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"shuttered" poems
I've used them on my windows To see the clear outside, If I read the Op-eds, I shudder, shuttered and hide. I've spread them 'neath my plates and cups, My shelves all neat and tidy; But the headlines made it clear to me My glass is more half empty. They had a place in the litter box For **** to scratch and squat; I laid them round my garden plants, They made fine insect traps. Rolled and twirled they'd start a fire, I could fold them into hats. They cleaned the grease from BBQs, And they're safe to pick up glass. Crumple them for packaging, They work as school book covers; Add water and some flour, To shape papier mache lovers. Fold seeds in them to germinate, Then use them for compost; There's many ways to employ Your Times and local Post. But I won't subscribe to Dailies For the felling of our trees; And yet I miss my papers, And the ways they worked for me. But when enthroned, You'll hear me grouse, *There's no **** paper in this ********* My cell works well to scroll and swipe, But it's only good for a virtual wipe.
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Sep 15, 2018
Sep 15, 2018 at 12:49 PM UTC
Your Times and Post
**The weary mind in turmoil writhes and slumber will not come. The moonlight seeps like latticed withered vines. I listen to my heartbeat, in the silence like a drum, And through my shuttered eyes.... see strange designs. The night will not take me prisoner, and bind me to restful sleep. No dreams, or any respite, no way, my soul to keep. Groaning as I turn myself to rest beleaguered pain, I stretch to ease my tortured back and sigh. Then I fluff my pillow to deactivate my speeding brain... Rolling in the covers, as my body sweats and strains, seeking to lose myself, discarding all, my pains But my eyes are wide... and still the question..."Why?"**
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Aug 1, 2017
Aug 1, 2017 at 11:32 AM UTC
Sleepless in Texas (collaboration with Temporal Fugue)
the earth is curved - sure y’all knew that.   but to get to the Northwest, Interstate 84 ain’t le route plus directe nope curve north to Ontario, wave to Bex as I cross over London and Toronto, also can’t recall which poet from Rochester hails, or did they shuffle off to Buffalo? Crossing Erie, Huron, and Michigan Great Lakes all, brings to mind my mother’s birthplace, Last of the Mohicans, and the three years I did in the Cleveland Penitentiary, where sun was illegal and baseball was a pretend play of cowboys and Indians but by god, it made me the penitent fella I am today Look skyward to Montreal, yes, there he is, the Leo Priest, the baffled king, blessing this poetic meet ‘n greet trip with a smiling unsurprising hallelujah Apparently some US citizens still can traverse O Canada, even if one forgot their passports, and are not PNG’s (Persons Not so GREAT) over Minneapolis shed a tear for Diane, a poet- gone-missing, and wonder if you reader come from St. Cloud, Fargo or Duluth, Bismarck or Aberdeen, surely they still speak poetic English there in a twangy metering methodology  - well, message me asap wow there really is a Saskatoon! the pilot asks us to lean left in our seats to help turn the plane so we go to Portland and not to Vancouver... me thinks he might be a touch Rockie Mountain High, considering we are at 30 thousand something Imperial, as he walks the main cabin with an oxygen mask and a huuuuuge grin see the distant Cascades through a crack in the shuttered windows, must be close to “the coast” (as if, harrumph, there were but one) ah, words in the clouds, ripe for the plucking must be getting close to Oregon, where poets grow on trees, woody words like **** and log-float poems down the Columbia to the sea gonna drink me some poets under the table cause this trip I ain’t no driving and I am already “flying” ‘n scribing and arriving on a high tide and a good wind
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Jun 7, 2018
Jun 7, 2018 at 5:47 AM UTC
Songs of Going to Oregon: No. 2 But Who Knew?
the earth is curved - sure y’all knew that.   but to get to the Northwest, Interstate 84 ain’t le route plus directe nope curve north to Ontario, wave to Bex as I cross over London and Toronto, also can’t recall which poet from Rochester hails, or did they shuffle off to Buffalo? Crossing Erie, Huron, and Michigan Great Lakes all, brings to mind my mother’s birthplace, Last of the Mohicans, and the three years I did in the Cleveland Penitentiary, where sun was illegal and baseball was a pretend play of cowboys and Indians but by god, it made me the penitent fella I am today Look skyward to Montreal, yes, there he is, the Leo Priest, the baffled king, blessing this poetic meet ‘n greet trip with a smiling unsurprising hallelujah Apparently some US citizens still can traverse O Canada, even if one forgot their passports, and are not PNG’s (Persons Not so GREAT) over Minneapolis shed a tear for Diane, a poet- gone-missing, and wonder if you reader come from St. Cloud, Fargo or Duluth, Bismarck or Aberdeen, surely they still speak poetic English there in a twangy metering methodology  - well, message me asap wow there really is a Saskatoon! the pilot asks us to lean left in our seats to help turn the plane so we go to Portland and not to Vancouver... me thinks he might be a touch Rockie Mountain High, considering we are at 30 thousand something Imperial, as he walks the main cabin with an oxygen mask and a huuuuuge grin see the distant Cascades through a crack in the shuttered windows, must be close to “the coast” (as if, harrumph, there were but one) ah, words in the clouds, ripe for the plucking must be getting close to Oregon, where poets grow on trees, woody words like **** and log-float poems down the Columbia to the sea gonna drink me some poets under the table cause this trip I ain’t no driving and I am already “flying” ‘n scribing and arriving on a high tide and a good wind
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53
Twelve o’clock. Along the reaches of the street Held in a lunar synthesis, Whispering lunar incantations Dissolve the floors of memory And all its clear relations, Its divisions and precisions, Every street lamp that I pass Beats like a fatalistic drum, And through the spaces of the dark Midnight shakes the memory As a madman shakes a dead geranium. Half-past one, The street lamp sputtered, The street lamp muttered, The street lamp said, ‘Regard that woman Who hesitates towards you in the light of the door Which opens on her like a grin. You see the border of her dress Is torn and stained with sand, And you see the corner of her eye Twists like a crooked pin.’ The memory throws up high and dry A crowd of twisted things; A twisted branch upon the beach Eaten smooth, and polished As if the world gave up The secret of its skeleton, Stiff and white. A broken spring in a factory yard, Rust that clings to the form that the strength has left Hard and curled and ready to snap. Half-past two, The street lamp said, ‘Remark the cat which flattens itself in the gutter, Slips out its tongue And devours a morsel of rancid butter.’ So the hand of a child, automatic, Slipped out and pocketed a toy that was running along the quay. I could see nothing behind that child’s eye. I have seen eyes in the street Trying to peer through lighted shutters, And a crab one afternoon in a pool, An old crab with barnacles on his back, Gripped the end of a stick which I held him. Half-past three, The lamp sputtered, The lamp muttered in the dark. The lamp hummed: ‘Regard the moon, La lune ne garde aucune rancune, She winks a feeble eye, She smiles into corners. She smoothes the hair of the grass. The moon has lost her memory. A washed-out smallpox cracks her face, Her hand twists a paper rose, That smells of dust and old Cologne, She is alone With all the old nocturnal smells That cross and cross across her brain.’ The reminiscence comes Of sunless dry geraniums And dust in crevices, Smells of chestnuts in the streets, And female smells in shuttered rooms, And cigarettes in corridors And cocktail smells in bars.’ The lamp said, ‘Four o’clock, Here is the number on the door. Memory! You have the key, The little lamp spreads a ring on the stair, Mount. The bed is open; the tooth-brush hangs on the wall, Put your shoes at the door, sleep, prepare for life.’ The last twist of the knife.
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8.2k
Rhapsody On A Windy Night
Twelve o’clock. Along the reaches of the street Held in a lunar synthesis, Whispering lunar incantations Dissolve the floors of memory And all its clear relations, Its divisions and precisions, Every street lamp that I pass Beats like a fatalistic drum, And through the spaces of the dark Midnight shakes the memory As a madman shakes a dead geranium. Half-past one, The street lamp sputtered, The street lamp muttered, The street lamp said, ‘Regard that woman Who hesitates towards you in the light of the door Which opens on her like a grin. You see the border of her dress Is torn and stained with sand, And you see the corner of her eye Twists like a crooked pin.’ The memory throws up high and dry A crowd of twisted things; A twisted branch upon the beach Eaten smooth, and polished As if the world gave up The secret of its skeleton, Stiff and white. A broken spring in a factory yard, Rust that clings to the form that the strength has left Hard and curled and ready to snap. Half-past two, The street lamp said, ‘Remark the cat which flattens itself in the gutter, Slips out its tongue And devours a morsel of rancid butter.’ So the hand of a child, automatic, Slipped out and pocketed a toy that was running along the quay. I could see nothing behind that child’s eye. I have seen eyes in the street Trying to peer through lighted shutters, And a crab one afternoon in a pool, An old crab with barnacles on his back, Gripped the end of a stick which I held him. Half-past three, The lamp sputtered, The lamp muttered in the dark. The lamp hummed: ‘Regard the moon, La lune ne garde aucune rancune, She winks a feeble eye, She smiles into corners. She smoothes the hair of the grass. The moon has lost her memory. A washed-out smallpox cracks her face, Her hand twists a paper rose, That smells of dust and old Cologne, She is alone With all the old nocturnal smells That cross and cross across her brain.’ The reminiscence comes Of sunless dry geraniums And dust in crevices, Smells of chestnuts in the streets, And female smells in shuttered rooms, And cigarettes in corridors And cocktail smells in bars.’ The lamp said, ‘Four o’clock, Here is the number on the door. Memory! You have the key, The little lamp spreads a ring on the stair, Mount. The bed is open; the tooth-brush hangs on the wall, Put your shoes at the door, sleep, prepare for life.’ The last twist of the knife.
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78
~for lovejunkie, who loved this poem best~ *so many reasons, so many stones yet unturned, for each poem a season, for every season, a given reason eyes, dimmer, hearing, harder, memories, ha, disappear as fast as footsteps upon my island beach this then my log, of places momentarily visited, capturing the of, of me, the exactitude of where, when and what I felt what felled me, the long and lat, of the attitudes of breeze and currents, the happenstance that carries a desperate soul eager and afraid to remember* "how fragile we are" *so memorized records here, for his storage and his places, both filled and unfulfilled,* ***poems, nothing more, flawed each, product of a flawed man,*** here, for all to see, most of all, for the man, to see himself when the eyes of his mind at last be shuttered
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Apr 10, 2016
Apr 10, 2016 at 8:06 AM UTC
why I write poetry
Words surge Vulgarity stutters What's that again? OH!! You shuttered Shut down voices Disagree in thought Stop in your tracks Facts are not sought Facebook, Twitter Social media sites Opinions are all quenched Control is such a might The Storm is coming So I was told Stand up strong Always be bold
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Aug 7, 2015
Aug 7, 2015 at 3:02 PM UTC
Social Media Disagree
In the  golden times of his age,  no one ever sought a way more beautiful, Because no one taught them that their path, Was different. Days,months ,years were all full of unexpected happenings. Besides we were all born the same way. He woke up , dashed through life just like his elders. Laid in the midst of a beautiful middle sun, He watched his skin dry, with no earning for his hardwork Besides life is for living Just a walk home, he rushed his memory through, A series of his lineage and realised it was a whole Miserable pattern of dreams shuttered. Running for a ward or two , he paced to his next neighbour Just to see if , thoughts could match into a hope. He lost it all, because neither did they understand his feeling. He changed direction, and sought for rescue in this unknown land. Just like heavy pours through a stream, he has never looked Back, because his dream was his own. Running at a faster rate, he wishes all the sunrises would remain to replace the dead ones ,that left him poor. Today, he is on a strange path, which only him can relate to, Because dreams don't have shadows, you either walk with them or remain together with no one leading.
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Oct 18, 2018
Oct 18, 2018 at 2:39 PM UTC
His dream
I wrote a poem on a bus but to hear it you must climb to the top of the bouncing metal stairs.    Slither snake-like past the rail and sit on the rainbow nylon bench.    I'll be there at the top of the bus, reciting my rhyme, written as we ride along, past shops and houses with musty nets and peeling paint on dingy doors.    There's the old woman who lives in a house no bigger than a shoe box who had so many children she didn't know what to do! But they've all grown and flown now and she's all alone with no-one to talk to but herself.    Look at that kid: grimy smile and mischievous eyes, skateboard-scuffed knees, darting out from the roadside. Screech! As we stop and angry words. The kid glances back and tosses a vee leaving just his smile behind.    The bus lurches on at a snail's pace and stops at a stop for a giggle-girl-gang to chatter up the stairs with a clatter of feet and voices:   weekends and boyfriends, music and laughter. The bus trundles and sways past shops all shuttered, old folks gathered by doorways talking about people dead and forgotten ... except by them.    Into the town now: a river of road-rage as our bus ambles onward toward car-parks and markets and rat-racing shoppers    And stops by a brown pigeon-stained temple of public philanthropy, a gift from a long-dead civic leader and now proud home to dogeared tomes of PC persuasion.    Our bus, like some Trojan horse, disgorges its riders who spatter and scatter like rays of dawn light to shop till they drop.    So, just me and you seated atop the steel stairway and you say to me sharply, “So where's your poem then?” I look at you strangely: “It's happened around you,” I tell you quite curtly.
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Sep 23, 2012
Sep 23, 2012 at 11:35 AM UTC
On a Bus
I wrote a poem on a bus but to hear it you must climb to the top of the bouncing metal stairs.    Slither snake-like past the rail and sit on the rainbow nylon bench.    I'll be there at the top of the bus, reciting my rhyme, written as we ride along, past shops and houses with musty nets and peeling paint on dingy doors.    There's the old woman who lives in a house no bigger than a shoe box who had so many children she didn't know what to do! But they've all grown and flown now and she's all alone with no-one to talk to but herself.    Look at that kid: grimy smile and mischievous eyes, skateboard-scuffed knees, darting out from the roadside. Screech! As we stop and angry words. The kid glances back and tosses a vee leaving just his smile behind.    The bus lurches on at a snail's pace and stops at a stop for a giggle-girl-gang to chatter up the stairs with a clatter of feet and voices:   weekends and boyfriends, music and laughter. The bus trundles and sways past shops all shuttered, old folks gathered by doorways talking about people dead and forgotten ... except by them.    Into the town now: a river of road-rage as our bus ambles onward toward car-parks and markets and rat-racing shoppers    And stops by a brown pigeon-stained temple of public philanthropy, a gift from a long-dead civic leader and now proud home to dogeared tomes of PC persuasion.    Our bus, like some Trojan horse, disgorges its riders who spatter and scatter like rays of dawn light to shop till they drop.    So, just me and you seated atop the steel stairway and you say to me sharply, “So where's your poem then?” I look at you strangely: “It's happened around you,” I tell you quite curtly.
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62
It was not, by any means, a loss of faith; Indeed, her devotion was a boundless, unfettered thing Beyond proscription, beyond rote chant and catechism, And what she found as a novitiate Were shuttered gates and gossipy confessionals, Standoffish priests, pig-eyed and pinch-lipped Sisters who thought life’s commerce No more than mechanical prayer and spotless linens, The whole enterprise Smacking of the exclusion of Heaven’s bounty. So she demurred when the time came to take her orders, And she returned to the world of pavements and lesser pieties, Free to seek God on park swings and barstools, In pleasures of the pastoral and the profane, Though her faith is no Dionysian walkabout, As she is passionate to the cusp of maniacal When it comes to the Book of James’ admonition upon works; She is often found among the sisters she once tiptoed alongside At food pantries and clothing drives (She is scrupulous about ministering to only secular needs, As the Bishop is not happily disposed towards those Who choose not to take the veil, And the specter of excommunication is a prospect Too awful to contemplate) Afterwards clambering onto some vaguely roadworthy MTA bus Back to her studio apartment in Green Island, Where she often walks down to the Erie Canal lock nearby, Praying for those who have travelled  near and upon the water, Convenience store clerks and ragged Irishmen fleeing famine, Feral kittens and insufficiently mourned mules.
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Nov 16, 2017
Nov 16, 2017 at 10:39 AM UTC
the thursday nun
It snowed today. A great white cloud descended, bringing a preview of heavens' glorious expanse. The children laughed and played, and hit each other with little spheres of cleanliness. With flushed cheeks and frozen lips they slowly trickled inside, the warmth within even greater for the cold without. Even parents felt a warmth in the snow as they journeyed out, a glowing reminder that all is not lost in this world. But my window stayed shuttered, my doors remained closed, my body remained inside.
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Feb 13, 2012
Feb 13, 2012 at 12:59 AM UTC
It Snowed
**Moving past the shuttered mind that shuns imagination I seek a stimulating thought a cause for exhultation. It hovers there like hummingbirds whose entry I deny. And yet I see the imagery and heave a heartfelt sigh. It teases me and mocks me as it dodges every grasp Laughing at my efforts to retrieve it with each clasp. Yet empty air is my reward. My snares are all in vain. I close my eyes and meditate for inspiration's gain. An empty net a vacant trap the target still eludes. Perhaps tomorrow try again away from darker moods.**
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Nov 27, 2017
Nov 27, 2017 at 10:16 PM UTC
An Empty Net
we look at TV screens that show thousands of persecuted and bombed-out families on the run for safety and sheer survival so sorry borders are shuttered now the boat is full no more come in we have to think of ourselves so sorry we sincerely regret that you are suffering from cold and rain and snow in your rickety makeshift camps so sorry we are sure there’s someone to take care of all that mess it’s just not us so sorry
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Mar 13, 2016
Mar 13, 2016 at 4:30 PM UTC
so sorry
I just want  you,  that's  all. All your smile, your funny laugh, your, moods, and everything. I just want you and I'm ready to do anything to be your everything. You kept your eyes locked on mine as you opened your robe slipping it from your shoulders, exposing your body to me. your eyes showed me a mixture of hunger and desire of such intensity that you were both excited and a little frightened. You took a shuttered breath as I gathered you into my embrace. It  was then I  realized   that  I was truly crazy, madly in love with  you  as  I   whispered  to you ,"give  me a   little  bit of rough ***  mixed  with  some **** slow and sweet **********                                                                               Jon York   2018
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Dec 25, 2018
Dec 25, 2018 at 9:21 PM UTC
Truly, Madly In Love With You
Persuasive notions locked away, in many minds that go astray; When working along cryptic lines, which falter during chaotic times. While hidden in a separate space, these musings tend to be erased; Forgotten now in empty spheres, dissolve as echoes of chronic fears. Perhaps society has been foretold, of magic tales so brave and bold; Yet through the mastery of lies, they disappear before our eyes. Inside the quaintly shuttered room, the words seem subtle but still in tune; When wanton tales aroused before, a complex world of closing doors.
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Aug 1, 2018
Aug 1, 2018 at 11:53 AM UTC
Behind Closed Doors
They meet once again, One teary, one leery, both weary, Daughter, mother, cut from the same cloth. They meet once again, Sense one another's desire to be, Forgiven, understood, loved. They meet once again, To talk, to listen, to avoid, Mistaken, misunderstood, miscommunication. They meet once again, Shuttered down, boarded up, fear within resides, Mother, daughter, cut from the same cloth.
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Feb 15, 2014
Feb 15, 2014 at 3:27 PM UTC
No Way In Or Out
Enticing us in, sugar coated doors for sticky fingers, Doors of mystery, keep out, staff only nettled in barbed wire. Half open doors full of promise, chocolate soft centred Exciting doors, silk covered in lace suspenders Inspiring doors, Leonardo bold italic, uppercase only Lonely doors all shuttered in silence, cobweb covered Sad doors, tear stained and umbrella wet Happy doors, candy striped in laughter Forbidden doors, Pandora boxed, best kept locked Revolving doors covered with the same sticky mistakes Trap doors crocodile sprung to catch you out Doors that slide on tram like runners, buffered into walls with imprint of face Secret doors of camouflaged chameleon Troubled doors thunder clapped in turmoil Doors enticing us.
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Feb 3, 2015
Feb 3, 2015 at 10:31 AM UTC
Doors.
Regrets, they come in waves and break around his feet And he begins to wonder who he might have been Had roads diverged in different woods and fields Not yellow or yet any colour still unseen But clearer now by day than windless nights Still nearer than the objects of his dreams It'd rained late into the evening, and when the lights were shaded Around the pool outside and with the windows shuttered He'd thrown on loose clothes, flicked open an umbrella While high outside the stars the lightning flashes muttered Pulled open doors that led to the veranda And moved outside once more with all his thoughts unuttered The smoke, from fires on Java lies heavy on his senses An omen of the time of year and of the past condition He shrugs, ***** in the acidic nighttime odors Reviving lives not lived but revealing his admission That time beyond the present that mirrors every movement Within, without, and yet again, the flicker of suspicion. The pistol in his pocket, illegal not unloaded A symbol of his state of mind and by  his sole discretion He kneels beside the water, deep-set and in the shadows Lips forming wordlessly around the last confession Images of where and what and who and why and whether A portent of that final action, sensing and impression The smoke from fires on Java lies heavy on the water The reek of cordite mixing with the smell of burning grasses Indignant birds protest the crack of one small set expulsion The echo round the swimming pool reverberates and passes Nothing more and nothing less and time and space and matter Slick red upon the treacherous tiles, the shattered bloodied glasses.
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Apr 23, 2013
Apr 23, 2013 at 6:19 AM UTC
Fires On Java
Regrets, they come in waves and break around his feet And he begins to wonder who he might have been Had roads diverged in different woods and fields Not yellow or yet any colour still unseen But clearer now by day than windless nights Still nearer than the objects of his dreams It'd rained late into the evening, and when the lights were shaded Around the pool outside and with the windows shuttered He'd thrown on loose clothes, flicked open an umbrella While high outside the stars the lightning flashes muttered Pulled open doors that led to the veranda And moved outside once more with all his thoughts unuttered The smoke, from fires on Java lies heavy on his senses An omen of the time of year and of the past condition He shrugs, ***** in the acidic nighttime odors Reviving lives not lived but revealing his admission That time beyond the present that mirrors every movement Within, without, and yet again, the flicker of suspicion. The pistol in his pocket, illegal not unloaded A symbol of his state of mind and by  his sole discretion He kneels beside the water, deep-set and in the shadows Lips forming wordlessly around the last confession Images of where and what and who and why and whether A portent of that final action, sensing and impression The smoke from fires on Java lies heavy on the water The reek of cordite mixing with the smell of burning grasses Indignant birds protest the crack of one small set expulsion The echo round the swimming pool reverberates and passes Nothing more and nothing less and time and space and matter Slick red upon the treacherous tiles, the shattered bloodied glasses.
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30
This was written a few Septembers ago.  Walking on the streets of a now deserted beach island, only the leaves, in various states, to keep me company. September, walk with me, under bridges of wedding tree canopies, still green aplenty, tho subtle marked for change, making summer illusions, environmentally unsustainable. September, stroll on pathways of lesser, off the track, shaded lanes, the sun blocker trees wear new necklaces, brown and yellow diamonds, a coming attraction of their denouement, their denudement. The September trees are: Ever so slightly stooped, bent with weight of a surety, knowing with high certainty, their future, bleak, bowed and drooped, discouraged by the cold travails soon to arrive. Living in the recent past, I am dressed inappropriately, white tee and shorts, past pretender, still dressed in my Gap issue summer uniform, summer suspended animation. Island streets are de-humanized, gone home are the children, newly fallen leaves have, their place, taken. The leaves are: magically organized along the sidelines of empty streets, quiet stadiums of would be kid's touch football fields.   browned, crisp and soulless, first greet this solitary stroller, like a cheering throng of ghosts, celebrating a sighting - man, as a seasonal fossil, one that still is living and worth reminding, yet human too shall pass when his fall arrives. the leave's cheers make over into jeers and mocking laughs: Oh humans, they say, your summer songs naive, mais tres charmant. On Crescent Beach, the driftwood sadly forlorn, looking more adrift than ever, for no one passes to express admiration at the past seasons Nouveau Expressionism, an objet d'art lonely, for the beach gallery shuttered,   raising questions existential. Is driftwood on the beach sans human admiration, art, truth or refuse? I am looking backwards as the Earth moves forward. My own axis, my eyes, conscientious objectors refuse to be pressed into service of the seasons. No, no, to involuntary servitude, to rotation and revolution. Nature's witnesses, trees and leaves write their own poem, of foolish men who: Bow and droop, discouraged by the travails soon to arrive, Delaying their own fall, finally shed summer delusions like leaves upon the ground, summer poetry silenced, summer suspended, no more.
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Dec 7, 2013
Dec 7, 2013 at 8:06 AM UTC
September Summer Suspended Animation
This was written a few Septembers ago.  Walking on the streets of a now deserted beach island, only the leaves, in various states, to keep me company. September, walk with me, under bridges of wedding tree canopies, still green aplenty, tho subtle marked for change, making summer illusions, environmentally unsustainable. September, stroll on pathways of lesser, off the track, shaded lanes, the sun blocker trees wear new necklaces, brown and yellow diamonds, a coming attraction of their denouement, their denudement. The September trees are: Ever so slightly stooped, bent with weight of a surety, knowing with high certainty, their future, bleak, bowed and drooped, discouraged by the cold travails soon to arrive. Living in the recent past, I am dressed inappropriately, white tee and shorts, past pretender, still dressed in my Gap issue summer uniform, summer suspended animation. Island streets are de-humanized, gone home are the children, newly fallen leaves have, their place, taken. The leaves are: magically organized along the sidelines of empty streets, quiet stadiums of would be kid's touch football fields.   browned, crisp and soulless, first greet this solitary stroller, like a cheering throng of ghosts, celebrating a sighting - man, as a seasonal fossil, one that still is living and worth reminding, yet human too shall pass when his fall arrives. the leave's cheers make over into jeers and mocking laughs: Oh humans, they say, your summer songs naive, mais tres charmant. On Crescent Beach, the driftwood sadly forlorn, looking more adrift than ever, for no one passes to express admiration at the past seasons Nouveau Expressionism, an objet d'art lonely, for the beach gallery shuttered,   raising questions existential. Is driftwood on the beach sans human admiration, art, truth or refuse? I am looking backwards as the Earth moves forward. My own axis, my eyes, conscientious objectors refuse to be pressed into service of the seasons. No, no, to involuntary servitude, to rotation and revolution. Nature's witnesses, trees and leaves write their own poem, of foolish men who: Bow and droop, discouraged by the travails soon to arrive, Delaying their own fall, finally shed summer delusions like leaves upon the ground, summer poetry silenced, summer suspended, no more.
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87
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-laire—nil nisi divinum stabile est; caetera fumus—the gondola stopped, the old palace was there, how charming its grey and pink— goats and monkeys, with such hair too!—so the countess passed on until she came through the little park, where Niobe presented her with a cabinet, and so departed. Burbank crossed a little bridge Descending at a small hotel; Princess Volupine arrived, They were together, and he fell. Defunctive music under sea Passed seaward with the passing bell Slowly: the God Hercules Had left him, that had loved him well. The horses, under the axletree Beat up the dawn from Istria With even feet. Her shuttered barge Burned on the water all the day. But this or such was Bleistein’s way: A saggy bending of the knees And elbows, with the palms turned out, Chicago Semite Viennese. A lustreless protrusive eye Stares from the protozoic slime At a perspective of Canaletto. The smoky candle end of time Declines. On the Rialto once. The rats are underneath the piles. The jew is underneath the lot. Money in furs. The boatman smiles, Princess Volupine extends A meagre, blue-nailed, phthisic hand To climb the waterstair. Lights, lights, She entertains Sir Ferdinand Klein. Who clipped the lion’s wings And flea’d his **** and pared his claws? Thought Burbank, meditating on Time’s ruins, and the seven laws.
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Burbank With A Baedeker: Bleistein With A Cigar
His hands ring in the upper classes. There, in the morning light, his will Is forged, bent, as truth, on ruling   This place, underhand, underfoot. With shuttered ears divining his voice The dim pupils see only what is said. The top hand schools, topples all words Ringing hands sing the song of fools. How Headmaster trains on the heel,   A dagger strikes, the paper cuts Exalted, his close minded hands,   See a Czar in the stony swagger, And the student body, submissively lies With his feet.  Outside the college The headmaster is heard. Grossly, He is their dream and only shepherd.
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May 31, 2012
May 31, 2012 at 9:48 PM UTC
HeadMaster
The albatross once filled the skies Cormorants watched silent, from the shore These are echoes of times long ago There's nothing here for them any more The coastline littered with sunken ships Villages full of ghosts Empty buildings and empty lives Where just the sea gulls act as hosts Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out past the breakers and out to the sea Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out on the Ocean, where my soul is set free The cod stocks have dwindled There was no need to stay There's no catch of the day, son From here to Gaspe' The canneries shuttered The landscape has changed I may be a sailor But, my life's rearranged Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out past the breakers and out to the sea Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out on the Ocean, where my soul is set free The Grand Banks are empty Our boats are in hock There's nothing that grows here Except depression and rock While others moved onward I'll stay 'till I'm dead Now, I feed off the tourists I work the casinos instead Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out past the breakers and out to the sea Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out on the Ocean, where my soul is set free The salt air still calls me The wind in my sails The sound of the rigging Heading off to Kinsale The coastline is empty Where Ghost towns now stand It used to be vibrant But now just sea grass and sand Oceans Away Lads, Oceans Away On out past the breakers, and out to the see Oceans away lads, Oceans Away I still am a sailor, and I always will be
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Nov 20, 2013
Nov 20, 2013 at 11:29 PM UTC
Oceans Away Lads
The albatross once filled the skies Cormorants watched silent, from the shore These are echoes of times long ago There's nothing here for them any more The coastline littered with sunken ships Villages full of ghosts Empty buildings and empty lives Where just the sea gulls act as hosts Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out past the breakers and out to the sea Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out on the Ocean, where my soul is set free The cod stocks have dwindled There was no need to stay There's no catch of the day, son From here to Gaspe' The canneries shuttered The landscape has changed I may be a sailor But, my life's rearranged Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out past the breakers and out to the sea Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out on the Ocean, where my soul is set free The Grand Banks are empty Our boats are in hock There's nothing that grows here Except depression and rock While others moved onward I'll stay 'till I'm dead Now, I feed off the tourists I work the casinos instead Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out past the breakers and out to the sea Oceans away lads, Oceans away Out on the Ocean, where my soul is set free The salt air still calls me The wind in my sails The sound of the rigging Heading off to Kinsale The coastline is empty Where Ghost towns now stand It used to be vibrant But now just sea grass and sand Oceans Away Lads, Oceans Away On out past the breakers, and out to the see Oceans away lads, Oceans Away I still am a sailor, and I always will be
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48
His hands ring in the upper classes. There, in the morning light, his will Is forged, bent, as truth, on ruling   This place, underhand, underfoot. With shuttered ears divining his voice The dim pupils see only what is said. The top hand schools, topples all words Ringing hands sing the song of fools. How Headmaster trains on the heel,   A dagger strikes, the paper cuts Exalted, his close minded hands,   See a Czar in the stony swagger, And the student body, submissively lies With his feet.  Outside the college The headmaster is heard. Grossly, He is their dream and only shepherd.
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Sep 18, 2012
Sep 18, 2012 at 8:18 PM UTC
HeadMaster
The Blue Falcon, cross the spire, Waits in the gables of the white House. Wounded in youth by crush Of air, spent, a wisp perched In the aerie dark with a view of mountains Blue as ice under glacier. The wooden Church from the other side clutches The sky but the Falcon blue is lost In a tuft of cloud that bobs but never Kills. On this strike he is sheathed in stealth The dull talons slip as they dry In the tented air, the songbirds at play In the high-ground underneath warble And chide but the Falcon cannot hear The Falcon near. His heart is soft And muted in the breast, his ears Are dumb to their tickling-songs. Before the Falcons time, over The tilling fields, dropped his world In the spoils where splendour burst in green, Rain meant the feathers ran and the woods, A banquet of game, were bounty's breach Fording blue currents he was A fisher in the sun, but the sun Sank in his drowning sky no store From plateau to quarry the drought of days Moved a castle felled in the dancing Dust, his wings broke in the shuttered Eye of the sun and etched his form Into grey silhouette. Now, the Blue Falcon, jeered In the branches of the rooted air Above the yellowed grass, under the pines And a great blue mountain, stirs a Druid Shape, vaporous, in the cauldron Of the attic in the white house A throw of stones crossways from The sacred yews of the steeple spire.
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Oct 13, 2013
Oct 13, 2013 at 1:06 PM UTC
The Blue Falcon
Indecisive and sounding as interesting as a brick wall, I sauntered along the brick path colliding with my brick silent mood, causing me to falter kicking the covers, dislodging the brick, hour on hour in the brick dark night, eyes feeling brick heavy, tossed, turned, the bathroom, bricked in on four sides, plodded in the dead of night to the beat of heavy laden feet, tic toc as the brick swings soil, solid bricked ground, shuttered down solitude, walking away....a heart,. brick heavy, awash, water swirling, brick pockets....sinking
0
Jun 12, 2013
Jun 12, 2013 at 3:50 PM UTC
Brick
Behind closed eyes  And shuttered dreams  And barred windows  I see the color green  For the sea I write  Behind iron bars  And deathly individuality  And ghostly thought  I see the color white  For the air I write  Behind four pointed snowflakes  And glistening ice pools  And a hatchet clinging to the  Frosted waves  I see the color red  For the fire I write  Behind the open air  And the dank walls  And the endless earth  I see the color of hope  Blackly shining
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Jan 11, 2013
Jan 11, 2013 at 1:37 AM UTC
For Them