Long Clotted Poems

For ten months now I’ve brooded over coming second place
in the pickle section deeming, it no less than a disgrace.
It was written plain and simple, so there can be no excuse,
that the pickles in this...

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I love you only because I love you
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I love you only because I love you;
I am torn between loving and not loving you,
Between apathy and desire.
My heart vacillates...

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Alone I arrive, walking from Frederick
over the gaps, across gentle hills
out onto a knoll
overlooking this burnished landscape.
Before me I see countless writhing rows
of indiscernible shapes gathered
in terrible rituals mid fire and smoke
darkening the sun.
From distant...

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Into Deep Raging Darkness A Poor Soul Was Once Cast , Dedicated To Master Poe

As deep darkness surges into these old decaying veins
This wounded heart so struggles to gift out slower pulsing beats
How dare wicked...

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The uniform on the floor was to be washed, dried then ironed but the scones that the pig ate meant that a walk to some hidden caves was achieved but only after the recycling was...

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Horror squeezes my chest like pliers on a straw ...
There - out there in the black,
Something moved ... again ...
Just briefly, a flash of pale in the ink,

But enough so I knew it was real.
I...

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She was a dairymaid, oh so sweet;
many a year ago.
Her figure was trim, her hair was neat,
with ringlets tied up in a bow.
And many a farmer would leave his plough,
the turkeys and chickens, and even...

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TRUE ...

You know not those dark
Places, mine, the dull, black
Chasms that hold a mind
When it's bare - stark and

Keen and cold ... when it's
Left with itself for time
Unquenchable, out of the
Streams of consciousness

And normality, scraped...

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"50 Words for Poe: Strangelove"


Strangelove was waiting  
in Holdnerness
He was anticipating 
with a certain glee 
The “Arrival” of 
Ms Bon Vivant, her sharpness
and sharing conversation 
over Kumquat Jam, Scones and 
clotted cream at High...

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Veiled Love

The true depths of selfishness 
I had never touched
Until I met you
Never feeling its cuts, 
I could have never knew
Just how bladed it was
Victim after victim a glutenous lust
Seeming to serve you all that...

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since I conceived you not by flesh but through the Holy Spirit
you really are the Son of God, the Almighty:
however, for you came to the world through my womb
you also, surely, are the son of...

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She looked peaceful in her lavender dress-
as I suppose she was. Eyes closed as if lost
in childhood dreams, small hands folded across her chest.
Her glasses resting beside her auburn strands,
lips pleading for color, her face...

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Invitations to the Gala
issued by a grave impala
were highly sought out missives 
by the bold and the submissive 
Those omitted uttered curses
shook angry fists or heavy purses
Had they but known that
the price of  admission
was...

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I

how could i know him his eyes say
but my eyes reply which of us may speak to that
be busy in the house that needs fixing
despite histories in three
and homes as safe as the clicking of...

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The warmth no longer comes
it seems to only leave.

The furry ones, all
caught in hypnotic disbelief:
hardening ground's
taken root
where once
gardening grounds
(forsaken, mute)
were once and again
makin' fruit.

Each beast, shaking
like a leaf
(though, truth be told
I've only ever 
seen 'em...

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Endurance is not of your nature,
Solidity glides in wavering motions upon my pitiful neck,
Now brazen silver does linger,
Trite lance, ravenous knife does make one last,
Sorrowful trek...

I know you'll adore each compassioned endeavor,
And your canvas lay...

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Im half awake, and glaring at the sunrise
distant brilliance slowly eating at my dry eyes
squinted to best witness the aureate Apollo
refract off blades soaked through with dew
heaven's first blush, midsummer quiet, and coffee scent
cast clarity,...

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Now, Railroad Bob has lost his job, he’s got no place for working,

His wife, she cries with desperate eyes, their baby’s head’s a’ jerking.

The union man don’t give a damn, Big Brother lies a’ lurking,

the...

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Europe was frozen in a tide of hate
The genius Jew was being persecuted
Bound to the intransigence of fate
His violin played the tunes they executed
Now it was time to think as they electrocuted
The hopes of young...

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Everyone has a childhood witch.  Mine was Florence.  I would run and hide when she walked past our house, stooped over, staring at the sidewalk.
Her hair was an ugly gray color, held away...

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8/22/21
"Nauseous"

Getting closer to Autumn
In deep thought near a marble column
Always doing things that lead me quickly into a coffin
Overlooked, abused and forgotten
Felt like I had zero in common
So I kept staying solemn
Because people are quick...

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Lost, to the darkness, deep ...

This bleak sojourn I have made times on end,
dipping my eyes to the dreadful forms that mock me,
a maelstrom of words spinning my mind,
to pinch off the oppressive stench of...

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A pregnant lass with eyes of glass had never learned to cope;
once set adrift her fall was swift, she slid a slipp’ry slope.
She fled the curse of worlds perverse by shooting shots of dope,
and stalked...

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10 parsnip street, thought carrot. Elongated places in wisdom curves. Aromatic spices on compounds and a dramatic twirl from a very energetic spoon whose primary existence is to perform backward flips at many dinner parties....

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a mellifluous trickle had given way

to licking her wounds in silent arrest

of the honey flow of her beautiful mind

synapses clotted on stagnant display

like burnt marshmallows on a fire

charcoaled pen roasted at her core

incinerated thoughts feeling...

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