BARBARA EHRENTREU

 

BARBARA EHRENTREU

 

Truth Vs. Lies

 

The truth is a hard master

It leads you by the hand

toward paths that are fraught with danger

Forces you to see everything in a clear light

Keeps you on the journey until it is finished

 

The truth is not fun sometimes

and when you cover it up it festers

until finally, though you have tried

so hard to keep it hidden it will pop out

and surprise you when you least expect it

 

Creating a chasm between the real and the

fantasy you have created to hide it

And then it tears apart the very fabric

of your life if you are not careful

And makes enemies of those who were

best buddies minutes ago

 

When you tamper with the truth

and add on scenarios that don’t exist

truth finds a way to scale these scenes

Poking itself into the picture without being asked

and making it impossible to ignore it.

 

When you don’t give truth its attention

and think only of the people involved

you might find yourself on the wrong side of it

with nowhere to go except to continue the lies

used to cover it up

 

Loyalty to a friend is not the same as truth

You can tell yourself you are doing it because

of your friendship as you foster this falsehood

and neglect to investigate to check

Believing your friend always to be in the right

 

But the truth is vicious and will not stop --

Until all know it

Until all believe it

Until all can prove the lie is false

Until the air is cleared, and it has once again

survived and been brought into the sunshine

of existence to shine on the victims of lies.

Copyright 2021 by Barbara Ehrentreu

 

 

 

The Creation Of Satisfaction

 

When you attempt to gain satisfaction by worldly means

your life will be an empty vessel

And the more you try to fill it with things

the emptier it will become

For things are not going to bring you satisfaction for long

Oh, you will exclaim with excitement as each new thing

arrives in your life and nurture it for awhile

until its newness wears off and you crave another thing

Acquiring things doesn’t lead to anything but distress as

you must constantly get more and more until your world

Is filled with things you have discarded, and it is emptier

than before you started adding these things to it.

 

Yet when you strive to add passion to your life that is when

it gains meaning and purpose and you feel a sense of deep

satisfaction without needing to get more and more things

Creating a space of joy by being involved in a task that brings

satisfaction is the only way to fulfill that dream of finding

a complete life and being able to live with happiness

For the rich soil of true contentment only comes from

being involved in what makes you happy

 

Sometimes love will enter our lives in a frivolous way

and we find ourselves sucked into a place where

suddenly everything has gained a new meaning

And life becomes centered around one person

creating a need to find ways to keep this person

alive and safe, and we find ourselves doing

things we never dreamed of doing

And sometimes we try to give this person everything

and find it isn’t enough

because once again, acquiring things doesn’t bring happiness

 

What is needed is a true commitment to cherish this person

and show with your every move and action

how much you value them with all of your heart

And this is what will create a bridge that no things can build

With that bridge from heart to heart you can create a world

centered upon each other, and that is what love is all about

It is a universe created for only two people by their intentions

and by their actions meant to house only them in their own

   Magical bubble.

Copyright 2020 by Barbara Ehrentreu

 

 

On Being Both The Poet

And The Poem Of Your Life

 

If I were a lyrical flowing poem my life would be filled with fantastic realms and

beautiful people living serene and auspicious lives

My mind would be cleared of the horror that surrounds us today

and scenes of lush foliage and colorful experiences would fill it instead

 

I would be the poet of my poem and decide which scenes to add

So, my life would be a luxuriant and lavish adventure

Flowing from day to day with a beauty and structure-- perhaps

the repetition of a rhyming couplet of a loving touch done in two ways

 

My life would be a world of joy and not full of what is now a bleak future

I had never realized I would be living through -- as if a dystopian novel

had come to life, and I was one of the characters forced to live in this made up world

Instead of that dissonant and discordant world I am in-- the poem would be a haven

 

This haven would be wrapping me in the inexplicable delight of flowering gardens

and birdsongs filling the fragrant air, and there would be no need to sit-- for

in a poem the characters are always in flux and never actually sitting still

Though perhaps in my poem I might take time to look over my extensive green valleys

 

I would be both the poet and the poem so I would have the satisfaction of seeing

how my words are working on the ones who are reading them

Or maybe in this case living them, and then I could also edit myself as I continued

to live the life only hitherto set forth in verses that sprang from my fingers.

Copyright 2020 by Barbara Ehrentreu

 

BARBARA EHRENTREU

 

BARBARA EHRENTREU lives in Stamford, CT with her family. If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor, her first book won second prize in Preditors & Editors as Best Young Adult Book for 2011. After is her second book. Barbara has a poetry book, You’ll Probably Forget Me: Living With and Without Hal, which won Honorable Mention in the NLAPW (National League of American Pen Women) Vinnie Ream contest for 2017 and The Child Poet: A Poetic Galaxy for Children, co-written with bestselling author Brenda Mohammed. Several of her poems are published in the anthologies: Crossroads: A Poet’s Life Journey, Poets To Come: Walt Whitman Bicentennial Anthology for 2019, “Queen”, World Poetry Open Mic 2016-,2019, Prompted: An International Collection of Poetry, Beyond the Dark Room, Storm Cycle and Backlit Barbell. In addition, her short screenplay for “The Kiss” won 1st Prize for a Romantic short screenplay at Indie Gathering, and Honorable Mention for Best Dialogue in a Short at Action on Film. She is the Regional Director for the West for Motivational Strips, the world’s most visited writers’ website, and she has received several awards from Motivational Strips and some other foreign governments including: the coveted Indian Independence Day Honor from Gujarat Shaitya Academy on August 15, 2020, Cesar Vallejo Premier Mundio 2020 from Union Hispanomundial de Escritores (UHS)  and Motivational Strips, Premio Mundial A La Excelencia Literaria 2019-2020, The Order of Shakespeare Medal. From Khazakhstan she received World Poetic Star, August 23, 2019. She has a blog, Barbara's Meanderings, and hosts a radio show on Blog Talk Radio, Red River Radio Tales from the Pages, once a month. On Facebook she is a member of several poetry groups, including: The Garden of Poetry and Prose, Sargam – For Arts, Literature and Music, WPOM Poets and Friends, and Poets Attic. She belongs to Greenwich Pen Women Letters and SCBWI.