde character
Sold for 2,000 pounds
To PT Barnum
as a star attraction

Jumbo tearing his chains away
Then sitting like a mule
Until he knew his keeper
Would also ride the boat
Across the big pond

Barnum’s Scott
Made a deal
Queen Victoria wasn’t happy
Her children had sat
And rode upon his back

Jumbomania in America
Accompanied his arrival
20 million saw him alive
Brooklyn bridge opened in 1882
A year before Jumbo arrived

Then 17 May, 1884
Twenty elephants
marched across
All the way to Brooklyn
led by Jumbo

The bridge vibrated and rebounded

In St Thomas, Ontario, Canada
was his suffering demise
The day the circus train came to town
Tom Thumb and Jumbo
Were waiting to get loaded

Perhaps bumped in the ****
By the speeding freight locomotive
Internal bleeding
and a slow death
Tom Thumb only a broken leg

Jumbo in a slow death
Scott in a slow death afterwards
Having witnessed
the last breath
Of his best friend

Photographed (a recent novelty)
just after his death in B&W
Poor dead Jumbo
Scott at his head
Weeping inconsolably

Although PT Barnum
In pure PT Barnum invention
Says Jumbo ran headfirst
Into the freight locomotive
To save his keeper and Tom Thumb

Jumbo died
at twenty-four
still young
and growing
in size and girth

His stuffed mounted skin
burned at Tufts University
except the unbroken bones
plus the end of his tail
“And this is what remains of Jumbo”

Yesterday, I saw wild elephants on the banks of the Zambezi river
near Victoria Falls
Tomorrow I’m hoping to touch Jumbo’s bones in New York City
And walk the Brooklyn Bridge

© 2017 Jim Davis

Jumbo in Swahili means Hello

Written on an UAE Emirates flight from South Africa to New York. With all credit due for words and most phrasing to David Attenborough’s documentary.
“Attenborough and the Giant Elephant”

A few years ago, I heard Barnum and Bailey stopped having elephants as part of their shows!
I really wondered why!
Now I really know!

#jumbo #elephant #brooklyn #bridge #new #york

Beth Baum Nov 2018

Our Broken Bridge

A canyon between us
A thousand miles wide
I wish I could change this
To be by your side

A valley that’s so deep
And keeps us apart
I wish I could fill it
And rebuild our hearts

But the bridge was broken
And all the pieces were lost
I wish we could save it
But at what cost

Our words seem to fail
They’re taken by wind
Carried far away
Stripped away and thinned

You’re too far out of sight
Just a shadow to a cloud
I want to get to you
I want to make you proud

I throw rocks at you
It’s my way to talk
My message is hidden
Like the works of a clock

I hide what I mean
Because I am scared
That if you knew me
You’d think I’m impaired

But I’ll keep tossing my rocks
Hoping you’ll throw back
So we can fix this bridge
Crack by crack

Sometimes you have a really bad relationship with someone and you try really hard to fix it and you talk things out and it seems like the bridge between you it fix but there's always these cracks in it so that it can never go back to the way it was.

#broken #alone #failure #bridge #relationship