The Poetry Marathon

Poem 22 “Technology and Nature”

“Technology and Nature” by Mandy Austin Cook

 

The tendency of Technology

is to tug of war with Nature.

 

so much waxes and wanes with both characters,

both are needed

both are valued.

 

Earth asks for balance

Technology to share fast growing knowledge

in an ever evolving faster fashion.

 

Earth groans with a not QUITE so gentle wisdom

Technology has her brilliance, her roughness,

but not her patience.

Ultimately they need each other.

Technology has to exist on Earth

so be as gentle with her as  you can

Her nature is to love you.

Extracurricular Activities

1.

Innocence and purity
But it all ends early
Dirt and chocolate
A childish explosion
Glue and marker stains
Aftermath of art class

2.

Pen ink and paper cuts
Growing pains
Algebra and P.E.
Intro to the internet
Ankle sprains and hairdos
8th grade hobbies

3.

Tennis and kisses
High school drama
Headaches and colleges
The adult life begins
Chemistry and biology
“Oh, a doctor huh?”

Fairy Tale Truth

1   My childhood, like a fairy tale,

Was perfect in its making.

A mother, father, children

All in a house of baking.

2   Daddy went to work each day,

Making money for the bills;

Mother cooked and tended kids,

Taking care of many ills.

3   Dinner on the table

Each day at five-o’clock;

Both kids into scouting:

Eagle Scout, my brother got.

4   Mom was homeroom mother

Baking cookies, fixing food

For all the classroom children

Whether kind-hearted, or rude.

5  If there were any problems,

None were talked about;

Such silence in those rooms–

But if walls could talk, look out!

 

23 – winters daughter

1. rain sprinkled earth, wet and creamy between my fingers, the metal trolley that held my plaster dressed body, heavy on my small arms, muscles growing,
2. scars caved into the weakness, always slow, always alone, mind wanders into places a good set of legs would never go, fingers imagine stories,
3. dont wriggle, sit still, cross your legs, it doesn’t hurt, always distracted, always pain, thoughts jumble, tears hot, anger grows
4. always walking, slow but steady, mile upon mile, to the secret places, up trees laughing with kookaburras, mooing with cows, flying with swans,
5. words trip and tumble on the page, little tales, belonging to pictures, the silk bird, pirates and seamaids, dreams of escape loneliness.

2019 – Twenty-Three – “Good Morning” for My Dulcinea

You are often in my dreams
and I assume that I need them
in order to feel you.
But I have been up all night,
writing around the world,
with very few words for you,
very few thoughts of you,
and as the sun creeps across
this unfamiliar room,
as it does at home,
I feel you as if I was
waking. Yet, I have not slept.
I do not sleep to have you.
You are not here just in darkness.
You still come to me
wherever I am,
and in your morning guise,
Now that I must sleep,
will you come to me there too?
Perhaps you are more real than
I’ve supposed.

Bouquets

Bouquets are beautiful
A symbol of co-existence
Of what unity looks like
Every kind of flower
Bundled in harmony
Filled with wishes
Reminding you
That we are meant to exist the same way
Together….

Hour 23, Wild Child

I was a wild child,
twigs in my hair
and the wind under my feet.

I could not be contained
within four walls,
aching to run and be free.

Animals, birds, and bugs
were my companions
and my friends.

People could not be trusted,
but trees never hurt me,
sheltered within their branches.

I disappeared for entire days,
curled like a deer in a hollow,
silent and dappled in shade.

It took some years to tame me,
an elemental contained
by words, the alchemical spell of books.

 

Stages of my life

(Includes an excerpt from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot – in italics)

I was once a young child

Desperate to find things good and mild

And never did I question their bad taste.

Years ago I was a teen

Desperate to be our high school’s prom queen

And always did I wonder was I liked.

Later on I was a mom

Desperate to be with children at my home

Whom I love with all my heart.

I grow old… I grow old…

I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled

Power is all mine as these days part.

Trailing through ages!

1.Crawling on the knees,
I looked up,
Sun,stars,flowers,
everything I saw,excited me.

2.Grown up,
holding my Dad’s palm,
I walked onto my school.
New lessons,
alphabets,numbers came in.

3.In the thrilling teens,
I started to sing,madly,
I loved music,
Loved it to my life,
but maths,science,english
made the villainous entry.

4.I am a fish,
taught to climb trees!

Tragic Childhood Psalm: Hour 23

1: my only memory of them together

mom and dad

i was sick and pretending

 

5: I remember her screaming. oh the lament for her abusive father

forbidden touches. Did they start here?

 

7: they were fighting, me struggling

dad disbelieving – family ties burn

Crystals welcomed, angels watching over me

 

9: fire so fascinating

 

13:runic cards passed to me

 

23: answers from within

 

42:Increased psychic abilities

 

Amanda Potter©: 2019 Poetry Marathon