Fairytale Poetry

What
Piece
Makes
Me
What
I
Am;
Am
I
At
Home
At
Home
Or
At
Home
Abroad;
Or
Simply
Alone
At
Home
And
Abroad

No one 
Hears
The
Silent
Screams
Swimming
Through
The
Air;
A
Line
No
Longer
Connects
As
Others
Cross
Worn
Paths
Moving
Unaware
Through
Time

Conscience
pulls
and
pushes
down
paths
of
lions
and
lambs;
Constancy
exists
in
that
rats
relentlessly
enter
the
fray
and
fight
all

White
castles
in
the distance
just
beyond
reaching
Hands
as
white
Rain
splits
the
Horizon;
smiling
cheeks
distract
at
the Mirror’s
edge
pulling
red
drapes
across
the
Stage
for
another
encore

Arrows
Pierce
the Heart
and
Mind
leaving
Holes
of
darkness
and
Light
for
Discovery

About 20 years ago I started to dabble in writing poetry while in graduate school. When recently cleaning out old boxes from two moves ago, I stumbled across below initial attempts stuffed in one of the many manilla file folders of old college notes bound for the trash can. I capture these here for posterity to show some of my original themes that began floating around in my head and heart at that time. They are not dated and my best guess is they came about sometime in 1993. The paper smells musty and has indentations across the top of each that seem to be from a metal spiral notebook–both pages even have rust in the long forgotten indentations. Enjoy the poems just as I left them many years ago.

Duality

Poetry or Prose
Both or neither
One or other
I pick so you decide. I have had to
work my body to be fit, work my brain
to be smart, or was it the other way?
My wife reminds, “You need a balance!”
So don’t go overboard.
I eat, study, sleep.
I eat, body build, study, sleep.
I eat, teach, study, body build, sleep.
I used to be either this or that
Now I am who am I?
I am who I am and I do what I do
and I’m happy.

CHARADE

Two words
are said–
both mask

The inner
self
sleeps,
for truth
is not
reflected in
these utterances

And so
the message
is a
mask,
a false
one that’s
received

The other
seeks to
understand
this message
gone awry–
and does
Throwing back
one masked
as well

Now
the original
intent
being lost,
Time and tears
tear at the
many masks

Until,
one
takes a
chance
and reveals
the inner self–
its slumber
now
interrupted

The truth
is
spoken and
masks soon
fall
as love
is
understood

Two words
are said–
both reveal

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Fairytales0397. All rights reserved.

What
Do 
I
Do
As
The
Worn
Path
Winds
And
Pulls
But
Does
Not
Reveal;
Hope
For
Another
Twenty

Push,
pull
no
one
seems
to
be
listening

Silent
empty
spaces
appear
to
be
filled
with
others
@#!
choices

And
in
the
end
and
beginning
agency
unites
and
separates

The
odor
of
decaying
senses
rushed
in
with
the
choking
breath
of
a
sapling
hiding
among
the
weeds
of
time

Birds
seen
and
ignored
by
watchers
watching
a
silent
approach
to
a
chosen
history
fly,
live,
and
die
discretely