May, 2003

...is tranquility

^^^

FOUNTAIN

Chris A. Huff

There is a certain garden

Where the stitches of life are sewn.

And in the middle of this place

Sits a fountain made of stone.

The waters splashing in this place

Are waiting just for you.

The wishes made around its base

Are always coming true.

The faeries of the mountain side

Come fluttering down the mount:

They spread their wings to see the fountain,

Too numerous to count.

They make their way to the open field

To greet the flowers there

They nestle on the stems and leaves,

Thus sweetening the air.

So come, make your way, one by one

To see the special road

Leading to the magic fountain;

Fountain made of stone.

^^^

MUSHROOMS
By: Elizabeth G. Lloyd ©

Mushrooms, fungus heavy topped

Sit upon the soil that’s sopped

Underneath a shady tree

Damp and moist their home must be

Fungi sprouting everywhere

In strong Sun, a mushrooms rare

Some are excellent to eat

Complimenting any meat

Others sweet as they can be

Chocolate truffles’ grow on tree’s

Deep fried, Stir fried, Never dull

Eat the hat off , Then the hull

Watching out for poisonous ones,

That make you sick, and give you runs

So eat your mushrooms to your fill

Avoiding those that sometimes kill

And you’ll have many scrumptious feasts

For “Fun-guy’s” sooth the savage beast…

^^^

Horizon

Benjamin Morris Lyon

what is this fair world

between land and sky?

that lives in all day

and even in night

this outline that stretches

in yonder so high

what is this fair world

between land and sky?

what is all this beauty

that cannot be felt

why when we draw nearer

does it wither and melt

how is it not one

person's sense beside eye

can touch this fair world

between land and sky?

^^^

CAT SCAN

Bruce Rosenbloom

In the waiting room old men with lung tumors and metastasized

prostate cancer look at me.

I could be their son or grandson.

we sip are pina colada flavored contrast syrup and toast each others health and toast to good luck and toast to life

A thin pale women is curled up in her chair while her husband with his back turned away reads a book about the civil war. I am also alone

The narrow steel bed moves forward and then up...
an unseen hand lifts me to vortex to the alter to the divining rod to the wishbone to the casino.

I am stretched . From a world far way, from many years ago

the general electric prerecorded voice says now breath in.. hold it, and that's what I do. For the first action we take in life is to breath in the last action is to breath out.

And up through the white portal my body rises, I am stretched up through the spinning eye, to the white ring, to the light, through the ceiling, through the sky like an x-ray I am exposed

And On this day it is written and on this day it is done

For the rest of the day I am unstuck from time

For the rest of the day I am floating

For the rest of the day I am torn down the middle

of the crossroads

and ..on this day it is written and on this day it is done

for judgment day. For a thousand million days of anilation and rebirth

I make a list and then wonder what happened 82 seconds after launch and wonder could I have turned the swordfish boat around

and wonder if I could of ducked.

and dream that I will get hit by lightning twice while carrying my bolder up the hill. That I will buy a lottery ticket

that someone will light a candle

that I will shave my head and disappear in plain sight

or reappear as the hero or reappear as a child

I dream that I will return to the city of my birth and walk it’s streets following a labyrinth reversing reversing in time always back always back

I dream that I Will escape

but for right now I breath in and hold it.. until next time.

^^^

What if?

Taylor Zimmerman

What if the sky turned green?

What if the grass was blue?

What if my tears stopped falling?

What if I stopped loving you?

What if all color went away?

What if everybody understood?

What if I could change the world?

What if I said all th words I should?

What in the world would I do?

If all impossible things came true?

^^^

Searching Peace

Pushpa Ratna Tuladhar

Staring at the sky of gloomy night

To an edge scanned by his piercing eyes,

The gray haired human,

Grasping his feet hold of his earth

Quaked by the war,

Occupies in his optimum endeavor

To feel sensory experience of

The still of a shining star

That plunged to his planet

By delving with his walking stick

Into numerous groups of the shining stars

Shattered in the sky.

^^^

WINTERSET

By Tom Gilman

There is nothing so sanguine

nor exquisite as this,

Some woodland nocturnal

remote and snow-kissed

There is nothing so splendid

as a mantle of white

All muffled in powder

and shrouded by night

It begins with a flurry

a swift, howling fright

Then calm, and the snowflakes

pristinely alight

First one and then many

from lowering skies

Then heaven descending

as feathers would fly

And when it is over

all swaddled in fleece

The earth as a giant

lies peaceful in sleep.

^^^

The Noise in the Night

Darcy Andrews

Suddenly I heard a noise in the night

I crept out of my bed, to turn on the light

I peered into the hall and saw only darkness

I heard the noise coming from my parent's room,

So I tiptoed down the hallway, not make a sound

I opened the door slowly, trying not to be heard,

The noise was getting louder and louder like a roaring

Then I realized that it was my dad snoring.

^^^

Good Neighbors

Frances Lamm

No where else could we find neighbors as good as you

Not even if we hired a Detective Agency to try and help us to

For you are very kind neighbors, the best there could ever be

It seems you have always been kind, good and neighborly

God didn't put fences around his neighborhood

He wanted us to be friends with our neighbors

and act like good neighbors should

He wanted to treat our neighbors very good

and right

He wanted to us to say good

and how are you tonight

That why God chose people such as you two

to be our very best friends

He knew you would be there for us

even until the end

That is why I am very happy and very proud to say

You are the very best neighbors

in this neighborhood

My poem is to honor you and thank you

for being so good!

^^^

Imagination

by Stacey Lee Smith

Lost in the abyss of my own imagination,

Counting the downfalls of all

my temptations,

I silently creep towards the light,

Out of the darkness,

I risk taking flight.

Born on a wing and a prayer,

turning in circles and

getting nowhere,

Flying through rainbows,

sending clouds on a spin,

In know this time,

imagination will win.

^^^

Deafening Silence

Dolly Taye

Not one echo I hear

Batters the unyielding quietness.

Truth pours: what heeds within shall fear.

I yet splinter the throttle and relish at thy nighness.

As thou tell, I drink from thy pitiless melody the charm of life

As thou see, I heed the lithic cadence that sheds my veil.

Hush, my love. None but thy sight slashes like a knife

Thy hush bespeaks words that drop in my entity like hail.

Withhold it not. More than thou wish I heed

Withhold it not. More than thou wish I see.

Threat I am none. Cease not thy tardy spell that to my day is a seed.

With they I strain at my being. With thee, why shall I yearn to be?

Well, embrace thou shalt! Thou art the archeus art upon my quiddity.

Speak not, loved one. Thy silence speaks far lustily.

^^^

Expectation

by Bill Albright

From those buried in the ground

You will hear silence profound

Lying sheltered from the world of things,

Expect much in this world of beings

Trust yourself more than those who pass by

For you see not their heart, only the eye

Which views a world full of nothings,

Expect much in this world of beings

Life's sum is much more than each part

Live it as your masterpiece of art

The single permance is exiting,

Expect much in this world of beings

(Kyrielle form)

^^^

In The Distance

Doug P. Gillis

In the distance I see a light shining

But up close I see hunger

In the distance I see a cloud moving

But up close I feel pain

In the distance I see a great city

But up close I see slums

In the distance my supper awaits

But up close I sense loneliness

In the distance camp fires are burning

But up close a fire rages

In the distance love abounds

But up close hate is an industry

In the distance I see the

Outline of a horse and rider

But up close immorality reigns

In the distance I hear a mighty rumble

But up close the wind does not even

Ruffle the grass

^^^

MOTHER LAND
Jane's Mom

Imagine a land where queens ruled
mothers who gave life were the ones
the only ones who could take life.

Less prisons, no death rows,
no capital punishment - less courts
only a few judges needed for the motherless.

You see in this land of right, mothers were given
as they had given, the power of life and death
over their own children.

If a mother found her child to lack what she wanted
him or her to be, she like the potter smashing the
crooked pot back into the clay pit, could do likewise.

Think how sons would treat their mothers
if they knew she had the right on any day
to end their life as easily as she let it begin.

Think how daughters would listen to mom
if they knew she only needed to raise her arm
and point her thumb downwards.

If a mother killed her children no one
questioned her right – it was her decision
she alone could decide and do.

Animals live like this and there were times
when this wisdom lived within the bodies
that bore the babies in those days.

Maybe we have lost something we need.

^^^

‘Growing up…’

Merija Gilbert

Mummy can I hold your hand

I feel as though I’m sinking in quick sand

The world is changing oh so fast

Every step takes me further from the past

You watch as I change and evolve

Life’s puzzles I begin to solve

As I become an adult I turn and flee

Scared to loose the child in me

Responsibilities pile in my face

I’m trying hard to find my place

Mummy are you still proud of me

Did I become what you thought I’d be

I put away the barbies and play with real toys

Money, life and naughty boys

Mummy I’m an adult, stuck in a child’s world

All my short-fallings at me you’ve hurled

Now I’m at a precipice unable to move

I’m caught between two different grooves

That of a childhood no longer there

Or that of the adult world, overwhelmed with cares

So mummy I leave you and walk alone

But will you leave me a key so I can still get home?

^^^

THE FIRST COMING THE UNITED WORLD OF AMERICA

Caesar

Power creeps into the mind day by day, moment to moment

Success breeds more success and then certain confidence

The ego expands, arrogance takes over

Domination begins, humanity contracts

The ego for the soul, power now before the coffin

There’s always redemption later

Christ will be there why worry?

Loosen the bonds of morality for the objective.

It’s always been the same since we clocked in

Power, money and lust

The same ‘dreams’, different dreamers

The same route, different props

Carnage and greed suffused into the soul

Turing black what was once pure

History repeating itself

The lessons unlearned

The belief this time it will be different

Why we’re special.

The wrongs escalate; thoughts to deeds

Violence, murder, looting, revolution and conquest

It’s all politics. It’s all business

This is the reality. Accept or die

Better still, fade away before we come

None can stop us, we are all powerful

The air, the sea and the land we control them.

See our airplanes, feel their wrath

See our aircraft carriers, feel their thunder

See our tanks, see our soldiers

All state of the art technology

See the future in the present

Gawk at us and be in awe

Then step aside or be destroyed.

Patriotism moves us. What’s a little loss of lives

Some contractions of liberty for a common good only we can see and understand

The price minor, really insignificant to the greater good in the objective.

Some killings here, some assassinations there

Some manipulations now, some fabrications later

Celluloid to reality and reality twisted to celluloid

Strangling liberty and all means to it

Binding the judicial process to ‘national interests’

Justice an ephemeral, illusory, unachievable, unrealistic aim.

We are the realists

We straddle the globe

Our power supreme

Our wrath and vengeance deadly

Give way or beware.

We are the superpatriots

We run governments

We run the military

We are the industrialists

We are the superbrokers.

We broke the USSR she’s gone, sunk into oblivion forever

We killed communism that opium creed that kills the soul

We are not done

There’s still China, Putin and Chirac.

Putin he’s forgotten who fed, who raised and made him

The Russians? pshaw it’s the CIA

That’s us in one of our faces

He’s got to go democracy has its limits

Against it's originators, the Rule-Makers.

Chirac he’s got to be dealt with

A sly fox in the coop and a dog in the manger

Rice has to think that one through.

China well the bug’s got them

That’ll keep them down.

We got to consolidate

Before we flood her with ‘liberative democracy’

Mao’s long dead and Jiang’s on the way

What’s there to worry?

Rumsfeld can have this one.

So its all tied up, the objective nearly secured

Home Democracy contained by Home Security

Hitler had the ‘Enabling Act (Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich)

We have got our Homeland Security Act (Executive Department of the US)

None of these constitutional or fundamental rights

We’ve traded them in to contain terrorism

That’s what the twin towers was all about

Might with no boundaries

Rights subservient to National Security

This is the new America

We’ve done our founding fathers proud.

There will be challenges it will come

The Supreme Court should go but it’s not time

Anyhow, we only need 5 of these ‘buggers’

Law is right up Ashcroft’s alley

Dick best keep an eye on this

None of this Warren stuff, Douglas can choke

Hugo’s long gone and Brennan’s with him

Brandeis is the past, Rehnquist's the future.

He understands the big picture its called National Security

We’ll decide what’s national about the security

We are the superpatriots we know best.

So where else are the challenges going to come

The newspapers and the media and the news stations

Its called the “First Amendment”

Well we have fixed that.

We own the owners who own the reporters

Sack any die-hards or rattle their skeletons

It does not really matter so long as they print our news

And the stations that needs some thinking

Best give it to cerebral Jessie his last gift before he meets Christ or the cousin.

Disinformation, misinformation, fabrications, manipulations

All means to march to a noble end

It was necessary, it remains necessary

A new world order out of the disorder.

The United Nations will buckle

Kofi best suckle or return to his roots

That’s Powell’s job. Its in the family.

What international laws are they talking about John?

We’ve got the gold and the might and the oil

We damn well make the law

Don’t they all understand!

International law has been replaced by US law

And US law means republican law

And Republican law means the White House

And the White House, well that’s us

The superpatriots.

It was us that liberated and then decimated the First Nations

Geronimo is dust. Sitting Bull lies on his back dead

Red Cloud is no more

They have their reservations

We have America.

Lincoln’s no longer relevant

Anyhow we’ve been around with Stanton all the time

Perfection comes with time, some patience and body counts

The New World Order is finally here

America rise to your occasion, to your time

It’s your destiny to become

"The United World of America"

That's UWA for short.

Then we’ll look at Space

And when that’s done,

we’ll see about God.

^^^

American Integrity

Dawn E. Wright

Our Country's safety was at stake..

thousands of innocents he did take..

Americans shocked, pained, and grieving,

united we stood, and kept believing,

our traditions outweighed dollar cost,

reaching out in remembrance of loved ones lost.

Looking beyond Hussein's violent intrusion,

we sought to rid the world of his delusions.

Even angered; America wouldn't retaliate,

our compassion drove us to invalidate,

the reigning power of a deemed mad man-

for twelve long years, we urged this plan.

The U.S. Military took to arms,

willing to protect us all from harm.

Our families, our children, and our land,

while delivering freedom across desert sands.

From new recruit to our respected war Vets,

thousands volunteered to remove the threat.

Sacrificing their lives for our Flag,

Saddam WILL FALL, HIS HEAD they will drag,

down roads our soldiers will repave,

releasing Iraq from a monster depraved.

Our troops wear well their bravery:

their mission to dismantle this slavery.

America's courageous come in peace,

banishing famine, providing water and feast.

Buildings rebuilt, Iraqi society restored,

children..the future, shall starve no more.

The changes dramatic, apparent, accute,

ALL AMERICAN SOLDIERS, we proudly salute.

Our Eagle soars high, our Flag waves revered,

Honor, Integrity, and Courage, have persevered.

^^^

It’s America

-Charles Turlington

Land of the free?

It may be so,

But it is ruled through an underworld of hatred.

Influences work their powerful, seductive magic.

Like herds of buffalo, people blindly follow leaders;

Whatever the leader wants,

Our teachers, parents, and role models do.

What an example.

At least that explains our nation’s children:

Where strangers know your innermost secrets

While rumors and lies spread like wildfire.

Innocents are hurt in the rush towards conclusions;

In the rush towards instant satisfaction.

Our nation’s children,

Like flocks of scavenging birds,

Swarming from person to person,

Stripping them bare,

Bare to the bone.

What is done about it?

Nothing.

But,

Hey,

Who cares?

It’s America.

^^^

Persecution

Sammy Schutte

they make fun of you for doing

they pick on you for listening

They hurt you for acting

they punch you for reading

They persecute you for believing

^^^

Forget It not

Jill Jones

You think we for got

How About Not

We Still Remember

That Day IN September

YOu THink God told you

How about Saddam told you

What Americas got

You will forget it not

^^^

'Delude Deity'
Isaak

The clamor is heard

Ritual begun

Ambrosia devoured

Feast begun

Soak the dove in red

Bring it on my plate

Serve that holy spirit to my taste

But yes,

His apathetic lackluster-

scarcely shines a dark shadow,

A shadow that makes children cry

After their incipient childhood,

They see the bitter disemboweling verity,

Truth so acerbic it makes a transmutation

to their prefatorial deceivers

Feel; Rancor is heard

Say; Diatribe waters

Do; Beast sprouts

^^^

Underfilled and vastly oversmeared

In breadcrumb heaven stranded

On milk top mountains snowy dew

Round fires breathing warmly

Entwingletwangled turps and thyme

Before the hours melteth

In oak clustered bookshelves resting snug

Above the dark veranda.

Anton

^^^

Worlds In Need Of Love

by Jonathan Armour

Time seeps too quickly into memory

For those continuing to forget

And is made so hard to see

By clouds of foolishness and regret.

Most only learn true merit

Of things once seen as illimitable

When it is too late to use it

For use other than those that are inexcusable.

Life is far too short

To be held back by unnecessary inhibition

We must fulfill our want to court

Despite our fear of rejection.

So if you take my word

And try to be less materialistic

Life will be more filled with accord

For love is all that is found realistic.

^^^

THE DREAM WE SHARED LAST NIGHT

By Del Senkbeil

I still can see you smile at me,

While the firelight was gleaming.

'I love you so,' you whispered low.

I knew I must be dreaming.

A bearskin rug, a fireplace,

Two arms that held me tight.

Oh, darling, it was heavenly,

The dream we shared last night.

You whispered that you loved me,

And then you dimmed the light.

You kissed me oh, so tenderly,

In the dream we shared last night.

The way my heart was singing,

Made everything seem right,

Our love became complete, my dear,

In the dream we shared last night.

It was just a dream, my darling,

But it filled me with delight.

Forever I'll remember,

The dream we shared last night.

^^^
Fine
Franchier Chambers

Fine curves and thick thighs - that's me

No need to change me because i'm just fine.

Fine curves and thick thighs you see me you see them .

You see females with this figure then misuse this figure then wind up pregnant and loose there figure, that's so not me.

Fine words express a fine woman ,so pay that man no mind because he ain't worth a dime.

Why because he will find words like bitches and hoes non like a royal rose because you want open your legs or give him head .

For my ladies go sip on you some wine and experience the fineness.

Let God find the time to find you a gentleman that's way more than fine and want waste your precious fine time.

Fine don't give me what's my mines but let me tell you that a black woman's fineness will never be lost .

Never forgotten .

Never curable .

Never impervious.

Never ephemeral.

But it will always be blatant to the eye abstruse to the mind ,but for us women we will always know that by us being fine we will be true inside.

^^^

SIX HAIKU POEMS

Richard H. Williams

Kentucky Derby

At Louisville’s Churchill Downs.

Funny Cide won it!

A trip to Key West,

green-blue waters and blue skies,

not far from Cuba.

Red string bikinis,

uncovering much tan flesh.

Pleasing to the eyes!

Sex sex sex sex sex!

It constantly fills my mind.

When will I be free?

The scent of pizza

with all the ingredients.

Oh, so delicious!

Acrylics dry fast,

oil paint is slow in drying,

pastel makes me sneeze.

^^^

Country roads home

listening to beauty

through static

Ellen G. Olinger

^^^

am i on the verge of accomplishment

in what i want to be,

or is this just another raise in the stakes

in the pipedream that makes me,

i try and i try but no matter how hard i try

i can barely see,

the crest in the road of this long steep hill that lies ahead of me.

now should i just sit on the side of this road and watch,

see how others do,

ill see the places they falter and stumble and fall

maybe off them ill learn and push on through,

or should i just close my eyes and walk,

have this crest as my only concern,

while others just sit on the side of this road,

my progress and pain a lesson they learn.

now which is the best,

to try or to test,

maybe you can sit too long,

while learning off others your goal disappears

to someone who tried though blind but strong,

but what if i try,

what if i fall,

what if i lose my way,

well its better to try than do nothing at all,

ill be happy with that come what may.

stuart turner

^^^

GEORGE, GEORGE, HE IS GREAT,

HE GAVE US ALL THOSE INCOME TAX BREAKS,

HE STOLE FROM THE POOR, AND GAVE TO THE RICH,

NOW LIFE IS REALLY A XITCH,

BUT TO WAR, TO WAR, TO WAR WE MUST GO,

THE BOOMS MUST FALL, AND THE BLOOD MUST FLOW,

A RICH MANS WAR AND A POOR MANS FIGHT,

AS FAMILIES STRUGGLE TO KEEP FOOD AND LIGHTS

BUT PLASTIC AND DUCK-TAPE WILL SAVE OUR NATION,

AS OUR PRESIDENT RULES FROM HIS SECRET, SECURED, LOCATION.

WE ONCE HAD FRIENDS WE NOW CALL FOE

AS WE FIND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

THAT WE ONCE SOLD.

USERF

^^^

Shall I not open the door to the garden; an ardent pull attracts me to the scent of lilies wafting on the wind. As my words stroked your ear you hardened as if you sensed pernicious intent sent by my query, though you grinned.

And so I opened up the door of painted wood it seemed so old, as if time lived inside its cracks its hinges creaked like pain untold. But with a last tug of my arm the door was prized from times tight grip, and by my side I heard a gasp of awe escape your painted lips.

You entered through the archway and I followed close behind, your eyes were opened in amazement at the majesty inside. Another world an ancient garden like I had never seen before, had survived and thrived alone behind that old and massive door.

We stood ten minutes still in wonder as though entranced by unseen spells. Before we found our feet and blundered simply drinking in the smells.

Intoxicated by aromas that few ever had endured, this place seemed perilously fair to me unspoiled and untoured.

I searched for you after what seemed like many hours of delight, wandering the mews that zigzagged like a wayward kite. Until I came upon a cottage built of stone and worse for wear, it was derelict and shabby and in need of vast repair.

There in the shadow of a window box that slumped with growth and age, grew a slew of waist high bushes all adorned with scarlet sage. On the path before me lay a small bouquet of flora spread, It seems you came this way indeed but now where has your fancy led?

I stooped to gather to me scattered blooms like ruins in your wake, you are likely off along another flowered path you cant be slaked. But when I reared my head my face fell and my legs began to quake, for before me you lay lifeless who knew so much was at stake.

Your body stripped of life beneath that bush of blood red scarlet sage, a tragic ending though impending you were brash and young in age. In your left fist you tightly hold a stem and one red flower, one final breath you met your death by strangulation in the bower.

I stood and watched you for a while I couldn't force my legs to leave, you look so peaceful like you're sleeping but your not and so I grieve. I steeled myself and turned to go I heaved a sigh with forceful breath, but as I did another bloom grew on that bush to mark your death.

Ryan Russell

^^^