Poetry Corner [I]

So I'm a bit of a poet, in case you didn't know it!

In the spirit of sharing I thought I'd post some of my work here occasionally. My poetry goes back over 25 years and although much of it still remains only on paper and in notebooks, I have a private archive online to dip into, in addition to more recent work. I shall post a new poetry corner article every now and then, each with 3 poems, past or present, that seem relevant in whatever way.

Here's today's offerings..

Pressing Buttons

Pressing buttons

Every day’s the same

Shards of old glass

Echoes of past shame

Gotta’ move forward

Press keys more

Expose the diseased core

In hope of a cure

Good shit happening

Amongst the despair

A few small miracles

And greying hair

Press the buttons

Reveal the truth

Illusions vanish

With fading youth

Pressing buttons

Assemble a page

Growing up now

And acting my age

[06.07.2018]

Maintaining

Walking with head held high,

Staring through the bright sunlight,

Even though it pains the neck

And burns right into the eyes.

Smiling at the passers by,

Greeting all with positive regard,

Even when everything inside

Makes positivity so fucking hard.

Troubles come and troubles go,

So onward ever one must march,

No matter how hard one falls

One must get up and stand tall.

Even when the mask slips,

And slip it will, if only occasionally,

One has to gather up shadows

And slide the pieces back together.

Never let that head bow

To the relentless fucking pressure,

It’s never pointless, honestly,

These things are meant to test us.

Make mistakes, gifts of learning

Take one to a higher place,

Embrace fleeting happy moments,

Make memories, and never forget.

[18.07.2018]

Passed It

Same place, same old passing the time,

But everything is so very different

It’s been more than 25 years, if a day,

Yet somehow everything has changed.

This shit, this absolutely everything,

Nothing has ever really shifted much

Yet intrinsically and paradoxically

Everything is totally transformed.

What’s real is growth beyond belief,

And awareness beyond all reckoning.

Never could we have imagined this

Nor thought this change happening.

By far, the overwhelming fears

Have been conquered and left behind,

Despite ourselves we’ve moved on

Leaving only the empty shells.

So I’m drifting a while with a smile,

With no real humour behind its façade

The moon is the same but shame is gone,

I’m shimmering silently beneath.

This feeling is complete, no need

To contemplate reasons beneath.

Fuck the past, I’ve passed all of that,

I'm content to just sit and be.

[01.07.2018]

Copyright ©2018 Richard C. Greenlow. All rights reserved.