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Poetry by Howard Yosha Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,2008,2009, 2010,2011. Contact me at proprietor@howardyosha.com
Throw away your troubles and follow me,
Throw away your religion and follow me,
Throw away your guns and follow me,
Throw away your governments and follow me.
Pick up freedom and live with me,
Pick up god and live with me,
Pick up crayons for coloring and live with me,
Pick up love and live with me in peace.
Conversation with Courage
One Nation under the courageous efforts of man
Our strongest endeavors are founded by courage
My name is courage!
If you find enough courage you can do anything
Life force listens to the voice of courage,
On the brink, When death is near
Your most intimate friend is fear,
But if you have enough courage you will live forever
Writers and poets will recognize your courageous effort
And write your song of experience.
The strongest substance on earth
Has been the ink in the pen of a writer,
Words of courage tell stories of martyrs
Immortalizing proud dead with unflinching courage
The slightest touch of my pen will make you live
Forever, these indelible words are an army
At my back, filled with the uneraseable,
Unflinching immortalized regiments, Vietnam soldiers
Victims of terrorism from nine eleven,
Mad Bomber dead of Oklahoma City,
All mark time in step with four star generals
Of my army of courage, Martin Luther King commands.
My brave cavalry of JFK, Joan of Arc,
Abraham Lincoln and Jesus sit atop
The four horses of the apocalypse, reigning in the end
Of time with all their courage,
As you stand at the brink of death, I will be with you
If you have courage, You will join the ranks of the immortal
Army of courage, look deep inside,
Find the strongest human emotion, write
With the blackest ink to turn the weakest pawn into a Queen,
Our words written of these immortals will march over the earth
Until courageous lives are hammered indelibly in history
There will be no end of time if you have enough courage
There will be no starvation if you have enough courage
There will be no war if you have enough courage,
The courage to resist the end is within everyone,
If you just have enough courage
Don't Lay Down and Die
You lay on the bed
after sitting on the couch
life spent sitting and eating
junk food until you die
Wake up from your coma
Wake up from television
Wake up from lazy life
wake UP from life spent siting
Get off your fat ass and join me
Get off your fat ass and walk
Get off your fat ass and run
Get off your fat ass and bike
Get off your fat ass and swim
Get up to save your life
Don't lay down and die
Listen to life and live again
You will get better if you can begin
The hardest step is the first.
Type II Yoga Warrior
Discipline your mind with yoga breathing,
The yoga of an undisciplined mind,
Pay attention to yourself not the instructor,
Look at your mat,
Keep your mind on your breath,
Keep your mind on your mat,
Build up heat by not drinking water,
Do 100 Sun Salutations with me on July 4th
To the sounds of the Marine corps band,
Just for today stretch your body more,
Take a meditation break,
Meditate during yoga,
Take your shoes and socks off
For a better grip of the mat.
For the next five minutes just breathe,
For the next five minutes think of all you are thankful for and breathe,
For the next five minutes think of who, Who are you? and breathe,
For the next five minutes think of what you want, and breathe,
For the next five minutes think of how you can serve others, and breathe,
Let your breath banish disease from your body,
Pay attention to your body,
Find the tight spots, breathe into the soreness,
Just started Yoga?
If you keep it up you will be
Climbing the stairs at age 80.
Focus your mind on deep yoga breathing,
Pay attention to yourself not the instructor,
Pay attention to your yoga poses not others.
God walked in front of my mat yesterday,
In the form of an ant,
Instantly the ant appeared in back of my mat,
Nearly stepped upon, dodging my bare feet
Like the dancing cockroach walking fast in a circle
To survive as I stepped over, but God temped me.
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Poetry by Howard Yosha Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010, 2011. Requests for publication email proprietor@howardyosha.com
How to Become a Tax Deductible Poet
Buy a computer for your new tax deductible home office,
Self-publish books and write off the expense as a business loss,
Tack on registration fees for you new web domain,
Advertising accomplished by mailing 9000 libraries requests to carry your book,
Buy a car to take you on a book tour,
Write off the depreciation the mileage and the gas,
Invest in sales of writing, book festivals, conventions,
Poetry contests and self-publishing becomes a liability
When you start to win contests, sell books. Become one of the 20,000 professional poets
a year who graduates from college. You will make a living on TV shows
like HBO Def Poetry Jam and in commercials for soda pop like 7UP,
Not only will you become Poetry.com and Poet Laureate,
But you will have strict fiscal policies and you will never pay tax again.
_________________________________
Expensive Addictions
smoking cigars like driving expensive cars
coffee nicotine Starbucks 4 dollar dream
writing self publishing MFA workshops agents
alcohol
it is not possible to go through life without an addiction or habit
exercise dancing dating equals porking in crowd maintaing
looking good like Michael Jackson with TV newscaster facelifts
sex with you high school sweetie then you wife then lover, orgies, hookers lap dances dowloadabe orgasm
_______________________________________________
Inspiration is... Softly Loudly Screaming
Inspiration is...
...In any town, in any place, like your town,
...Opening your eyes,
...light seeping through door cracks,
...Waking from lowly dungeons in filthy hovels,
...Kicking you in the head,
...a hammer called light,
...Sweeping you off the floor,
...your thoughts climbing into the air
...Reflecting off the eyes of tractor trailer rigs on the highway,
...Staring you down,
...screaming thoughts that never may be heard,
...As soft as the whispering breathing of the earth,
...As loud as cyclones flying over oceans, meeting you,
...Bleeding into your spine, a seminal fluid,
...Etching words into your head igniting explosions.
If only You were listening...
...listen,
...listen,
...listen
_____________________________________
WD Snodgrass has a dog with my name
Not properly attired in shorts and a football jersey
at Hollywood and Highland I arrive early
to read poetry at the International Society
of Poetry Convention, not waking, poets forgot
the 7am early morning reading, my hunger
an unquenched poetic thirst, I enter the Renaissance
Hotel restaurant, breakfast is good, but not
for 12 dollars, the matter de sat me
in the corner, no one could see me, I could see
everyone. Jesse James said never sit
with your back to the door, you may get shot,
As I start to eat my cassadia
WD Snodgrass is seated next to me
Like a crazed stalker fan I jump to his table
to give him a copy of my book. WD
said I don’t want to be your teacher or your mentor
I just will say one thing, thank you.
I signed my book I love your poetry, Howard Yosha.
I sat down excited unable to swallow, moth full of glue,
WD Snodgrass got up came to my table to bother me.
He asked what is the derivation of your name?
Yosha is Hebrew for Joshua, Yashua
He said I named my dog Yosha from a character
from Dostoyefskis book Brothers Karamosof
his life patted my bowed head protected by a glove,
So dumbfound, My claim to fame,
WD Snodgrass has a dog with my name
_________________________________
In Secret Love
Lusty passion toward coworkers is forbidden
in the rule book of married cheaters.
C.P. may never know she is the object
of my passion the source of fitful sexy dreams.
Finding this secret heat may be born from our lack of love
is my best guess, or maybe our attempt to destroy
our marriages. Lying truthfully is infidelities' goal
When we find we need sexual variety after
our nuptials, the rulebook of infidelity states married
cheaters both have something to loose,
Our much better chance to hide forbidden lustmaking.
__________________________________
Conversation with Courage
One Nation under the courageous efforts of man
Our strongest endeavors are founded by courage
My name is courage!
If you find enough courage you can do anything
Life force listens to the voice of courage,
On the brink, When death is near
Your most intimate friend is fear,
But if you have enough courage you will live forever
Writers and poets will recognize your courageous effort
And write your song of experience.
The strongest substance on earth
Has been the ink in the pen of a writer,
Words of courage tell stories of martyrs
Immortalizing proud dead with unflinching courage
The slightest touch of my pen will make you live
Forever, these indelible words are an army
At my back, filled with the uneraseable,
Unflinching immortalized regiments, Vietnam soldiers
Victims of terrorism from nine eleven,
Mad Bomber dead of Oklahoma City,
All mark time in step with four star generals
Of my army of courage, Martin Luther King commands.
My brave cavalry of JFK, Joan of Arc,
Abraham Lincoln and Jesus sit atop
The four horses of the apocalypse, reigning in the end
Of time with all their courage,
As you stand at the brink of death, I will be with you
If you have courage, You will join the ranks of the immortal
Army of courage, look deep inside,
Find the strongest human emotion, write
With the blackest ink to turn the weakest pawn into a Queen,
Our words written of these immortals will march over the earth
Until courageous lives are hammered indelibly in history
There will be no end of time if you have enough courage
There will be no starvation if you have enough courage
There will be no war if you have enough courage,
The courage to resist the end is within everyone,
If you just have enough courage
______________________________
the last electronic gasp of our dying printer
the new printer makes no noise when you ask it to print,
we wonder where is our document? oh! it’s done,
but our last printer committed suicide
and this new printer will too
after we work it to death. our poor enslaved printer
made grinding groans, almost human cries,
don’t print any more - i beg of you,
i’m going to end it all by jumping
off this desk! with its last fan wafted breath
it cried a last electronic gasp,
i am obsolete,
soon you will be too!
the man in our machine swooned a death knell
suffering his last day, spitting ink onto our paper.
______________________
I'm NOT GOING OUT THIS WAY GOD DAMNIT!
War is death when my soul screams out FUCK GEORGE BUSH
but my mouth is silent. A pawn on the USA Battlefield
I am a potential victim in World War Three, life is shit flushed
down the toilet of injustice under the tyranny of false freedom
under the religious right rule of Christians and Jews fighting a holy war
against Muslim Mujajadeem. Why believe in God or Religion
when the enemy combatants all believe in the end
of the world, FUCK RELIGION, I'm NOT GOING OUT THIS WAY
GOD DAMNIT! FUCK ARMAGEDDON, you slimy religious zealots
preying for the end of the world, preying an eye for an eye
YOU KILLED thousands of us on September the Eleventh,
WE WILL KILL Millions of YOU and send you back to GOD!
I WANT TO SHUT MY EARS TO CALLS FOR WAR from doom preying hawks, but I can't,
I know my enemy to better know myself,
I WANT TO CLOSE MY EYES TO ALL WAR CRIMES,
but I can't,
All war is a crime
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