Wanting more than I have today
Something missing immaterial
Searching to place a finger
Lost within the depths
Touching nothing save vacancy
Surrounding pitch
A blackness thick and clinging
The prize just beyond my grasp
Reach and almost there
Lose a fragile hold
Plummeting back to
Wanting more than I have today
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
I am a fake and a fraud
A waxing intellectual. Rattling
Off mindless prattle
Perplexing
The ignorant. Impressing
The naive
I am a charlatan and a hack
Scribbling amateurish prose
Upon sheets of dull
White paper. My words
Reflecting
What? Characterization
Of emotion? Measure of event?
My chest expands at adoration. Secretly
Guarding insecurity. Dwelling
Deep within my mind
I am no Sexton or Plath or Lowell
My lyric yearn for Longfellow
O to truly feel
As they. To see a world
Though eyes of passion
Break free of binding pragmatism
Venture out of concrete
The world of real
Into a world of feeling
Expression and experience
I don’t desire your praise
My experience can’t spawn
Greatness. I have no pain
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
Remembering the day
He broke your gold vase
You’d warned him, “be careful”
To give it some space
And yet he ignored you
Continued to play
The vase now in pieces
What price will he pay?
But her anger reserved
For the one that she loves
Condemning with kindness
Forgivness the dove
A mother’s eyes
Are a shield of compassion
Her softer spirit
As strong as a bastion
With kinder words
And tender touch
She’s allaying the pain
Her love is the crutch
Now, his heart is protected
In two loving hands
With a hug and a kiss
She’ll erase life’s demands
As he picks up the pieces
Of his mom’s broken treasure
She’s smiling warmly
They glue it together
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
Across a mile of open field
To the circle of trees beyond
Lee’s ill-fated operation
To death the men respond
General Pickett is the man selected
To lead this massive attack
With electric confidence he is certain
The Union lines he’ll crack
Thirteen thousand massed atop
The Seminary Ridge
Abreast the men begin to march
The long distance to abridge
Union soldiers dug-in deep
Watch the men approach
Nine brigades at route step march
Cannons answer the encroach
Canister replaced the solid shot
As Confederate soldiers near
Iron balls ripped through the lines
The battle raged austere
The march now becomes a run
Men charge with a Rebel Yell
Union muskets open fire
The advance is soon repelled
One commander made the breech
At a place now called the Angle
Lo Armistead broke through the line
Overwhelmed his effort strangled
For a brief tremendous moment
The Confederate colors flew
With Armistead’s men killed or captured
The remaining soon withdrew
Lee could not believe his eyes
Has God turned his face away?
Eight thousand men he’d sent to die
On that fateful day
Still, one man will be remembered
For the orders he discharged
The failure high upon the ridge
Will be known as Pickett’s Charge
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
You are strength when I am weakness
A guide when I am lost
My vision through the bleakness
O’er troubled waters crossed
Separated by great distance
You were always there
Your love was my subsistence
An answer to my prayer
Your footsteps have I followed
On a path yet all my own
Hard lessons have I swallowed
Your support was set in stone
I cannot begin to thank you
I am all I ever want to be
Nothing more need I live up to
If my dad is proud of me
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
Words enlighten
Words enrage
Stops the presses
Turns the page
Words hate
Words destroy
Killing a spirit
Malicious employ
Words love
Words caress
Captures a smile
Held in distress
Words heal
Words save
Releases a conscience
Freeing a slave
Within the gray line
Between black and white
The words you choose
To build or smite
Sets the stage
To flee or fight
To find forgiveness
Or flex your might
A heart that’s broken
Instead takes flight
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
Home for the holidays
Quiet mountain felicity
And snow on Christmas Eve
A family gathers
Three generations
And the rest
One absent and one taken
A bittersweet element
Stirs the sacred mixture
Leaving a sour taste
To fresh fruit pies
And hot chocolate
Shared smiles and laughter
Children make the memory
An unforgettable pleasantry
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
Searching a sea of confusion
Lost with no land in sight
Forcing a love became an intrusion
To a heart sick from the fight
Safe at home with my new life
Enjoying the freedom today
Contentment found without a wife
A mind no more in disarray
A simple life I have found
With my children a new home
Priceless moments now abound
A new chapter to my tome
No strings and no attachment
The decisions are my own
No more a bank account overspent
A savings slowly grown
No one to ask permission
No one must I consult
Indecision is lost to attrition
Independence the result
I need no one to share my bed
For sex tends to confuse
A heart so easily is misled
Snared within the ruse
As heart and mind find concert
With regret I am resigned
For one I did not mean hurt
Has found her love declined
Copyright © 2000 by Jake Olden Shy
1
Home
from the office
and throwing
children’s clothes
into a bag
Into the car
again
On the road
again
Traveling
to the familiar
intersection
(the meeting place)
Salutations
and hugs
for the weekend
mother
2
Sunlight
shines through the window
and lights
the face ushering
him out of bed
Shuffling feet
into the kitchen
to peel apart
coffee filters
and draw water
for coffee
A newspaper
awaits in brisk
winter air
A lonely table
set for breakfast
Opening the paper
He sips his coffee
3
Returning
to the meeting place
The children wait
Arriving
the take-home father
greeted with hugs
places the bag
in the car
Children bid
farewell
to the weekend
mother
Cars drive off
in opposite directions
Copyright © 1999 by Jake Olden Shy
Words spread in a nocturnal agony
Lighting on my chest, a persistent melody
Blackened by the starless night
Served to me diseased and rotting
Perplexing prattle spiraling within me
Ferocity held in angered attack
A soul split asunder, begging for reprieve
As increased trepidation is answered in violence
A clawed griping, cracked and bleeding
Tearing at my exposed pink flesh
Ripping slashes send pieces of red meat
Tumbling into the screaming night
A bloody gurgling in hissing bubbles
Within jagged chambers and broken valves
A soul redeemed by fatal satiation
Sighs a terminal breath at malicious words
Copyright © 1999 by Jake Olden Shy
