Always be kind to others
no matter whom they may be to you.
Nothing matters – just be kind.
After all, wouldn’t you want the same for you?
Category Archives: Poem of the Day
20 June 2014 – Exiting
Rush hour in Kansas City
The 5.00pm Central headlines commence on NPR.
There I sit, in my car, waiting patiently, silently
not finding it hard to imagine that I’m back in Chicago
as I wait to exit 435 westbound onto State Line Road.
The left turn lanes move at a snail’s pace
as if the world is at a standstill.
The first green light is like a far away lightning bolt
to distant to make any impact.
The second green light comes five minutes later
its glimmering verdant glow lasting but a faint minute
until overcome by the urge to bleed red once more.
I edge closer to the halfway point on the ramp
halfway to the starting gate
the horsepower in my engine revving to go
the twenty cars in front of me impeding my path.
Third green light.
At last the miraculous verdant flaring is causing some good
its impact reaching my car, who has finally moved within jumping distance
of the intersection ahead.
A homeless man, seeking work walks alongside the cars.
Fourth green light.
At long last I let out a cry
of “Go, go, go!”
Through the intersection my car roars,
wanting to break free from the shackles of traffic
and back onto the open road
that runs along the Kansas-Missouri state line.
19 June 2014 – Triumph over Indiana
On a plane this past March
as I flew from DC to KC
I found myself fast asleep
for much of the first part of the trip.
As I slept my dreams turn’d away
from the thoughts of that past day
and into a vision of some great orchestra
a chorus behind, playing that fam’d
1812 Overture of Tchaikovsky’s making.
It roared in my head, filling the mind
as ever it could with sound
abounding throughout the inner ear.
Yet the noise woke me,
forc’d me to recognise my place.
And as I open’d my eyes,
the music came to a grand finale
as the orchestra had stopped
the men of the chorus continued
singing triumphantly their final refrain
the melody from God Save the Tsar
resounded in my ears from within
triumphantly welcoming me
to the skies over Indiana.
Never before has a dream
been so grandiose as to remain
in my memory for months thereafter
as that chorus on that cold March day.
18 June 2014 – Humidity
I don’t know what I would have done
in decades past prior to the invention
the fantastic invention of air conditioning.
As it turns out, I probably would have
most undoubtedly sweated to death
in these unreasonably humid
Kansas City summers.
There is something quite pleasant
that comes to mind when one steps
out of the a/c and into the heat,
after all, it means that there is always
the a/c to go back to if one wishes.
So, as I offer my thanks to God
and the inventor of air conditioning
whichever of the millions of saints that may be
I react fondly to the fogging up of my specs
each and every time I step out of my car
and back into the summer heat.
17 June 2014 – A Musical World
There is music in the world
it flows in the winds
it flowers on the trees.
There is music in the world
which blossoms with each new life
and is releas’d into the cosmos
with each passing death.
There is music in the world
that makes us all happy
that makes us cry.
All this can be done by music
the rhythm of life
the melodious voice of nature
the source of beauty and strength.
16 June 2014 – Late Winter Journeys
I dreamt last night
that some friends and I met
in a café in Chicago.
There we chatted, laughed, and told stories
until unbeknownst to me the time came
for my friends to take up and leave.
“Where are you going?” I asked them,
“You’ll see, just wait there,” they replied smiling.
I sat on the plump red sofa in that café
for a few minutes more, when from the crowd
came my two friends once more.
They returned with three tickets,
and joined me at the seat,
whose arms protruded from its back
and buckled us in all quite neat.
Then out of the café did we fly
Without even the bat of an eye
for that flight was without motion
as we disolv’d without commotion
and soon I awoke as if from a slumber
conduced by jet lag, on an expressway
riding in a small bus, further from the city where I belong’d.
Then suddenly we came to our exit, and rounded a bend
going down a road lined with hedges
that seem’d to go on for no end.
Then at their conclusion, we did find,
what appear’d to be a train station
situated atop a hill, the tracks cover’d by fog
“Welcome to Glenview,” said the driver,
yet this was not the Glenview that I knew.
Heaven forbid it! I looked at my watch
and recall’d my calendar
that in the city I had to be
in less than an hour.
In a sort of panic I awoke,
to find myself confounded
haunt’d by what was but a dream.
14 June 2014 – “In the forest he played his flute” from the play “Orpheus and Eurydice”
The following comes from my 2011 play “Orpheus and Eurydice”. Copyright Seán Kane, 2011.
In the forest he played his flute
For all the trees to hear and dance to,
Amongst the trees he was resolute
In his proclamation of God’s love anew.
For here he was most at ease
Amongst the arbours,
Amongst the trees
For here in the woodland he seeks.
O Orpheus, a wife he wants
A beautiful maid to wed,
Come, loving poet sing odes
To the nymphs of the wood.
Come, beautiful voice,
It is your choice.
13 June 2014 – Football
There is something to be said
that trumps any negativity held
by those doubters of the world
about the sport known as football.
To be clear, I refer to that
which in the States is called soccer.
But that aside, what football can do
to unite the world is splendid!
Football is a common language
a common love, a common passion.
It is belov’d by many, despis’d by few
and in so it draws the many together in joy.
Let the World Cup be a testament
to humanity’s virtuous passion for friendship.
Despite playing under different flags
or wearing different jerseys, we are all human.
We share a common love for football.
So when the Sun sets in a month
when the World Cup leaves Brazil,
what will be remember’d?
The riots, the protests, or the games and the fun?
I doubt the former and choose the latter.
12 June 2014 – A Night Rain
My sleep is disturb’d
by an unruly hound
who on normal nights slumbers
softly beneath my feet.
Yet tonight is different
as oranges differ from tomatoes.
That hound slumbers not
but wails, howls, tears at his kennel door!
He is not a friend of the wind
Nor do the soft rains offer him solace.
The poor hound finds terror in thunder
As if the world were crashing down upon him.
Yet still it rains,
steadily pouring down upon our heads
like a shower worthy of Tatiana’s court,
of which the bard so beautifully wrote.
To sleep once more,
that the immortal world might do its work
as the old stories tell,
whilst we mortals slumber away.
Wednesday Blog by Seán Thomas Kane 