steven cooke, 30 september 2013
I scrawl these visions
in the light of exploding shells
and the grey sleep of a million corpses,
making my pencil the last witness
to the moments between life and death.
Truth shall guide my trembling hand
across a blank canvass that will inherit
this day’s memory of pain.
A transformation in the dark colours of suffering
that echoes the sounds of war
to a respectable audience,
taking their morning tea in England.
The epitaph of a race captured in a wooden pencil
sharing the blood of mankind
in another holy grail.
Come drink this sweet wine of youth
for it will never empty.
My pencil denied by the colours of life
creates glory on a foreign field.
The sons of mothers pose
in deaths final picture,
frozen for winter to play.
Till the heat of summer takes them away
on blue bottle wings to heaven.
A rotten imprint to torment the living.
They were once human as I remember
who came with wit and clean socks
seeking the approval of father.
All were looking for a road to be a man
but the road was a trench,
whose veins pulsated with the blood of the dead
giving birth to the shadows of tomorrow.
Shadows, shadows all is shadows
the pencil can tell no lies.
Life turned into spectres and flies
haunting the conscience of mankind.
We are no longer human beings
war in the trenches dulls the meaning of life.
Death is but a serial number and a victory
for tomorrow’s paper.
Life wasted in Judas visions for all to see.
And I who live in fear
cannot see the lines of humanity anymore.
Only images seeded in a fractured brain
whose portfolio burns in the corpse
that was once my soul.
This pencil has done its duty
The reaper can take these eyes,
eyes that see the shadows
dancing in the flickering flames of war.
A light that bears witness to my last heart beat
in the scribbles of a dying man.
My destiny foretold in my work
to spend eternity in the darkness
that surrounds the stars,
with a pencil that can draw no light.
Pass gently dear comrades from this earth,
time is the watch which knows no end.
Only the blind and the dead will hear
the last tick of this illusion.
For silence is the secret of the earth
everything dies, everything dies.
Gert Strydom, 30 september 2013
You did seep into my heart,
have made friends with my hands and body
and now that your are becoming well-known to me
between us no games do exist
as you did become a part of me.
Gert Strydom, 30 september 2013
When the sun did hang like a copper bell on the horizon
and the silence of the afternoon did come
I already was longing after you
and saw the evening-lily flowering under a silver moon
and when your car lights did turn into the gate
my whole heart rejoiced with joy
and it did feel
as if my day was empty without you.
Satish Verma, 30 september 2013
This nothingness was overwhelming.
When words fail to tell the facts,
only silence talks.
That brutal interrogation of self
to undo the decline, like a
a viper in your home.
The mortgaged glow of stoned infant
in the exiled land, brings
the exodus of shrunken legs.
A shadow survives on the debris
of frozen voices,
sluicing through the cries.
Open the stitches of night.
Death was skirting the prison.
No ropes. No ropes.
Satish Verma
Satish Verma, 29 september 2013
savage was the bond of weakness;
we were hiding behind the pain
of decline, abdicating the singed shrine
of nameless opposition, nowhere the roots
were reaching the bottom of truth, I ran
like river of life amongst the flames, you try to
resuserstate a dozing century by burning
poems, every wen fighting the jinx,
counting the tiny deaths
give me your locked secrets of fire
let me face the cold-blooded murder
in caldron of dead lips
Satish Verma
Satish Verma, 28 september 2013
Just unbound, the death rate.
Red roses had no qualms. Numbers,
unapologetic, they die or commit suicide.
Death had no tombs. One by one they
cross the stream, sinking half, floating half
in a cynic system, heedless, emaciated,
eyes looking beyond, cavernous.
They kiss the doors, will not comeback,
pilgrims of grapes or hemlock, dead on the toes
of rehearsals, dried milk in breasts and pounding
of metaphors. The mankind stripped of songs
drifting from one forest to another.
Satish Verma
Bob Gotti, 27 september 2013
As The Lord works in us spiritually, He also does a work practically,
Not only does He save us friend, but, works out the time we spend,
While In this present life as we live, a spiritual insight, God will give,
Given to all who come to Christ, as God begins to move in their life.
A child of God, through New Birth, God will guide you on this earth,
Now born again into God’s Family, He puts us on a path to eternity,
As God helps with the task at hand, helping us to take a new stand,
In the way we see the issues in life, led by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Now from above my Lord leads, providing all of my practical needs,
Now with my eternal destiny sealed, my new life in Christ is revealed,
As God’s Spirit works in my heart, from my former life I must depart,
Being led by The Spirit of Christ, God helps me in a newly found life.
With my heart and mind renewed, God exhibits in me, a new attitude,
One that guides me through the day, as I travel upon the narrow way,
As Christ influences all my thought, real change in my life is wrought,
As I try to honor God with my life, in service to my Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritually by Christ I was saved, from a life, when lost and depraved,
As He granted me a new life to live, that life to Christ I now fully give,
Reflecting on all for me He’s done, I’m obligated to serve God’s Son,
My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has granted to me Eternal Life.
(Copyright ©08/2013 Bob Gotti)
Bob Gotti, 27 september 2013
Sometimes we strive to be content, in things, not in the One God sent,
Who powers us to do all things, as strength to us from God He brings.
Through the riches of Jesus Christ, we’re strengthened through our life,
With endless strength given to us, we can do all things, in Christ Jesus.
Whether we are in plenty or in need, these are His Truths we must heed,
Words penned by the Apostle Paul, who in his time of plenty was Saul,
But, after Saul met Jesus Christ, he learned to deal with pain and strife,
Whose words today are relevant, for all believers looking to be content.
While in our world, as we have plenty, happy and content we tend to be,
Sometimes following the world’s lead, having more, than we really need,
But, in this life, when we confront, a period of need or that time of want,
An inner emptiness seems to prevail, when those ways of this world fail.
That is why we need Jesus my friend, for times we cannot comprehend,
In times of need, we don’t understand, we look to Him to take our hand,
To then guide us through all uncertainty, as The Lord alone is our plenty,
Supplying the strength for all our needs, as in that time, His Spirit leads.
The Lord can do anything but fail, so it is in Jesus Christ that we prevail,
Through His eternal riches my friend, resources above that have no end,
He sustains us, with strength and power, even through that darkest hour,
So as all my resources have been spent, in Christ alone I can be content.
(Copyright ©12/2012 Bob Gotti)
Bob Gotti, 27 september 2013
My friend, when I depart this life, I desire to leave with my wife,
It’s not the question of if, but when, as we are both Born Again;
With death hanging over my head, I want to be raptured instead,
So my wife and I may go together, to join with The Lord forever.
With death a persistent possibility, Christ could part her and me,
Up from the shared path we roam, The Lord could call me home;
But a separation is not final friend, as our real lives have no end,
With our hope, we have in Christ; we shall both enter Eternal Life.
How and when, we can’t choose, but knowing Him, we can’t lose,
With this hope that we both share, in due time we’ll both be there,
Up in the place prepared for us, to be with our Lord, Christ Jesus,
When there together, we will see, that glorious time called eternity.
In life, we’ve been led by Grace, being together in time and place,
Through our time God truly has, provided His grace at every path,
In those times of peace and strife, His grace led me and my wife,
So friend, whatever the tides, His Grace is in whatever He decides.
Knowing our frames are but dust, in The Lord, we both must trust,
In this time, we don’t understand, we know that we are in His hand,
So, not knowing what lies ahead, we both rely on our Lord instead,
But I still desire to go together, both raptured up, with God forever.
(Copyright ©12/2012 Bob Gotti)
Bob Gotti, 27 september 2013
Holy God, Who judges Righteously, offers all sinners eternal victory,
Before the foundation of the world, the stage was set to be unfurled,
The Lord God, from all eternity past, set in place Redemption to last,
Man’s redemption, through His Son, provided salvation for everyone.
The salvation all men would need, since Adam and Eve did not heed,
The command given in the Garden, by which, man became hardened,
When God’s command was ignored, creating an enmity with the Lord,
From that forbidden fruit on a tree, man would be directed to Calvary.
At the moment Satan did deceive, mankind’s parents, Adam and Eve,
Bringing darkness into Paradise, The Creator would ordain a sacrifice,
A sacrifice required for mankind, to be provided for all, in God’s time,
Prophesied way back in Paradise, pointing to the Savior, Jesus Christ.
When Christ would die in our stead, He would also crush Satan’s head,
As Satan simply bruised the heel of, the Eternal Son, who rules above,
As The Savior died, for all our sin, our eternal victory, Christ would win,
So we can partake of the Tree of Life, through our Savior, Jesus Christ.
The salvation, that God had unfurled, believers today, truly must herald.
Through His power, over the grave, The Righteous Lord today will save,
Each sinner who truly comes to Christ, as God grants them Eternal Life,
As the fallen sinner in time is restored, through the sacrifice of our Lord.
(Copyright ©12/2012 Bob Gotti)
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