• Skip to main content

Yak Max

Poetry Selections, By Frank Maduri

by yak max

I am pleased to share some selected poetry from my collection.

“Listening To The Wind”

It rattles the windows

It shakes the blinds

Its’ power grows and grows

While it seeks and finds –

The targets in its path

The wind howls and groans

It never sounds like a laugh

The wind gusts to own –

Anything in its way

Listening to the wind

On a sunny March day

Wondering when it will end

The house rattles

But continues to protect

With the wind it battles

A pile of old leaves collect

Trapped between the hedge and wall –

Near the front door

Listening to the wind call

It’s stronger than before

Listening to the quiet in between

Listening to nature’s peace

Taking a memory of the scene

Knowing it will soon cease

The wind, the quiet will end

The first rains of Spring will descend

“Yellow Bus”

Waiting for the yellow bus to come

Was how I spent many mornings

In my youth, slogging off to school

Waiting for the bus to drop me off

Most days I couldn’t wait to just get home

After a long day and a long bus ride

I recalled all of that today as

I waited for the yellow bus –

To drop off some children after school

The driver closed the door and flipped –

The switch to retract the “Stop” sign

On the side panel, and I drove on

Through the quiet neighborhood now

Filled with children walking home

With their 50 pound backpacks bulging

I remember the weight of my textbooks

Most of these kids are smiling

With the knowledge that they’re

Free for the afternoon – its 2:30

I remember afternoon snacks with

My mother and sisters – and think

These kids will be doing the same

If their parents aren’t both working

But I see the smiles and the strides

Of children, teens, that know that

Their life is ahead of them and that

They have limitless potential to do good deeds in the world

“One Day to the Next”

One day I could feel great

The next day could totally deflate –

My mood, my optimism will shift

I’ll find that I need a lift

A boost to feel better

Back to being a go getter

One day I could feel sad

The next day I no longer feel bad

I wake up and feel okay

Ready to conquer the day

I think of the day before

Wonder why I felt so poor

I don’t know why this occurs

The line between sad and happy blurs

Maybe it’s human nature

To forget what’s happened before

So now on the sad days I think –

Tomorrow all these feelings will shrink

I’ll no longer feel vexed

It all changes one day to the next

“Sunlight”

Sunlight through the window so nice

Sunlight in my love’s beautiful hair

So much sunlight it can suffice

For all of us waiting there –

For it to come out of Winter’s cold

To illuminate the sky all around

Escape the gloom, a contrast so bold

Sunlight melts the snow on the ground

Sunlight comes to brighten our days

Sunlight provides for more productive ways

But days like these, I lay here in bed

Watch as its glow brightens my surroundings

Feel the warmth to my soul that it brings

“Two O’Clock”

Time passes so quickly

One winter’s day becomes –

A winter’s day the following year

You think of a special occasion

Then look back at the pictures

When you realize it was four years –

Ago and it doesn’t seem possible –

That four years went by so fast

High school was the same duration –

Yet seemed to go by so slow

Each day while driving, writing

Or doing something else you realize

Its two o’clock and those hours –

Have blown by, another 24 hours gone –

Before you know it, it’s the next day

Its two o’clock, the Sun is glowing

And you’re trying to figure out

What you did with the time

The precious time that’s elapsed

Spent, used, gone, and never returning

You realize that the world moves on –

Just fine whether you are there or not

The Sun rises, the birds chirp, dogs bark

You intend to make use of this time

Before it is two o’clock again, except –

It’s a March day three years from now

And all that’s changed is your hair is going gray

“Somewhere Beyond”

Somewhere beyond all the lights and cars

Somewhere beyond all the stores and bars

There is a place of desolation and peace

Where all the noise and chaos will cease

Somewhere beyond all the hurt and pain

Somewhere beyond all the clouds and rain

There is a place of happiness and light

There is a place where wrong will be made right

Somewhere beyond the trains and highways

Somewhere beyond the traffic and industrial haze

There is a place of comfort and rest

There is a place not for the rich but the lest –

Of all in this world of disorder and strife

Somewhere beyond when we leave this life.

“Bizzaro Land”

The constant noise of a cell phone chime

The continuous stream of e-mail

Every single day, it’s there, without fail

People racing around, never enough time

Endless threads of texts, phone calls

It’s enough to send you bouncing off walls

Cyber-attacks, viruses, hackers, malware

Stepping back from the Bizzaro Land we’re in

So much information your head will spin

My older relatives feel for us it’s unfair

Work-life balance no longer exists

Instead, we just make more lists

It’s Bizzaro Land, I don’t know where it’s going

All I see is that the chaos is growing

“Small Things”

A hug, a gentle word, a smile

Such simple gestures, such small things

Can really go the extra mile

To some such joy and hope it brings

A quick hello, a wave from your car

Can really go a long way

You never know just how far

To turn around another’s day

These small things we take for granted

Our lives, so hectic, we forget

Our society has become disenchanted

We have forgotten how to let –

Other people in and to look out for others

It is there in our actions, our mood

To treat them as sisters and brothers

But there’s still time to do good

For those who might be lost

Their lives in a tail spin

The world has them tumbled and tossed

The small things can make them grin

That two minutes you could spend –

Can make a huge difference in the end

Those small things can make one laugh, not cry

Could make someone want to live and not die

“Piling Up”

The excuses are piling up

It’s not our business to get involved

The anger is piling up

By people all over the world

The death toll is piling up

In Syria, the C.A.R., South Sudan

The rage is piling up

Over the injustice of tyranny

The sadness is piling up

Over the hopelessness we all feel

The dead bodies are piling up

Every time I turn on the news

The numbers keep piling up

Of girls kidnapped in Nigeria

The frustration is piling up

As the U.S., the West does nothing

The evil is piling up

Everywhere it seems these days

My prayers are piling up

That peace will prevail, justice will reign

My hope is piling up

That the Lord will intercede for goodness

My confidence is piling up

Because I know He can heal all things

“Then & Now”

The pain of your loss still so profound

You took your job as a mother to heart

Still adjusting because you’re not around

Sometimes it’s still so hard to be apart

Mom, I think of you each night and day

The rest of the family does too

You loved us all in a special way

Did you know how much we loved you?

Then, in my childhood, you did it all for me

Though I didn’t always understand

It took getting older for me to see

You made holidays, birthdays so grand

Now, things have adapted and changed

Life has a way of moving ahead

Special days, special times are rearranged

Other days I felt so sad, I laid in bed

Now, to the Blessed Mother I sit and pray

Each day I live to make you proud

I wish back then I could stay

Watching basketball with you, cheering loud

Now, I’m grateful for your faith when I’m at Mass

You taught me all about God, the Blessed Trinity

You always handled things with class

Now I know you’re always with me

I’ll live each day the way you taught –

Me how to, with strength and integrity

Against injustice, dishonesty I have fought.

For those with less than I, to show generosity

I’ll live that way, until I see you again.

Holy Virgin Mary, at Church, before your statue I bow

I pray for my Mom, she was a great mother then –

I miss her. Blessed Mother Mary, you’ll be my Mother now.

“Need for Change”

I passed them sleeping on the curb

Along Seventh Avenue in New York City

I felt a pit in my stomach

The homeless upset me so much

Because it should not exist in society

There is a need for change

And it won’t come easily

Because it is unpopular among politicians

Because it won’t earn them votes –

Or campaign donations from some lobbyist

A mother yells at her children in the street

Saying that when they get home

That “Daddy is really going to give it to them”

We need peace in our families

There is a need for change

To homes of more tranquility and respect

I watch as white people look uneasy

Around the various other ethnicities

Which surround them in a Midtown street

There is a need for change

For people to be tolerant and care for one another

Even if they don’t look, talk, or act like they do

I watch as the cars honk and –

The drivers scream and curse each other

Each car in a slow crawl but –

In a blood-letting rage

Over a few feet of asphalt

There is a need for change

To focus on the needs of others

Not on who should go first at –

A busy intersection and not screaming

And cursing in front of children

A store broadcasts the financial news

Legions of people watching numbers

More numbers and data flash across

The screen – organized chaos, worship

Of money and exultation of greed

There is a need for change

A society that should care more

About the improper ways it conducts

Itself. About children starving here

In Manhattan. That every eight seconds

Another child dies in Africa. That

Every 22 minutes a girl is raped in India

We need to become more connected

Instead we are all so lost

There is a need for change all around me

There is a need for change within myself

I need to do more to help others

Instead of watching and doing nothing

There is a need for change

“Fair Melody”

Every few days I walk alone

God’s beautiful creations around me shown

I walk in a quiet neighborhood

The Sun on my face feels so good

I walk down a dead end street

The asphalt is hard on my feet

This one home I always pass

Has the most lush, well groomed grass

Another home has 4 cars in the driveway

Yet another faces a park – where children play

Each time I walk without fail

I see the bird with a bright red tail

Each time I go, cloudy or bright –

I hear the young couple in #26 fight

Each time I go, not a moment too soon

I hear from house #12 a glorious tune –

A piano plays, today I know that score

It’s Mozart Piano Concerto Number 24

The soundtrack to that day, that street

Until next week – when again we meet.

“Three Words”

A few words with so much power

A few words that are so inspiring

Are spoken each day no matter the hour

Three words: “We Are Hiring”

Can and will change someone’s life

It’s amazing but it’s true

A few words between husband and wife

Just three words: “I Love You”

Could send you into the world soaring

A few words can leave you so reassured

Could leave you with emotions flowing

Just three words: “You are cured”

Will restore all of your hopes and dreams

A few words usually just three –

Then the world isn’t as bad as it seems

It’s all it takes for us to be happy

Three words, when we’re down, feeling blue –

In need of boost back to the right way

It happened to me just the other day

Painted on the overpass, three words: “God Forgives You”

“Dusk on the Bay”

The train moved at a deliberate pace

I was thinking of another place –

Home, and how I would be there soon

After another long, humid afternoon –

On the Manhattan streets dodging cars

And rush hour crowds flocking to stores and bars

I needed to escape this chaos and frustration

So I quickly got the express train at Penn Station

I’ll be home in an hour, an hour and ten at the most

As the train heads down the New Jersey coast

Across from me a guy was on his phone yelling like a jerk

But thankfully he exited the train early, at Newark

The train was crowded, it’s that time of the day

But many people got off at Linden and Rahway

Now we were heading out of Woodbridge

A lady behind me on the phone, a problem with her fridge

Then, it was quiet except for a squeaky door

I watched a Snickers wrapper roll across the floor

We came around a bend, dusk on the Bay

It was the perfect end to a hectic sunny day

The Sun fading in a cascade of blue and red

No words could justly describe it or be said

The water below reflecting the glowing Sun

I was reflecting on everything I had done –

To put me there at that precise moment

It was truly Heaven sent

The train slowed as if to take it in

And then the wheels began to spin

We headed down as the Sun did too

To enter the dark from a sky once blue

Through the humidity, through the Amboys

The train would gather both speed and noise

I would eventually get home, have dinner with my wife

Thankful for this day and all the blessings in my life

(Frank J. Maduri is a freelance writer with publishing credits for a variety of websites and news organizations. He has written hundreds of poems and served as a judge of a national poetry contest. Some of his work has been critically reviewed and acclaimed. He is currently working on a novella and a canto length collection of poetry. His chapbook length poetry collection entitled “The Promise of Tomorrow” will be published later this year.)

Related

  • Introduce Kids to Poetry During National Poetry Month
  • Baseball Gems: Five of the Greatest First Round Draft Selections by the Atlanta Braves
  • Harrah’s AC Atlantic City Casino and Hotel Has Three Restaurant Selections
  • The Four Seasons Las Vegas Hotel Has Two Restaurant Selections
  • The Green Valley Ranch Resort Hotel Has 3 Restaurant Selections
  • Wide Receivers Dominate 2014 First-Round Draft Selections of the NFC South
Previous Post: « Investing In Comic Books #325
Next Post: Microsoft Would Love to Show You Just How Easy It Is To Switch To Windows Phone 8 »

© 2021 Yak Max · Contact · Privacy