Long Norma Poems

“22½ euros for a Martini,” Peter remarked, when he first scanned the menu.
“It’s not like we aren’t going to get them,” I said, “we’re not going to cheap our way to abstinence." The waiter came...

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I Am The Final Word And The First Word


I’m having another one of those night sweats again. 
I am on my back here as naked as David, 
On this slip-covered sofa of mine, 
Counting the...

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Edna Morris lived in the town of Shadow Fells, in rich green, hilly country,
With doting parents and sister Violet, plucking fruit from their plum tree.

Pretty Edna was twelve years old, but she and Violet played...

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Into The Heart Of A Soulless Existence

Damn these flies! 
There must be a half dozen of them 
Buzzing around my tiny room here, 
Buzzing and humming spasmodically, 
Like tongue-less eunuchs 
In a locked church full...

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At twenty weeks      they saw the light—  
two daughters  Esme Teresa and Elle Norma    
          ...

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The sixty-year reunion
of the class of '55
was quite a celebration
for the ones who had survived...

First came prissy Pomeroy-
then Milford, Meeks, and Moody
who like old crows, perched and cawed
at busty old Miss Trudy

While Trudy curled her...

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"SOUL MATES"

                                 ...

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This is the place the ’punchers come
when it is time to drink their pay,
ride in from the hilly rangelands
to forget cattle for a day.

Norma in the kitchen will cook
beef and spuds for this roving horde,
her...

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I can feel your inner pain although I know this can’t be so, running through my own veins after many years of your soul leaving this world for so much more
It’s been almost sixty-two years...

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A spiritually presence came to me here just the other night, 

I can’t believe what my eyes are seeing, Granny that’s you staring at me right? 

Oh how is grandfather, Uncle Michael, and I can’t...

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city limits;on 2nd street and elizabeth avenue,near a tire shop,and its where billy 
the kid the out law lived and died;as brushy bill,so sad,yet here stood by those 
very same street names in real life,his...

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Serenade Me, Julius La Rosa

His striped tie has a green tint color 
And his hands are dark and bulging with blood. 
I can see them gripping the steering wheel like parrot talons. 
I can see...

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Sweet memories of Norma
Come shining through
There are just so many
And I’d like to share a few

We’ve been very best friends
For about fifty three years
Through the ups and downs
With lots of laughter and some tears

She has...

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Crystal Magnificent Morning

You should see LA 
In the crystal magnificent morning of continuing time. 
It is a magic that has to be seen to be believed, 
And yet, 
So few have truly seen the show....

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Revisited the 60's in a dream this past eve....

I saw Bobby fall and lying in a puddle of his own blood

Martin and John followed by processions of broken; tears and cries

Bodies with motionless eyes, frozen...

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John B. Jackson
1880-1911

Norma knew.
Norma, my erstwhile friend of a thousand hunts;
Only she knew the feel of my beading thumb,
As we sought out promising locales, and
Our clever quarry, from points near and far.
From the salty marshes...

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I am a child
Like the one you tuck in bed
The one you kiss on the head
The one who gets loved instead
The one who is so well fed
I am a child

I am a child
Like the one...

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Dear Marilyn,


Or should I say Norma Jean
Your birth name is mean
And I mean that in the most courteous way possible
Throughout life you overcame obstacles, critics, and obsessive fanatics
But your talent was yours alone; no one...

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He tipped his hat and he said to her:
“Ma’am, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
Can you kindly tell me why those whores are out,
has no one taught those girls a lick of sense?”

She chuckled softly,...

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(By the time of the shooting of
"The Misfits", the Miller-Monroe
marriage was in deep trouble.
The Pansy is Montgomery Clift,
The Tusker is John Huston.)

After the Fall

It started as a mental exercise. 
I wondered if an East-Side Jew...

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Awakening early 
just before sunrise
to exquisite sounds
of the morning refrain

Blackbird sweetly 
offers his love
with his passionate tune
surely making her swoon

How could she resist
this morning opera
each wistful aria
expressing his love

Flying towards her
with hope in his heart
plans...

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Born Norma Jean Mortensen
Marilyn was a singing, poetry writing and acting American
Born and raised in L. A., Miss Monroe
Grew in in foster homes
Growing up, her world was grim
To escape, she learned to pretend
Far from flattering
Starting...

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Dear, dear lady, with crumpled
tissue paper skin and
spidery fingers fretting hanky,
'Couldn't find cannister,
don't know where it is, Em. ' 

Silent me knows is always in the same place. 

Tea bag, two spoons sugar
in white half-filled...

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Sempre

Quero que você faça o melhor do seu dia. 
Quero que você veja coisas que assustam. 
Quero que sinta o que nunca sentiu antes. 

Neste Sábado e sempre,
quero que conheça pessoas
com um ponto de vista...

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KEEPSAKE

My Mom Norma, who raised, nurtured and showered
me with endearing love, loved diamonds and why not?
She was an April baby and diamond is the birthstone.
She gave me a diamond ring before she passed away.
My eulogy...

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