Category Archives: Poems

Heinous Disease 2015-05

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This poem is about Alzheimer’s disease or (AD), and was composed in remembrance of my business partner’s wife, Mary, and in memory of my father who came down with this disease. I have found that this disease has more than one victim, the one with the disease and the caregivers that deal with it also. It is indeed a heinous disease, like many others.

Heinous Disease   2015-05 

A heinous disease that slowly arrives,

One you can’t see, but know is there

That brings tears to your eyes.

How cruel, how cruel, when the mind

Starts to go, when others can see

You are not quite in the know.

When you stare into space with a

Far off look, a remembering of the past.

The shock of horror on your face,

Not knowing who, what or the current place.

The unnatural acts done with no malice,

Not knowing why, just done; how cruel.

Those taking care of you, trying to understand,

Loving, but thinking – why, why, OH why?!

The mind, such a fragile thing – subject to hurt, to

This disease, to the whims of nature so.

DDB

 

Senses 2015-04

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I like this one!  It ties in the  senses we have, with life, in a simple way. It uses the senses to help realize there is so much around us to experience and understand. It’s not too heavy to read and it gets across what I was feeling at the time about living and what I believe in. Not much more to say about it.

Senses     – 2015-04

Take a sip from the spoon of life,

and taste the nectar of living.

Drink from the cup of wisdom,

experience the feeling of knowledge.

Breath the air of freedom

smell the freshness of independence.

Touch another with tenderness,

and  feel the spirit of love.

Look at the world around you

and  see the complexity of creation.

Eat from the table of the Lord,

and know the opportunity of eternity.

Den Betts

Wind Chime 2015-03

Posted in Nature by

Too many words, at times, does NOT make for a good poem, whereas, simplicity is sometimes the key to a better one. I wrote this poem after sitting outside at the farm where we lived at the time, listening to the wind chimes and hearing the “ting, ting, ting” that they made. When the wind blew the sound carried across from the pine trees, where they were hung, further across the meadow, then the pasture, and finally up to our bedroom window at night.

Wind Chime  2015-03

The wind chime sings its music,

Sending its notes in a circle of sound.

Soft whispers of tingling cascades,

With echoes like falling glass.

Den Betts

Recycled Life Blood 2015-02

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It was relaxing, sitting on the porch, at the farm house, watching nature happen in the form of a soft summer rain. How enjoyable it was to see the clouds wander by, going someplace and knowing that the rain was nourishing the ground below.

Recycled Life Blood   2015-02

The sun burns off the fog

as the Earth bakes dry

in the morning

Lakes rise into the sky

becoming an entity with

a silver lining

Heaven weeps to those below

as the recycling of life’s

blood continues and goes

Den Betts

Eye – Mind 2014-50

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“Well, pretty hard to see what another person is thinking, but would it not be great if we could do as this poem suggests? The key to the writing of this poem is the fact that it is the SELF, that you can see into, if you look hard enough and are honest in what you describe seeing. I remember looking into a mirror one day, while shaving, and asked myself, just what I was capable of doing, business wise. It was a revelation that I admitted my faults of what I was NOT able to do and this, in turn, helped me to see my strengths.

There is a paragraph in a book entitled, “The Fires of Spring” by James Michener, that I keep on my computer stand. It describes the “journey that men (or women) make to find themselves.” The premise of the passage is basically that of dealing with life in a certain way and if done correctly, you will “find a mansion which yhou can inhabit with dignity, all the days of your life.” Interesting, but you have to ”look into the mirror and be  honest with yourself, first.”

Eye –  Mind        2014-50

Look into the eyes of man

and see the workings of the mind

Delve into the persons thoughts

and tap the rational of their thinking.

Experience the love, bravado, hate and fear,

and know of the emotions of  inner feeling.

Look into a mirror at self

and see the reality of same- of living.

Den Betts

Ancestral Descendent 2014-49

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I wrote this poem during the process of writing a family tree genealogy book that I published. I used it to illustrate the fact that we all come from a distant line of people. This relates to early man who believed in “Mother Earth” and from them, we had people who came to the “colonies” to settle and finally to us today. I have a poem entitled “Earth Brothers” that goes more into detail on  how I feel about our being “cousins” on earth, that I will share with you sometime next year.

Ancestral  Descendent -2014-49

Down through antiquity

The line drawn nigh

Son of the mother earth,

Father in the sky

The bones of long ago,

Rest in final peace

With garlands of flowers, a tool

To travel to the beyond place

Continued seed traveled far

Down the winding trail

Meeting, joining, sailing

In a life so very frail

Todays descendent standing, amidst

The throng of life’s reach,

Brother and sister to all

Unknown, but part of each……

Den Betts

Easy Way 2014-46

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Easy Way         2014-46

It’s easier to wallow in self-pity,

Than to change the nature of things.

It’s easier to give up,

Than to persevere.

It’s easier to do nothing,

Than to plan and then do.

It’s easier to look at darkness,

Than to look at the bright side.

It’s not easy for many things,

But, WHO WANTS EASY??

DDB

To Try 2012-45

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To Try       2012-45

A venture not tried is but an adventure not made,

Not to make an attempt insures not defeat, but

Instead, assures no victory in life’s way of things.

 

To always take a middle ground, will prevent the

Sighting of a sunrise or crimson sunset of life,

And only days of dull existence will prevail.

 

No one should fault a person for trying for chances

Taken, for gambles made, risks beyond a safe way,

And no one should complain when the victory is won.

DDB

Body and Soul 2014-44

Posted in Religious type by

Body and Soul  2014-44

 

The very essence of the soul of man,

Resides, perhaps, in the confines of the mind.

The totality of the feelings of man,

Are, in reality, the very thoughts of the soul.

The body is but used as a convenient vessel,

For the soul’s long journey through life.

Comprised from many chemicals and minerals,

The body is a shell for the soul to inhabit.

At deaths door, the soul departs the useless body,

For a continued life far beyond imagination.

To where – is not for man to decide, only for God,

But with certainty it goes, never to return.

Gone, but with hope, never to be forgotten,

By those left behind in body and soul.

Den Betts

The Cross 2014-43

Posted in Religious type by

The Cross 2014-43

A symbol to some, a statement for

others, a means of expression;

a way of telling a belief of

the mind in a way using no words.

 

A simplistic unadorned object

from the earth, representing a

means, a way of reaching the

universe, the heavens above.

 

An object signifying pain

and death, of cruelty beyond

description, but promising a

life of joy beyond belief.

 

A sign of a son of God

of suffering for the sons

and daughters of the Father

for the promise of eternal life.

Den Betts