Long Riposte Poems

Prizes for Ultimate Sacrifices


    prizes for the abstemious  for abstinence  chastity ?
                 the countless...

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Though a Democrat, I play the devil's advocate...

after reading the article
(published in the July + August 2024
issue of Mother Jones)
titled Raging bull - Donald Trump's
pugilistic spokesman has taken
campaigning to a whole new level of low.

Beyond...

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To Heal A Soul Waning In Want
 A collaboration with Lawrence Sharp
12th April 2019


To Heal A Soul Waning In Want

Man thus beseeches 

  Angry midnight moon spat at earth far below
  twinkling stars...

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part 28

at least we know what to avoid in a civilization
hypnotism for one
and angst which merely resembles authenticity
by attempting to dissect the inconsequential
which boils down to the matter of
detecting the inconsequential in the first place
what...

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Therewithal, profluent life ettles it's while.
Thitherward, from Death's bleak campanile
Grim antiphonals serenade.

A capriccio, the slashing swipe of the reaper's scythe
 will serenade.
Stringent Death forthwith anoints the mithridate to
Life's cantankerous and rankling ado

Hither now come, anon...

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To Heal A Soul Waning In Want
A collaboration with Robert Lindley
12th April 2019

Man thus beseeches 

  Angry midnight moon spat at earth far below
  twinkling stars applauded then went dark
  time paused,...

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Should I become a middle school math or English teacher?
Leave my bed early in the morning and return with test papers to grade.
With what authority will I persuade those kids to sit still and perform...

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The nation is very rich indeed
 But,
 Wounded out of loss direction;
 Wounded out of lack of ambition,
 Weeping out of lack of impulse;
 Wounded out  of  lack  of imagination,
 Ingeniously exhumed...

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Strophe
I
O ancient cedar tree so grand and wise
In BC’s old growth forest ,I found thee
I sat beneath your trunk and asked advice ;
I sensed the presence of  the cedar tree 
II
I  received a...

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Around the Hills of Malvern now..Desecration takes place.'
Let me inform all how.' Where Elgars body has rested long
And Tolkien and Lewis did ramble in song.'  all of these
Three historical giants, drew breath and inspiration...

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for Jean Franco   ?(March 15, 1907- April 15, 1992)
              
          ...

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The Love Rose

Love like a red rose bloomed in our hearts
It grew in time but was disguised
Hidden thorns prick and stings in our souls
Until there is no more to unfold

It’s season’s change and love now...

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If streams of my dreams should screech to a halt
Inside a smart heart gone stone cold
Enabling losses, mosses and tosses to unleash the thunderbolt
That with no iota of care clinches and pinches my gold

In addition...

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Time: the biggest landlord
At whose feet kings and queens bow
Cockiness and stubborn they can ill afford
When time wipes vanity and sagacity from their brow

In consonance with the mandate
Bestowed on time from on high
As no other...

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"So Dorothy, your visit here is now in Oz folklore."

"You mean to say," said she, "I'm not in Kansas anymore?"

"Oh dear, I thought you knew that fact; the Munchkins made it clear."

"I joke," she said,...

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It’s a hot and prickly gruel
It swirls and twirls while we fuel
Our weary head in our hands
The mindful world turned to sand

I snick the snack of bloated greed
Sell soul for bloodied coin to feed
And sword...

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There is a hostile villain that lurks deep inside,
turning the human body into a battleground.
With disdain, it causes pain one cannot abide,
but the fight goes on until a cure can be found.

It strangles hope like...

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Today I made a converse with the universe
I stared at her beauty and felt guilty 
That I'd never had told 
Of how beautiful you are
The grandeur of the universe 
reminded me of your resplendence

The universe...

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Twas the night before my cousin's 
wedding
He reluctantly gave in to the 
bachelor party vetting
A burlesque, tawdry strip club was 
the setting
Unbeknownst to him, the bridesmaid 
was his appetite whetting
With gratuitous lap dance, began 
the...

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I fell in battle, sword in hand, 
Invading someone else’s land.
Then I saw her, and she reached down, 
To escort me from the battleground.
I’d let her take me anywhere, 
With her winged helmet and braided...

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Restless rebel, control the ball on the gregarious ground
Looking within and hooking dignity to the home
Where a restive riposte resurrects the meandering mound

Detriment and its cement sediment groom
In search of answers and cancers
Growing without control...

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Can I claim to be Christian without casting judgment
in ways that aren’t Christ-like? Aspiring to faith proves faith’s real?
Or does saying, “I’m Christian,” more grant I’m a sinner
apart from God’s Grace that Christ bought on...

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CESSATION

That pain is like treading on bottle tops
Or stumbling into some hidden caltrops
Suddenly, as when some lightbulb pops
The welcome relief when it finally stops
Like making big gains on currency swaps
The blood pressure and heartrate drops
Yet...

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For old time’s sake

The night was cold and devilish too	
You pushed me said I’m leaving you
Belligerently you slammed the door
Crushing my heart some beastly claw

I hear the poet who said loved and lost
So much pain...

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And so life comes to pass
Plato, the Republic, and the riposte of revenge
Knowing history can never fully extend
The Socratic palm of philosophy’s heavy hand
Poisoned by power's thirst for peaceful Persian seas
Which stir lush groves of...

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