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Best Poems From
BEN GIESKE
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69.
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A Tower of Power
We will build a tower
With unbridled spring-water attitudes
Flowing with fires of charity
For all the suffering multitudes
Dispossessed and swallowing poverty
We will give them power
We will build a tower
With lots of windows and no ears
With promises for those who have ceased their quest
For the young and old in years
For those who no longer turn west
We will give them power
We will give them power
Give them tomorrows and rainbows in tomorrows flowers
Help them fill pitchers with milk, honey, and cream
Reap the green of crops they have never seen
Shelter them from the cold, black screams
They will scale the tower
We will build a tower
They will scale like goats and soar like eagles
Who climbs higher than these birds?
They will peer through rose-colored gothic windows
And see the many rainbows of blooming flowers spilling colors
They will have the power
We will build a tower
For those near and far
Those who lost their dreams
Those who ceased the quest
Those no longer traveling west
Our actions will speak louder than words
They will sing the music of the birds
Learn to disregard the terms
Of all their unanswered yearns
- June 5,2007
Ben Gieske
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70.
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Albin the Aardvark
In Albany abides an aardvark, Albin. Albin is an albino animal. All around Albin's abode, abound the almighty ants. Another animal abiding alongside Albin's abode is Algie the alligator. He's an animal alligator. Almost all afternoon Albin the aardvark ambles up and down the alley always alert. Almost all afternoon Algie the alligator is asleep in the alley. One afternoon, Albin the aardvark ambles alongside and awakes Algie. 'Al! Any appetite? ' 'Auuuuuuugh! , ' answers Algie, 'Awful appetite.' After ambling around, Albin goes abed and is asleep. Algie is also asleep with an awful appetite. What do you think Algie the Alligator could eat with the awful appetite? (Algie can only eat things that start with 'A'. Help me out. I can only think of 8.) . I don't know if this is considered a poem or not. Help me out.
Ben Gieske
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71.
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Art
happy accidents
Picassos way
ways the colors bend
in the sunlight
sunlight revealing
a better sight
sights like real life
nature scenes, body scenes
seen in utter barrenness
and nudity
Ben Gieske
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72.
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Cranes for Peace*
In Memoriam, April 16,2007
Virginia Tech
33,000
paper cranes
swaying in the breeze
prayers on wings
crying one wish
Peace to the World
for 33 victims
a thousand each
one wish
the crane
symbol of life
peace and hope
origami cranes
embracing every fold
taught to Japanese children
according to tradition
- January 9,2008
*This poem was inspired by the article Peace of Paper written by Diana Marcum and photos by Craig Kohlrus in Fresno, Calif., first appearing in McClutchy Newpapers and then reprinted in the Daily News, Bowling Green, Kentucky on January 7,2008. At the Fresno City Colleges annual Asian Fest, Ray Thomas taught people how to fold cranes, vowing to send 33,000 paper cranes to Virginia Tech in memory of the massacre that took place there in April of 2007. The cranes are now an art exhibit at the college in honor of the 33 professors and students who were killed.
A crane is said to live a thousand years and is regarded as a symbol of life as well as a symbol of peace and hope. In Japanese tradition a person who folds 1000 origami cranes is granted a wish.
The words This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world. is the inscription found at the bottom of a statue of a girl holding a golden crane. Sadako Sasaki was two years old when Hiroshima was bombed. She died at the age of 12 from the bomb disease. When she was 11 she began folding paper cranes, many more beyond the 1,000. Her friends kept folding them and erected the memorial in honor of Sadako with their wish inscribed at the bottom.
Ben Gieske
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