Old Poems by Colin Ward

Colin's Poems
and aphorisms

The following poems and aphorisms are Colin's first stumbling efforts. Most poets would bury these. Colin retains them for contrast with his latest works.

Earliest efforts
Second collection
Third collection
Latest efforts
Poet Valedictorian
Deaf Girl Dancing
Knowing
Disconnected
Angels I, II and III
Bottles
Nature
The Oldest Profession
Radicals
The Value of Pie
Some
The Manhattans
Thirty Below
Southern Comfort
Ward's Law
Forbidden
Thick Smoke
Testimony
Desparacidos/Pulse
On FM Radio
On Track
Tombstone
White Rose
The Grannies
Expendable
Poets
Verbos
The Last Infidel
Ex Post Coitus
Requiem
Electrocution
Emancipation
Duplicity
Central Park
Modesty
Circle
Geese
Acrophobia
In the End
Bound
Cosmos
Vietnam
Promise
The Way Home
Faces
Azteca
White Lines
Sex, War and Ferris Wheels
Jealous Fans
Burma
Mythology
Praetor Dominum
Beginning
Echoes
Connected
Pluto
Lawyer John
By the Pond
Restless
Detente
Footnotes
Mandalas
Words
Jericho Manhattan
Widower
Mourning Constitutional
Sunday
L'Homme Brûlant
In Genders
December
The Faces of Eve
A Tourist in India
Last Waltz
Bobby (1925-1968)
Erbsenzähler
Still Life
The Real Life Death of Sam McGee
Matryoshka's Prom
The Commissar in Havana
The Virgin Queen's Portrait
Holly Would
Arms Embracing
Why We Never Knew Grandpa
Prairie Prayer (A Sonnet)
Tephra
Trophies
Breaking Up
Silencers
Aufwallung
Another Washington Memorial
Brinks Truck Roadkill
Lover's Will




Dark Neighbourhood

All so proud of their swagger and sway

as they prowl through this dark neighbourhood,

these loud voices with nothing to say

will all need to be misunderstood

Click here
for a reading of
"Dark Neighbourhood".



Comments:




Poet Valedictorian
Before we graduate
to graveyards
I would like to say
something

Comments:




Deaf Girl Dancing

Sways to rhythms only she makes clear
Moves to sounds that even she can't hear
Out of step with others prancing near
Come to see the deaf girl dancing here


Comments:




Knowing

Knowing what is best
for others
is the first act
of war.

Comments:




Disconnected

I came from a Catholic family
so when I looked at my monitor
and saw the message:


"Disconnected from the host"


I panicked.

Comments:




Angels II

Angels creep in,
take what you were, and leave
only what you own.

Staring at his future through the genie bottle
in his grip, the old wino swears: "This
is the only defence."

Angels III

Grace visited us
briefly. Then, like water
on sand, like quicksilver
rejoining, she did what no god can.

His eyes wild, clothes coal black,
an old beggar arrived at her funeral.
Mourners clucked at the gall
of the gauche as they shunted
him out of the hall.

Still, I smiled. Grace
was back.

Angels IV

No callouses, no cracks,
no crucifixion marks
on his hands.
A whore on lease
to moneyless hordes,
a whore at least
to pitiless lords,
his passion a pose
at political parties.
Witless witness
of wine and weed
the limousine liberal,
fighting a war
of libation.

But must we see
spin doctors
To spot a poxed truth?
Forget the ghouls and gossips.
The rest of us prefer
all the hypocrisy
of angels
to the sincerity
of demons.

Comments:




Bottles
These bottles float on my memories
of passed relationships.
I catch the ones that return to me
and press them to my lips.


Comments:





Nature
As a child
I raced to the precipice
eager to hear my echo.

On the beach
my grandmother turned
to study her footprints.

Comments:





The Oldest Profession
Long before
the commodity of comfort
there were poets
to describe it,
defined not
by what they sold
but by what
they withheld.

Comments:





Radicals
They believe
that, like the dead,
they can get nowhere
until they get carried

away.

Comments:





The Value of Pie
She bent her hips
And stroked her thigh
She licked her lips
And so did I

At 3:14
She asked if I
Could have foreseen
Such valued pie

Comments:





Some
Some will ignore
what they know
and fight
for what they believe.

Comments:





The Manhattans
Sitting among broken oaks
and prancing willows,
Chief of the Manhattans
surveys the bounty

of blankets and beads

taken in trade

for his island


home. He grins at the snow-skinned
men before him.
"Now that we have sold you
the land," he asks,
"can we interest you
in the sky?"

Comments:





Thirty Below
"It's cold", you say
"Ice eternal."
"Let me tell ya:

Ain't a good day
for external
genitalia."

Comments:





Southern Comfort
I ran from the messiah

seeking the familiar
comfort of ignorance.
And, no, I didn't catch her name.

Comments:





Ward Law
Put freedom to a vote.
Just let the people choose
and in the end you'll note
that it will always lose

Comments:





Forbidden
We spoke of Inca coca
Navajo peyote
Rasta ganja
as we sipped our sacramental wine.

Comments:





Thick Smoke
From powder or pyre
Thick smoke we could see
Falling fleshward at
Dachau/Wounded Knee

Comments:





Testimony
The final test of testimony:
the sacred without sanctimony

Comments:




Here are the two poems published in " Talus and Scree ":
Desaparecidos


The wolf descended on the sheep,
expecting terror and whimpering,
not an old man with a ladle
inviting him in.
Seeing the surprise on his guest's face
the old one asked:
"Is mess hall food so good
that you can resist home cooking?"

The predator feasted
on spicy soup
and fresh bread rolls
before taking his hosts

At the doorway the old man said
"Winter is here,"
and offered his captor a sweater

The sheep are gone now
But the wolf wears their wool
Pulse


Should I hide
like a Jekyl
Until my sundried bones
write their signature
in the sand?

Or should I wait
until the heavy reign
of light
drowns our last illusion?

I reach
for the lampstand
A finger on your pulse
A finger on the trigger

Comments:





The Single Ballet Theory
Once known, we choose
to not extoll
the lonely news
that we are whole.

Comments:





On FM Radio
Driving in my car
through Motown and Country
I heard Cohen's "Priests"
and Ferron's "Shadows on a Dime".
Poignant. Intricate. Thoughtful.

But don't these poets know
that this is what people turn
on their radios
to avoid?

Comments:





On Track
We were just friends then

Standing on the tracks

Far behind us
a freight train

edged closer
Ahead of us
on our horizon

the rails

seemed to converge

Comments:




Tombstone

Mortality gives us something
that "omniscient" gods
can never know.

Comments:




Early in his life Colin was inspired by the fiery rhetoric of Dolores Ibarruru, aka la Pasionada: "No pasaran!" ("They shall not pass!"), and by the resistance of Mohammed Ali and the German anti-Nazi White Rose resistance pamphleteers, Hans and Sophie Scholl. Imagine Colin's surprise when, three days after writing the following poem, he chanced upon this picture of the Scholls (Colin's physical resemblance to them is quite striking) while web surfing!

Sophie and her brother, Hans, were captured and tortured by the Nazis in 1943. Today, people around the world commemorate the Sholl's sacrifice by wearing a white rose on February 22nd, the date when they were executed.

White Rose

Mohammed Ali
die Weisse Rose
y la Pasionaria
need not speak
to remind us
of when sanity
was illegal.


Grannies
I could never see
what is not there
were it not
for los abuelos.

Comments:




Expendable
Evolution culminates in the television.
Mine broke.
Bought a new one.
Still looking for something
that can't be replaced.

Comments:





Poets
The difference
between poets and others
is that others flush.

Comments:





Verbos
Él está
Ella es

Comments:





1000 Points of Light
We dim our lights
a thousand ways
narcotic nights
and moonshine daze

Comments:





AfterLife
Born.

Graduated.

Married.

Died.

It seems that everything begins
with good-byes.

Comments:





The Last Infidel
As children
we all believed

in the tooth fairy

and found coins

under our pillows
As adults
we wonder

if God will be born

from the grave

of the last infidel

Comments:





Ex Post Coitus
No goodbyes
between us
Thieves
are never grateful

Comments:





Requiem
We've come to where eternity
and life once boldly marched.

Another drop flows out to sea
and leaves the land more parched.

Comments:





Electrocution

Lightning coursed through
my veins

Older now
I remember the madness
fondly

Comments:




Emancipation
If slaves cannot serve two masters

then those of us who serve so many
must be free.

Comments:




Duplicity

Lies tell us twice as much
as the truth.

Comments:





Central Park

Another gambol
Another gamble

Comments:





Modesty
Atropos hides her charms
Behind a checkered flag

Comments:





Circle
Most of us will die
in a foetal position.

Comments:




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