Long Thralls Poems

I was pushed to write this comparison after reading the poem on Byron by the souper poet Gary Bateman.
Wandering on internet I found the Byron's version of Francesca's words in CANTO V of Dante's Hell...

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1

The drummer beats slowly, the drummer beats loud
     as he beats of humanity wrapped in a shroud.

Well he beats of the rape and the killing of war
     and the mind mangling sorrow we blithely ignore
          and...

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Beneath the churning skies and wrathful sea, 
A lone man wails into swirling agony.
Each crashing wave, a relentless assault,
Mirroring the chaos of his inner tumult.

Beneath tempestuous heavens, alone he fights,
His vessel, both refuge and dungeon,...

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ABOVE THE CLOUDS

To hell with these monotonies,
no strings attached I fly.
Live normally with anomalies,
myself, my sole ally.
Disguise realised through shrouded lies,
I wore to please beliefs.
And wore a crease which won't suffice,
to lead a life so...

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Hey,
Do you smell that?
That musky scent 
      with earthy undertones
leading off to the right.

Slipping into a lope,
as silent as the grave,
I sneak through the trees.
The aroma pulls me along
through the...

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Some young people just don’t seem to know
that freedom is the only way to go.
With minds addled by tired lies,
and not experience enough to realize
that when everything is said and done,
America is made of awesome.

They’re...

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Ignorance is Bliss 

Ignorance is Bliss 

When GOD destroyed the town of NINEVA Jonah danced and grinned an evil 
smile. He party and he drank and he ate squab and many other birds an evil...

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Written: February 19, 2025 For contest Sponsored by: Unseeking Seeker

Line of inquiry:

as an entity in the dream, we conjured
we know not we are both the dreamer and dreamed
how then may we wake up when we...

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Something beside me Darkness mirrors something's engulfing me a barrage of vision across the path split in half shines the Drone 

Shadows

The light the Stars the Moon and the Sun above me  Casting the...

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This is something other than unsure laced with heavy heart.
I'd love to change my mind,  is this where you take charge?
When our play begins, the starring role I'm begging you to take.
Open your eyes,...

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a day we went round in cycles until our senses cracked open
our eyes into the vangogh
greens birched our ears smacked by seabirds gulls
gobbing off perchpolluted in our nostrils the toxic bay
and ozonescent that seaweed belches...

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Today I sat and pondered and closed my eyes to see 
On a sunny island I strolled, knowing what's ahead for me

Closer to the beach hut I could hear our favourite song
Through the louvred doors...

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The old King took to the battle
and leapt into the fencers fray.
“Noblesse oblige” his cronies cry.
“Our King will save the day!”

He was a bull to their gazelle
nae a fair fight, nae by half;
he'd fight just...

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On golden sands below azure blue skies
I sensed, I turned and behold my eyes
Naked as birth from the sea she revealed
For moments before her charms were concealed

Curved shapes of woman now allure my thoughts
To touch...

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Lost love once painted me as a blurred piece of art,
but I'd dry my teary eyes and agree to pose again
if you can promise that you'll never break my heart.

From the thralls of love, I...

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Is it the knowledge - we acknowledge
from text that deliver unto us a knowing...?

Or the interpretation of experience...
of true life...that prepares
what is truth?

Is it the learning of the text...
that leads us where we land expect...?

...Or...

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Awoken from fitful sleep, too uncomfortable to resume

Stifling heat prevailing one morning in early June

Through dawn's weakly strained golden haze

Fresh air my lungs desperately craved

To reach the front door, I descended the stairs

With door ajar,...

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I longed for more time
to lay cornerstones, 
but life had started 
detaching my soles


I wanted more daylight
to see a Galaxy of beauty
that rested, 
within one finger of breath


I desired of many things


to walk the Ponte...

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The sky thralls me- my eyes
e'er drawn to her center
where she emits her soul
a single star. 

her skirt of scalloped clouds,
rose hued,
darkens with her mood. She is royal,
royal blue. She is enshrouded
by inumerous precious stones,
sapphires...

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As the curtain
falls to pool,
a silent reverie
falls to ground


Amputated in
thralls hold,
the bereft 
wandered
in Netherlands,
subsisting
on remembered be-fores,
spotlights and sweat-ed
applause


‘Break a leg’
is what they say
but diminished spirits
from crushing critics
ever smashing 
to review,
all hope,
dashed
and newspapers
flutter on fences,
cruel proclamations
and...

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As the curtain
falls to pool,
a silent reverie
falls to ground


Amputated in
thralls hold,
the bereft 
wandered
in Netherlands,
subsisting
on remembered be-fores,
spotlights and sweat-ed
applause


‘Break a leg’
is what they say
but diminished spirits
from crushing critics
ever smashing 
to review,
all hope,
dashed
and newspapers
flutter on fences,
cruel proclamations
and...

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I'm once again awake in this inside out state
Never confused because I know I'm mixed up
Is it me I see in viewing blurred investigate
Has nature mistrued this building a buttercup

I really don't know how I...

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From my window I see the most wondrous of sights
Mother natures wrath releasing her might
Blackened plumes of smoke in monstrous rise
Turning day into night as it covers her skies

Oranges and reds in sporadic bursts of...

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this clock on the wall, echoes through my heart's lonely walls
it laughs in seconds the pulsation of years long past
its hands stroke the circumference of my soul it thralls
it writhes against my memories in an...

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Slowly they undresses each other
In the confines of their own space
Naked to their flesh
They stand face to face
 
Slowly their hands grace
Two bodies in desire of they
Adults, two so in love
In sensuous intended play
 
Slowly...

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