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...

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Habit is Heaven's tame redress:
it tugs down the skirts of Happiness.
—Alexander Pushkin, translation by Michael R. Burch

Till, conquered by gusts of cold air,
as Winter approaches, I find,
on a branch that is otherwise bare,
trembling, a leaf...

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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...

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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...

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...The days that followed left no doubt on her master’s feelings,
the love he showed to both of them left her poor mind reeling,
he barely left his daughter’s side, so besotted was he,
this man who’d helped...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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 November 21, 1963                               ...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Beneath a callused skin of light
the hunched and mustered
clap a prayer between a leaking sight.

It is the earth that mourns itself,
whether baldly thrown or loamy laid
the silent soil repaints its sullied shrouds
far beyond any atoning...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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