Long Haltingly Poems

*last winter break*

I woke up abruptly, my chest gripped and tight. My face felt hot but my arms stung as if frostbitten. I gasped for air that wouldn’t come, as if I had a plastic...

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The year has finally yawned and turned       
Upon a half-revealed shoulder.
A vibrancy, intrinsic to a reemerging 
Enforcement of the strengthening light, 
In its deliberate and unconcerned   ...

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Tenebrae – The World’s Shadow 

A very old, odd man approaches me out of nowhere
with his face contorted, fearful, and noticeably sad.

A strange person truly he is with . . .
deep-set wrinkles that profusely cover...

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Spartan are the white walls were once hung draperies
And things papered, paneled, plastered...
Yet, 'tis so no more. 
Now all is white and wan and sickly, 
And the ghostly shadows of the accoutrements and impedimenta that...

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Unblinking reflexive opinions lean
     indubitably, favorably and certifiably
     with minimal pandering soliciting
     uber voodoo yawping woos

socially quintessentially obviously markedly
    ...

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Tossing and turning after a heavy economic loss
The shock shattered my peace of nights
Hugging my pillow tight with unshed tears
The sorrowful thoughts trudged haltingly
To my grandma's antique sewing machine
Lying impassively in the cluttered store
Guilt shook...

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Oh, such captivating concupiscence ...

I am lost to your thrall, your virtue's vassal
You are the perfect impish angel - raw sensuality, incarnate
You are hunger, insatiable and wry, and I your food
I watch you speak, breathe,...

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It’s a five-hour round trip, 
What with the ferry, shuttle, a
Twenty-minute walk, sometimes the bus,
Just to see him for a couple of hours. 
Sometimes he’s not doing well
Or is sleeping while I’m there.
It’s been such...

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i step from the shower
i think of u
i wrap my wet hair in a towel
i wonder about u
i sit in my favorite chair in the middle of the night
everything looks as if its in slow...

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I dream fragments of poetry, 
	my pen balanced in my hand, 
	journal opened to that page 
	already darkened 
	with blots of frustration,
	asterisks for seemingly important ideas, 
	collections of words and phrases 
	intended for collage and...

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In low tones we chatted
On the steps to her porch,
We talked of the decades
Since I’d carried her torch—

Of love we knew nothing
During young naïve years
Of kissing and fondling
‘Til I left her in tears,

For the navy...

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INSTRUMENTAL INFATURATION

The piano man stopped playing when you walked in
And that’s when I heard the brass begin
The flautist was taken aback by your grin
And then I heard the voice of a violin

The drummer stumbled over...

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INSTRUMENTAL INFATURATION

The piano man stopped playing when you walked in
And that’s when I heard the brass begin
The flautist was taken aback by your grin
And then I heard the voice of a violin

The drummer stumbled over...

Read More

INSTRUMENTAL INFATURATION

The piano man stopped playing when you walked in
And that’s when I heard the brass begin
The flautist was taken aback by your grin
And then I heard the voice of a violin

The drummer stumbled over...

Read More

In low tones we chatted
On the steps to her porch,
We talked of the decades
Since I’d carried her torch—

Of love we knew nothing
During young naïve years
Of kissing and fondling
‘Til I left her in tears,

For the navy...

Read More

.

                 She laid poised
               'pon...

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Stripped of the one
Whose existence gave his life
Its energy, shape and motivation
There he sat with curtains drawn
The flickering screen his sole companion
Trying to blot out
The monotonous thrum  of mourning
Murmuring in his mind
Painful and prolonged.
The...

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Weak and tired I fall on rough cobbled stones.
Blood oozed down my face across my cheekbones.
My knees are bruised and pain spreads from my brain, 
The wooden bar hurt my back again.

Man must learn as...

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A tree in the hills felled by the summer storm
river in spate carries from cascade to cascade.
Deskinned trunk haltingly moves to the bank,
sticks in mud and boulder the water deposits.

Next rains come, the river sweeps...

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War, facing down the earth to tithe
its quantities of youth, its mirth, its stride!
Does take the best, while blinking satisfied,
the soul resolve of faith becomes deride.

My love then, do we fight to focus mew
acquainting how...

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I’ve started getting emails
That I cannot read a word of.
They’re written in a language
That perhaps I’ve never heard of.

The writing looks like Arabic,
Not in my realm of knowledge.
In high school I learned Spanish
And a little...

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“It’s a puzzle Pa
here and here and there”
Son’s stubby finger
as indicated
Yellow balls surround
“I’m trapped in a maze”
I exclaim, confused
Start scratching my head
and turning around
“Oh Pa, I’ll show you”
Son said haltingly
Sinuous his frame
snaking and twisting
progresses the...

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"We both are fluent in the language of love
And I want to make sweet poetry with you"

I write my words across your chest
My single letters haltingly slow down
Incoherently forming new words
Lining up in sentences withheld
Crying...

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Darkened, soiled, burnt.
The maggots squirm in love.
Felt through novel nerves,
a litany betrays your senses.

Inflated corpse of blood,
it savours its own demise.
Hollowed and enlivened,
it spews poisons freely.

Plain cobbles whine,
tortured by the resident.
A meaty bit of pain,
left...

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My sadness rises
with the rooster robust call
in the pre-dawn 
It’s haltingly reluctance
seems to hang on 
to the morning mist drifting
A stubborn departure
exiting 
skyward feathery

To-day 
is such a fine
vapor mourning
Sublime ecstasy fills my heart,
watching 
heavy tear...

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