"Poem For the New Year 2024"
Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri

01/13/2024
10:45 a.m. pst

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I'm still here writing it down, time after time
Still aware and maybe not so confused as before
Writing less, hopefully letting words mean a bit more
Life's been woeful, kind, ever interesting, sublime

Past years, now plentiful, filled with fervor, stillness, cacophany
Memories keep playing tricks, acceptance beckons now
Keeping time and losing it, interruptions in the flow
So serious once, now I can laugh at the luscious irony

Legacies and legions of lost lovers fade in profusion
Learning to slow down, imagine heavenly instance
When raging youth, never stopped to contemplate the distance
Now embracing common sense instead of raw confusion

Know what I know, feel how I feel in celebration
Teach tolerance peace and love as ever over and over again
Life is no mystery when one pays attention, cracking a grin
Eradicating and ignoring lies and coarse contamination

Yes, I'm still here (in celebration) still writing it down
And doubtless will always do just that as long as I can
And it's true, for me, anyway, life is easier to understand
I may be smiling alone to myself, but at least I won't frown

 

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"Seventy One: A Birthday Poem"

Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
05/01/2024

07:00 a.m. pdt

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A few months after the last birthday
I awoke in the throes of darkness one night
Memory stalled, and time became limbo

I didn't know the year
I couldn't remember my age
Numbers faded and false attacked me
Thoughts hated and fickle caused me confusion

Approaching the calendar hanging in the kitchen
I stared at the numbers
2024, wasn't it 2023?
Couldn't it have been 2022?
What to do, what to do, what to do?

I was certain I was still in my sixties
Or was I in my seventies?
Had I died? Had I cried? Had memory lied?

I didn't know (anything) about time
Standing in the dark
With a light on the laughing calendar
Dyslexic letters and numbers rearranging themselves

Eventually everything arranged itself as usual
The numbers made sense
It was 2024 and I was seventy years old
I sighed a relieving sigh and went back to bed
Just a cosmic joke played out inside my head

Here I settle into the latest birthday
So far the calendar fails to laugh at me
I vow to maintain sanity, to laugh back and have some fun
As I breathe deep, look inward, and chant "seventy one".

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"Legacy"

Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
09/29/2024

09:17 a.m. pdt

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Your life, your legacy, your time flies
Everyone leaves, and everyone dies
You don't worry when young
As you're singing life's song
That the song someday ends
But you're wrong

Memory fades, legacies lost in the sand
Out of tune instruments all 
that's left of the band
You don't think about it now
As the music plays anew
But the symphony slows
Till It's through

Enjoy energetic beats, subtle melodies
Dance while you can, with rich energies
Turn mirrors to the wall
As bright colors seem to pall
Leaves erratic brightly turn
At the fall

Lessen stress and sufferance during darkness
Fill the souls and hearts of the soulless and heartless
Imprint optimism when seeming probable
Enjoy this feeble life when at all possible
Your immediacy will be noticed 
And your legacy is unstoppable

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"Bright Circle in the Sky"

Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
12/15/2024

08:15 a.m. pst

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Here's to all our sunrises and our sunsets
Enjoy them while we may
For they but for a moment stay
We might miss out these moments fleeting
Tho' we know the show will bear repeating
Expanding yearning, finding hope's bright ray

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Morning's full of promise and portent
The evening sun will slowly fall 
But be back next morn, again and for all
These times glorious, when showing through a cloud
Seeming solid though gaseous, pulsing, proud
God and the cosmos reassuring with this call

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One with the universe, the Godhead, soothing, pure
Release human worry and despair
It's difficult sometimes, to be honest and fair 
But the cosmic metaphor appears, again and again
Releasing bright sunshine and hopeful circumstance to fain
energizing our existence through bolts of  beauteous care

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Here's to all our sunrises and our sunsets
Whether seen, or well remembered,
Or forgotten, unencumbered
by the layers life keeps piling on our meager lives.
One wants to fill their heart so often strives
with loving caring beauty softly surrendered.​​​