Tagged: poetry
Need a Summer Read?
https://tedmallory.wordpress.com/books
No, it’s not like I suddenly wrote four books since March. Actually I’ve been blogging since 2002 and I’m compiling things I’ve written into self-published books you can order on Amazon or Goodreads.
Here’s micro-synopses on each one:
‘Cheesebread & Coffee’ are humor pieces from the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and Mapleton PRESS 2002-2008. Not political, not too religious.
‘Max Nix’ is a collection of poetry from 1985-2020. I know, poetry isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but I’ve been told mine is short, approachable, relatable and keeps you reading.
‘Dear John’ is a series of reflections on the book of 1 John. Not exactly a devotional, not exactly a Bible study- somewhere in between. It deals with some current issues though, love and who is our brother?
‘Prophet, Priest & Pirate,’ 2004-2020 essays on politics & religion. Yep, more progressive than most voters in Iowa’s 4th District, but more moderate/conservative than most of the rest of the U.S. Basic thesis: Democrats can be Christian too, and while we’re at it- let’s be careful not to make either political party or their candidates into false idols.
I hope that at least one of these will interest you. I have another three or four “in the pipeline,” but I’d better take a break and focus on school for the rest of the Summer. Hopefully I’ll try to get another one or two out later this Fall of Winter.
Happy Reading.
POEM; Our Issue
I think I know what our issue is
at least I have an idea
To you, America is a noun
To me, America is a verb
To you, America is an INTERJECTION!
We were always taught that America is a conjunction,
But I’ve come to see it as a question,
I wonder if it shouldn’t be a preposition
I guess that’s our other problem;
I listen, read, consider, discuss, and then write
But you just watch and then shout.
I try to listen to you, but get so tired of the shouting
that I seek shelter in my reading
On rare occasion, you tell me that you want to listen to me,
but then it turned out that you were just looking for something new to shout about.
I know I could be wrong,
no doubt you’re ready to shout that I am,
but anyway- that’s what I’m beginning to think the problem might be.
POEM | November
Just after sunrise the light has a golden quality like it’s shining through a jar of honey
The sky in the West is “Advent blue,” the color of hope and optimism
The curves of the prairie are amber and warm beige like blessings and peace
Driving to work one morning I was struck by the colors. I didn’t have my Cannon camera with me and wasn’t going to try to capture the landscape with my phone camera while driving, but I’m an occasional amateur poet, so I thought about what I’d write to describe the scene. Since I’ve been teaching Commercial Art students about using both the vector graphics app “youidraw.com” (like Adobe illustrator, but free) and the layout design app “Lucidpress.com” (essentially a free online imitation of Adobe InDesign) I developed a simple abstract design of colors and placed the poem over it.
I’m So Sorry
I’m so sorry
You’re dealing with so much
I feel afraid to offer any commentary
because I don’t want to risk
offending you
or say anything
that will compound your pain
I want to say things
to heal
or help
but I know
nothing can
and I don’t want
anything that could be beneficial eventually
to be trivial or superficial or even insulting
because it comes at the wrong time.
I’ve been here before
in the line
at the viewing
or the luncheon
after the entombment
not knowing what to say
or how to say it
not wanting to put you through this
not even sure
how much eye contact
to make.
But I’ve been someplace
like where you are now
I know not the same place
but someplace cold
isolated
on display
in front of
what seems like
a never ending
stream of well wishers
yet so alone
aching
aching
aching
so that you just want
to be left alone
but under sedation
put into a coma
so that you
don’t have
to deal with it
anymore
I’m sorry
so sorry
not only for your loss
but because
I have no idea
what to say
or how to say it
I’m here
if you want me
but I won’t be
if you don’t
I just wish
I could tell which
because
it doesn’t see fair
to ask you
to have to tell me
one way or another
I’m so sorry
Poem about shutting up
c.Oct. 2008
There’s been ink in my veins from an early age
but it seems like it wasn’t meant to be
either I wasn’t meant for it or it wasn’t meant for me
I want to give it up
I want to do what you want me to
don’t know if you’re afraid of it,
or if it makes you not like me
I’m trying to give it up,
because I don’t want to lose you
but I swear God made me this way
so what am I supposed to do?
I’m haunted by the ghost of Tom Joad
I asked God to take me away from me.
to make me silent and submissive like Winston Smith at the end of 1984
only without having to face the rats or betray Julia first
Frosty Road
Everyone reads (or hears)
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
And they think, “Oh good for him,”
What a great decision!
He’s such an inspiration.
But that’s because no one bothered to actually read the entire poem,
let a lone the line just before the part about two roads diverging-
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:”
Ages hence you’ll tell it with a sigh?
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Why tell it with a sigh?
To me sighs aren’t about accomplishment or joy or pride.
Sighs are at best about close calls and relief
but more often sighs are when you know you’re beat.
Sure, the one more traveled has tamped down paths
and broken limbs, picked flowers or even occasionally some trash,
but roads less traveled by?
They’re the roads with bears and badgers and skunks
and evil clowns.
An evil clown can make all the difference.
How d’ya like that?
Don’t get me wrong,
I love ya ta death
but I’m sorry
I don’t like you all that much
Oh, I wish I liked you
I’d like to like you
but I’d like it if you were more likable,
which is unlikely
I’m as likely to like you as the next guy
but that’s not all that likely either
and since it’s unlikely that your likability is likely to increase much
as long as you’re like you are
liking to tell everyone how much you dislike likable people
I’m not likely to start liking you soon
although I’d like to like you
I really would
I hate the fact that I don’t like you
but you don’t really like me all that much anyway, right
I mean, come on
how likely is that?
So, as they old timers sometimes say,
“ya just gotta use that one up like they are.”
I promise to keep loving you
loving you in spite of our mutual dislike.
POEM; All God’s Children
All God’s Children
Seared in flames
One hundred years later
One hundred years later
Still languishing
One hundred years later
Where is freedom?
Where is justice?
One hundred years later,
All God’s Children
We cannot walk alone.
As we walk
As we walk
All God’s Children
We can never be satisfied
We can never be satisfied
We can never be satisfied
Until justice rolls down
All God’s Children
I have a dream today
I have a dream today
I have a dream
All God’s Children
This is our hope
This is the faith
With this faith
With this faith
All God’s Children
Work
Pray
Struggle
Go to jail
Stand up
Together
Together
Together
All God’s Children
Let freedom ring
Let it ring
Let it ring
Ring
Ring
Ring
Free at last
Free at last
All God’s Children
Free at last
At last
Thank God Almighty
One hundred years later
Still languishing
All God’s Children
One hundred years later
The Chorus at Vespers
A poem for April (National Poetry Month)
Coming home
one cruel April afternoon,
the red sun hit
a robin’s red chest
through the red buds of an awakening tree’s
red crest
during the peak
of the golden hour.
Though frigid as any day in February
thanks to the bitter wind,
my eyes were blessed
with every bit of May’s glow.
The chorus was so loud that it seemed less like song
and more like chatter.
Who do they sing to?
These multiple denominations
of robins
and grackles,
red-winged black birds,
sparrows
and swallows?
Each congregation louder than their neighbors.
Do they sing to the Lord,
or to the setting sun,
or to me
or to each other?
Possessed
I promise that tomorrow I will rejoin society
tomorrow I will teach
and enter grades
and discuss pedagogy, lessons and curricula
I promise that tomorrow I will lecture about the judicial branch
give instructions about content theme and genre
tomorrow I will coach and advise
about code and syntax and hypertext markup language
But today I am a painter
today I am a poet
today I am a theologian
a philosopher, a maladjusted malcontent
Today I am possessed by Jackson Pollack., Willem de Kooning, Claude Monet,
Arshile Gorky
and maybe Achille-Claude Debussy too.
No drugs,
no alcohol,
maybe too much coffee
maybe the holy spirit
or some spirit-animal
maybe just automatism
Or maybe, I’ve been possesed by the spirits of
Marcel Duchamp,
Wassily Kandinsky,
and Hugo Ball
all having a ball with my basal ganglia
What rhymes with ganglia?
Galling gangly genitalia?
Damn. That was a lot of alliteration without actual profane explication!
Perhaps I am ready to return to convention, conformity and community already.
But the smell of turpentine
and the layers of oil, acrylic and gouache
that I extricated today
from my palette
like a paleontologist with a trowel
are so intoxicating.
Perhaps a few more minutes
in this other world
the one where I enjoy some espresso
with Vincent and Theo
and Frida and Diego
I promise, I’ll be me again
tomorrow.
maladjusted.us 