OPEN MIC ARCHIVES
July 14, 2008

immersed in blogs
  window draws my startled glance
light sneaks in

                   - eric gray

TODAY IS WHAT DAY?
Shellie Machin

Today is a day which i will remember forever

Today will be the best day of my life

Today is the day things will change

Today is a day where lives will change

Today is a day full of fear

Today is a day of tears

Today is full of pain

Today will never be the same again

Today is MY day

Today will never be yesterday

Today will never be tomorrow

Today will always be today

Today my body throbs with adrenaline

Today is the day i evolve

What day is it today?

Is tomorrow today?

When will today happen?

What happens today?

Today is what day?

Within
Edward E Bortot

Rip my flesh from my bone.
Bury me and leave me alone with
premonitions of 18 vision stone.

The unmarked graves of unselfish slaves.
A reminder of dehumanization in back alley caves.
A savior in his mortality who tries to save.

A treason brought fourth on a black day.
A knife in the back that leaves a lasting display.
Two faces of the same individual leading in two different ways.

A faithless fling that sings with protruding force.
A life being a blemish on a disdainful course.
A stoic laughter in silence, trying to find its true source.

The grains of sands run through my hands.
A high stake life with death’s demands.
You are no more complex, than I am a simple man.

A  POET
Roger Geaniton 

To be a poet is to remain forever young

To understand the sun before the scholar’s words

To be able to sleep and to sleep again

On another planet in a secret meadow

To embrace the universe with tenderness

and to relish the impossible happiness of some crazy dreams

To keep doing tirelessly and always to welcome

every minute with an open mind

To be a poet is to dialogue with shadows and lights

To begin a bright day when darkness hangs heavy on your hands

To be a poet is to read new words on every face

To be a poet is to be able to say and glorify

To probe the abyss of the heart

To love without constraints to pine for love

To be a poet is to recognize oneself in the present moment

It’s to be fully alive

To be a poet is to stretch out the arms to life

To say life when the rabble death cries

To be a poet is to be born again every second

To be a magnificent tree in the valley of peace

 THE CHALLENGE OF MY LIFE
By T A Ramesh

Poetry is the only breath of my life in the world
I feel not free due to the constraint of time
Time, the primordial fossil still controls all
But to overcome this precious thief is a great challenge!

Everything tried to fail me but not my poetry,
Which all the tricks of time can't stop altogether;
My sustained efforts now and then never got blocked,
But the outlet for my output ever remained closed.

That is the great challenge of my life;
But the free flow of my poetry never ceased to be impotent.
Are they a mere growth of weeds on acres of papers?
No, some soul would know the value of this pearl one day.

Poets write for recognition but not for rejection;
They pour out their heart in the poems pure
For the men of the world to appreciate one day
The man, the heart and the human sense in the words rare.

Is poem like any other product produced for profit?
Poems are the myriad expressions of the human mind.
That explores the unknown through the known words
Transcending human limitations to the limit of the Universe!

My curiosity led me to undertake this venture
The discoveries I express nobody seems to care
This is the greatest all time challenge of my life,
Which I would love to face sincerely and really!

Squirrel
- A.THIAGARAJAN

Examination hall
Question paper
Forbidding silence
Moving master..
Through the window
he looks at the mischief
of the squirrel on the twig - it looks
at him mockingly & nods its head & tail
The master, with additional sheets
some twine to fasten
the answer sheets-
the main book with the supplementaries..
Paper and the squirrel
the master walks here and there
and away at last..
he is now, though
not what he needs

THE MUSE AND I
Ibohal Kshetrimayum

The fairy poetess persuades me to coin a verse for her .

But I Can't find the muse .

I walk under the starlit sky and make wolf-calls to the freckled moon .

But the muse growls at me .

I lie on the hot sand and quarrel with the angry sun .

But the muse consoles me not .

The humming bird with fluttering wings ,

the grumbling wind blowing through the woods ,

the blossoming rose - which was only a bud yesterday ;

all conspire and humiliate me with relentless sarcasm .

I pinch the subconscious to arouse the conscious .

But the muse deserted me when I desire for it the most .

My stammering pen scrawls aloud the fractured words ,

making the stubborn muse laugh ,

with an amused mockery ,

over my frustrated musings .

We both transgress the laws of prosody -

the muse and I .

Love is like a Sea
Major Raymond Porrata

 Love is a sea and it’s waves are its arms calling us to embrace

 Love is a sea possessing life, strength, and beauty

 Love is a sea surrounding us and inviting us to enjoy life

 Love is a sea where it’s waters calm and cool our hearts with joy

But there are times the sea can turn on us and love evaporates up to the clouds

 Leaving a sea dead, void of life, and void of joy

 A lifeless body of water, bare, and lonely

Love is a sea and despite its lifeless waters love cannot be held back

 It fights back and eventually love overcome death

Dark clouds and winds surrounds the sea embracing it and turning it

 And as each drop of love falls back onto the sea

 The sea’s love is restored and life begins again

So enjoy your sea of love

And may its love always carry you safely

 And may it lead you to someone as special

 As you

Sanity of love
Myquanela smith

Love is my demise
My torture and my pain
It drove me far from sanity
And I am now insane
Love has embeded my skin
And now my heart is stained
Its left me naked and vulnerable
But I am not ashamed

“Selective Service”
Gerard Sarnat

'72, a Stanford student glued to Viet Nam (the center not
holding), pass-fail curriculum abandoned for life-death
antiwar mobilization 'til the endgame (med school, not
incursions) came, time to accept hard-won diplomas (or
not), take the Hippocratic Oath (primum non nocere, first
do no harm) which seemed so hypocritical: we supposed
scientist-healers inventing, even dropping napalm. Instead
of graduation, my friends and I celebrated by burning our
draft cards, Hell no we won't go; which led to the next
domino … Now an internal medicine resident, rebuffing a
proposed truce when the Brookline Mass board winked an
offer I surely couldn't refuse: “Son, after our exam, we'll
classify you 4F, declare asthma prevents any combat.”
But I did, advising that gomer colonel/MD to shove the
patently bogus diagnosis right up his @nus, make my day,
stick me in prison if a shrewd move for recruitment and
what'll follow tomorrow running on the Boston Globe's front
page, all about this young physician, acting on principle,
resisting the military's outrageous attempt to bribe him
to just go away.

29. Such an insignificant; significant age.

The number that tells you all about the irrelevancy of past, yet all you were suppose to be

It’s like a time-out year between being “old” and just a kid.

Here I am….. Wife (1) Child (1) beyond that is left remained.

I am happy, nonetheless none to sure of where I was suppose to be.

29. An age that would say “you have one year before you are socially acceptable

Pressure runs high as you feel big changes must be made to omit big mistakes.

“Old” creeps in your mind.

Living standard:  so obscure.

29. The thought of “true” family stems from your upbringing now evident

My ideas on family more profound and thought-out; but am I an inevitable by-product of my upbringing?

Do I love my parents? Respect them? Despise them? Resent them?

29. The year you say as an individual, what is mine is mine.

Powerful yet vulnerable:

29. Remember one truth.

Someone has been there before.

Instead of lies and denial

Except your open truth as just

Behold good things will happen

29. A number like all the rest

However, significant if relative to all of the above

Good luck.

 Shaun

To my Doll, Lynn
KEN GILLESPIE

You were a light that I saw in the distance for so many years,
How was I to know that you would appear so brightly when I really needed you.
Your very presence has guided me through such a troubled and trying time.
Your loving glow has shown me what living could be.....should be....and would be.
The warmth of your heart and the tenderness of your carress has given me a new meaning in my life.
That warmth and tenderness has soothed my heart and given me directions I thought I'd never find.
Stay with me Lynn, be my partner, my soul mate, my wife, my everything. I love you, now and forever

THE LEAVES
Frank Stepich

If only the leaves do again one last Fall,
Reacquaint with trees from which born;

Bemask the boughs, the nest, the finch,
If they would entwine spring with fall;

A forever branch to be climbed,
A never-ending day to live;

If only the leaves do again one more,
Fall from the limb rendered as gift.

In A Place Where There Are No Rules   
            G David Schwartz

In a place where there are no rules

It’s not necessary to use the tools

You’ve cleaned and scraped and put away

In a place where there are no rules

Just walk around and mumble hey

And if you get real obnoxious

You can do something like this

Run all around

And yell out Hay

Every little difference

Goes and comes this way

Epigram – Motion
Breath breath,
Out I go,
Into a world unknown,
Participating in reality
None created by your own.

Koketso Marishane

I stand alone by a crowded street. I look at the mudstains on
my feet. Where have I been?, what streets I take. Are not compared to
the ones I make. As you think about whats inside. The gift that he gave
you is not denied. Yo encrypt a mind, or to search a letter. I really don't
think it's gonna get much better. At the end of course, you will truly see.
What this whole journey has meant to me. Was it a waste of time? or
a moment of clutter. As I stand in the Alley I start to shutter.
My mind shuts down, and its hard to speak. My arms start to dangle and my knees feel weak. I can see him now at the pearly gates. Ready to read me my mistakes. "13 years" says the man in white. " You'll serve in hell to make your wrong things right." I really don't think i'll need my sweater. As I ask myself now..."can it get much better?"

-Ronnie Luke Stahl
 

My dog
by Marina Vitagliano

I called him “the General”
For under his fur
A brave warrior
And a mild grandfather
Were living together

He never barked for food
Only some whistles asking for pats
As a reward for chasing a cat

The snow was slowly
Whitening his ears
But he did not care
His place was to be there
Behind the door
Not the flannel floor
Of his deserted kennel

And when time came to go away
He left his body on the gravel
Veiled by the dim ray
Of a December day

DEATH OF ME
Philip Hughes

My life is gone
Lost in the element of surprise

All is nothing
And nothing is constant

My soul has been severed
My heart raped

Love has killed me
I am dead

HATRED
Dr. Ram Sharma

     You,

 Can feel it,

 In the shades of conversation,

 On faces,

 It creates a different line,

 It is not created suddenly,

 It,

 Brings up in heart,

 Like eggs of snakes,

 It grows,

 Try to,

 Avoid it

That Heaven I Know
By: Angel Dominick

 The places I go and the places I stay

Nowhere compares to here

Here where the sun shines every day

The birds chirp and the children play

Flowers bloom but nothing dies

Winter never comes

Just an endless summer day

Heaven to most but hell to some

When you feel the warmth on your face

All you behold is love

An endless war over there

Here nothing to fear

This is the place I wish to be for the rest of my life

But unfortunately nowhere beholds all this love and peace

As I wander on into this endless night

I wonder “where should I go?”

Just a lonely traveler no family or home

Nobody to love and nobody to hold

My life is just a living hell

Until I go to sleep

This is when I can go

Into that heaven I know

When I die I’ll be in peace

Into that heaven I know

 She left a bit

of her soul

back on

the estate

where graffiti

was daubed

on the

garden gate,

and a bit

of her soul

was left behind

at her old

school desk,

with her

injured pride.

And a bit

at the bank,

her very

first job,

where she’d had

a crush

on handsome

Bob.

And a little bit

more, when

her husband died

and the

sheets got wet

from the tears

she'd cried.

And a bit more, still,

as the

debts piled up

though she hid

it all from her

children's eyes.

And she feels

she left

a part of her

at every

port of call,

and she mourns

the loss

of each little bit

of her sad 

and

splintered soul.

 THE BEACH
CHINAR MEHTA

As this memory fades into nothing
Nothing that it was meant to be
The way that destiny sought
Nature's law is fulfilled again
Everything has to end in nothing
I wasn't prepared for the dissolve
And yet, I had to let it go
Let it drift far from my reach
I had dived into the salty waters
Washing away my guilt into the sea
It hurts achingly, bitterly to swim
And yet it feels whole and clear
I have two coins and I throw away
Throw the rusted one into the waters
Away it flows there
I cannot see it, but I know i is gone
And I will not stop it now, not today
Without stopping my unknown tears
As I turn and walk away
Up towards the white sands...

MY HAIKU
       Dragan Milenkovic

                        Glance

                       Seared leafs
All migrate in no return.
            As her Glance on me

                       Players

          Autumn: the death looks: 
two old  man are playing chess
Until one pass away.

                      Same

              New flowers on tree
of chestnut, across the street, 
Grey just as I am

                          Zest

                Swelter is  reigning  
Extracting from two of us
Devotion to sun.