Long Sargasso Poems

"Midnight to 3.33, Morning Kills"



He said, 
“Go to where the poets go
Love rolls wet and sways
Intensity wraps itself inside out
and somersaults its legs backward
to open a way
Out
It’s kind of burning hot 
like Summer burns 
bare...

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"Invisible"



Trapped
within 
4 Walls 
A ghost 

escapes
it's prison 
through 
unlocked door

beyond
freefall
a bird
now soars

The Ocean 
calls the wild
Sargasso in
Me

Rochester’s 
Mirage 
ecstatic 
Bacchae
 
Maenad 
possessed 
submerged
Blue-Green

(Ladylabyrinth/2020)
for my daughter, 
Georgia






“Come Near Me” / Massive Attack – Ghost Poet
https://youtu.be/KY0TZQTwwbk






“There is...

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Sargasso
..by D Johnson
Fourteen days adrift time slowly slipped 
on the good ship Cavalier 
Becalmed, morose, no water they sipped 
drank rum to calm their fear 
The fog was thick o'er water and ship 
On the...

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Some people got off the Dumb Boat, and came to work one day. Honestly!
Birds were quietly sitting in a tree! Someone couldn't help himself, you see!
Shouting ‘Run they’re terror birds of prey!’ The boaters’ got...

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7.

                                  ...

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GONE with the JACKASS
SOMETHING JACKASS this WAY COMES
Of MICE AND JACKASSES
The GRAPES of JACKASS
MOBY JACKASS
JACKASS in the RYE
I KNOW WHY the JACKASS SINGS
The GREAT JACKASS
JACKASS of the FLYS
MEIN JACKASS
BRAVE NEW JACKASS
PORTRAIT of the ARTIST as...

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Oh immortal sorceress, daughter of Lilith
She is a prism in the moonlight, a deity 
Darker than the Sargasso sea, her fury is 
Unforgiving as the Titans came to 
Recognize all because of their jealousy 
Over...

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Oh immortal sorceress, daughter of Lilith
She is a prism in the moonlight, a deity 
Darker than the Sargasso sea, her fury is 
Unforgiving as the Titans came to 
Recognize all because of their jealousy 
Over...

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Sometimes I don't switch on TV, the radio stays dumb
and finishing a newspaper can leave me feeling numb.
What is it with this world of ours, where did it all go wrong?
How could the higher-ups elect...

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I circled the world in a point of time
And I discovered the story 
Of Christopher Columbus’s lifetime
You know, he was born in Italy in 1451?

Young Chris sailed the seas as a felon
Attacking the ships of...

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I Roundly Square Prayer...

Despite imprecations
     yielding "FAKE" impact
     upon the head of this atheist,
especially when thy
     (untamable) shrewish wife
    ...

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Beneath Unknown Shores


                 Waves envelop the steel keel of a massive cruise liner
      ...

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"Another Man’s Treasure"



Jetsam tumbles
broken doorbells
no one
answers
anymore

ironing boards 
pressing to imprint
something of significance
a life, your life
droll and predictable

it all sinks 
to the bottom 
of a bad dream
with yesterday’s 
stale tears

sharp heels
clicking on a parquet floor
like knives...

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So sailed they then o'er seas well spent~ 
Torn their skys & mastheads back bent~ 
Under their bowsprits well to a'sea~ 
From ravages o'wind did'st they then flee~ 

Down from their bulwarks & under their...

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Savez vous planter les choux 
A la mode de chez nous?
(French nursery rhyme)

You should eat your cabbage up my son
It's really quite delicious
May I forego the pleasure Ma
To me it is pernicious 

But it must...

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Islands

Islands are – it seems – so many of us.
Worlds apart – alone – in the seas of life.
Joined at the hip – by an adversarial universe.
Amputated from a living solar system
 by the master...

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Cowboy Night at the Corner bar
The dark and the wind and the grey broken sidewalk,
pushed me to the bar, like a bunker at night with its 
black door ajar 
Cowboy Night at the Corner Bar

country...

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The word is Catadromous
just in case you need it for
your Final Jeopardy and if 
I was writing rhyme, this is
where I’d throw in cantankerous
for Eels are a contrary lot, and
unlike salmon who spawn in 
freshwater;...

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Dad is long gone now - nearly twenty years.
I still see his face with the deep lines etched
at the corners of his mouth from the beers
he’d consumed with smacking lips - beer I’d fetched
home in...

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Do you ever lie down in grass and gaze,
pretend no duties call and let mind float,
play which knight wins the furious battle
somewhere in the wisps above daylong haze?

A lizard morphs into war time schooner.
Raise those...

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Whither The Fates Carry

Anchors aweigh in 1609, Anno Domini!
A convoy of ships laden with cargo set sail,
And departed Plymouth harbour to cross the Atlantic
For Jamestown, Virginia in the New World.

But a hurricane wreaked havoc in...

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I'd almost forgotten what we were like
so many thens, so many "do ya remembers" ago
the days fat with warm summer
dripping off golden smiles 
melting like wax in the sun

it was all just a race against...

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Becalmed, the doldrums bear down frowning.
Hull fouled by weeds, persistent barnacles.
The ship is steadfast in her silence, 
The light alone enough to shatter us.

Beyond us, off the bow the dolphins plunge
And leap toward home
While we,...

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South Atlantic an ancient and
ominous death trap awaits unexpecting
ships and planes and tonight it has
claimed many lives again...well it is a
mystery that most likely will remain
unexplained buried deep in sin...however
I have heard it’s the remnants...

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Silken skies surround
Secure sailing sloop
Skimming Sargasso sea
Seeking salmon, sturgeon,
Shrimp, scallops;
Several savory species.
Suddenly stampeding storm
Surrounded, struck swiftly
Skies striking, slashing,
Savage surly seas.
Skipper sighted shoals,
Slammed, sending seamen
Swaying, scrambling, scurrying.
Swift southerly swells,
Sending struggling schooner
Smashed somewhere sandy shores.
Seamen survived swimming,
Suddenly...

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