Long Cipher Poems

A Stolen Memory
A Mirthful Chorus
By Sy Roth 


We surrounded him 
Asked to let go.
She stared at the misshapen face,
Unshaven sandpapery skin 
Eyelids a tabula rasa
Fluttery sere skin
And we could see the humor blossoming in his...

Read More

Young Raymond worked the bakery
was up 'bout ten to three.
Just eighteen, still in high school he
had dreams of flying free.

He worked as hard as most grown men
then walked to school and slept.
Took all his wages...

Read More

Deep breath
          Let it out, carry the blight
                  ...

Read More

The Error, Translation of Carlos Bousono’s poem : El Error

				for Miguel Delibes

(There are just some words and phrases in this translation that I might yet want to modify or substitute with other alternative phrasing. T....

Read More

Written: September 15, 2023
If This Was The Last Contest                          ...

Read More

Severely withdrawn as a doggone lad...

I wanted someone to hear me shout for help
as recently recalled
when yours truly a little barking whelp.

After conversing with Amélie Beth
(yesterday February 26th, 2021)
yes, the same sibling diagnosed
with nodule on...

Read More

You will not often find me 
In amongst the fold
Being chased from the pen
Wherein your treasure lies 
I will not clothe myself in sheep
I cannot be but that which I am

lone 
I am wolf

If we...

Read More

I AM A WARRIOR. 

I FEAR NOTHING UNDER THE SUN. 

NO MAN SHALL HAVE DOMINION OVER ME. 

I AM A SELF CONTAINED ELEMENT THAT CONSIST OF ATOMS, MOLECULES 
AND ENERGY GIVEN LIFE IN THE PHYSICAL...

Read More

Things were not advancing much

though we hurtled across the tar;

conversation was grinding to a halt

 & that was something

 I  needed desperately  to avert.

“Ah! Yes,” he interposed quite eerily,

Having clearly read my thoughts,...

Read More

Yo I know 2 poets, one young and one old,
Bold, and bright, bodacious,
But still gracious, perspicacious, never racist,
Moving to the beat of two generations,
Elations, facing nations, speaking truth to power,
This is their hour, 
Yo, I...

Read More

As Pharoah thought
Deep thoughts on Thoth,
He became serious
And thought of Osiris.

What of Seth?
What do Anubis and Horus sayeth?
Of Amun and Mut,
And panoplied Nut?

It may take me forever
Mused the Pharoah -
To invent the Alphabet
To honour me...

Read More

It was a five ringed circus
Complete with the ragged remains of a tourniquet
Heavily fringed by the under eye baggage of a bloated nefarious
Clown soul that is
Blowing across the freeway garnished with the white plastic baggies
From...

Read More

Let your feelings guide you
                              ...

Read More

Sheets of rain pour from heaven, concussive drops falling in succession another life being lead, too far in the wrong direction how am I so up when I'm down?

Another mistake
Another one made
Another hole in the...

Read More

The tricky question of how many animal farms we have
May be more complicated than most of us think;
There are at least some fifty-five animal farms in the world
Where wild mammals play and eat and drink.

And...

Read More

A place where hatred is taken captive and joyous laughter will resound
But, people are devoid of Understanding….Where Then Can Love Be Found?

We’re living in the Final Days; days of darkness, and confusion
Through the Beast, False...

Read More

"...we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned
in the distance by a invisible piper."
                     ...

Read More

The clown with his red cherub face
A maggot in his twisted brain
The jack-booted leather Christian
With dull razorblades down his spin

Staring down from their high windows
The taste of gin upon their tongues
Lusty fire crackling in their...

Read More

The king was incandescent,
In the brocades and creped damasks,
His knights and his attendants 
All surrounded his gilt throne.

A multitude was gathered,
For the seasonal oration,
Warming sons and fathers
By his sure and sovereign tone.

The king was still...

Read More

Voices voices telling me
Where to go
Who to see
What to say
And who to be
How to think 
What to believe 
What to buy
And what to spend 
Where to start
And where to end
Who to hate
And to friend 
When...

Read More

Hence, I plunge into imagination to encumber suffering,
Athwart are the horizons wider than my pride,
I, one but three, such a symbolic trope, the Trinity,
A gorgeous exaltation gorged into voracity, itself.

The good is near me! The...

Read More

Here's an ode I preserved for you in a poetically postured pose,
Particularly by my peculiarity of winding words with such prose.

Avail to the thesauri, and lexically thy dexterity shall enhance,
And uncover the meaning within this...

Read More

Gladly the rag falls dead beside the kitchen sink,
Grey and brown with coffee grounds and spillage,
Dripping pensive ochre on the rim,
Sombrely it slipped over the brink
And stank of rape and pillage.
Handmaid of the sweat shop...

Read More

Letter after letter
I imposed on your heart my will to love
Affection became sentences I still serve
Periodless
Upon the evening table of supper
And the morning counter of tea
Where loneliness impales me more
Each moment with you.

Letter after letter
You...

Read More

REDEMPTION VOICES

Africa is watching.
African-Americans,
your suffering is our suffering
(I once suffered racial slurs even in my own country),
your pain our pain,
your shackles our shackles,
your death our death,
sprout from the chokehold
like a lilac sprig
protruding from fair cockspur...

Read More