Long Honed Poems

WOMEN ...

Truly amaze me ... they possess the super-human
strength to birth a child - one of the most painful
and demanding physical and emotional feats of end-
urance known to our species - yet they have the
self-confidence...

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Poems about Poems VI

The Board
by Michael R. Burch

Accessible rhyme is never good.
The penalty is understood?
soft titters from dark board rooms where
the businessmen paste on their hair
and, Walter Mitties, woo the Muse
with reprimands of Dr. Seuss.

The...

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Salve
by Michael R. Burch

for the victims and survivors of 9-11

The world is unsalvageable ...
but as we lie here
in bed
stricken to the heart by love
despite war’s
flickering images,

sometimes we still touch,

laughing, amazed,
that our flesh
does not despair
of love
as...

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Rosalia - The Evil Black Witch of the Harz

Prologue
This is a rather grim epic poetic tale of Rosalia, a 16th century German witch who terrorized villages, destroyed the lives and corrupted the souls of many...

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Ace colonoscopy doctor Kellen Karl Kovalovich

revisited January 23rd, 2024
on the evening before yours truly
(the one and only Matthew Scott Harris),
a stand up comic wannabe, who
historically heartily hales 
from Schwenksville, Pennsylvania
undergoes oh joy rapture colonoscopy.

Three days...

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The past can’t tell the future; I'd almost forgotten this,
The past six years had brought me higher yields than average,
Though expectations soared, now nada, nothing, zilch.
Our wheat fields decimated from the lack of rain.
And those...

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This is the story of Jeni Haynes, whose father inflicted horrific physical and sexual abuse on her from the age of four years old. As a result she created over 2000 alter egos to get...

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Richard Mcgeehan Poem

Poetic license I employ
to match inventive
wisdom and witticism
regarding (brother in law of mine 
husband of eldest sister of same)
interspersing, initiating, incorporating
fabrication whenever possible,
and only the subject himself
can discern fact from fiction
and get a...

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Each day’s (we’re alive) one more leaf that has fallen
from tree (Fate’s collusion?), our edifice grown
with the help of light garnered from sources outside
of our provenance, moisture, and minerals,
‘cheap’s’ turned to ‘gold,’ not by Chemistry’s...

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Ace colonoscopy doctors Kellen Karl Kovalovich
and Larry Borowsky

Though necessary to down: 
four Dulcolax laxative tablets, 
quaff half 238 gram bottle of Miralax 
over span of eight hours, 
and if necessary even one Fleets Enema, 
I...

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Don’t you ever feel insecure?
Don’t you ever feel like your worthless?
Will I ever find some sort of cure?
Will I survive this feeling of hopelessness?

There are ghosts in the shadows
You got me with your many blows
Felt...

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“What concerns you,” he asked?
     “This one looks much like his kin, has he inherited other aspects of his father as well?”
     “Do you mean magic?”
The guard...

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With Eternal Sent Bliss Two Hearts Reborn - a collaboration with Susan Ashley


Under the midnight moon, romance waited
its true heart and beauty, with love baited
for dawning gleam across powdered snow
and she her handsome soldier to...

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A Harlem hoodlum, (albeit respectable)...

ready for night time in bedlam
after swallowing me favorite dram,
cuz reasonable rhyme resembles flimflam.

Whiling away his time playing solitaire...
initially prepped, honed, and crafted
November second two thousand and twenty
slightly tweaked February nineteenth
two...

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Bring on the rejection slips...

and/or try distilling my spirits
at losing gamble
if curious (by George) proceed
reading reasonable rhyme,
I guarantee the following words ramble.

Though flush with good humor
pun one mock two yields negligible
true cash equivalent value won
dirt...

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TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


I’ve an important story that I need to share today
There are several endings, you’ll have the final say
It’s about a young man born without his sight
Living every moment...

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When a little girl,                               ...

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Oh, if only ...

If only monsters ...
LOOKED like monsters.
If they lurked ONLY in the dark,
Glowing red eyes and chiseled teeth ...
Claws and horns and forked tails,

         ...

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What mountain’s top holds truth’s last stand,
 its vista viewed as life’s specific grandeur;
 promised above earth’s horizon,
 soon home to you, this present era’s raconteur;
 prized perch upon and soon so manned,
 spirits to...

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These are her stories of why; the sad excuses of mother's life;
Her oft-honed chip, accented with her mother's old mink stole,
Tears most lovely in her eyes as she spoke of the beautiful farm;
Telling of the...

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Have you ever played with it?
Even if just a bit.
Or thrown it.
Because you were in a snit.
Did you ever eat it?
Then throw out the pit.
Or caught it.
In your mitt.

Would you yell at it?
In a momentary...

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I wax poetic as lifeblood imperceptibly doth wane

Mine body electric analogous 
to Google map pronounced 
with arteries and countless varicose vein
visible popping blood vessels  
leeches haven grand old time 
at expense of poor sucker...

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Jack and his friends, impressed by personalities
wanted to get there and enjoy name and fame
They stood gaping at their accolades and victories
And made gross assumptions about what it took to succeed
They tried to attempt the...

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It’s already been three years now since you passed away,
Yet, those mem’ries of you are alive, in my heart you’ll forever stay;
Every time I think of you, I smile with pain,
And wish that I can...

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Sitting in the predawn chill I replayed our last conversation.He had gotten home shortly before midnight saying he was staking out a pot lot on his turf.Hidden along the forests border tucked here and there...

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