These are all the poems I have written over the years:

Just before you go to the mall tomorrow
Don’t forget to pick up that new pair of shoes
Make sure they’re the Nike’s that are blue
Move it or I’ll sue
Where’s your lawyer?

Keep the family together
forget it, the parents are getting divorced
the father was killed, there was no remorse
the son wept
the mother smiled evilly.

Easy to remember
is a song I haven’t heard
It mustn’t be very good if you’ve never heard it
I never heard it because I don’t know what you’re talking about
You’re nothing but a dumb clout.

Death is the ultimate life, for in death you cannot die.
Life is full of pain
and death may seem the only way out
suicide is not the answer to all problems
but it’s the answer to most!
– Ralph Baldassarro, Brian McKough, Melanie Ralin, Joanna Hoopes

Just before you pull the trigger,
check this list:

Did you seek help?
Is the gun loaded?
Is the safety off?
Did you write a note?
Did you say goodbye?
Did you think it over?
Did you try to change?
Did you feed the dog?
Is it worth it?
Did you pull one last prank on your sister?
Did you talk yourself out of it?
Did you pull the trigger?

Imagine how good you’ll feel
if you can say “No” to
these questions today and every day

Are you listening?….

What is poetry?
Is it a siloquey
or a Hiku?
A love song or
a tragic epic?

Are they short
or are they tall in stature?
Need they rhyme
or merely keep time?

Who’s to say what’s right or wrong?
Who’s to say if they’re short or long?
Should they be written
‘neath a tree
in the shadow of a setting Sun?

Or do they cross the mind of the stranger
making his way down the street?
Do the poets know all the answers?
Oh, no.
They just ask the questions.

I sit here now
with pen in hand
(for one cannot write with his toes).
Words come and go…
Searching for that light…
Scratching letters in the sand.
Alas, I sit here now.

In the shadows of my chamber
all is still and calm.
The world outside cannot be heard
through the shield of my chamber.
In the darkness of my chamber
all is cold and damp.
I pen tales from the crypt
here in my chamber.

When I look into your eyes
Can my question be wise?
I need to ask, for
Sleep is becoming a difficult task.
With these words as sweet as wine,
You need to read the first word of every line.

I sit here now with pen in hand.
Afterimages of poets dead and gone,
their words careening through my mind;
what is it I must find?
Should I sit and ponder this till dawn?
Or just sit here now with pen in hand?

Tales of dogs and little boys playing ball;
Yarns of a secretary’s sorrow and ancient fish.
If I do not learn from this, am I deaf to their call?
Should I dance ‘neath the Moon or upon
a star should I wish?
I may never know much in this land
if I just sit here now with pen in hand.

I’m crazy
Not totally bonkers crazy
Not warped and demented crazy
Not crazy like a man who’s lost his marbles
But just alone and helpless crazy

Crazy about the life I lead
Crazy about the emotion of love I can never know
Crazy about the dreams that will never come true

The trickling of a stream
added endless waves to my dreams.
I dreamt of valiant knights
and the many Ogres to fight;
Of the fair maidens high in the towers
and a time when love was a blossoming flower.
A Bird caws in its Tree
before it takes to the Sky and is free.
Nature needs no silly laws,
only Humanity has these flaws.
The Wilderness just is
as it has always been.

I can’t say that I am a handsome knight
upon bended knee;
I can’t say that I am worth a million in gold;
That is not me.

I am but the shadow of a man,
a life without purpose,
an emotion without form.
You are the vessel of my love.
You carry me essence in your heart,
keeping it safe from harm.
Without you I am nothing, a feeling
without substance or form.

This is just to say
I have removed
the knife
that was in
the sheath
and which
you were probably
saving for
your wife
forgive me
it was so beautiful
so shiny
and oh so cold.

Man is the Seeker–
Accelerating through the starstream.

Across the Galaxy of galaxies-
Out of Time’s time-
Past the Past-
And beyond the Beyond.

From conscious Consciousness-
To Cosmic Vision.
Leaving all weights, all measures far behind-
As he rides the moving Starstream of the mind.

 

© 2007 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions