[SupaNova]

Following in Senior Modlin's footsteps, I'm designating this thread as a dumping ground for all of my poetic outbursts this month. And of course, any comments you feel like sharing about anything you read in here are more then welcome.

[SupaNova]

with compliments to the architects of Atlantis

The greatest nations
[they will presume]
Were built of gold,
Iron,
Of steel, or rock

And while their voices
Have long been
Stilled
Through wreckage
And ruins
They still might talk

But the wisest nations
[i dare suggest]
Were built of straw and
Small mistakes

For when that age
Had met its
Match (es?)
Anything left
___Simply
_____Blew
_______Away

[SupaNova]

an Irish drought

Tonight was spent, or rather,
This evening was drowned
In canals of flooded senses
Drenched by lights;
Soaked in sounds:
Flags, drumsticks,
Plastic bayonets

Before I left,
Pitched a coin into
The great, numinous depth
And waited…
.....
...
.....
…for the splash
That never replied
So it was, instead,
With a thud I asked for luck
Bribing a gymnasium floor

***************
Ahead of high school doors,
I observed the spring sky
Surprisingly poignant tonight
Hmmph.
Rich in all my well water

[SupaNova]

I am become Jon Foreman

The voicemail display,
Beautiful & bright,
Challenges me into motion
Beckons me to rise
To tell my story right where I fell
For a thousand miles away,
I embellish for effect
Of course,
There is a young
Virtuoso (with a
Poem in her head &
Feet like the insides
Of a clock), at the
Multitask of doing
Her laundry while
Losing herself in a
World of wizardry, or
Debauchery (whatever truth
Makes you feel
Better)
Perhaps in vain,
I have tried to follow
In her chronometer foot falls
Only to discover that
I have no patience
For books, so I’ll
Watch the movie
But that’s just me
Only, I question if
I am the type of me
That she would long
To be held by,
And as the connection
Is brought into being
I pray the Lord to speak
Life within this recording
(In essence, for a sign)
“No”. At least, “Not yet”
…So…
…Let there be enlightenment?
It’s okay. She doesn’t need to know
I was born this Friday
Twenty-three years ago

[SupaNova]

Boulderdash

Faith, you have heard it said,
Can move mountains. Fact.
To me, this seems a bit excessive
When all I wish to do is
Roll a measly pebble down
A steep hill.

How I envy the muster seed.

[Skeeter]

Ha! "Boulderdash" has some nice potential. With a little polish post-NaPo, it could be a gem.

[SupaNova]

Jeshurun fought the Law (and the Law won)

A cautionary tale in 11 parts

Othniel
I dash into the nearest phone booth
Exchanging my sandals and cloak for
The spirit of Yahweh and a calligraphic ‘J’
Stamped across my chest
My uncle wandered many decades
Just to save this ship of fools
Likewise, I do not intend to let it sink
Beneath waves of milk and honey now
They can be a great people if they wish to be
For this reason, my Father has sent me to fight

Ehud
A bold warrior would rather go down with fists blazing
Then live out the monotony of a happy ending,
Though some prefer to be as sly as sirens
And whoever said that the pen is mightier
Then the sword was, obviously, not left-handed

Shamgar
The son of Anath defeated six hundred men
With the common tools of a farmer
To translate this phenomena into
A modern-day tongue is to say
Shagmar was an ancient Dwight Shrute,
Brimming with righteous anger
Assistant to the Regional Lord Almighty

Deborah
Is God a feminist?
Like the variables of eating
A tootsie-pop, I’m afraid the world
May never know for certain
Regardless, Jael’s dope skills
With a tent peg make my adrenaline boil
Not to mention that, of all His judges,
I like to think Christ would have
Gladly recommended
Deborah’s axiom above the rest:
‘Just sit under a palm tree and sing’

Gideon
The angel of the Most High found a politician
Threshing wheat in an old winepress
So it came to pass that
The weakest man
From a weaker family
In the weak tribe of Manasseh

Saved his country with torches, trumpets and empty jars

In youth, Gideon wisely declined a kingdom
In old age, he broke the second commandment
Luther staged a godly revolution in youth
He became a frustrated anti-Semite in old age
Should I reach retirement full of years,
I pray that my faith will not age alongside me

Abimelech
Abimelech is a thorn bush
Consumed in fire
(But not the holy kind)
Whose friends turn on him
Including his shield-bearer
(Not out of malice, but because
Abimelech is a sexist)

Jotham Jerub-Baal was correct,
Justice always prevails

Tola & Jair
The son of a Dodo and a man
Whose lucky number is thirty
Glimmer, briefly, and they are spent

Jephthah
How strange, this holy nation
The only memoir we have of them
Is their insatiable knack for…
…that’s right, forgetting.
So God sends them the son of
A prostitute to jog their memories
Which only intensifies the tragedy
(This is a tragedy, right? Not another
Lesson in sheer stupidity?)
Of a hero signing his
Only daughter’s execution papers
By word of [arrogant] mouth
The same mouth which
Sparked a civil war
Redeem, rinse, repeat.

Izban, Elon & Abdon
First a whisper, then silence

Then your Father, who sees
what is done in secret, will reward you.

Samson
These big hands are so, so frail
They ripped beasts in two
Yet fell prey to temptation’s skin
Creamy, kissed by the sun
These big hands once killed for sport
They slew whole armies
With the jawbone of an ass
Perhaps you really are what you wield

Heracles gave nods to the story
Regina tried to rewrite the whole thing
They both missed the point

These big hands, for one last stretch
Blindly reach out for chiseled stones
And touch
Something like salvation

Samuel
After the Benjamites discover shiny new wives
After the kinsmen-redeemer blesses his bride
After relics of a concubine reach the tribes
After Micah commits an expensive sin
After a priestly line turns into wind
A final judge appears
(his mother is blue, not a drunkard)
Afterwards, he will usher in a new era
O Israel, hear my desperate plea

Be careful what you wish for.

[SupaNova]

Apathy

As Sól initials her painting of
The woods out back in strokes
Of orange, crimson and violet
I pause,
Absentmindedly clutching half
A glass of iced tea
Nursing a hunch that I should
Decide whether my drink has been
Filled or drained
Instead, I search for a coaster

[SupaNova]

Little Mac makes a comeback

Duck. Swivel. Jerk.
Retract. Release.
In that order.
This is a common formula
For success, never mind
That few things
In this universe are, absolutely

It is a secret aspiration of mine
(Morpheus is well aware) to
Trump my peers, who tower in
The guise of gods, with nothing
But nice, clean blows and the
Clichéd hope tucked away
In my back pocket
Sadly, I have been blessed
With too much height
To make such a feat meaningful
Also, a pair of stylish green fists
This last desire is optional, of course

[SupaNova]

The scab on your left knee

It’s not that I don’t wish to talk to you
Or that I don’t know how to hold up
My end of a conversation,
Quite the contrary,
From opposed ends
Of an antique table,
I long to listen intently,
You just mumble
And it’s tricky for you to notice
The air of facetiousness
I inhale through my face
(For 5 seconds jaunts)
With that cardboard box crowning your head
A friend of mine made that mistake once
Tripped over a thicket of thorns
Ambles with a limp now

…Seen any good landmines lately?

[Nate]

Originally Posted by SupaNova

Jeshurun fought the Law (and the Law won)

A cautionary tale in 11 parts

Dude, this is great. Very well-conceived. Some parts are a bit hackney, but this could be really, really great.

[SupaNova]

Thanks Nate, I'm glad you enjoyed that particular piece. It's definately one that I want to go back to later and tinker around with some more. Actually, I just reread it and there are only two (maybe three) parts that I like as is. The rest of them need some retooling or expanding, I think.

[Nate]

Originally Posted by SupaNova

Thanks Nate, I'm glad you enjoyed that particular piece. It's definately one that I want to go back to later and tinker around with some more. Actually, I just reread it and there are only two (maybe three) parts that I like as is. The rest of them need some retooling or expanding, I think.

Othniel, Ehud, and Samson were my favorites. Aside from "Izban, Elon & Abdon," that is.

Those three lines, two shamelessly plagiarized, hardly count as poetry, but they're wonderful.

[SupaNova]

The Peacekeepers

I knew this professor, briefly
He brought donuts in pink boxes
One dreary night
At the profane hour of eight am
(Out of a sort of kindness, I end up
With a few of the leftovers, only
To be kindly snubbed later by the
Cute girl in French class) He also
Makes a vow that morning to thirty something
Bowed heads (half of them possibly asleep, the
Other half no doubt envious)
This visionary had a dream to
Write one of those classic novels,
Only with this added twist:
His story would demand
A happy ending
I don’t believe he had delusions of
Grandeur, from a lack of caffeine or
The consequences of a late
Night bong that went bad,
No this was one of those
Rare glimpses of a human heart
(The scholar’s feet never
Left the drab carpeting once)
A single spec cannot a changed world make,
Came the conclusion, yet from a fiction,
From cosmic egg to ragnorök,
Surely he can bend events in such a way
To obey a script where good people
Ultimately reap their due (not because reality works
This way, but simply because he can)
And in this way, perhaps, he will change the world
.....Months, perhaps almost a year pass,
......I am contemplating his silly words
.....Rolling the syllables on my tongue
.....Careful as a crab fisherman
.....Trying to construct the perfect synonym
....For frustration

[Nate]

Wow. "Peacekeepers" is really good, too. Really.