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.)
