Long Soaks Poems

"How Huxley Sees the World"



He composes his world -
dream extractions
simulated from 
the surreal reality of man
colour cognitive from the dead moments
we phantomise to life in sleep
electric light colour bursts forth 
from a perspective unique
a hare...

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"The Crow Bar"

she said,
here I bury my dead,
you can hear them sleeping
somnulent forget-me-nots,
snoring blithely unaware,
in neat rows between 
the thick,
ink injected lines,
their soiled lives
ploughed and 
turned over 
replanted
sunnyside down
expunged and 
wrung out

eventually,
not totally oblivious, 
they...

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Consuming happiness to the point of no return, no return
I let the fires in my bosom burn on and on and on
Resuming on with my gladness, smiling — now, it’s your turn
To shine on like...

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"With every fiber of my being, my eyes glimpse at my whole life gone avail and unjust; the sacrifice mother had made before birth was certainly not enough, wish I had gone through the flames...

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My auntie winter's icy breath wacked my bare face hard, when I step out earlier on
She gave me the cold shoulder and iced me out with a frosty glare for no reason at all 
it's...

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Let the drums beat until it release the number sheet
Let the drums beat until it rip out my heart's seat
Let the drums beat until blood spill in the street
Let the drums beat until justice is...

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Can you see the woman in the window?
                           ...

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Walking Meditation
                    by Odin Roark

“And I thought marriage was hard.”

Taking Meditation for a walk
nags me with...

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The sea is so bright and it illuminates the nostalgic night
It sways and sways to the rhythm of my young heart
The clouds are formulating right before my eyes with might
Raindrops collapse upon the ground from...

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I sit breathing, feel the breaths in and out,
know the breaths long and short, wish the peace 
for heaven and earth, wish for soothing seasons 
of rain and wind, and wish for all to have...

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Vivacious sunrays of relieving grace clothes me with magnificent light and 
delight – it warms my heart to say that I love you with all of my heart…it’s true 
– I loved you from the...

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I was a vibrant, portrait painter, bringing cherished profiles to eternal life,
Like undying life of balmy springtime, recurring in shades of green so rife.

I had long been fascinated with new faces, for it is seldom,...

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lover! lover! lover!

you think human heart 
is an open page, 
a requiem to be read 
at leisure? 
or you think it a black hole,
impenetrable thick darkness
to peep through? 

what is essential to the heart 
is...

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CHINESE FEMALE POETS: ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS

Creamy Melons
by Chao Luan-Luan
translation by Michael R. Burch

Scented with talcum, moist with perspiration,
like pegs of jade inlaid in a harp,
aroused by desire, yet soft as cream,
fertile amid a warm mist
after my...

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CHINESE FEMALE POETS: ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS

Sung to the tune of “I Paint My Lips Red”
by an anonymous courtesan or Li Ch’ing-Chao
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

After swinging and kicking lasciviously,
I get off to rouge my palms.
Like...

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I’m just dead and so sorrowful inside
It feels like no one cares I feel this way
I’m full of dread and God’s merciful humility soaks away my pride
The feels of his absence — I feel today

My...

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In the heated performance of the day, 
 summer wet evenings close the 
   curtains, concluding with a thunder 
     jest and a gift of wipe. The crawling 
...

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She's a rhapsodic tale of might
beyond falu dynamics sailing
through heartbreak's stormy
strikes and Lupus fight. 
In an exchange of blows with 
darkness, she steams in granite, 
kindness gleams in a tempo of battles.

A legend true, her...

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Life is a plan, and it sets out as a plane
So it formed living beings so it constructed me, 
From my psyche to my ego so i wear clothes, 
My Hoodie as a cape and...

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 Continued from Part 1 

3. TEATIME INTROSPECTION
Amongst the many are the few
who maim and kill and think it’s true
that purple war’s a parlour game
when really they’re submerged in shame
for crimes for which they are...

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She said that this man, my grandfather,
held her head under the black pool water,
while up above, a German man leaned
out of his window, against the moss and brick
to scream violently: "Don't hurt that woman!
She is...

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Prayer to the Stone of Sobriety

Under a purple flannel-like sheet, but not as soft; 
As warm as flannel-but hotter,
I am sweating.
The flannel shroud soaks up my sweat like my liver soaks up venom

I see angry...

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Pen Wakes, Shakes And Casts Its Darkest Long Frown

When faithful pen, releases not its ink
heaven and stars refuse usual blinks
moon dims and lets out moaning mournful cries
poison arrows shoot across wailing skies
Paper cringes in desperate...

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A sweet Little Worm crawls silently through the dirt.
Where has the light gone?  I have no worth.
Feeling dense and dark, the worm surrenders its life.
What’s the use of living when there is no light?

Coiled...

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Why do the birds insist on 
chirping
When the dark cloud above 
my head
Soaks me with all the 
emotions
That have remained bottled up 
for years
Until he came into the 
picture..

Roses and orchids 
Scented candles
Bath salts and...

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