I Need to Write a Poem

I need to write a poem

I seek the flight of a poem

I plead no rest till I wrest this poem from this pen


I need to write a poem to my estranged love

And poke the embers of a fire fading cold

If solely to prove there is no more to prove


I need to write a poem for a damsel I chanced on

A damsel who day after day haloes my spirit with a hello

A poem on how the world can have no more to ask for


I need to write a poem for my sister

Tell her I’ll make it in time for Christmas

And why I couldn’t be there for Easter


I need to write a poem on the war we wage

A crusade on a neighbor that will echo for ages

A bloody trail to drive between us a greater wedge


I need to write a poem on a heroine

On the day I awoke to the dimming of a setting sun

As a prophetess embarked, and a planet mourned


I need to write a poem on a king in the great desert

How he betrayed his subjects when they dared rebel

And how they rose to maim him in the dirt


I need to write a poem to my grandchildren

Recount them a tale of a time beforehand

An account of an existence ever more uneven

The Wanderers

We have traversed lowly earth

Gropped for the grand worth

Charred the wood of our youth

Sought out a heavenly truth

If only we could halt our fray

Give our minds and hearts a chance at play

Listen to the timeless prudence

Turned over at birth and at demise

A collective rhythm entombed in us

Thumping to rally our purpose

The only secret we will ever bear

One that would be splendid to share

Courage would uncover at our feet

To lead us on paths brightly lit

In spite of brief bleak shadows

We'd be prodded on by inner glows

Like assurance from the azure sunset

That tomorrow is indeed godsent

The Musing King

He had reigned unmoved on his throne

A medieval upheaval's brute stone

Hunched forward, like a sage

Eager to drink from a new page

A slit, a sail listening to seasons' wind

All around, singing a prayer for a flare of mind

Revering evenings' distant heights

Eavesdropping on nightly celestial lights

Diligently slipping on, the bold mask

Untangling alien cords, dawn till dusk

Enforcing a bullish decree of silence

An unyielding fortress of quiet assurance

Indeed, time brimmed the cup he had sought

Overflowing through dykes dug by thought

He stood, beheld far and below his dome

A road that already forked before his home

Picked his staff, for it had stood stout

When all about, had but trusted doubt

Bound his robe on on a rested shoulder

Ready for voyage, a conqueror's era

His earlier traps would be his abiding maps

His sooner triumphs would be his sterling caps

Yet another guileless late bloomer

Scouring within, for a redeemer