Long Harpsichord Poems

Collaboration: James Swartz, LadyLabyrinth





"Scorpion"




Lack of water leads to lack of life
exposed beneath the Sun like blood
from the tip of a Scorpion’s tail

Corporal attitudes aligned in spaces
battle demented servitude in spotlights
stroking the sights of a symbolic...

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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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(A Marriage of Poems)

A single glance is an expression enough 
with eyes dotted with its punctual punctuation.
A sigh deep enough in loves' trough
that a trance can turn it blue, 
if only a beloved statuesque- 
emotion...

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37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love...

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I
"Gotta job as a nanny!"
"Maybe they'll hire me as a butler"
"Butler and nanny always live
in close quarters"
She winks
He raises and eyebrow suggestively

II
"I love flirting with poets
so...
palpable"
"Indeed my dear, indeed.
We are a flirtatious, passionate creature"
"But we're...

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Flame-featured twilight, illuminate fast!
Young are the dreams of humanity vast!
Age is a mystery museums kept.
Poets and prophets in agony wept...
Core of the harpsichord, pyramid-shaped.
Moorlands and moonlight black lined and blue taped.
Volcanic spark flowing downward like...

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I have always lived in this house.
Yet, these floors I don’t seem to remember.
From parlour to pantry there were once rugs
from Persia and Minton tiles of cherry in the halls.
Now the boards are decayed and...

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Scorpion 
A collaboration with Lady Labyrinth 

Lack of water leads to lack of life
exposed beneath the Sun like blood
from the tip of a Scorpion’s tail

Corporal attitudes aligned in spaces
battle demented servitude in spotlights
stroking the sights...

Read More

Angels come in a variety of sizes,
often unexpected, full of surprises.
Times when we’re in direst need,
without fanfare or showy parade,
they’ll comfort us with timely aid,
being sympathetic, they pay heed.

Possessing no halo that can be seen,
they’re...

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And I talk to her heart of delight, and she shudders to think elsewhere
The purchase of her soul, enlightened over here
She has a glass face, so smooth like porcelain
Created by a master-smith, not an extrinsic...

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I walk the lane 'neath giant oaks,
vast canopies of green,
and view the mansion at path's end,
a sight I've never seen.

My mind begins to picture
those precious days of old,
the owner of this grand house
with history yet...

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Undulating flights from skinny dipping ears of corn is not that noted in spring. But dashing through and over crevasses is just an  absolutely amazing sight. It is often performed in ten minutes whilst...

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Soon, O toil? Take, tamarisk?
Athlete, hurl disc!
Flickering fog in fine-kept frisk!
Blessings in the brisk!

Amiable heaven, hell:
What to do about?
Blood congeal and ichor gel!
Set fire to the spout!

Yes, indeed. And human need?
We don't share their greed?
Apostate,...

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After a long walk
I transcribed myself into piano music.
All night a harpsichord
had been jangling nerves,
rattling the same baroque concerto
over and over again.

I count I-100, then start over
counting and walking,
a clockwork organ
self-winding, always
pushing a moment before...

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guitar strings broken
                    drum pierced and deflated
         ...

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I hear my name being called in the night
Stephan, Stephan, Stephan
I wake in a sweat, knowing I belong here
Dead bodies trample upon me
As I begin to lose my mind
I hear my name being called
Stephan, Stephan
The...

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In The Moment

                                ...

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When the world is cross and dreary
              There’s a place to calm the weary
I find the secret door down under
  ...

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Aim dead center, O aeon!
Era, this is now.
Ergo, O my stern scion;
Come to anyhow!

Looking-glasses are like wind.
Reality grinned.
Terror, tiger, tamarind!
Sacred til he sinned...

Gaunt the gambrel goblin?
No smile a-face today.
Whirling dervish, loud the din!
War, be on...

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Penny dropped circular clocks on carved out emblematic wisdom cones. Be careful if it rains coal dust as radioactive drones, mobile phones, and teapots too could all gather to form lines of imperialism. How rather...

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You must not have believed
in the death of poets.

A harpsichord wind 
plays the bare, coral trees
in an ashen sky.

Songs sing like passive seas
honed red with remembering.

You are ancient Aztec,
edged flint--
yet you burn in us
as we...

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Harpsichord in heaven?
Cubic or spherical?
Bread, O baker? Leaven.
Just flicker as you fall...

Dancing lights apace in space?
Watch them in her face.
Ghost, vanish without a trace!
Gold, case, carapace!

Desert floor in winter?
No more than one inch, snow.
Shredder, got...

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Spark, sail into flame. Never again.
Melt into miracle, common stuff of roads.
Light, transcending is sorrow.
Cold, seize my heart. Love, consume.
Once, dream, talk in waves of sound.
Stars of the harpsichord, fade me away.
Body, become darkness. All...

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One of the greatest classical composers was a Prussian.
Herr Bach went by the name of Johann Sebastian.
Laboring at his harpsichord, his compositions were many.
He wrote a rather short tune that was quite pretty.
It had an...

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Cataclysm, disaster!
Calamity, come!
Fate of mankind, I, master!
Doom and Death, thy drum...

Gore upon the altar?
Somebody needs to go.
Nerves within, do not falter!
Cease, heartbeat, post slow.

Tunnel subterranean?
What in there was planned?
Hell and Heaven, sane again?
Orders countermand!

Yellow skies...

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