Balloons

One balloon
POPS!
The whole room STOPS!
The Teacher forgets not to YELL!
We are all STARTLED and ALARMED!
And while the sound is causing NO HARM, to anyone...OH NO!
I think I almost FELL!
One single
SNEEZE!
And while the Sneezer's nose is RELIEVED!
Everyone else in the room is SHOOK UP!
It's gonna take the whole AFTERNOON
To put the calm back into this ROOM!
CAN'T STOP. WON'T STOP.
FIRE-CRACKER DROP
TILL THE END OF TIME
TILL THE END OF TIME
THE VALUE OF THE DIME

unordinary.

Unordinary
by Dan Ankers


The Poet for our times
is whipped and ripped
and torn asunder for the thousandth time
He or She knows the many roads that mankind
has billowed outward, never doubtful, always reaching
a decline.
Now is the time for true renewal of our substance, unrestrained.
Now is the time for our arrival in the year unordinary.
Extraordinary. We Should Vary. We Should Change.
We should rearrange.

The Children of Discord

The Children of Discord
by Dan Ankers



Tattered, the green dress
What a mess  
Ebony skin
thin
Bulging knuckles
Fists clenched
She thinks to herself
While There
Why Care?
Only they get to eat till they're full
Only they get to speak and be heard
I am alone
Lost

Monkeys

Monkey's
by Dan Ankers


Monkeys Monkeys Everywhere!
On the Curtains,
In Mom's Hair!
Throwing Pillows,
Down the Hall!
Smashing Crayons,
on the Wall!
Sneaking Cookies,
Hiding Snacks!
Leaving Messy
Monkeys's Tracks!
With Tiny Messy
Monkey's Feet!
Growing Monkeys,
Soon We'll Be!
Giant Hairy,
Monkey Men!
Just like Daddy,
and His Friends!
Doing Grown-Up
Monkey Things!
Driving Cars,
and Wearing Bling!
All Along the
Live Long Day!
Doing Things the
Monkey Way!

In the Morning,
Where is Mom?
Where is Dad?
Guy's C'mon!
We Need a Monkey
Breakfast Treat!
3 Hungry Monkeys
Need to Eat!

Now It's Time We
Got To School!
So We Can Learn
All Monkey Rules!
And Hear About
the Monkey World!
And Maybe See
Some Monkey Girls!

There's Never Been
a Better Way,
Than Doing things the
Monkey Way!
The Funny Little
Monkey Way!
All Along the
Live-Long Day!

My buddy bobby

Animal Heart with a Shaman's Soul
And a Mind for Strategy
This Mongol
Organizing, Enterprising
Internally Visualizing an Uprising
Always in the market for an
idea that's smart, or truly surprising
Loyal and Faithful as a
Friend
Trustworthy, he is someone on whom to
depend
the world
it's struggles
he must
juggle
constantly accosted by muggles
this friend.
To the end.

Spiritual Alchemist

My buddy Malcolm


My buddy Malcolm is a spiritual alchemist
he changes thoughts into gold with the letters of the alphabet
you might call him conceited, but he knows that he's talented
it makes sense, what comes easy, should be challenging
but it's not, and to him, it just flows like a palindrome
either way you speak it, you know that it's fabulous
exposing the nebulous, to all the incredulous
sit back it's infectious, his mind is a nexus
a meeting point for all knowledge and experience,
arcane wisdom and reverent delirium
mystical theories of the sphere's, where reality gets distorted
like in fun-hours mirrors

If only for a second, his mind often glimpses
strange things surpassing, all five of his senses
it's hard to feel present, when time is so evidently
functional, and everyone he knows is so obviously
delusional.

Malcolm makes, a lot of mistakes, in common,
everyday situations. It's hard to know what he's here for,
when he's processing so much information.

The Little Things

The Little Things
by Dan Ankers

A million little hands, holding me up
a heavenly host of cheers to wave me on
the prayers of all the hopeful...
when these are gone
and all is silent
and you are no longer there
with your scarf, waving in the air
No tears as I race to the finish line...
I strain to find the meaning behind it all

What was the point behind the parties
and the celebration
the mounting swirling tides
of jubilation
and the pointed metal hat, some called a crown
as they placed it on my head,
in coronation?

Without those loving hands to guide me there
And the voices of those who long believed
that a man like me, could do anything,
Anything at all
Without them, I am nothing but a fool
running toward a flag,
held on a pole.

It was all those many things,
which made that goal
A worthwhile goal
Without them, I am naked sitting here
Alone
Stripped of all the dignity of such a task
Without them,
and most of all without her,
no matter how I place
I will never have that old smile upon my face
No matter how many races I may win
And no matter how many people's best attempts
I pass
No matter what the race reporters ask
I will know within my heart,
That I must have placed Dead Last.

Peace of Slumber

Sometimes Peace comes when I sleep
and sometimes it does not
But Either way, at the end of the day
I must close my eyes and just
Stop.

Compare my love to...

I would compare my love for you, to all the stars in the sky...
For there are many of those.
But how many of those?
Who knows?
There may be a limit.
And then I'd be stuck with this paltry analogy, forever.
Following me
and
Pestering me,
Like the circus of fleas on a homeless man's
sweater...

Recently, I heard that there are infinite universes
like hyperspace bubbles
cascading
through time.
And that the limits of those and their numbers
are range-less
So, I think I would feel more content,
if it's not too much fuss
to compare us to that
cause this star shit,
is full if it,
and does not befit,
your Greatness.

The Darkness

The Darkness
by Daniel Ankers

As I search in the darkness of the forest
As an Artist
I am ushered along, by the light of my
Soul
(This hermit is so full of Discernment.
He looks a lot like me,
only bearded and wiser.)
I Espy so many things, beneath this canopy of many
Trees, Covered Meanings
My mind it perceives
A Panoply
of Them.
However, the one I seek
Does not hide
Underneath Trees
or Even the sky.
He
Or She
Or It
Or All
Can only be seen
When you begin asking
WHY
And even only then
if you continue to
Try

Flattery

What you call Flattery, I call Fact-of-the-Mattery,

Mixed with a touch of Hyperbole, to make it Fun.
Cause I love you, and you deserve,
the honest expression of my soul
Every Day.

Genetic Self Construct

Probably One of the Longest Poems I've Written. This is Not the Final Draft, but I want to share.

Genetic Self-Construct
by Dan Ankers

When The Doctors First Learned How to Read The code,
The structure of Genes,
When it Was Finally Refined,
Everyone Stood in Line,
Scrambling to Be Read,
And Looking for Answers,
Always Looking for Answers...

That Saga Though,
Is a Poem For A Later Time.

On This Day, What I'd Like to Discuss
Is A More Divergent Matter
And It Is Thus...

As Scientists Scoured the Masses
They Found Many Things
That Could Pass for Perfection,
Things That Made Us Genetically Better,
Things That Would Forward Our Marvelous Design,
Through Time
Though Some Other Things That Were Found Buried in There...
Were Relics of Old Ways,
And Were Best Left Behind

Strange Things Were Unraveled
Which, At First, Caused Much Consternation
And Then Were Soon After Understood,
Much To The Relief Of the Nation
However,
There. Was. One. Weird. Trait.
Found Randomly Within Some of The Anonymous Rabble
And it Left All The Geniuses,
Patently Baffled.

They Found Portions of it Clumsily Stored,
Like Some Forgotten Part in an Old Machine,
Or An Earlier Painting Discarded,
Underneath Another Piece of Art,
Stored Within Section G24,
Seemingly for No Reason At All,
There was a Self Destruct Feature That When Activated...
In an Instant,
Would Destroy Any Semblance of Sanity or Fear
Within Whatever Creatures,
It Should Happen to Appear

The Perplexing Thing Was,
That Many Who Had It
Were Still Happily Alive,
Even More So Than Most
Long Past the Date,
When It Should Have First Killed Its Host...
They, In Fact, Felt Great.

No Matter What Their Condition,
They Seemed to Have Found Peace,
Whether on Their Death Bed,
Dying From A Disease
Or Somewhere in a Church,
Bowing to Their Knees,
Or On Mount Everest,
They Seemed to Have Found A Strange Peace,
Contrarily to Their Genes...
And That Did Not Sit Well,
With the Government Men At Area 10

What Made These People,
So Happy in Their Madness?
Why Didn't They Seek Refuge
In a New Couch or TV?
I Mean Certainly They Owned These Things,
Only They Didn't Seem
To Worship Them
And Disturbingly, Instead,
They Seemed To Find Their Real Fruits,
In the Comforts of Their Head
Where Nobody At All Could Advertise,
Or Even Try to Make A Buck
Where No Presidents Could Make Speeches,
Where No Talking Heads Could Reach Them,
With No External Focal Points,
How Would The Preachers Preach Them?

Identity Imprecise,
With No Reasonable Traits At All,
These People Craved Experiences,
You Might Even Say They Desired Life
Of All Things Most Abominable,
With Nobody Telling Them How To Be GOOD,
How Would They Even Know?
If They Were Doing Right?
By All Things Good and Holy,
Consumerist and Humorless?
How Would They Ever Know,
Where To Go When They Died?

To Make Dire Matters Darker,
There Even Seemed to Be,
Those Who Were Encoded,
By Some Still-Unfathomable Means,
To Seek Each Other Out...
(Maybe In The Same Way That Birds Fly South?!?!?)
And To Merge Insanities, Insanely
With Lots of Hugs And Kisses
And Who Liked To Live Inanely
Speaking Of Stupid Things,
Like "True Loves" and "Soul Mates"
They Were Not Impressed In Slightest Means,
By Reality Shows and Movie Screens
But Maybe Would See Them In Passing For Fun
As They Went Through The Morbid Day Laughing
Only Their Days Didn't Seem Morbid At All...
What Were They Always Smiling About?

As I Sit By My Husband And I Write This Report,
Who I Married Cause Mom Said I Should Marry For Standing,
And Momma Knows Best,
And Daddy Does Too,
He Said I Should Get A Degree,
And A Really Good Job,
And Work My Ass Off,
So We Could Barely Hang On...
I Just Wish I Knew Why They Were Laughing,
And Why I'm Always Despairing,
When THEY Are The Mad Ones...
Oh Well, The Government's Thinking Of Rounding Them All Up,
And Who'll Be Laughing Then,
As They Get Onto The Truck?
(Probably Still Not Me)

Genetic Anomaly Report,
Part One.
Signing Off For The Night,
Eleanor Pemberton.

Like a Spiral

You may see a circle, but I see a rising spiral
Upward moving through the dimensions, some of which precipitate
Revelations...which have been known to cause alarm.
Your attempts to break history down into events
is unnatural (though it makes some natural sense)
But truly the spiral is a spiral
is a spiral
Moving through the moment,
always with consolidation
to smaller increments
fulfill the Life
Equation

When a Poem Loves a Poem

When two Poems
(the right kinds of Poems)
Meet.
They'll sing each other's praises, for all
Infinity.
Never Descending, and building ever-
Toward.
A greater and greater, greater and greater
Reward.
Never relenting, as the climax sweetly
Builds.
Always reaching it, and then being
Fulfilled.
Starting it over, and then doing it
Again.
'Cause always a Poem, is a Poem's best
Friend.

Listen to its wise heart always

the wind is oft full of mysteries
like histories telling stories of former glories
and while we were entranced perchance
did you take a look at the fact that the facts
don't check out. Like EVER. Never.
It's all a bunch of Shit, to begin with
People who win wars write histories out
of the windy mysteries of time
they just kill people and re-write it as sublime
what we really need to do is stop drinking
so much jet fuel
and start acknowledging the Yin and
The Yang. The male and the female, only this time as
adults. Not savages, for once.
Just recognize that we are male and female
full of passion and rage. But, we should also embrace our
more progressive face, for once.
Not just throw it on the side-lines.
We need to acknowledge the spirit that is in all of us.
As GOD. And listen to its wise heart. Always.

Baby

Galaxies all coalesce around a common ground
Mixing in the Stirring pot, the universe is getting hot
little pieces of cosmic strings are fraying at the edges
Epicenter works his magic, can never be too clever
pulls it all together.
No matter the climate nor the weather, it's mostly all the
same. Atom after atom, an each one paradox
d   i   d   t   h    e    y   e   x   i   s    t    a    t   a  l  l    ?
you know they're very small, but when you break them down
even further, reality you tend to murder..............at the center
is WHAT......upon what beam does time find it's center...better
answer that question on earth....little baby....mother giving birth.
Yes. I'd like to find this little man and ask him his name. he would say universe
I would say this is almost correct.

Sydni

What's in a Sydni but student
and a teacher and a mother and a
preacher too. And I know. I can tell.
There's an artist in there.
A singer. A poet. An acrobat....well maybe not that...
but everything else.
What's in a Sydni? but a gift every time
I cherish these memories spent with my family
met her when hardships befell her mother
was her best girlfriend, also her brother
also a little bit dad. makes me a little bit sad
when she is sad too. wish there was something I could
do. Some Kind of Eternal Dad Glue. Fixes Everything
Even Broken Heart-Strings....I love you. My sydni-poo
Love your voice and your golden hair, but I would still love you
if they were not there. You are my family, love floats in the air, you cannot
catch it, only go after it.
Recognize that you share with me and occupy a very special place in my life. All Poems aside, I care about you.

Carrie

Little Indian girl
Much too Strong for this paltry world
Much too Strong for the boys
and girls are like stick figures
Carrie, so unaware of how special you are
Look from afar
You're a marvel
I swear
You've barely even started
to carry yourself like you aught
You should discard
so many of the things you were taught
And rewrite this book on living life
Re-carving your world with a knife
made out of your name
Carrie.
Remember your dreams
Remember the things
that made you be seen
You're a Queen
My sister.

Lukas

Such Potential
in a boy
to be an even greater man
to be a Giver
and a Lover
and a Father
to do and be and say the things that most matter
this gift that's on the platter
this boy
this love
our own

The Colour OF LOVe

The Colour OF LOVe
(Just like The Flavor of Love)
...that show
is just a mess
all wedding cakes and distresss!!
Yes!
It's all tilts and turns!
Cuts and Bruises and Burnz!
It's outside of oneself
trying to find a place to place oneself
it's fucking terrible!
And fucking bad for your health!
Love!
Uck!
Yuck!
Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!
gross.......
at the most..you maybe get laid.
or maybe you pay for it
if you're desperate
(like some)
(not me)
(SERIOUSLY?)
never.
Love is easy if you're clever
you just can't love. nobody. nope. never
it's just whatever
and that's the cliff
and that's the pier
on which
we used to fish
but when we sat, content to smell the fish heads and the death
to catch our breath, inhaling the odors of our path
we all began to think...one after the other
some would never dream
of breaking the stream
and others
so in love with
the system
as is
would rather keep things the way it already IZ
However
there are others...

Engagement!

Wedding Bells will Ring!
Soon this will be the thing
That gets me out of bed in the morning
And keeps my thoughts racing
Late into the evening

Love is the answer to the question
How
Did I live my life without you in it
Before Now?

Wedding Bells will be Ringing!
And Children's voices will be overheard
Swearing that the bride
Is the most beautiful thing in the world!

The Prince he will be dashing
Although he's not really a Prince
To the bride he seems like he is, for so long
She has waited for THIS!

Wedding Bells will be Chiming!
Allowing us to walk with their timing
As we march outside the Church
Alerting God of our mirth!

And the day will soon come
When it's our time
To walk down the aisle
Side by Side
And to share our Vows
For the very first and last time
And to drink the wine of love!
The love that comes from above!
That's carried by a Dove,
Bestowing Peace!

:)

I saw you coming (more of a song, I guess)

I Saw you Coming

I saw you coming a long long way
away from me
So far I couldn't tell the color of your hair
or how tall you'd be
You were just a simple glimmer of hope
inside the lens of my childhood telescope
(I knew you'd come,
you were always there with me)

Many years passed
and I walked alone
I lost my shoes
and my way back home
I lost my name
and I lost it all
and I must admit it too...                                                  
I almost lost the memory of you
(so long ago,
from my childhood telescope)

Adulthood comes so unfairly
to everyone
It doesn't care a thing
about the things you'd dreamed
and they soon get swept underneath
the sandman's apathetic rug
by the unholy hands of gaunt and listless men
wearing tiny name-tags and clad in baggy jumpsuits
(They rarely mean you any harm,
they are merely lost too)

And as time went by for me
a Man's dreams were no more,
Much less a boys
(The first thing that time destroys)
And all my toys were gone
and my wayward attitude, too

all I had were days...
And then there came a
YOU!

I was walking on the sidewalk
on my way to turn a corner
Contemplating dinner
(probably some gruel to keep me thinner)
And as my footsteps angled toward an alley-way,
I stepped on yours
(as you rounded the very same)
And the shock of running into you
was heaven overlay-ed.

My hands touched the curvature of your body
our arms accidentally embraced
I saw the way your eyes looked
as they flew wide with surprise
I now knew the color of your hair
as it dangled in light brown tresses
around your face
and as the top of your head
was just below the bottom of my chin
I now knew how tall you were
with an impassioned grin.

And that's how it has been
for thirty years now
Every stolen year of my youth
regained
A thousand fold.
Every year much sweeter than the last.
Every lost dream
And trampled hope
has passed...
Has been forgotten,
like a noisy dream upon waking
My life is here now
and love is for the taking.

A Poem

A Poem is not just a thing of words...
It's a work of Art.
It's not contained and constrained by the lyrical or the thematic things of the dramatic strings we pull
or the Words.
Most definitely not by the words we think
and pluck from within our shallowest of minds,
for those are only the signposts,
messengers of a weightier and far more distant truth.
A tesseract built out of
the immutable and esoteric laws of Cosmic-language, space, and, time
that can only be clasped within our immortal souls, hearts, and minds
And if ever we could ever deign to loose
such a powerful thing,
then we'd be destined call ourselves fools,
and be ashamed of our very names.
For the only one who can speak such truths is God.
And the only poet to have ever said it right
is Him.
All we can ever do is try,
and what an elegantly beautiful thing
that is.


Post Script

Like the little children telling mom she's grand
as they hold her hand, while their feet dangle and sway
off the edge of that bench, where they sit and enjoy the
good day, he appreciates our efforts
just as much
as the sun touches her hair
and her smile says it all
approval from that God
is as the love kisses that
fall.
:)