Long Bayles Poems

Papa's condemnation of prejudice...

and subsequent grim statistic one
(among millions, or more)
tragedy with feted kiss
Yarraka Bayles darling son
hoop fully experiences bliss,
yet more vehement rage
against machinations (think 

with little effort cruel humans)
trumpets, tools, thrives...
wreaking psychological havoc -
case...

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P S its POETRY WRITE ON WRITE ON CONGRATS TO MY FELLOW POETRY SOUPERS PART 14



Martha L. Kiser                 ...

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It's like a flamin' maze out here
where I'm looking for a name,
where hawthorn hedges line the fences,
and the crossroads look the same.

I'm up and down seems every road;
I've criss-crossed east to west,
as well as going...

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On a morning stilled
an oak shadows the yard
as leaves wait to fall
but summer lingers
another day.

I write a love poem
to someone once met
at a blues bar
one summer during
college days,

but crumple it
put it in my pocket.

It was...

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She came to me when I brought in carts
and she was filling online grocery orders.

I gestured to her and handed her a poem
just written the other day, but I just
had to share it with her
line...

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The sign you hold:
   a) says either stop or slow
   b) is a matter of perception
   c) makes for moments of conversation
   d) is a pause in...

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I look out the window at the tree
in the back yard next door
just behind a small yellow house.
Its crown is still green, but I 
know leaves will fall. 

A dump truck
with a flashing yellow strobe
crawls...

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The rain of last night
has given way
to clouds and sun.

The leaves on a tree
in the next yard
have turned color
and some have fallen

while the cool wind
sings a song
of the season.

In comfort of solitude
I look out the...

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sparrows standing outside my door
sparrows lined up on the sidewalk
for crumbs i'll throw
and the world is turning
the sky is falling this morning
someone somewhere fights a war
a woman at the bus station cries
the world is ending
but...

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A fellow poet says
don’t start a poem
with looking out the window
but I am—

I am
looking out
the window
to see the lawn
outside my window
has grown.

A neighbor says
there are too many 
verses on love,
but restless
I tap laptop
keys to compose
another....

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in the early light of day
i rise from shadows of dreams

two days ago a cousin i hadn’t seen
called to say my aunt had died

at the age of 101 who
time and time thought about me

and a...

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My partner called out cars she sent
as we stood at opposite ends
of the work zone, and when
hers had passed, I called out mine
sending them along a narrow passage.

We found a common language
to communicate, and we...

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the hole in the street
is a gaping wound
it’s been here
for two months
now
the walls in the house
groan and ache
as the front yard
hides in shadows
the night is an ocean
set in front of me
while sitting at my laptop
i...

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in all the stillness
of mid-morning

a well-played song

brown leaves still
hang on branches of trees

and I figure

all that is going to fall
has fallen

but the tree still
hangs onto life

I sit at my laptop

a blank page
faces me
on the screen

and...

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stillness after :  the day after : the heavy rain : the front door’s closed : I’m reconnecting with time : time whispers : someone says time’s not real : I write a poem...

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she served me a whiskey
smiled and said hello
although we barely spoke
when we met four days earlier

four days earlier i was running errands
parking on a busy one-way street
pausing to seek drink and conversation
as summer bled into...

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rising from shadows

sunlight through window
a knight without armor
apparition in the city

time to celebrate and rejoice
a get-together
endless dreams

miles counted number turn
my many incarnations

to the next screen
the day comes too soon
stillness of late morning
soft awakening

my friend waits...

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She whispers in winds
as limbs dance.
I’m back she says-
I’ve come back
from the frozen ground.
In her left hand
a bag of seeds
and I steal a glance
out the window
as she stands on the porch.
She says she’s my dreams-
she...

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She wore an aura of light
and bent over a sewing machine.
Through thick lenses she peered
at every stitch created by her touch.

She didn’t say for whom
she was making the dress
while letting fine fabric
slip through her hands.

Her...

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A coworker and I stand
along a lone Nebraska highway
far from home.

I stand on one end
of a work zone-
a co-worker stands
on the other

communication by walkie talkie
to direct traffic 
as it comes and goes.

A road that’s broken
must...

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I came to her one night
like she came to me
softly and with a whisper
she said she had
a three-year-old daughter
at home.
The dining porch was a stage
where we lost ourselves in song
the backdrop blue and red neon...

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The wind blows in May
and leaves on branches
dance as if they’ve found new life.

While seeking the light
of a season reborn

I ask
what must I remember
and what I must forget.

My past lives
lie in shadows
and whisper despair

anger of...

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Early light washes over me
and love is an ocean.
I look out the window
as squirrels and sparrows 
hop across the yard and play—
it could be spring
it could be fall.
I think of my friend—
I’ll love her forever.
When...

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March is a soft conversation
as I look out the window.

March is the front lawn
after shaking off remnants of snow.

March is a sunny day
and in the next a touch of rain.

March is a branch swaying in...

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clouds shadow the lawn,
the sun breaks through
for a moment
a bird off somewhere
sings then stops
the phone rings early
someone from work
but I don’t answer
I need to vacuum sometime
leaves dance in the wind
only to grow still
as if they’re...

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