Best Black Lung Poems

The mining villages of Wales
are steeped in history and tales
of sons and fathers, duty-bound
who earned a pittance underground.

For generations miners toiled
with picks and shovels, faces soiled.
Their throats parched dry and fingers raw,
black gold the aim, etched scars the score.

And mountains whisper tales of men
who failed...

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Spring hasn't sprung: No bees have stung;
No painter's fallen off a ladder's rung.
No miner's contracted black lung.

Spring hasn't sprung: No batter has swung
At a strike three pitch that no hurler has flung
In a ballpark where Opening Day Game banners
  have yet to be hung.

Spring...

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my soul is the shape of a bloodstain
poured there by Nadine Maraschino
my right eye sits
in the ruby voodoo goblet
that she wears upon her head
Nadine was a 3-toed egg laying harpy
from the cauldron of shame
but she used her brain cleverly
with candor and anti-obfuscatory ardor
it was the...

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To All Mothers Everywhere
To all mothers
everywhere
Why do you part your legs
toward
the 21st Centaury
Didn’t you know
That the future is our final station
Where the monkey sits and waits
To collect
For a debt that has long been owed?
And he will never be denied
payment.
That fateful stop is close now. 
Didn’t...

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A young Shepardflees fascist Italy,
in a boat crossing a tereachorous sea.
His rudimentary education,
ending sheep in Abruzzi, Italy.
His venture, to seek a life of freedom,
on the cold gold ground of La'mere-rr-ika.

He walked out of the pasture near Penna,
into the black pit coal holes of Scranton.
Pick and...

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Pretenders in the mouth like lemons.
Hamartia.

Is wishing
Denying?
Do I
Deny You?

A dirge by the pier
is the darkness I hear
when You are not here,
when I tell myself
I will always fear.

Yet You visit, still,
my lightless room
and the Breath of Life
permeates perfectly...

You're a monarch when it rains,
yet I cannot believe
that...

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Distain, dripping now, from lying forked tongue
Transcending eyes upon shattered back door
Your poisonous breath has filled your black lung
My skin, silky beneath rough hands, has tore

I beg, freedom from bleak endless suffering
How your hands fit perfectly ‘round my neck
My mere flesh no longer is buffering
Your...

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Once, I was trapped behind a dump truck.
It moved like a slug with black lung.
Belched an awful noise. 
Tossing gravel like a widower tosses tears...
Every time a piece struck my grill.
I'd wince and duck like a stray dog cowering.
Before a steel toed world.
I said a...

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All of the Gnomes from around the globe
Just sneezed their very last sneeze
They've had enough of this allergy stuff
And from the garden they're taking their leave

They packed up their bags, donned their bonnet's and caps
Left in the cover of night
Said goodbye to the trees along...

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Nimble fingers playing along
This black lung rending mining song
It touches your soul and lingers
Playing along nimble fingers

Heartache breaking common miner
Could ne'er be sung any finer
A strong tune that's overtaking
Common miner, heartache breaking

Match the tempo of mountain man
As long and as fast as you can
Guitar with...

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12/23/21


Accidents and intentions coincide
Meaning it was or wasn't of one's own design
Caused a mark
Girl you left me in the dark
You were in mine, but I guess I wasn't in your heart
So why keep you notified
This is bonafide
Day just begun or ended and it's closing time
In...

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Little to show for a hard days work
Maybe black lung, inhaling all that dust
Flip a coin, go right home or stop for a beer
Heads came up, In God We Trust.

Kids playing baseball in the street
Need to put a kitchen window in
Kids didn’t mean it mom,...

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I Pray

I harvest black gold
And buried sunshine 
In an underground tunnel
With hammers , picks and shovels
I ride a rail cart to get around 
I wear a hard , black hat
And carry a flashlight 
I’m coated in powdery charr 
Whose substance is used to 
make fuel...

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They’re trying to tell you
That your superstitions and machinations 
Are an exhausting game of whack-a-mole
They’re trying to tell you 
You’ve assumed a version of them
That society told you existed and you never questioned
They’re trying to tell you 
At every corner a new threat lies
From a...

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Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Background of the word: This 45-letter word was coined in 1935, by 
the president of the National Puzzlers' League of the United States, Everett E. Smith, in a presentation about the ever-growing length of medical terms.

He coined it to show how ridiculously long medical terms...

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