The Daily Poem

THE Z MAP

I finally splurged and bought myself

that highest resolution map.

It's zoomable to dandruff flakes

and broken dandelion sap.

It's real time street side viewable

in lightest light or darkest dark

It's GPS enabled to

five decimals of arc.

And if I want to track a thing

I simply click to enter it

And every move that something makes

the map adjusts to center it.

It sets itself on infrared

if something tracked goes out of sight,

Anticipates its movements as

the trending gathers data might.

I just can't wait to load it up

and start exploring far and wide.

There's nothing I can't easily find

because there's nothing that can hide.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem706

Ballad Meter

Redding, California

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Marlin & Dong's House in San Francisco

~ The Daily Poet

CONGLOMERATED GLOSSINGS

I have a brand new spanking theory,

It's very new and very spanking

A brand as new as any brand

Of highest flying retail ranking.

It's called Conglomerated Glossings

Which is ever all-symmetric,

And cubely adds the criss to crossings

Defying Whitman's body electric.

It's tantamount to treasonous

And may just get you martyred.

It's paramount to poisonous

Don't even get me started.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem703

Ballad Meter

Queen Charlotte Sound, British Columbia, Canada

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: M/V Matanuska (7th Night)

~ The Daily Poet

THE INTANGIBLE QUARTET

The Sciences have their signs & numbers

in analytic space,

And the Arts have dancing harmonies

impossible to trace.

Philosophies have their rhymes & reasons

in matters of the mind,

While te Histories make the best of what

the others leave behind.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem700

Ballad Meter

Skagway, Alaska

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: M/V Matanuska (4th Night)

~ The Daily Poet

THE EXAMINATION

When I entered the room it was semi-gloom

And he stood there alone with his knife.

He was naked and pale, and the room smelled stale

And I sensed he was taking his life.

He opened his chest like a man possessed

With the need to examine his soul.

He was looking inside and he whimpered and cried

As he peered through that gaping hole.

There was nothing inside but his ribs and hide;

Not a liver, a spleen or a heart.

As I turned away with my face gone gray

I knew it was me torn apart.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem695

Novel Verse Form

Oak Harbor, Washington

Lat: 48; 17.6" N, Long: 122' 38.6" W

JOURNAL: Ivan & Virginia Lathrop's House

~ The Daily Poet

MEMORIAL BUBBLE GUM

We had no choice, we had to go,

We took ten million men.

We brought them home in body bags,

How brave they all have been.

We celebrate their valiant names

Engraved on bubble gum.

We chew them in our mouths awhile

Until the flavor's gone.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem686

Ballad Meter

Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Hyatt Place Waikiki

~ The Daily Poet

THE INVISIBLE JESTER

Wherever you go I'm walking there

    Invisibly beside you;

You may not feel your tears I share

    But in their salt I hide you.

You know I quiz the skin you fold

    As if confounding matters;

I am, of course, because I'm told

    You're shredding into tatters.

Receive my jest and take the place

    I offer you tomorrow;

It isn't just my silly face

    That laughs you out of sorrow.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem667

Ballad Meter

Punaauia, Tahiti, French Polynesia

Lat: 17' 38" S; Long: 149' 36" W

JOURNAL: Le Meridien Tahiti Resort (5th Night)

~ The Daily Poet

MY OCEAN PRINCESS

My Ocean Princess sails away

    And leaves me here on land;

I walk the beach of night and pray

That in her heart I'll stay.

Someday I'll hold her close to me,

    White Lady of the waves,

And know again her rocking sea,

And feel again so free.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem663

Ballad Meter

Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia

Lat: 17: 32.326 S; Long: 149: 34.255 W

JOURNAL: Le Meridien Tahiti Resort (1st Night)

~ The Daily Poet

FLOATING VILLAGE WORLD

We're on a floating village world

    completely self-contained,

With all the skills we'll ever need

    to keep our ship maintained.

The captain steers us straight and true

    across our ocean realm;

We rest assured that all is well

    since he is at the helm.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem634

Ballad Meter

Equator

JOURNAL: Ocean Princess (8th Night)

~ The Daily Poet

MY PSYCHEDELIC HAIR

My hair is worth a fortune,

    They sell it like a drug;

They burn it slow like incense

    On an incense-burning rug.

They pay ten thousand dollars

    For a one-inch strand of hair;

A whiff is all that's needed

    For a week of mental flair.

They gave me twenty million

    For a lock of hair today,

And twenty more in diamonds,

    With promises to pay.

They asked for an exclusive,

    Let no one offer less;

Their bargain is conclusive,

    Their price will be the best.

And as my hair grows whiter,

    Demand increases sales,

For white, they say, is brighter

    On the psychedelic scale.

Now I'm the richest laggard

    Who ever slummed the earth;

I'm absolutely staggered

    By what they say I'm worth.

I'd best go sit and ponder.

    Or better yet relax

Inside my velvet shelter

    Deferring income tax.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem622

Ballad Meter

Nanning, China

JOURNAL: Overnight Train from Nanning, China to Hanoi, Vietnam

~ The Daiy Poet

SUBWAY PRAYER

God of love who ever listens

    Ever watches, ever guides,

Keep Your ear and eye upon me,

    Though my wandering spirit hides.

In my heart I love You dearly,

    In Your presence I belong.

Let my every thought be tainted

    With Your harmonizing song.

May I touch the broken people

    Faint and weary on the way.

May Your Spirit reaching through me

    Ease them toward that brighter day.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem607

Ballad Meter

Yung Shue Wan, Hong Kong

JOURNAL: Concerto Inn - Lamma Island (11)

~ The Daily Poet

THE VIEW FROM HERE

The view from here is better now

    I'm just above the clouds

I've left the old restrictive Tao

    Of urban mythic crowds

To make my way on dirt and stone

    To glide on leaves of grass

To walk the way I choose alone

    Where seldom people pass

It's here I've known my night would lead

  And here my day would end

A land of slower golden speed

    Just up around the bend.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem600

Ballad Meter

Yung Shue Wan, Hong Kong

JOURNAL: Concerto Inn - Lamma Island (4)

~ The Daily Poet

LOVER'S CASTLE

Long ago and far away

    Once upon a time

Lovely lady every day

    Up the hill would climb

At the top she dropped a stone

    One by one they grew

Till a castle gleaming shone

    Polished white and new

There she lived until she died

    Ninety-nine years old

Everyone that knew her cried

    Memories of her told

How she climbed the hill to see

    Watching for her man

He had sailed on Destiny

    To a foreign land

She had given all her life

    Waiting to be his

Wanting just to be his wife

    Longing for his kiss

Captured by a pirate band

    Forced to be their slave

Dreaming of his lover's hand

    All his life he gave

Every day he hoped to flee

    Ached to run away

Wanting only to be free

    Homeward bound to stay

Pirates set him free at last

    Tired, worthless, old

Stowed away on Everlast

    Hungry, sick and cold

Finally home he climbed the hill

    Found her flowered tomb

Swallowed hard the bitter pill

    Darkness, sorrow, doom

Darkness took his eyes away

    Sorrow took his soul

Doom brought down his dying day

    Love had reached its goal

Now they live in Neverland

    Beating heart to heart

Walking islands hand in hand

    Never more to part.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem594

Ballad Meter

Guangzhou, China

JOURNAL: Overnight train from Kunming to Guangzhou, China

~ The Dailly Poet

I SAW THE SKY

Today I saw the sky that I

    Have never seen before;

One hour elevating by

    The northeast column core.

Conceived and born on Six-One-Two,

    I've always lived below.

I saw the morning sky go blue,

    I saw the sunlight's glow.

I'll never go back underground

    No matter what they say;

In the glory of this place I've found

    Is where I'm going to stay.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem591

Ballad Meter

Kunming, China

JOURNAL: Empark Grand Hotel (3)

~ The Daily Poet

REPLY

I'm on the sphere rotating here

    In orbit round the sun,

Revolving on the spiral arm

    Of galaxy number one.

I'm looking through toward number two;

    My lens is not so clean.

I'm up ahead inside your red

    Which I perceive as green.

I think I see your harmony

    Just rising from the flat,

Which through my harp is slightly sharp;

    Can you sequential that?

With both our tricks in a million clicks

    We may just rendezvous,

If it's our fate to coordinate

    Between what's me and you.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem589

Ballad Meter

Kunming, China

JOURNAL: Empark Grand Hotel (1)

~ The Daily Poet

THE SINS I'VE DONE

I can't forget the sins I've done;

Each tactless thought & act.

Sometimes they linger one by one,

Parading past all matter-of-fact,

Like models on some promenade

All dressed to the killer nines.

And as they pass they wink & nod,

Well-read between the lines.

They know my falsehood, know my shame,

They've seen my burning gaze;

They know my face, they know my name,

And each one knows my ways.

I close my eyes and hope to hide,

But sins are crafty shades.

I must confess that down inside

My shining surface fades.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem585

Ballad Meter

Beijing, China

JOURNAL: Dong Fang Hotel (6)

~ The Daily Poet

IN VITRO SELF

From point to point and brain to brain

    The content streaming upward flows,

A woven braid of neural thread

    In mulit-phasic knowledge grows.

The rates of change variety

    In exponential shells combine

To broader swifter streams of thought

    Through smaller values of super-fine.

I state my name and off it runs,

    With me a carbon echo glove,

Interpreting in slow skin time

    The actions of myself above.

And to myself I pour he code,

    And with myself I clarify,

And for myself this growing helps

    My higher self to classify,

Until in vitro there I am,

    My very own determined fate,

Concluding appetite is real

    Before the tongue can salivate.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem582

Ballad Meter

Beijing, China

JOURNAL: Dongfang Hotel (3)

I rented a bike and rode around Beijing for three hours...

~ The Daily Poet

THE ANSWER IN A FACE

Confounded here in the center of the world

    I hold my woes in check,

Reminded now of the people that I love,

    I know there's no way back.

Before I look at the answer in a face

    There's one sure thing I know,

The eyes won't tell all the secrets of the past

    But in the skin they show.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem581

Ballad Meter

Beijing, China

JOURNAL: Dongfang Hotel (2)

~ The Daily Poet

AMALGAMATED SOUP

Conglomerates of this and that

    Amalgamated soup

There's always magic in my hat

    Like chickens in a coop.

The fox and I are best of pals

    We plan our nightly raid

We sing them sleepy madrigals

    And spike their lemonade

And then we take them one by one

    And pluck them like guitars

We play the most delicious fun

    And make their music ours.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem577

Ballad Meter

Zima, Russian Federation

JOURNAL: MOSCOW-BEIJING TRAIN (4)

~ The Daily Poet

MORNING PRACTICE

I'm a LIpazzaner Stallion

    But I'm still a little gray.

If You teach me what I'm lacking

    Then I'll make You proud some day.

I'm amazed at what I'm doing,

    Can't believe it's me out there,

Stepping steady, true and balanced,

    Leaping high into the air.

Keep on training me to answer

    Every soft and subtle cue,

With precision born of patience,

    Giving all I have for You.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem563

Ballad Meter

Vienna, Austrai

JOURNAL: Ibis Hotel Messe Hotel

~ The Daily Poet

DOUBLE HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Today would be your thirty-sixth

With someone else who did you wrong,

But I'm the man who did you right

And we're together going strong.

We did our tenth the other day,

Which may not seem like very much,

But time is doubled with each joy

And tripled with each tender touch.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem553

Ballad Meter

Parikia, Paros Island, Greece

JOURNAL: Stratos Apartments & Studios

~ The Daily Poet