Tag: Poetry

Other Times

Sometimes I listen to the radio

As the day slowly drifts away

Sometimes I talk to the cats

As they stare at me with perplexed eyes

Sometimes I make love at noon

As the sun shines bright above

Other times

The moments

Just get away from me

Sometimes I drink coffee

As I sit on a shaded park bench

Sometimes I look at graffiti

As they wash it from the brick city walls

Sometimes I drive to the drug store

As the cars grind all about me

Other times

I just wonder

Where it all went

Life is not a narrative

Life is not a song

Life is the inanimate choosing motion

The formless fog grown quiet and long

Gene G. McLaughlin 2012

We Are Any Army

We are an army of some

We are an army of none

We are the troops of self doubt

We are those with and without

We are the agents of change

We are the with-standers of pain

We are the bringers of wealth

We are the seekers of health

We are the ninety and nine

Awaiting the moment and sign

We are an army of some

We are an army of none

Gene G. McLaughlin 2012

Short Zen Love Poem

Love I was gone before I met you

Checked out, shoulders slumped, resigned and blue

Now I am all in since I met you

Awake now, head raised, aligned, and true

Simple graces to you love

May the air be sweet and clean

May you life consist of

Things true to what your core means

Quiet and ignite

Dampen and alight

Fight and quell

In the middle

All is well

In the end I have nothing to give you

But everything you’ve always had

Plus

Me

Gene G. McLaughlin 2012

I Got Nothing To Say

Sometimes the words come easy

The thoughts run free

But the rain is falling cold

The sky is mean and dark

There are sad times to the north

And I got nothing to say

Sometimes the glass is shattered

The precious is no more

But the air will grow dry with comfort

The sky will be clear and bright

The healing will be slow

And I’ll have something to say

Gene G. McLaughlin 2012

What God Took From You

What words God took from you

I will take from Him

What words God would not let you use

I will use in your stead

What God has done to you

I will negate through my actions

What ghosts trail behind you

I will distract

What benefactors support you

I will befriend

Before we decay

I will carve your name in stone

And that which you never could say

Only centuries of water will wash away

Gene McLaughlin 2012

Summer Light

Summer light

Long lasting

In late June

It is the peak

Of life in full strength

Yet it holds

Great sadness

That is intangible

Yet pervasive

The mind

Dreams of

Summer days

Of a youth

Not ours

And a

Joy we cannot

Pinpoint

Yet know

Existed

The garden

Shall ever

Be longed for

The sadness

Our curse

And reward

Innocence

That time

Before

Recognition of malice

If we are understanding

Is not the question

Guilt is only

Relative

If the sin

Can be absolved

We are remnants

Of the explosion

Sprawling us ever outward

Eden ever

More distant

And its summer light

Dimming quickly

Gene G. McLaughlin 2005

Street Level Gallup

Sing me your song of addiction

Sing me your song of disease

Croon me your tune of affliction

My ears take it all in with ease

I have never known anything other

I have never tasted anything true

Gates to salvation couldn’t be further

Soul broken all the way through

Speak to me on why to vote in elections

Speak to me why to not steal

Politicians are walking speaking infections

Who call theft the ‘art of the deal’

Life is hard enough day to day already

Life hurts to the bone aching core

Here your rhetoric often turns deadly

Bother my neighborhood no more

Gene G. McLaughlin 2004

Names

In the bright crisp sun of morning

The rabbit eats the green leaf

He is anxious and alert

But has no name for the state

He is in

The raptor watches the rabbit

Dreaming of pursuit of his prey

He hungers and launches

In the shining shimmer of the open air

But has no name of the state

He is in

I watch both

And rejoice and mourn I have so many

Names for the state of things

Gene McLaughlin 2012

J. Wellington Wimpy

J. Wellington Wimpy the world’s foremost moocher

Of juicy hamburgers;

What is your tale outside your insatiable meat lust?

Have you found love in life or accomplished a goal

Or always singularly sought burgers grilled over charcoal

Does the violence of Popeye and Bluto

Divert your eyes from your beef?

Does Olive Oyl’s skinny stick figure

Make you pause your chomping of teeth?

Does anyone collect on your postponed debts?

Or try to reclaim funds through physical threats?

J. Wellington tell me your story!

I bet it is sad and tragic and true!

J. Wellington are you like me?

Is there another person people once knew?

Gene G. McLaughlin 2005

Mast General, Asheville, NC

Bricks and mortar

And little joys

Stuff in aisles

And scattered toys

Tourists and locals

Hipsters and yokels

All gather here

Shoes and knives

Scarves and candies

Strolling wives

Dressed up dandies

All gather here

The place agreed upon

All gather here

Gene G. McLaughlin 2012