Long Backpacks Poems

alarm goes off*
I sit straight up startled and scared
Just my alarm, I hit the button
Get up and go to the bathroom
I brush my teeth with my toothbrush
Scratchy, painful bristles
Toothpaste that makes me sick
With the strong...

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It's been four years since I've seen so much as an insignificant mountain creek. Been overburdened with comfort, now frantic with nature withdrawals, having to settle for photos found on Google Images: emerald pine trees,...

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It's been four years since I've seen so much as an insignificant mountain creek. I've been overburdened with comfort, now frantic with nature withdrawals and having to settle for photos found on Google Images: emerald...

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The Good Girl

Penny has always been a good girl, now she is a good wife. She lives in a good neighborhood, drives a nice car, has two perfect children. Her husband is a doctor and...

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The very fact of being alive, often causes one to seek adventure;
And sometimes it is no deterrent, when it carries traces of danger.

I was not a seasoned survivalist, but very much loved the outdoors,
Like varicolored...

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** The Weight of Ghosts *
         ————————
We do not truly realize how
Our lives are so crowded, thick
With spirits and messages.
We are as yet untuned to know. ...

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There are forgotten fords, in the shadow of our silence, places within us that cry out in waiting,
A path that flows through the waters of memories, the river of life carries us through hidden valleys,
Someone...

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The Metro

At the metro 
Railroad cars run on steel, metal tracks above and below ground
A narrow pathway in the dark 
A screeching halt
A loud whistle
A train is approaching  now 

Subway lines follow their route...

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Dopey painful I/me had a sudden desire to write!
By Stanley Russell Harris 
The new mad Author
& A Poetry Soup honourably mentioned poet

11-2-17 04.22 hours morphine (M)
04.25 hours on Sunday morning and I’m awake.  
I’m...

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It's 5:30 AM, sky bruised and quiet,
And he’s there at my feet, my loyal companion,
Eyes bright, no judgment, just need.
Out we go, one steady step, then another,
Field sprawled wide, we chase the edges of dawn.

Back...

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You know that summertime is gone
		when a chill is in the air
		when snow is in the forecast
		and hockey sticks appear
		when kids with toques and earmuffs
		show up on every street
		stick-handling wayward tennis balls
		on tar and on...

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Asleep before the head hits the pillow
Head filled with vivid colors swirling, amassing, mixing outside the lines 
Transgressions grow skyward like a bean stalk becoming a giant
Worries wander aimlessly like a cat in the night...

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One colored page at a time 

I touched the field of amber pleadings
with eyes only sure enough to find that hidden light
Long lost in the sea of forgotten grasses,
brown from the sun, parched by a...

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Upon the day when I was new
You held me at your breast,
And from that day love did accrue
For both I do attest.

You brought me to a place unknown
With slates of painted wood,
Where cheerful circus themes...

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There was a beautiful sunbeam shining thru the trees
A beautiful sunbeam that woke up my daughter and me.
The sunbeams woke up the flowers on the ground
The only place this scent could be found.

Living in the...

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I wouldn't want you to walk away
with any miscalculations about me.

I am about as wild and crazy as society will allow
without confinement for my own protection.

Whenever I read a self-marketing sign

Please Help...
Vacancies of home and...

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Something must be stirring around me, I really feel it when I'm alone.
My friends say they can see it, I say "see what?" and they say "it's gone!"

They say it looks like a halo or...

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I see you hipsters in rustic coffee shops with pictures of Marlyn Monroe and contemporary art, 
the girl in all black with a black beret to make her look more avant-garde and red colored hair...

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The 80's Became The Present Again

On the coast of Oahu
here, I was on a beach bus,
circling a sweet picture
in my mind,
white sands, blue seas, palms,
rolling all along
in a candy store.
It was a beautiful beach setting,
a...

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September has come
and the ripe orchards
abundantly display their delicious fruits:
peaches of delicate rose,
and cherries of deep red!
Teens, with their empty baskets, 
anxiously run to pull them 
off the drooping branches;
and one of them yells,
" I...

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As newcomers, we arrived, shy and uncertain, 

Wandering through the corridors, looking for a remedy. 

To the intense sensation of being a newcomer, 

Seeking our spot, uncertain about what actions to take. 

We carried our...

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If I were to decorate the winter trees,
arms gangly gray in a crooked freeze,
with leaves of mint sugar and paper mache flowers,
how long do you think it would take?

I would need ladders and pulleys and...

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They say it’s rude to stare 
But staring is caring 
So forgive me if I’m staring
I’d have you know it’s for a good cause
I’m looking at people 
Those people
With the backpacks on their backs
I'm talking...

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Listening to the whispers of my soul
Allowing my heart to open
A deep inhale through my nose
Cool air surrounds me
A pause
A full exhale, letting my belly expand

Collective grief permeates the air
Multitudes of people crying silent tears
The...

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They know me, 
still,
behind my aged teacher face.
They wave to me in my car,
running wildly home from school on a 
sunny afternoon.
I smile and wave back, thinking, “my sons know me, 
still.”

Caught by my discerning...

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