Long Repaid Poems

Date:   April   2026

The 1st degree is unknown 

Damian and Polly had planned
The trip to the Copy Cat Club
For weeks with Dolly and Molly
The club was popping when
They hit the scene.
The DJ...

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(Somewhere in late 18th-century Europe a friend, Laetitia, by way of a letter warns her beloved girlfriend, Euphoria--a young, gay and unsuspecting mistress--against the almost inevitable seductions of the infamous and maundering philanderer, Melancholia.).



Dear Euphoria,

...

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She stood with her back turned to me
Leaning slightly towards where the light tapered off into darkness
Her faced buried deep inside her cupped hands 
Her own shadow towered over her seemingly at odds with her...

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Here's the deal, folks...
   This is, as indicated, the 2nd HALF of this fairly lengthy poem. Due to Poetry Soup's file-size limitations, this piece had to be posted in 2 parts. 
 ...

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Damian Sr. spent two nights in
Saint Michael's Medical Center 
With his wife and his new 
Beautiful baby boy.
They were welcomed home by
Damian's friends Sébastien 
Shakespeare Malcolm Justin 
And Shannon.  Delilah came
down stairs to Present...

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THE GREATEST GENERATION
by

JOHN M. ARRIBAS



Many Have Called Them the Greatest Generation
They Had Struggled and Survived, an Ugly Depression
It Was an Era of Hard Times and Simple Diversions
Like Bank Night, Singalongs  and Picnic Excursions
Band Concerts...

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Autumn Leaves/Les feuilles mortes de Jacques PREVERT (1900-77) 
Translated by T. Wignesan 

(Note: As far as I can make out, this poem is at the heart of all versions of « The Autumn Leaves "...

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What does it cost
to love a degenerating Earth,
home,
habitat?

Where NO TRESPASSING signs
speak out for natural sound
defensive silence,
for spiritually medicinal fragrances
only,
in sacred space and times
forbidding mechanized transport
across Earth's MotherLands
and feminist HealthCare Oceans.

Degenerating natural landed bodies,
spiritually disconnected minds
cannot...

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China Tour Diary Moment #2
--------------------------------

AZURE MOUNTAIN GORGE



Mile after mile we take the China roads;
Highways beckon now as our tour meanders;
Vistas speak beauty as coach bears our load;
Silence fills endow as wind blows plunder.


Springtime in China...

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Chapter 2, The 1492. 
That’s where they like to begin. They skip over the terrorists activities of theft, plunder, and genocides. When we naively thought freedom was free, We paid our lives for it during...

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I dreamed a lot when I was young,
my mind still wanders to this day,
so much I wanted to achieve,
so much that I yearned to stay.

Was once a wide-eyed optimist,
believed I’d do it all with class,
but...

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As I did gaze upon her for the first time as she labored in small shop in what appeared to be 
a hole in a wall that open into this place where she did work...

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She sat beside the waterfall
where gushing thoughts cascade,
like tears that flowed along her cheeks,
her heart set to invade.

He left alone for pastures new.
A scribbled note in haste
he wrote then fled, as cowards do,
her heart a...

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Look at the floor of heaven 
Laid with patterns of bright gold
For us, they are but little orbs 
But in his motion
Like angels, they sing
So many songs of harmony
To the souls of immortals 
And while...

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America's had lots of heroes through the years
Helping the world overcome many fears
Humankind hasn't always been kind
Look closely at history, see what you find

Our founders succeeded and failed many ways
People of color not treated fairly...

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Stillness feels deep here in these halls;
Silent vistas offer relief;
Death brings sure sleep at curtain call;
Cold agendas in grief's sad brief.

Long passageways and rows and rows;
Lonely sailings to unknown shores;
The dead don't say what yonder...

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She sat beside the waterfall
where gushing thoughts cascade,
like tears that flowed along her cheeks,
her heart set to invade.

He left alone for pastures new.
A scribbled note in haste
he wrote then fled, as cowards do,
her heart a...

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no end to this neverending sentence...just a sour note and a few mad quotes from the afterlife
afterlife? more like ants in the afterbirth...once a mighty warrior now a worm...i slither and i squirm...
no fire and...

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It is my belief that the amount of debt that I have incurred during my long journey thru this life can never be fully repaid by a mortal man such as me. How much can...

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I
Cut clean through two tall black mountains,
A jagged metal river froths like rabies.
Raging between outcast boulders and spires
The blue-grey greatsword eternally grinding at stone.

The footpath worn through and ground in,
Etched into the cliffs over centuries,
Standing...

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I spoke with two people at the party Saturday.
A young police officer, short-haired, fit,
chiseled face who had two young children.
He felt constrained by the law, without discretion
to question mopes (perps) aggressively
or to let go those...

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The cup tip-peth over and the wells run dry 
No more tears in these weary eyes 
I’ve soul searched and reached as far down as I could 
Finding absolutely nothing good 
The bowls of the...

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ODE  TO  A  NEVER RECEDING ECHO
For  Onyebuchi

Day  and night in an eternal combat.
A  truce : the eternal cycle of night and light
Lost in the ruse of an  eclipse.
Where...

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Dear Lady,

I heard you say that you still trust President Trump
to do almost as good a job as he says he is doing,
despite all the lies,
because "they all do that",
just say whatever the audience of...

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His voice the hiss of serpents,
he acknowledged the pact unmade,
but now he was here to tell him
how the debt would be repaid.

"All your sons, and all their sons,"
the devil's eyes glowed red,
"will perish while still...

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