Best Ronin Poems

I wander the landscapes of solitude
Unchecked and unhealed,
Beneath heavens speared with bamboo rain,
A blade on my back concealed
Beyond where the eye can envisage and see,
Deserts burning dry,
Beyond where the temples sink in the dust,
Under a storm laden sky.
There is no one to swear allegiance to,
The...

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Dishonorable Tao pen,
your fealty strokes 
are guided by 
shogun lust for the yen

Quill treachery 
blot your avarice ambition
Devious calligraphy
be the torn loyalty decision

Vain kimono pride
is bushido vow laid aside
Naked truth disrobed — 
Coin motive 
ain’t unsheathe noble

Ink ronin,
got no master to gallantly serve or valor...

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True patience means bearing the unbearable 


Once I 
Lived 
bushido
At Heart.
Served my lord, 
Wielding carbon
And steel
In fidelity.

Cast aside,
I have
No master now.
I will not taste 
My blade
Outcast,
I wander the
Rising sun
to know
The Way anew,
And to learn
I again 
for the first time.

I

Ronin...

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Old age and its wisdom but
mostly luck of the draw one inch to the right
or left of the arrow that kills a comrade beside me
To be just past the flames that explode and incinerate
those unfortunate enough to be in front of me
is luck
pure and simple...

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I am nearing the endless night and my body
reminds me of it’s torture in a daily vigil
toward reprimand 
My adoration of you my love has passed
from heated loins on pillows
to passionate words on parchment
My son the weapons of war
are now wielded in words
I am old...

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Raised to believe many things
One which a guy from up high 
Comes flying out that sky that we all see
It had to be literally
Did i believe it?
Without a doubt i did,
 Because the one who trained me 
told me nothing was hid
I grew and trained...

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Stone pebbles crush beneath my sandals
Bare skin welcoming warm breezes
in the aftermath of a cold shameful bath
Washing crimson away and
my soul bit by bit  Honor is the excuse
given for bloodshed
River rock and coy drink in my horrors
bear now the burden that drives these feet
upon...

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Ronin
Forty-seven men,
hereditary nobles,
military samurais,
serving their master,
who was betrayed and killed by
another lord, ronin's, they
turned masterless, schemed
samurai, three years 
spun thieves, mercenaries, and
madmen, delight all
the challenges that are faced,
the adrenaline that is
peaked, did kill their lord
master betrayer and their
met deed, all did seppuku,
a mass suicide, 
belief...

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High upon this hill of long grass we sit in repose staring off in the distance
down upon the valley and village of our youth
the sun is setting in the sky and I feel its fading warmth
pushing us toward winter pushing me back toward duty and...

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Before I wake this split second of pure white joy
alone in a field of blowing grasses and nothing
No sound no fear no joy no duty
just infinity with the sun and sky and self
The quiet peace humbles me before I blink
And clash thunderous swords with a...

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Clearly I see you now Death I am not afraid to look
Where were you when the earth ran red
and a thousand men screamed for you to take them
And you sat on mountaintops with generals 
sipping drinks and laughing and staying
out of the afternoon’s oppressive sun
No...

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There is a price in taking another man’s life and
it strikes during the repose of presumed peace
waking screams to the half moon sky jaunted movement startling
calm water reflections deepening self hatred scowling back
in the shining metal reflection of someone I no longer know
A moment to...

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My fathers pride as well as his fathers unquestioned
and now as knife is held to top knot I question respect
Is that not the very same thing that has robbed me of my life
I have been bound to those who have dishonored me
and loved those I...

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There is a brotherhood among soldiers 
a bond a band a fellowship
that those at battle’s end speak of
I long for its connection, its embrace
Yet here you lay blood bubbling from your lips
as you try to speak to me Beg me for comfort
in your final setting...

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I have cowered I have crawled I have begged and I have survived
Honor is something that those that do no battle speak of
Shame is something dictated by those who have not survived
I have felt a shame in that which I have done
but also a love...

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