Posts Tagged ‘Poetry’

let the people heal

January 27, 2024

All the times that I've cried
Keeping everything I knew inside
It's hard
But it's harder to ignore it
Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam)

greed and war and vanity
liars on tv
crooks and phonies
creeps and fools
try and influence me

endless brutality
things i cant unsee
i just need some room to breathe
some space
to be me

cant they hear our cries?
do they know how to feel?
stop the taking
stop the killing
and let the people heal


by Richard W. Bray

Similes for Her Style

January 12, 2024


Laughter like a desert spring
Perfection like a flower
Smile like a meteor
Shelter like a tree


Spirit like a forest
Brilliance like a star
Endurance like a mountain
Mystery like the sea

Refreshment like a rainstorm
Compassion like the sun
Beauty like a gemstone
Out of reach for me


by Richard W. Bray

The Fall of Icarus

December 17, 2023

When truth melts your delusions
Like a pair of wax wings
Tumbling through your head
Go a thousand random things

Daily fabrications
Avoiding with a sigh
Things that you might notice
When you walk instead of fly

Peering down from clouds
Such a curious location
What one mistakes for clarity
Could be dissociation

by Richard W. Bray

The Rage of Life

November 26, 2023

There were always babies at the bus station and they were always crying. And these were not mild complaints. I couldnt understand how the least discomfort could take the form of agony. No other creature was so sensitive. The more I thought about it the clearer it became to me that what I was hearing was rage…

The rage of children seemed inexplicable other than as a breach of some deep and innate covenant having to do with how the world should be and wasnt. I understood that their raw exposure to the world was the world.

You dont think this is all a bit fanciful?

I do think.

How would a child know how the world should be?

A child would have to be born so. A sense of justice is common to the world. All mammals certainly. A dog knows perfectly well what is fair and what is not. He didnt learn it. He came with it.


—from Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

You're gonna wonder why
As you wander on your way
The unfairness of the world
Will make a body rage

Don't be scared of words
Watch out for stones and sticks
You won't get blown away
When you build your thoughts with bricks

Perpetual injustice
Is an insult to the soul
Evil is eternal
Resistance makes us whole

A thousand paths before us
So many ways to live
It's a wicked wicked world
When we forget how to forgive

by Richard W. Bray

Captain Captious

November 18, 2023

The fish wasn't fresh
The server was late
The "hand squeezed juice"
Was frozen concentrate

The peas were canned 
It was domestic cheese
The Chardonnay was warm
And they didn’t let it breathe

I’m such a good person. Can’t you see?
The world depends on people like me
To maintain decorum and decency

The movie was dreadful
The plot was stale
The acting was wooden
An absolute fail

The mountains were awful
The snow was cold
It smelled like pine 
The rocks were old

I’m such a good person. Can’t you see?
The world depends on people like me
To maintain decorum and decency

The novel was stuffy
A disgrace to the arts
The story was filled
With boring parts

What a hideous house
And don't call me a hater
Somebody oughta kill
The decorator

I’m such a good person. Can’t you see?
The world depends on people like me
To maintain decorum and decency

by Richard W. Bray

our sordid history

November 1, 2023

Do you think of yourself as an atheist?
God no. Those were the good old days…

For a long time I’ve suspected that we might be simply incapable of imagining the epochal evils of which we stand rightly accused and I thought it at least possible that the structure of reality itself harbors something like the forms of which our sordid history is only a pale reflection.
—from Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy


What do you do when evil looks you in the eye?
Some people just start lying and lying 
Until their life becomes like a Stairmaster of lies
From which they can never escape

What do you do when evil looks you in the eye?
Some people just look for something beautiful
And try to kill it

What do you do when evil looks you in the eye?
Some people just look for something they think they can control

What do you do when evil looks you in the eye?
Some people just sigh
And try
Not to cause any more pain than they have to
Just to get by

by Richard W. Bray

No joy in being right

October 25, 2023


I wake up in the night
No joy in being right

Shut your eyes
And close your ears
As it tumbles down like tears

The news that burns your soul
The things we can’t control

Uphill all the way
Every minute of the day

Big dreams and little toils
A sunny day, a patch of soil

Way leads on to way
When there’s nothing 
More to say

by Richard W. Bray

ill-contained horror

September 20, 2023

Extract the joy
Extract the youth
Extract the filling
From a tooth

Emptiness destruction greed
Demonic ghouls
Despoil and feed


Extract the truth
Extract the light
Extract the hope
Forever night

Emptiness destruction greed
Demonic ghouls
Despoil and feed


Extract the life
Extract the soul
Extract the love
That makes us whole

Emptiness destruction greed
Demonic ghouls
Despoil and feed


by Richard W. Bray

Paying more and living less

September 14, 2023

Tune in for some friendly lies
Amuse me when the village dies
Forever in Eurasia wars
Who knows what we're fighting for?

Existential shit show 
Hiding from your shadow
Blindfolds when things get funky
Pin the tail on the monkey

No salvation on the screen
Always washed but never clean
Smash a dream and kill a smile
Add another to the pile

Self-destruction lost its charm
Another dead from needle arm
Paying more and living less
Who's the author of this mess?

by Richard W. Bray


Winkle and Wankle and Wunkle

September 2, 2023


Winkle and Wankle and Wunkle
Got attacked by an angry old skunkle

Wankle and Wunkle and Winkle
We're quite overwhelmed by the stinkle

Wunkle and Winkle and Wankle
Took all of their change to the bankle

Wankle and Winkle and Wunkle
Bought a new house for their uncle

Wunkle and Wankle and Winkle
Have an auto that's purple and pinkle

Winkle and Wunkle and Wankle
Keep plenty of gas in the tankle

Wankle and Winkle and Wunkle
Dribble and pass and slam dunkle

Wunkle and Wankle and Winkle
Roller on skates at the rinkle

Winkle and Wunkle and Wankle
Often smell musty and dankle

by Richard W. Bray