The Daily Poem

A LITTLE DEATH

Moon, just a sliver of ice in my eye,

Fingernail clippled from the stone of the sky,

How does it feel to slip down in the sea,

To melt in her arms with a satisfied sigh?

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem554

Quatrain

Parikia, Paros Island, Greece

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Stratos Apartments &Studios

~ 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

WHERE WERE YOU AT FIFTY-TWO?

Where were you at fifty-two?

Perhaps on Paros Island?

Where will you be at fifty-three?

Perhaps in Bangkok Thailand?

You're here to play, enjoy the day;

It will not be repeated.

You'll pay no debrts with sad regrest

When life has been completed?

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem552

Ballad Meter

Parikia, Paros Island, Greece

JOURNAL: Stratos Aprartments

~ The Daily Poet

NO BLUES

Blue sky, blue sea;

No blues for me.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem551

Epigram

Parikia, Paros Island, Greece

JOURNAL: Stratos Apartments

~ The Daily Poet

HOLD FAST

It's all in the configuration of the parts

That keeps the engine running once it starts.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem550

Epigram

Athens, Greece

JOURNAL: Minoa Athens Hotel

~ The Daily Poet

GOLD FROM A GRECIAN GALLEON

We nickeled & dimed our way up to the Iron Castle,

And underneath a stone we found the scarlet tassel.

We pulled the tassel up and with it came the treasure

Of a chest encrusted deep with gems in shining splendor.

Inside we found a thousand heavy gold medallions,

A pirate's hoarded take from an ancient Grecian galleon.

It took a year to smuggle out those precious ingots.

We mailed them home all uninsured like little trinkets.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem549

Rhyming Couplets

Serres, Greece

JOURNAL: Agnantio Hotel Spa

~ The Daily Poet

THE ROAD TO THE WALL

I walked the road my mother gave me from Day One,

Until I came to the wall too high for me to scale;

Too thick to tunnel through, too long an end to run,

Too deeply founded in the stone to dig or drill.

And so resigned to this the place my road had lead,

I built my home against the wall and marked the place.

My Name & Number polished there in shining gold,

My memories collected and displayed in a gilded case.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem548

Quatrain Stanza

Serres, Greece

JOURNAL: Agnantio Hotel Spa

~ The Daily Poet

BULGARIAN DREAMS

They're standing on the shoulders of dead giants.

They're building on the battlefields of yesterday.

Like battered children lacking self-reliance,

They hope for things they're too afraid to say.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem547

Quatrain

Sofia, Bulgaria

JOURNAL:  Slavyanska Besseda Hotel

~ The Daily Poet

BUDAPEST BUDDHA

I was pestered by a Buddha

    when I went to Budapest;

He was one and he was many

    like a jolly Buddha fest.

At the station, down the alley,

    in the subway, by the park;

He was everywhere and nowhere,

    he was light and he was dark.

He was fat as I remember,

    every Buddha always is;

Bought his urgers from McDonald's

    Took his water with the fizz.

He was shirtless, he was shameless

    and he knew just what he knew;

Walking barefoot past the palace

    wearing pants size sixty-two.

He was bulletproof and coated

    with a Teflon slick as steel;

It was just imaginary

    but it worked like it was real.

At the corner where the beggar

    held his Styrofoam debut,

Don't you worry said the Buddha

    your condition isn't you.

So I asked the Buddha, Buddha

    what makes Budapest so sad?

He said, Son you won't believe it

    it's the best new sad we've had.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem546

Quatrain Stanza

Budapest, Hungary

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Overnight Train GYORS, Car 418, Room 6, Bed 32&36 to Sofia

~ The Daily Poet

THE BLIND VENETIANS

The blind Venetians are leaving town

    Until the tourists see

That everything is sliding down

    The steep antiquity.

There's nothing left but this and that;

A gondolier's beribboned hat,

    A bit of wall with a lion's face,

A wave against a stone facade,

The memories of what they had,

    All sunken gone without a trace.

The blind Venetians are leaving town

    Until the tourist see

That everything is sliding down

    The steep antiquity.

The tilting steeples ring their bells

Repeating what the wind foretells.

    A bit of wall with a lion's face

Stares out across the crowded square

Believing soon they won't be there,

    All sunken gone without a trace.

The blind Venetians are leaving town

    Until the tourist see

That everything is sliding down

    The steep antiquity.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem545

Novel Verse Form

Venice, Italy

JOURNAL: Overnight Train En 411, Car 424, Bed 51&53 to Budapest

~ The Daily Poet

iTrain

His tracks are wider

than my stride;

His ties

are thicker than my thighs.

His iron wheels

are hotter than my heels,

They're so

much faster than I can go.

Together speed

is all we need,

The train

and I create one brain,

Mechanical

with chemical,

His steel

with what I feel.

Like stags we leap

from steep to steep,

We fly

as if from sky to sky.

And then the tunnels

One by one,

We slide,

we slip, we snake, we hide,

We take our time

from clime to clime,

And then

come down to journey's end.

We set the stage

to disengage,

He'll take

the tracks he cannot make,

I'll make my way

from day to day

Remembering

this day with him.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem544

Novel Verse Form

Venice, Italy

JOURNAL: Wildner Pensione (Venice, Italy)

~ The Daily Poet

DINNER GUEST

We had Rembrandt for breakfast,

And Van Gogh for lunch,

Just who's on for dinner

I haven't a hunch.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem543

Quatrain

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Ibis Hotel

~ The Daily Poet

THE ANTWERPEN TATTOO

Analysis prescribes

Numerical constraints

To keep the magic hides

Writ inky on by paints

Entombed within the haze

Returning never more

Protected from our gaze

Enclosed behind the door

No breath beneath the floor.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem542

Acrostic

Antwerp, Belgium

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Ibis Hotel (Amsterdam)

~ The Daily Poet

LET ME CROSS MY HEART

VERSE 1

We've come half way round the world

    To this midpoint in our lives

And the things we've seen and done

    Lit the passion in our eyes

Been through hell and back again

    to this harbor paradise.

CHORUS

Out this vantage windowsill

Looking back across it all

From this foreign port of call

Standing here with you my love

Let me cross my heart and hope to die with you

Let me cross my heart and hope to die with you

VERSE 2

Over land we've found our way

    Through the stinging desert sands

And the raging winds at sea

    Tore the rigging from our hands

Still we made it here as one

    Safe within these harbor strands

CHORUS

Out this vantage windowsill

Looking back across it all

From this foreign port of call

Standing here with you my love

Let me cross my heart and hope to die with you

Let me cross my heart and hope to die with you

BRIDGE

You, love, were the one I could lean on

You, love, kept me strong through the night

Yes you, love, and always your loving

Will take all the wrong and make it all right.

CHORUS

Out this vantage windowsill

Looking back across it all

From this foreign port of call

standing here with you my love

Let me cross my heart and hope to die with you

Let me cross my heart and hope to die with you

Written expressly for Mimi

on the occasion of our 10th wedding anniversary.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem541

Song Lyrics

Calais, France

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Holiday Inn Calais

~ The Daily Poet

A ROOM BY THE SEA

We're here in Calais in a room by the sea,

    Watching a movie in bed.

    There's something like tears in the back of my head,

Or is it eternity?

Whenever I say, "Eternity"

    I sense a secret face,

    Watching from some other place

From where my end will be.

The end is closer now than when

    I first discovered how

    To see beyond my here and now

To your sweet there and then.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem540

Ballad Meter

Calais, England

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Holiday Inn Calais

~ The Daily Poet

JOAN MIRO

Juice from the sluice of his brain

Order all shot to the bone

Always escaping on ladders of pain

Nudging his riddles of stone.

Man of his time like a saint

Ingots of gold for the stash

Riding subconscious the linear paint

Opulent demons of cash.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem539

Acrostic

London, England

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: The Priory Hotel (Dover)

~ The Daily Poet

THE EAGLE & CHILD

You're the Eagle, I'm the child,

    Carried by Your faultless will,

High above and far beyond

    My little nursery windowsill.

Close my eyes and let me sleep,

    Safely on Your tireless wing;

Set me down when I am grown

    Old enough to dance and sing.

Dance for joy because of You,

    Sing Your praise with all my heart;

Your's the whole of everything,

    Trusting You my only part.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem538

Ballad Meter

Oxford, England

Lat: Long:

Written in The Eagle & Child

JOURNAL: 27 Paddington Hotel (London)

~ The Daily Poet

S. A. BRAINS

We're here at The Prince Of Wales,

For a bite to eat and a light S. A.,

Just passing through, but it never fails,

We really want to stay.

I'm Irish Scotch & Welch,

Or so my cunnning mother said.

(Excuse me now, I've got to belch

This bubbly out my head.)

In Cardiff town they drink,

Just like they do up north and west.

It's hard to say which beer is best;

This S. A. Brains, I think.

So let the pints of Guinness go,

And let the Harp play on,

We're toasting Wales and moving on

It's bottom's up, we're gone!

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem537

Ballad Meter

Cardiff, Wales

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Royal Oxford Hotel, Room 206 (Oxford, England)

~ The Daily Poet

MY CHANCE

I had my chance to change the world

    But now that chance is gone.

It's time for me to hold the ground

    The future's standing on.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem536

Quatrain

Glasgow, Scotland

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL:  Premier Injn

~ The Daily Poet

THE TROUBLES

What are such troubles to me?

    I'm doing the future now.

Back in your past and across your sea

    You swore your loyal vow.

You blasted bombs all night,

    You skulked about by day.

I'm spinnning through at the speed of light

    On a leggy smooth ballet.

I'll post your Belfast bail,

    I'll suit you up just fine,

We'll bomb the sacred storied jail

    And let the future in.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem535

Ballad, Meter

Glasgow, Scotland

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL:  Premier Inn

~ The Daily Poet