Poetry

About a decade ago, I got the idea in my head that I could write poetry if I wanted to. I started two main collections, one of regular (rhyming, haiku, and tanka) poetry which I called The Golden Compass (no relation to the book/movie of the same name, as I'd never heard of them), and a series of gemstone-related poems called Gemsongs. With the latter, I originally planned to go through all the major gems, though obsidian doesn't really belong in there.

As time went on, I learned that I really can't write poetry worth crap. When my final and most recent effort, "Wild Treasures," failed to garner any notice whatsoever after I entered it in a poetry forum competition on Writing.com, I took the hint and stopped trying. I think I've done the world a favor. That, plus it was just really, really hard for me to write poetry. I simply can't write freeverse (without a syllable limit like haiku and tanka) to save my life, so you'll be seeing some pretty forced meter and rhyme schemes in most of this stuff. For some reason it's just much easier for me to write serials hundreds of thousands of words long than it is to write decent poetry. I can't even stand READING most poetry, so...*shrug.*

Be aware that a lot of the attitudes reflected in some of these poems, e. g., the whole "There's always a bright side!" mentality, are attitudes I personally do not subscribe to for the most part. There's even a poem in here from an American Indian viewpoint (WTF?), and one that seems really feminist and anti-male (double WTF??). Once in a while I strayed into Jungian territory, and I tried some acrostics (look for them carefully), but for the most part I stuck to nature, thank goodness. I think my nature imagery is okay, but whenever I try to get emotional or philosophical I just...really, REALLY suck.

Hence my self-ban on writing more of this stuff. Here are all the more adultish poems I wrote before I realized just how bad it all is. Most titles were taken from New Age/nature sounds songs I had on tape back then, and I think there's even a character reference (to Lt. Kincaid or Det. Kristeva of the D Is For Damien series, I'm not sure) in "Falling..." You can find some much more fun, goofy stuff in the Childhood Writing area.

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Table Of Contents

The Golden Compass:

After The Storm

Alone In The Sunlit Valley

At The Parting Of The Roads

Autumn Blue

Autumn Winds

Balance

Cat Hunting

Crickets In Winter

Dark Center

Dark Water, Bright Stars

A Day In Life

The Dragon

The Dragonfly Trail

Dreams Of Owl

Evening Shadows Fall

Falling...

Fields Of Rain

Forest Window

Galveston

God's Afterthought

Gold & Blue

The Golden Compass

Haiku For The Year

Jungle Moon

Lesson Of The Wind

Mandala

Memory Of Snow

Messengers

Michigan Spring 1997

Native Dilemma

The Night Sun

Ocean

Perfection

Poem In A Stream

Rainlights

Seasons

The Shadow

Sky Whimsies

Snowfall

A Song For Twilight

Song Of The Desert

Storms

Threefold Divinity

Three Moods In Blue

Thunder On The Prairie

To He Who Will Listen

To Hold The Morning Light

Understanding The Simple

Unfamiliar City

When We Have Wings

Wild Treasures

Windmills


Gemsongs:

Ambersong

Jadesong

Lapissong

Obsidiansong

Opalsong

Pearlsong

Rubysong