Long Clasps Poems

Self destructive wickedness arrested, convicted, and gaoled...

with kidnapping little boy 
ordered to suffer
life sentence without parole.

The deadly scourge of  
one obsessive/compulsive disorder
nearly left me starving to death.

Anorexia nervosa absent bulimia 
nadir of onset 
diagnoses...

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As dawn unfolds today beyond my fractured windowpane,
a breeze beguiles the ashen drapes. Like snakes they slip aside,
revealing wanton worlds that race and run aground, insane,
immersed in scenes obscene that savants strive to mask and...

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Shayna Punim - You came a long way baby!

Though negligible communication
now transpires between us
twenty seven years ago
come February fourth,
two thousand and twenty five,
our lives (affecting yours truly
and that of mother, plus Eden
a caring older sister)
irrevocably...

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Oh how my spirit is groaning
And the tension round about me is mounting
It is the feelings that you get when you
Passion is running high and 
you want to leap and touch the sky
I want to...

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After a short illness keeping me off Soup, and a 50-year refrain from Prose Poetry, I was inspired by a Thomas Merton talk about Rilke to find the courage for this form again.

Shoe Dreams

Is there...

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"Timeless trust,
   trapped in Selene's pendant,
                   pulsates purity and faith 
    ...

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Sitting on the rooftop, wavy hair billowing
In the wicked wind, fluttering away like herself
She clasps to her neck the silvery heart-locket
Before looking down from her shady alcove
She has no more time to waste, and, deciding...

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If the voice in Heaven did speak
His would be the last true voice
To speak and command me to be well
I was born with a broken heart
That formed an invisible shackle
Not fixed by the servant of...

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Staking Claims: For Yucatec Maya & Native Peoples

The stones of the desert cry with me
They are brothers and sisters, but no bloody kin
New hearts see just cold rocks … no warmth or charity …
Might you...

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Sometimes, reflections from my mirror,
recall when I slumbered at nature's nadir,
as naysayers whispered in whiskey breaths.
Bewildered, I wandered in the wilderness,
until the mercy of verse reversed the curse.

Poetry you've always been the legacy of my...

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Loverboy staring out the window, the stars gleaming so prettily
The meadow's bathing in silver light of the moon; it is such a perfect night
Loverboy sighs at the darkness, candlelight dimming as the wind blows 
The...

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Each holy man there is, is convinced he's better than the next,
as his right hand tightly clasps prayer beads, whilst he judges others with his left.
Piety the reason that he wakes up every day,
just to...

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Today I seek the sun,
it's gentle painless play-
words of winter warmth
spur me on my way,
away from death wish,
daily things gone wrong.

Today I seek the sky -
empyreal blue bowl
that stretches thoughts so high
above an endless flow
of...

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WHEN A MAN CHEATS (he broke the trust)
WHAT DO YOU DO
WHEN A MAN LIES (he broke the belief)
WHAT DO YOU DO
SOME WOULD SAY (hmm)
CHEAT ON HIM
LIE TO HIM
SORRY 
TWO WRONGS DON'T MAKE A RITE
YOU'D ONLY...

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Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the covenant law behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.
Exodus 26:33 NIV
The curtain of the temple...

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My reefs look dazzling in the dawn light.
A sea of hypocrisy and lies that we must fight.
They are held to what they are allowed to view,
And yield when they grip their identity and hue.

I can...

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She has been sobbing all night for enduring the vicious fight, she has been sobbing all night for paying a daunting sacrifice, she has been sobbing all night for enduring attacks and punches, hits and...

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beyond these shores
people live in destruction
they scramble from day to day
their existence is created by
the the ways and means of war
they are divided by doctrine
and each alliance
exploits their well being
beyond these shores
the tyranny of might
causes...

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Oh little Eleanor just turned one, two, three
She has curls that flow down her back and eyes bright as can be
My little Eleanor plays outside all day
Lives in a tiny house, but says that it's...

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Help us lead* others to You, Lord … grateful for Your bountifulness
As we praise Your gloriousness and greatness
Direct us to express Your loving kindness
For us to win souls, showing them Your redemption’s joyfulness.

Help us lead...

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Foreplay starts hours before the bedroom.
Leaving a note on your car while you’re working,
As flowers are delivered in bloom.
Later, rubbing your feet to ease the hurting.

Over dinner, listening to your day.
Engaging every detail as your...

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Utter me a lamenting word; we're enduring terribly.
A thing past forgets, weaved in emotional leeway.
Simply capping to bear, inside the inward personality.
Conjuring an immovable conviction of power decay.

We don't forget, yet the splitters rise promptly...

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________________

THE ERLKING

[NARRATOR]
Who's riding so late through night so wild?
It is the father who holds his child.
He keeps the boy held close with his arm:
He clasps him tightly, he keeps him warm.

[FATHER]
My son, why hide you...

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Maybe darling, you have fallen down  
or got lost, sweetheart on the way home  
to find our path, would you rather die alone without  
rather than be stuck on this earth to...

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As you sit at the edge of your bed 
dreaming of the man who should be there,
fog rolls to the windowsill.A shape appears 
at the picture windows and beckons for 
entry.You slowly rise and walk...

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