20 poems an original compendium of poetry

8/14/2019 20 Poems an Original Compendium of Poetry

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20 Poems

An Original Compendium of PoetryBy Curt Smothers

All rights reserved

All Material contained in this collection is copyright 2010

Permission to use all or part of this collection is given so long as the author is

given credit.

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Table of Contents

1. The Bird From New Delhi ............................................................................................................... 3

2. The American Revolution ............................................................................................................... 5

3. Aging ....................................................................................................................................................... 6

4. Footprints .............................................................................................................................................. 7

5. Last Will ................................................................................................................................................. 8

6. Losing Love ........................................................................................................................................... 9

7. Those We Love Dont Listen........................................................................................................ 10

8. Nights Small Deaths ...................................................................................................................... 11

9. Insane Fire ......................................................................................................................................... 12

10. Walking in Fog ............................................................................................................................... 13

11. Writers Block................................................................................................................................ 14

12. Spring in the Rockies ................................................................................................................... 15

13. Soldiers ............................................................................................................................................. 16

14. Civil War Soldiers ......................................................................................................................... 17

15. Forgiveness ..................................................................................................................................... 18

16. Tunnel Vision ................................................................................................................................. 19

17. Life is .............................................................................................................................................. 20

18. Love Expressed .............................................................................................................................. 21

19. Christmas Shopping ..................................................................................................................... 22

20. When Autumn Leaves ................................................................................................................. 23


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1. The Bird From New Delhi

The parrot was perched in New DelhiOn a sizzling hot summer's day.He said, "Sahib, will you please buy me?"

I was stunned, didn't know what to say.

Said the parrot, "I speak more than one language."Spanish and a bunch of fran-say."Italian, Hindi, Afghani"And a touch of Swahili, they say."

"Why, certainly!" said I, offering rupees(The sale made the shopkeeper's day.)The parrot he preened and he strutted

And accents he mimicked this way:

"Do youse like my accent from Brooklyn"or mah drawl from down neah Savannah?Y yo puedo hablar en la lenguaDe Cuba y La Vieja Habana! *

"But one thing I'll tell you," he confided"Please don't expect me to sing"I never took one singing lesson"I can't carry a tune, that's the thing."

Then he started to sing some PuciniClearly the worst I have heard"Stop, please, and I promise I'll buy you!"But don't sing another harsh word."

Undaunted I went to the FedExAnd boxed up the parrot to send it"You're going to Montana!" I told him."So say nothing 'til your journey is ended."

"My old mother will certainly love you

"You'll fill up her sad, empty time"So be quiet, don't chatter or flutter"Pretend you're a mute and a mime."


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The next week I sent Mom a short e-mail."Say, Mom, did you enjoy the strange bird?""Why, yes, it was simply delicious!"Came back her answer (absurd!).

"Say what?" I wrote back most insulted"You ate that one-of-a-kind bird?"Did you know that it spoke more than one language?"A more shocking thing I never heard!

"Calm down," wrote my mother, "Don't sweat it."The bird arrived practically dead."You shouldn't have shipped it by FedEx"And besides, there was nothing he said

"...to let me know he was so clever

"He never said one single thing!""But it seemed to like mimicking accents"But I cooked it when I heard it sing."

______________________________ _________* And I can speak in the languageOf Cuba and old Havana


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2. The American Revolution

We were those winter soldiers

Who stood in Britain's way"Disperse, ye rebels!" cried the King"You're in the empire's way!"

We stood our ground at LexingtonWho fired that fateful shot?But the lobsterbacks retreatedA battle not forgot!

Defeated at Long IslandWe fought another day

We surprised the Hessian soldiersOn that Trenton Christmas day

We froze in camps at Valley ForgeTwo thousand of us diedBut winter thawed, von Steuben cameHe drilled us 'till we cried.

And then the Brits outflanked usTook Phil-a-del-faye-ayBut we chased them back to old New York

And that is where they'd stay.

Up in SaratogaWe thrashed the British stillThey surrendered all their armyAt the foot of Bemis Hill

And when the Frenchies finally cameWe marched south to old YorktownAnd bottled up CornwallisAnd he threw his weapons down

We Continental soldiersThrew out the British CrownWe gave the gift of libertyAnd rest on freedom's ground


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3. Aging

My stallion days

Are but a hazeReflections of the flesh

Where women knewMy prowess grewRejuvenated, fresh

Alas, with ageBereft, but sageI cannot but remember

Those ladies thinkWith age I shrinkAnd June becomes December

My one-eyed pacedIs now replacedWith longing memories

Of days gone byWhen pleasures, ISometimes returned to rue

My sea-borne daysAnd racy waysAnd women I did sport

Are memories nowMy ship did prowTo life's once-beckoned port

My lusty stallionAnd sea-borne galleon

Now tethered to the dock

Time's rule obeyedI'm now stayedBy the crowing of the clock


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4. Footprints

Tyrannosaurus, mastodon,

You left the stuff that we move on.Fossil fuels of giant truckOur good commerce, your bad luck.

Rubber trees in jungles growYou give your sap so we can goO'er asphalt roads that stretch our sightWith Vulcan's work to commerce bright.

The diesel fumes are memories.The blown tire shards are rubber trees.

The smells and sights of modern timesAre dinosaurs in jungle climes.

18-wheelers come and go.You roll our goods so we can knowThat tyrannosaurus, mastodonLived not in vain but now live on.


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5. Last Will

When I come to die

Don't bury meBut throw my ashTo the ocean sea

Where the wind blows wavesAnd the sea birds screech.And both greetings fallOn some far off beach

Where my daughter sailsAs the white surf churns

From the Gulf Stream flowTo where the monsoon turns

As the ships burn byTo where she wants to beAnd their dark ash throwsTo the ocean sea

Where my daughter looksThat's where I'll beWaving up to her

From the ocean sea.


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6. Losing Love

Losing love

Comes on the backOf time-wrought changeLife's windward tack

To sail the pathOf comforts knownAnd run and hideFrom changes blown

Into our livesThe struggle sneaks

When growth or ageSprouts restless piques

But strong love's strengthIs that we knowTime-wrought changeCan come and sow

And grow lost loveIn stormy climesOur compass

In changing times


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7. Those We Love Dont Listen

Last night I dreamt

I had wing-ed shoesAnd could step into the air

And hover nearBut unobservedTo loved ones in my care

I also hadA hold on timeAnd I could now traverse

So when I sawTheir foolish actsI could put them in reverse

Then I awokeAgain a slaveTo earth and time's dominion

And those I loveStill look up to meAnd value my opinion

Their foolish actsI seek to to stopOccur despite my warning

For every dayOur life beginsWith God's great gift, this morning


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8. Nights Small Deaths

If days are shallow

Then nights are deepWhere we practice deathEach night we sleep

With fits of dreamsWe see a lifeWhere reason fleesReplaced by strife

We toss and turnAnd feel our core

Our world we startTo one day more

To greet the dawnWith sudden feelNight's practiced deathIs somehow real

With day's new sparkAnd caffeine's breathWe jolt our day

Until night's new death


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9. Insane Fire

From ember's sleep I rise and lick

That which is dry and prone to meI smoke and rise to kindling's stickAnd turn to char, to blacken free

That which I consume and change its formAll in my path my own life's fuelI burn and roar with windy stormLascivious bent, unfeeling cruel

To those would stay my windward soundI roar, defy, devour, renounce

For once alive I'm free, unboundI jump, I spark, their efforts trounce

...'Till lack of fuel or water's spoutKills me black and find me deadIn ember's sleep I peer withoutTo rise again and sweep ahead


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10. Walking in Fog

Walking in fog

We grope through our daysNot seeing the signsTo feel through the haze

The fog is unnervingWe lose our own bearingsThat frosty gray coverThose signs red herrings

The point of our journeyIs not to walk straight

Not every road's forkLeads to a gate

Walking in fogWe grope for each otherInside our lost tethersWe're sister and brother

The point of our journeyIs not that we fallBut that for each stumble

The signs we recall

For when the fog liftsFor others behindThose signs that we leaveWill to others remind

That we can't see the futureThe past is not pleasantThe best we can doIs grope through the present


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14. Civil War Soldiers

We are the ghosts of ShilohTwenty thousand of us dead

Some were killedIn the hornets nestSome in the surgeon's bed

Now we fly as eaglesOver lines of blue and grayWe hear the shouts"They're comin' boys!"As dead spirits float our way

The Minnie balls and grape shot

Rake those human ranks so cleanThey fall like wheatBefore the scytheRed fields no longer green

And thousands died at VicksburgAntietam, GettysburgWe fell in drovesAt Marrye's HillMowed down at Fredricksburg

Our bodies lie in unmarked gravesOur families know not whereThey wouldn't know us anywayFor the dirt and worms we share

We are the ghosts of Malvern HillThe war's last battle foughtIf we could have lasted one more weekWe'd share that peace they bought

Looking back to '61

When we gave that warlike shoutThe Rebel Yell and Yankee cryLike our youth is now bled out

Why did we fight our countrymen?We dead can tell you whyBut you know we ain't a tellingTo know you've got to die


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15. Forgiveness

I know about forgiveness

For I have wronged as wellIt's the nature of withholdingThat gives wrongs leave to dwell

As I have asked forgivenessI learned to grant it, tooFor in ways that we touch othersLove's openings are few

We tend to bank forgivenessLike some priceless, hoarded treasure

It's the stuff resentment feeds onSelf-pity's harmful pleasure

I have sought forgivenessOf sins beyond redemptionAnd those who loved me granted itWith love, without exemption

As I withheld forgivenessFor wrongs against me givenI have wallowed in the hatred

Tormented, soul unshriven

When I learned to grant forgivenessI began to see designTo wrong is wholly humanBut forgiveness is divine


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17. Life is

Life is the dust

That came from the sparkThat came from God's sneezeWhen light became dark

The dark roiling soupWith churning flagellaTickled first lifeThough blind a Capella

From single-celled swimmersTo tadpoles in motion

Light's draw to amphibiansWho walked from the ocean

From the first fish who walkedTo the first leaf was eatenTo that link we find missing'Twixt us and God's Eden

Is life in God's Nature?Is Nature in God?Is life just primordial

Like a small clump of sod?

Or is it a gift?To use as we might?If so, whose gift is it?Is it darkness or light?

And when light becomes darknessWhen we relinquish the prizeWill we just sleep forever?Or see through God's Eyes?


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18. Love Expressed

Love expressed

Is love possessedBut never tossed awayBecause to liveIt has to giveTo be alive and stay

Love expressedIs put to testBy every action provedIt must be seenIn its lustrous sheen

Of the very person loved

Love possessedIs love expressedThat grows in its returnAnd in that givingIt still is livingAnd radiates its burn

Love's main testIs love expressed

And given back as pureIt glows and heatsIn measured beatsThe mended heart's own cure


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19. Christmas Shopping

Shoppers we, from both near and far

Seeking gifts from Famous and BarrWallets fleeting, credit cards bleedingFollowing greed's north star

Christmas comes like the snow every yearMerchants quake and talking heads fearThat impending recession will take possessionAnd the red ink will sear

Oh wondrous shoppers, consumers benignWould that your buying could somehow align

Exceed inflation to give our nationThose positive numbers assign

The gifting started in CE minus oneWhen kings and shepherds sought God's only SonThe star that led them nurtured and fed themShining, a sentinel alone

Alas, but those kings from Orient farLeft Pandora's gift box ajarSpoiled children's pleading, income's exceeding

What shallow descendants we are!

Oh, I'd love to see the gift giving goneBinge buying and stress and worrying doneInstead of gift finding, we should be mindingLove's ember bequeathed by that Son


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20. When Autumn Leaves

When autumn leaves

And winter callsIt leaves its leavesIn frigid thralls

Before they freezeThose autumn leavesThey stack and layIn withered sheaves

The winter comesWrapped cold and dread

In crunchy brownAnd orange and red

Splenetic greensOf summer's spewMemories nowIn autumn's hue

From branch to groundThey face the rakeThey lay in piles

Like souls to take

The autumn pyresRelieves the freezeAs denuded branchAnd grieving trees

And rising smokeCatches breezeLike incense fineTo memories

Reminding allThat autumn leavesAnd winter comesTo strip the trees

20 poems an original compendium of poetry

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