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"ditches" poems
How foolish of me, all these days I've been running after my destiny, falling in ***** ditches, tumbling in dingy pits, stooping to levels low. If only I could have agnized that destiny is like shadow. Created with me in mother's womb. Can only be chased, never can be seized. So now I've decided, I will climb the mountains following my dreams and my destiny will follow me.
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Nov 6, 2014
Nov 6, 2014 at 9:10 PM UTC
Destiny is like shadow
The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley... No kitchens on the run, no striking camp... We moved quick and sudden in our own country. The priest lay behind ditches with the ***** A people hardly marching... on the hike... We found new tactics happening each day: We'd cut through reins and rider with the pike And stampede cattle into infantry, Then retreat through hedges where cavalry must be thrown. Until... on Vinegar Hill... the final conclave. Terraced thousands died, shaking scythes at cannon. The hillside blushed, soaked in our broken wave. They buried us without shroud or coffin And in August... the barley grew up out of our grave.
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5.9k
Requiem for the Croppies
When I was a windy boy and a bit And the black spit of the chapel fold, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of women), I tiptoed shy in the gooseberry wood, The rude owl cried like a tell-tale *** I skipped in a blush as the big girls rolled Nine-pin down on donkey's common, And on seesaw sunday nights I wooed Whoever I would with my wicked eyes, The whole of the moon I could love and leave All the green leaved little weddings' wives In the coal black bush and let them grieve. When I was a gusty man and a half And the black beast of the beetles' pews (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of ******* Not a boy and a bit in the wick- Dipping moon and drunk as a new dropped calf, I whistled all night in the twisted flues, Midwives grew in the midnight ditches, And the sizzling sheets of the town cried, Quick!- Whenever I dove in a breast high shoal, Wherever I ramped in the clover quilts, Whatsoever I did in the coal- Black night, I left my quivering prints. When I was a man you could call a man And the black cross of the holy house, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of welcome), Brandy and ripe in my bright, bass prime, No springtailed tom in the red hot town With every simmering woman his mouse But a hillocky bull in the swelter Of summer come in his great good time To the sultry, biding herds, I said, Oh, time enough when the blood runs cold, And I lie down but to sleep in bed, For my sulking, skulking, coal black soul! When I was half the man I was And serve me right as the preachers warn, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of downfall), No flailing calf or cat in a flame Or hickory bull in milky grass But a black sheep with a crumpled horn, At last the soul from its foul mousehole Slunk pouting out when the limp time came; And I gave my soul a blind, slashed eye, Gristle and rind, and a roarers' life, And I shoved it into the coal black sky To find a woman's soul for a wife. Now I am a man no more no more And a black reward for a roaring life, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of strangers), Tidy and cursed in my dove cooed room I lie down thin and hear the good bells jaw-- For, oh, my soul found a sunday wife In the coal black sky and she bore angels! Harpies around me out of her womb! Chastity prays for me, piety sings, Innocence sweetens my last black breath, Modesty hides my thighs in her wings, And all the deadly virtues plague my death!
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5.3k
Lament
When I was a windy boy and a bit And the black spit of the chapel fold, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of women), I tiptoed shy in the gooseberry wood, The rude owl cried like a tell-tale *** I skipped in a blush as the big girls rolled Nine-pin down on donkey's common, And on seesaw sunday nights I wooed Whoever I would with my wicked eyes, The whole of the moon I could love and leave All the green leaved little weddings' wives In the coal black bush and let them grieve. When I was a gusty man and a half And the black beast of the beetles' pews (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of ******* Not a boy and a bit in the wick- Dipping moon and drunk as a new dropped calf, I whistled all night in the twisted flues, Midwives grew in the midnight ditches, And the sizzling sheets of the town cried, Quick!- Whenever I dove in a breast high shoal, Wherever I ramped in the clover quilts, Whatsoever I did in the coal- Black night, I left my quivering prints. When I was a man you could call a man And the black cross of the holy house, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of welcome), Brandy and ripe in my bright, bass prime, No springtailed tom in the red hot town With every simmering woman his mouse But a hillocky bull in the swelter Of summer come in his great good time To the sultry, biding herds, I said, Oh, time enough when the blood runs cold, And I lie down but to sleep in bed, For my sulking, skulking, coal black soul! When I was half the man I was And serve me right as the preachers warn, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of downfall), No flailing calf or cat in a flame Or hickory bull in milky grass But a black sheep with a crumpled horn, At last the soul from its foul mousehole Slunk pouting out when the limp time came; And I gave my soul a blind, slashed eye, Gristle and rind, and a roarers' life, And I shoved it into the coal black sky To find a woman's soul for a wife. Now I am a man no more no more And a black reward for a roaring life, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of strangers), Tidy and cursed in my dove cooed room I lie down thin and hear the good bells jaw-- For, oh, my soul found a sunday wife In the coal black sky and she bore angels! Harpies around me out of her womb! Chastity prays for me, piety sings, Innocence sweetens my last black breath, Modesty hides my thighs in her wings, And all the deadly virtues plague my death!
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60
The child alone a poet is: Spring and Fairyland are his. Truth and Reason show but dim, And all’s poetry with him. Rhyme and music flow in plenty For the lad of one-and-twenty, But Spring for him is no more now Than daisies to a munching cow; Just a cheery pleasant season, Daisy buds to live at ease on. He’s forgotten how he smiled And shrieked at snowdrops when a child, Or wept one evening secretly For April’s glorious misery. Wisdom made him old and wary Banishing the Lords of Faery. Wisdom made a breach and battered Babylon to bits: she scattered To the hedges and ditches All our nursery gnomes and witches. Lob and Puck, poor frantic elves, Drag their treasures from the shelves. Jack the Giant-killer’s gone, Mother Goose and Oberon, Bluebeard and King Solomon. Robin, and Red Riding Hood Take together to the wood, And Sir Galahad lies hid In a cave with Captain Kidd. None of all the magic hosts, None remain but a few ghosts Of timorous heart, to linger on Weeping for lost Babylon.
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4.8k
Babylon
When I was a windy boy and a bit And the black spit of the chapel fold, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of women), I tiptoed shy in the gooseberry wood, The rude owl cried like a tell-tale *** I skipped in a blush as the big girls rolled Nine-pin down on donkey's common, And on seesaw sunday nights I wooed Whoever I would with my wicked eyes, The whole of the moon I could love and leave All the green leaved little weddings' wives In the coal black bush and let them grieve. When I was a gusty man and a half And the black beast of the beetles' pews (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of ******* Not a boy and a bit in the wick- Dipping moon and drunk as a new dropped calf, I whistled all night in the twisted flues, Midwives grew in the midnight ditches, And the sizzling sheets of the town cried, Quick!- Whenever I dove in a breast high shoal, Wherever I ramped in the clover quilts, Whatsoever I did in the coal- Black night, I left my quivering prints. When I was a man you could call a man And the black cross of the holy house, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of welcome), Brandy and ripe in my bright, bass prime, No springtailed tom in the red hot town With every simmering woman his mouse But a hillocky bull in the swelter Of summer come in his great good time To the sultry, biding herds, I said, Oh, time enough when the blood runs cold, And I lie down but to sleep in bed, For my sulking, skulking, coal black soul! When I was half the man I was And serve me right as the preachers warn, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of downfall), No flailing calf or cat in a flame Or hickory bull in milky grass But a black sheep with a crumpled horn, At last the soul from its foul mousehole Slunk pouting out when the limp time came; And I gave my soul a blind, slashed eye, Gristle and rind, and a roarers' life, And I shoved it into the coal black sky To find a woman's soul for a wife. Now I am a man no more no more And a black reward for a roaring life, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of strangers), Tidy and cursed in my dove cooed room I lie down thin and hear the good bells jaw-- For, oh, my soul found a sunday wife In the coal black sky and she bore angels! Harpies around me out of her womb! Chastity prays for me, piety sings, Innocence sweetens my last black breath, Modesty hides my thighs in her wings, And all the deadly virtues plague my death!
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4.9k
Lament
When I was a windy boy and a bit And the black spit of the chapel fold, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of women), I tiptoed shy in the gooseberry wood, The rude owl cried like a tell-tale *** I skipped in a blush as the big girls rolled Nine-pin down on donkey's common, And on seesaw sunday nights I wooed Whoever I would with my wicked eyes, The whole of the moon I could love and leave All the green leaved little weddings' wives In the coal black bush and let them grieve. When I was a gusty man and a half And the black beast of the beetles' pews (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of ******* Not a boy and a bit in the wick- Dipping moon and drunk as a new dropped calf, I whistled all night in the twisted flues, Midwives grew in the midnight ditches, And the sizzling sheets of the town cried, Quick!- Whenever I dove in a breast high shoal, Wherever I ramped in the clover quilts, Whatsoever I did in the coal- Black night, I left my quivering prints. When I was a man you could call a man And the black cross of the holy house, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of welcome), Brandy and ripe in my bright, bass prime, No springtailed tom in the red hot town With every simmering woman his mouse But a hillocky bull in the swelter Of summer come in his great good time To the sultry, biding herds, I said, Oh, time enough when the blood runs cold, And I lie down but to sleep in bed, For my sulking, skulking, coal black soul! When I was half the man I was And serve me right as the preachers warn, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of downfall), No flailing calf or cat in a flame Or hickory bull in milky grass But a black sheep with a crumpled horn, At last the soul from its foul mousehole Slunk pouting out when the limp time came; And I gave my soul a blind, slashed eye, Gristle and rind, and a roarers' life, And I shoved it into the coal black sky To find a woman's soul for a wife. Now I am a man no more no more And a black reward for a roaring life, (Sighed the old ram rod, dying of strangers), Tidy and cursed in my dove cooed room I lie down thin and hear the good bells jaw-- For, oh, my soul found a sunday wife In the coal black sky and she bore angels! Harpies around me out of her womb! Chastity prays for me, piety sings, Innocence sweetens my last black breath, Modesty hides my thighs in her wings, And all the deadly virtues plague my death!
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60
It drifts as time moves The concentration the same, the fluid stretched thin Going from lake to creek Same material Different movement Different shape Reviving itself Lakes compound stagnation with benefits of submersion with risk of drowning Beware of drifting a base deprived of sun Creek is movement Life is passed through No depth Traded for flow and conservation Calming, no splashes Feels white, Visible trenches Gather your footing. Time is key, purpose fatal Each becomes the other Only if the path is given Evolution of matter Calming of peril, Understood change The muck of the chest runs babbling through the ditches of skin and bone Without this Movement Stops.
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Oct 26, 2012
Oct 26, 2012 at 3:00 PM UTC
The Creek
Sun swollen reddening as it sank that brutal ****** disc scored by church steeples and chimney stacks almost lost in the drifting haze of sulphurous yellow and char-black smoke. Duck boards dip into the sodden earth as men ***** along in conga lines holding tight the pack of the man in front, lest they should slip lose quick their footing be ****** down and smothered by mud. The walls of the tunnels are packed earth rich with blood and bone bits and pieces of human anatomy dangle and hang as if posed by an artist with a strange and cruel eye for detail. The scrabble for fox holes and rough scraped ditches, anywhere, below the line of fire. The ting and whiz-bang of a night of action The whistle, the dash and the forward push counted more in men than metres. © M.L.Emmett
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Nov 10, 2015
Nov 10, 2015 at 12:28 PM UTC
The Somme Sunset
The day I knew you died was the day my brother called and the day the cat left a half-eaten mouse on the front porch. Its tail was still there, and a little bit of pink intestine, like an exclamation mark. I swore silently. Trudging toward the back field that evening, (the mosquitoes were a ***** I found you in the creek, half submerged with your *** in the air. You were covered in dirt and blood. I put my hands on my hips and swore again. I could see even from where I was standing that your windshield was smashed all to hell and your right front tire was punctured. I would never ride with you again, never share those starry skies as we passed bloated raccoons and greasy ditches. Anger lurked behind my eyes. Your killer was lying a few feet away, Three broken legs and a shattered back, with glassy eyes that stared blankly up at the sky. In a few days I would have its antlers above the mantelpiece. But meanwhile I looked at my brother, who was standing there sheepishly, two unbroken hands shoved in his deep denim pockets, and told him he was paying for the tow.
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Dec 20, 2012
Dec 20, 2012 at 10:38 PM UTC
Red Truck
Your birthday is soon The air is ashen Scented with burning leaves I ride this shaking yellow chariot without you Passing yellow-green crops and empty ditches It’s rather lonely, really You’ve finally gotten a car Though you don’t like it all too well It’s old and used But there's no need to worry It will take you where you need to go Your birthday is soon You’ll be an adult If you could truly call eighteen years an adult But I’m proud of you You’ve grown so much Even taller than me, now Maybe someday, you’ll love yourself as much as I love you I wish I could do the same for myself Soon, it will be my birthday as well I’ll be an adult But you know I’m still a child Small inside and immature Thinking about the childhood ripped away from you Of laughter and joyous grins The large hands of a father that gently grip little fingers The one we both deserved Your birthday is soon And we’re almost off to college And though you don’t believe you have a future I know you do With your graphite-stained palms You manifest entirely new worlds I find it beautiful And you take yourself for granted Your birthday is soon And as I write these words This terrible jostling machine slows to a stop Peeling my body from navy leather seats I dig out my keys I will head home Just like I always have
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Sep 7, 2022
Sep 7, 2022 at 1:47 PM UTC
September 15th
Imagine waking up on a filthy, uneven floor - light coming solely through the flimsy wooden wall. Imagine trudging through the mud barefoot - mud merged with remnants of God knows who. Imagine breathing in thick layers of sooty dust - the colors sullen, lifeless and dull. Imagine smelling the scent of faeces and decay, of diseases and of death every single day. Imagine your belly gurgling with hunger and distraught, sniffing glue - the only way to delude. Imagine walking on rickety bridges - a step amiss and drown you will in these murky watery ditches. Imagine wearing the same old rags - all tattered and torn, being beaten and battered, no rights of which to call your own. Imagine having silly daydreams of going to school but there's not a penny to spare - not even for a worn-out book. But alas, imagine no more for such children exist, with ghosts clouding their starry dreams And death hanging heavy upon their tiny, little feet.
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Sep 23, 2016
Sep 23, 2016 at 4:49 AM UTC
Children of the slums
As I move along this Jaded biway Gathering up all the discarded refuse Of all the people freely moving on With the scattered discourse of their lives I wonder if they ever even realize The wonderous  thoughts that materialize In the minds - of those confined To time upon time upon endless time Let loose through the portals Of  rubber wheeled time machines The half consumed french fries And the other assorted wrappers From the king or the colonel or old MacDonald To await the attention of me Or one of my Band of Brothers Stripe  garbed  attendants on a social mission To gather up all that is discarded Picking up all the pieces for a dollar a day Serving my time for some stupid crime That I might never have done If I'd been given the job... Like... Perhaps Picking up trash on the side of the road And for the feeling of pride - at earning my own
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Oct 18, 2016
Oct 18, 2016 at 6:01 PM UTC
Ditches
UNDERDOG RAP We are a population which is Awaiting loaves and the fishes And other unfulfilled wishes; No chance to know what rich is, While graduates are digging ditches Immigrant PhDs are doing dishes. Never quite knowing which is Snake oil salesmen pitches. Politicians too big for their britches. Fools don’t know where the hitch is Whatever the larcenous pitch is; Reacting with kneejerk twitches Due to governmental glitches. And creeps like that guy Mitch is Are rapacious sons of ******* Hunting for Democratic witches In all the freedom fighting niches With hearts as black as pitch is. And the rich have a wish list In which they scratch their itches Regardless of what our ***** is By wallowing in stolen riches Punishing watchdogs snitches. Politicians too big for their britches. We are a population which is Awaiting loaves and the fishes And other unfulfilled wishes. No chance to know what rich is. Brent Kincaid March 19, 2015
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Mar 19, 2015
Mar 19, 2015 at 6:49 PM UTC
UNDERDOG RAP
Apple bottom ******* I take time for snitches Stitches for fourth degree burns I’ll meet you in the ditches The trenches The sneakers The benches For tweakers Let’s be family on the further side Of normal Let’s be ******** on the closer side Of formal I rhyme when it comes to me I shine when she **** to me
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Oct 24, 2013
Oct 24, 2013 at 1:25 PM UTC
Innapro-pro
For therapy i call the fire brigade to to inform them Westminster bridge here i come and daydream of pushing  nannies and their charges towards  tumbling waterfalls and with my friend Judy we watch tall men jump over ditches of dahlias in the foggy dew for no other reason than we want to be amused.
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May 12, 2014
May 12, 2014 at 4:29 PM UTC
Dahlia avenue.
Before spring, near Grimsby, ditches run clean like trout streams, Our vines are gray. They will be pink next, like flushed, excited skin.   In March there is the flatness that is a big part of trouble. Anthony's sisters are helping him scrub his apartment. He was sick all winter. They raise his laughter like neighbours raise a burned out barn. He had made a good start. The therapy. He says now, "I wasn't so much sick as sad all the time." The pills ended the depression. You can wish that life was never mechanical. Smell of hot vinegar in the coffee-maker, smells of pine oil and beer. Brock University jackets, damp curly hair, his sisters Wiping their hands on sweatshirts, the open window, His bedroom. Anthony clears books from the sills and cleans and shines the windows. There are wicker baskets for their picnic and for his laundry. I always wanted to know, what is consecration? (Here is a scrap of his poetry: "... ******* the colour of a driftwood campfire.") His sisters laugh to think of a girl in the apartment. The ***** clothes are gone. He's got clean denims and hiking boots. Laughter, beer and young music, Bread and stew and pickles and heavy  brown two liter bottles of beer On the white wooden kitchen table where he hopes to write. His father's pickup truck is in the yard, its bed full of garbage. With cleaning any good thing can happen. The sisters feel it too. I didn't know what consecration meant. They joked That he could have a girl up there when they were done.                                        Paul  Anthony Hutchinson
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Nov 2, 2013
Nov 2, 2013 at 12:02 AM UTC
Young Music
Before spring, near Grimsby, ditches run clean like trout streams, Our vines are gray. They will be pink next, like flushed, excited skin.   In March there is the flatness that is a big part of trouble. Anthony's sisters are helping him scrub his apartment. He was sick all winter. They raise his laughter like neighbours raise a burned out barn. He had made a good start. The therapy. He says now, "I wasn't so much sick as sad all the time." The pills ended the depression. You can wish that life was never mechanical. Smell of hot vinegar in the coffee-maker, smells of pine oil and beer. Brock University jackets, damp curly hair, his sisters Wiping their hands on sweatshirts, the open window, His bedroom. Anthony clears books from the sills and cleans and shines the windows. There are wicker baskets for their picnic and for his laundry. I always wanted to know, what is consecration? (Here is a scrap of his poetry: "... ******* the colour of a driftwood campfire.") His sisters laugh to think of a girl in the apartment. The ***** clothes are gone. He's got clean denims and hiking boots. Laughter, beer and young music, Bread and stew and pickles and heavy  brown two liter bottles of beer On the white wooden kitchen table where he hopes to write. His father's pickup truck is in the yard, its bed full of garbage. With cleaning any good thing can happen. The sisters feel it too. I didn't know what consecration meant. They joked That he could have a girl up there when they were done.                                        Paul  Anthony Hutchinson
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26
Like wild oats the lonesome poets grow in the ditches alongside back roads and when it rains they drink too much like the low cotton in dry fields forgotten by dirt poor farmers whose wives run off with the first stranger who wipes his shoes on the porch before selling her a pretty pair of green lace underwear like a bird sick of its tree dreaming of new leaves.
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Jun 6, 2016
Jun 6, 2016 at 3:22 PM UTC
Leaves
this old poet, one of the first, to see your wave, when he was playing knick-knack paddy whack on his shoe, the old poet then played two, and said, yes, I will follow you Please imaging-imaging that old poet with a glanceable cursory, a small smile whispered, with entourage of a nod and a wink, stands, knowing he is in the delivery room, a witness, to first steps of a babe starting a new life marvelous miracle by touching a button, a new line written, not crossed but connecting by pressing "Follow" with a finger from a hand, a human fringe, attached to a breathing mind and a thinking heart, the first to follow you, a ceremonial gesture of innovation magic incantation, a new moon blessing, a living person believing, remembering, the longest ago, his first own graceful acknowledgement and eyes speak, yes, I will follow you the new poet, astonished at this induction to the smallest Hall of Fame that they alone own the only key, study that number, that number 1, the first to follow, kinda looking over their shoulder to make sure the old poet still there on the morrow, sure enough there are now two, safe in the back pocket, a tabulation of humans who speak volumes of trust, saying, yes, I will follow you the old poet, imaging-imaging the babe, dancing round the room, invigorated, challenged and the faucets pouring, can't write it down as fast as the trains arriving disgorging, words unique in new combinations and the rush of blood from heart to head to those newly literary fingers bleeding happy creatures of creation as if they are Noah setting sail to save us with verbs and adjectives two by two all for now species unheard of the old poet wants to send cautionary notes, the path strewn with frustrations of no inspiration ditches and inescapable cliches that sound fresh but just aren't, the disappearing satisfaction, the inability to get it just perfect, and so many obstacles to be prophesied, but he does not, these things must be self taught, today let it suffice the initiation, the first crowning of **yes, I will follow you for this the way of the poet 10/16/17 5:09pm**
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Oct 16, 2017
Oct 16, 2017 at 5:22 PM UTC
The First to Follow
this old poet, one of the first, to see your wave, when he was playing knick-knack paddy whack on his shoe, the old poet then played two, and said, yes, I will follow you Please imaging-imaging that old poet with a glanceable cursory, a small smile whispered, with entourage of a nod and a wink, stands, knowing he is in the delivery room, a witness, to first steps of a babe starting a new life marvelous miracle by touching a button, a new line written, not crossed but connecting by pressing "Follow" with a finger from a hand, a human fringe, attached to a breathing mind and a thinking heart, the first to follow you, a ceremonial gesture of innovation magic incantation, a new moon blessing, a living person believing, remembering, the longest ago, his first own graceful acknowledgement and eyes speak, yes, I will follow you the new poet, astonished at this induction to the smallest Hall of Fame that they alone own the only key, study that number, that number 1, the first to follow, kinda looking over their shoulder to make sure the old poet still there on the morrow, sure enough there are now two, safe in the back pocket, a tabulation of humans who speak volumes of trust, saying, yes, I will follow you the old poet, imaging-imaging the babe, dancing round the room, invigorated, challenged and the faucets pouring, can't write it down as fast as the trains arriving disgorging, words unique in new combinations and the rush of blood from heart to head to those newly literary fingers bleeding happy creatures of creation as if they are Noah setting sail to save us with verbs and adjectives two by two all for now species unheard of the old poet wants to send cautionary notes, the path strewn with frustrations of no inspiration ditches and inescapable cliches that sound fresh but just aren't, the disappearing satisfaction, the inability to get it just perfect, and so many obstacles to be prophesied, but he does not, these things must be self taught, today let it suffice the initiation, the first crowning of **yes, I will follow you for this the way of the poet 10/16/17 5:09pm**
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43
On the street Slung on his shoulder is a handle half way across, Tied in a big knot on the scoop of cast iron Are the overalls faded from sun and rain in the ditches; Spatter of dry clay sticking yellow on his left sleeve And a flimsy shirt open at the throat, I know him for a shovel man, A **** working for a dollar six bits a day And a dark-eyed woman in the old country dreams of him for one of the world's ready men with a pair of fresh lips and a kiss better than all the wild grapes that ever grew in Tuscany.
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2.4k
The Shovel Man
I stopped the car to let the children down where the streets end in the sun at the marsh edge and the reeds begin and there are small houses facing the reeds and the blue mist in the distance with grapevine trellises with grape clusters small as strawberries on the vines and ditches running springwater that continue the gutters with willows over them. The reeds begin like water at a shore their pointed petals waving dark green and light. But blueflags are blossoming in the reeds which the children pluck chattering in the reeds high over their heads which they part with bare arms to appear with fists of flowers till in the air there comes the smell of calmus from wet, gummy stalks.
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2.4k
Blueflags
My head tilted back like I was Tasting raindrops But what fell to my mouth was you Cradling my jaw in your hands Steady As if I were a porcelain doll you might drop It felt like goodbye Because it was And now I am afraid to turn corners Locked in a haunted house What will drop from the ceiling Grab my leg What will scare me back into submission Besides you mounting someone outside Which is perhaps The most disturbing of all How you wanted me until suddenly You didn't And how I didn't believe you And how you fed me excuses like pacifiers Quieting. Comforting. Soothing. But I spit those out Realizing their purpose was to Quiet me into letting you go without a fight But I took out my fists and fought like hell You held them and pleaded with me to put my guns away Surrender my weapons And let you go in peace This was all for you. It was easier For you And only you But what about me. Grabbing at every part of myself Pulling hair from my head and scratching flesh from my bones Slowly and painfully pulling myself apart Abandoning parts of me in gutters and streams out windows and in ditches I can't be myself anymore Every inch of my flesh has your name written on it Scratched in a pen using your own blood as ink You sacrificed for me And I for you And we sat on a rock and smelled ocean and let the water spray our faces until we were sticky and wet and still we sung. We had songs Some silent, but I could hear the music when there was none. I still do. I can't look up down left or right without some yellow light telling me to Slow down to a stop and take caution, for a reminder is coming hard and fast your way. Airbags go Bitch-slapping me in the face for being stupid For having been smart and throwing my morals to the wind I'd like to regret you But I don't I'd like to hate you But I can't This makes me weak yes I know this But I gave you all the parts of me that were strong And mere visions of you take the wind from my lungs and you use them to set your sails You're a deep sea diver.  Swimming. Living. Lying. And I drown here. You told me once that when I jump from a plane The moment my parachute refuses to open You'd be there carrying me to the ground I won't let you fall, you said.
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Jan 23, 2013
Jan 23, 2013 at 8:52 PM UTC
Parachute
My head tilted back like I was Tasting raindrops But what fell to my mouth was you Cradling my jaw in your hands Steady As if I were a porcelain doll you might drop It felt like goodbye Because it was And now I am afraid to turn corners Locked in a haunted house What will drop from the ceiling Grab my leg What will scare me back into submission Besides you mounting someone outside Which is perhaps The most disturbing of all How you wanted me until suddenly You didn't And how I didn't believe you And how you fed me excuses like pacifiers Quieting. Comforting. Soothing. But I spit those out Realizing their purpose was to Quiet me into letting you go without a fight But I took out my fists and fought like hell You held them and pleaded with me to put my guns away Surrender my weapons And let you go in peace This was all for you. It was easier For you And only you But what about me. Grabbing at every part of myself Pulling hair from my head and scratching flesh from my bones Slowly and painfully pulling myself apart Abandoning parts of me in gutters and streams out windows and in ditches I can't be myself anymore Every inch of my flesh has your name written on it Scratched in a pen using your own blood as ink You sacrificed for me And I for you And we sat on a rock and smelled ocean and let the water spray our faces until we were sticky and wet and still we sung. We had songs Some silent, but I could hear the music when there was none. I still do. I can't look up down left or right without some yellow light telling me to Slow down to a stop and take caution, for a reminder is coming hard and fast your way. Airbags go Bitch-slapping me in the face for being stupid For having been smart and throwing my morals to the wind I'd like to regret you But I don't I'd like to hate you But I can't This makes me weak yes I know this But I gave you all the parts of me that were strong And mere visions of you take the wind from my lungs and you use them to set your sails You're a deep sea diver.  Swimming. Living. Lying. And I drown here. You told me once that when I jump from a plane The moment my parachute refuses to open You'd be there carrying me to the ground I won't let you fall, you said.
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67
Ditch diggers don't write poems - As if there might be found A single thought profound Amid the mud they go in; The pungence in essence released From trees' roots that are severed Is never fragrant like lilacs, And their labor is of purpose, That dirt removed by aching backs - Gashed earth becomes the grave In which our sins can be hidden; Tomorrow ditches will be filled in, Restoring peace which land craves, The simple laborer's work done. Ditch diggers don't write poetry - Palms calloused in pick and ***** Too rough when art 's to be made, Remain convinced by sophistry They've no true claim to a pen. Clods of clay always remain Adhered to heels of workmen's boots, Becoming my life's defining metaphor. So we forgo more ethereal pursuits, Though forever treasuring sweetness Flowed over soil of our dank holes, Loving breaths exhaled from souls, Floral kisses blown across distance.
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Apr 24, 2010
Apr 24, 2010 at 7:29 PM UTC
Ditchdiggers
I am victim only to constant distractions, restrictions, prescriptions, vicarious factors, as various factions of elitism prescribe defeat to the common man; the hard working talented beaten upon by the self driven commerce land. Businessmen, crooks, warlords and bankers; victory purports itself the higher moral ground. ******* the world, lie on the crimson sand. The brevity of riches in led laden ditches, trenches v armistice; one man’s control over cadets and lieutenants. Equality it seems is general ignorance, propose roll reversal and receive corporal punishment. Capital interests will be met with bursaries, bail out the banks and return to your knees, put out your hands and beg for your feed. If the top three percent own more wealth than the lower half put together while politicians claim to be fair-weather, conclude that sincerities amiss, that your representatives are on the pay roll of profit driven lobbyists. Career crazed fat-cats couldn’t care less if you're in tattered garments or there’s a hole in your dress, their polished boots carry them from vault to vault while we fill another with oil-baron asphalt. As social repression pushes populations science progresses, enabling armed forces to kettle us, cut us off and circle on horses. Power-shifts across the globe become jaded by investment with private militias and fascist supremacists seizing resources from war torn villages to fund their crude sourced morality, migrants and refugee families are vilified by ignorance forged in cynicism caused by the inequality of education. Here lie the symptoms of infinite regression, hold mirror to gene-pool as it replicates the same flawed equation, as populations expire and conspire so does the problem. Bombing a country without repercussions, is as likely as a breaking the waters surface without sending ripples to the adjacent atoms. These are the dark ages of social stagnation.
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Oct 22, 2014
Oct 22, 2014 at 11:00 AM UTC
Infinite Regression
I am victim only to constant distractions, restrictions, prescriptions, vicarious factors, as various factions of elitism prescribe defeat to the common man; the hard working talented beaten upon by the self driven commerce land. Businessmen, crooks, warlords and bankers; victory purports itself the higher moral ground. ******* the world, lie on the crimson sand. The brevity of riches in led laden ditches, trenches v armistice; one man’s control over cadets and lieutenants. Equality it seems is general ignorance, propose roll reversal and receive corporal punishment. Capital interests will be met with bursaries, bail out the banks and return to your knees, put out your hands and beg for your feed. If the top three percent own more wealth than the lower half put together while politicians claim to be fair-weather, conclude that sincerities amiss, that your representatives are on the pay roll of profit driven lobbyists. Career crazed fat-cats couldn’t care less if you're in tattered garments or there’s a hole in your dress, their polished boots carry them from vault to vault while we fill another with oil-baron asphalt. As social repression pushes populations science progresses, enabling armed forces to kettle us, cut us off and circle on horses. Power-shifts across the globe become jaded by investment with private militias and fascist supremacists seizing resources from war torn villages to fund their crude sourced morality, migrants and refugee families are vilified by ignorance forged in cynicism caused by the inequality of education. Here lie the symptoms of infinite regression, hold mirror to gene-pool as it replicates the same flawed equation, as populations expire and conspire so does the problem. Bombing a country without repercussions, is as likely as a breaking the waters surface without sending ripples to the adjacent atoms. These are the dark ages of social stagnation.
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44
I’d like to ask for a moment of your time, To talk about an unsolved global crime. I’m not talking about climate change or recession, Or ongoing Middle Eastern political aggression. This is the story of every indebted African nation, One hundred million children without basic education. A continent that hopes to one day be free Of vast debts, crime and bureaucracy. I am the child soldier of Sierra Leone, Orphaned, abused, angry and alone. Patrolling the streets at twelve years old, Carrying a rifle I can barely hold. Brothers and sisters taken at night, Forced into slave labour or vanish outright. We are the children of Sudan’s indignation, Thrown into ditches, dying of starvation. Waiting for a vaccine that will never come, Helplessly to death I slowly succumb. Every five seconds, an African child dies. How can a life mean so little?
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Oct 10, 2012
Oct 10, 2012 at 5:42 PM UTC
Children of the World
We have fallen in the dreams the ever-living Breathe on the tarnished mirror of the world, And then smooth out with ivory hands and sigh. W.B. YEATS * * * * * * My soul looked down from a vague height, with Death, As unremembering how I rose or why, And saw a sad land, weak with sweats of dearth, Gray, cratered like the moon with hollow woe, And pitted with great pocks and scabs of plagues. Across its beard, that horror of harsh wire, There moved thin caterpillars, slowly uncoiled. It seemed they pushed themselves to be as plugs Of ditches, where they writhed and shrivelled, killed. By them had slimy paths been trailed and scraped Round myriad warts that might be little hills. From gloom's last dregs these long-strung creatures crept, And vanished out of dawn down hidden holes. (And smell came up from those foul openings As out of mouths, or deep wounds deepening.) On dithering feet upgathered, more and more, Brown strings, towards strings of gray, with bristling spines, All migrants from green fields, intent on mire. Those that were gray, of more abundant spawns, Ramped on the rest and ate them and were eaten. I saw their bitten backs curve, loop and straighten. I watched those agonies curl, lift, and flatten. Whereat, in terror what that sight might mean, I reeled and shivered earthward like a feather. And Death fell with me, like a deepening moan. And He, picking a manner of worm, which half had hid Its bruises in the earth, bur crawled no further, Showed me its feet, the feet of many men, And the fresh-severed head of it, my head
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2.1k
The Show
We have fallen in the dreams the ever-living Breathe on the tarnished mirror of the world, And then smooth out with ivory hands and sigh. W.B. YEATS * * * * * * My soul looked down from a vague height, with Death, As unremembering how I rose or why, And saw a sad land, weak with sweats of dearth, Gray, cratered like the moon with hollow woe, And pitted with great pocks and scabs of plagues. Across its beard, that horror of harsh wire, There moved thin caterpillars, slowly uncoiled. It seemed they pushed themselves to be as plugs Of ditches, where they writhed and shrivelled, killed. By them had slimy paths been trailed and scraped Round myriad warts that might be little hills. From gloom's last dregs these long-strung creatures crept, And vanished out of dawn down hidden holes. (And smell came up from those foul openings As out of mouths, or deep wounds deepening.) On dithering feet upgathered, more and more, Brown strings, towards strings of gray, with bristling spines, All migrants from green fields, intent on mire. Those that were gray, of more abundant spawns, Ramped on the rest and ate them and were eaten. I saw their bitten backs curve, loop and straighten. I watched those agonies curl, lift, and flatten. Whereat, in terror what that sight might mean, I reeled and shivered earthward like a feather. And Death fell with me, like a deepening moan. And He, picking a manner of worm, which half had hid Its bruises in the earth, bur crawled no further, Showed me its feet, the feet of many men, And the fresh-severed head of it, my head
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34
JIMMY WIMBLETON listened a first week in June. Ditches along prairie roads of Northern Illinois Filled the arch of night with young bullfrog songs. Infinite mathematical metronomic croaks rose and spoke, Rose and sang, rose in a choir of puzzles. They made his head ache with riddles of music. They rested his head with beaten cadence. Jimmy Wimbledon listened.
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2k
Young Bullfrogs