Long Tilts Poems

"A dressed day has disrobed into the depth of a drawer's nightstand." 

(Oh, how positively awesome that what can be sorted out in such an explanatory pattern that a difference would maketh a day.)

The muskiness...

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A slice of life / a day in the life

Out in the elements – almost every day, training,
weather, sunshine, cloudy – B. C. fate – raining.
Seventy five reps, twenty times over my head,
on my back,...

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Catapulted into seething temperatures beyond the imagination 
risking excitement in escapades that may seem inane,
potential hazard weighted against predicament predestined,
at some future stage I might peer backwards and reassess,
initial impetuousness under caustic supernatant thumbnail,
maybe I...

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Along a winding country road
one autumn’s day of late,
I chanced upon an aged abode,
up a hill beyond a gate.

The house was old and quiet,
not a person 'neath its roof
but in a tree close by it
perched...

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My heart hit the wall like graffiti spray.
Shakespeare could have cast you 
just as you had cast me.
Playtime was rushed to sleep with resistance, 
as cinderblock thoughts tossed and turned 
until drifting became corroding numbness...

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twelve miles of useless... road 
if you want to call it that
so washed out, rutted, and rocky that
usually you drive around it
three beers to go such a tiny distance
hay meadows across the creek 
always teaming...

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A pony pulled his two-wheel cart past guards and through the gate. 
It carried his supplies of art with which he would create. 
He heads for misty ocean cliffs, those rugged, ragged rocks; 
Then, breathing...

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2.



"Those who have gone astray, whom [the Holy Spirit] itself begets, usually go
astray also because of the Spirit.  Thus, by this one and the same breath, the
fire blazes and is put out."

--- From the...

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A fine mist of rain falls silent 
on his thin, sharp-angled face. 
He picks up the pace and tilts 
his head to the wind. He walks 
through the plundered slumber  
of crumbled poverty, abandoned,...

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Seeking a better life and with chance at hand, our new life awaits
Wife hires on as servant, daughter and I stowaway as it departs
Our life's dreams sail on the USS Titanic, a new future to...

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“Chasing Ghosts in Cars” 

Like automata
we walk inside 
winding up the stairs

it’s all mechanical
the romance 
programmed

by steep degrees 
in the 
well-routined

we can walk 
through walls
anywhere

to look out 
our windows 
towards the better view

each cell in...

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As the sun sets
A hot wind like this
Does not belong in downtown Lansing
But here it is
Speed-boating down the Grand River grinning and wearing Ray-Bans

My wife and I
We hold down our pouncing bouncing patio table
At the...

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Don’t even try to woo me
I can resist you
My mind is fortified
Reason screams reasons to be careful
Caution goes off in flares
My mind is alert
Aware
I can resist you

Oh, but my body 
My body plays traitor...

My eyes...

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LIL’ MISS GHOUL

  On the night of Walpurgistnacht,
  Lil’ Miss Ghoul walks into her bedroom,
  She is deeply saddened after the break up with her latest man.
  Lil’ Miss Ghoul puts...

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He's


sorry


for what he's done....


he's


apologetic, but the moon


she's crumbled in my palms and drenched


in my tears.


I rub my hands across my jeans and shoot stars across my ripped up, tarnished wardrobe


maybe he'll witness me before he...

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Shell (Jane Grey)

The Knights are all lining up
to have their taste of me.
Because I'm quiet and demure 
of the weak and tired and pure
they lock us up forevermore. 

Their whispers and their shouting too,
always surrounded,...

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In wooden covered wagons on the out 
Flanks of town is where you will find the
Gypsy encampment.
Do you have an inquisitive mind?
They have all kinds of entertainment
That has to be lucrative for them to stay
Alive...

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Written: May 19, 2025, for contest by Edward Ibeh

Quote: "Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself." By Rumi

    ...

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Should we give thanks and praise?  
My dog doesn’t think so
He licks my hand when hungry
only to fall asleep when fed
Barks to go outside 
and do his…. business 
mostly when I’m in bed 
Anyway...

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She’s crying
With indignant eyes 
And a tumultuous heart
He’s sighing
With restrained thighs
And a perplexed start
It slams
With a thunderous noise
And a conspiring choice
Do I end this mess? – 
Or give it a Holy redress?

She seems not to...

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I was to be in a film during the pandemic
To deliver a public service message
From a chair

Crew re-arranges the screws of the room
Seals the blinds and sets up equipment
Makeup lady approaches me
Surgical mask binding her...

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I am the wrench in the clockwork,
a tiny twist in the gears of a universe
too vast to notice my pinch,
yet enough to reroute the cascade—
leverage, a quiet conspiracy of small forces.

Like a catapult built from...

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Ah war out a walkin
Ut war a Sunday morn
Mah chores war all did
Warn't no need fer me et home

Ah walks along tha river
What does goes by er place
Hearin tha crickets singin
Un watchin dragonflies un tha...

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I hear a chord
It resounds so deep in my ears 
It feels like the secrete chord
That David played to please the lord

This chord resounds ding dong in my head like slow-bells
A harmony more resounding than...

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