Barry Middleton Poems

As near as I could tell
with youthful wisdom,
men fear two things.
First there are other men,
...

serenity has become the death of hope
a plaster saint shattered by a drunken tyrant
no possibility of redemption
no path ahead for evolution but despair
...

I was no philosopher
and not the master digger.
I took no pride and did not
understand the job I did.
...

I feel I've been out fishing fifty years
and just as leave would call it quits for now
and throw the whole catch back for other men
to cast their lines upon and dream their dreams.
...

I traveled farther in than out
to find the spring I speak about;
and still I wonder if it flows
as first I watched it when it rose.
...

faded photographs and paper memories
are somehow all that's left behind
a life's tokens are few
...

Are cat dreams a curse to those born of Leo,
or are they just a bitter gift of age,
caged symbols of center ring losses?
The betrayal of cat dreams is clear.
...

The music dies and smolders
in the embers of a lost fire.
The symphony of day
ends with cooler oboe sounds,
...

air to breathe
and fuel the soul

a fire within
...

Why must poets bleed
for the empty ache
of lost love, of lost youth,
the wickedness of death,
...