The Zero-Sum Game

This is something I wrote while waiting in the free lot at the airport for my buddy's flight yesterday...the first line is a line out of a song that was playing on the radio as I drove from my office to the airport - the rest came from, well, life...

Lose the beat, lose the rhythm
Lose the beat, find the rhythm
Find the rhythm, find your path

Skip the counting, just do the math
One and one can equal one, two, three or none
You are your own sum of life's equation

The possibilities are infinite
You are the one who limits
Opportunities and potential
Parallel and sequential

You choose the size of your box
Big or small
One size does indeed truly fit all

It's all equal in the end
For life is a zero-sum game, my friend

Check, Checkmate

Yesterday I attended 100,000 Poets for Change, and this is the poem I wrote to share at this year's event. Other poems I shared were Misdirected Penguin, A Chance for Atonement, and Unsung Heroes (also posted below).

Check, Checkmate

The dove queen watches the eagle king play chess,

Getting into check again and again and again

Wondering if when the game finally comes to checkmate

Who or what will truly win

If humankind will all turn into pillars of salt or become

Shadows on the sides of the buildings that remain

Or if instead she will take the olive branch from the King’s claws

And bring peace down upon the Earth once more to reign

Unsung Heroes

Unsung heroes there

Whilst we are bickering here

Who is right or wrong

Sing thee the hero's song

For those in lands faraway

Who may not live to see another day

Unsung heroes every one

Someone's daughter, someone's son

Doing their job until day is done

Sing thee the hero's song

No matter what side of the aisle you're on

Or which religion you choose to don

Unsung heroes far and near

All to someone very dear

Ask not why we are here

Sing thee the hero's song

Pray for peace and freedom from greed

Pray for relief from every need

Unsung heroes every one 

Care for them as they cared for us

In our love they put their trust

Sing thee the hero's song

And pray they all see another dawn

The dawn of coming home

Update from 2012 Poetry Month Challenge

Well, I didn't make the 30 poems in 30 days this year - life is still very much in the way of my writing.

Here is the rest of what I did write in April, however, for your reading pleasure!

30 April 2012  

Ride the wave of pain
Until it dumps you on the shore
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off,
Slough through the sand until
The tide pulls you out
To ride the wave once more

29 April 2012  

Unrequited love
Worst kind to have - barbed arrow
Always in the heart

28 April 2012 

I miss you asking
About today's conference,
Sharing wine and food

26 April 2012

  

Brutal truth is

Always better than lies are
Truth truly trumps all

24 April 2012

Waking in the night
Rolling over
Touching your back
Smelling your skin
My hand on your stomach
Back to dreamland again

23 April 2012

Cried myself to sleep
Last night; not that you care
But that's the way it is

22 April 2012

Truth hurts once
Lies hurt many times

Undermine self
Undermine hope
Undermine faith

Truth easier to recover from
Lies can cause chronic suffering

Which do you prefer?

22 April 2012

Truth not always told
Hearts broken because of lies
Love not always dies

21 April 2012

The skeletons in my closet
Are few

They are out dancing at
The dead man's party

How about you?

20 April 2012

Daffodils in vase
Likely last of the season
Brought by ashen flame

17 April 2012

leopards do not change their spots
nor hide them truly well;
even the black ones have spots
if you look long enough to tell

nor can tigers lose their stripes
for they are deeper then the skin

and the grasshopper never did learn patience
in the end

15 April 2012

I believed in you
I believed in us

My castles in the sky
were only castles in the sand
and now all is turned to dust

Why?

why not leave me where I was

Why lift me up
only to drop me down
further than I was before

What the hell did I ever do
to deserve such a negative score?

15 April 2012

Black cat
ate white rat
who made gray elephant
squeal

14 April 2012

I feel anger rising
again as a shield
against the pain

Love has leached away
with the realization of loss,
of lies,
of dreams built on sand
destroyed

Pain pulls down
Anger buoys up

Love would light the way
Lies took that light away

Darkness rules now

What defense is left?

14 April 2012

  

setting fire to the rain 

of tears falling 

frees the pain 

cauterizes the heart 

allows the healing 

to start

Back to the Poetry

Okay, so this is what I've neglected posting on this particular blog:

This is from a prompt asking how do you set fire to the rain - a line from an Adele song:

setting fire to the rain
of tears falling
frees the paincauterizes the heartallows the healing
to start

This one came to me last night:

I feel anger rising
again as a shield
against the pain

Love has leached away
with the realization of loss,
of lies,
of dreams built on sand
destroyed

Pain pulls down
Anger buoys up

Love would light the way
Lies took that light away

Darkness rules now

What defense is left?


And this one came today:

Black cat
ate white rat
who made gray elephant
squeal

Eclectic group, no?

2012 Poetry Challenge - If/Then

if life was perfect
then it might be boring

if life were boring
then we might rebel

if we rebel
then things might change

if things change
then they might not ever be the same again

if things are not the same again
then life might not be perfect

if life were not perfect
then it might not be boring

2012 Poetry Challenge - Day 8 - Never Alone

As I sit here alone
I realize
I am never truly alone

All those whose lives
I've touched
or whose lives have
touched mine
are with me

Aloneness is not loneliness

Loneliness is being
cut off
from your fellow beings

Knowing I am part
of all who have
shared in my life
or shared their life
with me to this point

I know I am never
truly alone

Therefore, I am never
truly lonely

2012 Poetry Challenge - Saturday Poem

pumping gas

fetching groceries

getting a hair cut

buying stamps

mailing taxes

cooking dinner

washing dishes

writing this poem

all done on a sunny Saturday in April

2012 Poetry Challenge - Day 5 - Senyru

Senyru follows the same form as haiku - 3 lines, 5/7/5 syllable count - however, where haiku is season-themed, senyru can follow any theme. Here is my offering for today:

your heart signs joyous
while my heart burns searing pain
is not love just grand

2012 Poetry Challenge - Day 4 - Your Life

Your life is
your own of
course, but then

They want you
to drop your
life, pick up

Theirs and do
not see why
you say No!

2012 Poem a Day Challenge - Day 3 - Enough

This came to me in the middle of the night last night:

I
say to myself
I
am enough
right here
right now

I
am the promise of the rainbow
fulfilled

2012 Poem a Day Challenge - Day 2

Here is what came to me for today's entry:

Sun's rays playing tricks on me
or perhaps wind is showing power
Coolness reigns instead of warmth
in this breezy sunlit hour