Long Sidelong Poems

I. Sighting

I saw you  
through refracted light-  
a prism of chance  
splitting ordinary into spectrum.  
Wind-tangled hair  
terra cotta and rosemary beneath your nails  
the scent of soil and...

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...inspired by 'Portrait Of A Lady' by T.S. Eliot


On winter days the view outside is nebulous at best,
within, the furniture is as it always was, and I am waiting,
waiting for a glimpse of you to...

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Do you know what happened 
At 11 p.m Tuesday night
I guess you must have it
However much I protest-
But do you know

Of course you don’t:
The victory of ignorance
Come on! I will enlighten you

I took the bi-valve
Flung...

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MIRZA GHALIB ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS

Urdu poems about life, death, Love, longing, hearts, being captive, strength, cruelty, temper, the sun, darkness, shadows and faith. 

I’m the captive of Love, the Huntress,
otherwise I’d have strength to flee.
—Mirza Ghalib,...

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Though I'll remember nature's wonders,
sunsets and the breath of spring,
feel the wind blow through my hair
and know the thrill of sunrise cresting.

We see the universe as dancing,
two such different creatures trancing,
we two will never understand
the...

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We see the universe as dancing,
two such different creatures trancing,
we two will never understand
the private notions of the other,
even if we take each other's hand.

Coming close to your destruction
you will see the other side,
who says...

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I shall take my morning walk,
communing with the birds and talking
to myself while reading Kafka,
glancing at the latest headlines.
Dear Stravinsky's 'Rite' is slighted,
(he'll return when ears are righted.)
When I smell a rose I'm prompted 
to...

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I shall take my morning walk,
communing with the birds and talking
to myself while reading Kafka,
glancing at the latest headlines.
Dear Stravinsky's 'Rite' is slighted,
(he'll return when ears are righted.)
When I smell a rose I'm prompted 
to...

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As a relic of those bygone days, it sits alone and neglected
With turrets high and shutters drawn its mystery story perfected
Bay windows that at one time shone now dirty where dust has caught
The front door...

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Leaving London

A thousand flickered lights
Beat out neon
Fantasies animation
Jerks its pseudo motion
Feet by fifty foot tall
On the south river board walk

Juke box gangsters one-armed bandit
Hang street corners
From the eyes red light
By cliché shop windows
Of a thousand...

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Act One: the stage and scenery are set
I was told the play, I'd not soon forget
But if truth were to be told
More like the game, whack-a-mole
I needed a hammer, not a lorgnette

Thespians were vying for...

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The concrete and plastic, chrome domed
bricked up auditorIum rang
like a hollow bell,
a meager few red skins circle the stadium seats
like smoke from a mythical “peace” pipe
ragged, distilled, diluted, distraught, “dised”
A 21st century ablution of angst.

Round...

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I oft' cast a sidelong glance at this woman I love,
She's been at my side so long,sent from God above,
When I look out at the dawn, I kneel and pray,
Thanking God for her presence for...

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here i am in the flesh
no victim levelled in scope
22 catches im cashing
not selling the dope
i watched the sunrise
used to pray sometimes
kids thatd played outside
tho fate did seem unkind
chased a better understanding
even struck with fear
i...

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Wind blows soft on my bare arms
I ride through deep green woods.
These simple pleasures all I love,
Air on my skin feel good.

The wind shakes leaves for  sidelong sun
To make her pictures from.
So much,so rich...

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from: "Me to You", by Alastair Reid

"...write me about the weather.

Perhaps
a letter across water,
something like this, but better,
would almost take us strangely
closer to home.

Write, and I'll come."
. . . . . . . . ....

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Ugly Girl

How much accrued opinion
Of fashion magazines distinction
Did it take

How many diets
And days of self-conscious

How much make up 
Did they use
To paint your warm smile
And your sweet bright eyes

How many narrow teases and sidelong glances
And...

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POINT ZERO 

Birth slipped into fast flowing
rivers of patterned fissures 
her arching brows brazen 
searching sagaciously
microscoping every moment 
tangoing across thorny 
thickets 


Hope gazed at her prayer 
puzzle poised with pensive 
pencils plaintively planting
plantains for...

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The pay is good. The world's abrim
With men in need of dying.
Though being shunned confounds him
Some, he's past the point of trying.

Unwelcome in their church, he prays
Alone for his deliverance,
But can't recall the magic phrase
To...

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I wonder. . . can you take me to a world 
where ladies fair with ringlets in their hair,
with graceful shoulders bared and necks bepearled
wear gowns that billow as they dance on air?
Around the ballroom...

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FACES
compelling
 features
ageing
into
 formal components
 of
 continuous interest
an
unplanned
unpremeditated
sequence
 inventive
& revered
to
 capture the soul

 images
a
 testimony
to  mirror
the reflection
 setting
apart
 sidelong
 reactions
to
 correlate
the shifts
between
 frustrations
& irritations
 alongside
the
 learned
verbal
& emotional


NOTE:THIS IS AN OPEN(organic) FORM VERSE   using spaces&breaks without grammatical symbols ,the ' open' relies upon 'the one breath limitation' & so inherently requires the 'reader' (reciter) to input and responds thus making...

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Opening the latch,
my mind flits out
through sleep’s 
window, roams
in a glimmer.	

As the elephants
chase me, I dart
like a Norway rat.
My legs lose quick
pace, when mind 
returns my body.

Red tiled roof of
my old school…
a pair of eyelashes
darkened...

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Obsession Part 4

The chill of morning, children yawning,
I am tired, the blush of dawning has me
feeling ill at ease, my spirit sags,
I barely reach the second floor.
'When will you return? Is Paris so much more
than...

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Alt music serenades an aromatic algebra;
delicious, bitter, subtle notes served black.
We dance the math - I swipe, she smiles,
equations we don't know we've become. 

She measures quanta 
in these mathematical grounds, a coffee shop 
where...

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If I could be much younger than I am, 
with my time in life as yet too brief
to give me evidence and cause
to change my views.
If views I held.
I would know such simple ways to...

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