Poetry Slam @ MindSay

This is my response to The Poetry Slam on Facebook (Round #5). The subject was INDECISION!! We shall NOT use the word indecision, however, at any time within the walls of the poem. Nor the word decide, nor its derivatives...

Lost

“What am I to do? What am I to do?”
And that's all I ever do
I just sit here wondering, “What am I to do?”

There was a time when I had all the answers,
And I knew where this voyage would take me,
But so much has changed since those days -
I live a very different reality...

There was a time so very very long ago
When I could navigate by a star,
And set a course to any destination
No matter how near or how far...

My compass is broken, my map is lost,
The landmarks I've never seen before,
And I can't get my bearings from the stars -
The only sound that's heard is the ocean and its roar

The waves push me where the may.
Will I end up broken upon the rocks?
Or in the port of some exotic land
With people greeting me from the docks?

I've no way of knowing or choice in the matter,
I have surrendered my life to the Fates.
Is no choice the correct choice?
That is still a matter up for debate...

©2009

This is my response to The Poetry Slam on Facebook (Round #4). The subject was "a new beginning"...

My Legacy to the Future...

This generation shall bury the past
As the next shall bury it.
This world was never meant to last
As we cast ashes unto ashes...

Generation upon generation piled high -
The sedimentary rock
Reaching towards the sky
Upon which we build the future...

Winds and rain eroding it still,
Covering the earth below -
Fragments, if you will,
Of the lives we'll never know...

The soil is good, the climate is right
For a seed to be planted
Deep enough to be out of sight,
And from it a flower will grow...

A new beginning, a fresh start -
Amongst the scattered ashes,
Full of energy and heart
As it reaches for the heavens...

And so it is upon this day,
The birth of a new poem,
And enjoy it, if you may
Before the winds blow it away...

©2009

This is my response to The Poetry Slam on Facebook (Round #3). The subject was "three"...

And then there were none...

And then there were three
That slowly made their way from this reality,
Pulled from the planet by forces unseen
That was so much stronger than gravity...

Alone they have become,
Their whole equaling far less than their sum.
They once were known by one and all
Now they are only recognizable to some...

They were Hopes, Desires and Dreams -
They formed the mightiest of teams.
They are shattered and broken upon the ground,
And no one listens to their dying screams...

And so it is as they fade away,
We continue on towards another day
In a world were the joy has finally gone,
And these words are all I have to say...

©2009

This is my response to The Poetry Slam on Facebook (Round #2). The subject was "hoard"...

A Fairytale for the Twenty-first Century

On the downward slide into the abyss
As the stock market tumbles and falls,
There are a few things that I will miss
As I wander through these empty halls.
The people who once worked here,
I knew each and every one by name,
And for all of them I've shed a tear
For their world will never be the same.
And all the machinery of industry
Sits and awaits its tragic fate -
The paint is flaking, gears are rusty -
All to the scrapyard at some later date.
The sounds of work that happy sound
Replace by a silence so still so wrong
That desecrates this hallowed ground
Where angels will not sing their song...

And CEOs and corporate boards
In lofty castles, they live as kings,
And guard their precious hoards
Filled with bright and shiny things
From the huddled masses they control.
Everything belongs to those who shall be king -
All the money, all the land, your very soul -
As you bow to them and kiss their ring...

And so it is in this day and age
As we wait for our hero arrive
That brave knight or mighty mage
As we struggle just to stay alive...

©2009

This is my response to The Walter Cronkite Memorial Poetry Slam on Facebook. The subject was "invisibility"...

The Cloak of Invisibility

The world – it knows me not
For fame and fortune I've never sought -
This is my reality
All part of my Cloak of Invisibility...

I tell the world what must be told
Though my soul has not been sold
So few will know what I must say
As every word does fade away...

The thoughts I have I will not hide,
and keep them bottled up inside.
I share with all who wish to hear,
Who wish to scream or shed a tear...

My cloak is old and as black as night,
And it hides me well far from sight,
And few will know what lays within -
Where I'll go or where I've been...

And as this page like a mask
In my glory I shall bask,
And no one knows what's coming next -
Only clues found within this text...

“This is the end,” I have to say
Of my writing for this day,
And I will leave you in a puff of smoke
As I return safely to my cloak...

©2009