Long Paneled Poems

While flying through a cloudy sky, a blank and thoughtless glance
Exposed to me this big old house, so brief, and quite by chance.

I’d seen enough to know that it was large, and very grand,
A place...

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Heavy pressures of fame were getting to me, since I was world famous,
And desperately needed a getaway, as a rainbow sometimes detains us.

I was a successful performer, and ardent press went wherever I went,
Like exotic...

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I was a whimsical, interior designer, bringing colors and joy into living spaces,
Subtly changing neighborhoods and lives, like vibrant arcs the rainbow traces.

People were as dissimilar as their houses, the both of them rather fascinating,
Like...

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Chapter 14b (King Ptolemy the Second)

With a travel bag to carry
Their belongings and essentials
And they rode by wheel-borne carriage 
On the road down to the harbour 
 
There they stepped aboard the vessel
That would take...

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“I heard a note once,.”  Charles said with conviction and bass from his gut.
Every night with chuck we reached this point ,
Existential storytelling, usually after four drinks or eight drinks.
Talking about government and it’s...

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This is my modern English translation of a French poem by Voltaire, one of my all-time favorite writers. The poem is followed by two translations of epigrams by Voltaire.

Les Vous et Les Tu (“You, then...

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Spartan are the white walls were once hung draperies
And things papered, paneled, plastered...
Yet, 'tis so no more. 
Now all is white and wan and sickly, 
And the ghostly shadows of the accoutrements and impedimenta that...

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Since I was a very small girl I have dreamed of a house.A house chock full of treasures that I would idly rummage through.Here I would find a cupboard full of quilts,beautiful elbow length teal...

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The wind came down from the canyon with a quite heat
It was to his back as he faced the crashing waves
He watched the pelicans skimming the rolling surf
The sun warmed sand felt comforting beneath his...

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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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Years P.M. (Pre-MacDonald's).
Woolworths.  Huge chain.  (Chains break with age.)
Elevated trains.  All over New York.
Five and Dimes.  That was what you paid.
Ceaserian birth.  In Rome?
10 cent comic books.
10 cent ice cream...

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The elevator opened on the 46th floor, to a small foyer and one plain, grey door

The door opened and a young girl, 10ish, in a blue, polo, tennis dress, said, “Hi! I’m Karen, you must...

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It all started when I seen an ad for a farm hand
Outside a town called nobodyunderstands
When I arrived at the farm
There was a ticker tape parade and I was handed a brand new box of...

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And it will be served proudly

Shore to shore, long highways roam undignified
through heartlands of wounded fields, crying
overgrown long of factories closed,
unemployment, crime,  
homes foreclosed on, lives given to dust,
coughed in past dreams now dissipating
along...

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My, My, My

My life is a crack in the concrete
My faith is an old newspaper cutout
My soul is the drifting clouds
My heart is a crystal sphinx
My core is as solid as a cup of pudding
My...

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let's speak of the unspeakable
the horrid, heartless, maybe headless tale

let's speak of small children, 
gaunt with indifference, both of and for
the sunken eyes, the distended belly
the insects hovering about...waiting

let's speak of hospital corridors
hushed conversations with...

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WHEN WE HAD "MAUREEN" TO DINE

The table was set for eight, all curtains drawn
Each joint of meat neatly piled up, all as sawn

Upstairs the guests were getting ready to dine
Men in their black tuxedos; looking...

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The morning sun stretches across the sky, 
charging a palette of blues, greens and chalky coastal whites.  
The smell of salt is carried by the early morning humid wind, 
and seagulls search for their...

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Calligraphic psyche in a delicately expressed avalanche;
Addressed to whom it may concern in a note, carte blanche.
Four walls house the sweet suicide, boxing floor to ceilings;
Heavy pen seeking solace, in the paper basket of crumpled...

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I fell in love...
With the bar man, down at the tavern
It was quite an affair.
Until he fell in love...
With the barmaid, down at the tavern
When I wasn't there.
Then she fell in love...
With a back road...

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Small room with one door
Pale green carpet lines the floor
Two windows, shades and curtains
Pink roses scattered uncertain
Paneled walls remember
Our Moms love this December
 
Figurines rest on dresser tops
Some gifts, others from local shops
Flower petals that...

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Sun-faded cardboard photographs
of 1970’s hairstyles
were tacked to 
the brown paneled walls.
His counter was cluttered with 
the shiny tools of his trade,
a chipped glass bowl
laden with lollypops,
and a jar of combs 
in blue liquid.
National Geographic,
Sports Illustrated,...

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My most fervent hope is of the species that, 
It wonders most powerfully and unceasingly anent the security of 
These notebooks containing these selfsame poetic works;
And I hope also, that asleep and secured is how...

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As the second hand ticks away my breaths
a half-clad moon catches my eye.
Was a time when I might've seen
the ghost of half-eaten melon,
but I'm older now, my thoughts less spry.
Dark fear's hobgoblins
were long since relegated
to...

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Esther Shugg

1833 – 1908

A woman’s heart forever resides
In the glowing hearth of her humble home.
Come Earth dwellers. Come Earth survivors.
I invite you to my warm and cozy house.
There, on the southwest corner
Of Mar Vista and...

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