Structured Verse
Is structured verse so surely dead?
Has it nothing left to say?
Have the rhyme and rhythm petered out
Somewhere along the way?
Have feet marched off to glory’s end?
Have the syllables this day
Been recounted for the one last time
And then been packed away?
The masters are but relics now?
Do their words hold nothing more?
Have the songs and stories sung by them
Become just ancient lore?
No, I for one can not allow
Such a day to ever dawn,
For as surely as I still draw breath
The rhythm will live on!
Foster Child
What if I held my heart here in my hand?
Would you perhaps unlock your bolted door?
Or would it merely crumble into sand
And slip between my fingers to the floor?
What if I showed my earnest love to you?
What if it thawed the frost that rims your soul,
Or decorated you like morning dew
To sparkle in the sun and make you whole?
What if I was the candle in your night
That found you in the darkened woods alone,
To guide you through the terrors with my light,
And bring your wayward footsteps safely home?
Destruction
Like children we toy with destruction.
We brandish our sword and our gun,
Not heeding the cost of the effort
Just as long as our object is won.
Too willing to sacrifice others,
Too willing to pay any toll,
Not caring the price thus exacted
Is not one penny less than our soul.
Night Time Sky
When I was just a little boy
I loved the night time sky.
On grassy hill I’d lay and stare
And dream that I could fly.
I would fly above the treetops
And look down upon my house.
It looked just like a little toy,
My dog looked like a mouse!
I’d fly betwixt the fleecy clouds
The lights of town below
Like iridescent strings of pearls
On dark hills velvet flow.
And up above in deepest black
The stars did brightly shine.
In Scorpius, Antares was
A diamond clear and fine.
I left behind the atmosphere
And frolicked into space
The Earth below a crystal orb
With jewels upon it’s face.
I looped around our yellow sun
(The Milky Way’s a must!)
And then I’d fly through Nebulae
And clouds of stellar dust.
Somewhere in Eridanus
Orion’s waters flow,
I found an empty darkened spot
Devoid of starlight’s glow.
I entered through the portal
(For such it was it seems)
And found another universe
Beyond my wildest dreams!
In there, I found a galaxy
With silver spiral rings
Made of thinnest gossamer
Like ghostly ether wings.
I settled for a yellow star
With sunspots on it’s face
And for a sapphire planet
Spinning there in space.
Trees and hills and seas of grass
And then what did I see?
A boy lay there, lost in dreams
Staring back at me!
The Poet: My name is Glenn Meisenheimer and I ONLY write structured verse. I am retired computer geek who raises foster children and lives in Oakland, California.
These poems are among the entries for the Society of Classical Poets’ 2012 Poetry Competition.
Beautiful! The pentameter flows without resistance in Foster Child.
Thanks Khalid, I was a foster child myself, so I remember the feeling of being “lost”. Unfortunately I never found that candle, myself, but survived to be that candle in the lives of my own foster children,