Category: Poem

Poem

The World in Words

AutumnB17

A poem by Autumn Brutyn

Escape with me
To a world of words
The realm of romanticized reality
Of seeing things you’ll never see
Sunkissed futures, starlit pasts
Moonbeam dreams and love that lasts
Blue gardens in a far off place
A time your presence will never grace
A honeyed, silver fantasy
An indulgence embellished fancifully
Buoyed beyond the earth and seas
Transcending, bright philosophies

A reverie
Your heart grows light and feathery 
Soar with me on the flip of pages
Let paragraphs pull you to spotlit stages

Reading is a siren in a billowing gown
Whose kisses won’t drag you down  
you dive in deeper 
and deeper 
but you’ll never drown 
The water is warm and knowledge-bound
She’ll lure you in with her sweet elixir 
A tale of lore with adventurous shimmer
A dash of “ancient,” “gold,” and “treasure”
The chapters gust by like a warm summer zephyr

You’re ensnared in her grip 
But the blood doesn’t drip; your life gets better with each reality slip
Of course, to “get away” is a curse and a gift
The honeydew daydreams could lead to a rift
Between what is real and what is not 
You’ll find yourself often in an in-between spot

Escape with me
To a world of words
The realm of romanticized reality
Of seeing how wonderful life can be

When you live in a land of stories
Poem

“American Fire” … a poem

AutumnB17 
When I stand before the flag above
With the beautiful anthem spilling love
The most perfect, imperfect majesty
Those stars and stripes call out to me

Sweet melodies flow into drums
Cymbals crash and tension thrums
Each boom and hiss is a squeeze on my shoulder
With the rise of each strain, I grow bolder, and bolder...

Hotter and colder!
Ice into fire
Pride on my skin, I begin to transpire

Heat and pepper
Triumph and glory
Musketballs, cannonshots, all things unholy

Heartbreak and heatstroke
Frostbite and spring
Our country hides away in each of these things

America is fire
America is war
America is glistening waves on the shore

America is hunger for riches and fame
America is courage, grit, and family names
I see her there, in the red and blue
And wonder if she sees me too...


As the anthem keeps chanting my blood runs hot
Dreams of shining seas and timber trees and hair tied up in pretty knots

Opportunity
Equality
The land that's spied by men at oar

Gold rush
River gush
The hope that lies on distant shores

Revolutions
Bold solutions
Reaching for the sky

America
Who never stops
Who will never cease to try...

She calls to me
Like a siren of lore

be brilliant!
be brave!
Be something more.

She calls to me
She screams for me

And this time
For the first time...

I answer.
Poem, Writer's Wednesday!

Ode to Marching Band

AutumnB17
MHS Marching Band via MHS Music Parents Page

Warm, languid color swirls in eddies through the open air, hearts beating as one, breath strong and steady.

Music. Flowing, soft, growing in a grand crescendo that spirals up the melody, climbing up and up and up and up and…

silence.

Not a hair moves. The night buzzes with nothingness. Kids stand motionless, locked in place by the sure, guiding hands of the conductor. Lips glued to mouthpiece. Fingers frozen on keys and–a flick! Baton up!

Just a twitch, and the whole body breathes as one.

Then explodes.

A thousand notes, a thousand living and beautiful strokes of sound painted on the crisp night air, bellowing in an organized cacophony. Pounding drums, bopping trumpets, smooth mellophone, staccato flute, sultry saxophone; it goes on and on and on, lighting up the freezing black.

Does this not feel right? Parents and students tap their toes with a smile, hearts swelling with the music of a life, music that transcends the notes on the page or the brass of a bell. Souls ignite with the glint of metal under floodlights, unite in the joy of a tune played just right. Listen close–let it steal your breath.

The most thrilling sound in the world…

A band.

A symphony.

A masterpiece.

Poem

Buzz

AutumnB17 
Class begins with droopy eyes
Dreary skies
A premonition of bleak surprise--
A day like the one before

Words etched in bold chalk letter
Tighten the fetter
Students, uncaring as a crotchety old debtor--
Yawn and feign interest for life

The lecture sets forth with little preamble
An angst-dashed scramble
But one spark catches like wildfire to a bramble--
She raises her head from the desk

Terms that mean nothing begin to ignite
Molten and bright
Phrases smolder, flash like a floodlight--
Peppery heat fills her chest

Fingers extend from an aching fist
 A bewildering twist
Torches blazing through the frosty mist--
Passion beckoned forth from the soul

Cached away in a drab, dusty room
Knowledge heirloom
Hidden from her world by a festering gloom--
Urges her on through the fog

Erudition in a dose like a drug
Goading tug
Heart thundering like current in an active spark plug--
She wrenches her calling from the chalk

Students snore through the lesson then leave
Ever naive
But she hangs suspended without reprieve--
She has found the ultimate raison d’être

Interest piqued like never before,
Spiral and soar! ; 
One concept that brings her potential ashore--
A buzz she will chase for the rest of her life
Poem

Ancestors

AutumnB17 
It’s such a strange concept to ponder

Yet when my thoughts do wander

I often find myself thinking

Of the lives of those from yonder


Through time and space my mind does leap

Through valleys and mountains in an arcing sweep

And I think of my ancestors

Back in the past, through years so long and deep


I see through their eyes

I see what they have seen, I fantasize

That all these visions in my head

Aren’t just delusions that I actualize


Forests, endless, green and earthy

Loves and losses, their unique journey

I’ll never know if these visions hold any truth at all

How can I discover if my fantasies are seaworthy?


I lie awake, perturbed and restless

These endless qualms always leave me breathless

Because I will never know

And though my own time is so very precious,


I return time and time again, to them 

Those from which all of history will stem

Our ancestors, our past, our blood

And through all this mayhem


A truth emerges, a few things that are certain

Life is a grand stage in which we stand behind the curtain

And once it comes time to play our part

We play our role as we choose, putting our worth in


And those before us did exactly the same

They gazed at the moon through a slightly different frame

Watched our sun chart a course through the sky

And did all this under their own stage name


It’s such a strange concept to ponder

Yet when my thoughts do wander

I often find myself thinking

Of the lives of those from yonder


My ancestors

Your ancestors

Our ancestors
Poem

Tired

AutumnB17
Image from the NY Times
Tired never felt so real
My arms are made of lead and steel
I wake before the sun can rise
And fight off sleep with droopy eyes

Tired, that word doesn’t seem quite right
Exhausted lying awake at night
Grinning faces and cheery greetings
My mind slips as it suffers these beatings

Rest my head on stone and sigh
The world is singing a lullaby
Soft and sweet, an enticing dulcet
I strain not to listen, not just yet

At last the doors of home swing open
A single chance to put my hope in
That I could nap for just a minute
Glance through the window; the sky is sunlit

Regal cat and dopey dog
Dozing and dreaming like a log
My mind is so weighted, and yet
My thoughts spin in an endless roulette

Blissful sleep evades me once again
Twitter to the next task like a jittery wren
Clock ticks on and still I keep
This encroaching fatigue, ever to creep

Invade my spirit and dull my grin
Hold out hope that tonight I win
A precious hour without any toil
So my soul can rest from the heat of the broil

When the moon seizes the sky
And overhead constellations lie
I can listen to that lullaby I lust for
Drift ever closer to that deep, dark shore

Tired never felt so real
My arms are made of lead and steel
I woke before the sun could rise
Now I welcome sleep with grateful eyes
Poem

I never knew

AutumnB17 
I thought I’d seen so much
Until I saw it all

Used my youth as a crutch
So my ignorance would not fall

I never knew

I never knew

I never knew the world
In its endless, infinite sprawl.

Or 
So
 I 
thought...

I knew everything, deep down
Memories receded

I’d seen life and love and truth
In little moments, long retreated

I never knew the dawn

I never knew the night

I never knew the happiness 
Of watching stars fade into sunlight

But 
Now 
I 
Know…

Swimming beneath the velvety black
Dusk gives way to day

Glimmering, burning, glistening jewels
Fade in the sun’s first ray

I never knew the dark
I never knew the light

I never knew the sunrise
Until it made my follies die away

And 
I 
Could 
See…

Years are not what all men need
To triumph in wisdom and relish in life

For I am so young, and still
 I’ve seen my share of victory and strife

I collected little moments

I cached them in my thoughts

I knew all that I needed to know
An epiphany cut through me like a knife:

Daybreak
Dawn
Twilight
Night…

All joy and wisdom and meaning comes from 
These shared experiences
Of the human life
Beautiful galaxy viewed from Earth
Poem

I don’t know

AutumnB17
“We are what we believe we are.” -C.S Lewis
What is the meaning of life?
I don’t know.
Maybe happiness
Love
 Success
Charity
Giving and taking
Making something new
Watching ideas grow
Take shape
Transcend space 
and time
 and your own life...
I don’t know:
I’m much too young, aren’t I?

Why are we here?
I don’t know. 
Maybe for a purpose
Because life
 Evolved us into being
A higher power
A special role
A calling
A perfect passion designed for us
Another worker bee in a
Grand colony
Just to be 
and live 
and exist....
I don’t know:
I’m much too inexperienced, aren’t I?

Who are you to give advice?
I don’t know.
Maybe just a girl
Behind a computer
Typing the thoughts in her brain
Building worlds and characters into existence
Right there
On a little webpage
With a blinking cursor
Scrambling for inspiration
Wracking my brain
Make haste
and write
and build…
I don’t know:
I’m much too inarticulate, aren’t I?

What do these questions have in common?
I don’t know.
Maybe they’re special 
Because everyone
In the whole wide world
Has a different answer to each
A passion
A calling
A reason to be,
Live
and work
and breathe…
I don’t know:
I’m much too young for this, aren’t I?

What is the meaning of life?
Maybe mine is
To be happy
To be a writer
To make haste
To create 
To love and to hate
To exist in this cacophony 
and wait
and simply be…
I think so.

Why are we here?
Maybe I am here
To be an archaeologist
A microbiologist
An author
A soldier
A researcher
Historian
Zoologist
Astronomer
To find my passion 
and explore the world
and be fearless…
I think so.

Who am I to give advice?
…
I do know:
I am just a girl.
A speck in the infinite river of time
One bright star in a never-ending sky
An author
A poet
A musician
I give my two cents on life
and live
and laugh, because...
I do know something.
I know myself.

I’m a girl
A speck
A star in a beautiful,
gem-studded sky
I’m unique
and wonderful
and meant for great things...
I know so.