• Submit Poetry
  • Support SCP
  • About Us
  • Members
  • Join
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Society of Classical Poets
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books
No Result
View All Result
Society of Classical Poets
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books
No Result
View All Result
Society of Classical Poets
No Result
View All Result
Home Poetry

‘Looking for Your Keys’ and Other Poetry by Christopher W. Boyden

March 9, 2013
in Poetry
A A
1

Looking for Your Keys    

While trapped between your life and soul.
You look for keys to fit the hole,
You struggle through your daily pace;
In what we call “The Human Race.”

How much rain must you endure;
Before you know the rules for sure?
And how much trouble must you pass;
Until you find your peace at last?

Your deepest questions flank this plane;
They’re borne of consequence and pain.
But yet, each day you start anew,
With hope there’s something you can do

To elevate your nightly dreams;
To show you life’s more than it seems;
To bring you toward a higher light;
So you can comprehend what’s right.

There are those you used to know;
Who understand the ebb and flow,
But they can’t speak beyond death’s door,
To tell you what your life is for.

If you beseech them every day,
And pray their answers, come your way,
They  may just tell you, loud and clear,
“Just hang on for another year!”

How much rain can you endure;
Before you know the rhyme for sure;
And how much trouble will you pass;
Until you find your peace at last!

 

What’s Happened to People?       

Daily frustration and exacerbations,
Of pettiness, guile and deceit,
All of them worldly and not machinations;
It’s life from the top to the street.

What happened to caring and wishing one well?
Or stopping to just lend a hand?
And aren’t’ we the makers of each selfish hell,
Which has multiplied over the land?

And even the land isn’t safe anymore,
From our chemicals, oil and debris.
How can we ever bolt shut the door,
When the hinges just swing loose and free?

Maybe we need a hard sign from above,
Or the Earth shaking under our feet;
Before we can see that our purpose is love;
And it’s found in each person we meet.

 

Whippoorwills

The night belongs to whippoorwills,
And splintered moonlight on the hills;
The haunting echo of their calls,
From heaven’s gate to one and all,
Reminds me that I’m only small
But feel the wonder of it all!

Alone, at night, in darkened air;
The whippoorwill, without a care;
In threaded flight, past rocks and trees
Becomes the essence of the breeze!

The night belongs to whippoorwills,
And moonlight in our skies!
Is destiny by chance or will,
The sparkle in our eyes?

Beyond the canyon’s hidden ledge,
Within a feather of the edge;
The whippoorwill, achieves its goal;
A four point turn and barrel roll!

You never hear that one went down,
They don’t much care for life in town,
They slice the air with feathered flight,
In nighttime’s cold and shadowed light,
With perfect speed, just out of sight,
The whippoorwill becomes the night!

The night belongs to whippoorwills,
With moonlight in the skies!
While destiny’s the cup we fill
With sparkles from our eyes!

 

One Small Corner of the Rain Forest

Two orchids, came in bloom, tonight;
Just after six; which bloomed; last night!
It seems a confluence of time,
Has awakened such good friends of mine!

What is the message, in the wind,
Which we hear, between the thoughts we tend?
Is it something, far or rare;
Like fingers, swimming through your hair?

Or is it deeper, than us all;
A place where everyone feels small;
A chance to question; what we knew,
A brighter dream; for me and you?

When orchid’s blossom, in your sight;
Who knows what’s wrong? and what is right?
For now; I’ll likely carry on;
Until tomorrow’s heart-felt yawn!

 

Wide-Eyed Tears  

Life is hard when you’re so small,
I try to understand it all,

When Mom and Dad begin to fight;
Just after I get kissed good-night.

How can they both be nice to make,
Then scream and yell ‘til almost 3?
I wish, just once, that I could know;
Will Mom or Dad be first to go?

And what will happen after that?
And what will happen to my cat?
And can I keep my favorite toy?
Life’s hard when you’re a little boy.

I love my Mom; I love my Dad;
The saddest night I’ll every have
Keeps getting closer everyday;
Can someone help me find a way

To make my parents understand,
The rings they wear are wedding bands;
And I’m their son, their only one.
What happened to the love and fun?

Life is hard when you’re so small,
So hard to understand at all…..!

Dedicated to All Children of Divorce 

 

Mr. Boyden is a lawyer and accomplished poet living in Florida. He first began writing poetry in 1971, as part of a personally cathartic and philosophical methodology in his ongoing attempt to fully comprehend and appreciate the true meaning of his life on this planet, and, also, with the sincere hope that his poetic meanderings might offer some encouragement, insight or benefit to his fellow earth-bound travelers. 

ShareTweetPin
The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.
Read Our Comments Policy Here

RandomPoems

‘The Pilot’ and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise
Beauty

‘The Pilot’ and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise

May 12, 2020

all poems by Bruce Dale Wise   The Pilot by Air Weelbed Suc I saw him flying overhead, a pilot...

poem/erlandson/nursing homes
Culture

‘Worse Than Widowed’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson

April 15, 2023

. Worse Than Widowed They’ve made us widows while we’re still alive. I’m not allowed to see my wife, although...

Next Post
Art: An Angel Reads Li Bai

Art: An Angel Reads Li Bai

'To The Society of Classical Poets' by Steve Johns

'Opinions and Advice' by Alan Jankowski

Comments 1

  1. James Ph. Kotsybar says:
    13 years ago

    I don’t see the lawyer, but I recognize the accomplished poet. Very enjoyable work! Thank you!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. Susan Jarvis Bryant on ‘Spontaneous Conjugal Combustion’ and Other Poems by Susan Jarvis BryantMay 12, 2026

    Awww, what a beautiful comment, Mark. It's lovely to hear of the joys of marital bliss after 53 years. Congratulations!…

  2. Susan Jarvis Bryant on ‘Spontaneous Conjugal Combustion’ and Other Poems by Susan Jarvis BryantMay 12, 2026

    C.B., it's always interesting to read your take on my poems, and I've got to say I agree with you…

  3. Roy Eugene Peterson on A Poem on Coach “Black Mike” Castronis from Athens Y Camp, by Alec ReamMay 12, 2026

    Alec, this is a touching tribute to a camp coach/counselor. I had my own at Camp Paisano near Alpine, Texas.…

  4. Roy Eugene Peterson on ‘Creation of Mom’: A Mother’s Day Poem by Roy E. PetersonMay 12, 2026

    Margaret, I was thinking about the vast variety of Moms when I wrote it. Thank you for pointing that out…

  5. Alec Ream on A Poem on Coach “Black Mike” Castronis from Athens Y Camp, by Alec ReamMay 12, 2026

    Margaret, thank you for the read and remarks. First Presbyterian is still there. As is Emmanuel Episcopal, which started at…

Subscribe to Daily Poems

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,593 other subscribers

Recent Poems

  • A Poem on Coach “Black Mike” Castronis from Athens Y Camp, by Alec Ream
  • A Poem on the Zambian National Park Mosi-oa-Tunya, by Paul A. Freeman
  • ‘Creation of Mom’: A Mother’s Day Poem by Roy E. Peterson
  • ‘Spontaneous Conjugal Combustion’ and Other Poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant
  • ‘The Man in the Moon Was a Very Round Man’: A Poem by Lauren V. Leon
  • ‘Fibromytrauma’: A Poem by Golan Shahar
  • ‘A Lonely Sliver’: A Poem by Katie Tencza
  • ‘Higher Gas Prices Are a Small Price to Pay’: An Iran War Poem by Mark F. Stone
  • ‘Always Ahead’: A Poem by Scharlie Meeuws
  • ‘Hamlet’s Lawyer’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko
  • ‘On An Old Photograph’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi
  • ‘Faust Foresees His End’: A Poem by Martin Briggs
  • ‘À la Carte’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson
  • ‘Where the Sweet Bluebonnets Bloom’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson
  • ‘The Waters’: A Poem by Margaret Brinton
  • ‘The Pinnacle of Poetry’ and Other Poems by Russel Winick
  • The First American Sonnets: An Essay on David Humphreys, by Margaret Coats
  • ‘The Holy Rollers on Poetry’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi
  • Sappho’s ‘Poem 1’ Translated by Bruce Phenix
  • ‘The Cautionary Tale of Phone Addicted Mimi’: A Poem by Paul A. Freeman
  • ‘Look Away’: A Poem for America’s 250th Anniversary, by Roger Crane
  • ‘Sunday Morning in Canada’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann
  • ‘Bean’: A Poem by Jan Mennite
  • ‘The Swan’s Song ’: A Poem for Shakespeare’s Birthday, by Susan Jarvis Bryant
  • ‘The Gravedigger’: A Poem by Marie Burdett
  • ‘Waiting for the Perfect Man’: A Poem by Janice Canerdy
  • ‘The George-A-Saurus’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko
  • ‘When Asked: What’s Your Favorite Season?’: A Poem by Paul Millan  
  • ‘The Last At-Bat of Lyndon Braun’: A Poem by Michael Pietrack
  • ‘The Perpetual Battle’ and Other Poetry by Adam Sedia

Categories

  • Acrostic
  • Alexandroid
  • Alliterative
  • Art
  • Best Poems
  • Blank Verse
  • Chant Royal
  • Classical Poets Live
  • Clerihew
  • Covid-19
  • Deconstructing Communism
  • Educational
  • Epic
  • Epigrams and Proverbs
  • Essays
    • Interviews with Poets
    • Poetry Reviews
  • Featured
  • From the Society
  • Great Poets
    • Dante Alighieri
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Homer
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Robert Frost
    • William Blake
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
  • Human Rights in China
  • Limerick
  • Love Poems
  • Music
  • Pantoum
  • Performing Arts
  • Poetry
    • Beauty
    • Children's Poems
    • Culture
    • Ekphrastic
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Humor
    • Riddles
  • Poetry Challenge
  • Poetry Contests
  • Poetry Forms
    • Curtal Sonnet
    • Haiku
  • Poetry Readings
  • Rhupunt
  • Rondeau
  • Rondeau Redoublé
  • Rondel
  • Rubaiyat
  • Sapphic Verse
  • Satire
  • Science
  • Sestina
  • Shape Poems
  • Short Stories
  • Song Lyrics
  • Sonnet
  • Symposium
  • Terrorism
  • Terza Rima
  • The Environment
  • Translation
  • Triolet
  • Video
  • Villanelle

Quick Links

  • About Us
  • Submit Poetry
  • Become a Member
  • Members List
  • Support the Society
  • Advertisement Placement
  • Comments Policy
  • Terms of Use

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books

© 2025 SCP. WebDesign by CODEC Prime.