Ten Poems
by Erik Neibaur
Fortune
(a Found Poem)
If fortune calls
And you are as lucky as me
A great opportunity may arise
To see the world
See the dark sky with beacons of hope
Step on the moon
To walk on sand
Climb over rocks
Crawl through ditches
Swim the sea
But only if you are as lucky
As every human being
Vision
(a List Poem)
The dream with its silver smoke
The image with a fiery blaze
The woman with a wonderful look
The man with a powerful gaze
The thought with a powerful hand
The life with a tricky way
The end of it all only comes
When we don't believe
Dream
(an Acrostic Poem)
Dragging across the mind
Racing across imagination
Entertaining our deepest wants and desires
Altering our perspective
Making life what it is
Life
(a Definition Poem)
What is life?
Is it time?
Is it plants and animals and bacteria?
Is it a line that always goes forward, but never back?
It is all around us
It makes us what we are
It creates joy and happiness
Sorrow and tears
And it is the one thing we take most for granted
Again
(a Past, Present, Future Poem)
Again and again the rooster will crow;
Forever and ever we all want to know.
On and on we press forward to win;
When, oh when will conflict end?
When sad widows will never have to sit by the cold;
When victims never died in the fire.
When people bake bread
And wars are at an end
Again and again the rooster will crow.
Tear
(an Instructions Poem)
How to be a tear?
Fall slowly down
Land on the ground
Fall for happiness and sorrow
Fall ...
Fall ...
Fall ...
Fall into a new life
Howl
(a Chant Poem)
Where the wolf howls
The redwoods sigh
The breezes whisper
Where the wolf howls
The woodpeckers laugh
And all the animals play
Where the wolf howls
No humans come
No cars drive by
Where the wolf howls
Life is quiet
And things are peaceful
Where the wolf howls
Here
(an 'In the Middle of ...' Poem)
Here in the middle of time
Here in the middle of light
Here in the middle of space
Here in the lasting night
Here you find the middle
Here you find the balance
And here you find a road going two ways
And there you will find your fate
Here in the middle of life
Crew
(a Limerick)
No one ever even knew
That you were part of the crew
You sailed long and far
But never made par
And so you said you were through!
Hope
(a Metaphor)
Our hope
Is like the hinge of a door
It swings, it moves
And lets happiness in
To those who have none.