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Write On Magazine's Featured Poet

Joel Verlin

Poet from Tampa, Florida

 

Persist
By Joel Verlin

I will not let despair control me I will not let rejection deter me I will not allow the length of the journey to discourage me I will not let negativity possess me fully I will not allow anyone to cast me in the role of a microbe I will not allow anyone to rob me of my dignity I will not let myself lose my self-respect I will not let fear frighten me I will dream I will persist I will win! © 1996 copyright Joel M. Verlin

 

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Stuck Behind A Truck
By Joel Verlin

I wish those morons would learn how to drive they're going so fast to get to where they're going they all think it's their road you sometimes wonder if you're going to make it though alive blast the radio and you go but then you stop you're going nowhere as you see a traffic jam up ahead everyone starts beeping and shooting birds giving obsence gestures and mouthing four-letter words because You're stuck behind a truck and are out of luck about ready to brust and dying of thirst on this hot fall afternoon driving you hate and soon will be late if you don't leave the interstate soon lord, teach them how drive won't you please teach them how to drive Don't like those Hartline busses, no don't like those construction workers, no don't like those downpours, no don't like those mergeramps, no Everyone's rushing during rush hour everyone's crushing during crush hour everyone's pushing during push hour and take no prisioners I'll give you something to take to the bank no one will mess with me when I get my M-1 Abrams Tank swing around the 105mm gun to have some fun and then you'll have those traffic ticket giving cops on the run and no one, I mean no one will cut you off and you'll never be Stuck behind a truck and out of luck about ready to brust and dying of thirst on this hot fall afternoon driving you hate and soon will be late if you don't leave the interstate soon lord, teach them how drive won't you please teach them how to drive © 1996 copyright Joel M. Verlin

Not As Bad As Mine
By Joel Verlin

My alarm didn't ring and I was late for work my best friend just hung up on me, he thinks I'm a jerk my bank called up, I'm overdrawn my neighbor's dog in doing the business, on my front lawn my insurance company rejected my claim my lawyer just called me and said change my name I just burned my expensive chicken dinner my lotto ticket fizzled, it wasn't a winner my car is in the shop so what else is new my bills are all past overdue the girl I like just shot me down I feel like loser in this mean old town I was looking foward to watching Star Trek on TV but lighting shot the cable, and no one at the company is answering me what do I do, what do I say? why get upset, no one's listening anyway. © 1996 copyright Joel M. Verlin

About the poet . . .

Joel Verlin is a resident of Tampa, Florida where he operates his own business, New Frontiers International, and works in Surgical Services Administration at University Community Hospital. Joel serves as Vice President of RhymeMasters and Young Poets and is active in the Suncoast Toastmasters Chapter, Toastmasters International and the Tampa Bay Poetry Council. He frequently performs his poems at Barnes & Nobel and Holiday House Cafe. His poems have been published in Archaeology and The Russian Exchange, 1996 published by St. Petersburg Independent Open Poetry Society.

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Please direct any inquiries or comments about Joel's poems
to his e-mail address: joelv@earthlink.net

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