Best Coppery Poems

I smell the coppery scent of stale blood
and the stench of death, excrement, and piss.
A soldier lies dead, his face in the mud;
I never knew that war would look like this.

My mind is numb; I dare not shed a tear.
I can't change reality, so why...

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I love you only because I love you
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I love you only because I love you;
I am torn between loving and not loving you,
Between apathy and desire.
My heart vacillates between ice and fire.

I love you only because you’re the...

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to sneak outside,
into the gentle beauty of evening
when all others are asleep,
except for nocturnal hawks like me,

I  wander along the river's shore,
in the twirling, dappled
prism of waves, pebbles and buds,
thrown across the grass
by the skyline flickering through
wind-tossed crowns of  trees--
a rare sensation as...

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Daybreak usually greets me when it ascends each day.
Yawning, I drowsily rise from the comfort of my bed
as the horizon glows with colors in resplendent array.

Dawn announces, "The warmth of Ra is on its way!"
Soon, over land and sea, aureate beams will spread.
Daybreak usually greets...

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The waves crushing her tiny body with striking blows
White creamy wash caresses her golden skin as the wave slows
Moving sluggishly towards the horizon
Because of a recurring vision she hopes she’ll arise in
Her feet digging deep into the sand as it sinks between her toes
Emersed, with...

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let’s take the long way back
beneath shaded oak and aromatic pine
athwart the weathered split-rail fence
bent into the warp and woof of nature’s wiles

past the old place
with its long front porch
and massive beams holding memories
of laughter and dancing feet
in moonlit rooms resonating with sounds of
family and...

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The leaves of the fern
Begin the rhythm of the forest.
The music of the woodland floor
Pulsates to the rise of the sun.

The morning...mists dissipate in silent beats
Playing to every lead from the composer above.
Dapples of light pierce the canopy
Dancing atop the undergrowth’s skin.
Reflective light serenades...the complimentary
Colors...

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Fragrance of Life  ©

Cool rain drums on blistering 
asphalt, the scent streams into 
the nostrils--hot, grassy smell of 
summer, freshly cut-smoky 
cedar lingers on the air 

Fresh popcorn drenched in 
butter, I sit in the dark, musty 
movie house. Childhood 
memories of Tom Mix...

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On gossamer lips
Wisped coppery tendrils
Showering sparks
Riding evening breezes
That radiate off my
Eyelashes in papery
Wet slivers
Sticking only when
Your song of ill-boding
Is breathed over me
Its primitive amity
Contused and crusted
On baneful syllables
In sweet consummation
Where at last I see the
Crumbling bouquet
That’s falls
Onto your pages...

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Jewels of Africa.

The saffron Queen spins the lilac sky,
her rays flick crimson cinders into Royal Blue Oceans.
Submerge, sizzle, frizzle...going, going, gone! ...But Not.
Cumulus clouds drizzle pepper fog over pink Flamingos, homeward bound.

Tea-green Botswana bush,
teeny, tiny Hummingbirds hover over brink-pink Balsams,
feast on elixir of nectar.
Royal Albatross...

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As twilight dims in western skies,
umbra’s odd and coppery band
gloams slowly cross the perished land.

Mystery to our wond'ring eyes,
this marvel now can be unveiled—
a shadow looms, moonlight impaled.

Scarce minutes though its firm demise,
phantasm this or merely dream,
supplanted now by arc lamp's beam.

For few regard eclipsed...

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Cloaking a Burnished Coppery Sky
the darkness fully ebony black
hides the blaze of silvery stars.
Not a single twinkle could be seen.

Then like a true goddess of light
she rode out of the darkest black
and her silvery beams conquered
sending packing that bleak dark.

Now released streaks of copper
heighted and...

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Here lies my notepad, covered in scrawl, my pencil rolls on to the table
I watch as it rolls and suspect it may fall, but it stops at the edge, balanced and stable
The cloth it is on is yellow and blue, sliced into squares of three...

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Sunlit rays gild a coppery Moon;
intensifying Her golden glow.
And She shimmers like a gold doubloon;
in a creek, where rippled waters flow.

She adopts a halo over time;
highlighting Her celestial ascent.
And like a Goddess, She starts Her climb;
a starlet in this gala event.

An ebony curtain pierced by...

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Here I rest upon the smooth rivers bank 
Resting under the protection of white birch
Tasting the scent of spring on old Cape Ann
As if being reborn in the late April sunshine

Here thoughts and memoirs drift on the current
Washing away on coppery green wave crests
Watched by...

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