Long Rimed Poems

(Approaching Ingalls Peak, 2012, original oil)

Rites of Passage

Forty-six years ago,
my first winter in the Pacific NW
my first winter break at college,
I headed out to climb Mt Stuart in the North Cascades 
in the company of...

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A canticle I think I'll be, 
A rimed thought, hoary and ancient, 
Stinking as the dust heaped up empyreal on the hills of 
The Judean sands;
And as dulled and dimmed as an archaic coin tarnish'd.
This...

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Walking on a narrow road 
leading no to where, 
wanting to roam 
with nothing in sight 
dark clouds drift 
across my path
slicing rays of sun 
warming my promised lands
bright dreams break 
cascade along the way...

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The sweet sweat chorus of forgotten voices
Bared and marred by torrents of ugly vices
The agonies of today seemed to know an alien song
Memories of yesterday was singing but out of beat
Soon the pains of tomorrow...

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Winter sticks its icy nose onto the window glass
causing dust motes to rise and fly as they pass
You can almost see them shiver as they shy away,
not wanting to go outside  into the frigid...

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Crisp…Crisp the night!
‘Pon cheeks as white as snow
Crazy quilt of rimed patterns
Limned upon the window

Soft…soft the lacy flakes!
Each one unique and new
Blanket o’er land and lakes
Winter’s take on dew

Games…games of Fox and Hound!
Pristine drifts of...

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Her Side
By Sy Roth

Are they going to die like that?
Expire
Retire 
As a broken, opalic string of DNA
Ribonucleic disaster
Worm-eaten womb 
Ascerbic molecules.

Who enabled this procreatic mission?

They rimed it with a urine trail
Left --Her side
Discordant disdain
Heeding her...

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Not beauteuos to say but you more than
A frog to kiss, In nous you inflicts these
Emotions that spins round and round in
My mind, irresistable and the pulse harsh.

With a gaze to your splendid torso, brings
Forth...

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Am I a Summer’s Day?
By Sy Roth

Do I compare myself to a summer’s day?
I think not, 
Winter’s chill perhaps,
Cold rivulets of icy waters
Coursing down a crenelated brow
Perhaps.
A dirge,
A threnody 
A morose psalm to an ancient...

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October should have falling leaves
Instead of pelting flakes.
It seems like Mother Nature
Has been making some mistakes.

Perhaps she’s getting senile
And dementia’s taken hold,
So despite the date, she’s sending us
Some snow and ice and cold.

The hay rides...

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S lowly, imperceptibly, long summer days start to die,
E vening comes down, like a smile to a frown, softly as a sigh.
P atination turns to grey, suffused with rustic hue,
T ides turn and skies burn...

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Opened the cupboard what a find
Dented can deep in behind
All by its self pushed to the side
Sadly like that meaning to hide

Like the rest but different yes sure
Reinforced rimed made to endure
Went a bit sideways...

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Sits beside his window, his red-rimed eyes
 Unseeing
 In his mind are sunsets and rainbows,
 And shining stars in the dense cold blackness

 Of space
 He listens to the laughter of children, mixed
 With the...

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These woods so lovely dark and deep,
Pray the lord my soul to keep,
Forgotten promises did not.
Ice castles of regret bleed
Rimed ichor from Pluto's cold pot.

The horse ridden with no harness,
Mistakes were made in earnest,
Flying crystalline...

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The castle perched high above the busy city
ringed by a deep moat.
Fisher birds posed atop nesting sheds,
bobbing for koi,
preening their flea bitten feathers;
dreaming of past majesty.

Across the bridge through the massive gates
humanity, lumbered 
passing layered...

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