Long Careers Poems

I smell like pencils in September.
After they’ve been brought to that…to the machine hanging on the closet wall where our coats, our boots, our bags, and nonsense lived.

You stared me in the eyes, since the...

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The Song of Amergin: Modern English Translations

The Song of Amergin
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I am the sea breeze
I am the ocean wave
I am the surf's thunder
I am the stag of the seven tines
I am...

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Greetings to those who would willingly seek admission to theater of the absurd. Zoltan Goliath and Otis Trench are masters of the avant-garde genre silent musicals for the imaginary stage, an art form sui generis....

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In 1962, I was a caseworker, not a social worker, in the Cabrini-Green Housing Project in Chicago. In that era, the difference between a caseworker and a social worker was simple. A social worker had...

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After a hard day at work I come home
Hear my boy rapping the words to his headphones
Every bleep comes another bleep
As he keeps dancing to the beat
Come upstairs and barge through the door
Say to him,...

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MOTHER

Mother is a very meaningful word.
Mother is a person that carries a lot of weight.
When I think of mother,
Mother Mary comes to my mind.

The understanding, courageous, protective Mother.
Understanding the responsibilities of a mother,
having the courage...

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Please Michelle Obama...
can you save American democracy?

I highly hugely grant 
Barack Hussein belated kudos
what with his wizardesses 
in tow wrought wonders 
to one nation analogous 
while an under dog
sweeping in like... 
It's a Bird... It's...

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Dear Brother,

When we were children
adults often asked us
What do you hope to be
when you grow up?

But, our brothers and sisters
were more likely,
and probably more wise,
to ask
Who would you most hope to become?
To be like?

Which implies,...

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Dear Covenant to Empower Children, Inc.

I was in a Potlatch CoHousing Cafe
just the other repair-invested day
for both ego and eco therapy.

Our host introduced
this Potlatch SkillShare event
speaking to himself:

The less I share skills and resources
on cooperative...

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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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FATHER

Father, a strong figure,
who we look up to and admire
for he is the provider and the protector,
who puts roof over our head
and puts food on the table.

A good father is a good provider,
to provide the...

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My old life seems monotonous to me now, but I allow it was fine then,
As cobalt skies allow warm butterscotch rays, to linger in the glen.

I worked through those golden days, but most evenings stayed...

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BROKEN DREAM

At any time in your life, did your dream of whom
you wanted to be when you grow up came true?
Or it did not and at this time in your life you
are thinking what it...

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I’ve got a mate named Marty who went through the school with me,
but like most teenage scholars gave the teachers buggery,
and when it came to penning words, Marty wasn’t very smart,
but put a brush into...

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Virtue, thou art old wine of vague value
Admired even by vintners nary more,
Nor by the adherents taking time’s cue,
Ye decorate archaic ancient lore.

Watch new high-fliers that surface from shores—
Go-getters getting tonnes in rare offers,
Tiger stripes,...

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50 years ago, life was lived                             ...

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Reservations are made years in advance of the event.
Provisions from suppliers worldwide are globally sent. 
Sponsors enthusiastically devote their resources spent. 
Attendees eager to share stories of when they went.

Seeing the epic golf rivalry as...

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I glance up from my mask while the sky is still dark, and it resembles the shape of a question mark.
 It curves where the people are going round and round, then it nosedives like...

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just within reach?

things!
lots of things!

stuff one could collect,
especially graphic novels
with a writer that made you wish
you had a photographic memory
so you would never forget even one 
consonant or one vowel he wrote.
with an artist who...

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Tonight I’m looking at the ones around
Trying to land my feet on solid ground
Sometimes I don’t even know
If I know what that means
Sometimes I don’t even know
Who I’m meant to be 
There’s so many people
On...

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We’re (my roommates and I) at a specific time of youth - a time I’ll call “close.” We aren’t fully adults but we’re close, we’re not completely out and independent, but we’re close. And once...

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This poem was inspired by the photograph titled, 'Running Legs,' by Lisette Model.


I was an experienced hiker, who had rambled down many famous trails,
Like earth's charming, 365 day tales, of its seasonal, sightseeing avails.

I'd trekked...

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III.
So came the pattern they would embrace,
each spent two weeks a year at the other's place.
The dates sometimes varied on her schedule,
but each made sure that their time was not dull.

She got some bigger roles,...

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Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, Aunts
every extended family would have 
over a hundred people in their family
one hundred people saving ten dollar's per week

A thousand dollars per week
Fifty two thousand dollars per year
the deposit for a house...

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We may not agree with you, but we love you.
We may not condone your choices, but we accept you as made in God's image.
We are not afraid of you, but we believe God wants a...

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