504 : When The Anzac’s Went To War.

April 25th is the anniversary of the landing of the joint

Australian and New Zealand forces (ANZACs) in the Dardanelles, at

Gallipoli, Turkey, in 1915.  It was a disaster.  No fault of the troops.

When The Anzac’s Went To War

In cities and towns, the booths appeared,

Recruiting young men, as the war clouds neared.

Pretty girls smiled and whole towns cheered

When the Anzac’s went to war.

The men were keen to play their part.

Each carried a photo next to his heart,

But the campaign was flawed from the very start,

When the Anzac’s went to war.

They were off-loaded in the wrong place

Unaware of the resistance they would face.

The whole affair was a bloody disgrace,

When the Anzac’s went to war.

Their arrival was expected by the other side.

Scores of bodies bobbed on the tide.

In the end, many thousands died,

When the Anzac’s went to war.

When the magnitude of the folly dawned

One wonders why they were never warned

Pretty girls cried and whole towns mourned

When the Anzac’s went to war.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

503 : A woman would often make scenes

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line,

the rest is up to us.

A woman would often make scenes,

Promenading without any jeans.

But when she went too far,

Shedding panties and bra,

The Governor called the marines.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

502 : The Time of his Life

One Minute Writer has a daily prompt

that we are supposed to complete in a minute.  

Never going to make the time limit with a long poem

but a limerick is in with a fighting chance.

Today's prompt was 'Time Machine'.

The Time of his Life. 

A fellow returned to the past,

To visit his ancestral cast.

When he took his own mother

To be his young lover,

The ramifications were vast.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

501 : Trust

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week were destruction, trust and endure.

More of an epigram than a poem.

It’s a fact of life but not reassuring:

The destruction of trust is as quick

As it is enduring.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

D - Will Today Be Different?

Will today be different?

Morning.

The alarm nags, the mind drags itself from the bed.

Will today be different?

Scan the headlines, check email.

Shower.  Shave.  Cereal.  Milk.

Feed the birds and take the sleeper a mug of tea.

Is the shirt different to yesterdays?

Lunch.  Bread, meat, condiments, cut and boxed.

Fruit.  A carrot maybe.

Floss. Brush. Rinse. Spit.

Time to go. 

Will today be different?

A farewell kiss and creep into the traffic.

The regulars, numberplates I recognise.

The boom gates.  Will I miss them?  No.

A well-travelled route.  Smooth through repetition.

Neck and neck with serious cyclists.  Lycra-clad.

I pass them, they pass me.  They are smug and righteous.

I am warm.  And dry.

Closer to the city, the trendy cyclists.  Upright.  Prim.

Car spot 22.  Am I square?  Readjust.

Engine off.  Lights off.  Deep breath.

The briefcase, the short walk to the front door.

Yesterday hurt.  The day before did too.

Will today be different?

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

CDXCIX - I wish I was a Bonobo

I love the expression on the female.

I wish I was a Bonobo.

Gorillas, I’m told,

Are sexually cold,

And only engage for the off-spring.

Chimpanzees

Run tyrannies

Where rape and crime are oft king.

Bonobos however

Are locked together

In all manner of sexual flings.

Chorus

Oh, I wish I was a Bonobo,

The happiest of the apes;

Every day, in every way,

They have sex of any shape.

Some may say it’s pagan,

The way that they employ it,

But I think the Bonobo’s got it right,

Life’s too short, enjoy it.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

CDXCVIII - A fellow who frequently stews

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line,

the rest is up to us.

A fellow who frequently stews

Over which style condom to use.

He can’t make a selection

To adorn his erection

So his wife fills the time with a snooze.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

CDXCVII - Jabberwocky - The Case for the Defence.

dVerse Poets has the prompt 'Monster'.

I felt it was time to correct a great wrong

in children's literature: the maligning of the Jabberwock.

Apoplogies to Lewis Carroll.

Jabberwocky - The Case for the Defence.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

◊◊◊

“Come sit by me” the old one said

“I’ll tell you of your father’s death”

A Jubjub listened from a Tumtum Tree

And a Bandersnatch held its breath.

"He was a truly manxome beast

Who could whiffle with the best.

He loved to roam the tulgey wood

And pick flowers, to be pressed.

He would burble as he tripped along,

In search of nuts and fruit,

Until he met that uffish brat

With vorpal sword and tinny suit.

One, two!  One two! that awful thug

Attacked him in a frenzied spell.

Not only did he kill your dad,

He beheaded him as well!

We heard much chortling from the town:

“Callooh, callay, the beast is dead”

But the woods were a less frabjous place

When the Jabberwock was dead."

◊◊◊

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

CDXCVI - I am Sorry

Sunday Scribblings had the prompt 'Apology'.

This made me think of the phrase "I am sorry".

Four syllables, mmm, maybe a rondeau?

It carries on a theme from my previous poem.

I Am Sorry

I am sorry that you feel that way

But it is your choice if you stay

Locked in a world of sullen blue;

Where imagined slights just accrue

Until they block the sun’s warm rays

And you then drown in your dismay.

There is nothing more that I can say

And nothing else that I can do.

I am sorry.

But not for my part in your ballet,

Though what that is you will not say.

Nor for however this thing grew.

It is because, as if on cue,

You chose to put on this display,

I am sorry.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

CDXCV - Atmospheric Static

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week were bask, grief and raise.

Note: If you are reading this poem,

you are not the inspiration for it.

Atmospheric Static

You bask 

Bask in moody retreat,

With dark looks 

Used as bait,

Raising questions 

But refusing to allow

A remedy to the mournful state

That saps

Saps and brings just grief 

And traps.

Not now.

I can see your design

And resist 

Resist the urge to compete:

The problem’s yours, 

Not mine.

Sweet.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

CDXCIV - The Unsung.

The Unsung.

Heroes, if you believe the press,

Play sports or maybe sing;

They endorse new shoes and aftershave

And other useless things.

They have a house at the best address

And acolytes, that cling;

It seems they always misbehave—

Just flotsam, sold as bling.

Meanwhile, in the world out there,

On each and every day,

Normal people just struggle by,

In any way they may.


In a world that doesn’t seem to care,

Strength comes in many shapes;

These are the real heroes of our time:

 Unsung but on display.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

Missing Person - Leisl Smith

Leisl is the sister of a friend and went missing on the 19th of August 2012. 

If you have ANY information, please call Crimestoppers: 1800 333 000. You can report information COMPLETELY anonymously!

Description

What's known: Leisl left home at 1pm on the 19th of August, 2012 and was supposed to return at 5 pm. She never came back. Her car was found at Tuggerah Railway Station (NSW, Australia) 6 weeks later and the only footage of her last seen alive at this point was on the railway stations CCTV>.

Her car, a Silver Honda Accord has been looked at by forensics with nothing suspicious reported.

There is a $10k reward offered by our family for ANY information relating to Leisl. If you DO have ANY information, please call Crimestoppers: 1800 333 000.

CDXCII - Decay (Version 2)

This started out as an attempt at Wordle 102 but 

it ran out of steam long before it ran out of words.

This was a prologue to a sonnet, unwritten.

But it sort of stands on its own.

I subsequently added an epilogue.
The sonnet remains heartfelt but still lost.

Decay.

Prologue

In a distant jungle clearing,

Beneath a crescent moon,

There is a pool amongst the stones

With petals, lightly strewn.

And there—

Engraved with love and care,

In tones of reverent admiration,

Is a poem—

Disappearing,
With each seasonal rotation.

◊◊◊

The Lost Sonnet.

◊◊◊

Epilogue


Now the day, it seems, is nearing,
As memory declines,
The words so carefully written
Are lost to moss and vines.
Bereaved, beneath the leaves,
Hidden in its green cocoon,
In a distant jungle clearing,
Beneath a crescent moon.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

CDXCIII - We Came With Hope

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #103) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:  

merge, project, activate, technology, unity, mantra, 

smudge, sing, delicious, inquisitive, urge, stellar

We Came With Hope

Found on an unruled quarto sheet, 

tied to a brick, in low earth orbit.

We came with hope but found you young,

Not ready to join in.

You need a peaceful unity 

Before membership can begin.

The wider stellar network

Urge you work as one:

Be inquisitive, not aggressive,

Is the mantra of the sun.

The warlike pose that you project

Is a smudge upon your card;

All we ask is a civilised stance

And compliance isn’t hard.

To activate you membership

And merge into our ranks

Use technology for the common good

And make wind-chimes from your tanks.

Until the prospect of what we have

Is more delicious than bloodshed,

We’ll leave fighting futile fights,

Singing anthems to your dead.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

CDXCII - Decay

This started out as an attempt at Wordle 102 but 

it ran out of steam long before it ran out of words.

This was a prologue to a sonnet, unwritten.

But it sort of stands on its own.

Decay.

Prologue

In a distant jungle clearing,

Beneath a crescent moon,

There is a pool amongst the stones

With petals, lightly strewn.

And there—

Engraved with love and care,

In tones of reverent admiration,

Is a poem—

Disappearing,
With each seasonal rotation.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

DIV - Navel Personnel

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week were lick, squint and argue.

"Scientist" had an article on navel flora and fauna; 

it seemed a suitable topic. 

Navel Personnel

If you gaze into your navel,

Beyond the ball of lint,

You’ll find several dozen life-forms,

More, if you care to squint.

Scientists argue over names

To give these little guys

And lick their lips, with some high hopes,

To get a Nobel prize. 

What puzzles me about this case

Is not the motley crew—

It’s why, despite the colour choice,

The lint is always blue.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---

CDXCI - The Whisperer

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line,

the rest is up to us.

Horse whispering is a gentle way of

training  a horse.

The Whisperer

A guy who was rather ill-bred,

Wore his boots and his spurs into bed.

The girl said “To ride me

You should curl up beside me

And whisper sweet nothings instead.”

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

---