PoetryConnection.net Discussion

[Frank E Gibbard]

If the first man on the moon had been a poet (July 2007)

If only Neil had seen the waning Earth through a poet's eye
The view from the moon might have elicited worthy pearls
Deathless words less prosaic than a journeyman's "wow!"
But it was left to astronauts who knew the right stuff alright
Though sadly had only deftless terms to sculpt a virgin sight
And immortalise for posterity an out of this world moment.
Had a William Shakespeare Blake or Wordsworth only betook
That priviliged look at our distant globe he'd have deftly mined
A potential bejewelled seam of wonder in richest lines of eloquence,
So beautifully divining the puny planet's arching magnificence;
What is this blasted rock I see before me? Or similar: in essence.

Last Lines (August 2007)

I picked up a poetry anthology of mine
A leaf loosely fluttered out I eyed a line
In my recently departed brother's writing
"A beautiful poem - why the Portuguese?"
I cannot tell him now, I didn't know anyway,
I less than cared at that moment, I shared
His opinion though from beyond and asked
The same question I'll get back to one day
When I recover enough equilibrium and
Can throw his last line to me away though
The thought surely will stay and not decay.

Accident (Sept 2007)

Recovery room, coming round
He had survived a terrible accident.
As his mind cleared of anaesthetic sleep
It all came flooding back to him
Being run over and something else
He could not quite grasp, what was it now?
Something his mother had said to him
A whole lifetime ago
About hospitals and accidents
Boy was he worried and how
Shit … oh shit, he thought
There’s a nurse approaching my bed.
His panic had nothing to do with his mortal injuries
The contusions, the fractures.
Recalling what his Mum told him he remembered
The skid marks he knew he’d left on his underpants.

Not A Wonderful Life (Nov 2007)



I am a lonely very old smiley
Stuck in stasis grinning wrily
Zipped in a hole of cyber space
By my one Creator left in place
I’m merely a cipher for emotion
Graphic of Their chosen notion
This Being made me on a whim
I owe pseudo-life to Her or Him
I‘ll carry on my smiling as I must
And will unless the systems bust
Still I hope there may be closure
To end this life of stark exposure

[Esmeralda]

These are all powerful poems, Frank....I don't believe I had read any of these before. I enjoyed every single one.

Esmeralda

[Frank E Gibbard]

Thanks Esme really nice of you to delve into my back catalogue. More coming alas. Frank

[Frank E Gibbard]

Well Met By River Light (Nov 2005)
(with apologies to WS for the punning title)

A river light shone
On a late night swan
Picked out in a beam
In a litter-strewn stream.
Like a jewel I thought
Despite our detritus
As a pearl is brought
From grit to delight us.

Cascades (Aug 2005)

cascades
of translucent
diamonds
falling eternally
on hard rocks
beneath
waters plunging
shot through
with gemlight
flowing ever
natural shower
cascades
plummet externally
over parapets
stoneworks
sternly enduring
so cascades
the water's fall

Flag (Sep 2005)

We need a flag to unite all nations
A neutral flag without connotations
Without those guilt ridden associations
That mar our histories with reverberations
From those sad chronicles of disputations
Those so bad times, those conflagrations
Let it be without pigmentations
For you and me

Poetic comings and goings (Jan 2006)

Ezra sounded in my inner core
Poe pounded at a dark crypt door
Frost chilled the raging and combustive brain
Blake filled me with burning bright refrain
Plath pinned down all my secret pains
Byron sinned for such as we and nobly entertains
Yeats greatly stirs my passion and arouses deepest thinking
Oscar’s stately words and fashion does as always set me twinkling
William takes us to pastoral bliss with sublimest words worth knowing
Bill shakes all peers as godlike he transcends all the foregoing
Cummings climbs the capitol that is this modern art
The goings of all who went before encouraged me to start

Bad Lad Keith Richards (May 2006)

What was Keith Richards doing up a tree?
This strange event has puzzled me
This fall from grace has been a shock
One does not expect this from a god of rock
He crashed and hit his drug hazed head
Again the great survivor and not yet dead
Why up among the palm leaves did he stray?
It seems a weird spot for a Stone to play
Hey Keith wassup my dear old China
This is no behaviour for an ex-mainliner
Let's face it there are no ifs or buts
There's no bent gear in coconuts

[Esmeralda]

It's always so interesting to see what we have written in the past....sometimes I read a poem I wrote years ago and I hardly recognize the words as my own. You have not lost a bit of your eloquence with the years, only gained more experiences to tell. These are wonderful and bring memories to all of us. An enjoyable read here, thank you.

[pughguy2]

Ah whole flock of poems I cant remember seein either Frank. Very nice stuph indeed my friend.