Happy May Day! Hope your April was overflowing with poetry and you’ll post a new May poem in the comments below.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
Living Poetry 
Ta Prohm Temple, Cambodia
Amidst the jungle’s lush embrace
Ta Prohm stands, a lost palace
A place where roots and walls entwine
A sight to see, a true shrine
Sporadic light streams through the trees
Guiding me through its mysteries
I feel the past whisper in my ear
And sense the history that’s near
The carvings, sculptures, and frescoes
Remind me of what once arose
A culture grand, now long gone
Leaves behind a lasting song
The way the roots embrace the stones
Is as if nature took on thrones
And claimed this place as its own
With beauty that’s still not overthrown
I walk around in awe and wonder
Taking in all the sporadic splendor
It feels like time has stood still
In this temple, nature’s will
And as I leave, I turn my head
And take one last look, heart full of dread
For I know I may never return
To this magical place that makes my heart yearn.
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Posted by The Inkwell (Pankaj Kumar) | May 1, 2023, 8:19 AMLovely! I especially enjoyed the “roots and walls entwine” and and “the roots embrace the stones”. Great work!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 1, 2023, 7:52 PMA home or a tree
I don’t want to live in the clouds.
Build me a home on dirt
near the roots of the old ones
so I can breathe in their woody wisdom
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Posted by JeanMarie | May 3, 2023, 10:55 PMLovely! Especially the “woody wisdom”. Well done!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 4, 2023, 7:15 PMThanks!
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Posted by JeanMarie | May 4, 2023, 9:32 PMhard and steady
my walls stood
carved with years
of wind and rain
trial and strife
you landed on me and
the seed sprouted
on me, in me
we grew to be one
green flesh, greenstone
and when you left
trunk sliced in two
you, free to fly
smoke someplace nearby (I presume)
The roots of our love remain
hard and steady
my walls stand
carved with years
of wind and rain
trial and strife
and by love
with the power to dissolve
the thick stone
surrounding my heart
greenstone, green flesh
forever
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Posted by Chris Clarke | May 5, 2023, 6:41 PMLovely, especially the “carved with years” line. Well done!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 5, 2023, 7:15 PM