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Mark RickerbyShow poetry

Hello Friends,

My name is Mark Rickerby. 
Thanks for visiting my author page.


 

Check out this site for important information
that every one of us should know:
www.TheThirdJihad.com

 
Know Your Enemy
http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=0861ff3eabea1ceb73e4

 

***
If you have a minute, please click here:
http://www.ednews.org/articles/15865/1/An-Interview-with-Mark-Rickerby-Belfast-and-Kindness/Page1.html 
 to read an interview regarding my upcoming bookThe Other Belfast (Please leave a comment after the interview
and let me know you were there.  Thanks!)


"I come to Mark Rickerby's author page and other writings
periodically.  Each time I come away feeling a gamut of emotions,
but the main one is warmth that stems from his love of humanity
and verve for life.   Mark always sees more than what appears on the surface, and he makes a point of revealing what he finds hidden and hypocritical.  He examines with intelligence the human circumstance, his travels (both physical and mental),
and shares his own experiences
with insight, humor, the courage of his convictions, and wisdom.

I come away from his page always thinking . . . wanting to make a better
difference in life, and always with a smile, or a tear, expanding my own sense of heart.  My words do not come easily, and probably do not do justice in expressing my admiration for one of the
most emotive, provocative, and profound writers on All Poetry.

These pages present some of the influences and observations
that form the opinions and visions of just one man, but reading them will encourage you to step outside yourself,  to love and explore life passionately, compassionately, and more fully."Karen (Klassy Lassy)  

 

 


Portrait of a Beautiful Woman.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=it7NQBN-lO0

 


 


 

Steve Irwin

1962 - Too Soon

 

He had the heart of a lion and the faith of a child.

God's creatures lost their greatest defender today.

Seems what's true for them is true for our Steve.

We never know what we have till it's taken away.

 

Rest in Peace, mate.

 

(First line above borrowed from Change This World,

the song sung at Steve Irwin's memorial service.)

 

 

Here's a link if you'd like to hear the song

and watch the one-hour memorial. 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z7drBmh-g4

 

 

********************************************************


I'd like to introduce a child I sponsored

through the Christian Children's Fund. 

Her name is Caroline and she lives in Zambia. 

Is she a cutiepie or what?



You can sponsor a child by clicking here - 
ChristianChildrensFund.org

Very few of us can do anything to change the entire world,

but we can change one child's entire world

for only $25.00 a month. 

It's very little to us but a lot to her. 

What's there to think about?






I thought I'd put up a more recent photo of myself. 
It was taken at the AllPoetry.com annual party. 
I finally had the chance to meet the one person on this site
who doesn't like my writing style. 

(I know - it's hard to imagine.) 
That's him on the right. 

(Dig those crazy wolfman gloves. 

You can see the guy's wrists! 
Not a lot of attention to detail in those days, I guess.  lol)


BRAGGING SECTION

 

My short story

The Master's Short-Lived MMA Career

will be in an upcoming issue of

Black Belt Magazine. 

 

 

 

 

My short story

My Summer of Love

is in the October/November 2009 issue of

Whole Life Times.

(To read it, visit www.wholelifemagazine.com

and click on the virtual magazine at the

upper right corner of the home page.) 

 

 

 

 

My short story

The Journey Home 

is in the June 2006 issue of 

Inside Kung Fu magazine.


 

 


An excerpt of my poem Gratitude

can be found in the books 

Chicken Soup to Inspire the Body and Soul,

and

Chicken Soup - Older and Wiser (Our 101 Best Stories)

available at all major bookstores.

 

 

 

 

Back When I Was Your Age (poem),
The Super-Duper, Ultra-Compacted,

Rainbow-Swirl, Big-As-Your-Fist Superball (story),
and Escape to a Foreign Island
(story, formerly Thanks, Sinbad)
will be in upcoming issues of Nostalgia Magazine. 
It's a great magazine for anyone with a love for or interest

in old times, (even if you weren't around yet!) 

For a subscription, visit their site at
www.nostalgiamagazine.net





Great news!  

I wrote a tribute poem for Rodney Dangerfield,

my all-time favorite comedian, who died in late 2004.  

His wife, Joan, a wonderful lady who stood by Rodney

through some very difficult times, multiple surgeries, etc.,

and made his final years immensely happier

than they otherwise might have been,

has posted the poem on his official website!  

What an honor.  

Here's the page -

http://www.rodney.com/about/news.asp




By the way,

There's a special DVD sale at the site of Rodney's

TV specials and interviews,

with a lot of never before seen footage.  

 

Visit Joan Dangerfield's website at  

www.jungleroses.com

(Check out the giant rainforest roses.  They're amazing!)

Last but not least, I have also written the white version

of the Oscar-winning song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp

(Trying To Get The Money For The Rent)". 

It's called "It's extremely difficult in our modern-day

society for a pimp to acquire the necessary capital

to secure his housing accommodations."


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God Bless Our Soldiers.
www.iwo.com/heroes.htm

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A few people have complained about the photo above

and asked that I post an actual photo of myself. 

Okay, here it is -





Alright, enough joking around.  Seriously, here I am . . .





I'm sorry. 
That's very immature of me. 
I really do need to grow up one of these days. 
Sincerely this time, here I am . . .


 


Please don't ask me my age. 
I'm starting to get very sensitive about it. 
But to help you figure it out,
here's a childhood picture of me.






There is magic in storytelling. 

Maybe it's just the rush of creativity.

Maybe it's avoiding what Maya Angelou called

"the agony of bearing an untold story inside of you." 

Or maybe it's revenge against death;

stealing a little more, with each story, from his suitcase. 

As they say, when a person dies, it's as if a vast library burns

to the ground.  So the more stories we tell and record

for posterity, the more we cheat death of his victory

and achieve a kind of immortality.

 


MY SITE PHILOSOPHY

I judge people by their heart, not their level of education

or talent.  I believe in encouraging others and helping them

find the greatness within themselves,

greatness they might not have been aware of

until someone pointed it out to them.  

I believe that our inner world should be clean

because the outside world is not. 

I believe that everything we think, say and write

either adds to or detracts from our happiness

and the happiness of everyone we come into contact with,

so the most loving thing we can do for our friends

and loved ones is to strive to be happy

and emotionally consistent ourselves

so they will have one less burden in their lives -

the burden of worrying about us.   

I use my real name, not a nickname,

because I stand behind everything I say.  I

f you read my work and the debates

that sometimes occur beneath them,

you will see that I have some strong opinions. 

For example, I might joke around with liberals 

a little now and then . . .




But I also poke fun at conservative figures . . .





I mean, come on, funny is funny.

The important thing is that we talk

without wanting to kill each other.

Whether you're right or left, conservative or liberal,

Republican or Democrat, we're all Americans.  

We're not supposed to see ourselves

as two separate entities in some undeclared war.  

That's not what our forefathers wanted.  

That's not the way America is supposed to be.

 

So go ahead and lay into me

if you disagree with anything I write,

but do it with respect and I'll respond in kind.  

I enjoy a good debate but I don't get emotional

about anything that is said to me here, good or bad. 

I just keep on writing either way. 

Even when I'm verbally slapping around a bully

(which the Internet is teeming with because of the anonymity

and lack of accountability it provides), 

I'm laughing the entire time. 

If there's one thing I've learned from writing workshops

and sites like this, it's that everybody has their own taste. 

One person can absolutely love a piece of writing

and the next can despise it, and it's okay either way. 

To be overly flattered by compliments or crushed by

criticism is to place the opinions of others above your own,

which is like letting the waiter eat your dinner.

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's when unpublished,

unknown writers (like most of us) join this site, then proceed

 to act superior, as if they are Ernie Hemingway, insulting

other writers.  This is a place to learn and grow. 

None of us are finished products. 

We're all trying to find our voice and develop our skills,

so people who act superior are incredibly annoying,

mainly because poets in general have nothing

to feel superior about. 

There are very few famous poets in the world,

especially America.  There's just no money in it. 

If you want money, make a slasher film or start a porn site. 

Most people aren't interested in the subtle nuances of language

or capturing the sublime in words. 

Poets are the bastard children of the literary world

so for them to fight is like wino's in an alley fighting over

a 50-cent bottle of ripple. 

Constructive criticism is great, but if anyone starts acting

 highbrow and putting down my work sarcastically,

I will kick him like a rented mule until his head is reduced

to a piece of tattered flesh and tooth fragments 

hanging from his collar. 

(Figuratively speaking.)
 
I enjoy being around people

who are fully human,
who feel deeply,
who display the full range of emotions

without being abusive toward others,
who aren't afraid to express themselves,
who have nothing but love for everyone around them,
who have a streak of righteous indignation,
who ache for the suffering of others

and do everything they can to ease it,
who cry when they see a stranger in pain, 
who don't have to know someone personally

to care about them,
who value the short time they have to be alive
and want to add as much light as possible
to this troubled world.

There are some poets on this site who are those kind of people. 

Their words reflect who they are perfectly. 

I can be sure when I'm reading the work

of my best friends here (and you know who you are)

that I'm seeing directly into their souls. 

Others treat writing as some kind of game,

as if it doesn't matter what they put into the universe;

as if the words they say, think and write

don't shape their lives.  But they do. 

Everything we do (everything) reverberates into the world

and either adds to the light or the darkness

outside and inside ourselves. 

So love my writing or hate it,

but know that I labor over every word,

and I have the greatest respect for poets here

who I can see do the same.

Side A is now over.

Please fast forward the tape to side B.

As bizarre as it may sound, some people on this site

have actually accused me of being a little bit overzealous

about my defense of America, the land that I love. 

Can you believe that?  I think such accusations are

totally groundless.  In fact, just to show you how down to

earth I am, here's a recent photo of myself.




 

 
If you want to read my work (below) more selectively,
here's a list of the ones that have placed in contests on this site.

 


 

 

 GOLD

The Tips of the Tallest Trees (2)
Just Live (3)
Gratitude
Carlos
Your Coat as Well
It's Love That Makes A Home
Things Just Ain't Jellin' Since I Lopped Off My Melon
Thank You, Mom
The Devil's Best Tool
I'm a Poet
I Love You
Alien Classroom
To Hell and Back on a Vespa
The Journey Home - For My Grand Master
Touring Paris with Jim Morrison
The Dirty Mirror
Journey to God
For Sara
Confession Time
The Pretentious Coffeehouse Poet-Type Guy
Holocaust
Sea of Lies
Mama Lucia's Cafe
The Enchanted Isle
Keep An Eye On Summer
How We Survive
Fartology - The Neglected Science
Halloween Breakdown
An Open Letter To Islamic Terrorists
For Jacqui
Cupid is a Blind, Little Jerk
The Upside of Hatred
Double-O Dumb Ass
What Happens To Them
Teams
Steve Irwin - Nature's Greatest Defender
Godzilla vs. Mark
What We Gave To Love
'Twas the Night Before Christmas - Revisited
The Empty House
Love's Greatest Test
Two Worlds
Change
The Other Side of Solitude
Little Ways
The Devil's Best Tool
The Lane That We're In
Jelly Rolls
Fallen Heroes
Welcoming the Fall
Songs of Hope
SILVER

A Woman Walks Alone
Who Can You Trust?
Jelly Rolls
Busted By The Phlegm Police
Sybil Attacks!
Talky Tina
The Crawlspace
Void
The Super-Duper, Ultra-Compacted,
Rainbow Swirl, Big As Your Fist Superball
Without You
On Looking Through Old Photographs
Godzilla vs. Mark
A Soldier's Letter From Iraq
The Mysterious Notes
The Endless War
The Dreaded Potato Bug
Boo Frickin' Hoo Hoo - Ode to a Sore Loser
Coffee and Pancakes, The Hard Way
Magic Eraser
Sleeping Giant
That We Were Kind
The Lane That We're In
Franken-What?
Sing Your Heart Out
Yay!  I'm Still Here!
Far Away
Trust the Spring
Jackals
A Lack of Loving
Sue Me!  I'm a Gemini!
Go Now, and Rest
My Gal Penelasquat
PB&J = Peace, Beauty and Joy
Greek Island
Traveling with Bukowski
I Got Your Faithful Branch Right Here!
Rock-a-Hoola Dreams
The Enchanted Isle 
 BRONZE

Too Full
The Beast
Mickey the Mouth
Fractured
For Ryan White - 1971-1990
Yo Quiero This!
KFC = Killing Friendly Chickens!!
Would Anyone Like to Buy a Slightly Bent Flugal Horn?
The Other Side of Solitude
Faith
Greek Island
How AllPoetry.com Saved The World
The McGee Curse
Puk-Ack!!  (An Homage to Super Chicken)
Happy Birthday to You
How Easy We Die
Merry Christmas, My Ass!
It's Easy for Jeezy to be Cheesy
A Crooked Trick
Without You
Fallen
Photo of a Ghost
The Twisted Twits (The Modern Brady Bunch)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Art is not a mirror held up to reality,
but a hammer with which to shape it."
(Bertolt Brecht)

I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.

One world is aware and by far the largest to me,
and that is myself,
And whether I come to my own to-day
or in ten thousand or ten million years,
I can cheerfully take it now,
or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.
(Walt Whitman)

"Every man is haunted until his humanity awakens."
(William Blake)

"Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie,
but rather mourn the apathetic,
throng the coward and the meek
who see the world's great anguish and its wrong,
and dare not speak."
(Ralph Chaplin)

"While these teachers said
that we would appreciate poems much more if we understood the virtues of iambic pentameter, allusion, and the resonance of repetition, they would not have us dismember a poem's anatomy at the risk of its soul, or squeeze meaning from it at the expense of delight.  Looking back, I realize they simply believed in the magic of poetry's music and sought to expose us -
even the tone-deaf among us -
to the pleasure of listening to the best words in the best order."

(Bill Moyers -
Fooling With Words)

"Nothing is altogether lost -
neither the silent pain of stars nor the ancient world of wisdom.  Under the rippling and deceiving surface, naked and pure, the human spirit follows the unseen that beckons our shadows
into the first fresh gladness of awakening."
(Yiannis)

"From the deepest sincerity comes the greatest achievement." 
(Confucius)

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to do nothing."   
(Edmund Burke)

"Good timber does not grow with ease.
The stronger the wind, the stronger the trees." 
(Williard Marriott)

"Your vision will become clear only
when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams.  
Who looks inside, awakens."
(Carl Jung)

"Rest not! Life is sweeping by! 
Go and dare before you die." 
(Goethe)

"Young lovers seek perfection. 
Old lovers learn the art of sewing shreds together
and seeing beauty in the multitude of patches."
(How To Make An American Quilt)

"If you put a small value upon yourself,
rest assured that the world will not raise your price."   
(Anon.)

"Everything can be taken from a man
but one thing,
the last of human freedoms:
to choose one's attitude
in any given set of circumstances."   
(Viktor Frankl)

"You must not lose faith in humanity.
Humanity is an ocean;
if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,
the ocean does not become dirty." 
(Mohandas Gandhi)

"There is no agony like bearing
an untold story inside of you." 
(Maya Angelou)

"Bad things are not the worst things
that can happen to us.
NOTHING is the worst thing that can happen to us."   
(Richard Bach)

"A life spent making mistakes
is not only more honorable,
but more useful
than a life spent doing nothing."   
(George Bernard Shaw)

"When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard,"
I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"   
(Sydney J. Harris)

"Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind."   
(Dr. Seuss)

"Everyone has talent.
What is rare is the courage
to follow the talent
to the dark place where it leads."   
(Erica Jong)

"The world breaks everyone, and afterwards
many are strong at the broken places."   
(Ernest Hemingway)

"Empty pockets never held anyone back.   
Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that."   
(Norman Vincent Peale)

"Make it a rule of life never to regret
and never to look back.
Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it;
it's only good for wallowing in."   
(Katherine Mansfield)

"Courage doesn't always roar. 
Sometimes courage is the little voice
at the end of the day
that says I'll try again tomorrow."   
(Mary Anne Radmacher)

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal.
Love leaves a memory no one can steal."   
(From a headstone in Ireland)

"He who trims himself to suit everyone
will soon whittle himself away."   
(Raymond Hull)

"My father didn't tell me how to live;
he lived, and let me watch him do it."   
(Clarence Budington Kelland)

"Our children learn more
from what they see in our eyes
than what they hear from our lips." 
(Me)

"The pessimist complains about the wind.   
The optimist expects it to change.   
The realist adjusts the sails."   
(Arthur Ward)

"Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers;
powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life
 if aroused and put into action." 
(Orison Swett Marden)

"If you can't laugh at yourself,
someone else is going to do it for you,
 and you're not going to enjoy it nearly as much."   
(Anon.)

"Decide what you want,
decide what you are willing to exchange for it.
Establish your priorities and go to work."   
(H.L. Hunt)

"Try as much as possible to be wholly alive,
with all your might,
and when you laugh, laugh like hell,
and when you get angry, get good and angry.
Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough."   
(William Saroyan)

"No matter what you do or how bad you feel about it,
life just goes on. Life doesn't give a damn that you're sorry or upset or deranged or tormented.  Life just goes on, and you gotta go on with it, or sit in the middle of the road a
nd feel sorry for yourself."   
(Laurell K. Hamilton)

"There are only two races -
the decent and the indecent."   
(Victor Frankl)

"Regret is just mental masturbation
without the happy ending." 
(Grand Master Don Baird)

"There are two kinds of Pacifism - to turn the other cheek
(Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King), or to become so strong
that no one will dare attack you."   
(Tom Laughlin)

"Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing
in a simple way."
(Charles Bukowski)

"An unhappy person can pick a fight with a flower."
(Claudia)

"Within, I do not find wrinkles and used heart,
but unspent youth."

"Keep me away from the wisdom
which does not cry,
the philosophy 
which does not laugh,
and the greatness
which does not bow before children."

"Some believe that life is a conflict between the rich and the poor. 
Sane people know it's a battle between good and
evil."

"This great evil - where does it come from? 
How did it steal into the world?  What seed, what root did it grow from?  Who's doing this?  Who's killing us, robbing us of life and light, mocking us with the sight of what we might have known?  Does our ruin benefit the earth, aid the grass to grow and the sun to shine?  Is this darkness in you, too? 
Have you passed through this night?"
(The Thin Red Line)

"When I despair, I remember that all through history
the way of truth and love has always won.  There have been tyrants and murderersand for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -
think of it, always."
(Mahatma Gandhi)
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.
The decayed and degraded state of moral and pat

My Lists

Poems I'm focused on

  • He could produce only anger and hatred.
    It would be excused and even expected
    15 lines, 10 comments, October 25

My Poetry

1 - 3 of 266   Show all Search
  • Two friends went out for a walk one summer day
    When dark clouds rolled in and it started to rain.
    30 lines, 12 comments, September 27
  • I wrote a poem one morning
    Sat back, smiled, and thought,
    33 lines, 14 comments, September 26
  • I'm shocked, appalled, outraged and aghast
    Because a car that was traveling way too fast
    30 lines, 12 comments, September 19

My Stories

1 - 3 of 8   Show all at storywrite
  • He watched an old woman in a black dress carefully navigating the cobblestone path and wondered if the loves he had known in his younger, more careless days would remember him with fondness when they too had
    51 lines, 14 comments, August 12, 2005. In , <600 words, Other
  • I used to think that there are two kinds of people - those who are awake and those who are asleep.  But after living a little while longer, I realized that there are actua
    57 lines, 13 comments, August 12, 2005. In <200 lines, Other
  • When I was about eight years old, my father changed jobs and we had to move.  They bought a house that was much larger than our old one.  I didn't want to move and le
    2484 lines, 48 comments, November 3, 2004. In <200 lines, Spiritual

My other items

1 - 1 of 1   Show all

Guest Book

1 - 4 of 1010   Show all
  • Night Hope on October 28



    Pay back for all the spiders you left on my page, Mark.

    Happy Halloween, my Friend.
  • sidewinder on October 26
    crawls all over your page
  • Grunts Girl on September 15
    Thank you for your kind words. They mean a lot to us. Times are very tough right now - many Marines have come home to the base we are at here severely injured and dead. I feel like there is a service twice a week and it gets so I don't even drive on a certain side of the island anymore because I don't what to see it anymore. Paul is truely my hero and as tough as it is being alone and keeping the homefront he is my rock. I am so proud of him and his guys and just hope this last tour of his will be ok and that he will come home- alive and in ONE piece.
    It is small gestures like yours that makes me realize I can get up another day and function.
    Thank you.
    Heidi
  • Night Hope on September 13

    I must agree with PurpleSky, M.L. Bring back YOUR face. It's always a pleasure to see it, my Friend.

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