Best Banked Poems

Hereabouts the thinning glades
Of sparse grey Birches:
Brackens crisp copper tresses 
All aglow;
Gently waking Snowdrops
Lift their sleepy heads
From leafy beds of woodland moil,
When tucked snugly up,
Out...

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Old John's birthday was approaching, he'd be seventy two
And his family asked him nicely what he'd like to  do
"Do you fancy a nice picnic...

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MOMMY

OF WHAT ARE WE MADE INSIDE US
Well my dear Ruth
We are made up of protons,
And Neutrons,
And of course Atoms,
And Molecules.
But isn’t this conversation
A little premature
For...

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Headed home from a business trip
Tired, spaced out, grouchy and impatient
Pushing the limit to beat rush hour traffic
Fast closing on an old jalopy van

Suddenly blue...

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I Am That I Am…Without End…

Listen, my heart is a soul drum
Beating the spiritual rhythms 
Of the sojourning struggle of life—
Pumping pulsating blood inking
The notes...

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As heavy banked clouds rolled across 
the sky, she picked up the broom.
A magical partner as she 
swept the cobwebs and room.

The Blue Danube ran...

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Two naked bodies lying face to face
Conversing silently locked eye to eye
He gently pulls away from her embrace
His loving touch exudes  her ardent sigh
The...

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She is shadowed by fuzzy cobwebs of a morning without coffee,
while dust motes mingle with the mold of time.
Gazing out to the yard, through dingy...

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Rooted on a moss-banked hill,
its branches spread far and wide.
By Summer's end, leaves veined gold and crimson.
Then, Autumn’s hand brushed them with russet paint.
Twas the...

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The Anticipation of Snow
David J Walker

No matter how old I grow 
The anticipation of snow
Beckons the memories of my feet
Deep in rubber boots 
We called...

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Cotton fields
White to harvest
Untouched by red clay
Trash, sediment

Banked white snow
Fluffy
Not visited 
By neighborhood dogs

Right out of the pack
The scent of clean,
Soft cotton
Dry and warm

Slip one...

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“belles lettres” 

It’s a slow drifting
off, that moment 
before you dive 
into the dark

you surface 
to find a boat 
surrounded by 
shining pearls,

Styx, a mirror...

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Here We Shall Remain
by Tawfiq Zayyad
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Like twenty impossibilities
in Lydda, Ramla and Galilee ...
here we shall remain.

Like brick walls braced against...

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(Every year in the lunar month of Muharram we Shia Muslims commemorate the brutal martyrdom of the grandson of our Holy prophet Muhammed (s.a.w) and...

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So long, so very long, since the coal has burst to flame;
I have trained with restraint the green eyed monster cursed to flame.

For love is...

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