writing community
Sign In Here | Lost Password | FREE Sign Up
E-mail: Password:
Remember login  
The place for writers:
Upload your writing in minutes, receive peer feedback from other writers, poets, authors, then get your work published out there in the real world.       Learn how other writers are doing it.

 
jakrebs
James Krebs
United States, NY, Albany

Words: 213
Access: Public
Comments: 12

Forward to a friend
Print Version
E-mail this writer E-mail this user 
View Author profile
Add to Readers  




This Title Makes No Claim

A captain of industry builds the world's largest skyscraper.
His critics contend he's just a robber baron
creating his own grandiose monument.

Ten men die building it.

A nurse soothes a terminally ill child into falling asleep.
Something is bothering her and she has to look
at the child's medical chart.

She forgot his name.

A student stays after class with his classics professor.
They discuss the universal appeal and today's relevance
of the writers Plutarch, Homer and Ovid.

They talk in Latin.

A cattle king yells into a canyon, "This is my domain!"
The resulting echoes, each resounding quieter than the last,
mark the legacy of his reign.

Soon all is silent again.

A chalk artist draws some of history's greatest masterpieces
on a marble sidewalk for the pleasure
of tourist passersby.

The sky above turns from blue to gray.

A doctor decides to set aside his lucrative practice
and make a difference in a third world country for a year.
He is placed in March of 1994.

Rwanda is his destination.

An ailing father leaves his footprints by the sea's edge.
He smiles ruefully at his son who uses his smaller feet
to save them from the waves.

The boy succeeds for a while.

Want to comment on this Poetry?
Sign up to Edit Red and you will be able to comment on Poetry and get access to: Upload your own stories and poems, get readers and their feedback, promote your work...
Sign up






[Back to top]
Comments  
junenandy Comment by: junenandy - 2008-12-19 19:22
Add to Readers
      
Brilliant.
Thanks Sir.
Arley Comment by: Arley - 2008-10-16 09:58
Add to Readers
      
I see this was done a while back and I somehow missed it. Very moving, Andy, brilliant isolated zingers, and an all around great piece of work!
Still thinking Comment by: Still thinking - 2008-09-22 02:40
Add to Readers
      
I dont have words...understood what it takes to win :) really beutiful...will read all your stuff soon!
alien Comment by: alien Online- 2008-08-14 08:04
Add to Readers
      
I'm going to say this first and then the better part.

I would have put 'by the sea's edge' rather than the sea's side in the last stanza.

That's all for that.

As far as the depth and SIGNIFICANCE of this piece is concerned, this is amazing and brilliant.
It's a poem of true importance and I can honestly say that it's possibly one of the best poems I've ever read. It's quite exciting to suddenly be faced with something of this magnitude in a poetry contest I have organised - it makes all the hard work worth it.

Thank you very much for contributing this poem. Now go and get it published...
Mick Comment by: Mick - 2008-08-12 22:16
Add to Readers
      
I like the title. The way we have no claim upon this earth is very well reinforced in your characters situations... Well done. :)
1 2 3 Next

Sponsored Ads


Added to Library of:

By jakrebs

Featured Writers

Advertising - Terms & Conditions - Short Story Submissions - Contact - Writing Competitions - Writing Links - Book Promotion - Sky-Tribe.com - alanemmins.com
  Member short stories, poems, comments and other contributions are owned by the poster.
Copyright 2003 - 2007 Edit Red I/S