Here comes another installation of Poetry on the Move contest entries to keep National Poetry Month moving.
Enjoy! And if you care to leave a comment, I know the poets would love hearing from you.
Poetry on the Move is a project of the Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. All poems remain the property of the authors.
Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate
* * *
Something In Us
We grew from ORCHARDS and Sand in this VALLEY.
In HOME garages, great minds CONNECTED us.
ELECTRONS streamed, re(e)-inventing the way we view the world.
Here, the World comes to us, not because of lines that have crossed.
Because something in us Changes lines to include the All in US.
by Nick Butterfield
San Jose, CA
* * *
State of Mind
California
Golden State
Land of Invention
Reinvention
Mother of Invention
Innovation
Promised Land
Land of Opportunity
Promise
Future
by Debbie Ford-Scriba
Sunnyvale
* * *
Going Home
People come from everywhere and wind-up on Stevens Creek,
Some talk to friends on their cell phones, while others, they don’t speak,
Some read a book, others sleep as down the road they sail,
I’m happy to be headed home today on the light rail.
by Stan Garber
Los Gatos
* * *
The Little Spider
Designer and builder
No degree from a school
She builds what she needs
Without blueprint or tool.
Climbing, rappelling
Trailing silk all the way
Constructing radials and circulars
It’s done in a day.
Apprehending a fly
She binds him up tight
Using loops of her silk
He’ll be dinner tonight.
by J. Richard Gaskill
Los Gatos
* * *
Invention
An inventor invents a tool
with the one shape that fits.
An artist invents light
with the right shade of blue.
A mother invents a soup
with her last scraps of food.
A child invents the world
with the ants in the sand.
by Kathleen Goldbach
Campbell
* * *
Antiques
Alas, I have another fear:
Antiques get newer every year.
Computers now are getting old—
I must accept that, I am told.
I guess I mustn’t make a fuss
When they include my old Mac Plus.
I’m sure I’ll see, before I drop,
An iPod in an antique shop.
by Jack Hasling
Cupertino
* * *
Invent-ory
On the train,
in the bus,
no need for defensive
driving.
In the quiet,
scenery passing,
“what if’s” rise to the top.
The best thinking
not always in the shower.
The wheels turn,
the mind’s wheels turn,
replenishing the invent-
ory of ideas.
by Bonnie Home
San Jose
* * *
On the Right Track
It’s a mouse that cruises all day,
in Silicon Valley it finds its way.
You can Google the traffic right around the area
or take the historic trolley without the hysteria.
“Take us to Great America”,
as they jump and scream in euphoria.
by Nicandro Ilagan
Milpitas
* * *
Ode to an Electric Motor
(Powering a VTA Light Rail Car)
Oh Motor — How quietly you propel through busy sanity;
Silently laughing, almost smirking at auto profanity.
Oh Motor — Ever driven forward – Faraday’s electrons pulsing overhead;
Your safe, warm transport sometimes forgotten as dreams turn dread.
Oh Motor — Powering things big and small, keep us on-track through life’s inhumanity.
by B. Johnson
San Jose
* * *
Silicon Valley 3.0
Once dubbed Valley O’Hearts Delight
begat Shockley’s transistors
a silicon birthright
The Farm seeding
ventures to be
computing solutions the fruit of HP
NeXT Jobs and The Woz
thought differently
Macintosh truly an extension of me
iPhoney friends only in numbers grow
#Quantifed-self a friend or a foe?
Crowdsourced solutions IS Valley 3.0h
by Edward Jonathans
Campbell
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate Blog 