Ward Stories: winter poetry

NEW YORK CITYVOICES: Winter 2005

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Ward Stories
Cindy Sostchen, Poetry Editor
A happy, healthy new year to all. May 2005 be a time for coming 
together in peace. While the weather outside may be wintry and 
blustery, three of these poems will warm the cockles of your heart 
(I don't know what cockles are, but I'm certain these poems will 
warm them) and the last one will tickle your post-Christmas funny 
bone. I dedicate this first column of the year to those who, as 
Peggy Symons says, "walk in quiet courage," everyday of the year. 
That means us!

VOICES
By Peggy J. Symons

They steal in on airways,
Reserved for what is real,
Make my thoughts all frightened slaves,
And twist the way I feel.

They'll never walk away with me,
or steal what I love,
they'll never snatch away my key,
to God and human love.

So, I walk in quiet courage
As all around me spins,
And come to know the strength I wage,
I know what's real wins.

 
AUTUMN EVENING IN THE VILLAGE
By Lynn Morton

Stopping in a Russian place
Boiled cabbage-steam warms your face
And coffee cures the icy wounds
That mankind's teeth have torn

Rain-soaked shoes on city streets
Running home to come-stained sheets
And comfort
of the fusion
You need to feel reborn

THE HUMAN BIRD
By Richard Paul Schmonsees

I try to rest in peace.
A six pack of Smirnoff
9 mg. of Risperdol
10 mg. of Flupenazine and 
1296 mg. of aspirin no more.
Outside my life, rainy sevens.
I masturbate and fall
down a dream ladder
Crazy eights.
My dreams were filmic
Now night.
The content of sleepwalking
Talking in my sleep
Telepathic whispering
I wake exhausted
as if I worked all night
my head blank.
I'm ripped like a burnt
meteor
A human nightingale
serenades me before dawn.

THE FIVE DAYS AT CREEDMORE
(Sung to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas")
By Leonard S. Hall
On the first day of Christmas, Creedmore gave to me: a Cogentin.
On the second day of Christmas, Creedmore gave to me: two 
Haldols, and a Cogentin.
On the third day of Christmas, Creedmore gave to me: three Mellarils, 
two Haldols, and a Cogentin.
On the fourth day of Christmas, Creedmore gave to me: four Thorazines, 
three Mellarils, two Haldols and a Cogentin.
On the fifth day of Christmas, Creedmore gave to me: five seclusion 
rooms, four Thorazines, three Mellarils, two Haldols, and a Cogentin.

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Return to: NYC Voices Home - Winter 2005 Voices