The Daily Poem

THE RIO-LAGOS SPAN

They've made a bridge to Africa

With grounds of pure Arabica.

They spun them abracadabrica

To float on pillared stability

And self-repair sustainably

With germs that love salinity

That work the matrix into Bloam,

A coral-esque of Styrofoam,

Constructed dome-arch-dome

Allowing megaships to pass.

What's more, it shines like glittered glass,

Expiring phosphorescent gas.

My bennies include a commuter plan

To cross the Rio-Lagos Span;

I'm RanCorp's newest hatchet man.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem708

Rhyming Triplets

Modesto, California

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Comfort Inn

~ The Daily Poet

CREDO v. CREDO

I'm liquid mercurial bedlam,

An absence of strictures and scales,

I'm dust in the eyes of a Moslem

Who lives past the pier by the rails.

He threatens to kill me with kindness

And prays for me five times a day.

He says, "You're inflicted with blindness."

And hopes that his dogma will sway

My "Silly Judeo-Judeo,"

My "Lackluster Christian belief."

But still, if it's credo v. credo,

It's mine that will offer relief,

I'm sure,

It's mine that will offer relief.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem707

Novel Verse Form

San Francisco, California

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Marlin & Dong's House

~ The Daily Poet

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

THREE NUMBERS & A WORD

There's a shuffle of cards in a stack

And each has a word on its back.

You look through the pile

It takes you a while

Until you flip over the "Jack."

You track the full number of flips

And write it on one of the slips

You find with the pen,

Then do it again,

But this time you're looking for "Strips."

Then taking the cards you've learned

To shuffle and stack and turn,

You go tenth to the end

For the word to send

And the word you must send is "Burn."

If the word isn't what I've decreed

And the numbers aren't powers of three

Then give it a rest

'Cause you've failed my test

Of a random ability.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem705

Limerick Stanza

Portland, Oregon

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: AmTrak Sleeper from Seattle, WA to Emeryville, CA

~ The Daily Poet

THE BIGGEST THING

If I could say what once around the world

has done for what I think of everything,

I'd say the biggest thing it's done is make

me more aware of how immense it is a thing,

And just how much a fool I really am

to try to grasp the whole of anything.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem704

Novel Verse Form

Mill Creek, Washington

Lat; Long:

JOURNAL: Tom & Joan DeYonker's House

~ 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

OPEN WATER

At sea we meet our smallest selves

Awash through troughs of giant swells,

And there as nowhere else we find

Our brotherhood with all mankind.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem702

Quatrain

JOURNAL: M/V Matanuska (6th Night)

~ The Daily Poet

SEWARD'S FOLLY

He bought Alaska from the Russians

At the Baranof Castle in Sitka,

Lounging on their fancy cushions,

Smiling over their vodka;

He paid them just two cents an acre.

Imagine how delightful

For him to find a willing taker,

Nearsighted on the trifle

Of seven million dollars spent—

And what refusing might have meant.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem701

Novel Verse Form

Sitka, Alaska

LAt: Long:

JOURNAL: M/V Matanuska (5th 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 the 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

SOMETHING LIKE A SIGH

The houses crouch at the water's edge

Looking out across to where

The fishing boats are huddled there

Inside the harbor's rocky hedge.

The snow-brushed giants stretch their limbs

Inclining toward the sheltered town,

And in the waters all around

The silent guardian orca swims.

I'm filled with something like a sigh,

But deeper, like a homeward groan;

A secret aching to be known

In this Alaskan lullaby.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem699

Quatrain Stanza

Ketchikan, Alaska

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: M/V Matanuska (3rd Night)

~ The Daily Poet

SPEAK THE LIGHT

Speak the light you know you know,

And let the hocus-pocus go.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem698

Epigram

Inside Passage at Bella Bella, British Columbia, Canada

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: M/V Matanuska (2nd Night)

~ The Daily Poet

I CHING U CHING

When wisdom hides and all else fails,

Just toss three pennies heads or tails,

Perform some philosophic trick

With a bit of slick arithmetic,

Get wowed and Taoed by guru-speak;

You'll find your way, no need to seek.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem697

Rhyming Couplets

Bellingham, Washington

Lat: Long:

JOURNALAL: M/V Matanuska, Cabin 20B (1st Night)

~ The Daily Poet

THE OVER-YOUR-SHOULDER READING MAN

I'm here just behind you,

My breath on on your neck,

I'm the Over-Your-Shoulder Reading Man.

I'd like to remind you,

That I'm slower than heck,

So please don't go skimming as fast as you can.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem696

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

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

OUR TODDLING BOY

You let our toddling boy go back

The complicated way we'd come

back along the treacherous track

To lose himself in canyon-dom

To choose his wayward to & from

Through darkness into where I'd find

Him curled in fetal logic mind.

But no, I couldn't find him there

But no, I'd never find just where

You let our toddling boy go back

The complicated way we'd come

Back along the ttreacherous track

To lose himself in canyon-dom.

A dream

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem694

Novel Verse Form

Oak Harbor, Washington

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

JOURNAL: Ivan & Virginia Lathrop's House

~ The Daily Poem

TO CHOOSE A QUEEN

The moon was rising full

On thirteen cows and a bull.

The bull surveyed the scene,

Commenced to choose a queen

By asking each to answer

How deft he was a dancer,

How prime a peerless prancer,

From Capricorn to Cancer,

From east to west and over

The Seven Fields of Clover.

The cows looked up from eating

While he went on repeating

How they should all be truful,

Consider just how youthful,

How strong and clearly bullish,

How wise and seldom foolish,

How long he'd studied Taurus

And the great Tyrannosaurus,

To learn the finer points

Of how to jive his joints.

They surely would adore him

As no one else before him.

And if they watched him closely

They'd find that he was mostly

A neo classic bovid,

A true erotic Ovid.

The cows went back to eating

As he went on repeating

Until his topic wandered,

His energies all squandered,

Too tired now for dancing,

For pirouetted prancing,

And drifted off to snoring,

While silently adoring,

As the moon was setting full,

Lay thirteen queens and their bull.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem693

Rhyming Couplets

Oak Harbor, Washington

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

JOURNAL: Ivan & Virginia Lathrop's House

~ The Daily Poet

YOU JUST GO ON

The breath comes in, the breath goes out,

And until it stops you kick about.

Don't think to quit, don't even try;

You just go on until you die.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem692

Rhyming Couplets

Oak Harbor, Washington

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

JOURNAL: Ivan & Virginia Lathrop's House

~ The Daily Poet

THE DREAM OF THE BURNING HOUSE

The floors are all on fire and the walls

are glowing red with sheets of steaming ice.

I don my metal slippers lined with fur

and follow out the door the fleeing mice.

One turns to me with crimson eyes and says,

"It's not the fire, it's you we're running from."

"But why, " I say, "I've only ever thought

of you as friends who share my gypsy rum."

The ceiling crashes down between us swamped

in flames, and diving down the stairs I fly.

I mean I really fly. It's awesome how

I've suddenly escaped. I don't know why.

And then I'm on the snowy grass outside,

just watching as the house goes up in smoke.

I want to cry for all the lovely things

I've lost, but burst out laughing, "What a joke!"

"Go on and laugh, you stinking cad, I hate

the way you manage to be free of pain."

I turn around to find the voice and there

in tears, my brother, leaning on his cane.

"Don't cry," I say, "I've loved you every day.

I've missed your eyes of soft philosophy."

And suddenly, he's just a small-faced boy.

I lift him up and say, "Come stay with me."

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem691

Elegiac Quatrains

Oak Harbor, Washington

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

JOURNAL: Ivan & Virginia Lathrop's House

~ The Daily Poet

DARK CIRCLES

Late to bed and early to rise,

Leaves dark circles under the eyes.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem690

Epigram

Oak Harbor, Washington

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

JOURNAL: Ivan & Virginia Lathrop's House

~ The Daily Poet

STILL THE SAME

And suddenly it's me who's done

the thing so often dreamed about.

It's me who's made the grade, who's topped

the list, who's earned a bit of clout.

I feel a barometric change;

there's something subtle like a kiss

That's brushed its passing butterfly

and left its hurricane of bliss.

The cyclone in my head appears

to no one looking through at me.

If I don't tell, they'll never know;

if I don't show, they'll never see.

And yet it's me who took the chance,

who went the distance, won the game.

But if I keep my secret safe

they'll all believe I'm still the same.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem689

Quatrain Stanza

Oak Harbor, Washington

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

JOURNAL: Ivan & Virginia Lathrop's House

~ The Daily Poet