Posts Tagged 'free verse'

If World Leaders Had Ears

If world leaders had ears

they could hear people crying

not for want of treasure

but for their hunger

for need of care

for desire of equality

and for the children

 

 


If world leaders had eyes

they could see their people hurting

not for opulent mansions

but for freedom from oppression

for freedom from brutality

for freedom from humiliation

for freedom from ignorance

for freedom to find a better life

for their children

 

 


If world leaders had arms

they could reach out to their people

not for purpose of boast or brag

but for want of bringing comfort

for want of aiding the aged

for want of embracing the sick

for want of lifting the fallen

especially the children

 

 


If world leaders had hearts

they could feel their people’s need

not turn their backs and glance away

but be filled with compassion and grace

be filled with knowledge of what is right

be filled with love for people, not wealth

and have the wisdom of children.

 

 


Hal C Clark – June 5, 2011 rev

 

Our world is still filled with violence, terrorism, hatred, and other maladies. I wish it wasn’t so, but this is where we are. In spite of what we have, I still like to imagine a better world and solutions to our problems. Saying they don’t exist doesn’t solve anything. For me, a major problem is in what there is too little of.

We are here, on this earth

In this life,

for one purpose:

to love and be loved.

Any activity which does not

promote this purpose

is wrong.

We all differ in our opinions, and that is as it should be. I see no constructive purpose in attacking the person who doesn’t agree with our opinion. Discuss the differences, yes. Try to work out a solution, yes. Attack the person as if he is the enemy, no

 

We have enough enemies in our lives, among our nations, without recruiting new ones. In my dream world, I imagine living life with peace in my soul. There are others in the world who believe as  I do. It is time to stand for our beliefs and speak out.

Prison

Prison

How sad to see

so much humanity

filled with green bile,

masked in seething sneers,

wrapped in the cloak

of hatred, and

shod with greed and avarice,

delivering pain and humiliation

in the name of righteousness.

Where does love

grow its gentle tendrils

among such stony soils?

Where can they find

a valley within

for the vivid flow of compassion?

How can they force themselves

to live in this prison;

their own creation

of wretched hell?

Hal C Clark – May 21, 2011

Poetry

Fashion

Sagging pants, bagging pants,

Pants around the knees,

I don’t like the sight of them,

So hike ’em up there please,

And please…oh please…

Don’t sneeze.

Poetry

I used to know what poetry was, like Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven,” right? Everything had a certain rhythm and it all rhymed and sounded almost like song. Now we have free verse, pattern verse, terse verse, and a lot of other forms I don’t easily recognize as poetry. Sometimes I think I’m writing poetry, but how do you know?

It seems to me there should be some sort of guidelines to let you say, yes, this is poetry. Of course if there are no official guidelines, you can write almost anything and if it has some type of rhythm or musical quality to it, it is considered poetry.

The above verse, which flooded into my brain as I was awakening, has a certain Shel Silverstein sound to it which I like. I enjoyed all his poetry and was sad to see him go. I guess one of my favorite books by him was “The Giving Tree” which, I guess wasn’t really poetry at all. But look through “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” and you get a lot of enrichment from it even though much of it is rather nonsensical.

Anyway, If anyone knows how to tell if writing is poetry, I would appreciate your input.

P.S. Now this is really weird: I have just discovered a workshop on beginning poetry at our library tonight. I will be there. It’s almost like providence.


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