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    AC Benus
  • AC Benus
  • Author
  • 09/07/2015
  • 204 Words
  • 952 Views
  • 10 Comments
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

Twenty-Two Early Poems - 1. in brown paper

.

Twenty-Two Early Poems

written from

ages fourteen to nineteen

-----

by AC Benus

 

 

 

Poem No. 1

 

Leave death alone,

for it shall take care of itself.

Concern yourself with life,

for there the sweetest pain lies.

 

There came upon the sea of despair

many false prophets

All proclaiming the glory of

themselves.

Believe them not, for the key

to God lies in your heart and

There alone, for God is love

and love is God, so remember

The key lies within your heart.

 

 

Poem No. 2

Haiku:

 

A ship sails over

the moon, gently and so free

on a sea of dreams.

 

 

Poem No. 3

 

Greatest Gift Given

 

The gift came with no bow

or in bright wrappings that tend to glow –

Or hid in brown paper

borrowed from a good, nearby neighbor.

 

It came plain as can be

sitting there for everyone to see –

Is there no sense of pride

for this gift given for you to abide?

 

Or maybe, just perhaps

this gift is not within mortal grasps –

Wide as an ocean

I think I will call it emotion.

 

 

_

Copyright © 2017 AC Benus; All Rights Reserved.
  • Like 8
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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Chapter Comments

J.HunterDunn

I’m delighted to see that after the Poems for Ross here are poems written at an even earlier age.

 

Being a lawyer I’m used to work with legal texts that need to be clear and open to one interpretation only. This way of looking at texts becomes so much a part of oneself, that I have for a long time been wary of poetry. Only lately I discovered that allowing emotions to play a part in my reading, and enjoy perhaps more than one interpretation of a text, can be an enriching experience.

 

Your poems give every opportunity for doing just that. Depending on the mood while reading, different emotions evolve.
The fact that especially with No. 1 and No.3 I had that experience, shows that you had the ability to summon emotions already at an early age. A great gift indeed.

 

Sometimes a smell or a piece of music can bring back a memory thought long forgotten. This happened to me with poem No.2. Through those 15 words I was the little boy again with a book of fairy-tales in my hands, the dark blue cover of which showed a black vessel with full sails on its way to the moon. The exact image of the haiku.

 

To think there are 19 more to look forward to makes me very happy. Thank you AC.

  • Like 1
AC Benus
On 09/08/2015 01:11 AM, J.HunterDunn said:

I’m delighted to see that after the Poems for Ross here are poems written at an even earlier age.

 

Being a lawyer I’m used to work with legal texts that need to be clear and open to one interpretation only. This way of looking at texts becomes so much a part of oneself, that I have for a long time been wary of poetry. Only lately I discovered that allowing emotions to play a part in my reading, and enjoy perhaps more than one interpretation of a text, can be an enriching experience.

 

Your poems give every opportunity for doing just that. Depending on the mood while reading, different emotions evolve.

The fact that especially with No. 1 and No.3 I had that experience, shows that you had the ability to summon emotions already at an early age. A great gift indeed.

 

Sometimes a smell or a piece of music can bring back a memory thought long forgotten. This happened to me with poem No.2. Through those 15 words I was the little boy again with a book of fairy-tales in my hands, the dark blue cover of which showed a black vessel with full sails on its way to the moon. The exact image of the haiku.

 

To think there are 19 more to look forward to makes me very happy. Thank you AC.

I suppose one of the greatest things about poetry is that chance for connection. Take your blue-bound book for instance: I knew nothing about it when I wrote my little Haiku exercise in high school English class, but that connection between it and your book – between you and me – was always latent in the work. Only time and circumstance awaited us joining in that way.

 

As I say, the greatest thing about poetry is exactly that.

 

Thank you for your support, Peter. I am blessed to have it.

ColumbusGuy

Wonderful poems my friend!
The haiku brought two images to me: the first was Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon, having sailed there on wings of fire; the second was the cover of Jon Anderson's album Olias of Sunhillow, which features a ship sailing through space. That was the only reason I bought the album--I hadn't heard of him at all--but it turned out to be one of my favorite albums. I now have the original vinyl I bought in high school, a CD of it, and in video format which a fan created and posted on YouTube.
I can't wait for the rest!

  • Like 1
AC Benus
On 09/09/2015 06:22 AM, Puppilull said:

Not surprisingly I really lived the haiku. The simplicity that hides so much complexity. I can't believe you were so young when you wrote these.

 

"Only time and circumstance awaited us joining in that way."

 

This line just made me go "Oh..."

First of all, thank you. I often don't feel there's too much I can (or is that 'should') say in reply to a poetry review. Each person's relationship is different with a work, and in my view, the poet is the LAST person who should get in the way of that. I mean by stating too much on what the work means to them, or worst of all, telling the reader how to read it. Nope. Not me.

 

But I do like how you quote my reply to Peter below. After I left it, I sent him a PM saying I 'got all poetic' in my reply.

 

Is that appropriate…? lol.

 

Thanks for a great review, Puppilull!

AC Benus
On 09/09/2015 08:04 AM, ColumbusGuy said:

Wonderful poems my friend!

The haiku brought two images to me: the first was Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon, having sailed there on wings of fire; the second was the cover of Jon Anderson's album Olias of Sunhillow, which features a ship sailing through space. That was the only reason I bought the album--I hadn't heard of him at all--but it turned out to be one of my favorite albums. I now have the original vinyl I bought in high school, a CD of it, and in video format which a fan created and posted on YouTube.

I can't wait for the rest!

The album art is really beautiful, and looks very contemporary. Goggling it turned up pictures of lots of young people getting the singer's graphic 'signature' tattooed nowadays.

 

Thanks for a great review, my friend!

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=olias+of+sunhillow&safe=off&biw=1280&bih=738&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAmoVChMIsf78luboxwIVApaICh2vLAQQ

AC Benus
On 09/09/2015 01:47 PM, Headstall said:

Out of 'likes' but I'll be back. The first stanza of poem one... wonderful. The haiku... I sensed an innocent child, his or her imagination joining with a dream as sleep advances... again wonderful... cheers... Gary

Thanks for your comments, Gary. I really appreciate them!

 

The attention that No. 2 has garnered (also, highly appreciated by me) makes me recall something. Namely that Mrs. Kennedy, one of my English teachers in my freshmen year in high school, was not too impressed with that haiku, lol. This was written as an assignment in her class, and if I remember correctly, she pointed out that haiku are supposed to be nature-inspired. My fantasy image of a ship in the sky made for an odd haiku, but it's wonderful to know it resonates with people.

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