Long Martinez Poems

I love you only because I love you
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I love you only because I love you;
I am torn between loving and not loving you,
Between apathy and desire.
My heart vacillates...

Read More

Four years ago today
9/11 rang in our ears
Our Nation still cries a river
Into a sea of tears

Patrick Driscoll 70, was retired
Jane Folger 73, retired as well
Toshiya Kuge was a student
When the Twin Towers fell

Husbands and...

Read More

I have attempted to capture my favorite major league baseball players in this little shape poem of home plate. Included are (in no particular order):

Say Hey Willie Mays       ...

Read More

Game 5 starts with a bang, a base hit then home run by Pearce right away
Red Sox are 2 to 0!  Go Sox – Yay!
Then the Dodgers come back with a home run on...

Read More

At the core exists his emptiness
Spineless unrest smothers him
All due to nature’s wavering obscurity
And stumped awareness of inherent security

Fear took charge and penetrated his inner skin
Seeped into his veins 
Then settled in marrow
And so his...

Read More

supporting the anti-communists in 
the Soviet Union from
1944 to 1989---
supporting al-Za’im in Syria in
1949---
installing Shah Mohammed Reza 
Pahlevi in 1953 Iran---
supporting Colonel Carlos Castillo 
Armas in 1954 Guatemala---
providing weapons to anti-communist
Tibetans, from the mid-1950’s to...

Read More

Childhood trauma living inside of a grown man
Sorry if I seem shut off and don't want to hold hands
I understand if you don't want to stand next to me with my cold stance
But there's childhood...

Read More

Crows
By- Manuel Martinez




The morning rays are what I’m told a blessing for today Well, 
I’ve been lied to.
Morning’s hell and the afternoon a drag
Out of tricks and broke like bricks
I can’t brag.
Over and done with...

Read More

timing is everything
time now to say it,
had 11, 77, and 175
had what you had,
been shown what you saw,
heard what you heard,
told what you told,
they'd have done
what you did

still, no matter
self-destiny is
inherent in us all,
most apparent...

Read More

Looking in the mirror I understand I am only as strong as the person I see.

But my dreams are to change the world through a black and white key.

I can’t stand as high as the...

Read More

"Arised"




Plath took a silken bath
submerged in dreams
baptised in black molasses and a warmth to leave

Arised
Plath took a man by the hand
lead him out of Honey Land

Bees buzzed his mind stung his eyes
when he walked out...

Read More

“My little kitty is so unique,” said Miss Olivienne Jonesmiller, “she’s a precious little shorthair, all ‘tude and sassy.”
“What will you name her?” Her mama asked. 
“I’m going to name her Beaupretty.”

“My little kitty is...

Read More

It was the Nebraska Corn Huskers annual spring game
When near the end they called out Jack Hoffman's name
A seven year old boy on treatment break from a brain tumor
And today he was going to get...

Read More

I am what you would call the last. 
The outcast of a breed, 
fading so fast 
that people loose track of its original art. 
Its original words spoken from the heart. 
Twisted to form a...

Read More

Inspired by the Story of Silvestre Martinez, Jr ( RIP) 
Helped by Adrian Blanco


Can you hear me when I cry 
When I pray for you at night. 
I wish you were here 
And it just...

Read More

Oh how I wish I had known you better.
I never even got to kiss you or tell you how I felt.
God I wanted you to be my girlfriend so bad.
Life got weird for me, I...

Read More

Without you, everything I do
loses value every day.
Habitual things that mattered, 
yesterday,
are hard to do, today.

Yoga in the morning,
even my daily poetry,
have suddenly lost their meaning,
and I tend to oversleep.

These give the lie to any...

Read More

A look far $urface Iland place
I stay where mostly gone both 
Shells a part across swimed
Around Natureness Dawn grewed
Some seven Seas of Flowers and dirt
Whence soil fresh sent after Industries
Time wacthing new Years $urface spined
Hurricane...

Read More

Tunnel to nowhere-

once the promise of a dream

abandoned neath city streets-

brought to light in color

through bold artistic fantasy.


August 15, 2019

Contest: Second Edition of Wayra
Sponsor: Nette Onclaud
Syllable count 5, 7, 7, 6, 8- Unrhymed

"Inside a never-used...

Read More

As nightfalls come to fruition

Leaving room of conditions

For dreams to strive

And before dawn breaks

Memory ceases to create

So to mediate

Our corporal world

Into transient capacities

Of unborn fallacies

To mitigate now’s journey

Into sanctuaries bearing

All fruits of now’s nativity

In proximity...

Read More

He began his journey
             To eternity
For us
   another page to turn
   a grain of sand through the hour glass
We...

Read More

Frank Edwin was his real name.
This southpaw went on to garner fame.
With great accomplishments and few regrets,
he became the closer for the New York Mets.
This native of Martinez, California
finished his baseball playing career in Philadelphia.
He...

Read More

...

Read More

Laying in bed between crisp white sheets,
I hear the yelping of Mr. Martinez dog,
while the crickets croon to the night.
A frog's ardent love call remains unanswered,
as my husband's restless snores beg for oxygen. 

Furtive moonbeams...

Read More

By Mariann Martinez

Cry if u need, go ahead yell n scream 
be angry, be madbut u must understand... 
If the choice waus mine 
id be here with u for all time 
i'd never leave u...

Read More