By: Tarringo Vaughan

This poem is a memory...



This poem is about/a place I use to call my home;
a place where this new silence I see was once the laughter
of hope and pride. A place where my young feet
use to run in the freedom winds of innocence
but now as I look down this narrow street
I do not recognize the sorrow/ there is emptiness
as the price of destruction has diminished once proud
eyes and now there is no sun that rises about this sky
just clouds that have dampened a tough cement
into a muddy paradox of nothingness.

I use to run up and down this paved road singing
the sweet tunes of whistled happiness
manipulating older ears into their own sweet remembrance
of how their time here use to be. The older folk
always renewed history in telling the stories of their younger years
and now my own proud tears
bring this street back alive.

These lampposts have lifted their rust and fresh lights
shine down upon the feet of bicycles ready to smile again
and faded graffiti walls have washed themselves
of decay and now reach out to embrace
trees that have lost their names; these same trees
have found their identities again and now sparkle
in the sunlight of those golden days before crime
kidnapped the aspirations of many dreams;
before poverty took over the stage of hope
and before time took away the history
of a neighborhood that once held hands
upon this street of unity.

This poem is a memory
This poem is about /a place that will never be again
that place I used to call my home but my feet
still cry for this street because my heart
has never abandoned the beauty that nurtured
my growth; the beauty once absorbed by the foundation
of these sidewalks now dismantled
by the migration of everything that made life here
possible…


Tarringo Vaughan © 2010
Tarringo T. Vaughan - The Mind of a Creative Writer


Daily Quote: weltschmerz \VELT-shmerts\, noun:
Sentimental pessimism; sorrow that one feels and accepts as one's necessary portion in life.
Example:
Cohen confused his mood with his chronic weltschmerz. He spoke at great length on the vicissitudes of a sensitive spirit, his dissatisfaction, the inadequacy of this sphere as far as he was concerned.
-- Daniel Fuchs, Summer in Williamsburg

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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2011

By: Robert Anderson
 

unfathomable
or so they say when i recite
each droplet of beauty i found deep
in your gilded soul

'til a smidgen of high finds my heart
while goose bumps
trace the depthlessness of my skin;
the very rock i knew and depended on
still remains only
you

and all my dreams lingered until...
oh, until you became
vacantly silent and refused
to tell me why; your blushing lips
closed tightly to the world

still i'll kiss you gently on your forehead
then whisper to you of our romance
so that it echoes throughout your
sweet breath of life, dear lover

it's crazy how easily someone so blameless,
so soothing, and fragile
could be lured into unhappy shadows

why didn't you tell me?
i couldn't have possibly
read your mind

but i watched as the blue devils
that haunted your thoughts
prodded through
then found the flaws which adorned
the nakedness of your secret self

i miss you and still
see us dancing in the rain,
my heart was more restless then
you became the voice that resonated in me...
do you remember?

but now as i sit here wondering if you hear me
i ponder whether or not
to expel my red essence
and if that could save me from this
hurt... the blade looks so, so friendly now

and while i quietly trace along the verge
of these mangled veins
my eyes let loose my teary spirit
and gift me with absolutely no previous comfort

'i love you...' is all i sense i can utter
as my fingers tangle violently
in my oily raven hair

and so, i do through the intensities of it all...
i love you and
that is all there is.

Robert Anderson


Daily Quote: A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.
- Chinese Proverb

Linguist Corner-ITALIAN: tremare: to tremble / verb
Example sentence: Le foglie della quercia tremano al vento.
Translation: The leaves of the oak tremble in the wind.

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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2011

In the quiet of the evening, he sat rocking, rocking slowly
And was warmed by the sun's gentle fingers.
He heard the chickens fighting, scratching greedily for grain
And felt the dog shift at his feet where always he had lain.

Soon he clasped his fiddle then began to play a tune
And sing sweet praises and devotion to his Maker.
"You held my hand, dear Father, and you led me to the light,
You showed me how to truly love, you taught me what was right."

Blind though his eyes had been from birth,
In his world, there was real beauty,
For his Brother had given His life for him
And had died that he might live.

In my friend there was a rare and deep peace
Things of this world could never destroy.
And those who passed by would think him losing his mind
For always he smiled and was happy inside.

"See that old man, that senile old fool,
His mind wanders on his past.
Children don't look, don't look at his eyes,
He is deformed and evil, how much longer can he last?"

And on hearing their voices and hearing their scorn,
He bent his old head to pray,
While tears from his sightless, staring eyes
Rolled slowly down his face.

"Oh Lord," he prayed, "please thelp them to see
The light you give me though my eyes do not see.
They won't admit to the sin that devours their lives,
In their 'wisdom' they are even more blind than me".

Thus when the sun was hid behind the purpling hills,
And the owl hooted from the old oak tree,
He looked up to the Lord and cried out for His mercy,
Till the Lord having pity, took him home to be free.

V. Mahfood
Coffee Table Poetry for Tea Drinkers



Daily Quote: "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
~Mark Twain

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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2011

By: Michael Reynolds



A life,
so vivid,
so clear,
so seemingly happy to those around me,
a mask,
a secret,
a lie,
hidden torment,
agony,
loneliness,
what others see is not truly what I am,
a monster,
a savage,
an abomination,
a life which no one understands,
a burden,
worthless,
a scapegoat,
the pain that keeps me alive,
the hurt that keeps me going,
this hell they call life.


Michael Reynolds


Daily Quote: Anger is often more hurtful than the injury that caused it.
- English Proverb


Linguist Corner-SPANISH: repasar, verb
to check; to revise
Example:
- Repase la factura antes de firmarla.
- Check the invoice before signing it.

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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2011

By: David Miao

I wake up every morning and I open my eyes
The sunlight penetrates through my camouflaging lies
For there is most definitely a hole within view
An empty void created by the loss of you

No matter what I do, no matter what I say
to deceive myself, to find a way
to heal the wounds, to ease the pain
to stop myself from going insane

I run, I write, I eat, I draw
To keep down this inner civil war
Between my heart and my brain
A form of torture which never wanes

What you meant to me I could never fully explain
The words ‘I love you’ just seem too plain
To describe this passion I feel deep inside
And now that you’re gone, a part of me has died

David Miao


Daily Quote: Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.
- George Eliot

Linguist Corner-ITALIAN: uscire: to go out /verb.
Example sentence: Esco a fare una passeggiata, vuoi venire con me?
Translation: I'm going out for a walk, do you want to come with me?

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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2011

By:  Robert Anderson

while this bares
in a tone of blue-gray it
lingers of nothing more than
silence

it's emotionless and
embraces me within the absence of my muse

a secluded whim of
dispassion slays my artistic
alchemy

oh
i mourn
between each despairing breath
and readily surrender my heart
for the price
of ullage

drowning, drowning...
i curse the heaven's for such an unfathomable
curiosity!

where are the days that have
never dreamed of quarreling with my soul--
when life bequeathed to me a beauty
of such imaginings?

how i cry out
to part with my seducing gift but,
through chicanery, my voice perfectly fails.

i am
utterly
dead.



Robert Anderson


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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010

By: G. K. Bostic

 Silence surrounds her,

Deafening silence.

No sound of a car, no garage door opening,

No little girl’s voice shattering silence,

With gleeful gab of school day fun,

No performance of Hannah Montana songs,

Simply stillness, deafening silence.

She sits, watching sand slide through the hour glass,

Hypnotized,

Mesmerized,

Lost in thoughts of global pain.



He was the Mars to her Venus,

She was a mother’s blessed fulfillment,

Gone.

Forever gone, taken by calamity,

Leaving her hypnotized,

paralyzed,

Immobilized

The only motion a single salty tear

Sliding into the silence.


G. K. Bostic - Jan. 2011


Daily Quote: "Imagine a hot tub for the mind. That is what meditation is; it can bathe your mind in relaxing thoughts."
-- Eknath Easwaran

Linguist Corner-SPANISH: embarazada/ adjective / pregnant

** Be careful not to use the word embarazada as a translation for embarrassed, or you probably will end up even more embarrassed than you were to begin with. If you want to say I’m embarrassed, you should use the phrase me da vergüenza, or me da pena in most of Latin America. Compare these examples.

- Estaba embarazada de cuatro meses.
She was four months pregnant.

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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010

By: Fergus Carty


Sand, sea and resentment. Resentment?
Or recognition?
Of a tide -
Now longer ebbing in its fleeing flow.

While in self exile here ashore,
Divine winds -
Play with the wild blue twins
Of surging sea and soaring sky.

The old Guinness surfer now,
Para-surfs -
Between these wrestling elements
To a backing track of Old Spice waves.

But here you are still sitting,
Brushing grains -
From your jeans and spitting grit and salt,
From silently cursing lips.

The receding surf mutters,
Over -
Half erased lines in the sand. A fancied childlike flourish?
Or just some childish scrawl?


Fergus Carty


Daily Quote: "When we are conscious of our personal uniqueness and our universal nature we express ourselves creatively. In this way we fulfill our dreams and our life purpose."
-- Andrew Schneider


Linguist Corner-SPANISH: mirada, noun / look
La mirada is the noun from mirar, and means a look.
- una mirada triste
a sad look

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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010

By: Robert Anderson
My belovéd

I am within a void if not with the inspiration of your soul, without the very essence that is you. I have only recently discovered what true weariness is; a weariness unlike any I have ever endured before. And long before there was you my pen gleamed, with no satisfaction might I add, for the day I would die insufferably. You have gone now, it seems. When the day ceases and I realize how solitude has claimed me, I mourn. With that I bare to you a confession: I often wish my thoughts would leave me...only I am haunted by them which in turn suppresses my heart and feeds on the shadow of my soul. Why belovéd, have we drifted? Enclosed with this letter is a poem I wrote in adoration of you and my heart shall ache to hear you recite it. Oh, if for that moment belovéd I weep or die, forgive me.

Yours faithfully,

Robert.

Daily Quote: It is not that love is blind. It is that love sees with a painter's eye, finding the essence that renders all else background.
~Robert Brault

Linguist Corner-FRENCH: plaire / to please
Example:
French: Ton cadeau me plaît énormément, merci.
English: Your gift pleases me hugely, thank you.

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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010

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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010

By: Courtney Griggs

“PAINLESS TO JUDGE”
Why Judge Before I Even Know???
I’ll just Chill and Go with the Flow.
It’s Not What I Imagine.
Why Let My Thoughts Control My Reaction.
Real in My Face...
Betraying ME in Every Other Place.
What I Don’t Know Can’t and Won’t Hurt.
Take Your Secrets and Be Sure to Burry Them Deep in Dirt.
Isolated and Left Alone.
Once Again My Insecurities have Grown.
It’s Hard for ME to Forgive.
I Even Now Let the Past Live.
I Wish It Would Die.
Forget It… I Often Try.
All the Effort has Left ME Strained.
And often Wondering What have I Gained???.
Constantly it Burdens ME…
You are Hard to Trust Perpetually.
All the Deceit is Motivation.
For ME to Redirect My Passion and Emotion.
Step Back …Examine…and Reflect…
Maybe Even Cure Some of These Issues I Detect.
What More can I Say???
It’s Easy to Hate…. but Hard to Love…
Painless to Judge but Complex to Comprehend…
Sometimes it’s Hard for You to See Yourself…
But I See Just Who You Are….
An Individual with an Identity Unknown to You or ME…
When You Look in the Mirror…..Honestly Who and What Do You See???


Courtney Griggs


Daily Quote: The greatest crimes are caused by surfeit, not by want. ~Aristotle, Politics

Linguist Corner-SPANISH: contar, verb / to tell; to count

-Cuéntame lo que pasó.
Tell me what happened.

-¿Quieres que te cuente cómo fue?
Shall I tell you what it was like?

-Sabe contar hasta diez.
He can count to ten.

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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010

By: Pierce Hacking

Angel of music, lift her spirits high.

Mastermind in the darkness of despair,

Use your genius to lift her to the sky.

Pitiful creature never taught to care.

Behind the mask you hide your troubled past,

Your shattered, pitiful, and fractured life.

You never truly thought your love could last.

The one you loved would never be your wife.

In your opera house that you ruled for years.

You’re left alone in your personal hell.

You’re left alone to cry your bloody tears.

A quick and quiet death would do you well.

The papers proclaim the death of Erik,

Could the Phantom die or was this a trick.

Pierce Hacking
Catharsis of Pierce


Daily Quote: Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.
- William Faulkner

Linguist Corner-ITALIAN: cominciare: to start verb.
Example sentence:
Il documentario comincia con una scena di un paesaggio di montagna.
Translation: The documentary starts with a scene of a mountain landscape.

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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010