Featured Poet: Ryan Douglas Roth
Good morning and welcome to the first Feature Friday in a short period. I am thrilled to welcome back Ryan Douglas Roth as today’s feature! Ryan first featured on the site in January, and is a contributor to the Rebirth anthology that released January fifth. I very much enjoy reading his poetry, and am thrilled to learn he has a book out, Here No Evil which you can find on kindle or paperback on Amazon, and happens to be top of my TBR pile. Check out his feature below, and have a wonderful Friday!
The Race I Run
I thought you were my relay partner.
You handed me a baton, so
It didn’t seem strange
You trailed so far
Behind me.
I didn’t realize I was running alone.
You weren’t preparing, and
I couldn’t see you were
In my shadow hiding
From me.
I ran the track alone and lapped you.
You were like a speed bump, just
Laying on the track
Under foot to
Trip me.
I realize now I shouldn’t stumble over you.
You just lay there staring, like
I should have won the race
And I had the chance
To spring off you
Propelling me.
I don’t care if I do well or poor.
I will carry your baton no more.
When You Called, I Answered
I waited for you,
Where the cheery creek used to flow,
And the oak tree used to grow,
I watched the young squirrels gather acorns for food.
By the park downtown,
I waited for you
At the café, that lazy afternoon,
With all those strangers around.
When we made dinner plans to reminisce,
About the things in each other’s lives we’d missed,
I waited for you,
As evening darkened to black from blue.
And the night of the revolution when the fighting loomed,
In the bar-turned-war-room,
To strategize the enemy’s doom,
I waited for you.
I waited for you,
But you didn’t come.
Over cold coffee and stew,
Battle-hardened and numb,
I waited for you, to sing my due –
So, I waited for you, and I go unsung.
Write a Book
What’s a book?
A sequence of letters on the page?
Or is a story
All for glory,
Rallying characters to a stage?
And go to war,
Is that what a poem’s for?
To upset and burn, and die and rage?
Why write at all -
Why trial, why scrawl,
So scattered, so shattered.
Why words, why thoughts,
Why passions, why oughts?
Why think, why sway?
Why pray, why prey?
Why write?
To fight.
To shine a light.
To put right.
In his career, Ryan has worked as an Historical Researcher and, more recently, as a Research and Data Analyst in the social sciences for both government and private sector. His fascination with philosophy, religion and politics energizes the themes in his writing, which tend towards the mysterious.
