By: Shekhar Srinivasan
Burned in the night by the fire dragons,
Living in a dream of dreadful scorpions,
Thrown into a land of giant roaches in billions,
Driving the bike along the highway,
Run over by the truck going astray,
Gazing out of the window of a running train,
Smashed by the pole into severe pain,
Wandering the wooded jungles of Jurassic Park,
Finding myself within inches of the T-rex in dark,
Sinking with the ship into the waters of the Lost Ark,
Surprised by the grisly sight of a sharp teethed shark,
Fearing the loss of memory due to amnesia,
Staying outdoors in panic and claustrophobia,
Driven to nuts by spiders and arachnophobia,
Living in a shell due to anthropophobia,
Fearing the ghastly sounds of the night,
Seeking a calm place of humble respite,
Overwhelmed by the restless crowd of the day,
In search of a supporting friend along the way,
God, please help resolve this chaotic confusion,
Please free my mind of this horrifying delusion,
Convincing me it’s no reality but an optical illusion,
Shunning away a life of such dreadful seclusion
Shekhar Srinivasan
Unleashing The Power of Thought
Daily Quote: Living the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles, causing you to bump into people not going your way.
~Edna Ferber
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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2011
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: Fergus Carty
Fergus Carty
Daily Quote: The wise man does not lay up his own treasures.
The more he gives to others,
the more he has for his own.
- Lao Tzu
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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2011
By: Fergus Carty
When all words fail
And silence is greeted,
Thoughts still pile on the mind.
A touch, a tear stained smile,
Help pin the ignorant façade in place
But even stone is porous and erodes with time.
As life is shattered
And dreams evaporate,
The self crumbles to the floor.
How hard to claw the remnants back,
To turn the pieces blank-side up
And start the jig-saw once again!
© Copyright Fergus Carty 2011
Daily Quote: Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously.
- Og Mandino
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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2011
By: Daniel Ames
beyond the Elysian Fields
in a swath of scrub oak and gravel
in the distance a small farmhouse
without windows or a door
a hawk flies overhead with a red tail
and an eye for what's beyond
this is where you and I now stand
the railroad ties soaked in creosote
black and fissured
the ghosts of tall weeds
are carried along by the wind
the silence presses on our temples
the heat smothers our skin
you and I and the glassy scent of gasoline
there may have been plans
to keep laying track
we can almost make out the linear banks
of earth ahead
a heat wave shimmers
beyond the broken landscape
where you and I try to see
you turn and look back
I was waiting for you to do it
I would have been disappointed if you hadn't
because then the years along the way
would have tendrils
viscous remnants of you and I
you turn back to the front
and as your gaze passes me
I wonder if you look at me
or if you continue to swivel
without interruption or contemplation
toward the precipice ahead
neither you nor I comprehend
at long last the faint smile comes
and I am thrilled and reassured
I take your hand and your calm acceptance
like a thousand times before
the hawk is gone and a young child
comes out of the farmhouse
she hears the train that is you and I
Daniel Ames
Web: Daniel Ames, Poet
Twitter: Daniel Ames
Facebook: Daniel Ames Poet
Daily Quote: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view".
- Harper Lee
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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010
By: Pierce Hacking
I walk these cracked streets under city lights.
I feel myself fading in the black night.
I see sirens wailing and fires burning.
I see the junkies with their heads turning.
In these streets I see the souls of the dead.
I hear their thoughts whispering in my head.
I have my life to live if I so choose.
It’s my life to win or my life to lose.
I’m not sure where I can turn to these days.
Will I forever be trapped in this haze?
I want to be free from this captive state.
Maybe one day I will set my life straight.
Maybe I won’t be trapped here after all.
With God by my side I’ll escape these walls.
Pierce Hacking
Catharsis of Pierce
Daily Quote: “In order to live a rich life, everything about who you are must be one, in alignment, and in pure harmony.”
-- Suze Orman
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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010
By: Robert Anderson
an intervention ferried by your light
deep in my dreams kissed on a tree that wilts
the leaves were ripe again, revived, the sight
had brought my tears to stream then stole my guilt
you touched its root then bore and sowed your seed
as if to say 'oh, come and see again...
the very essence of the strength you need'
then took my breath and soon my every pain
i felt that callous veil of darker days
begin to lift then i was reassured
and learned that stewing in my weary ways
could cost me more than i've ever endured
if my immortal soul turned to debris
before you saved that tree, would i still see?
Robert Anderson
Daily Quote: Friends share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand.
- Henri Nouwen
Linguist Corner-ITALIAN: meritare: to deserve / verb.
Example: Firenze è una città bellissima che merita assolutamente una visita.
Translation: Florence is a very beautiful city that absolutely deserves a visit.
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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010
By: Fergus Carty
The wind that moves the clouds is not the one,
That fills your sails and drives white horses,
Across these waters rough and salten.
Press-ganged, you say? You saw the frigate,
And the marines lined on the quay.
Why then did you linger in the tavern?
The bell tolls again on this night watch.
Is it your mind or heart that’s crazed?
As in old charts you plot your position.
Behold these stars! Now check your compass.
Why do you steer by this fast failing moon?
The shoals ahead will split apart your seams.
Close to your heart you clutch the words,
Penciled on paper pulped from straw,
Grasping the wreckage of your dreams.
Fergus Carty
Daily Quote: One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.
- Albert Schweitzer
Linguist Corner-FRENCH: sagesse (saah zhess) noun, feminine
wisdom, (good) sense; discretion
Example:
faire preuve de sagesse = to be sensible
la sagesse populaire = popular (or traditional) wisdom
agir avec sagesse = to act wisely
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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010
By: Clinton S. Thomas
Life today
Yesterday, when I was young,
reminds me of music I once heard
and I can imagine my life being that song.
When I was young, I had the world spread out for me.
I dreamed of being a spaceman,
a cowboy, an army man, a fighter pilot
maybe even a policeman or a firefighter
and at times I knew I could be President.
Growing a little older, those dreams changed
doctor, teacher, or businessman
started to occupy my plans as I considered my
options and decided to write.
With thoughts of scripts, novels, shorts, and poetry
it was easy to see myself doing that.
Suddenly, I was older
and what I decided turned to how I would survive.
In the end there is no lake house, or hut by the sea
where typewriters and keyboards
keep me up through nights of writing.
Kids, responsibilities, and bills have become life today.
Clinton S. Thomas
Poet Domain
Daily Quote: Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.
- John D. Rockefeller
Linguist Corner-SPANISH: ocultar, verb /to hide, to conceal
Example:
- Se arrojó sobre la cama, y ocultó el rostro entre las almohadas.
She flung herself on the bed and hid her face in the pillows.
- El ministro mintió y ocultó información esencial en su primera rueda de prensa.
The minister lied and concealed essential information in his first press conference.
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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010
By: C. S. Thomas
The 80’s
big hair, big bands, metal ballads and parachute pants.
Cable television, just over the horizon
Don Johnson, Bo Derek - never growing old
Whitesnake, Van Halen, Michael – young
Eight tracks, records out to cassette tapes.
Reagan offered hope
Communist offered doom
Amazed by DOS, stunned by Windows
Typewriters to computers.
80’s day
A celebration
Where’s the beef, Like a Virgin, headbands
Big hair is big wigs,
parachute pants costumes
Going retro
Saying, “I like the old stuff.”
Spandex, leg warmers
wondering about music
on MTV.
C. S. Thomas
Daily Quote: "Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Linguist Corner-SPANISH: mirada / a look / noun. feminine
- una mirada triste
a sad look
- levantar la mirada
to look up
- bajar la mirada
to look down
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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010
By: Randy McClave
By: Randy McClave
In my hand I held the rose
As I would a Woman dear,
Within my fingers I held it tight
As I wished it would not disappear.
From the beauty that I had knew
When the kiss of beauty, once did flew.
I held the rose as I would a love
As I had held in memory and thought,
Then the rose I could not let go
For the same as a lover, she became my soul.
The stem became a body and the petals became her skin.
Then I held her softly, within the wind.
The rose held me as I held her
The two of us had became one,
Then the act of GOD prevailed that day,
For he commanded the wind to take her away.
Then towards the heavens I saw her flew.
As though to join the love that I once had knew.
In my hand there laid a thorn,
Though to remind me of the sting of death,
So upon the Earth I then laid the thorn
So the love of life could again be reborn.
I buried the thorn as you would a dream.
Knowing never again, will it be seen.
Randy McClave
Poemhunter.com
Daily Quote: A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.
- Cicero
Linguist Corner-SPANISH: camino, noun
track; path; road
Examples:
- un camino de montaña
a mountain path
- un camino de tierra
a dirt track
- un camino rural
a country road
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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010
By: V. Mahfood
In our youth when we were children and played as children did,
Life was naught but laughter and games.
And the day was our toy to exploit as we wished,
While the night was a rest between play.
And I remember we were beautiful miniatures then
Unaware of the presence of sorrow.
Living together, full of love for each other,
With an innocent joy that set us aglow.
Yet we grew as did our minds and experience in our hearts,
And suddenly we weren't children any more.
Still we laughed and we played, now with haunted eyes,
Dreading the day when we must close our open door.
Then it came time for our clan to separate
Though we joined hands and devoutly refused.
Feverishly swearing never to part,
Hopeless words tearing at sad, tender hearts.
And when tomorrow came, we were figures of ivory
Unbelieving and transfixed with pain.
Our tears were bitter with fresh knowledge of life,
And our voices were sweet echoes of yesterday.
V. Mahfood
Coffee Table Poetry for Tea Drinkers
- Dedicated to my loving family and friends with whom I am reunited 3 decades later. -
Daily Quote: Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music.
~William Stafford
Linguist Corner-FRENCH: French word: côte à côte /side by side/ adverb
Example:
-French: Même mis côte à côte, on ne peut les différencier.
English: Even side by side we can't differentiate one from another.
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Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010
By: Lawrence S. Pertillar
Rapidly decreasing,
Are those self defeating beatings.
The ones inflicted when people got upset...
Over what others had they saw and wished for,
They could not for themselves get.
Ceasing are those jealousies,
And tantrums thrown by pests of bad habits.
Slowly growing to show are necessities.
And basic needs are today's realities agreed.
For many unfamiliar but being introduced.
Rapidly decreasing,
Are those self defeating beatings.
The ones inflicted when people got upset...
Over what others had they saw and wished for,
They could not for themselves get.
Ceasing are those jealousies,
And tantrums thrown by pests of bad habits.
Slowly growing to show are necessities.
And basic needs are today's realities agreed.
For many unfamiliar but being introduced,
Without seduction to reduce one into temptation.
And...
We all have experienced the expense of that game.
Lawrence S. Pertillar
Daily Quote: "Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going. Rather than always focusing on what's urgent, learn to focus on what is really important."
-- Stephen Covey
Linguist Corner-ITALIAN : prezzo / price / noun.
Example:
Il prezzi sono aumentati ancora!
Translation: Prices have increased again!
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Coffee Table Poetry's GUEST BOOK is a division of Coffee Table Poetry for Tea Drinkers, and is updated often. The easiest way to enjoy the selections from talented fellow poets is to select E-mail or RSS Reader. Also, come follow us on Twitter.
Posted by V. Mahfood - 2010
