Category: Poems

The Sprawl

When God looked outside himself

He did not see love hate

Water fire sulfur salt

He saw possibility

In all its infinite glory

Gene G. McLaughlin 2017

Fluctus Virtus Defluxit

Rome had elements
We now call by different names
We judge them harshly
Assigning their actions blame
Are the sounds of Nero’s fiddle
And strikes of the golf ball the same?
Gene G. McLaughlin 2017

Tomorrow

I’ll take what moments I get
I’ll try to say something true
I’ll unclench my fist
I’ll follow the wind with my eyes
Tomorrow
Gene G. McLaughlin 2017

Resurrection Esoterica

What happens when the mysteries dry up?

The questions you had

When it began

Today

Solemnly

Watching the cars go by

Metal birds without song

What do they sound like

To the robin soaring above?

To him

Below are quarries and mines

Hot pavement

Metals stones glass and heat

Specks of seed, trees and meat

Loss dots this world

Like flowers in a field

Constant in its attempts

To crack through

To claim

To conquer

To forget

Everything is reborn

That the robin can see

The nature of everything

Twists deforms destroys dies and denies

That its time is over

Or at least the question it posed

Is answered

To some

Resurrection is the birth

Of questions without answers

The placement of layers

Around the core

Waiting

For when the blank slate of inquiry

Begins it again

Gene G. McLaughlin 2017

The Long View

I cannot ease your pain

Include suffering in your expectations

Conscious existence in full contains

Elated joys and sorrowful lamentations

Gene G. McLaughlin 2017

A Poem That Makes Me Think of the 20th Century

For most of last year whenever I heard the phrase ‘Make America Great Again’ I thought of this poem. It isn’t a political poem, for me it just evokes the mixed bag the 20th century was. It seems like all I hear or see is unfettered optimism or profound despair in the last few years. I try not to feel either too strongly when they start to set in. They don’t seem like the truth if I just wait a moment and think. Having romantic nostalgia for the past is just as dangerous as is viewing it in the darkest of terms.

 

Sirens and Bird Calls

The sirens and bird calls

Merge in the distance

Becoming one to my ears

Both are alerts of an oncoming storm

I can see the shadow of what approaches

It’s outline partitioned by the bright sun

No storm ever comes as one

It comes in parts

What you choose to brace for

Wind

or

Water

or

Lightning

or

Mud

Depends on where you’re standing

Gene G. McLaughlin 2017

MLK Day 2017

Beyond the tight binary loops

That bind and divide simultaneously

Beyond the preselected groups

Driving us toward homogeneity

Beyond the demarcation which dilutes

The resilient strengths of humanity

Lie the path to love’s roots

The beginnings of equanimity

Out of which shoots

New growths of solidarity

Gene G. McLaughlin 2017

First Line To A Poem-

Everything I Love Is True . . .

Feel free to complete the poem in comments, I would love to hear what people have to say.

 

 

The Other Guy’s Version of Empathy

The subject was pain

Not related to you

Only what me

And mine

Have been through

Empathy is

My needs met

With little

Or no

To do

From you

Gene G. McLaughlin 2016