Long Untoward Poems

Merov’s Ghost (1) and Other Shots Across My Bow!

In mid-November of Fourteen, I published my first web verse here, (2)
the earliest spanned sixty years, composed for Senior English class
one night in Nineteen Sixty-One. Assigned just...

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It was a strange and unexpected experience.  

Suddenly, I found myself in a place called Happy Valley. A man was on a park bench gazing upon the trees as if listening to a particular...

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Virgil comes to group therapy every week in his pick-up truck with his dog, Buster, standing in the bed of the truck. The sessions are held for veterans of Korea and Vietnam. Quite a few...

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Do the Dead see with their own eyes

    for Thadchayani, my poetry-loving doctor sister :  28/08/1929 – 26/10/2014 
            ...

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I was reclining upon soft pillows, in my spacious window seat,
Savoring pretty views and sunshine, while I nibbled on a treat.

Alternately I read my novel, and gazed on the tranquil scene, 
As one gazes at...

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When you get life has edges and dangers abound,
Pat yourself on the back, for this wisdom’s profound.
One who groks danger’s near has the best chance to live!
Fools who’re sure that they’re safe either brag or...

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Adulterous besieging capstone damnation
exploitation foists groping, heaving
insidiously jerking
knowingly lunges
machinations notoriously nymphomaniacal 
officiating penile quests
rapaciously, sadistically 
tenaciously, unstoppably 
vasocongested wickedness 
Xerses yawped zeolously.
*************************** 
All throughout history of  man/woman kind
ascendent civilizations extensively gouged, 
impailed, kindled, murderous...

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It is now too late for you to
Straighten up and

Fly right!
You have failed to pass
The test of time.
It is too late to love your neighbor
There is nothing left to do now
But go back into the...

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An Echo Poem by Lora Colon and  Brian Johnston


Pieces Of Yesterday

I found pieces of yesterday
I kept hidden in a special place, 
Little things I wanted to remember, 
But things I now find hard to...

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America's had lots of heroes through the years
Helping the world overcome many fears
Humankind hasn't always been kind
Look closely at history, see what you find

Our founders succeeded and failed many ways
People of color not treated fairly...

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LUDix-Rym

      
       Charm of glory glistened to glow
       when hand in hand, we stepped on snow.
  ...

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ERNESTO 
Acrostic

T.ito, thirty- years ago you left us 
with painful hearts  and tearful eyes
too young to leave your loved-ones 
we mourn on your early demise

I.n the core of your heart and mind 
there's hatred...

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The hands on her clock moves backward,
sending her thoughts to the time of the terrible trauma
Feelings of helplessness overwhelm her,
and paralyzing fear begins to take hold, chaining her mind
to a wall of perpetual emotional pain
A...

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is that I am only responsible for what I can change; not the feelings or thoughts or opinions of anyone else -- focusing on these will only bring me down.

I was told, repeatedly, that my...

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The sun was setting, as it usually does
The town a ghost town, the main street all but silenced
The wind blowing leaves and dreams to and fro
The tension in the air was palpable

The few souls about...

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He Loves Her? He Loves Her Not?  – An Echo Poem
By Darren White and Brian Johnston

Darren White’s Original Poem – WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE
PoetrySoup.com - Reprinted with permission

“If anyone asks you
how the perfect satisfaction
of...

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Therewithal, profluent life ettles it's while.
Thitherward, from Death's bleak campanile
Grim antiphonals serenade.

A capriccio, the slashing swipe of the reaper's scythe
 will serenade.
Stringent Death forthwith anoints the mithridate to
Life's cantankerous and rankling ado

Hither now come, anon...

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He Loves Her? He Loves Her Not?  – An Echo Poem
By Darren White and Brian Johnston

Darren White’s Original Poem – WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE
PoetrySoup.com - Reprinted with permission

“If anyone asks you
how the perfect satisfaction
of...

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(alternately titled -
today's lesson iz
addressing categorical imperative)

Courtesy of unpleasant he
ping diatribes visited me
from eldest offspring ugh gree
guss vituperations, doth force me
     to admit (and take key
lock, stock, and barrel
  ...

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I keep thinking about this summer—about starting a new school—and as soon as I do, I find myself internally monologuing and getting all high-schooly. It’s hoot, I know, but I can’t seem to help it.

‘You...

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Author Dana Redricks
July 18, 2023

In the depths of my being, a struggle stirs, a battle against society's chains,
My sexuality, an enigma to unravel, ongoing to break free from the shadows it restrains.

Whispers of judgment, they...

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37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love...

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The Words were form fitted
  chosen  ,             just especially for you
the ones you needed  ,  ones you could hear
...

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Tribute to Tina Turner

               What’s love got to do with !
          ...

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1980 we began to learn ( about health and safety)
Not at every turn.' 
As the decades went, its demands just grew.' From
Those quite acceptable, no one realised the end extent
Mind you.'
There was always, some charge;...

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