Best Redux Poems

I found a box when my mother died
And saw the me I was inside.
Big blue eyes and auburn locks,
Rolled up skirt and blue knee socks.

Glee club programs, old year books
Awards and rings tucked into nooks.
And there, a picture of a boy
Who filled my teenage years...

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King Vlad Redux – Second Cold War

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin’s grimy fingerprints on current history
are for him nothing to gloat about—au contraire I say emphatically:
His actions bespeak one who’s not an architect for peace—not at all,
rather a quite deceitful dictator and a harbinger of a Second...

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Lavish locks sprawl pillowed in peace this morn.
Gently whiskered cheeks hint of last night's lipstick
Tensions banished blue grassy fiddling lingers
Let's take it easy

I'll make the omelets
while you get a shower, dear.
Oh? You'd rather play some more?
Alright, eats postponed.
Pounding rhythms drumming heartbeats
Satiation lullaby.

In stillness your breath...

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[Note: this poem was inspired by a strange and terrible experience I had at 17  when I first set foot on the battlefield in 1965 after an interview at the college there: physiologically, it was like being mortally wounded. I was an agnostic then...

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Now gather around, ye lusty lads, a tale I'll tell to thee
Of jealous Gods, monsters and ill-fated men who sailed the sea.
My tale is set in hoary times when fickle fate was by divine decree.
Then men were men who faced all odds, much sturdier than...

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The past year ended in burlesque
champagne oerflowing to the New.
Yet what next comes could be grotesque
if not for ancient scholars who
plot paths of heaven's starry crew.

Their charts of celestial gases
reveal the course of future time,
find a path which safely passes
past Thesaurus and forced line 
to...

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Consistently sincere 
rock solid.
Formidably weathering trite storms.
Carol your dedication
exemplifies
exemplification.

Whether shocked or soothed there you are
discerning
smart
shrewd
kind

You know your own mind.

The Cheshire cat's toothy grin
has nothing on you.

-----------

Inspired to repost by Giorgio's 2/5/14 blog.  Thanks, G!...

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So once again, with grim countenance, the ship sailed on with all bemoaning their woes
Till calm seas prevailed, with balmy sun, sweet zephyr song, they came to Helios' shores.
Helios, calm god of the day, smiled upon the lads, gave of his land free rein, but...

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Two Words – Redux One
 
Thumb
Finger

Hand
Foot

Toe
Toes

Blunder
Thunder

Seam
Beam

Stupidity
Contagious

Intelligence
Desired

Planets
Stars

Venus
Mars

Milky
Way

Iambic
Rhyme

Real
Divine

Curve
Time

Nose
Ears

Sticks
Styx

Bald
Hairy

Baloney
Piffle

Top
Bottom

Trump
Mussolini

Charlatan
Fascist

Sun
Mercury

Cosmic
Certitude

Mad
Man

She
Monster

Eyes
Flies

Turd
Bird

Money
Desire

Fruit
Empire

Pain
Pane

Brain
Drain

Red
Blue

Tie
Shoe

Gun 
Bullet

Fun
Bun

Wind
Rain

All
Same

Drugs
Thugs

Atwill
Actor

Lamarr
Actress

Snot
Plot

Rasputin
Putin

Monk
Dictator

Zombie
Walking

Run
Bum

Much
Talk

Franklin
Adams

Madison
Monroe

History
Record

Fake
News

Some
Say

Bale
Hay

Right
Way

Not
Today

Toe
Jam

Computer
Scam

Earthen
Dam

Heaven
Hell

Magic
Spell

Athena
Bubo

Perseus
Andromeda

Poseidon
Kraken

Action
Motion

Yes
No

Yup
Nope

Submarine
Scope

Bismarck
Battleship

Gloom
Doom

Titanic
Tomb

Job
Rob

Bank
Banc

Anne
Frank

Humpty
Dumpty

Big
Egg

Stand
Tall

Rick
Ugarte

Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
July 22, 2018 (Short-Form Free Verse)...

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Your smile is like winning at lotto
Where taxes are paid with a song,
Your laugh is like cloud-dappled sunlight
Bright waves that push surfers along.

In blending with you I am massless
Pure energy floats down life's stream,
In touching your heart there's a magic
That lets me know I've found...

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Two Words – Redux Two
 
Push
Pull

Donut
Hole

Toilet
Bowl

Laundry
Fold

Sing
Song

Ping
Pong

Mao
Zedong

Fly
Eater

Cloud
Nine

Moon
Shine

Vinegar
Brine

Wild
One

No
Pun

Arm
Leg

Black
Plague

Circle
Square

Head
Hair

Sonic
Whistle

Broom
Thistle

Pretty
Face

Human
Race

Alien
Space

Mountain 
Road

Horned
Toad

Meteor 
Rock

Mister
Spock

Start
Dart

Go
Flow

Pol
Pot

Hope
Not

Green
Brown

Smile
Frown

City
Town

River
Creak

Circus
Freak

Stuffy
Nose

Big
Toes

Bogart
Bacall

Free
Fall

Standing
Tall

Music
Note

Castle
Moat

Witch
Hag

Laundry
Bag

Robber
Rubber

Space
Discover

Race
Car

Bucket
Tar

Fruit
Jar

Phrenology
Psychology

Logo
Pogo

Wine
Beer

Whine
Jeer

Weather
Clear

Beach
Chair

People
Stare

Garden
Hose

Bloody
Rose

Genius
Knows

Alaskan
Snow

Car
Far

Road
Tar

Proud
Hound

Ground
Round

Upside
Downside

Aladdin
Jafar 

Genie
Wish

Table
Fish

Wash
Dish

Slobber
Swish

Babble
Gabble

Clark
Gable

Atlantic
Cable

Stool
Pool

Fad
Lad

Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
September 3, 2018 (Short-Form Free Verse)...

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And so they sailed, on and on, uncharted were where they went, till they came to Hade's land
Dark and grey and dismal was the land where wraiths and shadows wandered on the sand
There they held congregation with the dead whose time on Charon's ferry was...

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Jabberwocky Redux
 
                  After reading too much Aquinas
 
Would an aphid reside in an onager’s ear
if the onager’s master spoke Twi?
Or a Gascony scop with a leper elope
if...

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Oh, the sunlight heals my soul, right
here in the middle of May.
Fairness and sanity require that
you report a perfect day.

Sunday afternoon, mountain high clouds in the blue,
and a single engine plane somewhere up there
to remind you of earlier days that you once knew.
A question arises...

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Muscadine grape vine
entwine...smell of bovine
forest edge
sedge
briars growing down the line.

I love the country
The country loves me
I’m as rock solid planted 
As my hundred year old tree

Watermelon field
hi yield...Alpaca deal
stocked lakes
drakes
the red barn I want to build

I love the country 
The country loves me
I’m as rock...

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