Long Tamp Poems

A Thousand Points of Light! ! ! ! !

Once a beacon of democracy
A shining light on the hill
The ‘American Dream’
	Anyone can ‘make it’  
Never more than aspirational
Structurally delusional

Always susceptible to its 
	Achilles heel of...

Read More

I am Flight Sgt Ramsay Roe, and my memories have faded,  
Of my experiences in Burma, and their chronological order, 
But into my memory’s deep recesses i have dug and waded, 
Although the exact...

Read More

From 2010. Narrator is Robert Gibbs, snooty White House Press Secretary.

Lay, O Lord, a curse on press men, rude and churlish, sad, obsessed men 
Who persist to query me on matters they know I must...

Read More

Our unhinged president,
(a veritable loathsome miscreant)
cannot get away with murder,
nor will mine paltry poetic
(side winding) gambit
help clinch deserved punishment
for leader of free world hell bent
on destroying civilization.

Nevertheless cathartic and therapeutic
to craft (ala literary blitzkrieg)
sentiments lambasting...

Read More

We had saved our precious stock of grandpa’s grape
prepared the ground and amended the soil.
After laying out the orchard, we planted cuttings with our own hands.
Fed the young vines with love and creek water
and waited...

Read More

In the green Adirondack foothills lies
the haven of our old summer camp,
once a place of adventure and outdoor joy,
and the loud cries of precocious scamps,
their energy you never could tamp,
scurrying ’round on small, rapid feet,
leaping...

Read More

Methinks resurgence of wakefulness
after bewitching hour i.e. midnight
quickly dissipating before dawn
quasi baptism regarding
preternatural soulful immersion
amidst spiritus mundi

foretaste awaiting expiration
regarding corporeal being
yours truly approaching mortality,
despite atheistic predilections
mine consciousness anointed
amist pantheon renown authors

analogous to dead poet society
ephemerally,...

Read More

Quotes from the 1960 movie, Pollyanna:

Pollyanna: Why don't you come out of the front door like normal people?
Jimmy: They won't let us. I can come out anytime I want with my tree.
Pollyanna: You could also...

Read More

Tantamount Andrea,
Your beauty crumbles my veins and compels me to whisper to desire.
My heart blossoms as the fantasizes stir to my brains,
Call it desire, bonny or may be, mirage.
You’re a princess I think of during...

Read More

Taking Today's Tumblerful Tea Time

This teetotaler turns to tea
torquing temptation
towards tippling
thankfully, though
that tremendous tugging

teasing tendency thirst trumped,
thru teaching this totally tubular
toothless titular Texan thuggish tyrant
(titled Tsar Terry Troutman)
transcendental theology

tenets taught transferring
torpedoing, taming threatening
titanic tsunami tempest
tastefully...

Read More

This teetotaler turns to tea
torquing temptation
towards tippling
thankfully, though
that tremendous tugging

teasing tendency thirst trumped,
thru teaching this totally tubular
toothless titular Texan thuggish tyrant
(titled Tsar Terry Troutman)
transcendental theology

tenets taught transferring
torpedoing, taming threatening
titanic tsunami tempest
tastefully tickling temperance
testing trying taut...

Read More

Cup of love 
I create you
And consume you
Every day
Froth you 
Grind you 
Tamp you down
Extract all there is
From your little bean
Pour it into your frothy foam
And that  first sip of heavenly you
Makes me love...

Read More

My identical twin sister came to school with me once
Many moons ago.
We wore the same clothes, and the same socks and the same shoes.
Only our underwear was different.
I had her walk through the cafeteria, then...

Read More

I too would rummage around for one to stub out my thirst;
To unfurl me with familiar lies and tamp me with such taste, 
Or as luck would have it find mine woman holy, innocent and...

Read More

Streaking skyward the tracers rip
Into hanging soldiers
Falling about into mayhem
Pulsing through blood-filled ears
Hearing comrades scream
Understanding nothing
This is the war I found…

Hatred filled hardened hunter
Into smashed building
Homes pulverized rubble
Strewn about the decaying mass
The scorched metal burning
Bodies...

Read More

When You Bury Me

Bury me with dentures in case I'll need to eat
a Beano annual from Christmas, nineteen-sixty-eight
summer scent remembered from the fallow field
my wee red trike with its wobbly wheels

Bury with me a walking...

Read More

Chateau Charlene pulled out all the pins today
Trying to watch Cheeky Wall fall.
Cheeky Wall has had too much experience
Showing the world her sassy, funny, hilarious side
Keeping our true feelings inside 
As deep down as possible

Emotions...

Read More

You bring the tan and the gray to tamp my oranges and hot pinks.
My sun smiles at your dark moon, glad he is ancient and kind.
The kitchen cupboards laugh as you reach for your cup.
Knowing...

Read More

The day of courage has come, I'll tamp down our rage,
Take studies in strides as I re-new Truth's defense,
Steady the chapters, the verses of pen and page,
Embrace the tabled periods, make joyful sense.
No more brutal...

Read More

Ah, to reminisce,
to peer through rose colored glasses
smooth the edges of
pointed encounters
tamp down the burning
embers of memory
smoldering in silent seclusion.
To change the tone
texture and import
of echoed retorts
polish the participation trophy
sitting alone on the shelf
knowing that...

Read More

Today's closing hangs lower than it did yesterday, 
trying to mess with tomorrow's dreams. 

Sitting here, dressed in a wry smile, my heart 
whispers to a sky, tie-dyed with the jewel 
of Navaho stone and...

Read More

The normal joy of Christmas is dead in my house.
No enthusiasm or anticipation of laughter 
It will be another day without family or friends
I may have a twinge or two of loneliness 
But I will...

Read More

THE FIRE INSIDE

I have to tamp down
the fire inside
for not all are stoked
with flaming eyes
my cheeriness
might be their demise

the fire inside
explosive it drives
the quiet insane
so i try extra hard
to contain myself

the gypsy dance
leaps and thrives
with...

Read More

Each year when the summer is nigh
I drag out my planters and buy
     Some flowers to plant
     But somehow I can't
Make them grow, though I really do...

Read More