Too often I have had the thought
That in a vicious web we’re caught
Our world, tis true, is upside down
And turned our smiles into a frown,
How shall we get our laughter back
We need to find the proper track.
The madness grows day after day
Why can’t we filch its power away,
Perhaps we’ll have to wait in line
To learn if this will turn out fine !
Help me share this moment of fear
Of chaos, of loss with a tear
I’m caught in a net of sadness
Lost in the spin of its madness
Seeming so empty and tragic
Here in the twist of life’s magic !
How many times we run away
From all the problems of the day
Or shut our eyes and close our ears
Escaping from a world of tears.
How wise that most chose to forget
Days of rejection or regret
We need remember by and by
That God is with us ere we die !
When I was sweet sixteen, long time ago
The world was all mine to worship and grow
I promised me that I’d try hard to be
The bestest girl that anyone could see.
I’d make my mark with the greatest of ease
Doing whatever it would take to please
Now life has come and gone with fewer dreams
Leaving me falling apart at the seams.
I’m sure that the Lord will always be there
To buck up my shoulders, teach me to care
While I’ve discovered after beaucoup years
To make peace with myself, dry up my tears
Cause it’s not the results that count at all
It’s whether you rise up after each fall !
It seems my life is slipping away
The pull gets stronger day after day
How shall one decide which way to go
Is there a clue we have need to know
What has happened to ” home of the free ”
An example of true liberty ?
The chaos that reigns over our land
That used to be this nation so grand
Became a faction we have to chase
Hard as we may to change or erase
Whatever prayers that need to be said
Do say them now before we are dead !
Sometimes I waken in the night
To find there’s no one else in sight
And I am torn to ponder why
The bright lit stars desert the sky
Or why the valleys lose their glow
When meteors do fail to show !
Instead we face a blackened sky
Unveiled before our darkened eye
To note the lonliness we feel
And pray that it is most unreal ?
Seems truth keeps getting in the way
Of all the wisdom known today
I can’t accept just how things are
World ignorance has gone too far.
If this is all our lives shall be
I’ll opt for lack of parity
And pray that God who’s Judge of all
Comes to our aid before we fall !
Once long ago I knew a life
Which proffered me all that it could
As daughter, mother and a wife
In happiness with aspects good
Seems it appears after all that
I find myself left derelict
And wearing an indifferent hat
My days no longer kept that strict !
This world we know is dying fast
It seems that peace will never last
In truth it cannot ever win
There is no way we can begin.
The die was cast too long ago
There’s no route left to touch or grow
How sad that we have come this far
To barely reach or touch the bar.
We’ll bow our heads in feigned surprise
Since we have caused our own demise !
Slowly, slowly, as years unwind
What kind of future shall we find,
Where are the endless ways we’ve lost
And who is left to count the cost
Oh foolish ones of no context
Please tell us what will be the next !
We are a people born to be free
To cherish peace and sweet liberty
Since we began in seventy-six,
As we fought and died and took our licks
More than two hundred years in the past
A long time now in this world so vast.
We’ve stuck it out and held on so tight
Through coldest days and in darkest night
We’ve fought off each villain we have met
And what this cost we shall not forget
But now the fight’s for our heart and soul
We cannot afford to lose our goal !
I can’t imagine what to think
The world we knew is on the brink
The powers that be are paralyzed
Too many here are traumatized.
We’re in a bind and can’t get out
No matter how we rale or shout
So sad that time’s not on our side
When we have issues to decide.
Let’s run our goals on super fast
And pray that God will help it last
We need peace now, make no mistake
Whate’er we do, win, lose or break !
As this old year draws slowly to its close
Unlike the phoenix which from ashes rose
May pass without a hint of shadow kind
To leave its taste of bitterness behind !
The truth seems to be put aside
Else fears and lies will soon collide
For who can know the depth of this
Its people caught in self-abyss ?
One wonders why deceit is king
When honesty heals everything
How can it be blindness prevails
While all our ships hoist tattered sails ?
Oh how I wish I could return to when
I was that innocent young thing again
A time of dreaming and a time of trust
When truth was important and faith a must.
Each path we took had a positive end
We knew the value of a longtime friend
Our nature bade us to follow the rules
Not to venture along the path of fools
That time’s now long gone and all that is left
Are shattered dreams and regrettable theft !
We can’t go back, there is no way
To what was once our yesterday
When all we wished or hoped to be
Became forgotten memory.
Tis sad to see our former joys
Discarded there like broken toys
That line the cluttered roads we take
O’ershadowed by dreams we forsake.
Worse to believe that this is all
That’s left for us to chance recall
Those glory days which made us great
They’re gone and now it’s just too late !
Rise up, rise up and sieze the dawn
Another day, another morn
With one last chance to be reborn.
Pursue your dream or seek your cause
It’s yours to take to heal the flaws
Still yours to win, go, stop or pause !
It seems the heart returns to childhoods past
Where all of our dreams were designed or cast
The innocence of those now bygone days
Got lost in the grip of our foolish ways,
And the times we dreamt have now disappeared
To leave us caught in the crisis we feared !
The snowflakes fluttered to the ground
And fell in soft peaks all around
The winter winds blew brash and bold
And shimmered in the midnight’s cold
The sting of frost left on my face
Like numbness of our last embrace.
When I was young and dreamt a bit
I thought my dreams could never fit
But now I’m old and understand
Sometimes fate deals a losing hand
And we must make another plan
To manage fear and start again !
I sense the silence falling on my ear
What is this message that we cannot hear
Who reaches out because of these dark fears
I think the day of tribulation nears.
Awake, I know the morning will soon come
What is it we are all escaping from
There can be no true place of safety left
And that of which we dreamt leaves us bereft !
The war for peace goes on and on
There is no winning, no gladsong
The globe is shrinking, smaller now
Yet none can win, they don’t know how !
The pitter-patter of the rain
Now dancing on my windowpane
Reminds me of that long ago
Forgotten game of tell and show.
Oh what great fun we all had then
I do not think that I was ten
We lived our lives from day to day
Simplicity that was our way.
Depression had not loosed its grip
Our world much like a sinking ship
The war had not yet reached our shore
Though it was gnawing at the door.
And when it came none was prepared
For most believed it wasn’t there
Like all our games of show and tell
In truth it all went straight to hell !
A gasp, a sigh, some sign of life
Those battle scars after the strife
A dusty road strewn with debris
A shattered world is left to see
The sadness lingers on it seems
The vanquished have forgot their dreams !
Sometimes our lives just melt away
Where have they gone, we cannot say
Tis like a wind across the sands
That garners strength, makes no demands.
One moment here, another there
Perhaps unsafe, sometimes unfair
Oh Lord, please help us day to day
Show us the way we need to pray !
Somehow it seems along the way
I can’t say why we’ve gone astray
We’ve wandered far off of the road
And took on this excessive load
Who was it knew what this might be
A final act of heresy ?
Some were good men we know by name
Who tried to save us from this game
As others rushed headlong into
Lack of concern for what was true
They’ve lied and cheated on us all
And bear the blame for freedom’s fall !
When I was small I was not tall
In school I placed the third of all
We had to stand up every day
Beside our desks to pledge and pray !
That’s how our schoolday would begin
“Stand up erect and do not grin”,
We wrote in ink with nib and pen
And studied with our texts open !
We raised our hands to speak out loud
There was no chaos in that crowd
For discipline was number one
We studied hard and still had fun !
I miss the ways we used to learn
Each grade we got, we truly earned
While now the grades have no import
They’re given as a last resort !
Why is this world so very blind
So anger filled and too unkind
A study that is worst of all
With joy when evil does befall ?
Is this the manner of our fate
And why our lives remain ingrate
Denied our human dignity
And bathed in man’s iniquity ?
What kind of life is left to us
Where God is deemed inglorious
How shallow is the purpose seen
It leaves this world without a dream !
We’ll say goodbye to days that were
With all the visions they incurred
While every road must have a bend
So every page may have an end !
The times have come and gone away
To leave us lost or led astray
Or on the path to happiness
Possessing keys to our success !
To each is given that bag of tools
God’s map to life supplies the rules
What shall we do then if we fail
We’ll try again with tooth and nail !
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Claire V. Bogdanos 