Long Warding Poems

A Stolen Memory
A Mirthful Chorus
By Sy Roth 


We surrounded him 
Asked to let go.
She stared at the misshapen face,
Unshaven sandpapery skin 
Eyelids a tabula rasa
Fluttery sere skin
And we could see the humor blossoming in his...

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This was down right evil - 3 against 1, how fair is that?!



Tony Boogerelli asked me straight out if I did, and, as he was expecting, I assured him that I do.
Tony told his sister,...

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Lost in the Mists, Part V and VI
                           ...

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I'm here to clarify 
My passions that I never defy 
Prescriptions of my essence
My drug is my vibe 
Addictions to what I do 
No cure to my being true 
My body is vacant of disease...

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I am a descendant of Greece and the
Greeks,
We say hello and goodbye by kissing
Both cheeks,
But I also descend from the British,
For my father was very, very English!
I am a true mix of English
And  Greek,
And...

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                                  ...

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The Obeah Woman

Heavy musty air reeks with the Obeah Woman’s pungent perfume, 
sweat, burnt incense, bitter roots, and swirling black smoke,
dim light from a waning moon streams into the shadowy room;
and mirrors crack as restless...

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My GRANDFATHER loved to work. His schedule from 3 am till 6 pm we were farmers
-we is a lot of people who's here?- He asks. 
-We Are.
With the scream of a Legendary fighter we all...

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Happy National Friendship Day - August 6th, 2023

The idea of Friendship Day originated 
in the United States in 1919, 
proposed by Joyce Hall, 
the founder of Hallmark cards. 

It gained official recognition 
when the U.S....

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After the storm, my brother
(all gangly knees and elbows)
bore the brunt of its ferocious aftermath.

Every day after school
I watched his wiry biceps bulge a little
as his handsaw scritched against the tree
which had fallen diagonally across...

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Ichabod Zit, in seventh grade, had sixty thousand pimples, but by the time he graduated, most of them were gone.
He wound up getting married to the cutest girl in school, but, sadly, all the children...

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WHAT HAPPENED

Darkness is enveloping sinister 
and frightening,
Elusive, alluring, captivating and
Inviting,
Every night it falls like a 
clock that is punctual,
And we accept it as a part of 
Our life that is factual,
Whilst the earth revolves 
around...

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Unlike this papa akin
     to being racked, raided,
     and raked with hot coals
during his adolescence devoid of
     a social network and academic goals
if...

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Ages there are in which the ration'l man 
And th'intuitive stand side by side, the one 

In fear of intuition, or scorn for abstraction; 
Irrational one, the other inartistic. 

They both desire to rule over...

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They were twisting, shaking, breaking,and
mad.
The shattering of their minds went unseen,
and unheard.
They were the lost generation.
Spilling the remnants of their tattered souls,
out along with their whiskey.

They were running,
running from what they had done,
And from what...

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Soon there will be temperatures that will show 
Forecast predicting snow 
Coming down creating blankets that are white 
Packed together thrown when in a fight 
Everything seems magical as it drops 
Festive music enhances need...

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Greys, Part V

Time was, when reason was not our King,
And grey was the color only of the morning's mist.
We beat the drum and danced close 
Around our fires, warding off the dark
We danced and offered...

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Whisper's of October  

Whispers in this soup bowl
20 minutes after its muse explodes,
Daylight remains nothing more than a dream 
Warding off the howling sound in mid-September's stream
Casting a line about a ginger light,
 ...

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The ghost haunting the wall stood tall
He manifested in the shape of a man wearing a top hat and tails
I christened him Tom
I would talk to him telling him of my troubles
He was always there...

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Yellow chard stain index finger smears my logic puzzle,
Sour cream cilantro splatter quite the quaint “addition” 
juicy brain pump lemon zest solution that I guzzle,
number crunching sea salt a spur to intuition

Roasted sweet potato has...

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Banul had a knack for annoying others,
thanks to a fractious face – 
a smile guised as a grimace,
a grimace guised as a scowl,
a mouth left ajar when it should’ve been shut,
full of wrongful words

And Kashy...

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Dead fish on the dead fish counter;
surprised bulging aqueous eyes stare,
none of them belly-up
but spread on their sides in a pageant
of slippery colors.
Silver, red, rainbow streaked
and all the muddy tones
of river and sea are laid...

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She awoke with such urgency that eyes popped open;
Her meager frame had hushed in the stillness.
Her vast eyes fixed on something only her imagination,
Her inspiration and curiosity could truly believe.

The magic of it unmasked giant...

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OCTOBER PANTOUM


Rufous luster of Autumn on October allures assures romance under azure sky. 
         
 Celtic seasonal festival Samhain proclaims completion of harvest in plenitude.
  ...

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The Ruba’iyat of Créteil Lake – Part Five

All day she toiled to keep her knees and busts in position
The Mairie’s serrated metal-hearted spool of derision
And the glinting fly-eye cutaways of the Prefecture
She who must mind...

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