Category: Poetry
Defiant (A Poem)
Defiant
The mass of flesh and muscle
Paws at the earth, ready
Nostrils flared, teeth bared
Whipped up for the tussle
This raging beast knows no bounds
He’s uncontrolled and fevered
Shredding the earth’s most treasured grounds
Pitching and pacing and itching to beat her
The trampling has been rough
Boots and teeth of the downtrodden
Litter the trail this beast has cleared
He charges, illuminated
By madness, greed, and fear
How many times must we rise, march, and fall?
Before we break this beast and beat back the wall?
A voice springs from the chaos—a war cry
Hope springs and the people rise,
Defiant
The fearless converge
The future takes shape
We move on the beast
As many times as it takes
Note from the Poet: The day before International Women’s Day 2017, State Street Global Advisors installed a statue of a little girl facing off against the iconic bronze “Charging Bull” on Wall Street as part of a campaign to increase the number of women serving on corporate boards. The images of these statues were striking, ironic, and exalting. As the poem “Defiant” emerged, it transcended the image that inspired it. The “Fearless Girl” statue was crafted by sculptor Kristen Visbal.
Reality (A Poem)
Reality
What if you could reshape reality
With words and pictures
Bring people into a new existence
Of your own making
You could make them believe
The earth is flat
The moon is made of cheese
Up is down and right is left
I saw the world flip
Outside where cherry blossoms swirl
And crickets chirp at the stars
The river digs through the earth
And the trees inhale the sky
Lions still devour lambs
This world is real
Even if you’re not
Waiting for the Wind (A Poem)
Waiting for the Wind
All that dirty starlight, I wiped it off your feet
mixed it up with Mercury and put it in your drink
sat back and watched you
drink oceans of me
We were weighted down
with sins that don’t exist
We were waiting for the wind
to erase what we did
I tried to warn you about love
and its fragile, fickle bliss
When spring came, our dreams departed
Our moon was full, our skies were charted
and the galaxy didn’t skip or sink
I might be forgiving
next time you need a drink.
Slippery Fish (A Poem)
Slippery Fish
That slippery fish you see
Dancing in poetry
She is a lie. I say
She is a fantasy
A pretty mermaid beckoning you
Casting shadows across your sea
Certainty,
She is the golden coin
Inside the fishbowl
We all want a piece
Consider instead the chameleon
Shifting her colors, rolling with the moon
She is the water inside your fishbowl
She is the goddess of the sea
In which lives your mermaid
Certainty
Author’s Note: This poem was inspired by “The Fish” by Ahmad Shamlou
Blackbird (A Poem)
Blackbird
She’s a blackbird, chipped and dry
Marble lines: gray, black, white
Face weathered, wings tethered
Beaded eyes, all-seeing outside the light
In gritty squawks
She talks to the night
Laugh lines and rusty bells
Secrets she tells in whispers and sighs
You can fly
She’s war-striped and spangled
Her mangled nest left behind
A mess of battle cries
She squints at the moon and sings
With books on her breast and songs in her beak
She beats her wings
And flies
Defiant (A Poem)
Defiant
The mass of flesh and muscle
Paws at the earth, ready
Nostrils flared, teeth bared
Whipped up for the tussle
This raging beast knows no bounds
He’s uncontrolled and fevered
Shredding the earth’s most treasured grounds
Pitching and pacing and itching to beat her
The trampling has been rough
Boots and teeth of the downtrodden
Litter the trail this beast has cleared
He charges, illuminated
By madness, greed, and fear
How many times must we rise, march, and fall?
Before we break this beast and beat back the wall?
A voice springs from the chaos—a war cry
Hope springs and the people rise,
Defiant
The fearless converge
The future takes shape
We move on the beast
As many times as it takes
Note from the Poet: The day before International Women’s Day 2017, State Street Global Advisors installed a statue of a little girl facing off against the iconic bronze “Charging Bull” on Wall Street as part of a campaign to increase the number of women serving on corporate boards. The images of these statues were striking, ironic, and exalting. As the poem “Defiant” emerged, it transcended the image that inspired it. The “Fearless Girl” statue was crafted by sculptor Kristen Visbal.
Reality (A Poem)
Reality
What if you could reshape reality
With words and pictures
Bring people into a new existence
Of your own making
You could make them believe
The earth is flat
The moon is made of cheese
Up is down and right is left
I saw the world flip
Outside where cherry blossoms swirl
And crickets chirp at the stars
The river digs through the earth
And the trees inhale the sky
Lions still devour lambs
This world is real
Even if you’re not
Waiting for the Wind (A Poem)
Waiting for the Wind
All that dirty starlight, I wiped it off your feet
mixed it up with Mercury and put it in your drink
sat back and watched you
drink oceans of me
We were weighted down
with sins that don’t exist
We were waiting for the wind
to erase what we did
I tried to warn you about love
and its fragile, fickle bliss
When spring came, our dreams departed
Our moon was full, our skies were charted
and the galaxy didn’t skip or sink
I might be forgiving
next time you need a drink.
Slippery Fish (A Poem)
Slippery Fish
That slippery fish you see
Dancing in poetry
She is a lie. I say
She is a fantasy
A pretty mermaid beckoning you
Casting shadows across your sea
Certainty,
She is the golden coin
Inside the fishbowl
We all want a piece
Consider instead the chameleon
Shifting her colors, rolling with the moon
She is the water inside your fishbowl
She is the goddess of the sea
In which lives your mermaid
Certainty
Author’s Note: This poem was inspired by “The Fish” by Ahmad Shamlou
Blackbird (A Poem)
Blackbird
She’s a blackbird, chipped and dry
Marble lines: gray, black, white
Face weathered, wings tethered
Beaded eyes, all-seeing outside the light
In gritty squawks
She talks to the night
Laugh lines and rusty bells
Secrets she tells in whispers and sighs
You can fly
She’s war-striped and spangled
Her mangled nest left behind
A mess of battle cries
She squints at the moon and sings
With books on her breast and songs in her beak
She beats her wings
And flies
