christmas not far from the Holy land

A fleeting mental picture
Conjured up in young lad’s head
Of shopping malls and Christmas trees
Of warm kitchen and warm bed

anticipation of a great Christmas eve
Of family gathered round the Christmas tree
These pleasant thoughts give reality leave
for a moment he’s home, and again carefree

Harsh reality returns, pushes memories away
helmet is pulled down tight on his head
Near and around him his compatriots lay
Some frightened, some trembling... some dead

Hands shaking, teeth clenched, eyes wet with tears
Blankly staring, without seeing... carnage abounds
Aging by the second, yet still young in years
Will be haunted forever, by War’s savage sounds

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poem by David Whalen
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What If

What if sunshine
Perchance, made a sound…
What kind of sound
Wouldst one think It to be?

Would it shriek e’er so loudly…
And pummel the ground…
Or settle like snowflakes
Drifting down… tranquilly

Pray tell, what sound…
Would clouds and haze make
Would they screech and grind
Mayhaps rasp and scrape?

What if…fog made a thoughtful thrum
And mist an insistent hiss…
And rainbows the sound of a blowing nose
What, the sound… of scent of rose… consist?

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poem by David Whalen
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The most boring poem in the world

Do you put your cart before the horse
Do you cast pearls before swine
Do you let things run their course
Are you just in the nick of time

Is it out of the frying pan
Or over the rainbow
Is it water under the dam
Is it what you say or what you know

Are you Under the weather
Or are you up and away
Is it age before beauty
Is it time to make hay

Put your nose to the grindstone
Are your Boots on the ground
If your foots in your mouth
Where’s your tongue to be found

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poem by David Whalen
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Unused, but perfectly good words

Lonely words, in need of some usage
Perfectly good, yet almost unknown
Let’s take a quick look in my dictionary book
Let’s not leave these words all alone

For example, under A: The word “Abscission”

It’s quite usual to say “leaves fall from the trees”
But we could also say, with utmost precision
We could use a word that we very rarely see
When we say “leaves fall from trees in abscission”

That’s probably the first time… in quite a long time
That word, that means “the natural parting of a leaf from a tree”
That that word, has now… seen the light of day
could become quite common, if used by you and me

I can just hear people exclaiming, as they peer up above
As the fall’s colors fill their vision
“We’re amazed, we’re agog, we’re simply in love

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poem by David Whalen
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Exposing yourself

Poetry is honesty
Clad in thin disguise
Undressing and exposing
Our mind’s to stranger’s eyes

Wanton, open,
uninhibited expressions
Unknowing and unwitting
Opinions and confessions

The baring of one’s inner self
Absent the admittance of knowing
Displaying, laying out upon the shelf
As if for public showing

Revealing yourself For what you are
Or for the way you think the world to be
Spreading yourself both near and far
For all the world to touch and see

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poem by David Whalen
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Perhaps I Can Change

Have I overly rhapsodized lately
On Mother Nature’s displays?
I’ve become rather forgetful
With the passing of so many days

Have I bored you lately
With labored, descriptive words
Droned on incessantly
of iridescent hummingbirds?

Of Spring fields of sunflowers
Of the morn’s nascent glow
Of the dragonfly’s rustle
Of the stream’s tinkling flow?

I do ramble on too much
But I love description so
So perhaps I’ll not describe so much
Tho’ tis the only way I know

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poem by David Whalen
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Love Is A Mystery to me

Love can be a cruel, demanding master
While at the same time be a delicious delight
Can shatter one’s heart as if twas fragile alabaster
evoke sensuous pleasure or vicious bite

A thing you can’t see, or in your hand hold
Can make your heart race, or come to a stop
A forceful phantasm, which one can’t control
Can make spirits soar, can cause tears to drop

Can make you say things, you should not say out loud
Can make you say things, to whom you should not
Can embarrass you deeply, or make you feel proud
Unleash your emotions, or tie your heart in a knot

Love has the power to make you do things
Nonsensical, idiotic or brash
Love has the power to give one’s heart wings
Or to plunge into despair with a crash

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poem by David Whalen
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We're Predators and Prey

Are we truly so distant from our primitive past
Are we no longer the hunter or considered fair prey
Were the truth put before you, you’d be most aghast
There are predators among us and they hunt us each day

We’re not truly different from the ones at herds rear
Which the predator watches with hard hungry eye
The prey starts and senses, that death is quite near
On the lonely herds edges, the weak always die

Our modern world is a jungle, and human beasts are a fact
Camouflaged with normalcy, clothed in disarming disguise
Preying on the young and the weakest with terrifying tact
Before melting in to community, they disappear to our eyes

The gazelle in the herd is as the child on the walk
Safety in numbers causes inborn defenses to relax
A lion creeping closer is as a van stopping to stalk
And they’ll both culminate in deadly attacks

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poem by David Whalen
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Dreams...Rivers Of The Night

Dreams are rivers of the night
A place in which the mind shakes free
The conscious bands that hold us tight
And sails us out into mystery

Maiden voyages into seas so deep
Vivid montages of experience strange
Not bound by banks within to keep
Nor limits set within to range

Suspension of reason, dwells in the night
Helplessly carried upon dreams cold river
Exposed to experience, never allowed in daylight
Strange deeds, strange thoughts, make us shiver

If Dreams are rivers of the night
Then what are days, just what might they be?
Which one is false…and which is right?
And in which one would you rather be?

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poem by David Whalen
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Attitude And Emotion

Tenderness is greater than courage
Empathy is more understanding than sympathy
Anger is more inward than outrage
Happiness is much more than sublimity

Night can be brighter than daytime
Light can be heavy as heavy can be
Reason is more sensible and rational than rhyme
Admiration is more admirable than envy

Pleasantness is more important than pleasure
Sadness is pervasive and felt through and through
Truth is more valuable than treasure
Plenty is not always just more than a few

Piety is more noble than proudness
Jealousy is more corrosive than acid
Silence can be noisier than loudness
Contentment is more than being placid

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poem by David Whalen
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