Long Hoppers Poems

[This poem 'No God Of  Mine' was seemingly confounding readers as
to its meaning. Ordinarily, if I felt a poem wasn't  cutting it, I'd delete
it, but on this occasion, I've been asked to explain it... so here goes.]


By...

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ME dear FATHER you already know,
But you need to be briefed,
On a tragedy I believe you must not know.
There’s a deadly dance with violence killing teens in America’s Black Communities.
Use to be, 
Good Christian mothers,...

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Cement, sand and gravel, blood, body and soul
Eternity bred from hell's darkest hole
Combine gruesome aggregates, hydrate the mix
Mould them and dry them, then stack up the bricks.

Thought in advance and precision laboured
Set automatic, eternity savoured
No...

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Yes falling-down found rustling up-down shuffling-up slipping-down-
down up-down-and-up-and-again. Rolling-up-up-down-bobbling up-all-around-and-
down-again-around yes... again-and-again, yes-time, and-again... ! Skip-slip-slip skip 
skip-slipping up-rising-dropping down-slipping-up-drop-bop-bop-bop-again-slipping-up-
down-and again in-between the-cracks in-the-floor (h)and-fed to-the-gully-men slaves
peace-plays ((o))n the-minds-of everyone-as they-row, (((w)))hat-ever rugged cross... .

(G)rief-does...

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There are butterflies in my garden;
           can you believe it?

Two or three of its kind; big and small. 
All very cute and very colorful 
Delightful...

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Arrogance is the belittlement, empty lie... the stinking meat-pie-left-unheated and alone in the 
practical-wisdom-of-the-stove. The sometimes deadly and ambitious-quest for an-easier-day-
runaway-out-of-control-street-car-broken down mind trap-flimsy cardboard shelter of the-
ages,

opportunistic,

like the sea gulls singing-sailing along riding away...

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This poem is dedicated to 
A young lady, 23 years old raped by gang in Delhi in India and died on the 13th day of her victimization. She sacrificed her life for change.

over the centuries...

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UNQUOTABLE QUOTES: XLIV

Don’t translate poems if you want yours read.
A pain in the ass is a pain nevertheless.
A « race" in any other language is still the shape of the nose.
Every cloud hides shining gold...

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The Playbill for the 9/8/01 show at Godspeed Opera House falls from my  palm to the floor. Here I sit, with a drugged hangover but alive. The last thing I remember is a suicide...

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The ABCs of Things Green

Algae, alligator, artichoke, asparagus, aphids, Andradite,
Brussels sprouts, broccoli, Buffalo Treehopper, and beans,
Cuckoo Wasp, Cabbage, cucumber, Common Green Darner, and celery 
Dog Day Cicada, Delphinium flowers diopside and dioptase, (rocks),
Emeralds, eyes, endive,...

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I wish that I was a mountain
A lofty and elegant one
With my roots deep in the earth
A crown of cloud bestowed on my dome


I wish that I was the Alps, with creased peaks
Arm in arms...

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In the mellow marshes
where butter flies abound,
a lot of curious critters here
are running all around.

Some jitter bugs are here with us.
Their music drives us nuts.
The grass hoppers – kung fu friends of theirs -
hop so...

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Grasshoppers.

friday a.m.

cumulonimbus sky palaces
heavy with promise
glide teasingly above Wild Enough.
thirty days of thirst beg to be quenched
the trees are tinder
and grass will burn like excelsior
the local ants worry
about low levels in the neighbourhood well.

friday p.m.

then...

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Space Hoppers, Power Cuts, Texan Bars & Playschool,
Record Players, Tiny Tears, Ford Capri’s (I thought were cool),
Bag Puss, Mrs Thatch, Wonder Woman, Rainbow,
George, Zippy, Rod & Jane, Bungle - have I got them all?
 
Dial...

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Benny Blue Beetle ran up a limb
He knew he could fly but he couldn’t swim
Way up in a tree way out in the air
He leaped and he flew way over there
Up high in the top...

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Yonder way I go, as out upon the walk one day, I roamed, 
and beside me ran the jolly many happy hoppers with the 
temperate hands, as my heart, one found to be moreover 
open...

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At the Park

           In childhood the main attraction was the park
         Nothing was better than play and...

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International relations clerk on duty enters
In her hand is a list of nations from Africa
One by one she shouts out their surnames

The assembly monitors gives her feedback
confirming presence or absence that day

Nations present she gives...

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OGUNLABI OLAJIDE YUSUF-NativePen 015
ROAMING RAVEN
TIME OF THOUGHT:10:15PM
DATE OF THOUGHT:2:12:2011

Where from here
Art thou heading to?
On errand?
I believe
Oh wait and hear
I have a message for them
Branch up there
Tell "them" for us
That "they" have done us evil
Tell "them"...

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Microlight


When they appeared, we were like, “What …the?” motorcycles
dangling from multi-coloured wings, animated comic book scene
blond wisps racing at leisure in deliberate mid-morning breeze
rainbow spectrum gone haywire, in the azure June sky
they were flaunting metallics,...

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Groove Culture
yo, to the mixes that keep on flowing, jazzy house, the real deal, a natural movement, let that rhythm heal/
 Groove Culture, WHOOO YEAAA, blast it out, let the world hear you shout/
 with...

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Oh enigma ...
Endless hours of twilight-daubed magic -

Enchanting walks 'side a moon-splattered sea,
Alight with silver doubloon wave-tops that mock the starry vault,

Toes pressed to the cool, pearly-soft hem of sand,
Imparting each other our deepest notions...

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Paraded endlessly, this spectacle the Elephants know to be degrading,
And their counterparts from the sea , the Orcas, resist in captivity
By refusing to unfurl their proud dorsal fin, stings my eyes like a gnat
Lodged in...

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I took the car out
on a gloomy evening
& drove along 
the A9

people busy
with farming & 
harvesting before 
the heavy 
rain

cattle
being taken home
before the 
nightfall

boys naughty
flying their kites
up in the sky
still

crazy, crazy, crazy
buses 
drove faster
passing my...

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Spring comes, cool breeze flow
conveying the message of peace
with a pleasant and perfumed blow.
Flowers blossom with redolent fumes.
Butterflies worried for their marriage 
inviting friends,with paused tune.
Linda, Sandra dress up nice,
Jean, James come with smile,
Andrea, Anne...

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