love is beauty wrapped
in the seconds of one’s life
stop, linger longer
taste, savour
and just breathe
ensuring this moment in time
is frozen and not forsaken
be enfolded, firmly,
yet with tenderness
just linger and be seen
© 2021 michael d emmerich
© 2021 mikesnexus.com
Reading a few of my poems at an arts festival this weekend … excited, nervous, unsure … first time I will be reading my poems in a public domain, exposing my thoughts, emotions and journey to strangers, in person. Totally different feeling from posting them online or reading to a friend now and again. Possibly the next step in me moving into a more “serious” position on my writings. 😱📖🤔
Selected 5 poems to read (doing some practice readings) , will gauge the audience a see how many they can handle.
#mythoughts #mypoetry
at the centre of his imagination all is blurred or veiled this continual tussle between reveal or shadow inevitably creating a journey of suspense allowing for at times, no resolution or closure retreating into these lost shadows this private reticence of an untold, nay oft told story out of sight, off camera might become an annoyance but is it not the journey rather than that, never reached destination that casts the longer shadow and matters more?
© 2021 michael d emmerich
© 2021 mikesnexus.com
burdens weighing you down
solitude standing wounded bruised
will never be the same again
yet, struggling to remain
this warrior struggles to remain relevant
is there beauty in the dissonance?
compassion doomed to atrophy
but yet expectations remain
father time approaches
veiled with the cloaked of deceit
bearing down as one avoids
that stinging gift
I am awake it’s not over
expectations of invincibility despite
having had enough
lurching back into the fray
that next rubicon beckons
cold helpless alone
coming together joining as one
together we’ll cross the river
fields of tombstones standing in silent watch
appearing as a living breathing entity
it’s about death,
but of course, life gives death meaning
the sublime beauty of repeating imagery
stretching to infinity
yet I’m lost in my own finite world
silence lingers in the air as the dust settles
why are we here, do we exist?
as I gaze ahead, I ponder what I leave behind
what dust of me remains, if even
but yet, here I stand with the remains
still alive
© 2021 michael d emmerich
© 2021 mikesnexus.com
the only way to beat death
is to live
…..
the only way to live
is to have hope
…..
the way to have hope
is to have courage
……
pushing on gives optimism
whatever begins, ends
© 2021 michael d emmerich
© 2021 mikesnexus.com
“Nonintervention does not mean that nothing happens.
It means that something else happens.”
Christopher Hitchens
On this day when we remember the fallen, lets gave pause for thought, to the boys forced to become men, to become killers. In silent contemplation, I at times shout out to my silence; why do we discard our best and brightest to senseless conflicts. The hopes and disappointments of generations of young (mostly) men/boys are always dashed at the altar of political expedience and greed. Young men fighting old men’s wars. The First World War poets have always stuck a deep chord on my soul and I reread the poems and contemplate deeply on the what, why, how and the loss. The poetry of Owen, Rosenberg, Blunden, Gurney and Sassoon are those that I turn to when I need to pause and think, why is this world so fucked up?
Consequently, I have put my pen to writing about war, and the effect it has had on me; as who served, and on our youth and the broader society. Here are some of the poems I have written with a precise of what inspired/motivated me to to put pen to paper. Not in the same league as Owen and Sassoon, but hopefully it will cause you dear reader, to pause, and reflect as to where we are going in this crazy world.
Upon reflecting on my time in the military/war as an Ops Medic, my mind flitted around the war, in which I was involved, and its unpopularity (in my opinion) and the baggage that one carries after the fact. The PTSD that soldiers carry with them for life, but that society has long forgotten, especially if the war was unpopular. Sting said: “History will teach us nothing” in some respects he is true.
The passing of Muhammad Ali gave me pause for reflection on the issues of war, forcible conscription and all that goes with it, he went to prison rather than be drafted to serve in Vietnam. I then reflected back on my time when I was forcibly conscripted in 1981 and my battle with the process of all that is war.
This arose from a dream I had, which then made me think back to a Wilfred Owen poem I read, “Strange Meeting”. Upon further reflection I cast my mind back to when I was an Ops Medic in the bush war in 1981/82 and the time I spent treating patients at the main POW camp in the now Namibia. My thought process then meandered through a montage of past present and future. It was a difficult poem to write but the words just spilled out once I began.
Penned this on the International day of Peace in Sept this year. To quote John Lennon: Give Peace a chance.
…. and a few others:
© 2018/20 michael d emmerich
© 2018/20 mikesnexus.com
battered, bruised
used and abused
but not destroyed
deception, lies and bullshit
no bond just a hypocrite
is their holy writ
the weight presses down
yet ...
when the call goes out
the deal goes down
I’m still willin’
coz I care
…….
unlike some
life, for what purpose to what end do we exist, or do we? dwelling in the pain of human finitude with transient joys, to what end do not the beasts of the field have more purpose? finding happiness and meaning, is it even possible in their world can we even control what matters? a reason and a season for this perpetual autumn my dreams are as stormy clouds, fast approaching yet tomorrow never arrives for we are destined to shuffle on and off we live, we die, we know not why what is this life is it even meant to have meaning? breath, eat, love, shit, work and then …..
how long must one endure? giving up not coz I don’t care but because others don’t I’ve fuckin’ had enough stepping back from life’s bullshit fighting a losing battle trying not to lose war by losing the battle how deep must one dig? until you find it all, then to discover maybe you still do ….
© 2020 michael d emmerich
© 2020 mikesnexus.com
mikesnexus 