Long Slanted Poems

Alone I arrive, walking from Frederick
over the gaps, across gentle hills
out onto a knoll
overlooking this burnished landscape.
Before me I see countless writhing rows
of indiscernible shapes gathered
in terrible rituals mid fire and smoke
darkening the sun.
From distant...

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I wanted to write
 The best slavery poem   ever written—
Perhaps win a Pulitzer or Faulkner. 

I had every intention of conforming 
To the standards 
Of modern verse and composition, 
Lyrics fluidly written, 
Perfect...

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On this day 40 years ago in 1978 my mother, Jacqueline Anne Trestrail, left this world after a relatively short battle with cancer - she was 46. Jimmy Carter was President and Annie Hall won...

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Pellucid pachyderms wade across
the purpling River Manjees
and Tozzath watches from the bank, 
the seat of his maroon pantaloons soaked with mud,
his nostrils flaring with the fragrance of ombadalias,
whose lacey petals flutter
like the wings of long-dead...

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"Artificial Iris"


Orwell was lurking in the background, somewhere;
the dream was eerily familiar, 
the words and their meanings, read in Syntax,
once read between pages of hardcopy in school 
were aptly ignored - 

however, 
our Overlords were...

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The day was fine and sunlit,
Decorated by several clouds 
drifting aimlessly in the radiant ocean-blue sky.
Chorused by gentle puffs of the morning breeze,
Sending leaves on the streets twirling like
ballerinas in a dazzling and mesmerising dance.
and...

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This is a Crown of Sonnets I wrote about one of my favorite books and movies (the version in 1943 with Liz Taylor, who was only 11 had a small role, Joan Fontaine and Orson...

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Quietly, the memory of my grandfather manifested itself,
In the colors and shimmers of the Holy Spirit, 
I saw his human face,
The familiar lines, the flesh,
The pair of oceanic eyes, slowly blinking 
Smiling,
Like a heavenly beam
Splashing...

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The day was fine and sunlit, Decorated by several clouds drifting 
     aimlessly in the radiant ocean-blue sky. Chorused by gentle 
         ...

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As a young boy
Sitting in a pew
The winter darkness pressing down
Candlelight waves from hidden drafts
Shadows danced on the walls

I heard the words destined to me
“Be still . . . know that I am God”
So I...

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there, among those Ruby Spires
          stood I, a-gazing toward the mist
               red...

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There are photos of our childhood
                          Our long ago sweet...

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I was restless all the night,
The demoness softly singing a haunting tune
The Holy Spirit sifted in swirls around me,
And she touched with her claws its essence with strange wonder

I awoke to his songs strong and...

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"Birthing the Vortex"



the complexities of a myth
borne from the birth 
of amorphous seat 
in dark matter brain

storming dimensions never seen
merely guessed, intuitive, unblessed
visage of a lost majesty
she’s returning to true self 

all wrapped up in...

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Of Him and not me?
Muttered the dragon, full-formed, wretched, 
Stench unfathomable, seething and snarling
His great lungs expanding and exhaling puffs of darkness
Slanted, shining, scorching eyes burning into my own

What light shines but His own? 
Have...

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“Clap your terrible wings, vivacious serpent of old!
Imagine my plight as dangerous as your spite,
Stomp your clawed feet on these prison floors,
Peace shall always follow the sink of your fangs…”

Silenced were the wailing demons round,
Crouched...

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RIbaldO the Clown
RIbaldO the Clown
he wore a black bandana and no make up yet his eyes were slanted up and 
when he was on the street everyone saw a clown he looked like a clown...

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There was poetry,
In the open fields,
On the slanted blueberries,
On the skirts of schoolgirls,

There was poetry,
In the sunny cupboards,
In the quiet gardens,
In the sweet air of spring,

There was some poetry
In the caressing hands,
In the chalk of...

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Our bank accounts nearly emptied so we could afford a vacation; two young working girls who'd never been far from home. We were looking forward to finding love on a romantic tropical island. Maybe someone...

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The Dragon, serpentine, jagged, fuming
Curved neck twisted my way,
His scales shimmering and reflecting the bottom depths of the well,
Scrutinized me with fires of his personal hells
Burning into my cool, oceanic repose
He could see the universe...

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Vietnam in '68
By Franklin Price
08/10/2020

January '68, I arrived at Cam Rahn Bay
Found out this place, in Vietnam, was the best place I could play
Ground bound, in the Air Force, and living on the beach,
On a...

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A sodden dreg with wooden leg is dancing for a dime,

to sacred psalms and other balms, all ticking with the time.

He’s 22, he’s almost through, he’s melted in his prime,

his bane is firm, the canker...

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Bucky: 
Why didn't you remind people
that spacetime relativityship
is double-bound temporal 
and fractally revolutioned rhythm
under the RNA Root-Zero Metric Assumption
of 3 spatial-CAG 
and 1 bilateral U dipolar progenitive time-functional only dimension
equals a Zero-Moment (+/-,-)c-squared spacetime-centric
balancing thermodynamic...

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From strange elixir of mind 
a form walks in forming strange lines, 
in a poem of a chant of a spell, 
encantrain echoes it's well.
Where roses bloom, 
dead and spirits recite their bleed 
of encantation-...

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My anxiety was gifted to me from my adoptive parents. 
Just knowing my birth parents were looking for me 
caused an apprehension I didn’t deserve or need.
Alone. Lost. Forgotten. 
Abandoned and never looked back at....

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