Envy Exposed
Green with Envy does not describe
The color worn by this foul Sin
For green is the color of living things
An Envious Heart has no life therein
The color Blue for Envy will not do
Blue is the sky where freedom sings
In skies so many dreams take flight
An Envious Heart has no wings
Envy cannot dress in Yellow or Gold
The warm colors of the life giving Sun
An Envious Heart is so bitterly cold
With no joie de vivre for all of life’s fun
Envy dare not wear any shade of Red
A color so linked to precious bloodshed
Blood is sacred not to be wantonly shed
An Envious Heart would bleed others till dead
[...] Read more
poem by Mary Havran
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Apology for Empathy
How shall I apologize for such, my indiscretions?
Overwhelmed as I often find myself
accomplice to my imperfections
Yes, I confess
my tendency to leap before I look
and nonetheless
with indifference
some hasty bounds I took
I am at times a willing slave
to my own emotions (cruel masters, some profess)
Jumping to such commands as these gave
heedless of consequence recklessness draws thence
Shall I protest, pleading some innocence
owing to personal failing
or being raised by chance
subject to humanity's entrance
prone to incense at others’ misfortunate wailing
Though advised to place restrain
on my affinity for the underling
[...] Read more
poem by Mary Havran
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Sunrise at Skellig Michael
Night’s paling azurite horizon
cloaked in a gossamer veil of clouds
briefly contests the sunrise
thus allowing nights last stars
some fickle final twinkling
before dwindling from sight
But the Sun has promises to keep
a rendezvous with day
already marked as tardy
by screeching of gulls and gannets
which orchestrate impatient puffin jigs
Sunbeams breach the clouds
gathering strength on far horizon
they surf the ridges of distant waves
gilding each crest in turn
in the race to meet the shore
Light pools around Skellig Michael
[...] Read more
poem by Mary Havran
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Observer’s Dilemma
How can I send you the answer
when you do not acknowledge the quest?
How can I help you decipher
what you don’t even consider a test?
I may hold the key to your future
which you might have to deal with at last
We may both share in tomorrow’s treasure
which remains locked now in yesterday’s past
Should I pose the impending question,
would you then exhibit concern?
Should I challenge all that you think you know,
would you then be willing to learn?
You might think the prospect disturbing
You may feel you’d rather not know
We may find more peace in the future
If we could first put to rest long ago
What would you give for a promise
that all you now wish for could be?
[...] Read more
poem by Mary Havran
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
As 42 Is the Answer to Everything (revised)
Might I interest you
in a poem of 42
where the answer to everything may be found
There color can be heard
And number is the word
exceeding every expectation ere earthbound
Might I share with you
a secret you once knew
though you left it in the backyard of your youth
when regrets arrived there never
and tomorrows stretched on forever
where only hopes and wishes spoke the truth
Should this proposal you avow
your mind may then allow
suspending laws of both time and space
Beyond boundaries of science
perhaps you’ll learn reliance
on a power that proceeds from inner place
[...] Read more
poem by Mary Havran
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Fire On the Ridge
In the west there is fearsome fire in the hills.
Full of dread, the people watch as flames burn upon the ridge.
Fierce winds fan the fury where the fires singe.
Meanwhile there’s hot air blasting forth from high upon the hill,
Pointless wind aimed at stirring some futile acts of men.
Strong winds fan the flames.
Embers ignite the blaze again.
While homes are lost across the land,
A burning night gives way to the dawn of restless men.
Rhetoric fails to charm while flames move across the land.
Fires burn readily across dry mountaintops.
Drought’s danger seeps down the slopes.
Now the valley too is brown and the pastures parched.
Wherever stray embers fall, fires will catch and burn
Until nowhere can they be stopped.
Will anything escape the flames fanned by these raging relentless winds?
The firemen grow weary,
They know neither sleep nor rest.
[...] Read more
poem by Mary Havran
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Claiming the Rainbow
It was childhood enchantment in the form of song
Which first awoke in me, the rainbow-lover
Entranced as ‘Dorothy’ sang of
Her wish to someday fly far over
She not understanding, as I now do,
That rainbows only exist from a limited point of view
(Or perhaps she might have chosen instead to hover)
Now so many sects of people
Seem resolute on claiming the rainbow
Exclusively for their separate cause to use
Some with reverent sighs, claming the rainbow as sign
Of solemn promise their God once set against the sky
While the gaiety of the rainbow hues
Are proudly waived as flag by some alternate crews
(Which fundamentalists rarely welcome as good news)
Some declare the rainbow an emblem of diversity
Yet should you query those at the University
Mere prismatic refraction of sunlight creates these views
[...] Read more
poem by Mary Havran
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Auguries of Society (William Blake Revisited)
To see the World in the plight of Man
And witness Heaven in his soul’s flower
Tap at Infinity with your mouse hand
And touch Humanity through words’ power
A Child denied the right to bread
Shows Society as naught but dead
The Homeless freezing in the night
A symptom of a System’s blight
The Unemployed bereft of course
The Curse of Business for outsource
Today’s Lender seeking to foreclose
Unsupportable rates like does dispose
A Society that won’t on Health Care spend
Shall witness its Vitality meet with end
A Country hastily set on War to make
May by History be judged as in mistake
A Veteran left to bleed inside
A Nation’s mourning shall not hide
A Person hated for his skin tone
[...] Read more
poem by Mary Havran
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
zz American Political Stanzas (President's Day)
When I was a bit too young to understand it well
An Irish family’s prince held the American Throne
He wished us to the moon before it all went to hell
And left a nation mourning and weeping for its own
In the next election his younger brother had tried
Idealism sought the throne, but by violence it died
The sitting old style politician won it in his place
Reign left in the hand of he with tired haggard face
That tired old man would eventually take a beating
By a war from which he was too slow in retreating
So he was replaced before that war’s bitter end
By a paranoid liar who trusted no man as a friend
When that man’s lies were at length revealed
The power of the throne did briefly yield
To a one time hero of a college football field
Whose reign even W.I.N. buttons could not shield
[...] Read more
poem by Mary Havran
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Walking Wounded
Somewhere, sometime, you were Wounded
Maybe as early as infancy when you were denied
All the essentials of the bonding experience
Perhaps the wounds were inflicted
When another toddler refused to return the toy you readily shared
Or by the mean girl who broke your favorite colored crayon
Or the bully who pushed you on the playground
Or perhaps it happened that first time
Someone more sophisticated, though lacking empathy,
Assailed your ears with a course laughter,
Aimed at you like a lethal weapon
Contrasting the cheerful chorus of joy laughter had always been
Maybe it happened the day you ran home crying
Mother revealed a secret: “Not everyone you meet will like you”
Unwelcome words that wounded and wound their way
Like strangling ivy around your core
Taking root in your heart of hearts
Passing years provide a scale of scar
Yet you are Wounded still
[...] Read more
poem by Mary Havran
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!