I CAN ONLY IMAGINE

I can only imagine

What life would be today

With you right here beside me

Walking through it with me each day.

 

I can only imagine

Your words and smile

I bet you share them in heaven

While you sit with them a while.

 

I can only imagaine

Picking up the telephone

Hearing your voice so clear

I would not be feeling alone.

 

I can only imagine

Us sitting down to eat

Together like once before

Not like today; where i feel defeat.

 

I can only imagine

The Christmas tree all lit

Smiling faces and lights a glow

Can’t you come back; for just a bit?

 

I can only imagine

A life without you in it

Because I’m living it today

Feeling like I don’t even fit.

 

Written by,

Terry Shepherd

 

Dedicated to my family in heaven

06/17/2018

The Shadow Falls

What do you say,
What do you do,
When the words you speak
Come slamming back at you?

What can you do
With the feelings you feel
When understanding is lax
In the spinning of wheels.

How do I face the day
When the tears run deep
From a love that was strong
Now makes me feel weak.

A turn of a minute
Flows into an hour
No matter what’s said
There is loss of all power.

I can pray, I can plead
With a God who sees all
Now I must patiently wait
For this shadow to fall.

Written by my feelings,
Terry Shepherd

 

Edward Lear

I am an administrator of a Poetry Group called Poetry in my Mind. This week we had an assignment that took much more time than other weeks. We chose one of our favorite poets. We mentioned important information about him. We were to also post one of his poems, explain what form it was, and then write a poem in form and similar.

Here is the link to the poetry group I am involved in. If you would like to partake in the contest, let me know. You must be a Facebook member, so that I can send you a special invite to contests. There is a weekly and a monthly contest.

 

I chose Edward Lear, for his silly, no-nonsense poems. This is what I had to say.

 

I am writing about the poet Edward Lear.

Edward Lear (12 or 13 May 1812[1][2] – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, and is known now mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to illustrate birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred Tennyson’s poems. As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes, and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson’s poetry.

Lear was born into a middle-class family at Holloway, North London, the penultimate of twenty-one children (and youngest to survive) of Ann Clark Skerrett and Jeremiah Lear.[3] He was raised by his eldest sister, also named Ann, 21 years his senior. Owing to the family’s limited finances, Lear and his sister were required to leave the family home and live together when he was aged four. Ann doted on Edward and continued to act as a mother for him until her death, when he was almost 50 years of age.[4]

Lear suffered from lifelong health afflictions. From the age of six he suffered frequent grand mal epileptic seizures, and bronchitis, asthma, and during later life, partial blindness. Lear experienced his first seizure at a fair near Highgate with his father. The event scared and embarrassed him. Lear felt lifelong guilt and shame for his epileptic condition. His adult diaries indicate that he always sensed the onset of a seizure in time to remove himself from public view. When Lear was about seven years old he began to show signs of depression, possibly due to the instability of his childhood. He suffered from periods of severe melancholia which he referred to as “the Morbids

Lear’s nonsense works are distinguished by a facility of verbal invention and a poet’s delight in the sounds of words, both real and imaginary

Form is AABBA

(Ad. Ex.)

There was once a girl named Sue
Who feared the word called boo.
She jumped out of her skin
When you said it again
She was crazy; this girl called Sue.

Written by,
Terry Shepherd

 

 

 

Shattered

All my life I dreamed
Flowers, a veil and gown
Practiced walking down the aisle
And everyone standing round .

I grew and kept my hope
I waited for your name to hear
The bells :they sounded strong
I knew you were very near .

The dream played out its song
Placed on my finger a ring
A honeymoon filled delight
Causing both our souls to sing.

I saw you look her way
I recognized desire in you
I captured her hand in yours
My heart sank and broke in two.

The dream;it all but shattered
My hopes were sprinkled in dust
All because your eyes did stray
From your weakness and your lust.l
Written by ,
Terry Shepherd

 

Let Freedom Ring

• July 7 – July 14 Jul 7 at 9:30pm to Jul 14 at 9:30pm

• Poetry in My Mind Group

• Created for Poetry In My Mind

The cover photo on this page is a photo of the Statue of Liberty*. (Photo prompt by Marcella Leff, administrator)

You may write in any style or poetic form a poem about what this photo means to you. Alternatively, you can write about freedom. Explanation about your poem is permissible. Photos with your post will be deleted. You may post as many poems as you want but comments are counted per poem only.

Winner will be judged by the most original comments. One person can make many comments but only counts as one comment for winning at the end of the time limit. Your own comments do not count because you cannot judge your own poem. Comments being counted begins on July 7th, 9:30pm if this event was posted earlier than stated date/time.

Contest will be from July 7 until July 14, 9:30 pm. All members are invited to enter this contest. You can add your friends to join. Challenge them.

Administrators may post examples of poems but are not eligible to win. Administrators can like your poems but their comments do not count.

A new prompt will be posted every week. Winner will be posted on the main group page.

*The Statue of Liberty was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor, and was built by Gustave Eiffel and dedicated on October 28, 1886. It was a gift to the United States from the people of France.

The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States, and was a welcoming sight to immigrants arriving from abroad.

FREEDOM

It seems  like a lot of people are angry

Tossing words out to the sea

Maybe it is a  habit

A bad one we don’t see.

When I am out in public

I look straight into your face

I always am amazed

That smiles don’t leave a trace.

I realize stress is huge

Not enough money to pay the bills

But ask yourself this question

Will bitching chase issues to nil?

If we were trapped and traded

To stand on other ground

Would you stop and beg forgiveness

Would silence be the only sound?

I don’t think that we mean to

Act with such disgrace

We really should stop and think

About all the human race.

For freedom is a gift

Our soldiers fought for this

Let’s kneel down on our knees

And give our ground a kiss.

Written by,

Terry Shepherd

7/12/2015

https://www.facebook.com/events/475905072567455/

The cover photo on this page has a cat looking into a mirror with a lion looking out. (Photo prompt by Marcella Leff, administrator)

You may write a poem in any style or form about your public persona- who are YOU? What do YOU project to the world? Explanation about your poem is permissible. Photos with your post will be deleted. You may post as many poems as you want but comments are counted per poem only.

Winner will be judged by the most original comments. One person can make many comments but only counts as one comment for winning at the end of the time limit. Your own comments do not count because you cannot judge your own poem. Comments being counted begins on June 2nd, 9:30pm if this event was posted earlier than stated date/time.

Contest will be from June 2 until June 9, 9:30 pm. All members are invited to enter this contest. You can add your friends to join. Challenge them.

Administrators may post examples of poems but are not eligible to win. Administrators can like your poems but their comments do not count.

A new prompt will be posted every week. Winner will be posted on the main group page

COWARD IN MOTION

A coward I scream

Through tears that stream

I can’t see anything else

This was taught to myself

Through yelling and hitting

And beating and spitting

How could I possibly see more

Than a giant, black  door

Then one day you walked in

And you explained of my sin

You said it wasn’t my fault

Told me to stop and to halt

The negativity you say

Is keeping the spirit away

It took days and weeks

Until the venom did leak

It ran down my face

It spewed all over the place

Then one day I looked in the mirror

I was shocked with no fear

I saw a beautiful kitten

So wonderfully smitten

I learned I still had the fight

A strength to build up my life

I saw nothing but peace

I had a new life and lease

If it were not for you

Seeing my life through and through

I would still be crying those tears

And living solely in fear.

Written by,

Terry Shepherd

6.6.2015

 

Soldier Boy

• May 26 – June 2 May 26 at 9:30pm to Jun 2 at 9:30pm

• Poetry In My Mind Group

• Created for Poetry In My Mind

The cover photo on this page is a silhouette of a saluting soldier. (Photo prompt by Marcella Leff, administrator)

You may write a poem in any style or form about our fallen heroes. Memorial Day was celebrated for our convenience on 5-25-15. It originally was determined to be on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country. If you are not in the U.S., you may write about your special day in your country. Explanation about your poem is permissible. THIS TIME YOUR PHOTOS ARE PERMITTED TO BE ATTACHED IN YOUR COMMENT AREA. You may post as many poems as you want but comments are counted per poem only. Please no poems about BBQ and sales on this day.

Winner will be judged by the most original comments. One person can make many comments but only counts as one comment for winning at the end of the time limit. Your own comments do not count because you cannot judge your own poem. Comments being counted begins on May 26th, 9:30pm if this event was posted earlier than stated date/time.

Contest will be from May 26 until June 2, 9:30 pm. All members are invited to enter this contest. You can add your friends to join. Challenge them.

Administrators may post examples of poems but are not eligible to win. Administrators can like your poems but their comments do not count.

A new prompt will be posted every week. Winner will be posted on the main group page.

SOLDIER BOY

His daddy’s eyes

Reflect in my mind

The way he walks

Brings memories

That laugh I swear

Is in the genes

One day he yelled

Come look at me

“I wear Daddy’s hat

Am I a handsome boy”?

I gulped I swallowed

I fought back tears

Looking at him

Looking in a mirror

Now today I

Am old and gray

My little boy

Is still away

He says he

Will continue to fight

For what his daddy

Lost that night

I have been blessed

To know these two

My husband, my hero

And little Soldier Boy too.

Written by,

Terry Shepherd

5.27.2015

https://youtu.be/1NYw83uAQig