JOHN KANIECKI - POEMS

John Kaniecki writes prose and poetry. His poetry has appeared in over one hundred outlets and his prose in about a dozen. He was until recently a full-time caregiver for his wife Sylvia who suffers from dementia. She is now presently safe in a nursing home. John works as an assistant to a lawyer. He is also a peace activist and a minister in the Church of Christ. As being openly bipolar he is an advocate for the mentally ill community. His story to overcome his mental illness and his declaration of humanity is told in his memoirs "More Than The Madness." 

John's poem “Tea With Joe Hill” won the Joe Hill Poetry Contest in 2012 along with a $500 prize. 


https://johnkaniecki.weebly.com/
 
http://johnkaniecki.blogspot.com/
 
https://www.facebook.com/JohnsPoems/

Love Letters
​

​Love letters
Reckless rambling wayward words
Smashing foul fetters
Groans of pleasure heard
Intimate touch
Insanely too much
Sounds rolling of the tongue
You can only be young
One time
Was it a crime
To express
Love and tenderness
I hear you never married
And that you carried
An iron cross
I feel for your loss
Would you feel better
If I sent to you
A love letter
 
 

I Can't Think Now
​

​Clock clicking
Keyboard teetering as I type
Pesky fruit fly zooms on by
Sylvia stirring on the couch
Love poems taped to the wall
Over a lithograph of the Brooklyn Bridge
It is signed and entitled by the artist
A wedding photograph
I don't like the way that I am looking
Hair too short and belly too big
My shoes need replacing
I glance in the mirror where the clock hangs
I am clean shaven but my hair is frazzled
Mirror needs cleaning
We have no Windex
This is working seems to be getting somewhere
I am angry and I am calm
The noise of the clock is a distinct constant
Allen Ginsburg wrote stream of conscious
As did the other Beat Writers
I bet he edited Howl though
I'll give you ten to one odds
We are almost never what we claim to be
Professional athletes are vastly over paid
We should eliminate the position of owner
My egalitarian ideals are shining
Like the electric lamp in the dingy mirror
I wonder if I should edit this?
The desk is a mess and it needs some dusting as well
The clock's noise is reminiscent of a constant water tap dripping
The Beatles wrote a song about that
"I'm fixing a hole where the rain comes in"
I won't quote the subsequent line
I am cracking my knuckles reading what I just wrote
I think I am almost finished with my poem
If I could just find a clever way to end
 
 
 

The Arm Chair Revolutionary
​

​ 
All men are created equal
Sounds like a phenomenal
Sound byte to pass on
Right on!
Fight on!
Equal how
In which way?
Where do we find
Womankind?
 
The Arm Chair Revolutionary
A step back
From Jack
On the evolutionary
Chain
He feels your pain
Hey don’t knock him/her
I’ll tell you what for
If he/she had a black friend
And he/she is close enough to pretend
He’d/She’d have them over for dinner
And wouldn’t dare
Hide the good silverware
 
But down in the hood
The work is in desperate need
Where by one look
It is clearly understood
The impoverished masses bleed
They are not to be found anywhere
At least I don’t see them there
I wonder if they really care
Or they merely feign compassion
In idle inaction
 
So you read your books of theory
And with dialectical eyes
You believe your lies
So you can see clearly
You are an unlit candle in the dark night
And I say
We need day light
 
 

There Is A Woe
​

​There is a woe
I used to know
So long ago
Hatred was the vile name
(I recall in shame)
 
I hated within
I hated without
It was a sin
Without a doubt
 
I knew something was terribly wrong
To be a man I need be strong
(But perchance what is strength?)
(To lift the massive weight?)
(Or to run the eternal length?)
 
But love as a kernel was planted deep
Watered by my tears as I fell to sleep
It was my most sincere prayer
To find a true love
A kindred soul to care
But year after year I was denied
And oh how I cried
 
But folly is never wasted upon a youth
Years come
And if the brain is not numb
So manifests the truth
Lies fade before perceptive eyes
 
I came to the crossroads but not to make a deal
The devil with wicked grin steeped in sin
Sought my soul to steal

But I turned my way to the cross
And gained all in my loss
 
 

Kindergarten
​

​Silence,
HUSH, respect is mandatory
How else could it exist?
Stern elders with authoritative titles
Mister So And So
Mrs. Blowing In The Wind
Principle Proper
Learn to patiently wait in line
Wildebeest at the oasis
Three taps at the water fountain
Or perhaps the riotous bully
In alligator joy clumping anger
Will fully twist the handle
Baptizing your face in a streaming current
Of humility
 
Tender shoots
Deeply rooted in invulnerable life
Definitions are being created
Taboos defined
Psychologists to reap bountifully
Seeds of servitude sown
No laughing don’t giggle
As if joy was a sin
What do you mean you want to be happy in life?
Mumbo Jumbo Pledge of Allegiance incantation
Vocabulary undecipherable
Learn to play nice
Profiling has commenced
Be good citizens pay your taxes
Choose your crayon colors carefully
Draw neatly with caution inside the lines
A laboratory infested with mice
Monitored by sadistic half starved alley cats
Detest
Suppress
Success means promotion
To more of the same
Welcome to the best year of your life