Long Clangs Poems

An Excelente Balade of Charitie (“An Excellent Ballad of Charity”)
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

As wroten bie the goode Prieste
Thomas Rowley 1464

In Virgynë the swelt'ring sun grew keen,
Then hot upon the meadows...

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Crouching down, I'm foxhole bound,
crawling forward I seen it, its around.
I ducked my head, while covering one eye,
as soon as the enemies flare lit up the night sky.
Machine gun bullets quickly sprayed my above,
tracer rounds...

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"Jesus said, 'Whoever finds the world and becomes rich, let him renounce the
world.'"

   --- The gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Saying 110

"Jesus said, 'If you have money, do not lend it at interest, but...

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If I could just let it free
Just for a second
To let loose the ropes and chains that bound
The ball and chain on my feet, the hangman's noose
that I have tightened

The recluse;

The young lady who cannot...

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I

You died at 22; left me alive
At 25 to write this sonnet tomb;
Block letters hewn, with fumbling hands I drive
This pen in metered clangs around your room. 

In desperate pause, I step away to see...

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NOW - casus belli upon the head of Alabama Governor Kay Ivey

Greenlighted signal activating
opprobrious rapacious incestuous grievous...
Alabama Human Life Protection Act approved
desecration against women enrages
this Pennsylvania older married male,
cuz females inherent reproductive rights violated

occasioning this...

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Jack London's home across the Bay,
Now crossing the Golden Gate.
Walking through Fisherman's Wharf,
Smelling the entrees as you pass restaurant doors.

While ships passing along the way,
Fishing boats pulling up to the dock.
Crabs are snapping at your...

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The call comes in,
   the bell clangs
and off I go
   to try and rescue you
from people and things
   in your life
that are hurting you
   and setting your...

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In the mist, like a dream, she has weathered the seasons…
On the wind swept shelf, as if silently sleeping 
Where souls in her graveyard, are hers for the keeping
Staring out at the tide, where the...

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(The real Waddie Peacock, described only as “an old L.S. cowpuncher,” had the 
distinction of being the first person buried in Logan, New Mexico’s first cemetery 
in 1910.) 

It seems a man rides restless when...

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I heard tell some folks think cowboys built the West.
The only thing I know for sure is I always did my best
to give a man a good days work for an honest wage
ridin' among tumbleweeds...

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I was awakened by the sounds of clatters and thumps
as a whoosh of breeze made my window blinds thud.
I rose with a groan and felt the rise of goose bumps
on my skin. Frigid morning air...

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Photos 
The larger than life SAS patrol saw the explosions.
They danced and flickered and sang like a drum.
Then silence.

They know we're here.

Later, the SF men came across their enemy.
A thousand angry ragged heads.
All lined up...

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I have a window;
Any day— the traffic below is undying
with busy people, vehicles unending, and ambulances screaming for way.
men donning mud for clothes and wool for hair
command parking and direct movement of vehicles for spare...

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What does autumn sunshine gloriously reveal?
When the sun sets too swiftly in the west keel
When a breeze said, "Sweetheart, I admire you."
Now moan the dying chords of the gloomy view?

The cold that begets each blurred...

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I  can't reach the microphone and broadcast
Nor can i take a flute and sing
about this disease of the past 
that has relieved and killed many
and yet it clangs into me my heart 
like butter...

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Loves me, Loves me not?
Loves me, Loves me not?
Plucking petals is biased, as most flowers have 5 petals!
Counting the fingers and toes
of a poet, is ever so biased as well!
My dear, do you pluck me...

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This is what I  remember


something sits on my brain
a heavy pile of memories maybe
(lingering still)
freshly brewed strong coffee
mingling with last night's bouillon
the clangs of covers permeating the stillness
wools of sleep tangle the brows in...

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Fair is a word tossed between us,
quick breaths across wet teeth—
a fleeting agreement that nothing ever is,
except for our burning complexions
beneath the relentless, arid graze of summer sun.
The skin engaged in a heated debate.

But that...

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First class brains
Streets populated with them
Flaunting certificates--useless
Plus innate knowledge practical,
But unrecognised
 
Tightfisted bourgeois;
Alienated job opportunities
Reserved for own kids born and unborn
Capitalism overblown;nauseous
Grab and keep philosophy elevated
Who do you know?Who don't you know?
Keys to haven
 
You...

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“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the ghost,
“I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on
of my own free will, and of my own free will I...

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With plates and words in anger flying
My wife and I now deem it best
To cease all our screaming and crying
As I check into the Motel Goodrest

I arrive and plop down for a blissful night
But for...

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I know the way you feed

your wife and children.

 

I see you asleep at daytime

as though it were night.

The bamboo floor

complains about your

body weight and

length of unconsciousness.

You move and change

position to achieve

the most comfortable

stance, and...

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If I could be but a breath;

Anticipating each sweet rhythm; watching the rise of my chest

Collapsing in sweet song, sending out just my best

Id breathe out I Love you, and forget all the rest

 

If...

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Do you think I can save all ships in distress?
How wrong you are! Times when I sorely pressed,
Times when my beacon was snuffed out of its glory.
Oh, I can tell you many an adventurous story,
Exciting...

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