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

Things I learned in My Youth

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Poetry, Rhyming24 Comments

Maple trees are easiest to climb

Oak trees offer the grandest view

Willow trees are better to hide behind

If someone is looking for you

Love thy neighbor is always right

But lust is usually a sin

In a fight between a fist and a nose

The fist will always win

 

Don’t raise your hand just to impress a girl

If you don’t know the answer

Don’t take her to a hockey game

If you’re trying to romance her

We’ll keep in touch means it’s the end

Despite your good intentions

Because out of sight means out of mind

Due to inattention

The Past

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Poetry, Rhyming16 Comments

A loving place where I did once dwell

But will never be allowed to return

You are the spring that feeds the stories I tell

The keeper of the things that I have learned

Each step I take is filled with memories

From a life that I once knew

Every smell from flower and tree

Pulls my thoughts back to you

There in those backyards of my memories

I recall my pledge from so long ago

That I will remain open and free

And cling to youth and never let go

Reflection

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Poetry, Rhyming11 Comments

I look into the mirror and

Wonder who it is that I see

Those once youthful eyes now frosted

Staring back with maturity

There was a time I composed my

Own songs and sang them so proudly

I gave little care if I showed

The world the foolish side of me

My battle scars displayed smugly

From my war on conformity

 

Questioning every verdict and

Accepting nothing as issued

Loving strong and crying deeply

With all the appetites of youth

Those passions gained, sorrows and pain

I chewed them all with brandish tooth

Then spit them out into the world;

My words of honesty and truth

 

Perhaps I had the whole thing wrong

Or somewhere I just stop trying

I traded away my talents

For music easier to sing

I bartered my soul for comfort

Trying to ease life’s bitter sting

 

I look upon this furrowed face

Of adversity and trial

It’s not the ending but the chase

That has given this man his smile

 

So please do not lament for me

For I am happy with my plight

I look upon my history

And know that I have chosen right