Long Roughened Poems

o my dear mother, please do not grieve on this tragic death
the death that your son has to under go

although, as a son, i had a strong affection for you dear mother
i hadn’t even once...

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And so I ponder my frailities as give giveness to the/they that are in response to my/your parental misgivings, the way windward wade their roughened cinder complexities confided to an annotated disgfiured desire-repost postured, annotized...

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Work roughened hands
Gentle like a heart
Who bends its ear, listening…
Whispering kindness
Coloring the morning songs
In laughter, smiles
Love that abides inside one
Who is more than kind
He is like a knight in shining armor
A sincerity, a breathless hope,
Awareness...

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O great door,
Your suede mist has called me here, 
It beckoned whilst rolling over upon itself towards me,
The burnt ash of your bones shows your wear
And your wounded song fills me with wonder. 

Intricate carvings...

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The air is as crisp as the night is dark;
Star light travels millennia to finally hit its mark.
The scents astound me pungent as they hit my nose.
From the ground, the air, the trees they nimbly...

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               A coloratura rises 
                ...

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The bus station is empty,
three hours to wait.

The girl behind the counter,
long black hair hanging in ringlets,
stares lazily as we approach.
"May I help you?"

The homeless man wanders in slowly,
takes a seat on the opposite 
side...

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A carpenter’s daughter am I but I do so love music.
So I built myself a lap dulcimer 
of fine wild cherry and walnut;
I used my late Father’s old jigsaw,
cutting each plank into an elongated guitar...

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I met you amid the branches
of an old, evergreen tree –
we were wary at first,
dangling like flushed and obscure fruits
from twisted limbs;
exchanging precious gifts
of blue-black berries and tentative smiles
until we gained the other's trust.
We clambered...

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What happened to the days of playing hours in the sun?
Where in our hearts and on our minds was how fast we could run?
Now we have these ozone days, SPF’s of 45
The cancer rates increasing...

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Huge hands extracted heavy red clay lumps
gleaned from Edgefield's argil soil,
placing it
upon the whirling wheel.
Fingers roughened,
he formed, shaped, with master skill
vessels fit --
massive stoneware pieces, usable, rare.
Sinuous liquid clay upon black hands
like tortured blood from...

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Sure it was a wave
Ended in a scratch 
Across my temple. And much 
I could do to tell this maiden
It wasn't her I dared my precious 
Moment to laud. And she walked by
Frowning, since perhaps...

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There passed amid the crowded fair a lady
All clad in stately gown of em'rald green
With golden trim and diamonds all a-sparkle
It was, I say in truth, a comely scene

Her hair was walnut brown and deftly...

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Swept by waves of nostalgia
Afloat on longing tides
I assessed this oyster compound
where my heart could not abide.
Aphrodisiac pulls of Neptune
were as lava cooled to stone
What use were pearls of luster
when one had no collarbone?

Heralded by...

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She smoothed the worn out roses on the apron in her lap
lamplight mellowed roughened knuckles
as she spread out her treasures
Like Silas Marner,thumbing his golden coins
Martha gently fingered every token of her life's journey
  ...

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You look at me and see a northeast highway after winter
Cracked, worn, roughened by conditions not meant to be endured.
I was once the most beautiful cobblestone pathway through a garden of ripe, unpicked fruit.
I was...

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You might say I have a young mind, a budding spirit,
Not enough experience, not enough heartbreak, 
No calluses to show off roughened edges
 But,

These are the things that I know:

I know that Jack ran off...

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...inspired by 'The Salamander' by C.S. Lewis
 
 
The sun bore down with blinding rays,
the oceans boiled and came to nought,
it was withal the end of days
with every living creature caught,
when from the rocks, agile,...

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...inspired by 'The Salamander' by C.S. Lewis
 
 
The sun bore down with blinding rays,
the oceans boiled and came to naught,
it was withal the end of days
with every living creature caught,
when from the rocks, agile,...

Read More

...inspired by 'The Salamander' by C.S. Lewis
 
 
The sun bore down with blinding rays,
the oceans boiled and came to nought,
it was withal the end of days
with every living creature caught,
when from the rocks, agile,...

Read More

...inspired by 'The Salamander' by C.S. Lewis
 
 
The sun bore down with blinding rays,
the oceans boiled and came to nought,
it was withal the end of days
with every living creature caught,
when from the rocks, agile,...

Read More

Roughened, reddened fibrous shell
Vibrant life still fresh and green
Thickened feet and arms
Embrace the stars and sky
Growing higher every day
Thousands, years gone by 
Yet still the old one reaches on
Urged on by the rain and sun
And...

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The sun bore down with blinding rays, 
the oceans boiled and came to naught, 
it was withal the end of days 
with every living creature caught, 
when from the rocks, agile, adept, 
a tiny lizard...

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In the beginning, so long ago
When the world was young, yet to grow
There stood the first men, brave and strong
With hearts fierce, and wills unyielding long


Their skin was roughened by the sun
Their hair, wild and...

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...inspired by 'The Salamander' by C.S. Lewis



The sun bore down with blinding rays,
the oceans boiled and came to nought,
it was withal the end of days
with every living creature caught,
when from the rocks, agile, adept,
a tiny...

Read More