The Daily Poem

THREE CONGRUENT TRAPEZOIDS

The sounds produce oscilloscopic clips

That catch the eye in seismic green

From words that freshly left my speaking lips.

   The raging wolves of yesterday lie down

   And with them all the fabled pigs

   Of straw & sticks & bricks all colored brown...

   From one small step of cerebellar swing

   To three congruent trapezoids

   I take the loss and lose the looser thing...

   I envy all the places rich with ancient taste

   Where memories etch the lichened walls

   With symboled shadows never knowing haste...

My ear collects the waves of sounding air

In auditory channels tight with nerves

And sends the message back through me to there.

written in Orlando, Florida

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Novel Verse Form)

THE SADNESS CURE

The tower of the many grows and grows

   Within the embryonic optic cup

A vision rooting in down greening rows

   Of future harvests climbing up and up

Each man a neuron passing one to one

The focused notion-pulse electron gun.

The trigger-happy clan of humankind

   Bombasts each newly opened virgin eye

With quick traditions pointedly designed

  To sop the tears before they start to cry

Heroic leaps to find the sadness cure

Results are inconclusive, premature.

But R&D with algorithmic speed

   Is shooting through the obstacles of fate

Divining pairs of categoric need

   And soon its valiant quest to satiate

Will take us all to fields of unity

Computing peace with sweet impunity.

written in Orlando, Florida

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Venus & Adonis Stanza)

BREAKFAST EPIGRAM

If you are what you eat,

You've got me beat.

written in Orlando, Florida

for Rashawna Chapman in Dominica,

trumping my Corn Chex with her Raisin Bran

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Epigram)

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Above the violet's velocity,

   Below the slowest red,

   The world goes blank, goes dead;

A vast invisible enormity.

Within the floating mote of smallest fluff,

   Beyond the faintest star,

   The world of near and far

Falls out of range and off the visual cuff.

The eye's prepared to handle only this 

   Myopic measured view,

   But still the mind sees through

To something more with its synaptic kiss. 

written in Orlando, Florida

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Novel Verse Form)

FINAL SCENE

Just think we talked a mere three weeks ago,

Our voices light with laughter on the phone.

You reprimanded me for being slow.

How could I have done nothing since July?

A simple thing you'd asked I can't deny.

Vermilion my face with no excuse to try.

Escaping shame you let me off with grace

No need to leave an egg upon my face,

Serenely then our laughter's long embrace.

written in Orlando, Florida

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Acrostic)

AS IF A STORM

The flesh is willing but the spirit is weak,

The body lifts its faithful foot,

   While the spirit flying runs away

   To someplace safe outside today

Where hunting none would think to seek.

In brilliant shadow cruising high,

The spirit drops its tear-like rain,

   As if a storm it wills to start

   With nothing but an aching heart;

A paltry thing compared to sky.

written in Orlando, Florida

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Quintain Stanza)

THE MOMENT BETWEEN

Off with the old

On with the new

Everything blooming with green

Leading the bold

Following through

This is the moment between

What I was told

What I could do

Since I was seventeen

Now from the mold

Breaking the blue

Sky upon sky never seen!

written in Orlando, Florida

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Novel Verse Form)

FIRST & TEN

There's always college football

   Miami over Pitt

Seventeen to zero

   Sleepy-eyed I Sitt.

   First and ten,

Second and something...

   I'm drifting off again.

written in Orlando, Florida

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Novel Verse Form)

TREASURE HUNT

Surrealistic treasure hunt

What does it really mean?

A diamond ring, a roll of cash,

Let's get this cabin clean!

written in Orlando, Florida

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Ballad Meter)

DEATH IS MESSY

Death is messy stinky rank,

Slimy gruesome mushroom dank,

Dark insipid horrid brown,

Awful fluids seeping down

Through the mattress, through the floor,

Thick miasmal grizzly gore.

Open up the windows please.

Enter sunshine! Enter breeze!

written in Orlando, Florida

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Rhyming Couplets)

THE OTHER SHOE

Hello, I see you're reading this

   A risky thing to do

For all you know a dark abyss

   Will gobble swallow you

And you'll be gone forever

Down a corridor of never-

   Bending, never-knowing when

   You'll ever reach the end

Of one enormous thought

That captivates your not-

   So-subtle, open faucet mind

   And none will ever find

The great epiphany of spin

You lost your memory in.

Goodbye, I see you're almost through

   I think you'll be OK

But don't forget The Other Shoe

   May drop another day.

written in Orlando, Florida

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Novel Verse Form)

FLORIDA NIGHT

A ringtone later everything is changed

The rhythm sliced the cadence rearranged

I wish I may I wish I might

From California day to Florida night.

The flight attendant doesn't know I'm numb 

With paradigms revising rules of thumb

Outside the cookie jar of wrong and right

From California day to Florida night.

The sky's been freshly laid like new-paved road

The lines all painted thick with uncracked code

We're flying out beyond the black and white

From California day to Florida night.

written in Orlando, Florida

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Kyrielle)

SOMETHING TO SAY

   Its one second two second three,

Another six bloggers, décor for esprit,

   Designed for relief of the soul—

The blogosphere taking its snowballing toll,

   A bubble of billowing selves,

To shame Alexandrian Library shelves,

   A million six posts every day.

But please if I may, “I have something to say.

   My weblog is really quite fine;

I'll Google yours, if you'll Google mine.”

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Rhyming Couplets)

"Daily Symbol 207" by D. Edgar Lamp

"Daily Score 207" by D. Edgar Lamp

ST. MICHAEL IN THE CORNER NINE FEET TALL

I was sitting at the deli,

   double latte apple pie,

When a little certain something

   from the corner of my eye,

Made me look up from my eating,

And this is what I saw:

St. Michael in the corner, nine feet tall.

At the office cranking numbers

   shooting e-mails back and forth,

Something suddenly compelled me

   to assume magnetic north

So I swiveled like a whisper,

And this is what I saw:

St. Michael in the corner, nine feet tall.

Over lunch beside the fountain

   watching leggy shoes go past,

Glancing over at the smokers

   smoking up their chances fast,

Something caught my slow cognition,

And this is what I saw:

St. Michael in the corner, nine feet tall.

Driving home in breakneck traffic

   thoughts of home a growing whim,

Right on Major, left on Minor,

   was it Wilhelm Karl Grimm?

Not for sure of what I answered,

But this is what I saw:

St. Michael in the corner, nine feet tall.

At the table eating dinner

   with my wife of thirty years,

Something glinted in the goblet

   something hummed within my ears

Made me turn to seek its channel,

And this is what I saw:

St. Michael in the corner, nine feet tall.

Took my darling wife and held her

   rapt with wistfulness to bed,

She confessed my lips were honey,

   and my eyes were fresh like bread;

Don’t remember what I told her,

But this is what I saw:

St. Michael in the corner, nine feet tall.

Title taken from the last two lines of Jack Keroac's poem

Cerrada Medellin Blues 

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Novel Verse Form)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_(archangel)

THE INCOMPARABLE AKHMID CRAWFORD

She sold her home in Mare Tranquillitatis

   And moved down south to Arzachel;

   No catalogues, no clientele

For AvonLunar's Beauty Apparatus.

The factory up in Hercules rescinded

   Her platinum certificates of sale,

   And shunted her electrometric mail;

She couldn't help but feel a bit offended.

She bought a place called Styrodome that offered

   The finest views she'd seen of Central Peak.

   But then she found a radiation leak

And magleved down her roofer, Akhmid Crawford.

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Novel Verse Form)

http://www.damianpeach.com/lunartemp/arzachel.jpg" height="139" style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-RIGHT: 1px; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 1px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: bottom; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 1px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ccc 1px solid" />

Arzachel Crater

http://www.damianpeach.com/lunar.htm

ALL THE THINGS I KNOW

I don't know how I learned the words

   For all the things I know,

Like bottle cap and ice cream man,

Like ratatat and Rin Tin Tin,

   Like Goldilocks and girly show,

Like Tootsie Roll and parafin,

Like quarter back and soda can,

   Like aftermath and afterglow,

Like tennis balls and turds.

They tumble from the things I've said,

   They splash upon the floor,

And all their guts go rolling out,

Like apples from a bowler hat,

   Gallumphing toward the doggy door,

As if they know right where it's at.

They hop and pop, they twist and shout,

   Then just like that, they start to snore

And roll back in my head.

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Novel Verse Form)

Rene Magritte, "Son of Man"

http://www.shefaet.org/

THE MAGIC CAST

I heard the speech and now I get it,

I learned it well and won't forget it:

I live on stage and so do you,

The magic's in the things we do

You come to work each day like me,

We share our backstage agony,

But when it's time for our debut,

The magic's in the things we do.

We know our parts and play them well,

We've got some secrets we don't tell,

Like where is what, and which is who;

The magic's in the things we do.

And when our dancing day is done,

The empty streets all full of fun,

We feel it strong and know it's true;

The magic's in the things we do.

For Mike Reardon & Walter Kurlin at The Disney Institute

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Kyrielle)

http://www.disneyinstitute.com/About_Us/Facilitators.aspx

IT'S TIME YOU KNEW

It's time you knew the reason why

   The moon is new but never old,

Is never empty when not full,

   And often bought but never sold.

But I'm the guy that doesn't know.

   There must be someone else who does,

Who will when asked explain it all;

   The way it will be, is and was.

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Ballad Meter)

Buy Land On The Moon through The Lunar Registry

www.lunarregistry.com

SOUNDS LIKE...

It sounds like rain,

But tastes like bone.

It looks like wood,

But feels like stone.

It smells like love,

But tastes like hate.

It sounds like speed,

But feels like wait.

It looks like food,

But tastes like mold.

It feels like new,

But smells like old.

It sounds like fun,

But smells like dread.

It tastes like wool,

But looks like bread.

It feels like shade,

But looks like fruit.

It tastes like brick,

But sounds like flute .

It smells like round,

But looks like square.

It feels like well,

But tastes like rare.

It sounds like boom,

But looks like swish.

It smells like dough,

But feels like fish.

It tastes like trees,

But smells like sky.

It looks like what,

But sounds like why.

It smells like blood,

But sounds like flame.

It tastes like work,

But feels like game.

It looks like me,

But smells like you.

It feels like one,

But sounds like two.

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Novel Verse Form)

http://computerkiddoswiki.pbworks.com/f/1197516817/senses.jpg" height="113" style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-RIGHT: 1px; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 1px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: bottom; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 1px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ccc 1px solid" />

http://computerkiddoswiki.pbworks.com/Five-Senses

THE BOARDROOM CEILING FAN

Someone set the ceiling fan on suck instead of blow,

When in walked Lynn, the President, 'twas only then we learned.

Her dress flew up and off it went, and boy we got a show!

And all she said was, "Gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned."

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Novel Verse Form)

http://www.hometips.com/catimages/010202_ceiling_fan.jpg" height="135" style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-RIGHT: 1px; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 1px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: bottom; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 1px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ccc 1px solid" />

http://www.hometips.com/ceiling_fans.html