Long Weekday Poems

On Fam’ly Traditions - 2nd third -
 


“Might as well grab us some food an' some beer...some ice...and some bundles o' wood, an' prob'ly some charcoal....there ain't nothin' better than walleye from right off a...

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To faith communities
and fraternities,
brotherhoods
and sisterhoods
and sororities,
local non-profits
and friendly neighborhoods,
mediators
and counselors,
cooperative associations,
trauma-informed learning theorists
and practitioners for resilient
mind/body peace,

Do not deceive yourselves.
Continuing to gaze and daze 
on a monotonous monocultural path

Disassociating 
internal v external
navel v social 
my...

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Pt. I

The Lodger

Morning sneaked inside the flat and lit the dusty air
through holes in the torn curtains forming spotlights on the floor.
He woke from the discomfort of a night in his armchair
and sighed at all...

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Being Bob

Bob, is just an ordinary guy in every sense of the word. Five ft eight inches tall, a little on the chubby side and has lost most of his hair. No one pays much...

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Incomplete metamorphosis of distilled adolescent...

therefore he characterizes himself as an anomaly...any idea why?

Mortified, petrified, stultified, et cetera sheltered, 
and mortally wounded prepubescent,

I consider myself
analogously buttressed, cocooned,
garrisoned (for bing keeler), 
hardened, insulated,
where cell baited jumping frog
o'...

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When I entered the City Senior Center
with my Open Mic proposal
to increase resilience
and decrease apartheid dissonance

I could hear no music,
see no dancing.

The quilting room
and the game room,
even the pool tables,
were as quiet as the library,
which...

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I am anxious
as my 5:30 beeping alarm
grows defiantly louder,
reminding me of surreal difference
between asleep, longing for better days awake,
and,
now awake,
longing for more sleep
struggling toward alarming predawn buttons
to release from this first crisis
for depressing life's day-rousing...

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I wish to fully live
then richly die
non-violently communing with AllSouls
in cooperative team resonance,
resilient restoring green justice residence
eco-governing NewLondon's energy democracy,
WinWin co-arising loss
of LoseLose Ego PrisoNest,
plutocracy capital-infested

I hope we wish to cooperatively network gratitude
for opportunities to...

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In our highschool, we had to go for masses every Saturday and Sunday
And some girls even went for masses early mornings during the week
The nuns kept strict eyes on us
We had limited socializing time with...

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Sitting by the bay during a weekday watching the water I thought a manatee I observed
Just beneath the surface, it came up for just a few seconds and didn’t reemerge. 
I followed it with my...

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And then I told her to put her breast on top of the table.
She lifted then settled on the wet yet wiped down counter,
and I just watched with my eyes smiling for my mouth and...

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Designs we find democratically attractive
include designs for acquiring healthy trust powers
with all others to be positively infected
by our mutual discussion, 
dialogue, respectful discernment,
our listening with silently authoritative skills
before responsibly speaking,

Democratic designs acquire cooperative consensual power
of...

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Broken shell

After a lengthy time of climbing
I sit on the hill peak of courage.
Drafting my testimony on an inkless page of my acquired voicelessness,
Looking down pieces of the shell broken scattered in the valley where
My...

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Mediocre moments coming
On the verge of a dance with illusions,
Memories bursting from their webs of doubt
Hallucinating in flames, burning – brush fires
Surrounded by a past promise, a melancholy
That vibrates with hope – trembling
Oozing away the...

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She Woke up Pregnant

She started out like any other weekday on her way to school,

Excited about the award she won for her poem titled "Nobodies fool".

Now her poem was about her struggles from the environment...

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I-95

“Ya got the horse race
 Ya got the dog race
 Ya got the human race —
 But this is a ratrace”
    ~ Bob Marley and the Wailers, “Ratrace” from the album Rastaman...

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I wonder what it means
we are a multicultural species
still capable of waging war,
employing ballistic terrorists,
investing in capitalism's ruthless game
of surgical monopoly
to become patriarchs of bloodied mountains,

This feels related,
perhaps co-arising,
with inability to distinguish
an ecology of natural...

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Shabbos Table True Fable
Our family "Heimish" setting,
Replete with 2 lighted candles letting,
Blessings, my wife's "Emunah" truly abetting.

6 days' worries & scurries set aside, allayed,
2 lights cleansing in noble "Dr. Suess" style displayed,
Candlesticks' "Curved Art", due...

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<
Tidying Love All Up
by Lem Griffiths
July, 2016

Carefully, I asked, 
'What's with all the bleach in the pan?
All the week?'
She was the newly appointed Assistant Land Lady.

'It brings it all up the whiter', she came back..
I...

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Friday Night Check-ins


The days have been calm and collected.
The guests have been happy, content.
The weekday staff scurry out from the hotel
To avoid the upcoming event.

Weekend receptionists tremble
As the Friday night check-ins approach,
Fearing the tsunami of...

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A Quiet Conversation In Church

Someone behind me stifled a cough
Turning around, the stranger nodded back
In the dim light
I made out a determined jaw
Felt thick fingers holding on to the back of my pew
I’ve been coming...

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sleeps too much
is beastly to loved ones
and smiles at strangers
doesn't pay bills
on time but drinks
too much whiskey and beer
and sings bad songs on weekday
nights when responsibility
demands sleep and serenity
chaos rules and is welcomed
trusts liars and...

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I’ve had to work a little harder down at the council yard,
and by gee I’m glad it’s time for knocking off.
Had to fix Andy’s broken shovel handle - he leaned a little hard,
and ‘Occa’ took...

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3am
The rest of the world was asleep 
While your mind on the other hand, never is
You occupied it
with inhale of your beloved Mary Jane

I study every smoke cloud that leaves your body
As that same dumb...

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This is my garden.

I recently discovered
the quiet allure 
of the forgotten art of gardening.

More than shoving seeds into soil,
More than impatiently waiting for seedlings and then greedily harvesting the fruit of one’s labour. 

More than...

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