Best Stave Off Poems

Glory to thermodynamics in general...

and generation of heat in particular
cuz yours truly 
spoiled with trappings 
of Western Civilization.

How ideal I imagine 
to dwell in a self sufficient domicile,
where thrum of the central heater...
automatically activated 
upon advent of twilight,
or self adjusted/regulated 
based on outside temperature 
since...

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Whoever finds themselves alone,
To make their bed a slab of stone,
Goes there but for the grace of I
To contemplate the reason why.

Who knows the journey each have led?
The horrors which they may have fled.
Financial ruin is one such fate,
Or just hard luck, the loss is...

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Hope is the bird that guards it's 
young dreams from the cold
frostbite, wanting them to last
long enough to see a spring where
they can hatch into reality and sing

Hope is the flower that endures the 
storm and has the strength to reach
up even as the drops...

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Happy birthday wishes to Susan Lawrence today (29 Jan) - may your day be as beautiful and uplifting as your poetry and art.


Above a plain a mountain rises
 on it grows a forest green -
within that wood there stands a pine
 a talisman of growth unseen

Upon its...

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I love the cold as I lay beneath my
feather doodah, or chill-out
in my warm down-filled wind cheater.

I love to run through fields of ice and snow
with steam expelling from my mouth
with every each puff and breath.

I love to sip the steamy warm soup
with the cup...

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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 your chests;
lodged in your throats
like shards of glass
or prickly cactus thorns;
clouding your eyes
like sandstorms.

Here we shall remain,
like brick walls obstructing...

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Scent of change upon the breeze,
as we bid farewell to Summer.
Hear the softly spoken murmur,
of leaves changing in the trees.
The cooler nights begin to tease,
as we reach for blankets, warmer.
We try to stave off Winters rumour,
in the last warm days we seize.

The moon's harvest ring...

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Please hire my Hubby! I’m begging you! PLEASE!!!!
He’s now obsessing over his resume’… I’m down on my knees!
Each minute he has… it gets longer! Surely! You DO SEE!
A thousand pages is a bit too much into the details for me…
When HR sees it they’ll be...

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UNQUOTABLE QUOTES: XLV - Tongue teasing epigrams

A stitch in time can save an arranged marriage and stave off a family feud, not to mention everlasting vendettas.
Still waters run deep in sleep.
When the hens begin to crow, the cocks don’t grow.
A whipped dog bites not the...

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They wage war on the poor
Selling their souls what for
But for gluttony and greed
Dissension is what they breed
Harmony and discord
A duality we can't afford
People die on the street
Chilled to the bone, no heat
No bread, no bed
So they commit suicide instead
And the system is so corrupt
A...

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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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WINTER BLUES

 A cold, rainy, winter day brings sadness and a blue funk
No sun to disperse the gray clouds of despair

I must look for something to do 
to stave off the dregs of another Christmas
a Christmas that had been filled with the joy of family,
friends,...

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My mind's in a dark place; there's no light,
and happiness is but a fleeting moment in time.
I'm in pain, unbearable, physical, emotional pain,
there is no cure, no refuge, and no explanation,
only daunting, depressive darkness.

I wear a practiced smile to camouflage my inadequacy 
in wrestling with...

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He drove up to the Triple "T" Ranch in his brand new Cadillac!
In his air-conditioned trailer wuz his Arabian steed an' the finest tack!
He'd dreamed uv bein' a real workin' cowboy since he wuz a tad,
So he fitted hisself out with the latest fashions there...

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I’m mad as H E Double Hockey Sticks, flummoxed, and  more than a little scared
Kids are being shot in their own back yards, makes me sick to my stomach
Mommas and daddies taken in handcuffs for hurting their own, they think it’ their right
To do...

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