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"mantle" poems
. In a costume of conflicting emotion, of crossing diamondic colour, with regal posture in grief, the Harlequin and the King, a display of opposites creating a composite being, that eases her body gently into the waiting water, to float away serene, on her journey to the nether. Midnight blue and emerald green, the regalia of ermine, both ostentatious and humble, robeing the aspects, understated in crowning splendour, the gentleman King bows, and the Harlequin laughs, the bi-polar reaction to the tragedy of misfortune, with a sting in the myth-tale. With the dark hues of mourning, a legend passes on her way, across the streams of time, on a voyage to discover herself, carrying her Harlequin in a purse, holding her King to her breast, owning them both in her heart, the medicine wheel spins, knowing the grapes of wrath yield the wine of spite. The motley speckles of attire, a starry parody of night skies, lighting the decorated funeral barge, gliding along the rivers of space, worn with the mantle of sorrow, and it sails into the sunset, as the Harlequin and King observe, the mandala turns, the bier of the Queen departing, bears their sadness forth. The Harlequin laughs and laughs 'til he cries, his heart grows cold, then withers and dies, whilst the King, statuesque, memoirs his life, lamenting the legend of a Queen, his wife. © Pagan Paul (24/07/18)
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Jul 25, 2018
Jul 25, 2018 at 5:51 AM UTC
Mediaeval Myth Lamenting Legend
My piano sits against the wall Hardly ever played at all Things are stacked upon her mantle Where once was music now just shambles Creaking and clicking keys are everywhere But no one seems to care Who could love a piano untuned My piano will fall apart soon I look at her from far away And my piano seems to say *you too dear, are such a sight for you see, you and I are just alike*
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Dec 12, 2014
Dec 12, 2014 at 2:42 AM UTC
My Piano
Above the caldera at Yellowstone, a brittle soil-rock crust caps a lake of liquid fire with only fumaroles and roiling geysers to slake its upward ****** A single heedless step is enough to breech that mantle's fragile seal - spelling death by fire to any hapless soul who fails to guard his steps. Fragile calderas also roil buried in dark crevices of our psyches - brewed of failures, slights and fears dissolved in fiery pools of self-consuming misery. To dress and salve our wounded souls we plant fertile gardens of reconciliation with beauty, trust and charity and kneel to gods of grace and solace. But a despot’s practiced eye knows how to tap our fragile crusts, releasing acrid lava flows from pools where fear and rage reign hot, and reason has no district. Friends and siblings - my flesh and kin, this world is ours to lose or save so let us seal well our Sacred Calderas from bitter foes that stalk us from within. July, 2006, revised December, 2014, 2015 and 2018 Robert Charles Howard
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Dec 14, 2013
Dec 14, 2013 at 12:40 AM UTC
Sacred Calderas
With margerain gentle, The flower of goodlihead, Embroidered the mantle Is of your maidenhead. Plainly I cannot glose; Ye be, as I divine, The pretty primrose, The goodly columbine. Benign, courteous, and meek, With wordes well devised; In you, who list to seek, Be virtues well comprised. With margerain gentle, The flower of goodlihead, Embroidered the mantle Is of your maidenhead.
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To Mistress Margery Wentworth
You With your words The Knife. You. Me Knowing and not knowing, Afraid and clueless. Me. Us A thing that used to be, The dust on the mantle. Us. We Will never be the same The blood that was spilled across the floor. We. This crime scene filled with pain and sorrow and regret.  The murderer and the victim one in the same—but also separate.  Two hearts that both dance to the same miserable song.
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Nov 5, 2018
Nov 5, 2018 at 5:08 PM UTC
You, Me, Us, We
Babylon has fallen! Aye; but Babylon endures Wherever human wisdom shines or human folly lures; Where lovers lingering walk beside, and happy children play, Is Babylon! Babylon! for ever and for aye. The plan is rudely fashioned, the dream is unfulfilled, Yet all is in the archetype if but a builder willed; And Babylon is calling us, the microcosm of men, To range her walls in harmony and lift her spires again; The sternest walls, the proudest spires, that ever sun shone on, Halting a space his burning race to gaze on Babylon. Babylon has fallen! Aye; but Babylon shall stand: The mantle of her majesty is over sea and land. Hers is the name of challenge flung, a watchword in the fight To grapple grim eternities and gain the old delight; And in the word the dream is hid, and in the dream the deed, And in the deed the mastery for those who dare to lead. Surely her day shall come again, surely her breed be born To urge the hope of humankind and scale the peaks of morn -- To fight as they who fought till death their ****** field upon, And kept the gate against the Fate frowning on Babylon.
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Babylon
April doesnt hurt here Like it does in New England The ground Vast and brown Surrounds dry towns Located in the dust Of the coming locust Live for survival, not for 'kicks' Be a bangtail describer, like of shrouded traveler in Textile tenement & the birds fighting in yr ears-like Burroughs exact to describe & gettin $ The Angry Hunger (hunger is anger) who fears the hungry feareth the angry) And so I came home To Golden far away Twas on the horizon Every blessed day As we rolled And we rolled From Donner tragic Pass Thru April in Nevada And out Salt City Way Into the dry Nebraskas And sad Wyomings Where young girls And pretty lover boys With Mickey Mantle eyes Wander under moons Sawing in lost cradle And Judge O Fasterc Passes whiggling by To ask of young love: ,,Was it the same wind Of April Plains eve that ruffled the dress Of my lost love Louanna In the Western Far off night Lost as the whistle Of the passing Train Everywhere West Roams moaning The deep basso - Vom! Vom! - Was it the same love Notified my bones As mortify yrs now Children of the soft Wyoming April night? Couldna been! But was! But was!' And on the prairie The wildflower blows In the night For bees & birds And sleeping hidden Animals of life. The Chicago Spitters in the spotty street Cheap beans, loop, Girls made eyes at me And I had 35 Cents in my jeans - Then Toledo Springtime starry Lover night Of hot rod boys And cool girls A wandering A wandering In search of April pain A plash of rain Will not dispel This fumigatin hell Of lover lane This park of roses Blue as bees In former airy poses In aerial O Way hoses No tamarand And figancine Can the musterand Be less kind Sol - Sol - Bring forth yr Ah Sunflower - Ah me Montana Phosphorescent Rose And bridge in fairly land I'd understand it all -
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Nebraska
April doesnt hurt here Like it does in New England The ground Vast and brown Surrounds dry towns Located in the dust Of the coming locust Live for survival, not for 'kicks' Be a bangtail describer, like of shrouded traveler in Textile tenement & the birds fighting in yr ears-like Burroughs exact to describe & gettin $ The Angry Hunger (hunger is anger) who fears the hungry feareth the angry) And so I came home To Golden far away Twas on the horizon Every blessed day As we rolled And we rolled From Donner tragic Pass Thru April in Nevada And out Salt City Way Into the dry Nebraskas And sad Wyomings Where young girls And pretty lover boys With Mickey Mantle eyes Wander under moons Sawing in lost cradle And Judge O Fasterc Passes whiggling by To ask of young love: ,,Was it the same wind Of April Plains eve that ruffled the dress Of my lost love Louanna In the Western Far off night Lost as the whistle Of the passing Train Everywhere West Roams moaning The deep basso - Vom! Vom! - Was it the same love Notified my bones As mortify yrs now Children of the soft Wyoming April night? Couldna been! But was! But was!' And on the prairie The wildflower blows In the night For bees & birds And sleeping hidden Animals of life. The Chicago Spitters in the spotty street Cheap beans, loop, Girls made eyes at me And I had 35 Cents in my jeans - Then Toledo Springtime starry Lover night Of hot rod boys And cool girls A wandering A wandering In search of April pain A plash of rain Will not dispel This fumigatin hell Of lover lane This park of roses Blue as bees In former airy poses In aerial O Way hoses No tamarand And figancine Can the musterand Be less kind Sol - Sol - Bring forth yr Ah Sunflower - Ah me Montana Phosphorescent Rose And bridge in fairly land I'd understand it all -
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66
#Preface This is not aimed at a single person, nor written for applause. It is a naming, a mirror, a reminder that truth spoken with accountability carries its own fire. The Witness belongs to anyone willing to bear that flame, even for a moment. This is not accusation, but naming in clarity: Projection is the currency. The herd is the instrument. Seduction is the method. Obscurity is the shield.   And when truth enters,   it unsettles the herd. The first defense is always the lullaby.. soft verses sung to calm the trembling, to cradle the anxious back into sleep. But the lullaby is no vision; it is anesthesia, a narcotic of words. It soothes so that no one questions the darkness that holds them. Yet the mantle descends where it will. A word spoken in accountability burns like flame, piercing the fog, shattering the spell. Even for a moment, it breaks the hold and shows the rulers for what they are:       *unclothed,   powerless,              undone.* #
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Sep 26, 2025
Sep 26, 2025 at 2:25 PM UTC
The Witness
. "I shall welcome the majesty of the ****** Loam, the honour of being the daisies mantle The goodly fortune to sleep under the golden Stars who birthed my dream of grace and light. World, ply my ship and sail it to the seas Of love, poem and song, I was unworthy Shaper and so, whereby cold fates decree— Here lies one, whose name is traced in vapour."
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Nov 29, 2013
Nov 29, 2013 at 7:39 PM UTC
Epitaph for the Stone of an Unknown Poet
The beauty of comatose can only be seen through the eyes of a wizard in a blizzard strutting in garlic slippers, or Christ with knees bent at the tabernacle peeling bananas and kicking prayers farther than eternity with each gapping second, or like Basquiat slumped back to the wall, with ounces of speedball dancing through his veins, eating 80’s free-based fried chicken *******   as his eyelids paints beautiful nightmares of lemon flowers and Bacchus bacon over a glycopyrrolate desert of flagrant cuckold buffoonery. Or like leprechauns burning chocolate ******* candles on the mantle of Zion, sipping oatmeal sprinkled with Staten Island malt liquor bacon. or like Tupac reading the thoughts of Mother Shipton through the daze of California cannabis and hearing the ominous voice of Plutarch sing death assignments from heaven to Assassins on horsebacks goggling ***** water to wet the dry bones of their throats as they prepare to fulfill the gospel of self-fulfilling prophecies of being fell by ***** bullets. Or like sophisticated wallets of spice and kitchen characters in a bald head cooking chemical kisses and 18 February nights under Moloch’s skin, where constitutions are written in charcoal diaries with Egyptian ciphers and razors. “I had rain sowed into the pockets of my sneakers and composed 1310 eulogies at the basement of king David’s tower,” said the Kraftwerkian caricature, as he dangles cigarettes in remembrance of Klaus Nomi and philosophizes on the proliferation of poetic vandalism at urinals where modernism failed under the phosphorescence of coloration at the avenue of no trees where Picasso's "Guernica" **** Lies All.
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Jul 17, 2012
Jul 17, 2012 at 6:01 PM UTC
Stream: the 13th love song of Alfred Prufrock
The beauty of comatose can only be seen through the eyes of a wizard in a blizzard strutting in garlic slippers, or Christ with knees bent at the tabernacle peeling bananas and kicking prayers farther than eternity with each gapping second, or like Basquiat slumped back to the wall, with ounces of speedball dancing through his veins, eating 80’s free-based fried chicken *******   as his eyelids paints beautiful nightmares of lemon flowers and Bacchus bacon over a glycopyrrolate desert of flagrant cuckold buffoonery. Or like leprechauns burning chocolate ******* candles on the mantle of Zion, sipping oatmeal sprinkled with Staten Island malt liquor bacon. or like Tupac reading the thoughts of Mother Shipton through the daze of California cannabis and hearing the ominous voice of Plutarch sing death assignments from heaven to Assassins on horsebacks goggling ***** water to wet the dry bones of their throats as they prepare to fulfill the gospel of self-fulfilling prophecies of being fell by ***** bullets. Or like sophisticated wallets of spice and kitchen characters in a bald head cooking chemical kisses and 18 February nights under Moloch’s skin, where constitutions are written in charcoal diaries with Egyptian ciphers and razors. “I had rain sowed into the pockets of my sneakers and composed 1310 eulogies at the basement of king David’s tower,” said the Kraftwerkian caricature, as he dangles cigarettes in remembrance of Klaus Nomi and philosophizes on the proliferation of poetic vandalism at urinals where modernism failed under the phosphorescence of coloration at the avenue of no trees where Picasso's "Guernica" **** Lies All.
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28
I call my father's father Ye-Ye because he is a traditionalist and the word grandfather reminds him of England. My mother calls him a selfish ******* because he never approved of her wallet's emptiness and walked out of her wedding. My father calls him an immature ***** because he throws temper tantrums at eighty-seven and still doesn't respect anyone. When I was five, I stayed over alone for the first time. I accused him of trying to poison me because I found a dead fly in my soup. When I was ten, I found a coupon at the market And got him a free box of Cheerios. When I was thirteen, I was sitting with him outside. I got stung by a bee and didn't say a word. I have not seen my grandfather in seven years. He has since almost died four times. My aunt calls him a racist snob because he refused to put my biracial cousin's picture on the mantle and boasts of his friend's grandchildren instead.
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Jul 8, 2013
Jul 8, 2013 at 1:03 AM UTC
Grandfather
Emerging economies. What they’re emerging from I don’t know. My guess, the depths of hell. From the frying pan, right into the fire, or worse; a well. A deep hole stronger than gravity, the force. To be forever under the thumb of remorse. A modern era of endless acts, policies and bla bla bla. Shut up with all your platitudes. I see what’s really going on. Aha! You speak of sustainable development. Nice to know that you’ve led by example. Carried the mantle for all these years. Centuries of ruthlessness, now veiled in sheep’s clothing. But you won’t shut up. Because you don’t speak. You never have. You just do. Each day that goes by, you carry on anew. Behind all the talk of hope, equality and more progress, it seems the wolves are lurking. Cooking up the next tool to subdue countless. This time, not behind closed doors. But in plain sight. It’s scary to imagine such spite. Each year that goes by it becomes clearer that you never cared. You sold guns, drugs and all kinds of war. And each time, you kept coming back for more. You’ve built up antibodies that ensure your survival. But sometimes I wonder if you’re alive at all. But what do I know? Maybe you’re more alive than ever. Doing what you do best but always more clever. That not even the most stable of geniuses can evade your pressure. A strong enough foundation that each break makes you stronger, So strong that not even the Gremlin can take you under.   Against this dreary background, foregrounded is nothing short of magical. Beyond hope, prayers or a thoughtless radical. Or maybe this is all just fake outrage. An attempt to evade the boredom of this endless monotony and baggage. Or maybe, the term is out of date. Like every other, that makes me increasingly more irate. In which case, this poem is at least ten years late. Or maybe there are too many maybes’. And I’m perfectly suited for this time of vague uneasiness and indifference. In which case, my imagination probably needs more sociology and less a lesson in rhymes.
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Oct 14, 2018
Oct 14, 2018 at 1:44 PM UTC
"Emerging Economies"
Emerging economies. What they’re emerging from I don’t know. My guess, the depths of hell. From the frying pan, right into the fire, or worse; a well. A deep hole stronger than gravity, the force. To be forever under the thumb of remorse. A modern era of endless acts, policies and bla bla bla. Shut up with all your platitudes. I see what’s really going on. Aha! You speak of sustainable development. Nice to know that you’ve led by example. Carried the mantle for all these years. Centuries of ruthlessness, now veiled in sheep’s clothing. But you won’t shut up. Because you don’t speak. You never have. You just do. Each day that goes by, you carry on anew. Behind all the talk of hope, equality and more progress, it seems the wolves are lurking. Cooking up the next tool to subdue countless. This time, not behind closed doors. But in plain sight. It’s scary to imagine such spite. Each year that goes by it becomes clearer that you never cared. You sold guns, drugs and all kinds of war. And each time, you kept coming back for more. You’ve built up antibodies that ensure your survival. But sometimes I wonder if you’re alive at all. But what do I know? Maybe you’re more alive than ever. Doing what you do best but always more clever. That not even the most stable of geniuses can evade your pressure. A strong enough foundation that each break makes you stronger, So strong that not even the Gremlin can take you under.   Against this dreary background, foregrounded is nothing short of magical. Beyond hope, prayers or a thoughtless radical. Or maybe this is all just fake outrage. An attempt to evade the boredom of this endless monotony and baggage. Or maybe, the term is out of date. Like every other, that makes me increasingly more irate. In which case, this poem is at least ten years late. Or maybe there are too many maybes’. And I’m perfectly suited for this time of vague uneasiness and indifference. In which case, my imagination probably needs more sociology and less a lesson in rhymes.
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42
New breath fills her lungs with the air of a world that does not know her. So quietly does she lie in her mothers' arms: A new light that shines on the earth today, Bright with a peaceful radiance so wanting in the world. Filled with the grace of purity she stepped into our lives, Ready to teach her lesson to those who would join her in tranquility: So prepared to bare life's mantle, she greeted the world with a quiet sigh Of one who understood its noise and hustle, but quietly smiled with wise eyes. Oh Satya live up to your name Your mothers have given you with great insight! That you might show all the world your love And that we might learn from your power and your light.
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Dec 17, 2011
Dec 17, 2011 at 3:57 PM UTC
The Birth of Truthfulness (Satya)
The leaves were long, the grass was green, The hemlock-umbels tall and fair, And in the glade a light was seen Of stars in shadow shimmering. Tinuviel was dancing there To music of a pipe unseen, And light of stars was in her hair, And in her raiment glimmering. There Beren came from mountains cold, And lost he wandered under leaves, And where the Elven-river rolled He walked alone and sorrowing. He peered between the hemlock-leaves And saw in wonder flowers of gold Upon her mantle and her sleeves, And her hair like shadow following. Enchantment healed his weary feet That over hills were doomed to roam; And forth he hastened, strong and fleet, And grasped at moonbeams glistening. Through woven woods in Elvenhome She lightly fled on dancing feet, And left him lonely still to roam In the silent forest listening. He heard there oft the flying sound Of feet as light as linden-leaves, Or music welling underground, In hidden hollows quavering. Now withered lay the hemlock-sheaves, And one by one with sighing sound Whispering fell the beechen leaves In the wintry woodland wavering. He sought her ever, wandering far Where leaves of years were thickly strewn, By light of moon and ray of star In frosty heavens shivering. Her mantle glinted in the moon, As on a hill-top high and far She danced, and at her feet was strewn A mist of silver quivering. When winter passed, she came again, And her song released the sudden spring, Like rising lark, and falling rain, And melting water-bubbling. He saw the elven-flowers spring About her feet, and healed again He longed by her to dance and sing Upon the grass untroubling. Again she fled, but swift he came, Tinuviel! Tinuviel! He called her by her elvish name; And there she halted listening. One moment stood she, and a spell, His voice laid on her: Beren came, And doom fell on Tinuviel That in his arms lay glistening. As Beren looked into her eyes Within the shadows of her hair, The trembling starlight of the skies He saw there mirrored shimmering. Tinuviel the elven-fair Immortal maiden elven-wise, About him cast her shadowy hair And arms like silver glimmering. Long was the way that fate them bore O'er stony mountains cold and grey Through halls of iron and darkling door And woods of nightshade morrowless. The Sundering Seas between them lay, And yet at last they met once more, And log ago they passed away In the forest singing sorrowless.
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Tinuviel
The leaves were long, the grass was green, The hemlock-umbels tall and fair, And in the glade a light was seen Of stars in shadow shimmering. Tinuviel was dancing there To music of a pipe unseen, And light of stars was in her hair, And in her raiment glimmering. There Beren came from mountains cold, And lost he wandered under leaves, And where the Elven-river rolled He walked alone and sorrowing. He peered between the hemlock-leaves And saw in wonder flowers of gold Upon her mantle and her sleeves, And her hair like shadow following. Enchantment healed his weary feet That over hills were doomed to roam; And forth he hastened, strong and fleet, And grasped at moonbeams glistening. Through woven woods in Elvenhome She lightly fled on dancing feet, And left him lonely still to roam In the silent forest listening. He heard there oft the flying sound Of feet as light as linden-leaves, Or music welling underground, In hidden hollows quavering. Now withered lay the hemlock-sheaves, And one by one with sighing sound Whispering fell the beechen leaves In the wintry woodland wavering. He sought her ever, wandering far Where leaves of years were thickly strewn, By light of moon and ray of star In frosty heavens shivering. Her mantle glinted in the moon, As on a hill-top high and far She danced, and at her feet was strewn A mist of silver quivering. When winter passed, she came again, And her song released the sudden spring, Like rising lark, and falling rain, And melting water-bubbling. He saw the elven-flowers spring About her feet, and healed again He longed by her to dance and sing Upon the grass untroubling. Again she fled, but swift he came, Tinuviel! Tinuviel! He called her by her elvish name; And there she halted listening. One moment stood she, and a spell, His voice laid on her: Beren came, And doom fell on Tinuviel That in his arms lay glistening. As Beren looked into her eyes Within the shadows of her hair, The trembling starlight of the skies He saw there mirrored shimmering. Tinuviel the elven-fair Immortal maiden elven-wise, About him cast her shadowy hair And arms like silver glimmering. Long was the way that fate them bore O'er stony mountains cold and grey Through halls of iron and darkling door And woods of nightshade morrowless. The Sundering Seas between them lay, And yet at last they met once more, And log ago they passed away In the forest singing sorrowless.
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Earth's lower mantle is composed of magnesium iron silicate. The lower mantle is 2000 kilometers thick, so magnesium iron silicate makes up 38 percent of the Earth's entire volume leaving it the most common of our minerals but You, You are not magnesium iron silicate. You are painite, our rarest kind of mineral. You are painite reflecting all that is good and bright in the world.
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Dec 14, 2015
Dec 14, 2015 at 10:47 AM UTC
Geology poem
green hills, rolling green i like you with fresh dewy innocence you speak in hushed voices. your sides are guilded with coral white your tops are crowned with clouds. green hills, rolling green i like you for the majesty you wear your verdant vestment forever stretched your arms to the blue forever sheltered by the stars. green hills, rolling green tell me, do you like me too? would that when i harken to the trumpet call, when there would be no excuse to tarry i should lay spattered on thy peaks first touched by the divine finger piercing the nimbus mantle.
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May 10, 2015
May 10, 2015 at 10:54 PM UTC
green hills, rolling green
The pick All the stress that an orange has caused is painful. It is painful for the tree from which it came. Snatched away with promises of sweetness. A tree mostly green, engulfing Small speckles of that deceptive orange. It was such a bright colour – high hopes! Handpicked by a man only looking for the best, Choosing poorly not for the first time. The green leaves frantically try to reclaim what’s theirs. Branch after branch reaching out, trying to uproot him. Close, so close. But they are a sea apart, At least an apple has a core, a heart. The peel Now it is pilfered, the painful process begins, Never quite ending: disappointment beckons. To try and taste these orange juices You soldiers must bear the burden. Each soldier, a finger digging themselves Into the tough stressful shell. Fingernails stained with orange blood, Eyes blinded by the same tangy juices. It never slips off in one go Like a roomy balaclava, But crumbles like the remnants of a bombing. Brick by brick, orange by orange it crumbles. Now it is finally undone But neither tree nor man has won. The preparation The crust collapsed, but now It is time to untangle the web the mantle holds. First, a division – the separation of brothers Who served side by side at birth. Dissected by these soldiers Acting as a bomb squad, Searching for those hidden pips. Found, but not without casualties – Sticky fingers with no taps in sight. Once removed the web is untangled. Tired, he hopes that the stress will swiftly end Unaware that the sweetness was just pretend. The pain Finally the moment has arrived And illogical ceremonies commence. I fear the celebration is far too soon, For as white touches orange and tries So desperately to unite, The tartly taste slays the poor man’s buds: Igniting like petrol on his burning tongue. He wishes he could return that orange To the green tree to which it belongs, To return a bullet-sprayed windscreen is not an option. The orange, once bitten, enjoys its trance Latching on to those pained tingling taste buds. His orange, a disaster to undress: Bad taste – a foolish price for such a mess.
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Feb 14, 2011
Feb 14, 2011 at 12:06 PM UTC
Orange
The pick All the stress that an orange has caused is painful. It is painful for the tree from which it came. Snatched away with promises of sweetness. A tree mostly green, engulfing Small speckles of that deceptive orange. It was such a bright colour – high hopes! Handpicked by a man only looking for the best, Choosing poorly not for the first time. The green leaves frantically try to reclaim what’s theirs. Branch after branch reaching out, trying to uproot him. Close, so close. But they are a sea apart, At least an apple has a core, a heart. The peel Now it is pilfered, the painful process begins, Never quite ending: disappointment beckons. To try and taste these orange juices You soldiers must bear the burden. Each soldier, a finger digging themselves Into the tough stressful shell. Fingernails stained with orange blood, Eyes blinded by the same tangy juices. It never slips off in one go Like a roomy balaclava, But crumbles like the remnants of a bombing. Brick by brick, orange by orange it crumbles. Now it is finally undone But neither tree nor man has won. The preparation The crust collapsed, but now It is time to untangle the web the mantle holds. First, a division – the separation of brothers Who served side by side at birth. Dissected by these soldiers Acting as a bomb squad, Searching for those hidden pips. Found, but not without casualties – Sticky fingers with no taps in sight. Once removed the web is untangled. Tired, he hopes that the stress will swiftly end Unaware that the sweetness was just pretend. The pain Finally the moment has arrived And illogical ceremonies commence. I fear the celebration is far too soon, For as white touches orange and tries So desperately to unite, The tartly taste slays the poor man’s buds: Igniting like petrol on his burning tongue. He wishes he could return that orange To the green tree to which it belongs, To return a bullet-sprayed windscreen is not an option. The orange, once bitten, enjoys its trance Latching on to those pained tingling taste buds. His orange, a disaster to undress: Bad taste – a foolish price for such a mess.
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56
Fold you up like unwanted fat cook you into a rocky stew placed beneath a mantle of ice far enough away to be misconstrued You are old laminated time And pillowed rock of incomprehensible Earlier than any lime Or sand, or sediment, or any kind You are the grandfather rock of mine When I step with my inconsequential feet living but transiently I cannot help but be erased that even you hath but one resting place All the plants and sands and ever since the very first we have always been ****** to this earth walking upon your bones I am sorry we cannot do more but you know your creator Speak in the same language in amalgamators of which we have forgot and for that I can say we are envious; are we naught? Build softly, and carry us upon your thick crust like pizza dough, cooking and you let it sit Let us win, set us up drift us apart, leave us crushed build us, make us, break us, fill us I want to be restored into your stony belt and be redeemed I want to become my own atomic fossil to connect with the universe through long-lost plotholes and once again hear the story as a young lad the way it was meant to be told I want to eat dinner with my grandfather again my real sweet stony-chiseled cheeked father again to be loved a boy and a girl and the whole world a soul touched back into the deep left unshackled by a ***** or a queen please, take me back soon rather than let me turn into Laurentia or Baltica or Gondwana alack smacked into new rock to form Urals and Tetons and Moher back Carbonate or Silicate, and the end its the same It won't be the end for that fate rearranged
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Jul 25, 2018
Jul 25, 2018 at 2:08 AM UTC
Begone, Trans-Hudson Orogen Transect
Fold you up like unwanted fat cook you into a rocky stew placed beneath a mantle of ice far enough away to be misconstrued You are old laminated time And pillowed rock of incomprehensible Earlier than any lime Or sand, or sediment, or any kind You are the grandfather rock of mine When I step with my inconsequential feet living but transiently I cannot help but be erased that even you hath but one resting place All the plants and sands and ever since the very first we have always been ****** to this earth walking upon your bones I am sorry we cannot do more but you know your creator Speak in the same language in amalgamators of which we have forgot and for that I can say we are envious; are we naught? Build softly, and carry us upon your thick crust like pizza dough, cooking and you let it sit Let us win, set us up drift us apart, leave us crushed build us, make us, break us, fill us I want to be restored into your stony belt and be redeemed I want to become my own atomic fossil to connect with the universe through long-lost plotholes and once again hear the story as a young lad the way it was meant to be told I want to eat dinner with my grandfather again my real sweet stony-chiseled cheeked father again to be loved a boy and a girl and the whole world a soul touched back into the deep left unshackled by a ***** or a queen please, take me back soon rather than let me turn into Laurentia or Baltica or Gondwana alack smacked into new rock to form Urals and Tetons and Moher back Carbonate or Silicate, and the end its the same It won't be the end for that fate rearranged
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70
I’ve grown tired of this suit. I don't like wearing it anymore. It’s not what it once was. It’s a constant burden to me. It’s discolored, faded, and worn thin, especially around the knees.   It’s marred with tears and stains. It embarrasses me. It itches. It’s suffocating. It’s downright ugly. I no longer feel comfortable in it. I haven’t for decades. I’ve taken it to the best cleaners, the best tailors that money can buy, but it's still a tattered mess beyond repair. People say I look good in it, that it’s me, it's who I am,  don’t be so self conscious. But what do they know? They're not the ones who wear it all the time. I ******* do, ******* it. Maybe there’s some hidden truth in all of this that I’ve been bypassing all along? I don’t have the patience and tolerance to keep wearing it. The long-avoided decision to rid myself of my suit finally catches up with me. I’m not timid, not scared, not anxious - just relieved. Excited. Ready to undress. There’s a fresh, clean robe waiting for me, hanging from the mantle at the bottom of the stairs. I prepare myself for facing the uncertainty. So, here I go. I undress. It takes a matter of seconds before I rid myself of the suit. I stand naked, towering over the folded mess.   I think to myself, that wasn’t so bad after all… Just like anything in life, it’s the anticipation that cripples us.  Remember that. I lower my head and stare only for a few moments at my ***** mangy suit. Nothing at all, no remorse, no guilt – only liberation.  I receive the peace that has softly spoken to me in my dreams, through music, by feeding ducks and listening to the early morning birds.  They usually have the first thing to say, and it’s the most beautiful message one will ever hear.     I place my robe over my naked body and start walking up the worn, creaky stairs. Distant laughter and muffled conversations travel down to me as I climb higher towards the thick, ornate door. The voices are familiar.   I push open the door, welcomed by the faces that have been gone for far too long.
0
Apr 27, 2014
Apr 27, 2014 at 9:54 PM UTC
My Old Suit
I’ve grown tired of this suit. I don't like wearing it anymore. It’s not what it once was. It’s a constant burden to me. It’s discolored, faded, and worn thin, especially around the knees.   It’s marred with tears and stains. It embarrasses me. It itches. It’s suffocating. It’s downright ugly. I no longer feel comfortable in it. I haven’t for decades. I’ve taken it to the best cleaners, the best tailors that money can buy, but it's still a tattered mess beyond repair. People say I look good in it, that it’s me, it's who I am,  don’t be so self conscious. But what do they know? They're not the ones who wear it all the time. I ******* do, ******* it. Maybe there’s some hidden truth in all of this that I’ve been bypassing all along? I don’t have the patience and tolerance to keep wearing it. The long-avoided decision to rid myself of my suit finally catches up with me. I’m not timid, not scared, not anxious - just relieved. Excited. Ready to undress. There’s a fresh, clean robe waiting for me, hanging from the mantle at the bottom of the stairs. I prepare myself for facing the uncertainty. So, here I go. I undress. It takes a matter of seconds before I rid myself of the suit. I stand naked, towering over the folded mess.   I think to myself, that wasn’t so bad after all… Just like anything in life, it’s the anticipation that cripples us.  Remember that. I lower my head and stare only for a few moments at my ***** mangy suit. Nothing at all, no remorse, no guilt – only liberation.  I receive the peace that has softly spoken to me in my dreams, through music, by feeding ducks and listening to the early morning birds.  They usually have the first thing to say, and it’s the most beautiful message one will ever hear.     I place my robe over my naked body and start walking up the worn, creaky stairs. Distant laughter and muffled conversations travel down to me as I climb higher towards the thick, ornate door. The voices are familiar.   I push open the door, welcomed by the faces that have been gone for far too long.
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33
To know just where your're going You must know where you've been You must respect the history The things others have seen It's true in all things relative Be it music, sports or life If you don't know where you came from You're just dancing on a knife Gherig, Ruth and Robinson May, and Mantle, Seaver too Respect their contributions And don't just say Ruth who? Respect where things have come from And the players of the past Because you learn and make things better It's what makes the **** game last Jimmy Foxx, Bob Gibson, Kaline Nestor Chylak and The Goose They made baseball special They gave the game a little juice Orr, Richard and Gretzky Gordie Howe and Howie Morenz You have to know about them You need the beginning to your ends Bob Baun and Bill Barilko Connie Smythe and yeah...the Chief You have to know their history They're what it is to be a Leaf The game has changed immensely Things can not go back in time But to me...the old alumni Made the game I know as mine Respect the ones before you The ones who laid the groundwork down The ones who made it special The non-pretenders to the crown Elvis, Buddy, Harrison Played the songs inside their heart Lennon, Wilson and the rest They all played a real big part Every single generation should learn from the one before For if they don't know where they've come from Then what has it all been for? Nicklaus, Palmer, Bobby Jones Sarazen and Hogan too They pushed the gameright to it's limits Now the pressure's upon you The new breed are the teachers now They're the ones to lead the way When twenty or so years from now You'll hear somebody say "Respect who came before you The ones who made us so **** proud LIke  Nash and , Perry and  Taylor Hall They played the game so loud Pudge, Jeter, and Verlander they brought it up a notch They were there to stretch the limits Not to just sit by and watch Rory, Justin Rose and Mahan Bubba, Dustin and the rest They are the players of the future They all respected the games best So, to know where you are going You must know where you have been Respect, past through the future And all that's happened in between.
0
May 4, 2012
May 4, 2012 at 4:49 PM UTC
Respect The Game
To know just where your're going You must know where you've been You must respect the history The things others have seen It's true in all things relative Be it music, sports or life If you don't know where you came from You're just dancing on a knife Gherig, Ruth and Robinson May, and Mantle, Seaver too Respect their contributions And don't just say Ruth who? Respect where things have come from And the players of the past Because you learn and make things better It's what makes the **** game last Jimmy Foxx, Bob Gibson, Kaline Nestor Chylak and The Goose They made baseball special They gave the game a little juice Orr, Richard and Gretzky Gordie Howe and Howie Morenz You have to know about them You need the beginning to your ends Bob Baun and Bill Barilko Connie Smythe and yeah...the Chief You have to know their history They're what it is to be a Leaf The game has changed immensely Things can not go back in time But to me...the old alumni Made the game I know as mine Respect the ones before you The ones who laid the groundwork down The ones who made it special The non-pretenders to the crown Elvis, Buddy, Harrison Played the songs inside their heart Lennon, Wilson and the rest They all played a real big part Every single generation should learn from the one before For if they don't know where they've come from Then what has it all been for? Nicklaus, Palmer, Bobby Jones Sarazen and Hogan too They pushed the gameright to it's limits Now the pressure's upon you The new breed are the teachers now They're the ones to lead the way When twenty or so years from now You'll hear somebody say "Respect who came before you The ones who made us so **** proud LIke  Nash and , Perry and  Taylor Hall They played the game so loud Pudge, Jeter, and Verlander they brought it up a notch They were there to stretch the limits Not to just sit by and watch Rory, Justin Rose and Mahan Bubba, Dustin and the rest They are the players of the future They all respected the games best So, to know where you are going You must know where you have been Respect, past through the future And all that's happened in between.
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68
Anxious-laughter afternoon moonlight shadow is still very vague, a long-silent mourn, quiet sorroundings. Pale-Blue sky, overlaping highly with a vast mantle of clouds. Pale-blue sky, inflaming my temperament with your mournful sounds. Crystal, moment of sweet delight. Languidly, as I smile, I see her take off.
0
Feb 28, 2014
Feb 28, 2014 at 12:56 AM UTC
Pale-Blue Sky
I sit by the window looking out And see myself reflected Outside the glass looking in. Reality and illusion facing off - Or is the window the only reality Separating two ghosts; Or perhaps imprisoning just the schizoid singularity Of a self-absorbed existence? A Rowlingesque Hogwartian mirror showing My heart's deepest desire - myself - A true inheritor To the mantle of Narcissus
0
Apr 23, 2012
Apr 23, 2012 at 9:16 PM UTC
Window
Distance brings proportion. From here the populated tiers as much as players seem part of the show: a constructed stage beast, three folds of Dante's rose, or a Chinese military hat cunningly chased with bodies. "Falling from his chariot, a drunk man is unhurt because his soul is intact. Not knowing his fall, he is unastonished, he is invulnerable." So, too, the "pure man"-"pure" in the sense of undisturbed water. "It is not necessary to seek out a wasteland, swamp, or thicket." The opposing pitcher's pertinent hesitations, the sky, this meadow, Mantle's thick baked neck, the old men who in the changing rosters see a personal mutability, green slats, wet stone are all to me as when an emperor commands a performance with a gesture of his eyes. "No king on his throne has the joy of the dead," the skull told Chuang-tzu. The thought of death is peppermint to you when games begin with patriotic song and a democratic sun beats broadly down. The Inner Journey seems unjudgeably long when small boys purchase cups of ice and, distant as a paradise, experts, passionate and deft, hold motionless while Berra flies to left.
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4.6k
Tao in the Yankee Stadium Bleachers
After all this compression, perhaps I am becoming something after all. Crawling away from my potential worth I feel myself writhing my way from between the rocks, taking quick, shallow breaths —learning to breathe again after all this time. Each inhale still feels heavy and constricted, and every exhale still brings a sense of dread for the rise and fall of my chest but I am moving forward. Even relieved, my ribcage is adjusting painfully to the freedom, coping with more lung space; a gift I received from you.
0
Oct 8, 2014
Oct 8, 2014 at 11:37 AM UTC
Mantle.