Long Banded Poems

We are the days that we’ve become. 
moments dripping gifted from
the lounging clocks in rolling melted sightings, 
given by the gifted madness of a soulmate’s fightings. 

Our lives wrapped up in phrases coined
in books like,...

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Ashen faced Prometheus aghast at inferno gone awry

Whether arsonist at fault
or confluence of ripe conditions
triggering perfect firestorm,
the titan of fire beside himself with misery,
though no fault of his own
the raging bullish conflagration
a taste of inescapable...

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This is the story of Jeni Haynes, whose father inflicted horrific physical and sexual abuse on her from the age of four years old. As a result she created over 2000 alter egos to get...

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Myths of deductive distinctions,
like white could not come from black,
are disinformed 
when severed from contrasting inductive integrity,
greyscale dualdark co-passions 
within light's future shadows 
of golden opportunity.

RightWing patriarchs oppositionally forget
we are LeftWing matriarchal-appositional reborn
within cooperative health...

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THE GREATEST GENERATION
by

JOHN M. ARRIBAS



Many Have Called Them the Greatest Generation
They Had Struggled and Survived, an Ugly Depression
It Was an Era of Hard Times and Simple Diversions
Like Bank Night, Singalongs  and Picnic Excursions
Band Concerts...

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Can you see the woman in the window?
                           ...

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Cypress trees like evergreen steeples
rise above rows of gravestone woes,
their shadows lie side by side like railroad ties 
across writhing paths banded like snakes;
gravel birth cords sinuous 
sensing the ground   seeking the sun
crossroads...

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I aim to live in the here (ahem hair) and now...

despite entrenched familiar
obsessive compulsive disorder behavior
distracting me courtesy
countless what if scenarios,
particularly before undergoing
voluntary drastic makeover
as iterated in a previous poem,
and briefly recounted here
as foregoing Samson...

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The frog king, enthroned on his stump in the swamp,
Throatily cheered the processional romp.

The dragonflies darted and buzzed overhead,
And kept at safe distance the pink tongue of dread.

A midge lay sobbing right there at his...

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Should we shed the boy and be a man?
Shoot of spirit wild -to be tamed in the tamed land.
Where is the proof that this cynical evolution;
this cyclical passthrough is a strengthened constitution.
A blur and a...

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"Just live a little, Hawaiian style!" Quote by Hawaiian Style Band.

On the first day of Christmas, my tutu gave to me,
-- (and...) a-*Ne-ne-Goose-un-der-a-gua-va-tree.
(guava fruits are the best part of their diet--trust me)

On the second day...

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Alms Za Try'n To Reach Out As Legatee Wannabe

Yukon pots sib bully challah me Jude
dish hiss literary panhandler schlepping
along virtual figurative boulevard Asia
brogue kin bloke rattling tin cup aware
how quickly passersby dodge away as
if I...

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There is a violent war that’s not in movies.
These soldiers we lost are not seen on TVs.
Friendly fire is the biggest killer of our men.
Per soldier lost at war, at home we lost over 10.

People...

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Throughout history from time to time, our country has gone to war;
they called upon our brave young men to enlist and join the corps. 
Some of the men were called by draft; while some enlisted...

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The King answered back, "I love you as much as a king can love a son, but I love my people more, and you shall not be king." With anger, the third son raised his...

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There’s an old river course with beginning and end,
now the river runs straight without this river bend,
where the water is still and the reeds do grow strong.
New life has taken over in a billabong.

The mat...

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a tsunami catapulted cruising skiff
skyward landing with quiet thud
across undulating infinite granular waves
formerly solid state rocks and minerals

optimism vibrant upon initial unforeseen
crash asper for test dummies
foundered as undertow fostered diminishing hope
initial faith for survival quickly...

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1Hundred6 
1Hundred6 
 
 
CharlaXFabels 
 
Easter2 
 
 
Christ Crucified. 
 
The Cross 
 They took him from the crowd apart and nailed HIM both hands and feet unto the 
instrument of torture the...

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This being Native American Heritage month I salute the indigenous people
whose knowledge and principles I wish we’d done more to embrace…
instead of doing everything in our power…their culture and identity to erase.

If we’d only taken...

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Beethoven to roll over,
     dee composing
     (sans my zany brainy adherence
     to "FAKE" information I eschew)
and essentially single handedly grew
the contemporary paradigm few
off...

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ON RESCUING AN INJURED PIGEON
	I.
sliding screen door screeches, pigeons scatter
thump of wing against breast, shockwave breeze
more frequent than in the past, shimmering necks
soundtrack squirrel zig-zags, new-green lawn
perches like the pigeons, await my departure

	II.
he appeared in...

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They called you Grandma - 
                   matriarch of Taiaroa Head. 
Your husband of seventeen years, 
 Blue-Green,
...

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A golden butter melting on warm toast,
tasting of home, a soft gasp wrapped 
in sweet memories, a heart held lightly 
by rays of summer sun, unbuttoning a gray,
crying sky that once poured icy rain. 
...

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Whenever I would go to my mother, 

Regardless of the bother, 

Prices of sweets, housing, jobs, 

Dangers on the street, or other bits and bobs, 

She would give me advice so bold, 

Before taking me...

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What was not to be revealed
Was hidden to late
What was never to be created
Unknowing sealed this planet’s fate

Governed by the powerful
Helpless to their law
Blinded by incompetence
Feebleminded are all

The only thing certain
In our pathetic lives of...

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