Long Vicissitudes Poems

"Backhand"



You have turned me
inside out, cut open
like a tennis ball
I used to beat backhand
along with the racket
hard against the garage wall

To make sense of it all
as a child, the grief stolen
all too swiftly and replaced...

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Personal vicissitudes pronounced irrepressible self loathing

Ever since mine late boyhood
when unstoppable coded 
cellular processes did segue
I experienced abhorrence
toward yours truly,
an extremely introverted kid,
whose parents nor siblings
(one younger and older sister) could
not arouse him 

out of...

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Are My Words So Foreign Or Obtuse 
That You May Not, Within Them, See Truth? 
That We Live Together Within, 
While Without We Share, What May One Day, 
Become A Common View; 
A Mutual Love...

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Coronavirus microbe (COVID-19) begat...
heebie jeebies couple months before March 15th, 2020

More'n three hundred and sixty six days ago,
a pandemic did devastatingly blow
across the webbed wide world
dark shadows spelled glow
bull horror seeds of hell show
did terrify...

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Coronavirus microbe (COVID-19)

(alternately titled: yours truly doth mutter
asthma bowled dug gutter 
pin yon hated chap strikingly and gently weeps, 
whereby melts milquetoast like butter.)

Aye reckon eyes aforementioned 
entitled microscopic organism
doth strain credulity threatening 
Homo sapiens...

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Amélie Beth Harris-McGeehan

December first 2020 equals
thee above named sibling
whereby she completed
LXIII earth orbits around the sun
therefore incumbent upon me
(cuz yours truly to wish happy birthday

at receiving end of much largesse)
to wax poetic regarding beloved sister,
which...

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Today I saw an old woman, gaunt and brown from sun exposure,
Her legs were thin from walking round and round downtown Nashville,
My stomach dropped.
Six months ago I saw the same woman walking in the winter...

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Vicissitudes Of A Rambling Life Once Lived 

I have walked this earth, too oft dying of thirst
through and within vast herds of men, vast pools of stain
bearing melancholy blues, heart about to burst,
chasing elusive treasures,...

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And O Life safe art thou, nor yet secure, 
Those averse to danger can scarce shun it, 
It better be braved, let streets be unlit,  
No success walks in on its own for sure....

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"Puzzle Stomped"



Pieces scattered
placed on a table 
with boundaries 

between 
the incarcerated margins 
there are strict conditions

Time drips 
its wet connection
each piece a stair fitted 

imperfectly
perfect 
towards upwards 

new mirror reflection
a cracked heart piercing
the tear with...

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"If in the manner of men, I have fought with beast at Ephesus,
What advantage is it unto me? If the dead do not rise, let us eat
Drink and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die...."...

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Behold Beatrice, Pitcairn
the paradise sunsets lie in Tahiti
sunrise, the folly of Easter
islands, sanitoriums, deluded, denuded
limbos and purgatories, the never evermore
Polynesian metaphors transmigrate my mind
O to graze with the deer, dear
the tree never falls silently
lizards scatter,...

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"If in the manner of men I have fought with beast at Ephesus
what is it unto myself? If the dead do not rise, let us eat
drink and be merry for, tomorrow we shall die...." ~...

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"If in the manner of men, I have fought with beast at Ephesus,
What advantage is it unto me? If the dead do not rise, let us eat
Drink and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die...."...

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"If in the manner of men, I have fought with beast at Ephesus,
What advantage is it unto me? If the dead do not rise, let us eat
Drink and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die...."...

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Line of inquiry:

“We have been here a thousand times before

Memory erased, each time we begin anew

Of hands held tenderly, we’ve lost the score

Each embrace virgin like fresh morning dew 

 

To which image, oh dear...

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Mother taught me her proverbs to ring like a bell in the chapel of my brain
Better days are coming – angels filling the sky with joyous refrain
The darkest hour is here before dawn – I...

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I want to say just I want to love you forever,
for I know life will not be easy if i don't accept it.
If I carry on with my love i will make an excellence of...

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One Sunday morning, I went home to visit mom and dad.
My brother was also there, and I showed them what I had.
The first thing I said to father as soon as I saw him,
was that...

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In an innate world, the brain is beautiful.
Being two percent of the body mass, the brain requires about twenty 
     percent of its oxygen and calories.
The most beautiful image ever seen...

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I was born in the odds, 
I lived through it,
dotted the lines on my path
I was born among hyenas, 
these scrambling to stiffen the last breath, 
Amidst hurts and hate first from home,
A lot cast...

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Well, you asked for it so here goes!
I'm five-feet, eight inches tall from scalp to toes.
Born October 1930 in Indiana - so there, I've revealed my age.
I'm blessed with great health even at this elder...

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Written: January 16, 2024
            _________________________________________

Ephemeral grave is tangled with gloom,
Putting faith in ethereal womb of doom.
Being without other choice but to exist,
Simply succeed while...

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THE DANCER AND THE POET (Satis Shroff)

There she is a blonde Flamenco dancer,
From a family that was long dysfunctional.	
The poet said: ‘Dance, my dear to the rhythm 
Of the guitar and my lyrics.’
She pushes her...

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Prelude--
Dear one:
If you read the Book,
then your intentions are of good.  
Clear your mind of the cloudiness of 
vain and deceitful thoughts.

Know this:
The law has always been the law;
irrevocable, reaching though the vicissitudes of...

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