Inspired

I thought at first
I had the words but I lacked the experience;
Now I have the experience,
But can't find the words.

I am reminded of more inspiring times,
Of literary figures
Who rose like the sun,
Illuminating my journey.

Many of them have now faded away,
Drifted out of sight
Perhaps extinguished
With the suddeness
Of a candle being snuffed by a draft.

I hold the last lantern,
Straining my eyes in the gloom,
Dragging my feet in slow loops,
Like pencil lead
Rewriting the chapters of my life.

Scandal

This poem is a creation using 15 words from a random word generator. 

Have you heard the scandal?

I had the appointment from hell!

I tread lightly into my boss's office

Wearing my red anorak with the fur lining.

It was my birthday, 

And overall I would have preferred

A fix of hot cocoa

To that talk.

Popping my head around the corner,

My boss started in on me 

About the commercial,

And how my stray innovation

Was earning me a place in the doghouse.

Needless to say it was the meeting of the century! 

Dragonless

You used to amuse me,

To muse me,

My audience

My critic

My patron.

I'd dream of dragons

Soaring free

In cloudless skies,

But now it's grey.

And you are gone,

My inspiration fades away.

I dally through a silent night

And sleep away a lonely day.

My muse is gone,

My thoughts have dulled,

My pen is stashed away.

Smoke Screen

My world burns,
Literally and metaphorically.

Toxic smoke covers the landscape.
The wind wafts the scent,
Of one of God's greatest campfires.

Climate change is real,
But is this a product of it,
Or is it part of the natural order of things...
Weather that ebbs and flows?
Nature is not as predictable as we like to believe.
Men and women like to dominate nature,
But in the end the Earth will outlive us all!

You can deny climate change,
Species will die,
Until the Earth cannot sustain us.
And we will be just the latest of the mass extinctions;
We'll go the way of the dinosaurs,
But Earth will survive us
(And cockroaches).

We live unsustainably,
Pursuing a culture of mass consumption,
Poisoning ourselves slowly.
Is it too late to reverse this devastation?
World leaders pretending not to see it,
Denying science,
Silencing dissent.

Our world burns.

And Mother Nature will be cooking s'mores
Long after we are gone,
Telling ghost stories about humanity,
Cautionary tales whispered in the fossil record,
Left for future species to find.

Pepsi

In my dreams

Monks laugh

And drink Pepsi 

Under tarps in markets

Where the air is thick and warm

Wafting scents of spices and fish

Coking sausages

And pungent durian

Eyes adjust from glaring sun

To shadowy passages

Between stalls

In my dreams

I weave my way 

Through colourful crowds

In loose clothing

Past jungles of ferns and orchids

And crates of fresh yellow mangoes

Spiky rambutans

Plump dragon fruit

Chasing a woman on a mission

For fried potatoes and plantains

The monks in burnt orange

Have nowhere to go

Content drinking syrupy liquid

Relaxing in the afternoon heat

Present and aware

Motorcycle

You sweep a wide arch in front of me

Black on black

Gleaming in the sun

My foot falls fast on the pedal

As your life flashes before my eyes

One short instant

Torn apart by greying asphalt

Before you ride clear

Leaving me in awe of life’s fragility

Sharpening the landscape

Casting the afternoon in a dream-like glow

The Wind's Tricks

 With apologies to my mother.

South Wind, you mock me
As I grieve.
I implore the heavens for a vision
And instead am blinded by tiny snowflakes.

These tears that stain my face will never dry.
They are my gifts, left unspoken, to the children.

I think of my mother's face, creased in crowsfeet,
Lines of laughter and joy.

Mother, I am growing older too,
But my face is etched with a furrowed brow,
Lines of worry and despair.

I always dreamed of laugh lines,
Carving out memories of a happy life,
But fate had its own mind.

You were always the strong one,
A shining example to look up to.
You have vision.

I forsook that path for rebellion,
Teenage angst and a will for adventure.

Now I stand in the ruins
Of wandering whimsy,
The North Wind's winding path,
Abandoning me like an Ijiraq.

I will shed these tears for the children.
I hope they will grow old,
With faces lined with laughter.

Cosmic Dreams

For E and Troy and Vicki

I remember all my shooting stars

Shining so bright, lighting the way,

But the atmosphere was too great 

And space was too dark,

So they fizzled away.

And I want to be a rising star

But I feel like my orbit is too low,

And my spark is too small.

I try to shine brightly

But the darkness closes in

Threatening to engulf me.

Where are all my shooting stars?

They shined so brightly 

But too soon they were gone,

Leaving me all alone

In this empty vacuum of space,

Thinking, wondering, dreaming,

Cast upon a different path.

I am no star,

Just a faithful planet

Plodding my course,

My path preset by fate,

Dreaming I was a shooting star.

Clarity

It seems that God has come to me,
A religious tourist,
Bidding me to walk across hot coals
To find salvation.
He baptizes me with tears,
Cleansing away my demons
So that I may walk without fear
Of the shadow of death.
He snatches me from the teeth of wolves,
Breathes holy spirit upon my face,
Then leads me through the curtain
Where at last it is unveiled.
God undresses to stand before me,
A woman.
Then she chuckles and turn around to reveal
Another zipper.
My fingers fumble
Until, at last, I am assailed with the flash
Of the Big Bang.
And all the Cosmos slowly slip out...
So that I am but a tiny speck,
And it seems that God has come to me,
Because my body is a temple.
And within it shines
The same cosmic light.