Faith Hope & Fiction

Two Poems by Joseph Roque

Without Poetry

Some mistakenly believe
that poetry is dead; cannot survive
in these budding dystopian times—
Not true.
Poetry is needed now more than ever
to slow and soften the selfish swirl
of disregard for our world’s natural beauty.

Without poetry, what would be
left to remind us of the simple beauty
of a perfectly stunning sunrise
or the sullen stillness just before
a savage storm?

Without poetry, we would forget the joy
of children’s innocent, unrehearsed
laughter or the unblemished
beauty of flowers in bloom.

Nature has a million things to show us
from the fabulous to the ordinary
and seldom noticed, but all are
small miracles, and the words
of the poet who carefully and lovingly
unveils them — simply spectacular

Simplest and Smallest

Dawn wakes, totally uninspired,
tumbles out of bed, trips over
the cat and a mangled slipper―
ends up in a closet,
cursing the lack of coffee.

I know this routine and the feelings
that accompany its lessons
not been lost on me nor forgotten―

The simplest and smallest
unassuming nothings around us
turn out to be the absolute best.

He planned it that way, but sometimes
in our boredom and hunger for things
shiny and exciting, we gravitate
toward the meaningless―

only to find that the empty feeling
inside us still remains.

No worries.
Look around, eliminate
the human-made;
focus on the natural―

Beautiful as always in its simplicity.

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Joseph Roque is a poet who frequently writes about life, love, loneliness, growing older, alienation, and the joys of youth. His poems have appeared in Psychopoetica, Mad Swirl, Aphelion, Death Head Grin, The Poet’s Haven, RagMag, and Cerebration. His latest book is Ashes And Excuses.