Verse Lite

by Mark T. Shirey

Honor Plaque

I hung my Honor Plaque with pride on the wall above my bed.
I told my Dad I hoped it would not fall and hit my head.
As we pondered the plaque and how big the threat is,
Dad said, "It all depends on how big your head is."


---

Anna

Anna is my Grandma's name.
Now, some may find this comic:
Not only is she an "anagram", she's
Acrostically palindromic!


---

Mary the Poet

Mary wrote a little verse
It didn't even rhyme
This one's not by Mary
But it's very similar


---

Sublime Limerick

This limerick's last line doesn't rhyme
And I've been thinking for quite a long time
What is a word
That won't sound absurd
But will make this whole thing sound just great?


---

The Penn State Flower Gardens

I was morose
For hours and hours
When they dumped manure
All over the flowers.
In the spring, they'll grow
So pretty and sweet;
It just goes to show
That you aren't what you eat.


---

Brevity

"Brevity is the soul of wit"
But not, you see, the same as it.


---

Quintessential Limerick

This limerick would be quintessential
If it were a bit experiential
A little less haughty
A little more naughty
And a lot less self-referential


---

Autumn Haiku

Gold dust from wheat fields,
White dust from flowers floats by -
Haiku! Gesundheit!


---

No Time for Troubles

[a true story]

As I walked uphill on my way home,
Thinking of my troubles,
A little girl sans shirt and shoes
Was patiently blowing bubbles.
As I passed, she turned and said,
"Hey - there's no time!"
I agreed and, lest I forget,
I've written down this rhyme.


---

Church

I heard a bird sing
"higher power, higher power, hi".
And so I whistle "higher power"
whenever I walk by.


---

The Buddha

The Buddha sat beneath the tree
So long that it was frightening.
And when he finally let it be,
He was struck by enlightening.


---

Success

Success is easy,
There's nothing to it:
Decide what should be done
And do it.


---

Data Points

Can you read the Gita in your digital display?
Can you see the light or do the lights get in the way?
How many angels dance on the pinouts in your head?
Can you believe, and do you, that we live after we're dead?
Are you a clock with a cuckoo or a ghost or a dream
Or a wise old soul of a new machine?


---

Did I Mention

Did I mention my penchant for writing dumb rhymes?
And liking to use words like "penchant" at times?
Did I tell you that I enjoy telling bad jokes
And puns that often annoy other folks?
Have I said a word about playing word games
And writing short verses that may not have names?
Were you given a warning that my humor is given
To this silliness to which I am driven?
Could you sense that I enjoy "nonsense", in a word,
With a sensibly sensitive sense of the absurd?


---

Acrosti' Internet

[an acrostic of internet-related lingo]

Words, phrases, sentences, rhymes
Are scrolling up my screen.
"It's non-stop noise all the time"
Says some zippy new zine.

Garbage in means garbage out
Or so the manuals say.
Programs, pictures, text about
Home, hobbies, work, and play.
Electronic systems route
Real garbage far away.

With all this connectivity,
Will all the words enlighten me
When talk is cheap and info's free?

Faster and cheaper's all you get;
The content isn't wondrous, yet
Plug in, 'cause it's a great outlet.


---

I Could Do That

"I could do that"
The dilettante says,
Eyeing the abstract.
"If I had the canvas
And the paint
And the brushes
And the time,
I could do that."


---

Grandpa Was Santa

Grandpa was short and sweet and quite bereft of hair.
He loved Grandma, Hee-Haw, his dogs, and his chair.
On the CB, he was the Milkman and the mild-mannered fan
Of the college football coach and the dixieland band.
He was an Odd Fellow and a Granger, but what's more -
He was Santa Claus for a while at a local store.
He took care of us grandkids with milkshakes and walks
And I'll try to remember more of the talks
'Cause I realize now he was a role model bar none
And I owe him a lot, as the son of his son.
I won't regret the things I'll forget
'Cause the things I'll remember give pause:
Imagine my joy, now and as a boy,
Knowing Grandpa was Santa Claus.


---

Cloud Kingdom

Looking down on a cloud palace
As I fly over its unroofed rooms -
I'm sure I could step
there
And curl up in that corner
there
And I'd scoop out a window in the floor
there.
Cloud Kingdom beckons
With comfort and beauty
And teases me with the possibility
Of deplaning
here.


---

Haiku Day

Morning haiku in me
Casts a shadow on paper
Tells me what I know

The bull says "SNORT-nod"
He threatens us through the fence
Great big BS-er

Trees collect sunset
Until they're full of color
They spill on the ground


---

Softballs

One week our pitcher wasn't around
So I was picked for this.
A little nervous, I went to the mound
Thinking, "Just don't miss."

I knew how to stand
And I knew how to throw
But as the ball left my hand
My fingers didn't know.

And so, on every single pitch,
Just as I would let it fly,
My hand would turn or fingers twitch
And I had no idea why.

I walked four batters in a row
Before they took me out
My conscious mind still does not know
What that was all about!

[Always motivate yourself with positive suggestions. - Mark]

---

I Sing the Body Electronic

I sing the body electronic
I sing of the integral and integrated
Of grids and graphs and greyscales
Of numbers and nanoseconds

Each life is a Universe -
Analog and analagous
We quantize and digitize us
So we're more knowable and changeable
With an interface where each life overlaps
Where before there was just friction

In each leaf of grass I see the beauty
And the dimension as one -
To measure is to know the metre of the music
And my experience is multiplied

The only danger and only fear
Are depletion and dependence
I must use it to be, but can't renew it
I'll need it to see, but will I get through it
If I depend on something that can disappear?

Each curve is resolved until it is a curve again
Each deviation an approximation
The only truth is information
The only art, miscommunication

Matter is data and it's data that matters
Objects are dissected, ideas decomposed
Feeling is phenomena
Generated with some randomness
For understanding is more than order


---

Morning Walk in State College

There's a halo around Mt. Nittany at sunrise this spring day
Krishna-blue water towers glow among green trees
Early-risers rush around unaware of the wonders
I leave the sidewalk for the path
I break branches like my Father taught me
A bird sings: higher-power, higher-power, higher-power-hi


---

The King of Me

I am the King of Me
You are the King or Queen of You
It's a lifetime position that you can thank or blame your parents for
Its the only thing that can't be taken from you
You get all of the responsibilities and all of the rewards
You get all of the blame and all of the joy
It's a tough job but everybody's got to do it


---

The Odyssey

He was sad and lonely
When he left to see the world
Then he found his one-and-only
And returned both buoyed and girled


---

Write of Way

[at Rome Lab]

See inside things
See a section
See the hole thing
See a way

Feel the feeling
Feel the sur-face
Feel the first pain
Feel your way

Know you are loved
Know man's best friend
Know man's island
Know the way

Write what you know
Write where you are
Write of passage
Write of way


---

Jennet X Peoples

[an acrostic sonnet, Sep 95]

[for Jennet Peoples 1956-1998]

Joining words into lines of life and death,
Esteemed by poets, readers, writers, friends.
Noting moral flaws with mortal breath,
Not bowing down to power's means and ends.

Engaging in the study of a shadow -
The darkness left behind by writer's pens.
Xpressing what we fear and what we know,
Peering through experience's lens.

Enjoying daily discourse with the cats
Or walking with and talking with the birds,
Pleasing mice and men with honest chats,
Loving cows in farms and fairs and herds.

Every word and every creature is her kin,
So lucky are those she chooses to take in.


---

Dentalism

My dentist chants "Ahhhh" for mental relaxation.
He's trying to transcend dental meditation.


---

Morning in Worms

I am walking
In the steps of Martin Luther
At sunrise.
Past the closed markets
And open cathedrals,
Over the bridge by the beer hall,
Over the bridge over the Rhein,
Past the signs showing
Maximum weight and speed for tanks,
I challenge all my theses.