POETRY PAGE:

Mr. C.'s Poetry Writing Class welcomes and appreciates your comments and/or suggestions on any of the poems below.
Please specify the title and email comments to
jcala@rcn.com
Forever Sent From Heaven

Face,
fabulously furnished by famous translucent makeup.
My all natural maker: mother.
meeting at the ripe ages of 7 and 24, we were a perfect match,
as was she and my father.
Hand in hand we had tête-à-têtes
concerning the meaning of life and dandelions,
over a slimy slice of cheesy pizza
accompanied by a Pepsi at Costco.
Rainy days we had the ultimate battle:
Scrabble wars until it hurt to think.
Sunny days were spent on the bike trail,
racing mom and dad to the end.
I remember waiting for them to catch up,
and I used to think to myself:
“Woohoo! I’m the best,”
while I observed, with my little eyes,
her and my father having cute side conversations,
followed by giggles and longing looks between them.
Little did I know that she would stay forever.
I didn’t believe in forever prior to mom.
July of 1997, months after their wedding,
she proved herself worthy of the terminology “mom.”
We went and made it official through the courts:
adoption on both sides of the equation.
In a sense, I adopted her as well.
I became her responsibility, but she as well was mine.
Through trials and tribulations
I’ve battled to become the best daughter in the world.
to make her the happiest mother on the earth.
I’ve seen many a smile in my day,
and although I have just turned the ripe age of 18,
no smile big or bright enough,
could suffice or prevent my next effort to make her smile again.
I live for her smile each and everyday.
Most people, whether they be children, adolescents, or adults,
have goals of succeeding with wealth and big careers.
My goal is quite different; I just want to see mom smile one day at a time.
Everyday that she smiles is another day to tack on my calendar of forever,
which lies in my heart.

Lost Me

You can’t seem to see
you've already lost me.
When I closed the door
you didn’t hear it shut.
When I begged for a sweeter love
you turned the other way.

I saw this coming so long ago.
Our paths crossed.
I found a new way to love.
I’m not in your way now...am I?
I’m different from how I was
not the same innocence.
You long for my touch
like I once longed for yours.
You've lost me once again,
but this time,
you won’t ever find me.


My Heart

My greatest fear
is to never fear again.
My unhappiest day is
when I couldn't smile.
My saddest day
was when I couldnt cry.

But my days
have become undone
and all that was
will be gone.

I'm moving on
to the next best thing
and its above all others.

My heart is no longer blue.
I have found love
in every part of you.

Now I can fear
but only of your loss.
Smile each day 'cause
I've got you
and cry
at the thought of
me and no you.


United Grievances
He lay
Hands bound
Heart broken,
Emaciated,
Lost
Flame lingering above his head,
They bless him in this never-ending void.
Vortex in space,
Drenched in cubes, proving dizziness exists here.
Hoping that he might wake
Once again
Forgiving.

Uniting the hand of God and the hand of man,
Is a bolt of lightning.
Random face
Neck stretched to the utmost highest.
He strains from pain.
Arm around his atrocious wife,
Who he loves so dearly.
She finds his adorations
Nothing more than suffocating.
Ignorance,
Bubbled up inside her heart and mind.
Pretending the lack of feeling
Isn't there,
He goes about his day,
Bruises
In heart and mind
Starving
For the highest food and love,
For each are equivalent.
Love is food and food is love.

He stares at me now, yes,
And with those chilling tears
Which flow down his peach cheeks,
I recognize his pain
I feel it myself
His face beings to disappear
Turning into an opaque blur
As I fall back into my tea bag of reality.
The guitar strums on with the minor keys
Struck at THE most right moment
And the same monotonous tone
My emotions took hold
I watched my grievances from the inside.


A Chance for Freedom

In the dead of winter
The Coliseum
Just after a small gale
The ground covered by inches of snow
Yelling and screaming
See what a placid and peaceful scene
 Riots ready to break out with every slash of the sword
The ground pure and good, unsullied by evil
Underneath a hectic passageway with lions and tigers
Trees bask in the yellow rising sun
Every slave ready to please the mob
Barren branches seem full and lively covered in snow
To earn a chance for freedom.


What is Boredom?

I’m bored.
Boredom,
It’s so … boring.
Boredom is waiting,
Waiting for the bus.
Waiting to escape work.
Waiting for school to end,
Waiting for today to be over.

Boredom is sitting,
Sitting in class.
Sitting in front of the TV.
Sitting in detention.
Sitting in traffic.

Boredom is watching,
Watching a hamster run its wheel.
Watching clouds fly by.
 Watching a caterpillar move across your shoe.
Watching cars drive by.

Boredom is listening,
Listening to the drip, drip, drip of the faucet.
Listening to AM radio.
 Listening to the tick tock, tick tock of the clock.
 Listening to the soundless silence.

Boredom.
It’s no fun,
It’s so boring.


My Walls

True Life of Andy Kaufman
14 Bottles on the wall
Fight Club to Blues Brothers
From the deserts of Dune
To the murky depths of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
A plastic fossil
An orange bear
Paranoid raccoon, Jade Buddha, Perched Eagle
A searching Scooby
Honey dipped bear
My music Bank
A Hanging horse Shoe, Smiling clock below
The Happy light
Hawaiian shirts from blue to red
4 men walking and
a purring cat.


Nirvana

The sky set ablaze by the rising sun
brings illumination to the shadows.
Darkness gives way to a heavenly shine
as the bright day becomes black eerie night
and so the world rotates and changes,
and spring becomes summer, summer to fall.
Fall decays to winter, the Earth reborn.

Time marches driven by the watchful sun,
an omnipresent eye that never blinks.
Like slaves to time with wrinkles as our scars,
we trudge through the perilous unknown bog,
‘til we feel the soft kiss of the wind
and the sweet embrace of the cleansing sea
and we are free, free at last.
Nirvana.


Luminosity

Joy comes with desire.
We can’t hide from throbbing hearts
Behind dim eyes,
But the possessions that make us smile
Are remarkable-
Youthful to aged.

The radiance of our grin
Never fades
From baby's petite gurgle
To a mature man's chuckle.
We have learned to forget the wound
And see the luminosity in each immaculate day.


Vanished

Today is a grand day.
Today is a fine  day.
Today should be my day.

Why is it his?
I want to know!
He left his home
took the lottery money

No one sees him.
No one cares.
But I know who he was.

I stared
into the window
of his home
checking out whether
he was on the phone.

But he never was.
He was always alone.

So his day had come
Filled with fortune
when he took his money
fair and square.

Now no one sees
how lonely he is there.

Well, he doesn’t care.
He took his money,
vanished into nowhere.

Maybe if they noticed,
maybe if they cared,
he would have stayed
and shared.

The Day I Wasn't Wanted

Imagine the worst day of your life….
Multiply it by infinity and that’s my birthday.
Why do I express such sad sentiment?
Just imagine that you’re the product of drugs, partying, and unprotected sex.
You’ve got the idea of how I was conceived.
I’m a statistic: another teen birth.

What would you do if you became pregnant at 19?
That's right you have no idea.
That's what she was thinking...my mom that is,
when she became pregnant with me.
Turned away by her family.
Shunned by her friends for her party antics,
her unwillingness to listen to their dire words of advice.
Depression set in and she was lost in her own dimension.
The father of her baby left...my father...
He was frightened.

She carried me in her womb for six months;
Who resurfaces but my father.
His father made him realize that he gave life and I am now his life.
He needed to be a man.
After my giver-of-life suffered from Postpartum Depression.
She would do drugs day in and day out.
I'm not saying she didn't love me.
She lost her childhood and life too soon.

Residing in Agawam, Massachusetts,
My father worked days to support us.
A fateful day took place, and she lost it.
She lost all views of right vs. wrong.
She kidnapped me according to the law while he was at work.
Took me back to my birthplace, Schenectady, New York.
He was outraged when he came home to find his life missing.
Months later he was contacted by DSS.
I was placed in a foster home.
Why he asked...
Child neglect, attempted suicide.
My mother had decided there was no other escape.
She took a bottle of pills accompanied by a bottle of vodka.
Leaving me in my crib with a bottle and a fresh diaper, I was left to fend for myself.
The patron in the apartment below had awakened to my cries early in the morning and alerted the authorities.

The person I want to meet is! my maker: my mother.
I'd ask what gave her the right to abandon me?
How could she place her own flesh and blood in danger?
Questions have arisen such as when is her birthday...
That's when you know your life isn't complete...

The day you finally realize, you don’t know her birthday.
Despite the mountainous life I've had, I thank my dad the most.
There was no excuse for leaving me, but,
I forgive him; he has proved himself a man to me.
My mother has yet to prove herself a mother to me.
I remember most of seventeen.

The feel, the sense, the longing...
and now that I'm about to say goodbye to my adolescence
I still refuse to celebrate.
My birthday is and always will be the same:
One of the saddest days in my history....
The day I wasn't wanted...


 






Almost There But Not

Same proportions as mine
Red and speckled with white
Slowly
Daintily
Grazing my cheek
Darker than a room with no windows
Do you adore me?
I fear for the answer
I listen for his words,
Yet I hear nothing.


Creep

Halo round your head
Bring out the dead
Everyone had said
That it was going to be this way

Massacre in the night
Lights flashing- what a wonderful sight
Shivers up and down my spine, tingling with fright
And this only happens when I think about you

The beat of the mahogany heart
Shattered just waiting to be picked apart
Love is a work of art
Torn down by your power to please

Darkness comes, slowly reaching its goal
Creeping in and removing your apathetic soul
So now when you look, there’s just a hole
Beat up, so black and bereft


Mirror

Hangs down from my closet door
Not one thing has looked at me more
Has seen every side of me
Laugh, cry, smile, and frown
Looking to me without eyes to judge
There's no criticism of who I am
It's just there
A comfort to me
Looking at me

Growing Up

Be direct and listen
Awareness taunts the eyes
Hold thoughts long
But don’t think hard
Beauty is not
All life’s about
Get the right perception
Of who you are
Trust in you
And you shall go far
Be flexible to love
And to even leave love
Soon you'll see
You've gone far

Winter's Night

You can barely see the velvety reflection of the lingering moon,
As it lands upon the fair, snowy floor of earth,
As the star-studded flakes tumble through the downy clouds,
And the wind shrieks, a cold and dreary tempest.
As the stars flicker in the night,
And the birdcalls ricochet into darkness,
You can see the snow, the glaze-like ice sparkle,
As if white gold.


Searching

Music frees my soul
Adjusts my spirit straight.
As the beat plays fast-
it pounds in my ears.

 As I gaze up at the sky,
music is the key to my soul
Music unleashes my spirit.
It swoops out of my body
when I hear its melody
shrieking with joy to be free.

 Unto the music inside me
 I try to link depths within my soul
by searching.

As you lay your ear upon my chest,
listen to the soft song crying inside me
If feeds my soul the unchained music.

I need to hear
so the day will be more clear.
Bobbling lyrics inside my head,
I whisper tunes that could never go dead.

 As the song fades away,
I look away from then window,
inside the bus from the sky
realizing music could not be disguised inside me.

As I lay my emotions on the line,
you can see that music is in me.
Just listen more closely.
See me more clearly.


Pain in Paradise

A child-like Mr. Justice
Blind and empty handed
Standing stolid and powerful in It’s mother’s arms
Captivated, yet completely captivating
Fascinating

An adolescent Island
Expected to mature and flourish
Peacefully alone, yet surrounded by the ceaseless waves
Taking back the shoreline with every
Beating crash

A Hero in adulthood
Committed to living life
Facing peril in a world full of air bags and safety rails
And soaring gates to keep them
In check

An over-the-hill Angel
Shining in senile innocence
Ask what It knows now, for tomorrow It dies
But the next day, It lives
Again


Wishing Star

The story is far from being clear-
 I looked up and saw a star
shining all alone, way up high
So I closed my eyes and bent my head
And I said,
"I wish I may,
I wish I might,
have this wish
I wish tonight..."
Then I looked back up, to the sky
And there, before my eyes,
the star was gone.
Turns out, it was just an airplane
flying by.


The World As I See It

The world is round
it's going down
who's going to help us now?
We are going to try not to cry
for all the people who died
in that horrible tragedy.

The war is bad
it makes us sad
please make it stop.
Are we going to die
from what you started?
You dared to make us scared
to see what we would do?
Red white and blue are the colors of our flag
how about you?

We are scared,
but so are you.
Who is going to have the last laugh now?
You thought it would tear us apart,
but it only brought us closer together.

You little baby
you drive me crazy
maybe you should come out and fight!
 ---
In memory of 9/11


A Walk in the Park

I took a stroll in the park, one early autumn day.
the leaves were changing colors, winter was on its way.
the valiant birds were flying, with determination on their wing.
to reach their destination where they'd stay until the spring.
the wind was blowing swiftly with a bitter frost-like bite.
the animals scurrying into their homes; they could tell it was nearing night.
I started on my journey home; it was getting awfully late.
I needed to get some rest for my walk in the park the next day.


So Much More

A Single Leaf on a tree
once a verdant masterpiece
now boring, morose, a lifeless yellow.
A Single Leaf drew no attention when in bloom
but now, now like a celebrity coming to town, everyone knows about it
like an old solider, it tells a tale, a tale that encompasses a thousand stories
one for every other leaf on the once brilliant bastion of nature
it watched at the void they left.
A Single Leaf has viewed more than first impressions prove.
Only when we look closer to it, do we learn it’s true beauty.


Seasons

Be between good and blue
Chase time
Surprise life
Sleep like loud color
Vacation in the morning
Dance with summer
Relax
Laugh every spring
Feel the cold clouds
Sun and night
Moon and day
Thick rain still flies
My birthday dandelion
Sculpt green snowmen
Imagine hot sound
Years murmur beneath your
Thought
Dark skies incubate love
Rich flowers of winter
Only a wandering holiday
Make happy shadows
Give through the seasons.


Scared Yet?

The history of the mugwump
A special one indeed
He’s notorious for ragpicking and his bibulous hoi polloi.
Pellagra?
Now don’t mess with that.
His nabob and hobnob are all jumbled into one.
As jocund as I can be, I’ll tell you
His jingoisms are sampan at the least.
But beware
His sarsaparilla for it is far worse
Than his hoi polloi could ever be
But to end this stevedore
I leave you with this one unfurling thought
Beware of the mugwump
Just because
He’s the one who told me to use these funny words
To make him as scary as you and me.


Cherish

A plane
That headed to another country
Named Japan
And even though I cried when I left my parents
I knew that I would
Remember
And cherish this experience for the rest of my life

Even thought I didn’t know anything
About the food,
Culture
Or the language
Or about how to act
Or whether to smile at people as they passed by
As soon as I got there
After that combined 16 hour plane ride
I felt at home
And I felt alive
And as I sat on the floor and looked at everyone’s shoes
I felt like me
Amongst the denim high heels and brown loafers
Talking about nothing with a girl from Kansas

And then I took bus ride to Inage Chiba
And met this woman whom I came to call Okason
And she took me into her home
As well as into her heart
And brought me to our 5 room, 2 story house
Complete with
Otoson
And Norihiro
And Junko, my sister
Who had come to my house the summer before
And after our shy greetings
We became inseparable
And it was like I was seeing Japan through her eyes

All the wonder and culture
And summer festivals full of itchy ukatas
And obis and old women
Who danced the dances that no one could remember
Around a stilted tent featuring an experience drummer
And you could hear these women’s voices rise in song
As you walked around the booths
Buying fans and sushi
That you didn’t know what it really was
And laughing
And itching
And buying sparklers to light up that dancing night
And now the only way you can remember this
Is through pictures

But some things are fresh
Like when I went to school
And had to wear a heavy gray wool skirt with suspenders
And shorts underneath because I didn’t know why
Until after school was over and we had to change to clean the school
With all these kids who I had met earlier that day
And the girls who jealously touched my blond hair
And stared at my blue eyes
And boys who laughed nervously
As their friends pushed them in my direction
And the kids who even Junko didn’t know
But touched my pale skin in the hallways
And gazed at my numerous freckles
And crowded outside the doorways to the extent that I felt like I was a celebrity,
When really I was the only American
They had ever seen in person

And walking home with Junko
And laughing about the jokes we had the summer before
And swatting at butterflies
And communicating in our very own Japanese-English language
Full of made up words as well as our native tongues

And even after all the good times
I knew how frustrated Junko was
With an American friend who couldn’t speak Japanese
But we were sisters

And after those four weeks of sushi and seaweed,
Anime and bike trips,
Tokyo Disneyland and the ocean,
I knew that I would never find such a family
That I would be as close to
And that last night when I said goodbye
And my other Japanese friends came by
With gifts of CD’s
And photo books
And signs of their friendship
And I would cry every time they left
And I just knew,
I just knew
That this was my home now
And that no matter how many years
I spend in America before I return to Japan
I know that half of my heart will always be with the ‘setting sun’


The Dropsy Duffer

The dropsy duffer thrumbused,
drudging down the street.
Its taciturn togaleseing in the sun.
Meanwhile, a doppelganger dallied at
The dropsy duffer’s side...
But then a temerity turpitude
Teetotalered by,
And the dropsy duffer
And the doppelganger, scared,
Had to run and hide.


Dream of Sleep

We’re listening
1 am…not-so-exotic.
Rewired battleground of the mind.
Stone demon in The Flesh.
The scent of my memory,
Memories secreted in beads.
Innocent disposable world
Before the wall fell

Why couldn’t I stay awake?


Screams

Psychedelic silhouetted screams
You hear black, purple, and green
Absurd as a model's passion for harmony
Imagine music as surreal as me
Smeared across a canvas
Smoke appears white
On this electric masterpiece of angels painted black
Angry pieces of our drugged reality


I am Here

You’re so used to me saying
What you would like
Used to me
Knowing wrong from right
Used to me
Helping out all that I can
Used to me
Being the beast I can
Used to me
Giving a shoulder to cry on
Used to me
Having you to rely on
Maybe you’re so used to me
You forgot I am here


You Could Win!

Imagine:
Love, honesty, forgiveness, compassion.
Discover the worlds within.
In the beginning
Before the wall fell
Our relationship
The mystery, frustration, love and knowledge
Out of time
Helpless
What matters?
Absolutely nothing.
We’ve got everything we need;
Friends.
My heart is enclosed
Overflowing with joy
For life.


In The Beginning

Battleground Conductor
Darkness Overflowing
Reflections of a Stone Demon
Pain Reaching Millions


Reflections of a Musician

A battleground of the mind.
My heart is enclosed.
Are we on the brink?
The importance of music
is more than you think.
My comfort zone,
Music.


Styles and Fashion

Styles and fashion
have never particularly interested me on account of
I wear many different styles based on
how comfortable I am, and
often wonder while doing so,
how so many people
wear high-heeled shoes
that hurt their feet
and give them
blisters
all in the name of fashion
after spending tons of money on the things
that they might only wear once
because, God forbid,
they wear the same thing twice
and they look at me like I'm the crazy one?!?


Encounter

Wonderful depression
A battleground
My hell
Attack joy
Friends for life
Helpless opinion
Design adventure
What matters
Fine print
World’s dirt enclosed
Prejudice reflections
Heart
Forever lost


Sleepy Holl

Culture war. Bright Lights
Get a life (for free)
*Free
Friends of the Earth
Get Connected
Live in concert
A big noise
Don’t mean a thing.


Memory

The scents of memory are
Thoughtless the
Pain of family hurt
Our relationship is
Helpless
No longer am I
Innocent


My Heart is Enclosed

Breathless.
Imagine…thoughtlessness.
Reflections of a depression.
Departure of my memory.
Forever lost life lessons.
No longer helpless.
Memories secreted in beads.
Day of defeat stone demon.
Innocent clear skies.
Fortunate more than you, disposable world.


My Liberty

New York liberty and you
Central Midtown Brooklyn
Was where I found you.
Watch the Rockefeller view
That expensive fashion look I do
Hurry gorgeous overwhelm me
Shop and return before night
Wander the city by clubs
Crush celebrity find a love
Dream Broadway after a long day
I can be famous as you, statue
Perform my trends and show some jazz
Walk and elevate take the bus home
Say you can shine people
So leave the crowd!
Why do you look at me that way?
When skies are light


Crazy?

Broadway, love it
Unusual music
Crowded streets
Famous city
Stop a cab,
Hurry, rush
Noise of midtown
Times Square
Go visit a celebrity
New York
Got to Love it.


Scream

I can jam,
Crank it,
People always party.
This is the metal from above,
I never could sing like a punk
EXPLODE!!
Rock and Roll comes to move me.


Go Away

Please just go away now
This girl cant take it anymore
Pain is taking over

The Reaper take me
Take me from this awful place
Take me Somewhere
Where I am accepted
And Dead of night isn’t the only thing
To calm this empty soul
So I can finally be alive

Does this Nightmare ever die
Do the Monsters ever fade
Stop attacking
Give me back the happiness I have lost

The Reaper take me
Take me from this awful place
Take me Somewhere
Where I am accepted
 And Dead of night isn’t the only thing
To calm this empty soul
So I can finally be alive

Let her love
Let her be human
Get out of this head
Finally allow her to live
And put the lies back in the drawer

The Reaper take me
Take me from this awful place
Take me Somewhere
Where I am accepted
And Dead of night isn’t the only thing
To calm this empty soul
So I can finally be alive


My Heart is Enclosed

Only 16
Thoughtlessness
Innocent
Imagine…


The Other Day

The other day you said goodbye,
And all the rain caused pain,
My stomach’s knots and ties.

The dirty wind hits my cold face,
I hope you’re missing my embrace,
Now that you’re gone, I know that I sure do.
An engraved stone, the wind surrounds,
Silence, a suffocating sound,
Tears swallow up the ground,
I wish I was there with you.

Oh, Lady Luck has led us here,
And she’s so twisted up,
She’ll twist you up, I fear.

She’s careless, jealous, and unjust,
Angels made you pure angel dust,
The suns so cold it burns.
Its sad to think, darkness sinks on me and you.
An engraved stone, the wind surrounds
Silence, a suffocating sound
Tears swallow up the ground
I wish I was there with you

The fates are vicious and they’re cruel,
I learned to late, the value,
Of a simple, “I love you.”

Your face forever irks my dreams,
Condemns my fantasies,
My alarms replaced by screams from dreams of you,
An engraved stone, the wind surrounds
Silence, a suffocating sound
Tears swallow up the ground
I wish I were there with you


Angel Whispers

angel whispers
softly tickle my ear
pixy dust dances
upon my long black  lashes
tall green  blades of grass
fall around my delicate feet
the warm gentle breeze
of the air against my tummy
lightly flowing dress skims
above my ankles
beautiful long hair
shimmers in the sunlight
my soft, gentle body
now warm in the sun
glistening blue-gray eyes
glare into the sky
princess in diamonds


A N D  G I F T S

A waxy
fragrant petal
encloses the room

A N D  G I F T S
in a staccato font
sparsely placed
above the rose
and below home interiors
a spongy yellow backdrop
for the audacious mauve

A N D  G I F T S
a single ink
fingerprint
dabbed delicately across

      D  G I F .

THANKS FOR COMING!
Email comments to
 jcala@rcn.com
TOP OF PAGE
 POETRY WRITING CLASS HOME PAGE