kids can feel it 

are real with it 

the future’s 

in their eyes 

 

so we’re careful 

with the lies 

chains of causation

waves of confusion we ride

 

causing all this 

dissonance 

we help them 

with the lifting  

 

their hope 

is our own 

we pass it on 

so it grows 

 

their determination 

the oxygen 

that makes 

the glow 

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I tried

Acceptance is the key

To the lock on the door

The one painted red

On the house down the street

It's a key understanding

Why the door is shut

Closing off the world

And everybody else

It's the key to you

So you said to look for it

And I tried and tried

Really I did

I looked in my heart

And my head

And my soul

But you had taken it

And lied

...

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Like Achilles, we're headfirst into the river of life

Slowly floating downstream towards death, irrevocably

Circumstances may speed many through whitewater rapids,

To an untimely end, somewhat unbenevolently

 

Those less fortunate perish in cascading waterfalls

While others simply meander aimlessly in shallows

Egotists, ignorant of the plight of their own drowning

Unaware t...

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Were you there before me,

I don't know,

Yet, I've felt your eyes on me,

Since I was born,

You are so beautiful,

Shining through the dark,

They say you steal His light,

Something about, 

Reflection?

Huh, Let them say!

'Cause for me,

You are Brighter than the Brightest Star.

Me?

In your eyes,

Do I shine?

Leave it,

Let me just talk about you,

You are...

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carve the cloth off my skin,

wipe the polish off my nails,

scrape the itch off my flesh;

i can’t help it,

i won’t stand it again.

 

strawberry dressing on vanilla ice cream;

paint spilled over the notebook’s page

i feel the ink in my fingerprints,

it’s staining my hands.

i don’t know that i’ll ever get it out again

 

rip the skin off my bones,

pry my nails of...

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The heaven's eye becomes tired
With rage,
Water endless in the sea.

Winter deflowers the tree,
Spring fills the fissures-
The process constant all year round.

Clouds take off the canopy-
Vapours make a sail
Occuring in cycles.

Leaves green and alive
Develops gray hue,
A tree never stops dreaming.

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pink rose cheeks with sweet smile,

crushed heart with seamless soul,

hopping and humming along the aisle,

peace roaming on the burning coal.

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Hey, did you get the memo on the cosmic joke?

Yes, there really is one.

It's entitled "Life."

We don't know what the punch line is, though.

Apparently this becomes apparent when one dies.

But, hey, it's okay to start laughing now (with kindness of course)

because, why not?

it makes Life a bit more fun.

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"Sweet Apple Tree that pleasantly grows,

Whose fruit I once stole to please a fair maiden

When, with sword on my thigh, stout shield on my shoulder,

Alone I slept in the woods of Calydon.

Beneath its branches I began softly to fade,

Dreaming that around its' trunk I quickly played

With a sweet enchantress of most splendid form.

And since then for ten and forty years

I becam...

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The air fluctuates in tone on the windowsill as October grips the seasons consuming the fading light shaking the remnants of the summer curling its fingers around your neck before finally resting upon your chinbone.

You become part of the dusk no matter where you stand, facing the changes in front of you whether standing against an imaginary plague filling up the newspapers again or looking dow...

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If love was kind, why is it often misunderstood 

If love was easy, why do we suffer

We give it away, but sometimes it's not return

We hold onto love, but others may pretend 

It is hard for one to believe

running to love, running from love

love hides here not there

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Chronic pain 

Waking up to being riddled in pain feeling like every day different but it really remains the same . Another person telling you your mental health declining , feeling you’re trying to tell the world but the world thinks you’re just whining . Rocking up to work with a smile on your face , doing what you have to do because it’s not the time or place . Seeing others in a worst positi...

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how curious this life of now

 

my shoulders rounded over

from all this time on the computer

 

my feet are on stones

my hands on a keyboard

 

Fred meows to his friend upstairs

*said in meow complaining voice* COME PLAY

 

how curious this life of now

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Tess’s What Ifs

 

Twice he said to me up there on the rick

that I’d never mentioned my husband’s name.

What if I had, told him he was the son 

of Parson Clare, so instrumental in his ‘conversion’?

What if I’d told Angel that the man who 

seduced me was the one his father ran into?

 

It’s as good as asking how it would have been

had Tringham held his tongue, or if Prin...

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The hand and mind that would fell a tree

That has stood for so long for all to see

Like a beacon of enduring hope so that we

Might marvel at something so fine and free

Could never be worth a damn to me

The heart and hand that took a saw

And did the deed makes me sick and more!

(Written in response to the timely poem by Stephen W Atkinson)

......................................

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There're things you can share

With everyone around you

And many an important information

You shy off from telling anybody

Matters that's general can be discussed

But one's that's personal can't be

Face to face conversations are valuable

But those that are talked about in groups needs sorting up

So choose wisely what's meant to be shared

And those that concerns none but o...

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The Sycamore Gap

Is just 'The gap'

Its body tumbled, bleeding sap

For 200 years its leafy hair

Ruffled to whispers in swirling air

O! What it heard in ages past!

Now, sadly lost

It's heard its last…

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It's my mummy's birthday today

a hundred and fifteen to be precise

but now she's passed away. 

Nineteen years have gone and time is moving on

but I can see her as sharp as a pin

I know she must be looking in. 

 

She never wanted to let me go

but had no option that much is clear,

that was the future I suppose

but today the clouds have parted and like the crescent moon

...

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Promise  Fun

Promise  Freedom 

Promise  Release 

Promise  Happiness 

Promise  Relaxation 

TWISTED MR ZINFANDEL

Brings  anxiety 

Brings  isolation 

Brings  lonliness

Brings misery

Brings  darkness

GONE MR ZINFANDEL

FREEDOM 

 

 

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At the time I was somewhat cold,     

A child doing as it was told,   

Sitting in the hut Dad just built,     

Not so solid, a bit of tilt,    

The rain dripping onto my head,  

Family there, us being fed,     

Avoiding spiders seen about,     

Waiting until we could run out,    

Back inside into our home warm,  

Before drizzle turned into storm,     

Yet now all I...

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Get out there and win the war, you slackers!

You’ve had tons of weapons from your backers.

They’re no excuse: defences, mines and tanks;

You’ve all you need to break enemy ranks.

Casualties? That’s just collateral stuff;

You mean you don’t know that war will be rough?

You know what they say: you can’t take the heat?

Vacate the kitchen and stare at defeat.

We’ve stumped up t...

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Relationships are very much like houses

Unless they’re built on a strong foundation

They will soon come tumbling down

 

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it's my birthday on OCTOBER 3RD. 

i will be 21. 

i've lived a little more than i ever did before.

i saw the inside of my head from a first persons perspective. 

i know who i am, but i am extremely scared to lose her. 

my sister is my soulmate and my friends are my angels.

my throat hurts more than last year from the cigarettes and the screaming. 

my heart hurts alot more than ...

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I was sinking to the ocean floor,

We were with two

Me and a child, surrounded by blue.

Connected with a thread,

I was swimming us both to the surface,

Then somehow,

The thread broke

And I watched as the child choked,

Sinking to the bottom

I was pushed above.

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It lie there near our planted flowers,

where it passed. Done with all the insect things

a dragonfly must attend to in the brief time it has.

And those wings! Like stained glass panels

still shimmering in the early Fall light!

 

Our dogs were curious too, but maybe

more interested in the motionless creature’s value

as a snack, or possibly something to play with – ewww!

...

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Greetings from Menton!

 

A town emerges, gently, house by house,

Out of my misty morning memory.

Terracotta rooftops naively painted,

Against the feeling of a bright blue sky,

Where outbound and incoming tourists fly.

 

Menton, where pale consumptives came to die,

Entombed in the hill-top cemetery,

Where, out of breath, I decided to sit,

By William Webb Ellis who, ...

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You can’t afford to pay your heating bills?

Well, here’s some hate to keep you nice and warm.

Aim it at them, and them; they’ve caused your ills.

With love from me to you; a firestorm.

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Before the night was frightened,

where the shine of a star meets the gaze of your eyes,

innocence is ever-closer.

My life pauses when you blink, as waves roll on.

A trumpet wails out a cry of hunger

drowning out the siren songs.

I fall from the clouds:

a helpless hurricane-vortex,

into a thunderous, freezing splash.

Absolved by her salt,

I drift under her surface.

...

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We’re All of Us – ‘The Puzzle.’

 

 

     It is not, a police state but;-

a state of ignorance where peoples

become a desperate for warmth,

   I look to the rings around an invisible -

  knowing the extraction to a vacant stone

     is near.

 

     Again, it is the coldness now

upheld in people that has the white lighter

  a rarity needing save,

     surrounde...

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"I feel so very happy when I go to school,

Life for me is wonderful,my teachers are so cool.

Their teaching makes me happy,their words make me smile,

Coming to school and learning,is preciously worthwhile.

 

Teachers stand by us in bad times and keep us safe from harm,

You are our Guardian Angels and our lucky charm.

You are much older and every day are there,

You bring us ...

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Night-time is my enemy, loneliness to blame.

Every single night, I always feel the same.

I walk into empty rooms, for something to do.

I listen to traffic, wishing I was in traffic too.

 

Up and down 3 flights of stairs I often climb.

For no other reason but just to kill time.

An empty house, void of laughter and cheer.

I shout out loud as it breaks the silence I ...

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I can go miles 

with someone believing in me.

So, speak into existence, 

those words I need.

 

I’m not kidding,

or play acting a pose,

this isn’t a hobby,

it’s me you see, exposed.

 

My time is here, and

I don’t want to stop.

Give me that shout,

dissolve my doubts.

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Spread your wings they say.

Follow your dreams they encourage. 

Light up the world they say. 

Give it your best shot they want. 

 

Lovely sentiments, strong words, 

designed to help us succeed. 

Form a life for ourselves 

and be the best we can be. 

 

but what about the people

who are struggling to be seen?

Not because of their academic ability 

but because o...

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Memories of the time some years ago when I did yoga.  (Old gits may remember Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over")

 

Our Leader had not an ounce of fat on her

So found it easy holding Shavasana

She started us with words “Just touch your toes.

Now you can try to hold the Lotus Pose”

But I am just an old crone

I let out a low moan

Tremors down my backbone

Aching...

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The hour is slim!

the time to entwine

with her and

with advantage inhale

the heavy offering

from between the jaws

of her open thighs.

 

Persephone's tasty flesh

renders her cleft

of wet truth-

she can slake this thirst-

can assuage my ache

when enthralled against

the serpent earth,

with legs knotted,

we lay tangled

in ancient ruin.

 

words a...

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A handful of heat, coffee tastes sweet in the bottom of the mug

Splayed out, dissected human bug, body chopped and tugged

Catalogue my suffering, patch me together with hemp twine

Ignoring every sign and warning, falling is soaring interrupted

A life defined as loveless, a body bled out bloodless

This mud is sticking to my brain again, no way to win

Don't you hate it when it don'...

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Happy days I’m by the sea

My four legged friends and me

Splashing in and out the surf

more exciting than boring turf 

 

Who cares if it rains or shine

This sandy beach is now all mine

Buckets and spades they’ve all gone home

Leaving us playing all alone

 

Thundering waves with walls of foam

Come on throw another stone

It’s here somewhere in the sand

I thought...

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The Invisible

 

I believe in what is unseen,

as a gentle summer's breeze

does rustle the leaves of sundry trees.

When a ship is leaving port,

it is soon out of sight

over the horizon or into the night.

Emotions are not readily visible,

a kiss, a caress are symbols only

of a feeling so often unsaid and lonely.

Our thoughts, desires and ideas

are manifest in deeds...

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we met on the upper deck on opposite sides, at the front of the bus,

she said it was her first time, after a long time. 

the old lady was at that fine wine age that made her look twenty years younger,

an elegant and fashionably dressed woman with a pink leather bag, 

but still seemed quite sad.

 

a reminicial expression on her face, 

as this was her moment to emotionally embra...

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We were sitting by the fire.

Healing our wounded memories

By sharing what we all remembered.

Laughing at what was serious, now funny.

We were whole and home. Home sweet home.

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I brace myself against the wind

I hold tight to the blades of grass

But the wind is too strong

And I am too heavy 

 

I bury my feet in the ground

I find the roots and don't let go

But the soil is loose

And the tree is dying

 

I lock eyes with the sun

I sing my praises to the moon

But it's too bright

And the moon is tired

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https://youtu.be/S7p8S0RsJKU?si=VPnTuCWx6OajMUdn

 

Climb aboard the 704 to Windsor

Great Grandad Ronald James is at the wheel

He drove the same Green Line bus every day in the Forties and Forties

Smog and chimneys gradually replacing the Kent and Sussex countryside

Walked home alone at 1am from where he left his bus at Woodbury Park Road in Tunbridge Wells

only to return a few...

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When a pure note breaks into true rhythm

When a song is sung for the wisdom

A high refrain makes a claim

Too beautiful for this world to sustain

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How do you react when you hear your favorite song? Mumbling words that you don't know on the car ride, Dancing out of context, Experiencing eutony.. You remember how that song goes right? Mumbling words that you don't know on the car ride, Messing up the lyrics on karokee night, You remember how that song goes right? Moving to the groove with alot of attitude Messing up the lyrics on karokee...

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stop throwing baseballs
for my neighbour's cat
his swing just isn't in it
and besides, I'm a little
worried for his fragility
he, being just porcelain

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Out on the balcony, they stood together
wind wild and rummaging through the trees
She wore nothing but the moonlight
So many wishes she could have made that night
As he wondered how she’d like it here
sewn to the pages of this brittle story

A character in a poem
timeless in a way
with him when he reads
but gone
when he closes that book again

One last act before their stories parted
...

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You bring turmoil and chaos
to my sea of tranquillity 
deaths of many courageous sailors
who battle hostile waves
and brave the angry tides
the memory of your face makes me blush
all the more because I dreamt it drowning 
in between my thighs.

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Sharp eyes gleam from yeasty bread

Suspenseful stars trick savage horses

 

Sephardic interlopers run thru the hallways of life;

tears are driving their day

creating my own judgement day again

 

All the world is weeping for the broken dreams

A distant ghost wandering the wilds

closing down behind us

 

Thinking grim thoughts on dark grim nights

Folding the piece ...

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Spellbound by some

prelapsarian utopia, 

a no-place, where

an anachronistic avalanche

reverses course, back

to its distal cause, 

and the sentinel

of an underworld

files its houndsteeth

into severe harmlessness...

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Play is for kids, full of fun and ice cream licks,

Play is for adults, full of plots and twists.

Play is for nuts and beams, a range of motion

Play (on words) is for writers, a new way of self expression

Play is always a liberating experience

But “playing my part” seems different.

It is confining, without a way out

It is limiting, with no words to shout

It is mundane, with ...

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As the mariner sinks softly beneath the white tipped foam

He dreams of shadowed woodlands 

In his County Antrim home

Where gulls rise in the sunlight echoing and free 

And bluebell glens descend in silver ribbons to the sea

And he smiles a gentle smile that lights up the space around

And recalls the love that once was lost but now is surely found

For the one who stayed beside ...

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These phantasms bordering on prayer 

Of some lost changeling with kohl eyes 

The disarray, melancholic and hellish beauty, still tempestuous 

Wild eyed and without the doctors reason and rule 

Because as you say of the ancient revellers, we may be satyrs now and again 

Midnight talk of callings and ancestors, and the earth so souled and alive for us 

the sea goes down into our ve...

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It’s only on the outside that I am old.

 

Inside

I’m a beach surfer

Running along the sand

Diving, splashing

Riding the waves

Running like I could run forever

 

It’s only on the outside that I am old.

 

Inside

I’m a heart breaker

A flirter

A girl chaser

A love making stallion

A beer drinking

Stay out later

No holes barred chance taker

 

I...

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When I'm recognised
as an enemy of the state
my dogs may survive the catastrophe
and don the golden collars of the tyrant
I say life was good when I leashed them
with lengths of rope I'd find
and dogs can never be happy with unjust masters.
Into the woods we'd wander where
soon will be a leisure paradise for a price
but heaven was unbranded when 
thin branches whipped our skin
as w...

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The older I get, the more I ponder what lies next beyond the enigma of demise. Could it be a rebirth dangling like a mantra, a garment woven from yesterday’s dream threads? Could this shell be like a butterfly, a transitory attire, destined to shed when we finally stretch back our shoulders?

Moments assemble around my awareness like mourners paying their respects, each bearing witness to life's...

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Face like stone

Hard to read

I find myself taking pride

In my totem pole

Of expressions, I can hide

Masterfully deceptive

Every bit secretive

All heart without sleeves

Makes it easier to breathe

But being naked

Really stripping off

And just letting everyone watch

That is true strength

True power

Is knocking down this tower

Being bare

Just a sk...

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They poured out of Haymarket Metro,

streamed up the hill through

the university towards the Start.

How they cheered Sir Mo Farah

warming up, in ominous, oppressive

heat. Mo the spirit

of the London Olympics over

a decade ago, when we celebrated

our country, the Queen descended

with James Bond from a helicopter,

the last time we felt good about ourselves.

The starti...

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I’m a talented fellow, full of grandiose claims, 
for instance, that I’ve climbed every mountain in the Lake District. 

So what, I included one which is only a hill,
and alright, I exaggerated when boasting about rescuing that adventurer Ranulph Fiennes.
You know the one, who walked across Antarctica braving snow and ice.

I didn't rescue him from an avalanche, or from plummeting over a pr...

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Golden windows
And golden walls. 
Silver back surfers
Riding through the fall. 
I'm here waiting 
Comiserating-
Why can't I stay in the Golden halls?

The trees are embers. 
There are apples on the floor.
I get the feeling 
death is at my door.  
wish I could stay in the golden halls. 

The golden halls. 
The golden halls. 
Wish I could stay in the golden halls.

This is about ...

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I love love,

And I adore affection. 

I just never received it enough, to know how to express them...

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You give me the crippling weaknesses
To seas the strength
To measure the distance
To go to the lengths

This is a movement
A wide and long view
Almost a song by me
A finite Wandering Jew

Don’t take my stories for symbolism
You obviously ain't be there
I'm building solid foundations
For my castles in the air

Try transform attachments to fine feelings
It's easier written than done
...

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Sometimes the sunshines in winter unexpectedly

Sometimes the person you thought was a friend turns out an enemy

People are not always what they seem on the surface

The man who made you feel like royalty

Suddenly makes you feel worthless

All the promised plans were just to pacify

The times when I felt appreciated have gone now I can't satisfy

I hope you fly high

When you do ...

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The lost nostalgia
Of past moments
That you wish you could've shared
With loved ones and close friends
That no one else will ever know 
That always made you think of them
And how you wished they'd been there 
Just to share that feeling 
But they weren't and now they never could be 
But still when you think those moments
They were there with you anyway
-SJF

 

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I’m trying to remember the moments I truly felt alive,

Like the time I ran in the rain, or when I got my first 'A’,

I’m trying to conjure up the feeling I had when I was on the sunroof of my friend’s car. We were going down the hill, and I was yelling, ‘GO FASTER!’, and he did.

I’m trying to replicate the love I had for myself when I moved to another country for 46 days,

And it was bea...

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Whispers rustle

Through the leaves

Bird wings unsettle

Summer air

 

Laughter echoes

Back and forth

Between the trees

Anxious dogs

Bark their unease

 

The sun

Has lost it’s midday glare

The skies cry ~

A storm is nigh

 

I guess it’s time

To say goodbye. 

C.K.23

 

 

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Sweet sting of truth… I only heard it because it came from you.

Better person

 

Laughter, when I was born of tears… oh, what a rebirth!

 

Of course you don’t get all the credit for my understanding of love; I spent many years as an autodidact cardiologist.

 

But it would be a capricious falsehood to say that I would be anything close to Me

without You.

 

You have call...

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With each beat, a symphony, a life's refrain,
Blood pressure's measure, a song we must sustain,
For in these numbers, a story lies concealed,
A tale of health, it's not to be concealed.

Know thy pressure, the ebb and flow within,
A guardian of life, where health doth begin,
With cuff and monitor, a humble guide,
We glimpse the secrets that within us hide.

Too high, a warning of a turbu...

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If you are feeling down or low or weak,
It often helps if you'll just speak.
So tell of all your problems and each trouble,
Otherwise you may find that they'll soon double.

So each niggling thought - you must now vent,
And don't rest until they've all been sent.
So be honest and do tell the truth.
As this is neither shameful nor uncouth.

Sharing problems shall get you on the road,
Bac...

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i’d lock myself up

so sealed away

in a tower, high up in the sky

 

away from all else

bleak, sorrowful peace

would give my own tears

time to dry

 

i could wake up alone

in this castle of hurt

and feel my dreams fade away

 

but the scene about us

where you stand at my side

is the one i still dream

to this day

 

i could hear the birds sing 

as...

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I got to amdit to meself 

There been nights I have been a mess, my head wouldn't settle in the nest

Oh then the mornings they be worse 

The anxiety the panic the feeling like am nothing and was worth less then that 

There where days when it would get so bad I just want to go to the best place the scars would plague me

To afraid of the here after but to afraid of the here and knew 

...

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conquer is conquering the mind
conquer is conquering the soul
conquer is conquering the energy
energy conquer energy
energy conquer the mind,body,and soul
a active soul is a active body
a active soul is a active energy

active is actively a body
active is actively a energy
the mind,body,and soul is actively a energy
energy honor energy
peace honor peace
peace conquer peace
peace is a...

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https://www.verse-virtual.org/2023/September/dupont-russell-2023-september.html

https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2023/09/five-poems-by-russell-dupont.html

 

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I can’t move on, I got lost in your soul, babe let me see the lights, I would pay the price, I would leave it all behind, I need a getaway now, would you like to take me to the summer end? 

I’ve never felt this trip before, the overdose is getting us, this flight is crashing down, the climax vanishes, and we’re running in a desert land. Why are you so afraid of clouds? I dried my heart for your...

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In the pages of our life, a promise made,
To stand together, in every light and shade.
A story unfolds, like a moth to the flame,
Two character like a wave in the ocean.

In a dance of emotion, you are my song,
Each step we take, forever we'll belong.
And as a painter, you're my brush, my muse.
In the canvas of love, our colors infuse.

Together we create, in this life's sweet art,
A ma...

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