did not know
about my roots so researched....
grassroots inheritance assured?
In the shadow of a grassroots granary,
dendrites sprout and axons climb the tree.
A cloudburst of neuroplasticity
feeds the ripening grain
as each one brings a fertile brain,
demonstrably insane.
Canada i see is standing on gaurd.' Good
On'ya mates, stand fast; hold hard '
Your farms and lives are at stake
Do not trust, figurehead politicans they
Are a bought out must.' Work at the
Grassroots level, and all.. Work for the better
Thats the safest call '
(A lone voice whispers)
As a person, you must know
Deep down
You're part of one of the most spiritually
Illuminating
Literary movements there has ever been
A gift sent to you for self-expression from The Great In-Between
A means to pull down old towers with new or old siege hooks
Open closed doors
By maybe writing a blog or book
To walk through anthills and moors
Of poetic stanzas
To find who you really are
As you pause and really look
For above all things
Magic in poetry is real
A form of rebellion from the mundane
A resolution
A Bonanza
To push back boundaries in a form of grassroots resistance
To power and social control
To be able to purge the destructive nature of humanity and the need to share its beauty
To those watching on patrol
As they go
For you are so gifted
So never be afraid to share your Illumination of the soul
For someone somewhere
Always needs to be lifted
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
Image shared under fair usage policy
Middle aged man in Docs,
vintage leather jacket and
grey haired pubes around his cock.
Ill fitting tour shirts rekindling a hazy past.
Barrowlands, The Bunnymen. Hammersmith Odeon,The Clash.
U2 at University pre Bono crawling up his own ****.
Danced and hugged on stage with Terry Hall,
arrested for d&d outside Bradfords Great Hall,
after watching John Cooper Clarke supporting The Fall.
Life reinvigorated by the post punk explosion,
no longer searching the NME gig guide,
but a Spotify recommendation.
or an even sadder email notification.
A pre gig meal opposed to a walk home pie in a barm.
Ear buds for the tinnitus and Bisoprolol to keep calm.
Heartbreak to watch the talent unrewarded,
by a government devoid of a cultural foresight.
Stifled opportunities
through Tory Brexit lies,
Allowing the corporations of Cowles and the EMI’s to
reap million upon million,
leaving the grassroots unnurtured, venues struggling to stay open.
Our greatest export,
an industry broken.
Social media, realm where whispers fly,
A land beneath the vast digital sky.
Here, every word can travel far,
Each post and tweet, a potential star.
It binds the world in a tight-knit web,
Where thoughts and cultures easily ebb.
A platform broad for voices small,
In this grand stage, one and all.
Yet in its depths, dangers dwell,
As truths and lies together swell.
A double-edged sword, it can deceive,
Where false narratives weave and leave.
A mighty force for advocacy’s fight,
It lights up causes in the night.
From grassroots grows a towering wave,
Empowering the meek, the brave.
But watch the cost, privacy paid,
Invisible prices, quietly laid.
A footprint permanent, never gone,
In the landscape vast, forever drawn.
A frontier for the bold, the new,
Where innovations burst into view.
A pulse of progress, fast and fierce,
New ideas that pierce the universe.
So wield it well, this potent tool,
Educate, engage, but never fool.
For social media’s power, vast and wide,
Reflects the human spirit, amplified.
Quote by poet: "Love child of Cloud & Air, Raindrop holds a sea of bliss & ire."
Clouds saunter along this low mountains
Caressing all the tall trees, they murmur nice on their way.
Moving as to go away, they speed up to hug
Again just to split to dance pretty once again.
Ah, tall trees do love the clouds, sway more
When they see them carry a thousand drops of rain.
Choicest drops are those that stay and slide on
Them from top to toe, Grassroots blushes away.
Jealous air steals off these clouds to lower place
It rains and rains and rains here, Mawsynram is its name.
Leaves here wear raindrops Twelve months a year
Rain is at home, for Sun ah! this is awkward in-laws place.
Title 1
"The forest is my loyal friend A Delphic shrine to me." ... by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The written word bears roots abound
Hail favored mist of hallowed ground
Announced breathtaking full-filled air
Spreads out enjoyment summons fair
Forgiving trailed Earth's crowning Star
Forest startup's reserves stretched far
Healthy hoards and wholesome intakes
Fresh novel minds elsewhere, retakes
Obsessed consumed florists stationed
Lives styled out stretched reawakened
Seedlings advanced Heavens promised
Groundbreaking achievements calmest
Cob-web silk thread eight-legged shooters
Tethered roots edged equaled footers
Floods 'neath grounds raise the gigantic
Psalmist summoned lessened frantic
Misplacements sequenced adjustments
Cause coursed through major monuments
Misfortune causeway lengthens aches
Stressed strung-out unmeasured outtakes
Commons traversed rights owned presence
Neighbors challenged core quintessence
Claimed righteousness labors bear fruits
Attributes are well-served ... grassroots.
11/14/22
It needs to be correctly retold
The problems came three fold
In came an extreme cold
Across the land beginning to seize hold
Giving nearly ever leaf mold
Nearby a market where there was meat sold
Experienced first hand or seen through a peephole
That was thousands of years or just a week old
In order to get it done, didn't always need gold
Droning on
According to you it was wrong
But not to GOD
Nor any dog
Regardless moving along
Staying strong
Beyond dusk and dawn
This world's f***ed up, I'm gone
Why do they always bandwagon?
What happened?
Zero if any compassion
Nobody asked them
Yet so quick to voice their hate about my actions
If only you could imagine
Sad that they laugh and backstab quick
My impact is
Like that of the Kracken
Combined with a Dragon
It's often a crap-shoot
That's the truth
Having nothing or everything to do with Black boots
Grassroots
Or Jackfruit
Feeling sad with the blues
Why is it that far too often it's bad news
Sri Lankan Elephants are listed as, endangered
and are the largest and darkest, of the Asian elephants
Herds have nursing units, with lactating females and young
and they have juvenile units, containing females and juveniles
Sri Lankan Elephants, are been pushed into smaller areas
because of deforestation, that disturbs their migrating routes
Human-elephant conflicts, results in human and elephant deaths
because the humans need of greed, is only for human grassroots
Lilac bush full
spring's ties to nature's core
Buds that kidnap smell
Sweet layers of scent weaponry
Panoply burst of blooms
modesty displaced
Flower cradles barely hinged by gravity
Purple bunches
that color the center of consciousness
sweeping away grassroots complaining
sweeping off a time drifting to cruelty
freeing the buttoned restraints of love
Date my wife
While I
Renegocate my
Lovetract
Don't treat my
Wife like it's a
Contract
Hi welcome to the
All Pro Wrestling
Specail Edition
We have exciting
Action scheduled
The exciting and
Well talented
"Beyond Normal" Plank Samson
Verses
"He Heard What You Said" Brankus Belkins
The Bronx City Reject " Simbol Calm
Verses
Kaubous Impression and his manager Delgrin Vilceus
The Heels with Big Beefy will challenge The Grassroots
( Heel One and Heel Two). ( Alfalfa and Buckwheat)
"Make Visible" Denmark Sattire and Snowboard Monster
Verses
"Everybody Except Me" Nuance and Mine
Will meet "BigBarrell"Bark Rassy and "Mi Gorgeous" Gelps Understudy
In the main event
Challenger " All This" Gembo Saffron
Verses
" The BigSky " The World Champion
Moments
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
There were moments full of promise,
like the petal-scented rainfall of early spring,
when to hold you in my arms and to kiss your willing lips
seemed everything.
There are moments strangely empty
full of pale unearthly twilight—how the cold stars stare!—
when to be without you is a dark enchantment
the night and I share.
Published by Tucumcari Literary Review, Romantics Quarterly, Grassroots Poetry, The Chained Muse, in a Soundcloud reading by Vex Darkly, in a YouTube reading by Jasper Sole, and in a Romanian translation by Petru Dimofte
The Peripheries of Love
by Michael R. Burch
Through waning afternoons we glide
the watery peripheries of love.
A silence, a quietude falls.
Above us—the sagging pavilions of clouds.
Below us—rough pebbles slowly worn smooth
grate in the gentle turbulence
of yesterday’s forgotten rains.
Later, the moon like a virgin
lifts her stricken white face
and the waters rise
toward some unfathomable shore.
We sway gently in the wake
of what stirs beneath us,
yet leaves us unmoved ...
curiously motionless,
as though twilight might blur
the effects of proximity and distance,
as though love might be near—
as near
as a single cupped tear of resilient dew
or a long-awaited face.
Published by Romantics Quarterly, Poetry Magazine, Boston Poetry Magazine, Triplopia, Shadows Ink, E Mobius Pi, Underground Poets, Emotions Literary Magazine, Grassroots Poetry, Poetry Webring, Poetically Speaking, The Poetic Muse, Poet’s Haven, Poetic Voices, Nutty Stories (South Africa) and Gostinaya (in a Russian translation by Yelena Dubrovin)
At Once
by Michael R. Burch
Though she was fair,
though she sent me the epistle of her love at once
and inscribed therein love’s antique prayer,
I did not love her at once.
Though she would dare
pain’s pale, clinging shadows, to approach me at once,
the dark, haggard keeper of the lair,
I did not love her at once.
Though she would share
the all of her being, to heal me at once,
yet more than her touch I was unable bear.
I did not love her at once.
And yet she would care,
and pour out her essence ...
and yet—there was more!
I awoke from long darkness,
and yet—she was there.
I loved her the longer;
I loved her the more
because I did not love her at once.
Published by The Lyric, Romantics Quarterly and Grassroots Poetry
Sub Categories
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