Author: Jerry Brotherton

I am The Backyard Poet and I warn you that, not only will I ramble on about nothing but, I have been known to stand upon my soapbox and rant about things I care nothing about just to hear the sound of my own voice. I will try to force my opinion upon anyone willing to pay the slightest attention.

To My Young and Innocent Jerry

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Free Verse, Poetry17 Comments

You are too impatient

In your eager search for the now

You’ve left no time for reflection

On ‘the once was’ or the ‘what will be’

I will tell you to slow down and enjoy the ride

I know you will not listen

You will not listen to anyone

Just stop trying so hard

Let us wear out our life

Listening to the wind in the trees

Feel the summer warmth on our face

Breathe the coolness of the evening

Hear the music of nature drifting across open meadows

Smell the intoxicating scent of wild flowers

Opening their souls to worship the morning sun

I know that in your rush to reach

What you believe to be success

You will ignore it all

Until you realize that it was not worth it

I pity your journey

Small Town Ennui

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Free Verse, Poetry15 Comments

Small towns slowly awaken with the rising dawn

Methodic rhythms of routine move you along

A care-free track of vague irrelevance

The setting sun tucks your life away

Into carefully maintained homes

The town slows to a heartbeat

The night lulls you to sleep

With a final sigh

You start to dream

Perhaps of

Something

More

Words of Freedom

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Poetry, Rhyming12 Comments

 

Some are unlike us in how they might act

How does that make them less of a person

You’re wrong, you’re fat, you’re ugly, you’re stupid

Our words can maim them worse than our weapons

 

So let’s use our words for good – not evil

I love you- you’re special – you’re beautiful

Words can help us see the good in people

A few kind words can make the day joyful

 

A few will try to silence our voices

But we must break free from hate and deceit

Let them know we’re free to make our own choices

Our future will not be defined by their drumbeat

 

Freedom does not mean we have to conform

Or be hated for voicing opinions

We’re not indebted to follow the norm

Or practice the popular religions

 

We call ourselves free but free we are not

We are slaves to current theology

Never grateful for the things that we’ve got

Instead, demanding an apology

 

We live in a country where leaders say

You are undesirable therefore flawed

Still I ask should not they be free to stay

Aren’t we all equal in the eyes of God

 

Our country is broken there is no doubt

To fix it we must all work together

First we must recall what freedom’s about

Stand united and strive for the better

 

There’s always something going on but nothing ever really happening

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Poetry, Rhyming6 Comments

When you hear me talk of revolution

And the changes that must take place

I mean, we need to find the solution

To put humanity back into the human race

 

We’re so quick to point our finger

When we see what’s happening in our land

We will let our anger boil and linger

While too afraid to extend our hand

 

We’ve let prejudice and violence

Through complacency become the norm’

But if we continue to stand alone in silence

Then we will surely perish in the storm

August 25th, 1973

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Free Verse, Poetry18 Comments

 

We watched the barefoot children in green yards dart through shadows, playing their childish games. We saw their innocents and we knew that…

They were not us

 

Through open doors and windows we saw them staring blankly at their flickering screens. They were sitting so close yet ignoring each other. Wishing…

They could be us

 

There was an old couple sitting on their front porch, fading from life. They smiled and waved, trying to remember a time when they knew…

How to be us

 

We pause for just a moment beneath the street lights glow, your hands in the pockets of my jeans and mine on your shoulders. Our souls touched and we were…

Happy to be us