Long Creased Poems

Impossible mission to captcha infinitesimal moment

alternately titled: tick tock runneth amuck
seconds elapse imperceptibly 
leaving me dumbstruck,
how quickly fleeting tempus fugit; 
ofttimes imagined as time thief.

Hence following vignette: quiet as a mouse lurks the time thief...

Read More

“There,” Lumi said suddenly and Joulupukki looked through the trees, seeing a small house. 
     “Wait here said Joulupukki, I'll be right back.”
He made his way to the house and called...

Read More

Pellucid pachyderms wade across
the purpling River Manjees
and Tozzath watches from the bank, 
the seat of his maroon pantaloons soaked with mud,
his nostrils flaring with the fragrance of ombadalias,
whose lacey petals flutter
like the wings of long-dead...

Read More

* This poem was written for a contest originally, but was used by Professor Anne-Marie Thornton of Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, to teach her WAR POETRY class in the spring semester of 2017. My...

Read More

Her small angelic face ...

Once a place where broad smiles bloomed like butterflies on marigolds,
is streaked with the furrows that countless tears have etched into the
layers of dust and dirt and explosive residue that now...

Read More

,It's like some long lost fairy tale 
That's handed down through time
But couldn't be, as you will see
For this strange tale is mine.

I chose to take a country road 
I do from time to time
To...

Read More

Within the frame a sepia scene
a dusty porch   a rickety chair   
the fabric of your dusky face creased
with ceaseless sunbaked woes
your old pair of getaway feet gives 
a different walk of...

Read More

* I’m honored to say that this piece was used for a “War Poetry” class by Ann Marie Thornton at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. Many thanks to her and the students for their questions...

Read More

The Letter         

A young man strolled along the waterfront,
His mind and heart at ease.
Said an old man, sitting on an upturned punt,
Gazing out towards the sea. 

“Come...

Read More

It looked so right on paper to everyone; but when the night embraced her she was alone, still wanting to believe in love. 

Her footsteps echoed through her cathedral of a house which offered her...

Read More

They are conflicted haunted images from black and white photos of America 1933, when there was no place left to run. 

It was the hunger of people lined up, scraps of food ladled out, the...

Read More

The crescent ~ half awake,
yet wholly aware,
like the essence of my presence ~
drowsy and divine ~
glowing in golden hues
is the mentor leading
me through scented silence.

I am the thorn and the petal,
  the yin and...

Read More

There in the corner of the living room 
on a loveseat meant for two 
now only resides one
there he sits, by a warm fireplace
its occupant a man 
a man have I known only as a...

Read More

His ramrod back, his brill-creamed hair 
and waxed moustache gave him a certain air, 
a certain dash, and a military bearing. 
His speech was clipped. He walked his stick 
with sergeant major's flick.
His corduroys ...

Read More

I wonder if Pops will lie out in his trademark bell-bottoms—faded denim flares that split the air like his cool, bending time, making room for his strut as if the horizon would yield to his...

Read More

“Everybody duck, everybody run, and everybody hide. Quickly now. Hurry. IT is happening now. All run run run” In haste the message spoke. Radiating booming voice from the tissue box placed in the middle of...

Read More

ABOUT A LETTER 

I was cleaning and re-arranging my
Precious book-shelves,
A lot came down, a lot went back after dusting
Off, much of such
Dust, but one blue heavy book caught my attention,
I am not of those who...

Read More

This nonestablishmentarian (Iman) kant riff!
Otherwise titled as: Thanksgiving
nothing more'n gobbledygook 
we stuff ourselves with.

Mine suburban outpost 
approximately thirty seven plus miles
southeast of where liberty bell marks
history upon cobblestone streets 
where sounds of silence 
from walking...

Read More

The walls were white, the doors crystal clear entries,
Which had eyes and mouths,
To answer the queries of the Queen, when, she wanted 
To know what was happening in other worlds!
The land was one of stability,
With...

Read More

Circumstances
Poem
Lionel Derbyshire

Circumstances leaves you few A chances.
No nick, no pick, no give me more.
Just a little sauce.
No custard tart.
You on shoestring circumstance
It's rough-and-tough
In the orphan jungle

All I can stitch together in memory is my big...

Read More

His heart is with the winds
that set his spirit free,
enduring breeze that sets the sails
and guides him out to sea.

Sea rover fair with eyes as blue
as ocean’s deepest depth,
he hails the morning mist
and keenly sets...

Read More

I'm in charge here 
I am your chieftain.....your Lord and Master                        ...

Read More

(alternately titled: tick tock runneth amuck)

Ever since the advent of civilization
contrivances crafted to measure
days, weeks, months...
analytical “gifted” anonymous minds
wrought ever more sophisticated inventions
to divide existence into manageable units.

Now twenty first century Homo sapiens
technological atomic clock...

Read More

Sometimes she would laugh.
Sometimes she would cry.

    her worries
she would never
                 complicate
    ...

Read More

Peter Pan? He is nothing but a tale drawn out,
a hero of half-truths, drowned in fairy dust,
the dullest side of a double-edged sword.
 
Before my time lost its salt, 
before the boards of this ship...

Read More