Zumwalt Poems Online

Archive for November 23, 2011

Imperfect information

Imperfect information

You 
    and I 
          face off
with 
    battleships 
          on 
                   secret 
                   squares
                   sequentially 
taking 
    pot 
    shots 
         wherever we 
                             choose.

A 
    thin board    
                   separates 
our 
       lines    

of                 sight
A 
   thick
   carpet, 
   underneath.

This 
   is 
      a sequential game
even 
when 
I 
attack  
                out 
                of 
                turn
each 
   and 
      every move
is 
   built 
      on the
      one before.

Round 
after 
round
we proudly announce
a 
  target 
                square.

Sometimes 
  we 
                hit
Sometimes 
  we 
          m  
           i
            s 
             s
But 
     never 
fail to 
                attack.

Salvo, 
       my friend
When 
       you are most 
                relaxed
and think 
       all is 
                calm waters.

As 
long as 
there 
                are ships 
       afloat
There 
will be 
                missiles 
       launched
across 
these 
       now choppy seas.

Salvo, 
       my friend
All 
       shots at once
against 
       our better 
                judgment.

As 
long as 
there 
                are missiles 
       to launch
There 
will be 
                ships 
       targeted
aggravating 
these 
       now choppy seas.

But 
once it is 
clear

there 
is some 
       chance at 
       sinking 
       even 
       one 
       ship
               We 
       pull 
back,
bend 
               the 
               rules,
               re-
               arrange 
               our 
               positions,
       midway,

put    some 
              ships
in reserve,
deny 
       any 
              cease fire
and 
              secretly 
              fill out 
our 
battle reports.

-zumwalt (2011)

Category:

2011, I, Reader's Choice, Zumwalt

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Giving Thanks!

There is so much to give thanks for this year, both in my personal life and regarding this zumpoems.com site.

Thanks for all those that have visited here!  Special thanks for those that take the time to “like” or rate the poems or comment.  This is just a wonderful treat.

I never expected so much traffic to this site or so many subscribers. Very thankful for the wider exposure this has given Zumwalt and many of Zumwalt’s poems.

Thanks to wordpress.com for proving such an excellent, easy to use platform.

Special thanks to WordPress for featuring this site this week at http://en.wordpress.com/tag/poetry/ (Feature on top right.)

Special thanks to those that have nominated this blog for the Leibster award.  That is a great honor.   I have debated about following the instructions of these nominations and creating a post of five blogs, but cannot choose only five from the many, many great sites out there.  I have tried to provide a platform for showcasing blogs at http://choiceposts.wordpress.com but I know it is not the same, and the traffic is still relatively low, so not much of a way of providing recognition.  Maybe one day… 🙂

Please take a look at those blogs in my blogroll — those are just some of the many great poetry blogs out there.  Also have tried to provide links of must read poems at Excellent Articles and Posts.

The best part of blogging has been discovering the wealth of great poetry and articles out there. I never realized how many truly talented poets are out there until starting up this site. I am  amazed at people like Brian and claudia that are doing so much to further encourage so many poets (check out their http://dversepoets.com/ site if you haven’t already.)  Particularly wish to acknowledge those that always find the time to visit so many poetry sites and provide such encouraging comments to the poets they visit.

Poetry is an activity like jogging or playing tennis that one can do for their own enjoyment, and that in itself is a justification for creating poetry.   I particularly admire those that take this activity to the next level, crafting, revising and ultimately creating poems that provide inspiration, joy or just fun entertainment to others. I have found at least a hundred such poets out there, and for me, many of them are creating work much more interesting than the work found in poetry journals.

So, thank you for visiting, and for those that maintain a blog site, thank you even more!

Wishing all that visit, or avoid visiting, or plain don’t know about this site, a Happy Thanksgiving.  That applies to everyone, in all countries, even those that have never eaten Turkey (or tofu-Turkey) and never plan to!

Category:

Uncategorized