Looking Forward: Stoma and Poetry

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Bill
Hello JudiA. I did enjoy reading 'A different memorial day' and it is reminiscent of all the verses that I published just last year in my book entitled 'A Civilian War'. However, in re-reading these rhymes I came to the conclusion that the one I liked most was the one that reflected those internal struggles that sometimes have little or nothing to do with the outside world and the mess humans seem to be making of it.

THE GREATEST BATTLES EVER BEEN.

The greatest battles ever been
will rattle round inside unseen.
They are the ones right in your head
that you may fight until you're dead.

For those who think that this is wrong
what other battles last so long?
What other wars will cause such pain
and must be fought time and again?

What conflicts carry greatest fears
and can reduce you into tears
then trouble you throughout your years
and only cease when death appears?

What other skirmishes can lead
to the break that makes hearts bleed?
What bombs may reign from up above
will cause more pain than can a love?

There is no battlefield commotion
can compare with our emotion
when energy is on a roll
and it is not under control.

Pure hate is an incendiary
upon it's beneficiary
as hate has heat and fires as well
like those you'd meet in pyres of hell.

Arrows of animosity
can strike with some ferocity
dividing folk with enmity (hate/hostility)
providing no indemnity.

No greater war or battlefront
is likely that you will confront
than struggling through your life each day
and juggling problems on the way.


B. Withers 2014
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Bill
Hello Mike. Thank you so much for joining in our on-line conversation and you are of course quite right in saying that there are some good folk in the world and there are many more who would like to be that way but are swayed and carried along on the prevailing winds.
I would like to take the opportunity of explaining from my own perspective that this type of poetry is motivated by the emotions stirred when things seem to be going wrong in the world. There are many poets who prefer to write about the wondrous and beautiful things and I too have penned such verses in the past. But the most powerful emotions have always been pricked when I perceive something to be amiss. So much of my own rhyming verse tries to capture these issues rather than the nicer things in life. It's not that I don't recognise the good things it's just that other people write about them so much more competently than I do. Anyway, the people who I normally write rhymes for are those who suffer the consequences of other people's bad behaviour and often have mental health problems as a result. There are very few poets who write on their behalf so I almost feel obliged to carry on expressing their experiences and feelings for them within the art of rhyming verse.
I hope this goes some way to helping you understand from whence this literary effort emerges.
Best wishes
Bill.
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JudiA

The Concerns of a Woman

Daily I concern about
My strength to carry on

And if I must be strong
Who then will be along

To sing the songs of sleep
And calm the night's bad dreams

Who will hold the hand of pain
And kiss the wounded knee

Who will soften the hurts
Of taunting teen peer pressure

Who will soothe with human touch
When storms of life torment you

And who will love you tenderly
When age has robbed your potency

How am I supposed to worry
Over wrinkles and gray hair

Over sagging breasts
And dingy old underwear

Was the meal to your satisfaction
Or do you even still care

How can I do this anymore
Be strong but still be there

In soft and loving ways
In balance through all my days

When in the big picture
Only the strong survive

Yet I concern myself with
Keeping softness alive

I am woman.

Peejay

Hi Mike,
So good to meet you....and welcome! Yes, we poets are a rum lot, aren't we!!...but our diversity of experiences, cultures and - dare I say - hang-ups means as a group we tend to cover those bases most conducive to the poetic style we're using and of course the mood and muse we are in at the time!
I think most of us tend to be philosophical in nature, so irony becomes a common element.
Just to lighten the mood, here are a couple of short pieces full of irony....

Self Help for Cats

I watch myself,
knowing these inanities,
these motor tasks
of feeding, cleaning, sleeping,
are my salvation
from madcat insanity,
but not the solution.

Needs be,
I leave this languid cocoon
of feline floppery
for a knife-edge fencetop,
hunting a fantasy
in the next garden
and the next.

Early Worm in love

I know I'm birds food
but I'm also quite keen
to move to a new
patch of green

so now I've come out
I'm looking around
to slither about
overground

-It's hard for a worm
to meet his true love
if he cannot squirm
up above.

JudiA

Love these!
Check my pic file.

 
Getting Support in the Ostomy Community with LeeAnne Hayden | Hollister
JudiA

Lucky her, and you too - this is sweet and touching!
Before things fell apart, I wrote this.

For Duane.

It's a gray winter day.
The last bits of snow cling to the shade.
Icicles trickle and dissolve.

In these wistful moments,
Your hand on my shoulder,
Skin to skin,
Summon quiet pleasure.

Our love grows old and peaceful.
Your tender smile charms me,
Warms me,
to my soul.

Neither of us
Looks too hard at the future.
The day's realities sufficient
to know our love abides.

We keep each other
in the moment,
Holding our love gently
in our hearts and eyes.

Bill
Hello JudiA. Lovely! I think it is good that you had those thoughts and feelings as they are worth hanging on to even if the source as been soured. It's a bit like the clear springs that used to supply us with fresh, clear water that are now polluted or dried up -- they were good while they lasted and the memory of that goodness still lingers.
Best wishes
Bill
iMacG5

I'm honored, Bill, that you took the time to explain your intent and I admire your efforts and commend the results. Perhaps I'm not qualified to make that assessment but your work has brought me much joy and that you must know.
"The Concerns of a Woman", Judi, was wonderful except for the two words you omitted between "am" and "woman" in the last line. They are "a beautiful".
Peejay, thanks for the welcome and I look forward to more from you guys and hope the younger folks can enjoy your works and attempt to continue with their own stuff.
Respectfully,
Mike

Bill
Hello Mike. Thanks for the positive comment as it's always pleasing to know that someone has enjoyed reading the work. In my humble opinion it is not necessary to be 'qualified' to make an assessment of anything - especially poetry. If it affects you in whatever way then that surely is qualification enough. I once had an 'expert' poetry critic say to me emphatically that poetry and science are incompatible. My 'assessment' of that remark was to treat it as a challenge and I ended up writing a book entitled 'Scientific Versification'. My assessment being that there is nothing that is impossible in poetry in the same way that everything is possible in your dreams.(Perhaps these two are just manifestations of the same thing!)
Best wishes
Bill.
Peejay

Hello you guys,
Reading your words makes me realize how repressed I am socially....and how I could never write a gossip column!! The ability to discuss ordinary, everyday problems is something I admire in others - but I`ve personally found difficult. If I analyze it (as I tend to do with most things!) it`s probably why though I also write fiction, I call myself a poet....passion and emotion is so much easier to wrap in poetic metaphor, isn`t it?
I loved HAVE YOU SEEN?, Bill. It`s a beautiful tribute. I lost my beautiful, extraordinary wife Gwyneth four years ago after 46 years of marriage. I`ve written many tributes and elegies to her since she died....but, I think, this was the only so-called love poem (published in my first collection thirty years ago!).....

A Castle in the Making

Calm is your fortress.
The bricks are made of marzipan
but the buttresses are purest granite,
patient in the building,
dense and denser by the year.
I am an apprentice
at your heel,
slow, but quickening my skills
by watching you more closely.
In all those years
I never saw you hurry.
Then, suddenly, would appear
another minaret,
a cloister,
terraces trained with bougainvillea
and I wonder at your ease
and how you made them
and when
- but then,
you are a master of your craft.

Bill
Hello Peejay. Thanks for sharing 'A Castle in the Making. A great piece of work! I'm sure you must miss Gwynneth but it is great that you are able to pay tribute to her memory by continuing to write. One of the unique things about a lot of this type of poetry is that it doesn't seem to age so it could have been written today or thirty years ago and still seem relevant.
Keep up the good work.
Best wishes
Bill
JudiA

Thanks to all of you for the kind words about my poetry. I have only "sold" one poem to Harcourt for use in a reading test for 7th graders. I have many contributions over the years to different anthologies, mostly Native publications.
http://nativenewsonline.net/currents/red-indian-road-west-native-american-poetry-from-california-book-launch-hosted-by-heyday-books/

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