Long Pomegranates Poems

"As other spirits sail on music, mine, oh my love, swim on your perfume." Charles Baudelaire

"Sometimes you find an old bottle from which the soul returns." 
Charles Baudelaire

"Smell is a Word. Perfume is Literature."

"There are...

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MEMORIES OF WAR 


In prison we turmoiled 
packed up cards to fall 
whilst they sucked 
genitals like bonbons 
a quartz on a table
gleamed its knowing

War torn ghettos with 
swollen stomachs 
stretched wide, auras 
shattered, splintered...

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We came not for conquest,
but for containment—
though conquest is what happens
when containment itches beneath the skin
like sulfur spores in a sealed lung.

They had the secret.
Not gold, not weapons, not prophecy—
but language that healed.
Real language—
not poetry,...

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"The Tree Hugger and the Lost Paradise"

They called her 
the tree hugger,
her forest was full 
of trees that watched
silently, they had 
no mouth to speak,
rustling their leaves
like fingers writing 
strange stories coded
for decoding a mystery
on...

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Once upon a day, two pretty women strolled down a pastoral park that offered their cheeks the most countrified caress and their eyes an orchard of assorted pomegranates. 
After succumbing to weariness, the two courtly...

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"RED"


Listen he said, “How many ways can you see Red?”

“Well”, she sighed, “Let’s start with Cherry Pie, 
oozing it’s juices all over your chin
and plump moist Red Raspberries staining your sheets, then again
what about Claret...

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Listen to your lover as he comes, gazing in your windows, peering 
through the lattice, leaping across your mountains and bounding over your hills 
like a gazelle or young stag in your garden orchard of...

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Faridah a name that blings I goose bumps
The fairest of them all my constant love
Free in spirit and soul she beloved of soul
My soul in her presence ignites in ecstasy

She is tall dark and lovely...

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The City

Outside the city where the pomegranates grow
In a land where they never see rain or snow
And where the sun only shines every other day
Is where it’s always the twenty-fifth of May.
We find a people...

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My attention is undivided as you dance for me the dance of 
Mahanaim with your beautiful sandaled feet.  Your graceful legs are the jewels of 
the Master Craftsman, which surround my waist, and your...

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and the taste of unknown fruits
the rough-skinned oblong bud
the smooth texture of the pyramidal shell?
now without a palate like a dead Pallas
or like all dead things
who did not absorb the taste of distant fruits
for example...

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Cornucopia
          By Dane Smith-Johnsen
                      ...

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Outside the city where the pomegranates grow,
A girl fell through the ice of the village pond in January,
And a green eyed boy saved her life.

One February,
A green eyed boy got mugged by a gang while...

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Cornucopia
          By Dane Smith-Johnsen
                      ...

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Skirting church on Puig de Missa,
then down the slope towards the river,
St Eularia's Rui, with path that winds on to the sea.
Past the smelly goats, where poking little
fingers get nibbled, and goat-dribbled
through the fence. 

Billy...

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Sparks of golden quarks
Amazing particles of heart
Pyrotechnic shower
Too fine 
Almost from cloud nine
Rise from the articulation-flood
In the fulfilled flow of fascinated blood
As effusive praise in Aha and Wows
The moment a poet finished an Urdu shayari...

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Oh Syrinx, by the lake where you await, blossom anew!
Proud of murmurs that speak of goddesses, in a reverent hue.

Unleash the waists of shadows, in my tales they live and breathe,
As I imbibe the brightness...

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AT THE BEYOND 

It is here at the point
Where no life exists
Where shadows lurk
Life is made
While Creation does nothing
But watch itself in
A hole that never ends

Ether dances and joke at
The beginnings of dust 
As we...

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Today wasn’t a good morning at all for Hassan,
a victual merchant in Baghdad
Thirty four customers got killed by a suicide bomb
A jihadist Arab wearing an explosive vest,
proclaiming to be fighting against the west,
ended up only...

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I.
---

Paulette knew he'd love the present and
Excitedly watched as he carefully took the box
And opened the lid to reveal, her heart inside
Crepe paper surrounded it, gently holding an
Echocardiogram of her love for him

Only last month,...

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Do you want to know how the pomegranates tasted?
Oh mother dear, would you like to know how they felt?
Like freedom.
Oh mama, don’t you know?
He didn’t kidnap me.
He didn’t have to.
If we’re being honest here,
I stole...

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Outside the city where the pomegranates grow
Just beyond the trees, topped with snow.
A boy wanders; where will he go?
The answer to that, nobody can know.

The Stars shine down, bright and well.
But his mind drifts to...

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Fruit vendor John was polishing his pomegranates
The green piece of clean poplin was kissing warmly
He once rubbed the pinkish crust with the soft cloth 
Would then look at it with a mild pomegranate-care 
Is he looking himself...

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My Soul awakened to an autumn song serene pleasant vital and calm! My flesh went to sleep kissing the autumn breeze that blew in the window while  the autumn waterfall did spring forth the...

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Outside the city where the pomegranates grow,
Sat a heartbroken maiden full of sorrow.
So sorrowful was she that the veil she wore
Was full-wet and soggy as never before.
I knew not the lass, nor from where she...

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