National Poetry Month
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National Poetry Month 30 – Planetary Arabesque
You’re in an iron boat on a mercury sea Where the heavy metal floats upon the Reflective waves of dense fluid With high-intensity magnetic fields Creating an aurora of charged particles Dancing in effervescent fervor. Imagine this scene, with a sky filled with A gas giant, its clouds swirling a Thousand miles an hour and…
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National Poetry Month 29 – Cats I Know
Sabine She’s small and black with golden eyes When angered, she jumps and flies Across the room to speed attack Against her foes, she aims a whack. Wolfgang He’s grayish-blue and rather large With a tiny head and body like a barge He may appear to be alarming But in fact, is rather very charming.…
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National Poetry Month 28 – Nothing
A house without books, is like several looks At where the hands on a clock-face Show more than 12 hours in a row, Endless hours where the mind withers And the words you don’t read have no Perch or vine or place to put in roots. No frame to place around an Old Master, solid…
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National Poetry Month 27 – 64 AD
Down in the sewer, floating along the effluvium You can get a great view of what the city eats. The runoff from the tenement towers Where piss and shit rain down like showers From upper floors where no pipes go, And the ashes of the Christians burned by Nero For the nightlights that show off…
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National Poetry Month 26 – Steamship
It came belching black smoke down the river The sound of grinding gears and splashing paddle-wheels Scared the horses along its banks. Locomotion on the water sans sail or oar, Fulton smiling through a face of soot. “The damned thing works!” What may have been seen as a minor invention Of little practical importance except…
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National Poetry Month 25 – John on the Beach
The island of Patmos wasn’t so bad this time of year John in his exile set up a little hermitage Took a walk down to the beach in the afternoons Spoke to the other exiles Shared his food and his stories. “I knew Christ, he loved me as a brother. He told me that I…
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National Poetry Month 24 – Tale Ends
Imagine a book made with only leftover bits, the excised verses of the Bible paragraphs cut out of Moby Dick an alternate ending of King Lear a whole chapter out of The Odyssey that somehow was written down on one of Homer’s dinner napkins and found in a tomb. Can you make a prize-winner out…
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National Poetry Month 23 – Translation
I can take two words and transform them into flying birds or sleeping cats or timeless inspiration language makes it possible to interpolate within a sentence another sentence that can change the meaning of a concept or clarify it or make it become something new. Translation can take adelphoi from brotherhood to siblings…
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National Poetry Month – 22 Earth Day
In the beginning God created Earth for four billion years there wasn’t much here every once in a while a bacterium made its way out to the surface, only to be blasted by a comet or consumed by a volcano. Life had a very hard time. When humans came upon the scene everything was already…
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National Poetry Month 21 – Revenge of Creepshow
I. It took three swallows for her to get him down feet first, then head, then crown a feat for someone as dainty as she to enjoy the company of one like he its not every day in a dragon’s lair to have access to such royal flavor. II. The scientists asked him to…
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National Poetry Month 20 – Creepshow Again
I. The working man learns the score Things are easier if you know more For example, give an interesting look at a devilish grimoire guidebook In a few months you can be at the top Just use a spell to give the boss the drop! II. An astronaut was out on a lunar patrol until…
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National Poetry Month 19 – Creepshow II
I. The open sea was roiling blue The captain sent the boy for glue To fill the hole in the lower hull Gored by a monster’s skull. They found it there in the dark The body of a man and face of a shark. II. Lost down a meandering road across a bridge where a…
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National Poetry Month – 18 Creepshow
I. There is a castle deep where strange creatures sleep In a forest lost in time dark, mossy Alpine clime holds secrets hidden by its host some ancient noble turned to ghost. II. The basement dungeon lined in stones holds within it moldy bones with fingers clutching rusted bars and skulls cracked with ugly scars…
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National Poetry Month 17 – Empty
There wouldn’t have been much to see just some loose rags and the body shelf that stone rolled away and the sun shining in. When the ladies arrived only to be startled by an unexpected, friendly angel he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has…
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National Poetry Month 16 – Harrowing
The question of the descent into Hell or Sheol, or Hades on the surface seems academic. “Did Christ actually go to free the souls of the righteous?” Was He there in the nebulous dark emanating light to the countless millions dead before the coming of the Son; Adam and his beloved Eve the Patriarchs, Moses…
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National Poetry Month 15 – Good Friday
There were two theives flanking Jesus one calling out for Him to fly off the cross prove to him that He was Lord, show the power hidden within. The other one saw through the veil and asked for His love: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He looked at the criminal and…
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National Poetry Month 14 – Nearer My God to Thee
Imagine that sloping deck getting several degrees closer to perpendicular. The small band lingers on the deck the boys are playing ragtime light, airy tunes to keep the crowd calm. Those black tuxedos don’t keep them warm clouds of breath encircle well-coiffed heads. Steam pours from the tops of the funnels brass horns blow in…
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National Poetry Month 13 – Cruiser Moskva
Metal groans as the ship’s belly rips open to allow the sea its space. A tender hull is no match for an explosive kiss. It takes a feint from shore, some little baubles to draw attention to disorient leviathan. Down in the mud of the seabed among the anemones and sturgeons the ship’s doctor tends…
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National Poetry Month 12 – Clement Sends a Short-Form Letter
Greetings! My brothers and sisters in Christ I write this letter to the church in Corinth, telling you to get it together. God has ordered peace in the heavens – the stars and the moon and sun all roll across the sky as He ordained, so why not peace in your church? Remember Peter and…
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National Poetry Month 11 – Clipper
The clipper cuts through the sea verdigris under water flashes when the hull rises copper and oak and teak black pitch and gold leaf topped by white billows straining in the wind. She moves fast, flags stream and the bowsprit sometimes splashes against the waves. The figurehead’s white breasts try to calm the world-sea where…
The Numinous Cosmos 