Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.
Robert Frost
Poet's Sites
Member's Poems
Joseph Pacheco The Night Before Christmas on Sanibel Isle
Pelicans Are Uneasy
Carol Drummond December
Little Red Bird
Mari Hopp A Poem for October
Betzi Abram A Poem for "Older" Computer Users
Mary Beth Lundgren Wild Man of the North
The Night Before Christmas on Sanibel Isle
By Joseph Pacheco
(Broadcast on WGCU, 12-24-07)
‘Twas the night before Christmas on Sanibel Isle,
Not a gator was stirring, nor our one crocodile.
The Roseate Spoonbills wore pink underwear
While Blue Herons were sleeping legs up in the air.
The shops had been emptied of I-Pods and stones,
And last-minute shoppers dialing cell phones.
The Drawbridge Protection was in its last throes,
And from Lake Okachobee poured freshwater woes.
But I with my Flo-Max and Ma with Botox
Were just settling down to our new cable Box,
When all of a sudden nothing bright did appear,
A Lee County Light outage — the two hundredth this year.
The cordless phones in an instant went dead,
No television programs to be watched while in bed.
But the land line we’d kept and the cellular phone
Brought assurance from police we weren’t alone.
When would lights go on? —the police had no clue,
But ‘twas holiday season and they were only a few:
The rest had all gone to Bell Tower Fair
In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.
The generator purchased after Charlie’s big blow
Had gone back to Costco when FEMA said no.
So with one trusty flashlight we walked to the beach,
Met snowbirds collecting every shell within reach.
The moon shining down on red seaweed below
Made some of us wish we had stayed north with snow.
But Sanibel’s no-see-ums not blinded by light
Had all come to wish us Merry Christmas that night.
So back to our houses we ran like a flash,
Closed all our windows and pulled down the sash,
Called Lee County Electric on our cellular phone —
Their message informed us they had all gone home:
In the spirit of Christmas they were proud to say,
An emergency crew would work Christmas Day.
Till then, it concluded, cheerful and bright,
"Merry Christmas to customers, from Lee County Light."
************************************
Pelicans Are Uneasy
By Joseph Pacheco
(Telecast on Fox News, March 15, 2007)
Pelicans are uneasy, the gulls grim,
Umbilical drawbridge will be severed soon,
On Sanibel Causeway the cause is dim.
A fixed bridge rising high from rim to rim
Ready to block full view of the moon,
Pelicans are uneasy, the gulls grim.
No grates to raise, no warning bell to ring,
Cruise ships and tankers under each pontoon,
On Sanibel Causeway the cause is dim.
No orange sunset on San Carlos brim
While eighteen wheelers thunder out of tune,
Pelicans are uneasy, the gulls grim.
Day-trippers wait for the tolls to trim,
City and county each other impugn,
On Sanibel Causeway the cause is dim.
Pile drivers pound and gone is the dream
Of gated island from mainland immune.
Pelicans are uneasy, the gulls grim,
On Periwinkle Way the cause is dim.
*************************************
December
by Carol Drummond
We fold another year
Like the last page of a calendar
Its promises now history
Its tomorrows now yesterdays.
Time tucks it softly in a drawer
Beribboned
To join past years’ moments
Some bidden
Some not.
Each carries its own scent
Casts its own hue.
We recognize the fragrance
Of hope and gratitude
The blue skies of birth
And the gray which stains our losses.
December – a month, a history.
December speaks our past.
December promises a new page.
*********************************************************************************************************
Little Red Bird
By Carol Drummond
Did you think you found your Love again
When you kissed that mirror
Just before you flew away,
Little
Pretty
Redbird?
Or did you fly
(The only thing you could do)
Because you knew it wasn’t him
And
Never, ever
Could be?
********************************************************
A POEM FOR OCTOBER
by Mari Hopp
From out of the sky came a great
orange ball
as if dancing in the clouds carefree and bold
ageless endless, announcing the harvest to all
face within smiling seeming to mean
that it is invincible, creative not green.
It is the moon...alluring, endless, master of the
night
giving romance to some in its light
evidence of God in His Almighty.
****************************************************************************
A POEM FOR "OLDER" COMPUTER USERS
by Betzi Abram
A Computer was something on TV
From a Science Fiction show of note
A Window was something you hated to clean
And Ram was the father of a goat.
Meg was the name of a girlfriend
And Gig was a job for the nights
Now they all mean different things
And that really Mega Bytes.
An
Application was for employment
A Program was a TV show
A Cursor used profanity
A Keyboard was a piano.
A Memory was something that you lost with age
A CD was a bank account
And if you had a 3-inch floppy
You hoped nobody found out.
Compress was something you did to the garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you Unzipped anything in public
You'd be in jail for a while.
Log on was adding wood to the fire
Hard drive was a long trip on the road
A Mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a Backup happened to your commode.
Cut you did with a pocket knife
Paste you did with glue
A Web was a spider's home
And a Virus was the flu.
I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the Memory in my head.
I hear nobody's been killed in a Computer crash
But when it happens they wish they were dead.
WILD MAN OF THE NORTH
Mary Beth Lundgren
Sun and summer roses gone,
Wild November stands,
Hands on hips, alone.
Gray-lined fur cloak, open, flaps.
“Time to work,” he roars,
Then laughs.
Green, rust, gold, all color
gone,
Wild November’s breath
Ruffles lakes, alone.
Ground aches, frozen, cracked
with cold.
“Snow! Come down!” he yells,
and blows.
Mums and tart-sweet apples
gone,
Mother Nature calls.
Tired November sniffles,
scuffles leaves, comes
home,
And sleeps.