Poetry Collection

Faculty and Staff

Complete Poems

2015

5th Annual Poetry Contest

Central Georgia Technical College

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Faculty and Staff HAIKU Sabina Alexander Seppuku ………………………………..………………………………………...1 Milton Bentley Confused ….……………...……….……………………………………………..1 Christina Cannon A New Dawn ……………………...……...…………………………….……….1 Christina Cannon Sakura ……………………………………………..………….………….………2 Anita Dailey Cherry Blossom ………………………………………………...………………2 Anita Dailey Joy …………………………………………………………...…….……………2 Wanda Haynes Family Tree …………………………………………………………..…………3 Wanda Haynes Something I Looked For …….……………...………………………………....…3 Kimberly Hicks-Grable Cold Raindrops …………………………...………..………….….……………..3 Ernest Jolly, Jr. Listening ……………………………………………………..…………………4 Ernest Jolly, Jr. Surprise ...…………..…..……………………………………..……….…………4 Pamela Lukat Unconditional Love ……………….……………………………...…….………..4

Marinda Martin Sunrise Games ……………………………………..….….……………..………5 Marinda Martin The Destructive Friend………………………………..…..……………..………5 Caroline Samples In a Movie Theater Parking Lot …………………….…….…..…………………5 Steve Starks My Mother the Star…………………….……………………..…….……………6 Glen Stone Autism ...……………………………………………….…………...…..………6 Glen Stone

Binary..………………………………………………………..……….…………6 Simone Williams Color Me Domestically………………………………………..…………………7 Faculty and Staff FREE VERSE POEMS Sabina Alexander Medicated …………………………………………………….…………………8 Milton Bentley Wave of Technology ………….…………………………………………………9 Belle Bush In the Celerity of a Moment ………..……………………..………………….…10 Belle Bush Shadow Dancing ………..……………………..………………….………….…11 Shabrea Davis Fear ………….…………………………………………………………………12 Tamekia Goodroe Obstacles …………………………………………………………...…….…… 13

Kimberly Hicks-Grable Blinded By You …………………………………………..………………….…14 Jeremiah Johnson Ancestry………………………………………………………………...………15 Jeremiah Johnson Rules to Live By (or “Rules By Which To Live”) ………………………………16 Wayne Lockwood My Best Friend Come To See Me … …………………………..…………….…17 Wayne Lockwood Somber Shelter ………….…………………………………………………….18 Caroline Samples The Importance of Red ………….…………………………………………….19 Steve Starks May I Hear The Words ………………….………………………………..……20 Debbie Waugh I Am Exuberant …………………………..…………………………...…….…21 Simone Williams The Uprising………………………………………..…………………...………22 Sheila Willis Songs ………….………………………………………………………….……23 Acknowledgements …………………….……………………………...…………..24

1

Seppuku

Tumultuously

Crimson tides are blood and blade

Slashed against life’s shore.

Sabina Alexander

Confused?

Making decisions

It’s difficult for us all,

But the choice is yours.

Milton Bentley

A New Dawn

Deeper than midnight

Starlight is hidden from view—

But here comes the sun.

Christina Cannon

2

Sakura

Blossoms fluttering

The petals of pink fragrance—

Rain down on pathways.

Christina Cannon

Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossoms pink

Cotton candy, lite as air

Springtime in Macon.

Anita Dailey

Joy

Joy, best gift ever

Given from our God above

Unmeasurable.

Anita Dailey

3

Family Tree

From centuries past

This man is my family

By blood, I belong.

Wanda Haynes

Something I Looked For

Her old, tattered wreath

Simple and humble it was

Christmas it announced.

Wanda Haynes

Cold Raindrops

The first cold raindrop even the old woman seems

to want my raincoat.

Kimberly Hicks-Grable

4

Listening

Talking and Singing

While dripping, dripping, dripping.

Radio and Rain.

Ernest Jolly, Jr.

Surprise

Oh no! leaves falling

And fall has been here and gone.

Must be Texas oak!

Ernest Jolly, Jr.

Unconditional Love

Small, loyal, handsome

Devoted, companion is

My Yorkie “Winston.”

Pamela Lukat

5

Sunrise Games

Barefoot and wide-eyed,

We creep as lightly as dew,

Hiding and seeking.

Marinda Martin

The Destructive Friend

Tufts of pure cotton, Like fresh snow, float to the floor.

The dog’s in trouble.

Marinda Martin

In a Movie Theater Parking Lot

A lunar moth’s thin

green wings melt on wet cement—

a shimmering death.

Caroline Samples

6

My Mother the Star

Basic elements,

Hydrogen, helium, all,

My mother the star.

Steve Starks

Autism

Life in the spectrum

Inputs overwhelm, confuse

Understand me, please.

Glen Stone

Binary

I was a zero

Rising to five volts, I’m on

Now, I am the one.

Glen Stone

7

Color Me Domestically

Red, purple, black, blue…

Here lies a battered woman,

Violence ensued.

Simone Williams

8

Medicated

Agitated

Luciferous

Psychotic

Restless

Afraid

Zombified

Overwhelmed

Labeled

Anxious

Me

Sabina Alexander

9

Wave of Technology

Email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Text,

No more phone calls or voice messages, so what’s next?

The future was just yesterday, but presently it’s today.

Few are savvy about any of this, just learning the way.

Living today in an ever-changing technological age

Causes some citizens to squawk in moments of rage.

It’s difficult to keep up with all the changes

Since all our ages extend in various ranges.

There’s no turning back as we hop on board.

Being left behind, that we surely can’t afford.

Times are a’ changing; we’d better not be left out.

It’s smarter to stay abreast and give all we got.

Milton Bentley

10

In the celerity

Of a moment

Life can pirouette Without reason

You assume

You have time

An abundance of Seasons

Then considerations

Shift

And you concede You’re adrift

And in the

Breadth of

An instant

Hearts become

Broken

Promises just Tokens

And our

Countenance leaves Disheartened

Silhouettes

Belle Bush

11

Shadow Dancing

I cannot remove

Every trace of you

Nor do I want to

Though some

Might say I

Should

But there are

Psychic reminders

As well as

Physical “Ohs!”

Always something

Lurking

To haunt me

But the healing

Is in the

Aching

And I’ve no wishes

To forget

No regrets –

Least not where

You are concerned

So I am

Periodically ambushed

And a memory rolls

Down my cheek

And I feel

A familiar tug

In my chest

As your shadow

Dances across

My soul

Belle Bush

12

Fear A reaction so sudden

Hindrance of the unknown

What a devastating twist it would be?

To fall upon your knees

Giving up is much easier

To triumph puts your soul to rest

Like lying in an empty nest

Afraid to take on the test

You’re the only one in your way

You may fall

Get right up

When people tell you there’s no way out

You prove to yourself that without a doubt

That nothing can stand in your way

Nothing controls your ability to stay

Unafraid or tempted to go astray

Go after everything you know would pave your way

Your time is near

But you will never go anywhere in life

Because of fear.

Shabrea Davis

13

Obstacles I trusted God through it all. The pain, hurt, sorrow and tears. Through it all he made it worth the ride.

Tamekia Goodroe

14

Blinded By You Do you love me?

Tell me now.

Your actions don’t show it.

You don’t know or perhaps you do...

that I live, breathe, and function in the daze-haze of you.

No longer will I behave like this.

Walking around in your fog…

With a set of brand new glasses…I choose to see you.

Clearly, with a bright light,

On this day, I uncover you.

My visibility is at 100 percent.

Tormented, I am no more.

Kimberly Hicks-Grable

15

Ancestry A lottery of skin is an ancestry

Southern Gothic sandy creek beds and black water

Turning, tangled amid Spanish mossy post oaks

Where to survive was to conquer

Over the plow heads in forgotten tarns

Over sisal fiber ropes from 200 year old trees

Over fence line and catch dog disputes

Over the worms and polio, and living water and fire

Men seethed their callous imagination

Sweated it in the porous earth, and mostly missed

Teeth, ears, eyes, or fingers—disfigured by

A responsibility to maintain a family and stead

On down the winding buck and rattlesnake path

A lucky stand of tenant farmers got gravestones.

Victory upon another home—one of 12 children survived.

Yet again: a mother’s Christmas supper made from flour and lard.

But the jackpot belonged to men who made their minds

To follow a mule across a field

Until angel-eyed Death afforded them rest

Our ancestors were deities ruling over dust

Smacking empty gums, searching for tree-bored rounds

That passed through the feral dogs with which they contended

In the tombola of flesh, only the sacred survived

To contribute to the great mystery.

Jeremiah Johnson

16

Rules To Live By (or “Rules By Which To Live”) Rules to Live By boggle the mind,

As if the brain was but an onion;

Classifying stacks of practical actions

Doesn’t peg the normal function:

Somebody told me “don’t do drugs,”

But Granddaddy told me that in 1970

Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter

Tripping on LSD…the exception, obviously—

Experiments often yield awesome results.

Somebody said “stand for what you believe,”

But even a band called Rage Against the Machine

Sold its songs to Walt Disney World—the exception?

Just take the money.

Somebody told me “read until you’re wise,”

But I found a stack of lies, and despite

T.S. Eliot, I planned my wedding for April.

Perhaps just living like a character’s the ticket.

Darwin inclined we must be varied,

Have an attribute, and feel lust for that;

Natural selection will be worth the wait

To see which of the fittest

Admits to following rules.

Jeremiah Johnson

17

My Best Friend Come To See Me

My best friend come to see me. It's been a while since he's been here.

With laughter and a story. It's nice to hang and share.

We begin to talk of yester-years. How wonderful it was back then.

Today it's just a blur. Tomorrow gone again.

Each day I seem to struggle.

Remember those things I love. A face I can’t remember.

My best friend growing up?

We talked what seems for hours. Reminisce of things we've done.

Like fishing he exaggerates. We’re laughing having fun

As I struggle to remember Something caught my eye. He must be leaving soon.

For he waves at me goodbye.

I think it's time to rest. I'm tired and feeling weak. As I put away the mirror. Slowly drift off into sleep.

I'll talk to you tomorrow.

My friend whose name escapes. Maybe then I will remember.

Your name when I awake.

Wayne Lockwood

In memory of “Grandma” Alice Davenport

18

Somber Shelter

Day soon grows wiry Sky light change to amber fade

Defend from dark night

Walk the shadowed path In search of somber shelter

Night will soon be here

Humble and alone Echo sounds of night appear

Whispers, dark, and cold

Water, wind, and voice Stirring sounds of noise at night

Smells of day’s refuse

Faint, drowsy, and weak Gathering close on red brick

Closing eyes to night

A simple shelter Break from the wind, ease of depth

Sooth a jagged soul

Cloth swathed around him Old newspaper fights harsh chill

Bitter yet it seems

Keep one eye watchful Fear he will not wake swiftly

Drift into light sleep

Night shall pass to day Shadows fade to a new dawn

Vagabond of life

Wayne Lockwood

19

The Importance of Red

To be red as swollen lips, as a long silk dress. Not the soft purple of love, some wasted bruise—

To be gunfire, the powder flash

before the bullet leaves its chamber. The static spark of a charged finger on metal—

To be a blood moon,

or the veil it casts on dry stalks and wet newborn calves—

To be red—

I dyed my hair. To be a tongue, raw and unafraid of speech—

One crimson streak behind my ear.

Caroline Samples

20

May I Hear The Words

When I consider all the Lord doth give,

When I think of His love and His grace.

May I live as He would want me to live,

May I be found worthy to see His face.

When I come up short and I stumble and fall,

When I on my own I can no longer proceed.

May I be lifted and strengthened to give my all,

May I be blessed to fulfill Thy smallest deed.

When I have come to the end of my days,

When I have given my all and I am done.

May I be brought to stand before Thy gaze,

May I hear the words “My child, well done.”

Steve Starks

21

I am exuberant.

The long, cold, dreary winter ends for now;

Stunning in his blueness, a male bird daily flits and flutters outside my kitchen window as if waiting for Godot.

From the pond my granddaughter scoops up slimy evidence

Of rackety frogs and nightly orgies.

Tiny wisps of green emerge unabashedly from brown-clodded soil

As chickens, sending out random pterodactyl messages,

Rush to devour ghostly mammoth worms unearthed by heavy rains;

Light replaces dark, and I am born again.

Debbie Waugh

22

The Uprising

On street corners, in cell blocks, in classrooms the stench of rotting dreams and failed

attempts of a once royal people have been crushed by money, or the lack there of.

They say money is the root of all evil, well I can tell.

A young man forced into the streets to survive, No mom at home and his dad is long gone,

forced so early to be a man, he gladly welcomed a pistol that a gang leader was more than

willing to place in his hand.

He examined it and felt the cold and lifeless steel caress his flesh.

This represented his heart on the day he became a new man.

Standing outside the corner store by the ice, the gang leader pointed and said, “You, take

that life.”

Pow! Pow! Two shots to the head, and some man’s wife was dead.

The young man stood frozen in time because he could not believe that act he had just

committed and moments later, he was carried away only to rot in prison for the rest of his days.

A smart, talented, beautiful, young woman who came from little and now has even less, so at

night she lays her head down to rest, no not in her own bed, but in the bed of a stranger.

He keeps a roof over her head and her closed mouth fed, just so he can make money by

placing her in a another man’s bed.

She suffers in silence because she fears the violence he is capable of, and to leave almost

certainly means death on the streets.

A line a night is what keeps her sane as she makes her money so her living won’t be in vain.

Welfare, social security, food stamps and more, but there can never be enough for the poor

black.

Don’t fault us for what we can’t control after all, you placed us in this black hole.

Fumbling around in the dark with no guidance and no relief, I say give us a light, or must we

continue to remain in darkness before we gain our true freedom?

It’s time for the uprising of our young people.

Simone Williams

23

Songs

I once read that human life is precious,

so handle it with prayer, ...

but far too often we handle boxes

with much, much greater care!

Many believe very passionately that we all need love,

but far too often, we haphazardly mistreat others

in its simplest form--

by not making eye contact when we pass one another,

or not caring for all other forms of animals,

including dainty, dreamy doves.

Some find comfort in the form of pure lyrics-

While believers find comfort with nature

...then nurtures

Bees that buzz and birds that chirp

Some of the sounds of God's small creatures.

Let's never forget to forward a little gesture of kindness

every day in the form of a smile (which is a song)

The purest form of charity that everyone needs

in our infinite hope chest!

Sheila Willis

24

Acknowledgements

The Library staff at Central Georgia Technical College would like to express our

sincere appreciation for the generous assistance provided by the following

departments in making the poetry contest and celebration day a success:

Central Georgia Technical College Foundation

Campus Life Office, Central Georgia Technical College

English Faculty, General Education, Central Georgia Technical College

Marketing and Public Relations, Central Georgia Technical College

Economic Development office, Central Georgia Technical College

Student Affairs Office, Central Georgia Technical College

Academic Affairs Office, Central Georgia Technical College

And a special thank you to all of the students, faculty and staff who submitted haiku

and free verse poems to the contest. We appreciate your interest, creativity, and

enthusiasm.

As set forth in its student catalog, Central Georgia Technical College (CGTC) does

not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, gender,

religion, disability, age, political affiliation or belief, genetic information, veteran

status, or citizenship status (except in those special circumstances permitted or

mandated by law). The following person has been designated to handle inquiries

regarding the non-discrimination policies:

The Title IX/Section 504/ADA Coordinator for CGTC nondiscrimination policies is

Cathy Johnson, Executive Director of Conduct, Appeals & Compliance; Room A-136, 80 Cohen Walker Drive, Warner Robins, GA 31008; Phone: (478) 218-3309; Fax: (478) 471-5197; Email: cajohnson@centralgatech.edu.