Compilation of short poems into an ode depicting life experiences and thoughts

Ode to the World

When I ponder you sometimes during the day
I think perhaps there might be a way
To burrow under your barricade
Survey your heart and how it’s made
I might discover why you presume
The things you only assume
With lies from nickel editions of Wild Bill Hickok
You create slaves around the clock
Riches decide your wrong and right
Broad is the way that leads to your night
Then fearful of the world you’ve made
You shun light for darkest shade
Respectable attire cloaks your forgeries
Manicured images conceal your maladies
As the needy end up in jail
Your head becomes the tail
There’s no antidote for your sorrow
No hope for your tomorrow
With conditional love you erase
The dignity of the human race
You bring famine where abundance lies
Instead of joy, dark sunken eyes
You highlight opinions you desire most
Flaws you chain to the whipping post
No way to determine by first glance
For infatuation changes with circumstance
Hang no hat on maybe, don’t simply guess
You can’t witness the love you don’t posses
Like a neophyte climber who struggles uphill
You slip and fall for lack of skill
Hidden in a thicket none can see
Your honey converts to gall so bitterly
Into your hive a wandering wasp has crept
Sucked up the honey which within was kept
In smoky ranks of smothered light
Death looms sure, rank and bloated white
Discern this matter turning blue
Time has come to change the view
Won’t be maneuvered, can’t be misled
Not going with you, but elsewhere instead
I set sail in my sturdy craft of prose
Seek distant shores where nobody goes
There I spin a tale for hours
Amid the scent of springtime flowers
Lone across untold seas I gaze
To see what I may see to so appraise
There I perch and search so endlessly
Explore mortality and what may be
I search out love of hearts and more
From present day to ancient yore
In still of night, during fervent day
I puncture solitude in this way
Then with rhyming verse composed
I head for another land of indisposed
I walk the meadow out my back door
Past a knoll to the river’s shore
There I tarry, serve my time
In fleeting prison, love my only crime
Stars my heaven, night my hell
Passion my invisible cell
And yet do I dare to think so
Through strongholds I dare to go
I climb the naked fence
That spans the thunderous silence
Where two hearts apart give no ease
And eyes are blinded by boundless seas
I climb volcanoes of the past
To horizons restored at last
Fiery lava smolders deep inside
Spewing flames I can no longer hide
Streams flow to oceans with melody of birds
Faith is found in the fewest of words
Faith has its source like the tiny spring
Love is love to a beggar as to a king
Even a beggar dreams of keeping house
In the largest castle lives a tiny mouse
You can color me a beggar, I seek not to kings
For the greater the man the greater the things
That beget him honor or beget him hate
For greatest mishaps wait on heads of state
Why with passing hours do I not glance aside?
What incites my pen to so abide?
There’s more love concealed behind my eyes
Than all the rhyme I can ever devise
Like an alpine stream that feeds a dale
Gush these rhymes to interpret my tale
I consider myself a fine brave, slightly misunderstood
Underestimated deep in the woods like Robin Hood
So shall this love to you belong
For this right I myself will bear the wrong
Sweet love remembered such wealth brings
So I have no need to live with kings
Both the beggar and king make their plea
I pray the Good Lord send wings to me
For an eagle is spotted by every eye
But gnats are unnoted wherever they fly
Wonder where I’m at? Let me tell you today
I wander the earth as time slips away
I wonder what to do, where to go
I write poetry, well, now you know
Rhymes flow infinitely, they never abate
Because love flows forever, even while I wait
Should I seal love off, learn to hate
Feel haughty, search another state
No, that’s not the answer; I’ll do what’s right
Do what I should, fight the good fight
Love feels good, deeper that an ocean sky
It’s the reason for poems, the very reason why
Who would let so fair a love slump into decay?
Against stormy gusts of winter’s day
You may dismiss my poem but an inept poet’s rage
To be disregarded and yellowed with age
Until dust reclaims what was before
Till what was once is no more
To be lost in untold seasons of change
And perpetual flux under the mountain range
Where grass is covered by morning haze
In quiet pastures where cows range to graze
While the spring moon hangs low
Seedlings struggle to grow
All they require is a little rain
Beneath roots must endure pain
Extend through rocks and clay
And other things in the way
Roots endure, grow ever strong
What once was short grows so long
Aloft branches soar so high
Higher and higher in the sky
And measure the progress they’ve made
By the weary who gather in their shade
Summer is lazy, the grass grows high
Heat is ablaze here in mid July
Long before the icy winds of winters sigh
Autumn reveals to swallows when to fly
Gray squirrels scamper, birds serenade in the timber
Leaves tinge with amber and gold in September
Winter delivers frost, an occasional squall
And pure white snowdrifts covering all
Follow my reflections to days gone by
When I counted the cost to live or die
In a river’s pool I spied my image small
Sat and dreamed of being so tall
In the wild I played and grew
Amid brilliant bloom make-believe dragons I’d subdue
I brushed forest branches along the winding trail
A thousand horses of wind hidden deep within my sail
I trod in hollows of mud and clay
Sat with masters of yesterday
I skirted the edge of heaven’s choir
Lured by passion, imprisoned by desire
Such a child born of blood and bone
Must be nurtured till it walks alone
Children in need cross the line
Their rivers are sewers in rapid decline
Bullfrogs boom from a distant plot
The one they didn’t turn into a parking lot
Bumper to bumper the rain forest shrinks
An infant inhales exhaust, from the river it drinks
Behind elite pillars the culpable hide
Laden with dead men’s bones inside
I rode across a flat, wearing a coat of iron gray
Defender of women and children, kept villains at bay
Rode through the field and into the wood
Just like I ought, doing what I should
Crossed a steep hill, watched the sun fade
Over a distant ridge through evening shade
The sun set in royal array
As it found the end of the day
Down the secret staircase it crept
To places my ancestors slept
In its season the daylight dies
In silent repose the shimmer lies
For a new dawn I raise my head
Exquisite in its pulse of new red
More certain than noonday clear
A new brilliance does always appear
To vanquish the darkness and fears
And dry my eyes of melancholy tears
Twilight gathers into a shining fleece
Assured that yesterday rests in peace
I remember things my eyes have seen
And the person I once had been
Gone is youth, stormy and brash
Amputated like a firefly’s flash
No one informed me of what it’s like to lose
To awaken to breakfast with the blues
No one bothered to tell me before
About heartbreak and what’s in store
In days gone by yarns were told
Of grotesque devils in days of old
Did they not grow faint and fall downright
Turn to blackness what once was light
Scorn persisted while mercy blushed with shame
Dragon’s breath squelched their loving flame
They had a lot going but for lack of wit
Made love of non-effect by neglecting it
Degradation closed their immortal eyes
They heeded only persistent lies
Perilous rocks, pirates and high seas
Defied attempts at soothing expertise
I rolled my insensitive eyeballs in my head
By their extreme treason my heart was misled
Confounded in a thousand worries
Such shadows were my heart’s forgeries
If I persisted on course to force my downfall
I’d have created a blemish all would recall
Assailed by a dragon that knew no gentle right
My iniquity continued to feed his foul appetite
So I lost my way and fell asleep
Like Rip Van Winkle into the deep
Oh me, what eyes love put in my head?
Made me see sorrow, forced me to see red
What may I pen for this tale of lost time?
But to capture beauty and add to beauty rhyme
My pledge to love is made of truth
Or do you think me some untutored youth
Do you think me black as hell or dark as night?
Consider me unfair or not too bright?
Through the years I’ve been here and there
Sold too cheap what’s most dear
But let not my love be labeled idolatry
Since all my poems praises be
For an inert idol has no power to show
To one, of one, still such, and ever so
I once found myself at a juncture parched and dry
With misguided convictions, my plans awry
I rode with outlaws along the Rio Grande
Around the world, across the heartland
Along the highways or into town
I wore with pride my crooked crown
I pillaged in shadows along the wall
Hid in places where reptiles crawl
I plugged my ears from endless screams
That echoed back from my raging schemes
Now I know there’s a reason leaves decay
And why streams and infantrymen run away
I found such misery common to many
But without love never relieved by any
I longed to rejuvenate with bidding meek
Bequeath remorse a dark discolored cheek
Prayed my misdeeds be wiped away
Petitioned the potter to reshape my clay
Like a bankrupt beggar who proclaims his case
Flesh being proud was rescued by grace
A swallow flew overhead, landed on a branch to pause
The breeze grew gentler, no trace of what once was
It was a strenuous task to catch that gear
To snare the courage that blots out fear
While dragon’s fire increased unchecked
And menacing warriors stood bedecked
With brazen weapons flaunted high
Gleaming and shimmering against the sky
My knees grew weak, far from steady
In the shadows the reaper stood ready
Waiting to see if I’d go astray
So he could take me down the other way
As a mere mortal fashioned from clays
I hankered and lamented all of those days
I crept and faltered on the narrow path
Trying to elude the reaper’s wrath
While illusions of every shape swirled about the room
Things that offer a taste of hope but deliver doom
Life appeared so authentic down here below
As it did to those before us so very long ago
Every soul must manifest, and then forcibly leave
Each according to the bill they receive
I ran to the forest, birds sang in the trees
They had no doctors, yet sang with such ease
I explored creation, infinity left me dazed
Like a leaf in the ocean with its anchor raised
As I watch this hapless world decay
This ignoble desperado stoops to pray
Like a hostage beneath a canopy of stars I yield
To the monarch of grandeur so skillfully concealed
I arise from ashes, from fury of dogs
From greed, from envy, from gluttonous hogs
Freed from anger, freed from strife
Out of darkness towards spiritual life
I search the universe to be free
Find no greater love than Calvary
Though my words be outstripped by every pen
Never a greater lived among the likes of men
I know He will conquer, encompass all
The meek will inherit, imitations will fall
Can’t look back, even this moment won’t stay
The judgment seat of tomorrow is the choice I make today
Discretion defers anger, keeps pitfalls in hand
With wisdom and knowledge the darkness command
The currents of stars are under control
Of those that acknowledge the depths of the soul
In courtesy I speak with this pen I yield
Rebuke is better than love carefully concealed
Love never waivers, it only grows
It places a one in front of the zeroes
Asserts itself mighty, becomes so strong
Love bears all, suffers long
Thrives beyond pretense, dwells in Zion
Stands guard at the gate bold as a lion
When horsemen encircle me with daggers in their eyes
And I’m about to be a carcass eaten by flies
When the sword is drawn, above my head it’s raised
It’s as good a time as any for the Lord to be praised
Now my love, if you pause to search heaven for a clue
In the time it takes I’ll show you
Why not eye to eye and chin to chin
Such a suitable way for us to begin
If you turn your heart this way
My lips are ready to display
Whether there’s famine or plenty
Ten kisses short as one or one as long as twenty
Torches are made to light, jewels to wear
You are for me and love is made to bear
Above this maddening maze of things, I’ll treat you like a queen
We’ll ride the Spirit of love and velveteen
We’ll lose our life to gain it, let go of every strand
Then all the love life can offer we will command
Deep down inside, where you no longer know which is which
Beat two happy hearts that finally found their niche



Marvin Yakos