Long Paraphrasing Poems

Potawatomi language,
says Robin Wall Kimmerer,
does not verbally divide us into masculine and feminine.
However, unlike most English verbs,
Potawatomi verbs distinguish between animate and inanimate objects.

For example,
we use sit down
when speaking to an unruly son
and set down
when...

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That which is neutral,
no big deal,
normal,
not noticed,
enjoys an intimate mirror effect,
behaves and misbehaves
with the logic of eternity.

Time steers virally clockwise,
eastern dawn toward west's setting sun,
birth through death,
with day's completion duskly hoping
for red skies at night.

Time...

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Health issues and ecopolitical promise speak in dialectal fractals:
1. Notice hope
2. Understand positive faith
3. Believe with diastatic love regeneration
4. Polypath creolic integration is also notnot decomposing release,
wu wei double-binding midway image
Tipping Point discernment
toward further revolutionary...

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I dance with the dreams of FatherSun;
I dream to the dance of EarthMothers.

Spiritual practice shapes natural rites and flow of day,
Creative listening intent shapes liturgical flow and function of night,
invested with Elders emerging 
from DNA's...

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For my 2013 New Years Resolution
I'm going to lawfully and legally purchase myself a gun.
I've never been pro or con regarding guns.
I've always remained very indifferent towards them.
I'm not buying a gun because I feel...

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Here’s a twain of siblings so delicate—
The tenor and its weary vehicle,
Similar are, nor yet so disparate
O lady, art not thou so fickle? 

In seeming sameness struts lady contrast, 
Harmony jars to sing in unsure...

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Paraphrasing Dickens
speaking of Great Expectations
through Pip's distraining voice,
Our worst religious weaknesses
and political meannesses
and self and other deprivations
are usually committed
for the sake of avoiding elitist people
whom we most actively distrust.

On the other hand,
trust invites vulnerability
as distraining...

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when a parent of a child 
experiences
with an odd mixture of shame,
humor & wonder,
that very first lie
which their children tells them,
does this parent experience the same feeling that they 
themselves did
when they found out that...

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*
"He was not a wanton killer as dark as a Mexican.
He was a fair complexioned boy who was always smiling.
He was very brave and loyal to all of his friends.
When he was killed, many Spanish...

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I have a strong need to elucidate my unfathomable love for
You,
named JAZZ

The improvisational sound of ragtime and jive.
Bop to the bebop of your rhythmic stride.

O  what you do.
You,
named JAZZ

As I rouse everyday to harmonious...

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" There is not enough love and goodness in the world to give any of it away to imaginary beings. " *

 ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, 1844-1900  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



No, dear Friedrich,

God is not an...

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I immigrated to Canada from Greece, in nineteen seventy-one
It was the best thing in my life that till that moment I had done

Nothing was easy for me since I did not know anyone, I confess
The...

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"I look at Uncle Roger as a blessing to our family, for he taught our family to view all people with more humanity." (loosely quoted, paraphrasing what my cousin Sylvia said to me at my...

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My heart is a plume renditioning over a lyre, my soul. 
You are but the fume of frozen fire, on parole.
I am a scintillating bud of ray in the moon,
You are a void sphere on...

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Imperfect world, purposeless person.
I retired to pursue perfection
learn jazz tunes, woody and herbaceous plants,
read every inch of English literature,

Scientific American and Foreign Affairs,
have an affair with an American.
Oh, and by the way, before you ask,...

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The Pope Came to the Congress
By Franklin Price
9/25/2015

The Pope came to the Congress
Both houses gathered there
His excellence had no defense
For their uncooperative share
In the state and the condition
That this nation now is in
Cannot repeat the...

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I found some pithy quotes attributed to the Father of our Nation,
And thought I'd share some with you to further your education.
I've read his "Farewell To The Troops" but this stuff I'd never heard.
Sounds like...

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One day, a bird will fly…..
One day, a bird soaring high in the sky, will be, she, in possibility 
Never to return in a neverland sky, decisive in  nominative totality
One day, a bird soaring...

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I want to write a poem about one person
- human being
Who?
I don't know
But it is someone I strive to be
Perfection- maybe
Am I going to ever get there?
I make mistakes along the way
What is that person...

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It's true though. 
Any happiness you felt began with you first.
You didn't wait, you rephrased it as a smile.
Straightforward really.
You felt a way because my passion could never justify. 
Only reinforce what you felt to...

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Today, I ponder… 
Paraphrasing what Jesus said,
As a man thinks…so he is… 

If he criticizes, slams, knocks others, and shows scorn,
Will he become a hard-hearted, insensitive, bigot, unworthy of heaven?
If he makes fun of another...

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See no evil
Know no evil
Have you seen evil?
Yeah it's staring at me right straight from the face
How can one have so much evil in them?
Who knows?
But it all depends on you
Do you take evil with...

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Where we are?

State undefined, engulfed in nebulous forms.

Clear Chaos veiling vision – the urge to see beyond.  

Amidst life – unheard, unheralded, unadapted.

 

What are we doing here?

Supposedly seriously defining the dreams.

Disorderliness maintenance or...

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It's not a prerequisite, of course, but if a piece of writing is any good, chances are it's probably offensive to someone. (Paraphrasing John Irving-A Widow for One Year) So, writer beware...


Words are a writer's...

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When
I
thought
of

more
You promised less
You warned me about my mentor

My co-collaborator

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The principal patient palling
Do you like score?
You closed the book

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notes more pitch
Paraphrasing did I mention
In my mind there stepped a shorter song

I crave the pop, primal poem
Less
I...

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