OPEN MIC ARCHIVES
June, 2006

The Ocean
Terry

As i stood with my toes digging in the warm sand and cold waves washing them, i inhaled the salty air and stared at the golden sun, its beauty shining upon me and below it the never-ending sea.

As the wind blew i opened my arms

feeling like an eagle taking flight,

feeling like every problem, guilt and sadness encountered in life was all washed away.

As i closed my eyes i thought...this is home this is peace.

-0-

SUMMER
Molly Finkenthal

In the summer you can...

Swim a lot if you're hot. Ride your bike if you'd like. Find a pool to keep cool. Go to the beach with your dog on a leash. Read a book and get hooked in a cozy nook. Wear shorts and go in a fort. Face it, it's summer and it's going to last and of course, i'm having a blast.

-0-

 
ALONE
Katherine Hunold
Alone
Is where I thrive.
I am complete
In my solitude.
No one to boss me around
I am free.
The quiet envelops me,
I let it shroud me in comfort.
I feel home
When not a soul is around.
Free to do whatever I choose
The feeling is unbelievable. 
I cannot even describe the
Exhilaration.
Tremendous ecstasy
Knowing that I am by myself.
There is so much joy in being
Alone.

-0-

EAT. BUY, CONSUME, DIE
Murray L. Driftmier
Eat, Buy, Consume, Die!
Don’t you ever question Why?
Work, Sleep, Work some more;
What the Hell is it all For?
In life’s journey to the grave –
Its value’s based on what you gave!
When all your days are finally gone,
Will you be ready to pass on?
Or will you cry “It’s been a waste!
Of life I’ve hardly had a taste!”?
Cry, crawl, walk, expire
To be thrown upon your pyre.
Learn your needs from your TV –
It’s of no use if it is free!
In life’s journey to the grave –
Its value’s based on what you gave!
When all your days are finally gone,
Will you be ready to pass on?
Or will you wonder where it went -
All of this time and effort spent?
Sing! Dance! Get Involved
In Life, In Love, in problems solved!
Open up your heart, your mind;
A whole new world is there to find!
In life’s journey to the grave –
Its value’s based on what you gave!
When all your days are finally gone,
Will you be ready to pass on?
Ice to water, then to steam
Another phase beyond this dream.
-0-

Lemonade Stand
Autumn Pena

Having a lemonade stand is quit lovely

On hot summer days people running

Down the road coming up to are stand I

Can see them sweat and saying that they are hot I might say would you like a glass of lemonade it is fresh!

When they hear me squeezing the lemon or even when the ice touching the glass cup when I drink it I can feel it going down my throat Lemonade will cool me off on hot days

-0-

 
Chocolate
Tracy Martini

As I unravel the goodness                                                                 
Heavenly bliss                                                                       
I am overcome
I bite in
Leaving behind teeth marks
To mark
Where I have been,
Where I am going
I swim
In a sea of brown, creamy
CHOCOLATE
I float on a fluffy white cloud
A sky
So brown, so rich
As I swallow
I return to my starting place
Awaiting the next bite

-0-

WHO AM I
TYRONE W. BOWERS

WHEN I LOOK IN THE MIRROR, A QUESTION COMES TO MY MIND THAT QUESTION IS “WHO AM I”?

I AM A BROTHER, A FATHER, AN UNCLE AND EVEN A SON I AM THE ONE CARRYING A BIBLE NOT A HANDGUN I HAVE THE COURAGE TO STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT AND TO ALWAYS TO DO GOOD I HAVE TO POWER TO LOVE EVERYTHING, WHETHER YOU LIVE IN THE SUBURBS OR THE HOOD I AM THE ONE WHO STANDS BY MY GIRL, IN GOOD TIMES AND BAD I AM THE ONE WHO WILL RAISE MY CHILD THE BEST THAT I CAN I AM THE ONE WHO WILL NOT BE ASHAMED TO SHED ANY TEARS WHEN I AM HAPPY, SAD AND EVEN WHEN I AM SCARED I AM THE ONE PERSON WHO WILL DO MY FAMILY NO HARM I WILL ALSO BE THE FIRST TO ADMIT WHEN I AM WRONG SO THE NEXT TIME THIS QUESTION COMES TO MY MIND THESE ARE THE ANSWERS THAT I WILL REPLY AND IF YOU ASK ME THIS QUESTION, TO YOU I WILL TELL I AM A YOUNG, BLACK AND STRONG MALE

-0-

Sunset
Casey
I gaze at the field,
Just above the water.
With soft, bright, daffodils.
Bordered by warm marigolds,
Beaming like the sun.
Scorching poppies,
Layer the marigolds,
Vanishing into calm violets,
Stroked across the field,
Transforming into a sunset.

-0-

Life in hard times
Indocanadian

In the blink of an eye, life has changed completely it use to be good times, having fun in the sun now its about life turning around and stabbing you in the back hate lives all around, jealousy, and lies surround me I feel as if i have fallen in a trap that god has set up for me As if he's playing a game with my life Testing my ability to control my emotions The good times have become a vague memory the days go by slowly with little or no amusement life's mysteries have become more and more of a confusion Good and right begins to get hard as my mind is filled with disrupting thoughts I know not why i am forced to live like this life as if it were not even a life

-0-

FATHER, GRANDPA IS GRAY AND GREEN
Chidozie Ihebereme
Father, Grandpa is gray and green
His mouth has the tears of blue mosquitoes, blood-sucking gods ravishing his being.

Father, grandpa is young and old
Was he stolen by the greed of time
whose belly shivers, overfilled with drunk gold watching with painted eyes, 
beating like guilty hearts too scared of a spoiled blood?
Oh, father look at him! He’s a keg
of palm wine yeasted by our fronds’ fake tears, glutton eyes, 
leeches licking life out of their legs.
Father, Grandpa is gray and green
while mothering mustards laugh their fill 
stealing all the sins stored in Satan's dustbin. 
They can't have their fill.

-0-

DENALI
by Jameel Heath

standing silent a mile high,
right fist held jealously to my chest,
eyes stare defiantly toward the west,
verily, verily my soul doth dry,
I have the answer for all your whys,

the chain begins with that indescribable One, one of It's eyes is the sacred Sun, eternaly upward we must fly, a new frontier is always there, I find them floating in the air, and codes keep coming from that eye, I can fly! I can fly!

up into the deepest darkest space,

a road-map lies under the guardian's face, I'll call it open before I die, Aquarius fills his gills with Cybele's breath, stearing clear of the hungry one called Seth, looking for the new world soon to rise.

-0-

DUCK SOUP 2
By Terence Bell
Harpo Marx makes a telephone pitch to Tony Blair:
So sorry Mr Blair, to hear you're planning to retire. 
I've got a proposition that'll set you right on fire. 
Remember in the thirties, when I was all the rage? 
Yeah, I had some brothers. We acted on the stage. 
There was a film we did though, probably the best; 
The setting was Freedonia, Yeah, Duck Soup, you guessed. 
So you know the plot then; a build-up to a war. 
Hey now, take it easy, you ain't heard THIS before: 
I'm gonna do a sequel, and shoot it in Iraq, 
It's ready-devastated, we'll save a goddamn stack. 
I've hired us a Chico: That Berlusconi guy. 
Got just the perfect accent is the simple reason why. 
The Italian Prime Minister - wasn't that a coup? 
He's learning the piano; got nothing else to do. 
I'm keeping on my old role, you know I hate to talk. 
You'll be playing Groucho. Buy plenty of burnt cork.

-0-

Endless thoughts derived from nothing
A mind uncertain and derailed
A train of thought no longer traveled
Apathy will soon prevail
Answers to questions no longer asked
Buried deep within caverns of the mind
A faint vision once held now embraced by darkness What is it that I'd hoped to find
Beyond imagination lies true reality
One we may not see or hear
Alone and withdrawn lies the one who dares To look beyond what is safe and near
An endless search for what I seek
To give up and to fail is one in the same Fear of a life so placid and meek 
Accepting defeat in shrouds of shame
Alive though lifeless
Asleep but awake
No home in this world
Full of that which is fake

Daniel Shaffer  

-0-

Those Dreams On Sleeping
-Lys Anzia
We crawl. Sometimes we sit. These
are the years they call history. 
Those moments not to be
forgotten. America where are you?
I have waited for you as a bird
waits sitting still out there
on that limb of a lifeless tree.
It's been a long time waiting
sitting still. Our history is
going to tell us what happened
to our heroes. Where are they
hiding now? Lost somewhere in
those dreams on sleeping.
-0-

THE FLOW
GREGORY JOHN BERNARD

it washes and spins and seductively winks at you sometimes if you listen deep it whispers your name like the breeze through the pines

it cradles you and embraces you and rocks you through the night only to abandon you in your dreams dissipating with the sunrise walk further along the mountains path upward to the crest and yell your passions to the clouds and it will respond a change of style in a spiral skywards drawing you closer to the creation of wisdom and time

and great alliances of myth and folly collide like atomic particles in a rusty tin can always alive and metamorphing in season without a finger print or motive or device

it will call you and please you and send you on your way a little more wiser and confused at the same

-0-

January In The City
 Therese Waneck
The frigid noonday sky extends
Four stories high and so intends
To pause and strike the city haze
With a rich reluctant urban gaze
 
-0- 
Xenia Zanov.
Terry Collett
Xenia Zanov, cute of brain,
Large of breast, daughter
Of a commissar, now defunct,
Whom Stalin mentioned once,
In a letter long lost and forgotten,
Sits astride her latest lover
Pounding with her muscled thighs
Until the lights pour from his eyes,
Thinking of her mother, Olga,
Who lies buried in frozen tundra
In the icy north where day is short
And the night, like death,
Lingers forever near and close at hand.
-0-
An Attempt At Friendliness
Derek Mahon.
I look up to see a child riding
her new push bike, she glance over proudly, smiles and removes her right hand from its bar to wave at me.
I wave back, my face attempting to summon the least awkward look from its range 
and continue the search for my car, buried somewhere beneath a vehicle shaped mound of dirt.
Across the street, behind the shimmer
of an inquisitive curtain,
an old woman - tabloid literate
"And with grandchildren of my own, you know"
shakes her head
and scowls at me.
Like i've committed a crime.
-0-
CHEATS AND LIARS
(C)Jude Adebosoye Ogunade

Some of them may be chiefs
In fact most chiefs are thieves
Uncaught, kept and abated by fraternities Causing havocs among humanity
Some may be lawyers
Uncaught, kept and abated by fraternities Cheats and liars they are Killing humanity
There are cheats and liars
Some may be engineers
And some medical doctors
Yet, they are cheats and liars
Just because they want to appear better
Richer and prosperous than others
They maim millions for the sake of millions Millions in ill-gotten currencies
Few may be farmers
And fewer may be teachers
Yet there are everywhere
Cheats and liars!

-0-
Time Is Relative
Linda Bond
"I can tell the time," she said.
"By tick and tock and train and bus.
The school bell breaks the day into chunks.
I can tell the time" she said.
"I can tell the time," he said.
"By sun and moon and wind and rain.
And birth of lamb and swell of grain. 
I can tell the time," he said.
They nearly didn't meet and when they did He was late and she was stressed.
"You've wasted my valuable time," she said.
"Time doesn't rule," he replied, "it .... defines."
 
-0-
To my Grandma.
Stefano Rossi
Your door is always locked.
Why your hands,
Big yesterday,
Small today,
Aren’t uncertainly holding mine?
Collected on a ledge your flourished crockery Are telling me you’re not anymore?
What will be now the destiny of the immense secrets Whose you were the door and my dreams the key Beyond the hedge, at the bottom of the stairs.
Why didn’t you leave me one last little word?
I was sleeping, I was still sleeping.
I came today with her
To talk to you ,but your door was locked.
I know you’re not here anymore
But like those times it seemed to me
To hear the rustling of your feet, the sound of the key 
Through that half-opened wood, I saw u again, In the immense.
-0-
Salve Regina, Miss Pretty Sang.
Terry Collett
Salve Regina, Miss Pretty sang.
And being a good and catholic girl,
Except when lapped with Tom or Dick
In bed or in some lonely spot,
She eyed the plaster cast Madonna high,
Which, being unmoved by words or such,
Stared out across the church’s pews,
With painted eyes of icy blue,
Which, seeing it was cold and dark outside,
Moved Miss Pretty to some degree,
And being tired of mind and eye,
She thought she saw the Virgin wink,
Or was it just her own? she mused
Crossing herself from head to breast.
She never knew, but the eyes were a lovely blue.
-0-
Three day
John  Nelson
I know you have gone through many, but so much Pains.
Take courage and be strong, your mind in wisdom train.
view the world with your heart,in love you always retain.
Proper view, delights the  mind, and sorrow refrain.
Have you ever wonder, why the  birds sweet sing?
Or why they permeate the air, but have wings?
It is because they are part of a natural world, And Created this way, to spice up, our unmoral world.
We all, in our live, have three, but important days.
when we are cognizant of it colored, we get a better rays.
But, it is not always easy to find, or yield a better way.
When we fight a good fight, we may always pleasure lay.
when, our yesterday is mess up and pointless, use today  to repair and strengthens yesterday stress.
and when, you don’t know what tomorrow  will actually wage, use today in every way to prepare for tomorrow gage.
-0-
'BUS OF DEATH'
SHEY KENNETH MBOE

TAKE ME OLD,
WHEN I CAN'T DO WORK ON MY OWN'
WHEN THE WORLD IS TIRED OF MY BURDEN,
AND THEIR NOISE FRIGHTEN'S MY SPIRIT'
TAKE ME OLD'
WHEN MY BONES START CRACKING,
WHEN MY BODY STARTS FOLDING,
AND MY TEETH STOPS BITING.
TAKE ME OLD,
WHEN MY TONGUE CAN'T TASTE SALT OR SUGAR, AND MY EYES KNOW NOT WHITE OR BLACK, WHEN MY EARS CAN'T DISTINGUISH THE SOUNDS.
TAKE ME OLD,
WHEN THE MAGIC ON MY MIRROR DISAPPEARS,
WHEN MY HAIR CHANGES ITS COLOUR,
AND THE STRENGTH OF MY CHARMING SMILE IS GONE.
TAKE ME OLD,
WHEN THE HOSPITALS NEED ME MOST,
AND THEIR DRUGS WON'T CURE ME WELL,
TAKE ME,TO HEAR THEIR PROMISES.
TAKE ME OLD,
WHEN I'M TIRED OF WATCHING THE MATCHES,
NOT ABLE TO DISTINGUISH THE TEAMS,
NOR SHARE IN THE JOY OF THEIR VICTORY.
TAKE ME OLD,
WHETHER WITH GOOD DEEDS OR BAD ONES,
OR HAVE COME TO THE END OF MY DREAMS,
TAKE ME, WHEN I'VE LOST MY WORTH.
PLEASE TAKE ME OLD,
IN SAD MOMENTS OR IN JOY,
KNOWING NOT WHERE I GO,
BUT TAKE ME, AT THAT MOMENT,
WHEN I'M FREE TO GO.
-0-
  NEW GENERATIONS
                        By Jocelyn Owens
Today new generations walk by, becoming young women and men.
Medicine women and medicine men give them herbs, and teach them rules of life.
Parents wave a tear-jerking goodbye before their journey.
The Chief, steadily growing riser as he watches new generations rise.
Medicine women and medicine men give them herbs, and teach them rules of life.
Remembering when they took their first steps, their parents being overjoyed.
Parents wave a tear-jerking goodbye before their journey.
In a blink they will be elders, their belief in Anasazi will be great.
Remembering when they took their first steps, their parents being overjoyed.
When they unsteadily walked to the horse, and bent down to stroke the wolf.
In a blink they will be elders, their belief in Anasazi will be great.
You'll just have a moment to cradle them in your arms.
When they unsteadily walked to the horse, and bent down to stroke the wolf.
Parents wave a tear-jerking goodbye before their journey.
You'll just have a moment to cradle them in your arms.
Today new generations walk by, becoming young women and men.
-0-
ON COLERIDGE
-Amit Shankar Saha.
The picture of a great artist
Who paints his mind's  delirium,
Whose paints are as unclear as mist,
Whose brush has consumed opium,
Whose canvas is smoky and rough,
Whose art is blonde obscurity-
No horizon is wide enough,
A canvas to paint your beauty.
-0-
 
THE WINTER MOON
BY NATALIE 
All to soon, the winter moon
glints through your window at night
sending shivers through your body
making you delve deeper into your duvet
so its chill cannot bite you
the winter moon , its slender shape
like a sweet lullaby it rocks in the air its hollow face staring down at you but within a few hours its gone replaced with the winter sun all to soon
-0-
The Silence
(by Matthew David Ward)
We grasp at the silence
When we have lost it all
Praying it’s the voice of God
To save us from the fall
Death is all too easy
Surviving the challenge here
Standing tall to face tomorrow
And never show your fear
I have walked through the desert
Just to melt from the heat
I swam the deepest ocean
Just to drown underneath
I have long since abandoned faith
For its face I never knew
What use is something so transparent
I pray to know truth
And yet I grasp for the silence
Hoping for the lone reply
Maybe this time it will come
Some voice from the sky
-0-
IMITATION IN SLOW MOTION
Nicola J. Steel
“Honey-pot holes in a
sycamore tree and gum drops on
minted leaves, that worship the
graceful gold that smiles upon life.”
Sugar coated
stretches of the
truth – imagination.
Conventional structures
In rhythmic letters
Are implied as beautiful and
Significant, more so than
In short sighted vision.
“Delighted sensations of
melt in the mouth creamy
textures, and the fragrance of
summer in a hand held bunch.”
Those sensuous gifts are
offered in a sincere gesture
of affection – although not as
aromatic nor extravagant as
depiction perceives it.
The connecting emotion may be
Equal or greater than the wordiness
Of penned thoughts, yet the reality
Is bland, cliché, and overlooked.
Portrayal of what the poetic
Mind, and eyes feel, is something
that can only be revealed as
an imitation in slow motion.
-0-

from the mouth of babes,

come wisdom,

is what I have heard,

all my life

 

when my daughter talea,

was born,

I decided to learn,

wisdom from her

 

at first I learnt nothing,

for I, was still too fast,

in past and future think

 

in time, I slowed me down,

became relaxed, playful, pleased,

and then also I,

started, too see,

everything, even the pictures,

and sounds of words,

I used to fly over,

and type at high speed

 

I discovered language, too be,

our flight from now,

into the future,

and into the past,

where being is called,

his story

 

this book is for free,

from and for, whole being

 

faith is past

hope is future

love is now

 

now, is see

 

Leonard Richards 

-0-

Definition
By Rose Stringer 
Empty
Spare
Never used
Lonely
We take our rooms for granted
We use them or we don’t
We have feelings, so do they
There just like you and me
Contrasting there colour
Contrasting our lives
Never tell me a room is plain
You doubt them
They doubt you
-0-

Fix this. What is there to fix? My soul thrives on completion, however, is perplexed with complication. The infinite possibility of hope, aspiration and a dream comes once a day when all of my solar energy rests in its lonely place. Too anxious to find a commonality, I struggle for an unwanted answer in hopes of curing this confusion within my writing.

Daily alignments circle throughout my universe and mix a curry of splendor and spice. There is not a day that I do not think about the joys of healing and ways in which I want to win. I am unspoken for yet feel compelled to the obligation of others. Quite a stir, isn’t it? Crazed, with an unruly heart, I pray this voice of uncertainty will subside and the arches of reason will immerge.

It is an honor to write with such integrity and grace. For the likeness of others, I create a passage that guides to a universal light. Why am I in the same disposition you may ask? Maybe it is because I am unwilling to take a chance. To live life on the fast lane would mean limitless opportunities, both bright and blurry. To become over the edge would mean to indulge with grief or consequence. I myself have done both the two and my outcomes have been more than less worthy.

Today, I write to embark on a clearer vision.

Kimberly

-0-
 CAMOUFLAGED
   BY  LIP  SAI  LIN
   EYES  STRAINED
   BRAIN  JAMMED
   NECK  " CRACKED "  
   BACKBONE  BECAME  STIFF  
   WHAT  A  HARD  DAY
   WHAT  A  LONG  JOURNEY
   WHAT  A  CAMOUFLAGED  WORLD
   THE  LIVING  PRETENDS  TO  BE  DEAD
   THE  DEAD  WILL  WAKE  UP  
   ONE  DAY 
   TO  STRIKE  
   RIGHT  INTO  YOUR  FACE
   THE  WICKED  PRETENDS  TO  BE  KIND
   THE  KIND  WILL  ATTACK  
 
   ONE  DAY
   TO  BE  CONFRONTED
   FACE  TO  FACE
-0-

SONG OF THE BROOK
by Susan Abraham

Can a beautiful gushing brook gather

its skirts like a noisy woman

bent on fits and starts

to rustle up her garment and brace up her laces like she had lost her way from a wayward start...

I say, I say!

Can the watchful trees and polished rocks turn their backs on a shiver from a ripple when the water shoots up a merry dance all supple...

In the end, I'd say my friend, just not today, And if you want some action from a make-believe tavern Come back for a slip-up splash, all grand and up for a bang some other kind and silent day.

-0-
Substitute
brism
Can't you see,
Through green mystery,
Subdued forms and,
No-one storms where,
Sign posts whither;
Walk hither thither and,
Stroll in last.
Forget the past;
No could or should,
Just Wormwood.

Pseudonyms and,
Forgotten whims.
Go riddle my mind and,
Fall behind.
It's him or me well,
We shall see.
Laugh and splutter but,
Mind that gutter.
Another drink? now,
Let me think.....;
Yeah, why not as,
Oblivion's got,
Some discretion so,
Who's to question?.
-0-
When you come home I want to hide under the floorboard.
I sit here hoping, praying to my Lord.
“God, please let him be sober, let there be no yelling.”
God never answers my prayers, Dad
You are always drunk, and always mad.
This is something I have to say
It should have been said before today.
You love drinking more than us.
You come home just to cause a fuss.
Well this is what I want to say:
GO AWAY
You make me think I hate you
I find that it may be true
You cause my family so much pain
You’re words they fall on us like acid rain.
My mother she deserves better than what you give.
Leave her alone; give her a reason to live.
You make my mom feel guilt, pain, and sorrow.
She can’t even hope for a better tomorrow.
We know that you can’t stop.
Just don’t hold us back; daddy let us reach the top.
Please Daddy stop drinking
Kels Trebuh
-0-
“Lost in A Cardboard Box”
stephen holmes

Life, life in a quandary
Hungry for just a morsel from the tree of knowledge, Unable to comprehend the stories of your ancestors Luck, I’m not a friend Good fortune, I’m not a friend.
Happy, I’m not a friend.
Incapable to hear or understand anything…….but the wind.
No point of origin, no destination. Just blowing.
Lost in a cardboard box.
72 years. Wondering how to assemble it.
How can I be just common?
Breathing a gift and exhaling appreciation.
Over and over and over.
Wondering, wondering, how to make it.
Lost in a cardboard box.
Be knowledgeable about your humanity, and in the mist learn yourself.
Keep light in the future
Understand that existence is not wealth, Every step is development. One step, two step, three.
Let light in; to engulf the dark,
Then you will not be,
Lost in a cardboard box.                  
-0-

SING A SONG
- Parul Rana
Sing a song with little Jill
Silly as it sounds
Life is a rainbow to fill
With love that knows no bounds!
Sing a song with busy ants
Trailing down the mountain
Hope they don’t enter your pants
Or you’ll cry a fountain!
Sing a song with cutey pie
Ask her out for a dance
Oh Oh don’t be so shy
Or Bob will take your chance!
Sing a song with me sometime
Bring in some fun
After hitting the hell of rhyme
Together we’ll run

 

Poems Copyright © designated authors 2006.
Page Copyright © AHApoetry.com 2006.

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