Long Bluff Poems

I believed that I was rural … that I lived in country style,
where the city was close handy … that big distance was a mile.
Trains and buses ferried daily; a freeway ran close by …
comforts...

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I.	  The Settlement

          Hickory bark bluffs
          at the blend of two 
    ...

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I shall resolve to leave this
Place now...
And steadfastly search out,
Nestling between ridge and bluff
Amidst the folds of a foreign 
Land,
Several acres of unkempt ground
Fallow and rough;
Upon which stands...
Crumbled stone walls
With an exposed slate roof in
Some...

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CRISIS TEAM:HELLO WE ARE HERE TO HELP  

AGENT BROWN: HELLO I AWAKEN EVERY NIGHT BETWEEN  THREE OR FOUR AM I CANNOT BREATHE PANTING HEARING MY FETUS HEARTBEAT SO LOUDLY 

CRISIS TEAM: YOU ARE...

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My wife and I met more than a few of this type of “shifty wheeler-dealer” during our many years dealing in antiques and collectibles.

           ...

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I am an Outlander
Who lives on a high hill
Overlooking a man-made lake
That once was a rapidly rushing river
Along whose banks the Ozarks Bluff Dwellers and the Osage and then Delaware
Hunted, fished, and created shelter
For their...

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Here's the deal, friends...
   This is, as indicated, the THIRD 1/3 of this very lengthy poem. Due to Poetry Soup's file-size limitations, this piece had to be posted in 3 parts! 
 ...

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Half a dozen girls, at least, were on my list of ‘maybes’, as I was on the prowl to find a date for junior prom,
When I was coaxed to think about a girl who lived...

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One day not long past our economy faltered
And wouldn’t improve if our course were unaltered.

'Cause we buy stuff at Wal-Mart (where things are dirt cheap)
'Cause they buy from China (treats workers like sheep

(So farmers left...

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Every day, ‘round 8 am, I climb up from the subway and pass a guy - a blind guy -  who is there to beg for change.
But one day, as I paused to watch...

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Come post presidential election 2024... 

heil to the Wharton chief firebrand -
more worrisome than an ovarian cyst
every race, religion, nationality, 
gender, creed, et cetera with impunity dissed
brigand able, eager, ready and willing
to punch contenders throwing...

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First week  of March  2025
Last  week of March
Melancholy Molly and her sister 
Dolly stopped by  for a chat with 
Eat  some pizza Polly 
(nick name due to her Appetite for...

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“22½ euros for a Martini,” Peter remarked, when he first scanned the menu.
“It’s not like we aren’t going to get them,” I said, “we’re not going to cheap our way to abstinence." The waiter came...

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The Bell in the Bush

Down woodland paths the wolf did roam
Far away from his packs home
For game he’d wandered off to seek
The sick, the helpless and the weak
When happened he across a fawn
Tied amid, a...

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"Free Falling"



You have to believe in Magic
to believe in the poetry of You

If you don’t believe in Magic
you are nothing but a black line 

bleeding to the right creative, 
without left margin

for logical analysis,
you’re fixed...

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Poetically impressive 
Mentally progressive 
Addicted to my writing
it’s becoming a bit obsessive 
But this is the medicine 
A therapy for my depression 
Post traumatic disorder
Is the cause for my aggression 
My heart gets heavy
My mind...

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Tell her you saw me ...

Tell her I was out on the bluff at the Cape
during a gale, much too close to the rocks.
Tell her the surf was tormenting the ledges,
its roar far too loud...

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An Echo Poem

Original: If I Kissed It - Poem by Brian Johnston

If I kissed it, would that make it better? 
Are you needing much more than a friend? 
Would it help if I held you...

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“Never forget 
everything Hitler did 
in Germany was legal.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

drop by drop lady liberty bleeds
red on white and blue
common sense vexatious 
verboten spins askew 

“We can and we must 
write in the...

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“You meddling mechanical moron,
you’ve ruined everything,
the thingamabob is running amok,
can’t you hear the alarm bells ring?
You clinking, clanking cretin,
you demented digital dunce,
you never do what I tell you,
and I’ve warned you more than once.
You’re a...

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I’m sitting here, at ninety-six, alert an’ fairly healthy, 
wondering what the ones I loved in days gone by would think
To see me now, the last there is of all of my relations, 
with only...

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I, heart on sleeve ... proudly? I suppose, in a contrite way ...
          but it's beyond my breadth to control, so it is what it IS.
...

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Strong suspicion a 2024 presidential win...

for the trumpeting don
spells loss for democracy
after inauguration day
witnesses his swearing-in
nepotism will run rampant
lawlessness the name of the game
of thrones breaking apart ramparts
of inalienable rightful
freedoms rent sunder, whereby nothin
can stop...

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I saw you …

high …
atop the promontory
spinning with manic madness
pirouettes et fouetté
lost in yourself -
in movement …
your upper back split, low
and, I swear -
feathers … peeking …
tucked under your shoulder blades
splayed and black as black
(obsidian...

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1

Sunrise, late winter
skunk smell
turkey flock
playful otter, too.

The white heron
a great blue,
white phase,
in the abandoned beaver pond.

Purple clematis
its long-awned achenes
in globose heads
spidery, fiery, extravagant fruit!

To identify or classify
birds by
the complexity or beauty
of their songs.

And so
what is...

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