Tag Archives: death

Through The Window Of Time

An old fading brownstone,

For many a decade it has not been alone.

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If only we could see what it’s eyes must have seen,

Maybe then we would know where we’re going and where we’ve been.

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The cobblestone streets that lead past it’s front door,

Crumbled from the weather and travelers burdens I’m sure.

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It’s residents present and long ago past,

Have seen what this world has offered to the last.

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The carriage, the train, the automobile,

All graced this place whether wood, iron or steel.

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From street lights of gas or electric lights glow,

They lit up the sights of another nights show.

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So great a loss of life fighting wars on two fronts,

A choice to drop the bomb would end hostilities at once.

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Parades and floats to the sailors joyful kiss,

Soldiers home from war we gratefully would not miss.

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Then a plea to the cops into Korea we did go,

But our hands were handcuffed by the reluctance we did show,

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A stalemate was called that we live under till this day,

Neither a win nor a loss could be granted either way.

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A call for equality from the King did he shout,

With hoods and with nooses the cowards tried to drive them out.

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Watching as a President is taken before his time,

Paying respects in a long and somber funeral procession line.

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The brownstone’s broad eyes did shed tortured tears,

As a people came to terms with an unsure nations fears.

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Ducking behind window boxes from the riots we did hide,

From tear gas and protesters we kept our children safe inside.

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Then there’s the hell of this little place Vietnam,

Over 58.000 lost never to return home.

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To this day we don’t know what it all was all for,

A chapter we’d prefer to lock behind a locked door.

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Then cries for peace and love in song did they roar,

Long hair, love beads and bell bottoms they adorned.

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Three days of love from a Woodstock would live on,

Though Jerry Garcia, Janis and Jimmy are now gone.

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A gas crisis, Beirut and the hostages in Iran,

Oil, our Marines and our citizens held in foreign lands.

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Then along came the Gipper to rescue us from us,

Bringing our people back without much muss or much fuss.

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The economy turned around while trickle-down became law,

Taking twenty plus years to find out there was a flaw.

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In 2001 we were brutally attacked,

By suicide bombers that should have been tracked.

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Our World Trade and Pentagon, the heroes in a Pennsylvania field,

So many had died, so many have been killed.

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In retribution and revenge we invaded Iraq,

To topple Saddam and push the Revolutionary Guard back.

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Into Afghanistan we marched as others had before,

With an uneasy partner in Islamabad and Lahore.

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An attempt to democratize third-world tribes,

Costing our mothers their sons and daughters sacred lives.

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Osama Bin Laden is dead at the hands of the Seals,

One more terrorist down knocked back on his heals.

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All to what end I don’t think anybody truly knows,

We’ll wait for history to say, to see how it goes.

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Our economies in turmoil, our politics a disaster,

Compromise and diplomacy no longer can they master.

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Fiscal cliffs and debt ceilings in our sights looming large,

It’s hard to tell if anyone in D. C. is in charge.

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Where we go from here is anyone’s guess,

Raise a glass and make a toast and hope for the best.

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Our past world glories seem far and away,

As we long for that time to be ushered in today.

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Our yesteryear’s are pocked with our failures and successes,

Hoping cooler heads prevail and our virtues to protect us .

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O’ the good and bad this old brownstone must have seen,

The lessons taught through history, I’m hoping we did glean.

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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Dandelion Bends – A Haiku

Image Credit: wildmanstevebrill.com

Image Credit: wildmanstevebrill.com

Dandelion bends

Submitting to the winds will

Perennial life

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Today – A Ghazal

O’ my love, why must I suffer this hell today.

Like so many days before, I fell today.

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I’m trying to move on, but my heart won’t allow,

It’s afraid I’ll forget you if I quell today.

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Your passing lives on in my blood and my bones,

Like a mystic potion I’m under it’s spell today.

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Without you my sweet I am no longer whole,

Subsisting as nothing but a broken shell today.

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Tonight I will drop to my knees and I’ll pray

That pain can be confined to it’s cell today.

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Through tears in my eyes, for comfort I look.

There is no one to whom I can tell today.

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So with a heart that is heavy Dom must wish you goodnight,

I’ll bid you adieu and farewell today.

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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: I have to say that this is the toughest poetic form that I have tried to date.  It requires a great deal of forethought to have it make sense and yet I still am not sure if I succeeded.  If you want to give a new form a try, this might be the one to put you to the test.  It certainly tested me.

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FORM: Ghazal – (Pronunciation: “guzzle”) Originally an Arabic verse form dealing with loss and romantic love, medieval Persian poets embraced the ghazal, eventually making it their own. Consisting of syntactically and grammatically complete couplets, the form also has an intricate rhyme scheme. Each couplet ends on the same word or phrase (the radif), and is preceded by the couplet’s rhyming word (the qafia, which appears twice in the first couplet). The last couplet includes a proper name, often of the poet’s. In the Persian tradition, each couplet was of the same meter and length, and the subject matter included both erotic longing and religious belief or mysticism.

Enough – A Tanka

Somber do I feel

Weeping for the worlds pains

As if mine alone

In our culture of excess

Is there not enough for all

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Random Events

Torrential storm of random events

Beyond control your mood doth set

Thrusting outward in time repents

A heart in sorrow, forgiveness gets

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I know not why I shelter inside

Negativity of others inside my mind

Or what I create I cannot hide

Instead of release ‘til death do bind

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Should not happiness instill us all

Casting out that beyond control

Living in joy postpone bearer’s pall

Before its too late to corpse console

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Random events are as they say

No path nor end hath fate defined

Life as we make and live this day

Should not be treated as a grind

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Up to us all, our inner smile

Nourish and nurture to heart’s desire

Striving to best our every trial

Patiently dousing our temper’s fire

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Easier said, more difficult to do

In this life we live on lease

Being as one with nature wrings true

Thriving and resting in peace

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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

This Journey

This journey,

One traveled by us and all that came before,

Has been paved with blood,

Watered with sweat,

Graded with pain,

Sprinkled with joy;

This road is the only one we know.

Although different obstacles may impede our way,

Cause one to stumble while another may fall

And allow another to wander a street paved with gold,

This road must begin at our beginning

And end at our ending regardless of effort,

Caring not how long it takes

Or what treasures we collect along the way.

Our intention alone is to live well in this, our reality.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Time for Making Time – A Tanka

Time for making time

To do the things that one loves

What ever that is

Like the wick of a candle

Whose end burns ever closer

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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

The Question

I was once asked,

“When death stares you in the face what will you say?”

I pondered and sighed and smiled a smile I could not erase.

Thank you…

That was my answer,

Thank you for my life,

It has been full.

Thank you for my wife,

My lover,

My partner,

My children,

Thank you for every sunrise,

Every sunset,

Every shooting star in the heavens,

Thank you for all the love,

The sadness,

The joys,

The pain,

I couldn’t have gotten on without you.

These are but a simple few of all for which I’d give thanks.

Of all that I am thankful for, I am most thankful for time,

Not for how much or how little,

But thank you for the time that I had in this beautiful tortured world,

Amongst those I love,

And those that loved me.

For these I am most thankful.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

To See The River

To see the river and watch it flow,

Effortlessly from where it came to whence it go

Never curious about why or where,

Traveling with grace, nary a care.

Unlike man who obsesses and frets,

About all that he gives and all that he gets.

Grabbing as much as he possibly can,

Selfish and hoarding ‘til it gets out of hand.

Then in the end they find all is for naught,

Worth nothing more than a penny for a thought.

Wise would it have been to follow rivers example,

Living with ease, nature provides all that is ample.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Dirt Road – A Tanka

Dirt road of life walked

Full of potholes and ditches

Where does the road end

Do you really want to know

Wouldn’t it spoil the fun

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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~