The Poetry Marathon

Companion,
Bedmate, faithful friend
Ever mindful of his dinner.
Walkies need taking
and unmentionables scooped
While ever straining upon a leash.

Nature’s unbinding
festers decomposition–
fresh, bloat, ruin, decay–
Autolysis—enzymes
do gorge tissue cells away
–vile putrefaction.
Rotting flesh, vulture’s
meat, nature now decomposing:
metamorphous, change.

Sing a song of genuine gladness
Cast away all gloom and sadness
And with all your heart’s delight
Sing away your longest night.

Sing a song of grief and sorrow
Fretting upon uncertain morrow.
To make the darkness bright,
Sing away your longest night.

Sing a song of forgotten memory.
Recalling a childhood only dimly.
So things will after all be alright,
Sing away your longest night.

When death now draws so near,
Join in a chorus of faith to cheer
And now focusing on the Light,
Sing away your longest night.

Solitaire, it’s a game played in isolation.
Alone in one’s room or else on vacation.
Matching hearts, aces, diamonds, spades
Single file, up and down, the cards parade.
So what else do you do by-yourself alone
With no Twitter or Facebook to now intrude,
No one to call on an omnipotent i-phone?
Just now, those thoughts are only your own.
Recalling tripling troubles and rising doubts,
Neurosis and psychosis will sure find you out.
Unless you put an over active mind at ease,
After all, there’s truly no one else to please.

Hot red lust, anger,
the will to power excites
with most intensity.

But orange energizes,
a heat a bit less intense,
health and vitality.

While happy yellow
brings forth childhood memories
of sunlit meadows.

Lawns of green grass now
evoke those endless meadows
hikers frequent each spring.

A masculine blue
recalls a very trustworthy hue
varying shades of sea and sky.

Violet, unlike
Its flowery namesake, oozes
chic sophistication.

A soft-spoken brown
reminds souls of rugged toil
life sprung from the earth.

Black’s all-embracing void
a most painful grief observed
oft gravely despairs.

But virginal white
ever shouts chasteness and purity
of faithful innocence.

Faithless, we need to kneel, driven to the floor.
Giving thanks to those who daily knead bread,
Put roofs on houses, and make wayfarers’ beds,
Nurse the sick, teach kids, and mind the store.

We need to sing praises for the Earth’s bounty,
While mindful of an ever-sacred trust we share
Conserving the land in each town and county,
Earthly treasures that we need dare not impair.

We need to meditate upon what Nature proclaims
Like snowflakes each of us is different, yet the same,
For we inhale the same air, put food in our bellies,
And family togetherness and solitude we all claim.

We need to serve our less fortunate neighbors,
Protect the weak, the young, the old, the poor,
Ensure that workers can rest from their labors.
Comfort the dying, giving them hope to endure.

We need permission to laugh a lot when we’re happy,
Cry when we’re sad and occasionally act a little mad.
Love like we mean it, long-time acquaintances befriend.
Ever mindful that our time on Earth must one day end.

It’s more than just a little exaggeration
That my poetic verse fits every occasion.
But then, I’m older than Appalachia‘s hills,
A Shakespeare’s genetic clone in my skills,
Noblest of scholarly poets, so it’s a shame,
I’m just a Who’s Who removed from fame.
With thoughts that are deep as the ocean,
I’ve have declared my heart-felt devotion,
For when writing every metric discourse
I engage in a tad of hyperbole, of course.

More than organic
With liquids, gases, organisms,
and minerals does mix.

Mostly nitrogen,
Twenty percent oxygen,
A pinch CO2 and argon.

Oxygen, heat, and fuel
Does make a big chain reaction.
In air does it flare.

A little hydrogen
combines with some oxygen
To douse the flame above.

A girl certainly must kiss a lot of frogs
To land a wealthy Englishman, a prince
To innumerable soirees she must trapse
To find a trifle peculating recompense.
So come evening, did Ms. Markle stray
At SoHo House, ghosting celebs away.
Dining on avocado toast and tomatoes.
Searching  a source of bespoke clothes.
So she could buy that Burberry raincoat,
Jimmy Choo shoes, and Givenchy gowns
And, of course, would she choose to gloat
Looking for fun with a girl in London town.
Found  he who could float a yacht girl’s boat.
Though twice wed, was past the sell-by date.
As jars thrown away from the pantry shelf,
For conceiving children would be too late.
Now, it’s a mystery why this fatal attraction.
Is driving daily tabloid readers to distraction.
When she ‘s likely to receive Henry’s elbow
But then  she’s yet to receive HMS’s memo.

The summer solstice
My strength does sap, steal, and slay.
So slain, I sojourn.

Aschewing scholarship
Stenuous schedules forsaken
Still slumbering late.

Purposefully reading
Inane mystery novels by the score
With insipid plots.

Putting off studying
Online courses that so improve
Curriculum Vitaes.

Instead weeding beds
Then planting, English ivy and liriope
My garden to enhance.