Author: poetryfest

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

Silently, by Rebel Fleur

My soul grows cold when I let reality take up space
I hate its taste fragility laced and I want to erase it from the books
I’m hooked to frozen in time that’s where my mind finds peace
No intrusions please or you will meet with hands that bleed holding tightly
To what only my heart and God can comprehend
It’s like there is no end and yet I end
Loop over and over again. Lost black hole of dreams
Leaving me and on repeat continuously. They defeat and comfort me.
It’s love and insanity.
Half of me incomplete… beat
Missing pulse. I am lost having loss
In a haze that’s constantly afraid
Of seeing. Because then what’s the meaning when all is leaving and has left
Sometimes I hold my breath
Because the thought is more than I can bare
Or everything that I hold dear…
The affliction of the juxtaposition of joy and pain.
I hurt because I know and yet moments, I wished I hadn’t.
Leaving me breathless in abundant love that could not and cannot sustain tangibly
From dust to dust
It’s too much.
So I retreat into me. Silently.

©Rebel Fleur 2020

Performed by Val Cole

SHE WAS A GEM by Sylvester Anderson

She was a gem in a sea of forgotten treasures
Despite the distance between our shores
Love showed us favor and brought us together
We were familiar souls connected through spiritual intuition
Like we had shared numerous sunrises and sunsets before
We plunged into the deepest point of love
Heart first into the point of no return
Swimming towards a common shore
One where we could gaze at sunsets and stars
Hand in hand, clasped hands
Absorbing all that love had to offer

She was a gem in a sea of forgotten treasures
I was neither scavenger or treasure hunter
Just a fortune man to be chosen to love her

Performed by Val Cole

My Little One, by Mary Dimino

Upon your arrival, you came here from love
Upon your departure, you must go back

Love all ways

Will you remember me when I see you again?
I trust yes

Will you tell others you meet about me?
I dare say you will

Will you know how to get to where you are going?
You always have before!

You showed me how to live
You showed me how to die
Silent warm looks deep into my eyes.

You have thanked me for a good life
but it is I who needs to thank you
For you have made me love unconditionally
Have I you?

You have made me laugh
You have made my heart sing

You have made me feel pain
For that I can only hope you have not felt the same.

I have lost nine pounds today –
And what a difference nine pounds can make
So much wisdom, so much glory
only such a small package could take.

My big little one.
My little big one

Love surrounds you everywhere
For you are just That
So, I will always know the
vicinity in which you may be at

Eyes half shut but heart wide open
Kitty kisses with your eyes

Love surrounds us everywhere

All I need to do when missing you
is to simply look anywhere.

Performed by Val Cole

Missing You, by Sharyn Abbott

To easy my heart, I shed these tears of sorrow
What once was, now memories for tomorrow

Holding on to what could have, should have been by chance
Yearning for your tender touch, your caress, a familiar glance

I am left alone surrounded by this devastating desire
In a world gone still with emptiness of what you inspired

Knowing there should have been so much more
Had we had the time our hearts had planned for

If given one last chance to share with one another
To have one more moment to hold on to each other

How can it be a life so young with much yet to give?
Should be over with the light gone from which to live?

Please tell me how to ease this mournful pain
Of what transpires will fill this void again?

I walk away, never alone, my heart filled with sorrow
What should have been, now memories for tomorrow

Performed by Val Cole

Eulogy Poem (Untitled).

Bury me beneath a million technicolor daisies,
Bury me under the weight of beautiful music that speaks directly to the soul,
Bury me under sunrises, sunsets, shooting stars, and eclipses,
Bury me with all that is magical,
All that is free,
All that is divine,
Bury me with the hearts of my truest comrades and the rhythm of justice still beating in my blood,
Bury me beneath rainbow coloured flags,
Raised fists, peace signs, and all capital A’s,
Bury me fully alive, kicking and screaming to the grave,
Bury me in the sunshine and in the storm,
In the light, and in the darkness alone,
And with each and every one of you,
Bury me a dreamer, a lover, a fighter,
Bury me in the sky.

By Catherine Chhina

Performed by Val Cole

EARTHSONG, by Lew Osteen

Prologue
This orb or ours we oft abuse,
whence came the bang?
Who lit the fuse?

Canto One
O, lost of homeward eyes,
seeking upon the mocking skies,
where can be seen the founding plan,
or why or where it all began?

Out there somewhere is Genesis denied,
on some other world yet untried?
A Garden of begets without the sin,
a new Eden to begin again?

Chosen to be blessed and Festooned,
or orphans of creation forever marooned?
Is there truth in books took from shelves,
dried of words, we wrote ourselves?

Words of heavens to abide?
Or maybe not, if Adam lied.
Who are we? Where do we belong?
Is Earth our home or is our Earthsong – wrong?

Canto Two
So, yearning hearts and hopeful eyes,
seek upon the mocking skies.
No fear of what might be out there.
What might scare someone from here?

There is no fear that will stop us from knowing,
why life advances or ceases going.
Is it so that silver might buy another lie,
to crucify the other guy?

Or gold might drop,
upon a counter top.
To bind and seal,
a bloody deal?

The soul aches to know and the mind to find,
what in heaven or hell left us behind.
To know is why, you and I, so very soon,
on warm July, flew the earth and walked the moon.

Canto Three
Does anyone care out there?
Are we alone upon this sphere?
Is this all there is and ever will be,
we alone, in splendid singularity?

We of the midnight power,
holding at bay the midnight hour,
counting down the doomsday wait,
inside a burning house by a broken gate.

Canto Four
For what reason,
was God, man for a season?
Is there such worth,
upon the earth?

Here it’s plain to see,
only traces of divinity.
Not God? Then what?
Out of nothing is not.

Are there worlds far away,
where gods mold other clay?
Some golden universe,
not seeking us?

Perhaps by other measures,
our souls are not treasures,
but spirits of chance meant to be,
castaways, forever adrift, on a lonely sea.

And if we saw the truest light,
cutting through the distant night,
would we run away and hide,
or welcome strangers to abide
For hard it would be,
for us to see,
to understand,
some distant land,

When among the being,
within our seeing,
that we can touch – we don’t touch, very much.

Canto Five
And weary as we all are,
long-turning a burning star,
who knows, but that it glows to warm some other place.
And may someday, go away to warm another space.

Or do we trust that we must, by heavenly decree,
be ever warmed by the firestar, just because we are?
On any god-talk wherever gods might walk, is it said: humankind is rising – or humankind is dead?

Which Earthsong
is wrong?
Do we belong outbound on some unseen sea,
or probing inside for our destiny?

Perhaps we are, as we have decided, with reason and with rhyme,
casting lots upon the blankets of our time,
the fairest and the best of all the rest, and there is nothing anywhere,
that would dare compare to our sphere?

The answer is as old as history.
We seek where lies life’s mystery.
Is it upon the near or far.
The closest moon or the furthest star.

Desperate souls seek to see
the source of creation’s majesty.
To be redeemed out of Nod
and look upon the face of God.

FIN

Performed by Val Cole

Carpe Diem, by Todd G. Sorrell

I saw you in my bedroom, when I was just a boy
You’d come at night
Turn out the light
Call me your pride and joy

Your visits never lasted long, you were a busy guy
My days were full
I went to school
I’d see you passing by

We’d sometimes get together, and stop to shoot the breeze
But it grew rare
Good times to share
Were few and far between

I’m looking back at what we had
And what it could’ve been
Who knew one day we’d stop and say
I wish you were my friend
If we try before I die
We might at least pretend
That there is love between us
Let’s seize the day again

I heard you moved to Vegas, and found yourself a wife
It made me glad
To hear you had
A promising new life

Our phone calls were important, once or twice a year
They made it feel
Like you were real
Before you’d disappear

You said that you would visit, and spend some decent time
But times were tough
And sure enough
We fell into the grind

I’m looking back at what we had
And what it could’ve been
Who knew one day we’d stop and say
I wish you were my friend
If we try before I die
We might at least pretend
That there is love between us
Let’s seize the day again

When I finally saw you, old and frail and gray
Your fading spark
It touched my heart
That time had slipped away

I didn’t come to hurt you, or saddle you with grief
The blame we spilt
And all that guilt
Made life seem really brief

I came to hold your hand Dad, before I let you go
You’ve always meant a lot to me, I just want you to know

I’m looking back at what we had
And what it could’ve been
Who knew one day we’d stop and say
I know you were my friend
If we try before I die
We might let our hearts mend
Cuz there is love between us
Let’s seize the day again

Performed by Val Cole

Brownies

(by Debbie Fersht)

We sit crossed-legged in a circle. We are Brownies. Today we learn how to braid. I sit behind Fiona. I start to braid Fiona’s long blonde hair. She sits behind Margaret. Margaret’s hair is long and brown like her uniform. Each one of us Brownies knows better than to say the word, “boo”, to Margaret or she’ll get upset. We swear the Brownie promise not to. “There WILL be consequences,” says our leader. The word sits like a piece of candy under our tongue.
“Fiona,” I say, “You’ve got such terrific hair. Do you like the braid I made?” I guess she doesn’t because when she turns her head around to see she gives me a look. Fiona suddenly swings her head back around and goes,

“BOO Margaret, BOO-HOO!”

Margaret screams, her screams so shrill and sharp they pierce our sweet Brownie circle and we watch, we watch Margaret, braids falling out, run from us, away from us, towards the heavy gymnasium door.

Performed by Val Cole