Monday, December 13, 2021

Poems from 2014






Freedom

control precarious,
as anxiety grows,
the restless minds rebel,
not intentionally,
or voluntarily,
only out of fear and uncertainty,
the world makes no sense,
logic and reasoning,
skills lost on the masses,
the world a dangerous place,
when minds run free.
_________

Without

without doubt,
there is no need of faith,
control breeds certainty,
allows for unbelief,
an illusion,
as is much of life,
without meaning,
on a rock revolving endlessly.
in the darkness of space.


 

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Two Poems





Biden


an incompetent old man sits in the oval office,

his political career, a road map of corruption,

with the touch of the damned, he fingers the levers of power,

death and destruction left in his wake,

but never his fault,

unable to comprehend honor, or justice, or responsibility,

he mumbles his excuses,

out of touch, and ignorant of the reality around him.

_________

A Political Act

the Covid Pandemic, 

created to bring down a President,

was it worth the death and the destruction,

the damned, absolutely believe it to be so,

lies beget lies,

the web continues to grows,

a political act of human destruction,

an act of war,

by the elite upon the poor,

sponsored and paid for, by the government,

and party leaders,

both Republican and Democrat,

humanity, not to be saved,

but only controlled,

by this political act,

taken by desperate men the world over.


Thursday, December 2, 2021

Sinners

This is probably one of the darkest, if not the darkest poem I ever wrote. It was written after Ethan's second brain surgery, and we were still dealing with seizures. This poem was also written as I was battling the side effects of my cancer treatments. As life is a journey I am pleased Ethan and I have begun our climb out of this pit of darkness, though the climb is never finished, and we seem to lose our footing repeated on our way up. It has been a long climb, which would be impossible without our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.





Dead Snakes
September 14, 2014
(I had written the poem a few years earlier, but this was date of publication)

Douglas Polk- A Poem

The Sinners

     I talk out loud when I write, keeps the voices quiet, otherwise, my mind is a noisy   din- - - - the voices are polite, I have raised them right . . . .my son is like me, sits in his bedroom in the darkness, listening to the voices  . . .his darkened bedroom is his favorite place to be. . . . .  we have seen the doctors and now he is drugged, can no longer hear them talk, only sees them, little men, in top hats . . .lonesome . . I still hear them, thus feeling guilty, but that is just between you and me. . . . my son and I are reformed sinners, have recanted and repented, when we see another sinner, our eyes find the ground,  prayers said, hoping the pretense remains. . . . .sssh, we really have not recanted, and we are not reformed, but perception more important than reality, we want no more help, no more drugs . . . I will die when it is time to die, without doctor’s mind games and sadistic experiments.  . . . . . omelets are tasty, filled with ham, potatoes, onions and eggs, breakfast topped off with a smile from my son, so precious and rare, breakfast and dessert, I am ready for the day and  whatever it brings, well that is bullshit, no one is ever really ready, but  it doesn’t matter, I saw my son smile, and he was happy, at least for a moment. . . . .we are captives, though my son likes his captivity much better than me, too young to remember the freedom of other places, too brainwashed and scared to even      try, . . . to remember. He is what brought us here, was the bait, by which they bagged   me, . . . that was the beginning  . . .when we eventually were forced to recant. 
Death lurks beyond the city streets, leave and you shall die, I used to spit in their eye, and curse them with words learned in other places . . . uncouth words, taught on farm and ranch, where life is so much more real. . . But now, too weak and resigned, and when my son reads my angry thoughts, I see the fear fill his eyes, and quite quickly the anger dies, and I hope the thoughts only read by him. . . . . . . . .the hood of my pickup is wired down with # 9 bailing wire, the most useful wire in the world . . .rusted floor boards, you have to know where to put your feet, my son knows just how to place his feet, unless the demons begin to attack. . . . . my son many times refuses to go for rides, preferring his darkened room and the soothing voices of the  little people, he can no longer hear, just started a new drug. Sabril, it will battle the demons, but possibly leave him blind . . . the doctors with scalpels have already taken half of his sight. . . .a sort of payment in kind, for not trusting and being sinners, but both he and I have recanted. . . .We live in the city, don’t we?  our days spent eluding the hunters, demons and men, but it is understood, everything is always in a state of constant flux, weeds, trees, buildings, streets, nothing is safe, unless deemed so, by these special, special people, in this special, special place, so we live our time trying to adapt, and keep convincing the people we have honestly and voluntarily recanted, and no longer believe what we once held true, no longer believe what the voices knew, and no longer to listen to voices, for their lies are easily seen through. . . . at least that is the mantra we repeat to the special people, of this special, special place.
       I, once, loved writing stories, but now can’t find my way, the writing isn’t hard, but the way back out, the challenge. . . . the voices once helped, looking for bread crumbs dropped along the way, now, I fear they pick up the crumbs as fast as I toss them down. Trust became an issue about the time I pretended to recant, . . .  already time for more pills, another dose to keep the demons at bay. . . .though it is heartbreaking to see and feel a glimpse of the sun, before the clock on the wall, and the voices start screaming for more pills. Sometimes I am left to wonder if God truly real.
         Silence the voices, silence the doubts, that is not what life is about. . . .education consists of the ability to cope . . . .I have waged the battle best I could, yet I knew the war was not to be won, that was a fact . . . . . and I and my son could hold out a little longer, if I would retreat, and admit defeat . . .which I did while the voices screamed, still angry, blaming me, . . . but they are not the ones who suffer when the punishment inflicted, no that is inflicted on I and my son. . . . the recanted sinners, afraid of the sun.


 

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

The Journey

 


This is one of the first poems I ever had published. It was made into a story to go in a Children's Story Book, by Cherubic Press in the mid-1990's. I am quite proud how the message has stood the test of time. The poem was inspired by an encounter I had with a parent and her daughter, when my son was a pre-schooler. I was taking my son, who is medically challenged, to his classroom when we met this woman and her daughter in the hallway. The little girl stared at Ethan and asked her Mother what was wrong with him. The Mom grabbed her daughter by the shoulders, turned her around and slapped her hard across the face. The woman told the daughter not to be rude, staring and asking questions. I told her, it was ok we were not offended, but the woman said she would not allow her child to be rude to the unfortunate. . .That encounter was the seed for this poem, because I thought about how I would try to handle the situation if I was in her place.Thus my poem " The Journey", though the publisher liked a longer title. . . .

( in the poem, the refrain in my poem was like the title of the story . .the journey is different, but the trip is the same  . . . .dlp)









Thursday, November 18, 2021

Two Poems which appeared at Poppy Road Review in 2015

 

Two Poems by Douglas Polk

Morning Drizzle

a morning drizzle,
raindrops,
soft and tender,
fall to the ground,
bring to mind,
tears by a graveside,
celebrating a long gentle life,
now done,
the magic unending,
alive in the rain.




The Cottonwood

biggest tree in the county,
almost a first memory,
here when great grandfather first settled,
a lonely sentinel on the plains,
a meeting spot in the day,
picnics and church revivals,
now more a memory,
than an actual tree,
trunk rotten,
dead branches on the ground.

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

A Winter Painting


 dark,

the colors opaque,

no warmth,

a winter painting,

the season  of darkness,

the sun,

year after year,

hoping to sneak away,

without anyone noticing,

but we do notice,

raising our voices in complaint.