Long Gurney Poems

“The Juniper Prize: Between the Known and the Unknown”

That man built a house 
of straw and sticks
and the stories that burned within -

all consuming the titled prize;

like a bird 
sings a song
the metre repeats and...

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"A dressed day has disrobed into the depth of a drawer's nightstand." 

(Oh, how positively awesome that what can be sorted out in such an explanatory pattern that a difference would maketh a day.)

The muskiness...

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Betty was bonafide crazy. She had shot her husband after a night of drunken quarreling, and was in the state mental hospital instead of being in the slammer. She'd shot the louse in the stomach...

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CONVERSION

1
Everyday is a test, no rest, a contest, put up my best, I confess
Hardwired and tired, flawed with mud and mire, no liar but on fire
I will connect, will not fret but you can bet...

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My name is Paul Carter and I want to tell you my tragic story
About the wrong path I chose in life, that wasn't one of glory
I was born in the state of Maine in the...

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It's been ten years since I've been diagnosed with this DISORDER, with that said, it's NOT a DISEASE. As an active kid, I had damaged a minute portion of my TRACHEA which is the wind-pipe,...

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Signs of My Times 
Fears of My Peers.

There were little signs
When I was a kid
Prominently posted
Certainly not hid.

They were a little rhyme
To gain parents attention
To warn them of costs
It family lacked “retention”

You could find them
In...

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“But we realized, decades on back,
how consciousness burns out machines,
we are not gods when we create,
there are hard limits to our dreams.

“And the same questions you have asked,
why create what must quickly die,
haunted humans for...

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This morning I got a letter in the mail
It's only something my heart could tell
It was from the college of my dreams 
Went inside the living room mom screams
I slowly opened up the envelope 
Nervous...

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Did you ever have real good thoughts?
Where you're not stressed or distraught?
Well thinking about our Savior, I was feeling rather good,
When I was interrupted by a long ago friend that lived in the hood.

It was...

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There is a violent war that’s not in movies.
These soldiers we lost are not seen on TVs.
Friendly fire is the biggest killer of our men.
Per soldier lost at war, at home we lost over 10.

People...

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TRAUMA BAY

Of true evil, I’d had barely a peek
But this day would be an education
A full immersion in the fetid reek
The foul depths of his soul’s violation.
Indescribable draining sensation,
It leveled its shoulder, knocked out my...

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September 26, 2014 , 11:49 am Acceptance DALLAS, TX 75241
It's so nice to be accepted, and they added this nifty bar code.

September 26, 2014 , 5:14 pm Departed Post Office DALLAS, TX 75241 
I"m off...

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24  PROMISES 

Waking up in the arms of fire.
Ashes all around, burning  picture frame.
I see nothing, the night is dark as can be.
I look up and see my father crying over me.
At this...

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The car was checked out for I would have a hard day
Off to Alameda an investigation crossing over the bay
The car came to a halt in the middle of the bridge
I pull over and got...

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In these a-dying days,
people are given mo’ grief news
Hope cost less than
a jug bottle of dirt cheap booze

While the crying game
is being played
over and over,  time again hence

Death has a new name:
Covid-19
is the ICU...

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Yes, folks, it's happened again; the trash compactor backed up and spewed out 
all the following nonsense;
How come you only hear the term "scutch" in a hospital? "Come on scutch on 
over to the gurney.'...

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12/13/23



Secrets still buried
Stories in the wind got carried
Historical accounts occasionally varied
The truth can be sad and scary
We've barely
Discovered much so spare me
The same can be said for things happening fairly
Since the dawn of time it...

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“The Queen-Sized Bed”.
			 © London F. Buss

  A queen-size bed was coming slowly,
  down the rough dirt track.
  As it drew closer,
  The wheels clumsily mounted on the base of each...

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                   The in-sense of dying night falls 
         in...

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My dearest, sweet Daddy
I wish Australia wasn't so far away!
I can't just "pop over" to say hello
England is on the other side of the world
For one thing there's the cost
If the subject of money wasn't...

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We charge into battle,
Everyone side by side,
Prepared for inevitability,
Through the course of the ride,

We'll get cut, we'll get hit,
We'll get smacked around often,
While our critics and enemies,
Pray that we soften,

Our most secret of weapons,
They cannot...

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Push breathe
I know it will hurt
I am aware of the pain 
And I will be aware as they push lava in my veins 
I am an innocent man 
I am a man of no contest...

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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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The mountain, it was steep.
The snow was very deep.
Caused involuntary “ahs”
from anyone who saw.

To get up to the top
was not some little hop.
It took tram, chair and poma
to tackle that big momma.

To start from the...

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