Short Clomp Poems

The horses are a galloping today
Their hooves clacking against the cobblestones.
They clomp right by in a most lovely way.
Woman in carriage giving tiny moans.
Cancer prevails in her smallish bones.
Eighteen sixty-two.  Disease has no name.
Big C makes it impossible to hide.
This poor woman will never be the same....

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Bang      Bang
Clang     Clang
Plop       Plop
Drip       Drop
Boom     Boom
Zoom     Zoom
Clomp    Clomp
And        Stomp
Honk      Honk
Plink       Plonk
Knock     Knock
And        Rock
Tap        Tap
Rap        Rap
Shout     Shout
And        Holler
Bell        Bell
Ring       Ring
Whisper  Whisper
THEN SING!...

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Weak morning light wiggles through 
closed shutters
little feet pad down the stairs
sweet whispers
Saturday cartoons
audible enough
urgent scratching at the back door
open.  close.  rattling blinds.
Crackle of the big bag in the pantry
metal dong hitting the tile
crunch crunch crunch
comforting sounds of morning
absent Bobby and Brad on the radio
big yawn
big feet clomp down the stairs...

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Under the shed is a groundhog,
Living without my consent.
Once in a while he emerges;
His presence I’ve come to resent.

Likely he’s dug a deep burrow
And most of the time he’s away.
I don’t think that I can evict him;
It seems like he’s planning to stay.

In previous years we’ve had foxes,
With kits that would frolic and romp,
But this year we’re stuck with a groundhog,
Whose lumbering gait’s more a clomp....

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Can I say this is a Friesian,
that one a Hereford?
I lived so long in a town
and can say I have forgotten
my recollection as I wander in streets
among cars and bikes.

And yet am I so much missing
beings with four legs,
and those hooves that clomp
when stomping in the road,
ambling from one of those green fields -
chewed down a little now -
to another;
beings with their beauty,
yes, beauty that moves with abundant grace?


(March 2022)...

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Whip, click, clip, umbrellas flatten near the stairs 
Stomp, slap, clap, echo footsteps here and there
Rumble, rattle, honk! goes the subway along the tracks
“Hey”, “Wait”, “No!”, voices shouting are just the facts.

Scrape, screech, hiss, loud noises of metro brakes
Clack, shudder, ping! sounds the electric doors make
Clamp, clomp, pound, as the people stamp inside
Whoosh, whisk, hummm, as we take our subway ride. 









10/26/2021
Onomatopoeia...

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