Long Boatmen Poems

The green village, the colored city, the ever familiar locality
Each path, tree, house, turn, each native I have left behind
But creepers, hedges have entangled with my leg and hand
The green crops fields, green hills, fruit...

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The Boatman’s Song  					20/ Many

The world would come to know one day
The real strength of your arms and the balance of your mind
And your love would be,  the inspiration of your life
Making you,...

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Beauteous lass Thy wounds are bleeding! 
Crowning crowning where thou go on? 
Mothers weep and babies  feeding
Crowds on crowds and trumpet blow on! 
Wearest thou thy wedding garments
Then which grief thy heart thus torments?...

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A warm sultry summers night, a silver crystal formed in
the corner of an eye. Trickled and rolled a gentle cheek,
fell to earth where all was dry. Whence it touched the 
ground did speak, an Orchid...

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Young Barred Jeff the hair once heired and was bard
from Barred Bare Camp cause when bear he was hard.
Neigh,said he in the bairn wear the auld stud nayed,
Owe, eye oh fare Merry her fair must...

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I DON’T WANT HIM
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


I’m Pontius Pilate and here’s something I need to share
As of this moment I wash my hands of the entire affair
You’re  saying this guy’s a heretic meddling in all...

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It Comes Without Trumpets

No fanfare, no golden light that we know of.
It comes without a pale horse.

Sometimes silent during the night,
perhaps peaceful but perhaps not.
No one knows the dreams at that time which could presage...

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wildflower meadow
as tall as a muntjac
cuckoo cuckooing
-
farmers haymaking
grasshoppers stridulating
don't touch a stinkbug
-
wood admiral glides
honeysuckle its host plant
humid the hot nights
-
warm is the river
fish rising leaping for flies
life seeking cool shade
-
inverted swimmers
water boatmen taking in air
cygnets...

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To crouch beside him in the rows,
Counting seeds beneath rainbows.
Three in each hole, I’d count with glows.
He let me help; his garden grows. 

To sell the pears he grew and picked.
Red wagon wheels click-click, clacked,...

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Danny the dolphin loved his next of kin,
swimming in pods out in the big ocean,
sensing danger he'd be the first to respond,
helping humans to safety creating a special bond,

Noticing that humans were polluting the oceans,
one...

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Breeze in my face, I no not my destination,
Walking only where my feet will take me.
A frown creases my brow in concentration,
In the hope I may see things more clearly.

The soft lush grass underfoot stretches...

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Written: July 04, 2023
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A respected river, your holiness sublime.
Purifies within if we let your essence seep.
From the powerful mountains, you climb
Pious and deep, it cures thirst spirits, creep

We all joined in a loud wave of...

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Ol’ brazen Brenda, battlin’ biography,
Banters bewildered brave boatmen at sea,
Brushstrokes besieging her beleaguered brain,
Broadsided by fiction now baking insane;

Balanced between both broken and brilliant,
Buried by sorrow, bereft not resilient,
A ballyhooed author, back in the day,
‘Fore...

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The sun voyages on day’s last tour
Delves to relax
To make some rest and rest awake
The boatmen like a defeated soldier
Sails tireless though
Humming a song blissful however
Seems despondent and dejected
A thin line of smile fixed in...

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Three misfits sought mischief along serenity shore
when a boatman slashed through the bluing mist
with driftwood oars honed by a river called Styx.

They were wild and naive and looked quite aghast
for boatmen usually gather the worn...

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During colder winters the river freezes over
A vast sheet of ice spreading shore to shore
While the traffic awaits March’s spring thaw,
Old boatmen share traditional waterway lore
And skaters, cautiously marking the depths,
Note where the ice is...

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spires stretch heavenward in a twilight sky
crimson hues and nighttime blues do battle
as people lope lazily over a dusky bridge
like cattle with cameras;
snapping the domed limestone giant

below, boatmen skim across a shimmering mirror
reflecting fragmented moments
cast...

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Oh Ganga! river so revered
your holiness purifies deep
if thy essence we let in seep.

From lord Shiva's hair you appeared
down the mighty Himalayas
quenching the thirsty souls pious.

Yamuna, Saraswati neared
to merge with you at Triveni
Sangam of pilgrimage...

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Harvey

I sit in my chair

Lovely music playing;

Afternoon sun shining;

Birds filling up to roost.

I look out my sliding doors;

The ferns are lush.

I hear a baby cry,

There is a sloshing sound,

Muscle sore boatmen 

Never giving up.

Just a...

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I can see it shining so brightly
So white against the Venetian skies
From which a last view is seen by some
As they kiss freedom goodbye

Just like my heart wavering on the brink
of happiness, pondering the yes...

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Seven thousand islands grace the shore
as narra trees arise , sun -dressed
with ripples humming a native folksong--
gracious the womenfolk, caressed
by Philippine beaches ever idyllic--
and exotic garlands spill from their baskets
crowning fiestas with decorative wares.
And boatmen...

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Look out over a pond's banks
what do you see down there
a smooth unruffled surface
things lazily flying round

A frog pops up its head and
perches basking in the sun
newts swim languidly about
a flash of colour deep below

Yet...

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Purple daze 




Sunshine haze over milky blue Ocean reflects white horses rolling wave 

Sea gulls squawk as they glide on warm winds effortlessly above the port were boatmen slave 

Splendour azure skies trapping the contours...

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Glancing at shimmering waters I saw my reflection
Rippling water makes myself look altered
Like an abstract painting that never falters

Glancing at shimmering waters I saw the moon arise
Oh bright angelic wonder, you are so beautiful
Let the...

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Under the depths below the deep 
of this Atlantic Ocean
live the lobsters that crawl and creep
with an articulated motion.

On the ocean that smells so fresh
the boatmen cast their nets
for lobsters' tender, tasty flesh
which they'll sell...

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