Old Racing Skippers When You Die

Old Racing Skippers When You Die

By Dennis Coates

OLD RACING SKIPPERS WHEN YOU DIE,

SET DEADBEAT COURSE FOR HEAVEN’S LIE,

BEAT AND GYBE, ON TACK OR FREE,

FOLLOW THE COURSE-LET GLORY BE.

LAST MARK ASTERN. AND SPINNAKER SHY,

ALLOW FOR THE LINE BUT KEEP HER HIGH,

HELM HER TRUE, STAND CLEAR OF OTHERS,

SHOUT LOUD AND CLEAR YOUR VIEW OF MOTHERS.

SAINT PETER WAITS WITH GUN ABEAM,

A STICKLER FOR RULES, SO KEEP IT CLEAN,

AND WITH THE LINE PLAIN TO BE SEEN,

HAIL "STARBOARD GOD" - YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?

JUST SHOOT THE LINE AND CALL IT RIGHT,

YOU MIGHT BE IN HEAVEN. YOU REALLY MIGHT.

About the Author: Dennis Coates has raced and cruised small sailboats in the United Kingdom for over fifteen years. He placed tenth in the 850 RTI in the UK the third year of the race. Now he is helping his sons follow a passion for the water.

To pay the bills he is a management lecturer and consultant, working with government and leading corporations.. He is the author of three non-fiction management texts but Into Happy Havens is his first novel.. Coates lives in West Dorset. U.K.

The Woman Next Door

The Woman Next Door

open source photo from internet  dreamstime.com

You are different, Frances

Burning not like a candle flame

But like a conflagration

Your long, black hair holds witchcraft

Your features, a tabloid

Made up of many races

The sash you wrap around your slender waist

Perks up the earth-hued gown that covers you

You want life,

Want more,

Want to jump before looking.

Those feline eyes,

Must I be drawn into their ring,

Where courage battles death,

Where wounds are icons,

And where your greedy laugh is fed?

By Eva Hansen (c) copyright 2015

Published here by permission. 

Gold Mine

Gold Mine

By Hannah Miles

I’m not here to babysit, 

to babysit my life.

To wait and watch on over it, 

as the ticking clock goes by.

My days are not a safety-net

to shield me from past hurt.

I don’t exist to look pristine,

I’m here to gold-mine- in the dirt.

I want to move & groove and leap,

Not linger; static, still.

I want to feel rain on my skin,

I want to drink my fill.

I know it’s going to wound me,

to embrace our damaged world. 

But surely souls set fiercely free

Hurt less, than ones kept furled. 

TOMORROW

The future draped in frightening disguises

There is no map to guide us on our way

Our host,the planet always has surprises

And speculations change from day to day

We feel an obligation we must strive

To make the earth a haven without sorrow

We challenge destiny and keep alive

The dream that we can influence tomorrow

Eva B. Hansen 

(c)copyright 2015 Eva B. Hansen

Eva is regular contributor, check out the archive for more of her work.

DARK

DARK

Open Source Internet Image

By Hannah Miles

It’s dark, that makes the light shine clear

It’s night, that sees the stars appear

It’s pressure that makes diamonds form

In pain, a baby’s life is born.

Cocoons, create the butterfly,

The lows distinguish out the high.

It’s silence that makes music sweet

It’s working that makes rest a treat.

The rains keep ground from drying up.

New things grow, as old things rot.

Calm is known, when storms rage past

We savor ‘first’ when we’ve been last.

Life is turning; dancing; flow.

Seasons come, seasons go.

There’s hurt that can’t be understood

-yet God works even bad, for good.

 Copyright (C) 2015 Hannah miles 

Bio: Hannah Miles

   Hannah Lives in London England and currently studies textile design. She is absorbed by her creative influences and that inspires her to write.

   Some of her influences have been the writings of Brother Lawrence, Mary Oliver and Brennan Manning.  Her literature tastes run from the Bible to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. “I find myself getting very excited reading truths about how we’re created to be free, and to extravagantly love and be loved—a radical, defiant empowerment in the face of the pain, suffering and inequality we find all around us in life.” A quote from Hannah during our interview.

Poem, Dawn & Jack

DAWN & JACK

When last we are to see your life

As colors not yet bloomed

We are forever for your strife

In doors unopened doom

We struggle with your loss today

And wander through our haze

From places near and far away

Some joy- some hope- some gaze

Awake be here and laugh a loud

We want it to be true

To see again your days of joy and know forever proud

Of those who last remain in days forever blue

You left at different times we know

And not were you alone, for others sure to follow

We miss you now for what we have known

And your dreams that we must follow

Copyright © 2014

Artemis J Jones

Vacation by Eva Hansen

Vacation 

He weaves the car with expert hands

A master of precision

Through turnpike's gleaming metal strands

At speeds so high, I must confess

They make me think of weightlessness

He glances at the seat in back

Where we are playing

And gives the rowdy ones a whack

While my eyes have gone astray

He spots a deer a mile away

Not quick enough to read a map

I let him do that too

But fasten tight my shoulder strap

And thus we crisscross through the nation

Pretending this is a vacation 

Eva Hansen 

Copyright (c) 2015 

Used by permission

HER BODY

Her Body

Shimmering dust to maiden form

Glimmers before my eyes

lust, latent a moment ago, now kilned in heats consent

 Skin toned, body alone, no adorn required now

 

Keratin flows over shoulder and breast

 Close enough to bare

Reveals, enlightens my interest

Time, dwindles in moments spare

Blue, Green, matters not

The eyes with weighted stare

Soon turn, reveals bodacious plot

As satin falls to floor

Gaze and keratin wrap our world

Only love and bare

Caress as one together

 Eternity’s only ware

Artemis J Jones

 Copyright (c) 1/2015

The Argument

                                          The Argument

Once again, your foul mouth shall speak

And rehash your stupid crap

                                Your lies beheld, for I am meek

 The grandeur for my tears

Arms swing extended, with fists of rage

And there are sirens to be heard

My life, your time, all held in fear, stress to doors emerge

 Released, but for a moment, a willow in a cage

  Anger, fallow, befalls me now

Cast out my faith and love

Return to me on sun filled day

Supremacy from above

The neutral powers enter fast

And warns of blows to stop

When last you swing and miss your mark

As threats for sure will drop

Will of restraint, now holds you fast

And down you go with me

I ask, you beg, I cry, you spit, forever waters mark

               Face to floor, I turn towards door, forsaken the rains create

                                A play behind, a sorrow, now

                                   More empathy and wallow

Last time was me, they led away

In shame and shackles callow

To scream outside for none to hear

A worthless soul proclaims

Triumphant blasts of threats for fear

To be washed out in the rain

I rise as before, but different now

My bag is at the door

Check ticket, exit, walk through rain

Soon sun appears to bless

My rotted soul now fertile for

The seeds to life’s behest

                                       

                                       Artemis J Jones

                                       Copyright (c) 2015 

Smoking!

SMOKING

I am no longer here

Therefore I will no longer be

I am gone

You got married

Your brother went to college

Your mother works two jobs now

Your sister is happy

You have a degree, and now you are working

You have a lovely girlfriend

My love, you were always my love

You do not believe me, you asked me to stop

But I puffed, puffed away

I am locked in torturous regret

There were moments I wanted to quite

I am selfish, I loved my addiction more than all of you

*****

Death is a constant

I am here to support death, to strengthen its hand

Therefore I will continue

I will take advantage of your youth

Therefore you will move about without a care

You will puff, puff away

I am presented as pleasing, enjoyable

There really is no independence, you’re mine

I will enforce your addiction, with a smile

You're older now, you're still mine

I am here, to take you there, to death

Therefore you will follow me, you submitted to my will

You can hardly breathe

I am laughing, laughing at a fool

Therefore I will be constant, never ending

(c)Copyright 2014 Artemis J Jones