Long Backhand Poems

"As other spirits sail on music, mine, oh my love, swim on your perfume." Charles Baudelaire

"Sometimes you find an old bottle from which the soul returns." 
Charles Baudelaire

"Smell is a Word. Perfume is Literature."

"There are...

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"Backhand"



You have turned me
inside out, cut open
like a tennis ball
I used to beat backhand
along with the racket
hard against the garage wall

To make sense of it all
as a child, the grief stolen
all too swiftly and replaced...

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The Game of Hockey 

By Government decree, lacrosse
Is Canada’s national sport,
But in the hearts and minds of Canadians,
Hockey rules supreme.
Hockey is a winter sport enjoyed by Canadians since 1875,
When the game was first played, on...

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The table is old and worn
nicks and scratches 
its red plastic tablecloth left over from a forgotten Christmas
its holiday pattern worn and forlorn
many a Thanksgiving dinner was hosted
the plump turkey as dry as yesterday

many wars...

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What say you naive with all your poultice,
                     foolish fervor to your reverie!?”
“Mark me damned...

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(1.)
Into Days And Nights Of Writing Accolades To Poetic Titans True

Then Hope gave sweetest promise. Of Love's new open hand,
There under moonlit oaks, truth's goddess smiled and sighed.
But Life overruled such benevolent a reward. No...

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12 hours of excruciating labor pangs have Sacagawea breathing
into the face of Death,
as she violently shakes her head back and forth, teeth clenched,
sweat boiling and eyes furious
it seems to me that she is detetmined to...

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Im frustrated, so I go workout,
usually some music, cardio,and pushups get it out,
That silent voice upstairs overpowers the mp3,
This whole job and money situation really bothers me,

Checked my email,
American Express lowered my limit,
A result of...

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African-American and abusive, my late step-dad 
     was a reverse racist:
an army sergeant; a Vietnam vet; and, a backhand,
     face-hitting sadist.

I once bemoaned that I was a...

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As the sun sets
and the twilight comes out,
as the birds and squrriels are no where in sight.

As the whores and pimps sit on street corners,
waiting for street lights to turn from green to red.
As cadillacs...

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Every poem you write, a universe (and just your creation)
Yet somehow I’m free there to follow my dreams
And this freedom you give (child of imagination)
Reflected back to you by my mirror of being,
Thunder flashing in...

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TEN MINUTES THAT DIDN’T SHAKE THE WORLD

They seemed to talk only in metaphor  or simile
And in what they call   stream-of-consciousness - 
These two young women in the café overheard yesterday -
About something...

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Every time I pick up a pen
I think failure.
I think
addicted to a blade
shackled to a bottle
captivated by little pills 
that hold my sanity in their capsules,
but today I want to write
strength.
I want to write
beautiful.
I want...

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I want to lead you to safety like Harriet Tubman,
While we are on our way,
I want to stop traffic like Garrett Morgan,
Before we get there, 
I want to right all wrongs like Supreme Court Justice...

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I guess she wasn’t good enough for that little man.
When my parents were having words,
my father would give my mother the back of his hand.
But it’s not with her husband my mother wanted to fight.
She...

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Blank, another blank confession
Is it really a confession? 
This cop has a hint of doubt in his eyes
It’s not hard to tell
I’ve seen this expression in the face of my friends
I guess I’ve never really...

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Usually I make love to my pad with words and my pen craves me
Well this is Jason Voorhees combined with slim shady
I'm carving my words on the page with a Machete that Jason used for...

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Thirty years since Mrs Meckin 

Said "Sian, who are y' markin'?"

on the hockey field


Wind chillin'

Legs freezin'

Knuckles reddenin'

Clutchin' the rubber handle of my Mum's
old hockey stick



Always third from last to be chosen for The Team

"No, not...

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That's all it was
a backstage argument
a backstage brawl
a backstage heartbreak
a backstage backhand to the face
that's all it was,
a scream from the angels above
to be let out and feared among everyone.

She went stage left
and I went...

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Two sets
  Apiece
To each player
And this is the
    Final set... 
What a contest! 
Both the players
Fighting to win
   The match
     Is equal
The scoreboard
  ...

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holding onto the fears of our fathers
and to some new forms of paranoia
the wind easily scatters us like feathers
you wouldn’t think we’re the descends of Noah

the mind is divorced from the heart
so desensitised we don’t...

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It's blindsiding,
the clarity that context brings.
New eyes seeing
the things I did before knowing
any better.

For a moment
I got a glimpse
at the reasons
& answers
I have been so desparately 
seeking for so long.

Meaning became a taste,
luscious on my...

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"Random Acts of Kindness"

you send the devil 
his reassurances 
of forgiveness 
through love
the blindness
corresponded
some generous
catharsis 
in a moment
of delusion
the sticky web 
nullified
words sent 
words received
morse code
S.O.S.
S.O.S.
S.O.S.
beats 
the pierced heart

the invisible bleed
next level love
the shining haze
bars...

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Lost in desolation
My mind became a prison map location
It was so very stark
When I couldn't see the light beyond the dark
I'd stumble around until I fell
And hit my head so hard it would swell
And as...

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pain ...
the blood of her pen
a harlequin's hope ...
the thrum in her breast and being
no quarter given the issue of her barren womb
she looked back one last time
on the darkened house ...
things and thoughts and...

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