Tag: Poetry

I Give Thanks To The Dawn

I give thanks to the dawn

With a nod of my head to the sun

Birds chip in thanks for the heat

I’ve wonder this world is not yet undone

Gene G. McLaughlin 2016

Scraggly Haggard Tree

Scraggly haggard tree
Sitting in the winter sun
Sighing out a plea
For the cold to be done
Winter just replies
Grow your bark thicker son
Some might be prone to hurry
But this old man ain’t one
Gene G. McLaughlin 2016

Karma’s Weave

Karma’s not a cruel bitch
It’s a teacher
Reflected in the glass
As times endless needles stitch
A tapestry
Of all moments past
Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

I Google My Thoughts

I Google my thoughts

To known they’re originals

Some are bought

Most are aboriginal

My mind’s fraught

In search of the seminal

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

I Think Our Eyes Are Aliens

I think our eyes are aliens

Our ears the souls of snails

The nose a mermaid’s mouth

Our tongues the whiskers of whales

Us which came and combined together

Willed ourselves to become one

To think, to feel, to perceive

For promised aware enlightenment

Of which it turned out there was none

The promise was a temptation

A ruse, which came to deceive

Now our minds burdened heavy with consciousness

And a past choice for which

Our combined evolved hearts do grieve

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Ouroboros

The world tries to hollow me out

I respect the world’s prerogative

Its capacity for the positive endless

Its pursuit of the negative flawless

It’s ceaseless attempts to consume

The I, the who, the whom

Tracking ruthlessly on my scent

Form of

Food, taxes, utility bills and rent

On the worst of days

I drift away

Most days I just sway

Starting to protest, to say . . .

but I know the snake knows anyway

The devouring serpent

Is aware of

It’s destiny

Soil

And oil

And meat

Becoming that

Treading

Beneath our feet

Today though

I am half swallowed

Head turned toward the sun

The snake and I as one

I do not face the snake

Making the bastard wait

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

I Went Looking For My Form

I went looking for my form

My individual aspect

Didn’t find it on Facebook

Despite my best intentions

Wasn’t on Twitter

Checked my DM’s and mentions

Wasn’t in the digital ether

In the mist of one and two

Then I dug a little deeper

Almost all the way through

I found it dwindling and neglected

Dusty and asleep

To my overwhelming shock

It was made of meat

Sinew and bone

Blood making my heart beat

It was not of the virtual alone

The narrative had over taken me

The glowing luminous binary song

But the longing did awaken me

Seeking appeasement of the wrong

Shaking the dust from me

I did slowly arise

Taking an account of me

I slowly opened my eyes

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

The Absence of Nostalgia

Right thoughts

Right words

Right actions

The absence of nostalgia

Is the beginning of today

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Flicker and Buzz

We of this dull and prosperous society
Where organized money fills any gaps
Where any space between things
Has long ago been mortared and closed
Healing done on that which is not sick
We have little time to think on our sorrows
Or joys before the next of them come
Both parades of extremes
Spinning our heads and bodies
In constant motion
It is hard to recall
The world before this
With late night TV test patterns
Storefronts that dimmed for the night
Long distance plans and landlines
Letters and longhand writing
When space and time between things
Still existed and our minds could keep pace
With patterns presented before them
Now we flicker and buzz
Overloaded with mournful loss and hopeful possibilities
We never take form
Because there is no space between
That still remains
Nowhere to settle for a moment
To take our full forms once again

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

I Shall

I have few resources

Often only kindness

And the will to not be inured

To the sorrow of the mourners

And the cries of the injured

I shall not keep to silence

Nor allow bigotry to be ignored

I shall seek no answers in violence

In pursuit of grace much can be endured

I shall make a quiet strong alliance

Between peace and love letting both be heard

In a voice even, but full of defiance

Against wrong thought and action

Committed via both deed and word

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Note-

Something I wrote to remember both how sad and outraged I was last week in South Carolina, but also how inspired I was by the survivors families in Charleston and their capacity for grace and forgiveness.