Long Snagging Poems

Spring equinox arrives March 20th, 2023 at 5:24 PM

Despite what outside temperature registers
(even absolute zero), the official arrival
of spring occurs, when thee eel hip tic
of coe phish hunt holy Mackerel
becomes tangential to barenaked ladies 
barren...

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My favorite radio show
is Wait...Wait, Don't Tell Me!
on NPR near you.

But, it has bothered me,
over the years,
a snagging voice in sign-off background,
threatening the host will see me again next week,
as if that was the answer...

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We launched our search for choice antiques in 1972, with lofty plans to resurrect a huge Victorian house,
Doing a combination restoration and upgrading, unprepared for what would come along to quickly douse 

The mutually raging...

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The broken piggy bank
strewn into a bajillion little pieces

Unexpected largesse
yours truly patiently waits,
a metaphor of my dire financial straits
courtesy papa's unsuspecting muse
the missus, this wordsmith notates
unwittingly linkedin to his misfortune,
a situation he hates,
especially, an unavoidable...

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It's quiet here - quiet in a way that catches me off guard. The tranquility is almost tangible, something I can touch and hold and wrap around myself. I can hear the pulse of faraway...

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Like the early morning mists 
That rise from the waters’ depths
Memories emerge in swirls and twists
Foggy shadows of lives past 
Of them all, childhood scenes outlast
‘Membrances of dear, familiar faces and  
Fragmented moments of...

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Consciousness seeps,
the air moves.
Quickly reach!
Break forth from your tomb.
Visability blurred as my head swoons.
Instincts react! Frozen in place my eyes  roam.
What was that?!  I am not alone.
Instincts react!   Quickly I'm gone.
Hidden...

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Time and again
jovial imp does succeed
at collecting aggregate of infinite moments
nabbing, snagging and yoking yours truly,
a fortitudinous erstwhile
citizen banker travels at warp speed
impossible mission to thwart tempus fugit
analogous to ambuscade by time thief
little rascal who...

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The Hush of Christmas Past


It came more slowly then.
After Thanksgiving
the lights and decorations
started showing up.
The excitement started to build.
Santa showed up at the
department store,  The
ads in the newspapers
were larger, some even
in color.  There...

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I WISH I WEREN’T A SPIDER
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS



I wish I weren’t a spider, not even my relatives are a friend
Getting close to another kinsman could bring a lethal end
We're not a glamorous group, we are...

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B - R - E - A - K - I - N – G     N - E - W - S!

This just...in...
     Schwenksville, Pennsylvania
  ...

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My psyche's playground
Is a horrific landscape:
There is no escape 
From the snagging cleft
Of its jagged inlay,
As steep as a million years of seeping blood
Coagulated through coldheartedness 
Confusion and subterfuge 
- It's like coming home when...

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The Revenant pt. 1 - A Blighted Vale (pt 1/2)

A solitary figure off the beaten path,
The air a palpable gloom
Be it mortal or shade of someone passed,
No longer in want of a tomb
Betwixt a shuffling...

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No Way Out
By Rick Rucker

As recently as a year ago,
I knew not, which way to go,

From financial ruin, to likely cancer,
I could not seem to forge an answer,

I went to work, all depressed,
My problems, largely...

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** In This Last Waltz **

I am swirling around thoughts,
Swirling even ‘tween ‘em , too — stepping forward —
Getting ready for this nght’s joys to end , and 
See The Last Waltz come up on...

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2200 E High Street
Pottstown, PA 19464

Upon making a purchase,
yours truly murmurs bonjour
to the man/woman clerk
manning cash register,
(perhaps another day)

maybe soon as tomorrow
January twenty four -
two thousand and twenty,
I will explore
Moonlight madness sale

fifty percent off all...

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Recover


I  have no clear  recollection at all 
That time rescued me from any pain
I know it wasn’t yesterday or a week ago
Because ridged shards of it still remain

They pierce my heart with a...

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Cyclops moon's silver beams
piercing crowded misty dreams,
lonely stroll through fog filled trees
whispers heard on Autumn breeze,
side ways glances in the park
fill my thoughts of creatures dark.
As I walk through guarded wood,
peeking out from shrouded hood,
no...

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Yonder there, where twig figures bend
and blink out as a sea-swell slugs the beach,
there the netted thrash, then hauled, toggled and pinched
yet more, into a gill-snagging catch.

Far away a village rests, submerged
beneath a mossy night,...

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Barbed wire memories stretch on,
snagging, catching the flesh and soul.
Filled ditches running parallel,
overflowing with wasted tears.
Pulling close my determination,
onward I trudge to reach my goal.
Not knowing what I'll find out there,
hoping I have nothing to...

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You would've labeled it a shotgun wedding,
if you'd seen how we rushed it,
snagging the license on Friday morning
and exchanging vows that same evening.

No white dress, no people-packed pews,
simply a long drive in my brother's Chevy,
from...

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The cool summer day
beckons me to my backyard
to flop my aging bones on the ground, 
gaze at the clouds still making formations
I remember from my youth ...
a cirrus dragon, definitely a dragon;
a cumulonimbus whale, ...

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The hunter looking for his prey
took refuge on his  tree
waiting – waiting –  she on the way?
(The prey was you – the hunter – me.)

The huntress looking for her prey
took refuge in her...

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Reminiscence-
of your breath,
your cuddling arms
and your soul-searching eyes
you linger.
You're always there
like the rubble after an explosion-
the ash from tedious fights.
You're luminescent.
The kind who stays
yet when all's close-
you flee,
you take the best of me
and I envy...

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Overwhelmed with kisses from the dead
I scratch the color from your rainbows
Mystified by holy drone
Erasing my name from this parchment
It is soaked up like vapor
While I rest being defined
Taming casual plight twisting with anger
Knotted in...

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