Category: Poetry

Categories
Poetry

Stuart Clark – 2 poems

INITIAL WAKE

Initially, it was all a bit of fun
Having a bit of a yarn
But in the wake of what has recently been said
I’ll try for a seminal piece
Just get it straight in my head
A seminal piece would set me up right
Comfortable possibilities for life
But what if my scribing is considered tripe
Would I dig in and put up a scrap?
A reservoir of ability, full and ripe
Or would I sit back and accept
Mediocrity my constant
But then aren’t many of us alike
Consumed with the fear of failure
Frightened to climb on the bike
Initially, I was dreaming of success
Wallowing in fiscal comfort
But in the wake of what I’ve recently considered
I’ll relax and chill out
My seminal piece left undelivered.

🍃

ENCOUNTERED INTERCEPTED

They come in droves
Searching for a brave new world
Searching for a better life
Maybe they’re right
The majority are good, some are bad
That’s the way it goes
I encountered the good
The media informed us of the bad
They told us we had to stop them coming
Freedom of movement intercepted
It doesn’t seem right to me
I’ve travelled to see the green grass
Why can’t they?
We’re on this planet together
People pursuing freedom, comfort and a happy life
We could take Madiba’s lead and forgive
Retribution and reprisals only create more strife
Take care of your neighbour
And they’ll take care of you
Whatever culture
Whatever creed
Don’t listen to the hateful propaganda
Don’t succumb to the greed
Revolution doesn’t have to be bloody
It just has to start with you.

🍃

Stuart Clark is part of a poetry group in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire; the group meets fortnightly at their local pub where they read poems written in the previous two weeks.  The poems are based on two randomly selected words taken from the number of books in the pub and the words can be anything, though sometimes the group forget and have an open night.  The group started four years ago though Stuart Clark has been writing poetry much longer for fun.

Categories
Poetry

Shari Jo LeKane-Yentumi – A sonnet

MY PARADISE

What wintry mix and stormy cloud
predominate the northern sky?
The maritime has called out loud.
I’ll pack my bag and plan to fly

to southern climes along the beach,
each breath in time a grain of sand,
each wave an instrument to teach.
With open arms I raise my hands

and swear allegiance to the sea,
trade skin for scales, remaining calm;
the transformation sets me free,
my feet become a tail of palm.

Submerged in water would be nice,
a mermaid in my paradise.

🍃

Shari Jo LeKane-Yentumi lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where she writes
poetry, prose and articles, and specializes in literary criticism and
non-profit matters. She has a B.A. in English, Spanish, and an M.A. in
Spanish from Saint Louis University in Madrid and St. Louis. Since
brain surgery, she teaches creative writing in a maximum security jail
and to people with special needs. Her novel, Poem to Follow, is
written in verse, and her book of poetry, Fall Tenderly, is currently
at press. Shari is featured in several poetry anthologies, including
the Missouri VSA 2013 Anthology, Turning the Clocks Forward Again;
Poetica Victorian; Think Pink; The Society of Classical Poets;
Snapping Twig; The Lonely Crowd; Form Quarterly; The Iconoclast;
Devolution Z; The Quarterday Review; MacrMicroCosm Literary Art
Journal: Solstice; Red Dashboard Disorder Anthology: Mental Illness
and Its Effects; The Muse India/Createspace Anthologies Of Present Day
Best Poems; Bordertown Press Poetry of People on the Move; and
Literature Today International Journals of Contemporary Literature
Vols. I & II. Shari’s poetry has appeared in several literary
magazines in the U.S., Canada, England, India, Ireland, Spain and
Wales.

Categories
Poetry

Olivier Cousin – 6 poems

A MOST WANTED MAN

He could have been a poet
or he could have been a fool
Being one
in a way
he would have been both

He wouldn’t like to become a poet
for all the tea in China
he’d rather play the fool
to gather sympathy
and gain recognition

Even though he’s light-minded
and dumb he knows for sure
a most wanted poet doesn’t exist

🍃

SHARING

To Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch

If you want to understand
what I live and undergo
if you wish to share my inner feelings
and a part from my burden
it is useless to shake my body
pointless to shepherd my mind around
Don’t crush my feet
don’t walk on my toes
just feel welcome
from time to time
to walk in my shoes

🍃

UNVEILING THE SECRET

What a useful life is
I shan’t ever dare to utter

What a successful life looks like
I won’t be able to tell
except maybe to clumsy ears

What a satisfying life seems to be
I will only say to the night
to the wind sweeping across remote pathways
to the waves under the lashing rain
Only in the hope of learning
something from echoing secrets

🍃

MAPS AND MATS

Man needs maps
real maps
accurate and easy to fold

Man wishes emotional maps
easy to read
without gaps nor blanks

Man knows
the slightest confusion between
real maps and emotional maps
shall make him be
wiped off the mat

🍃

SHAPELESS WEEKS

Fed up with
never-ending
shapeless weeks
I’m looking for pieces
of a new liveable life
among in-between days

🍃

WONDERING ILLNESSES

Every illness you suffer
makes you feel as if hopscotching
between two frontiers
or in a no man’s land where you stride
across your own life
full of fear
Between a grey checkpoint
and a bright garden
soon crucial questions arise
Have I loved enough?
Have I told enough
how much I have loved?

🍃

Olivier Cousin was born in 1972 in Brittany (Western part of France) where he teaches French. Among his poetry books, the most recent are: La Hache de sable et autres poèmes (La Part Commune, 2015), Fragments du journal d’Orphée (Kutkha éditions, 2014). He has also published novels, short stories and children books. He has also translated into French two books of poetry by the English poet Roy Eales who now lives in Brittany. And sometimes he writes strange poems directly in English…
See : http://oliviercousin.blogspot.fr