Best Tightened Poems

She felt his hands so gently lift her hair
Her fingers trembled on the moistened quill
She knew his lips would graze her shoulder bare 
Her writing she kept up to mask her thrill

He pressed into her back his angel face
as thighs of steel closed in on...

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And the music began,
And with power so strong, I nearly fell back from the force
Snarling, smiling, demons held me upright,
As the Precarious Prince began,

“Dare you in silence come to me, Daughter of Eve,
To challenge my wisdom with your lust to sing,
A child of God—you provoke...

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We don't talk about it, I was mutely told,
Schooled in your nonverbal narcissism, I Attest
I became a linguist in the language of silence;

The tightened line of your mouth when a speck
of childhood play leaked through the Aperture 
of your wall of control; the Nuance of...

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When I met the tall and amiable Vietnam War veteran,
my shyness showed,
yet, my throat dried and tightened when he softly
spoke the words, "The war never goes away."
All these humanity destroying wars never cease,
soldier's names, faces, their eyes so well-worn.
Their love letters sent home never faded...

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Written: November 26, 2023
                 _______________________________________

In ephemeral moments
Whispering remembrance,
Of gilded blooms
Once shoved
Embedded into priceless papyrus.

I dwell in visions that have faded away
Life is thwarted by shaping it
Beyond vibrant hues
Stardust tumbles...

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Nyx opened black arms
threading her twilight fingers 
and cradled my awe 
to turn my hair, white  
she filled my eyes with stars
firing a comet to 
the core of my heart 

my second breathe
carved dragons of fire,
as Aeolus filled each lung,
Terpsikhore sang music
into the life...

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IT’S A MAD WORLD In a Lancashire Accent.

I went to the Confectioners today, there was a long queue outside, a metre apart, and it had started to rain. 
The assistant behind the counter had shiny eyebrows, they were that shiny they looked like plastic leeches...

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Always cold in the morning, this kitchen is warmed now
With a roaring fire and my wife working beside me making just desserts
We stand here two hours this afternoon doing one of our projects
Cooking soup and fish for this evening’s xmas party of friends. 

The ghetto,...

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Running, running, get away,
move aside! I can't stay!

Time is gone and I must go
hurry now,  move too slow.

Heart is racing, pounding loud
press myself against the crowd.

Watching others hurry on,
ticking clock, move along.

Can't stop now I smell the fear
of those that stop and linger near.

Quickly,...

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What is it to hear a poem?
Ears ajar.
Eyes focused.
Mouth shut.
I struggle to listen when such words cut open
my head and try to make a nest out of my brain.
I DO NOT WISH TO HEAR A POEM!
My body jolts under these straps of limitation,
tightened by my...

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C’est la vie, Billy!

   His cheeks a deep scarlet, 
     His jaw tightened in an eerie grin,
        He stands, rooted to the spot
         ...

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From that day on and forward,
I began to see the wretchedness my God had warned me of
He cursed the Lord wholeheartedly, for inflicting yet another agony on him,
In his well he called The Prison of Plot,
He spat the grounds and laughed at random intervals,
Then the...

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Born in Ireland in eighteen seventy four
He was a remarkably brave explorer
Three times to Antartica he did go
To that barren wilderness of ice and snow.

Once with Captain Scott and twice on his own
And it was on his third visit that his bravery became known
The expedition...

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* For my children - no one has touched my heart as deeply *

                          ~
    
There ne'er...

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The battle begins with an assault on the hill
Our men respond knowing my will
The white warriors continue their drill as before
My men are confident to the core

I order attack on the right white flank
The whites maintain their tightened rank
Generals continue to deploy the men
Since the...

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