Long Wringing Poems

Ghost Of Tsali Comes

Lost in mist and maze
Ghost of Tsali in the corn
River water runs

Colors of fall alive
“Til moon replaces sun
That’s when Tsali comes 

Corn roots cling to bone
As he tends the empty weirs
This spot...

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“The Evolution of a Broken Heart”



In thy hands, 
I gently placed it

lacking hesitation’s pleas and virtues
‘twas ne’er a time to be uncourageous
plucked somewhere from deep within
my honorable, clean gilded home where
pure intention sat regally spartan
upon...

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Have I failed you as a man?
Our only communication was what washed up on shore 
But there's so much space between the ocean floor and the sand 
One cascades and the other crystalizes 
But you...

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Migrants on the move from violence
their only possession
breath-space on a smuggler’s boat
secured with back-bent harvests 
in pretzel-bent systems
weight of crates of strawberries 
hoisted on hell-bent backs
just trying to reach Spanish-shores’-east 
from Moroccan beach with a...

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Act 4.

Marat

Where do these tears come from? My makeup
is melting in the spotlight. She has gone.
Oh, how I wished to tell her… I did not.
I wished to tell but I forgot the words
to say according...

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Two thousand feet in the belly of the earth
So near the opulence of golden ore
And so far the poor man's dream of worth
From the falling sweat of toil
Around the Chilean house
The wringing hands toll in...

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These are my modern English translations of ancient Greek epigrams by Anacreon from the Anacreontea. 

Here he lies in state tonight: great is his Monument!
Yet Ares cares not, neither does War relent.
—Anacreon, loose translation/interpretation by...

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I can feel the sun warming my body and the universe telling me that it is sorry, the clouds are rolling by and the burden is lifted from the sky. The traffic is rolling and...

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This was inspired by Georgette Johnson’s poem “Savouring Another Day”
***

One cold day whilst I was out in the snow 
I went into a cafe for a Joe
I slipped across floor 
And got an encore
Me and...

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She struggles to provide the essentials
Everyday
Every waking moment is like a cast iron weight around her neck
But this was her flower
And if her only option had been wringing a damp rag
This little flower would surely...

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Pray,
If you should tell
All that you have bottled up
Who will you tell?
Who will believe you?
Stories of swollen head, slit lips
Blood, brimstone and bonfires 
Laboriously ignited to silence
Rats, rabbits, dogs, roaches and mosquitoes 
Stories of brazen...

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Heavy and eerie silence reigned therein, 
The dark rooms looking as sullen as mean, 
As if they had taken serious offence 
Against me who had failed in their esteem, 
My heart feeling contrite was heaving...

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3 
Pay attention! 
Important chicken poetry coming up, 
though no binary fantasies shall deconstruct 
into raucous biddy enjambment. 


4 
Grandfatber always kicked Grandmother's chickens away 
while he sat whittling under the Oak, 
Those ruddy, Cherokee...

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SYRIAN REFUGEES

I'm watching a programme on telly
About the Syrian refugees
Men and women and children
Humanity brought to its knees

I'm watching the desperate faces
The terror and hunger and fear
They're facing their ultimate nightmare
And me? Well I'm just...

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She wills it but fears of wanting what she already has
Her beauty is below her, among her. and over her head

Not one but two, nor four but five
Seven more times we get up to save...

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You are the dusk that masquerades as first light.
In the stillness of descending twilight,
your spellbinder's expectorant 
opens the passageways of the feeble, 
weevles like...

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Murmur no things
or strings of sounds...
Could not care less
more-ish whispers
were Wicked
Whips of Words-
Weighted.
Tongue- lashing sharp
fork- tine Torture.
Cat-0-nine-one-one-tales...
Thirty-nine...
Forty-less-one
thrashing...
thrashing...
Thrashing...!
                  ...

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Impeccant,
 of non-textual matters
 one’s covered flesh,
 and hidden embrasure’
 as diffusate primer
 slips life’s veil, and
 in agitated pontlevis,
 cleaves the universe’ reason…
 “Egads! What sorcery is this?”
 Holy heart failure, Batman!
 “Beavis and...

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Last night I awoke to the sign of Orion, and the big dipper pouring beauty into her
countenance.

Though the stars say she is a Capricorn, a meager goat, I see Orion’s majesty every time I
stare into...

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The biscuit is sitting on the plate waiting for a humongous date; the sardine is screaming in the can while she waits for the unfaithful man.
He is out dining and casting lot with a dollar...

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2, 000 people in this God forsaken crest of a town
Am I the only one to keep the balance
To count the half second before midnight
To bring philosophy to a women's monthly
And call it quits
You don't...

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“You may say that I’m a dreamer”,
With such presumption in my youth
Beyond school age, yet hardly saged
I hoped to use my wits to change the world…
I dreamed I would…I dreamed I could…

I declared to fight,...

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don't be afraid to be foolish and stupid    (Heroditus)

When I first met her
     I knew there was something
     she gave me

   ...

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{August is Woman’s Month in South Africa. August 9th is Woman’s Day. August 8th is an opening of the Lion’s Portal to Cosmic Strength. This poem is for all the Lion Hearted women who have...

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Almost four years now since you left us, wringing our hearts.
Beginning your new chapter, you slipped away in the night,
Connecting with an expanse of new and perhaps, old, companions.
Doing everything we could, we struggled with...

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