Long Grammar Poems

State of the Art (III)

These are my "ars poetica" poems: the ones about the art and craft of writing poetry in a modern world that doesn't always recognize the artists or their work. 



Come Down
by...

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Poems about Poems IV

The Toast
by Michael R. Burch

For longings warmed by tepid suns
(brief lusts that animated clay),
for passions wilted at the bud
and skies grown desolate and gray,
for stars that fell from tinseled heights
and mountains bleak...

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The Pied Piper from New York City – Part One

Dare his name be said?
I say, of course, Yes! 

The Pied Piper, himself, is the man, the myth, the legend.
And they, the so-called incurious lot of...

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We have something in common, a fellow I talk to now and then. We’re about the same age and perhaps the only ones in the diner who think our past lives are interesting. So when...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s TIME SIGHT UNSEEN, Part One by T. Wignesan

"Instead of an item in a school of rhetoric, the poem could have variety of articulations, continuity and discontinuity, sentence and parataxis, and an...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s TIME SIGHT UNSEEN, Part Two by T. Wignesan

"Instead of an item in a school of rhetoric, the poem could have variety of articulations, continuity and discontinuity, sentence and parataxis, and an...

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Oh Hanna. 

The sinking of the USS Stefan wood. 

Oh Hanna 
I want to take you to Montana. 
We can camp out by the springs we will go and see the way oil is founding...

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Steven is a retired teacher disturbed by the problems he sees in education. Schools weren’t perfect when he was teaching but they were better than they are today. He has ideas for improvements. 

Some of...

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What if poetry soup just shut down 
with all your work before you edited
always copy you work even if you have
to go to the library check your 
titles as well sometimes 
identity thieves actually rip...

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Father, you hurt my feelings
It looks as if you don’t care that I’m alone
Melodic, hopeful bird sings,
So I listen and feel at home, all on my own 

The tune of tranquility will drain away the...

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Kentucky's late summer sunshine
sunk deep into their skin
as the boy rode on the back
of his Grandfather's coppered horse,
the tobacco harvest would begin soon,
aromas of sweet leaf darkness
were wafting in the field heat,
to the big barn...

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I’m not saying my father hated the English, God forbid. If he were still alive, he’d hate to hear me say that. He’d correct me right away and say he didn’t hate the English. Truth...

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 Translation of Eric Mottram’s TIME SIGHT UNSEEN - Part Four by T. Wignesan


"Instead of an item in a school of rhetoric, the poem could have variety of articulations, continuity and discontinuity, sentence and parataxis,...

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Unquotable quotes: Poets, Poetasters and Platos – XXXVI

     For James McAuley – in remembrance of a memorable week in Cardiff 1965 

The greatest poet ever is NOT Homer, Lao Tse, Ovid,...

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Lost dexterity since fingers tap away at qwerty keyboard...

since being a student in grade, junior and high school
analogous to geometry proof how lack of use proves
quite aware that finger muscles atrophied
veering off on a tangent...

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Jim Daley and Joe McCarthy had something in common. They died at 80 going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Walt O'Brien, their protege, found this out when he called the homes...

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Choices my dear one,
So many choices, 
So few voices,
Some near,
Some far,
Some to fear.

A path.
Clear and chosen.  
The erasure of a closing.
The logos of math.
The trajectory of wrath.
The conciliatory legislation blindly ruling the cosmos of...

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I had a dream a scary dream. 
That I had a business 
Hot and sexy business. 

In my dream i owned a Modeling company 
For men 
In that dream I was not rich but ready...

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A Statue Speaks

The morning takes it's first breath of daylight
Exhaling the sunrise that fills the sky with colored 
brilliance.                ...

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Igniting pain retrieving the chemical imbalance 
in my brain soft tissue itched my frontal lobe 
leaned over my forehead as my temporal lobe 
offered little comfort in cognitive skills my optic 
nerve damage piercing pain...

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"Cherish Armour"


She 
wears 
Her armour,

LOVE -

draped like chain mail
shields You 
with Her heart

When She is drowning
She will throw You to the sure
safe for Your future

And She will cry of lost children 
morbid oblivion, 
damnation and...

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My Mother taught me
how to see through language, 
paper was rare, iron ink wasn't free
so she sold some jewelry for porcelain lettering, 
and we clapped and sang the alphabet into life
our life, our joy, our...

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ADDENDA
READING ALOUD Reading a poem silently ( as  compared to aloud)is the difference between staring at sheet music and playing the music on an instrument.Recitation  equates poetry to the experience of viewing a painting or...

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Dear Budding Poet . . . 

   My view on modern poetry is that one must read the poets of old, to grasp
the concept of poetic form, word use, tone, imagery.  Then,...

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After amala and ewedu,
And after the round two of egusi and fufu.
Na im my eyes come dey pinch me,
Small small i dey close am.
Before i know i don dey doze,
Wetin we dey talk? I don...

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