Long Unvarnished Poems

(Musings of a poet with huge doubts and a fragile faith)

Introduction: Is God A Joke Or Human Vanity?

When close friends die and other’s thoughts are suicidal,
When mankind’s soup du jour is loneliness with anguish	
When mental...

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An evanescent bouquet of skewed briars,
is how a tinsel laden tawdry essence wickedly unfolds,
scuppered signpost to a fetid human compost,
faint light pendant on soul crushed quantum migrant,
who might chortle at vivid veil flimsy vacuum,
skirt recklessly...

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Africa, 

In this tranquil spectre of time, 

imagination tickled,

Tell, 

I will tell of the treasures of a people, 

Africa on my mind, 

The blessed Land of the brown Chocolatey pigment,

the brave unbroken cast,
 
myriads of...

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An evanescent bouquet of skewed briars,
is how a  tinsel laden tawdry essence wickedly unfolds ,
scuppered signpost to a fetid  human  compost,
faint light pendant on soul crushed quantum migrant,
who might chortle at vivid...

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Lifeblood of democracy hemorrhaging
ousting the "FAKE" president only recourse
to staunch impending grim demise,
since forefathers drafted
United States Constitution
ratified more'n two centuries ago

hoi polloi must take to the streets
denouncing severe curtailment
impinging sacred freedom of speech
linkedin with paramount...

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When mum would talk to other folks about her family,
She’d always speak particularly proudly about me … 
Of how I’d gone to grammar school, my bookish ‘steel-trap’ mind.
To hear her, you would think I was...

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~ Bygone beauty - the spark still pulsates ~
                          ...

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This morning - just before I’d finished dressing in his office - my doctor said, “I’m going to give you something new to try.

This drug’s a little pricey - and it’s still experimental - but...

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I. Partial Eclipse

The carousel broke loudly.
We made them laugh.
We made them love.

II. Total Eclipse

If you want passion:
The un-filtered wild joy of heaven and the sacred warming gold,
Seek no more:
Our afterlife is in the herelife,
An unsanctifying...

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(The Clock and The Reaper)

Time, the adamant adversary 
of all that breathes 
and all that can be personified
 but meets perish 
at the end of an arduous linger,
The crowns of eminent royalty,
 the sweat of...

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Pages of your book
By Michelle Morris
09/09/2022

The snowflakes come down 
Like a flurry of white hope
Upon the grave that we stand around
The ground silent like our souls 

The pastor gives a beautiful service
Words I cannot hear
Not...

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I open the cemetery gate and walk a winding path
the ancient trees sway and reach out for me as I go
I pass mazes of headstones
like time feathered in stone
there is an unwritten absence within me
so...

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Gilded Crosses?

By Mark D. Stucky
Shiny icons gleaming on altars?
        And hanging from necks on gilded chains?
        No. Not back then…

Not golden,...

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Purple reign
falling on fallow,
divided tulip fields

Lavender pain
drench the shallow,
paper fortified hills

Crimson parched lips
cling unto the violet dew kiss
of a long-anticipated 
famine relief scarlet promise

Burgundy pillar hope
caught betwixt a rosy red sunset,
and a misty dawn twilight...

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The children are being led like cattle across the grounds.  They have yellow life jackets on and are holding on to rings around a rope.  
They are surrounded by grownups (a funny word)....

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I live in a city of  a Indian state
where you can discern refreshing greeneries, that accommodate
the kingfishers,Rollers,peacocks,snakes and white cranes
Although rice is the major crop,black lentils,sugar canes
corns,sunflowers and groundnuts are the seasonal crops
Since it...

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The dusty window frames her form
Silhouetting her fragility as evening falls
With hands as gnarled oak
Clasping the unvarnished rocking chair
Her painfully crooked feet gently cause a methodical tone
Upon the now jaded rug...
Hypnotic as time...
 
Head relaxed...

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Most police officers 
are genuinely good, decent people. 
I know that. Deep down, we all know that.
Unfortunately, though, the bad apples 
among them have tainted
their reputation beyond repair.

It's no secret these "bad apples, "
mostly Caucasian...

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MY      SCORPIO       CHARACTERISTICS


I don’t believe in astrology  these days
But I believe in my wife, and she says
October 25 is in the middle of...

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Innate with a fresh epicranium,
smooth like a marble!
Duration of her absolute head got short-lived
As if her middle name was trouble!
She wish she knew her ingle hue was purple
Too bad, no remembrance since her crown was...

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“Ya got some mighty fine spurs to wear,”
My ol’ grand pap used to day.
When I came up shy when braidin’ hair
From my ol’ dun horse or bay.

It was just his way of tellin’ me
That I...

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As each morning goes, I shall remember you,
when life was beautiful and simply unvarnished

I shall remember you when each day unwinds,
with memories of dances among our garden's flowers
As we became lovers through twlight

I shall remember...

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On Thinking Too Much

You think too much, she said, and I think
She might be right; she, whom once I fell in love
With and think of still.

Thought on thought, I explore every option, each an
Imagined path...

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Sometimes unvarnished truth is hard to take.
It’s often just as difficult to tell.
Truth may cause tears to fall and hearts to break.

Withholding truth when there is much at stake
is wrong. How could such pretense turn...

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You're bracing for 
the hubristic lecture
it's not here

The crux:
unvarnished understanding
of how blacks see
their outlook for life

Only narrow options:
they can give in, go through
or go around - a predicate path

Try to feel what it's like
to be...

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