Poetry

So I have been taking a creative writing class at my university and thought I would share some of the poetry that has come out of it...

Robot

He was built inside a factory

With gears and steel and sweat

And men praised themselves in industry

For the challenge they had met

“He’ll be better than a man” they said

A robot always is

Ship him out and box him up

Put nails into the lid

He arrived at noon and twenty

And the neighbors stood and stared

The father grabbed the crowbar

And the mother pulled her hair

“He’ll do everything we hate, they say”

As he was made to do

Turn him on and let him go

A robot shiny new

At first he washed the dishes

And soon he mopped the floor

He built the tool shed in the back

And painted red the door

“What a wonder of technology” they cried

Far better than a man

He could do almost anything

Where once man had lent its hand

But one night as they were sleeping

From the basement heard

A pounding and a banging

And gears and motor’s whir

What could he be doing there?

Tomorrow we will know

Back to dreams and satin sheets

And let our questions grow

But when they woke up in the morning

And called upon their bot

All they heard we’re tears and cries

And answers they were not

So they crept into the basement

The woman after man

And looked upon their robot

In terror, hand in hand

It had built a little heart

And placed it in its chest

It beat and glowed and spun around

Like a fire within its breast

The mother screamed and the father yelled

And the robot simply cried

He finally felt emotion

And now he wished to die

The moon and the mirror

The bridge is painted fog and holds me still.

The river below as dark as oil,

stirs and sways and licks the banks.

The spear like reeds break through the mist,

Pleading to bring me down upon their softened ends.

Image of a ghostly pearl and clouds that lightly drip.

The deadly sound of the laughing eddies,

Twist sweetly in Mother Nature’s mirror.

No

I looked around the room then lay her on her back.

She smells like rye.

I smell like cigarettes, rye and ginger.

“Will we always be like this?” she asks.

No

I forget the time when she wasn't here

like this, unkempt and unimaginative in her looks.

Her heart is here for now, and so is mine.

“Do you think we’ll always be like this?” I ask.

No

I’m silent and so is she for once.

She’s like the book she gave me on the table,

closed so tightly I hardly care.

The radio sings before I turn it off, “as my guitar gently weeps…”

No

We look up at the ceiling.

Her body begins to twitch itself to sleep.

Our bodies are tangled and I brush her hair away

and I think, “I hate when it finds its way in to my mouth.”

No

The Lament of Daedalus: My son

My son, my son, oh greatest of my creations

Whose life was quickly taken by what my hands did cruelly do

That now causes my eyes to shed more than the water that did take you

Curse these hands, whose age is writ in scars and browning callus

Curse my name and all who give sweet praise and dwell upon it

My son, my son, oh greatest of my wonders

How do I bring you back to me, how do I pay the cost?

How does a father say goodbye to a son so swiftly lost?

Do I tell them of your dreams or my looks you seemed to borrow?

But all my words do simply fall and sink beneath my sorrow

My son, my son, oh greatest of my triumphs

For all that I have made and built

From wooden trick to stone and brick

Of monsters made and maidens lost

You were my noblest feat and now my shameful loss

My son, my son, oh greatest of my follies

If Gods can hear, then let them listen now

On bended knee their servant’s head does so lowly bow

Please give me one last mercy and switch the old for young

And raise him like the phoenix and set me like the sun

My son, my son, oh greatest of my regrets

No other could replace you, no other will I raise

And if they come I’ll throw them out on each and every day

Do not wait for me my son, pay the boatman’s fee

And know that though you fell so far, your soul is now set free

Oh Messiah

Oh Messiah       

Let me bend your ear

Will you listen to what I most fear?

The dark of night, the clear of day

A soul that’s lost by what you say

Forgiveness please

For what I’ll do

Due to moral lines you drew

I’ll never be all you want

The devil’s host always taunts:

Dear Child

Please just go in

Do all you wish to win

Drink it down and breathe it in

All these chemicals of sin

Oh Savior

Why was I born to be

Just a pawn in a war for thee?

Though I am weak, you are strong

Yet now my faith in you is gone