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The Bittern

The bittern booms - 

in desolation 

Accent of wind - 

cuts through the reed

The flatland listens - 

to isolation 

In solo passage - 

upon the wind

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Late Halloween poem

On the night

I spied the ghosts

They did run away from me

I did call - to them all

Why do you run - in fear of me

But then I did hear - a wail to fear

Emanate from me

As forlorn I spoke

I am the ghost - and they

The living be

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One for Halloween

The night draws near upon me

In the shallowness of my breath

I wade the deepest water

Towards my finale rest

The sun does shine above me, but;

no shadow do I cast, 

for now I am the spectre 

That in death will never rest

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coffee

 

the eyes seek

the strong dark coffee

untouched 

gathering lights reflection 

a world into a world

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litany

 

morning litany

unheard - unread - unsung  

religiously 

wakening to a world 

of devout hostility

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barrage

 

the barrage flew

viperous words striking 

straight from the point - 

expected words lie stricken 

choking back all retort

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hues

 

the allure emits 

in hues from late night windows

the neon flickers

from the hordes of roaming eyes

exhorting into the night

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crucible

 

crucible of hearts

in the beat of your flames

in the molten flow 

of your passionate embrace 

our desire eats with hunger

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sun and moon

 

as sun and moon weave

on impending horizon

so I weave too - 

from the life of the sun    

to the ghost of the moon

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incessant

flotsam to jetsam 

life ebbs to the pull of time 

incessant decay

past fills with the futures

wave of actuality

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midnight

As you stare at midnight          

Sleepless eyes upon the clock   

do you sense with comprehension   

that; from this life you are lost

and as the darkness takes you

that your standing all alone

innocent and naked 

born from life, your soul

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pebble

pebble stone worn - 

etched indelibly by time

burnished of age -

geology closeted 

in the smoothest of rind

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fat man

as the fat man talks

lies jump - like frogs from a pond

skins slick - glistening 

leaping free to the world

spawning false realities 

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insatiable

death lingers - perched 

picking lives clean to the bone 

insatiable -

peering over your shoulder 

hungered for life to consume 

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autumn haiku

 

the birds nest -

fills with the hollowness 

of autumn

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friction

 

The petals unfold 

the breaking bloom of 

hairline cracks in fragile glass

the ringing tones - singing 

of friction pressed upon the lip

of silence

speechless words unspoken

moving eyes - stare back 

a multitude of gazes

fractured - the crisp sound crack

of shattered glass

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new dawn

the infinite dawn

pale light too the horizon

destiny boding

to the rise of the dreamtime 

of eternity’s extent

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catcher of my shadows

moonlight tethers me

so poignantly to the past

faintly to the now 

the catcher of my shadows 

caught upon its silvern thread

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narcotic

 

he spoke with voices

imbued with narcotic words 

supernatural 

rhythmic shaman chanting 

a world within his words

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Destination

I sent my invitation 

to the voices in my head

Then emptied out my mind

to weigh on what they said

 

I’m musing my responses

I thought I would be fine 

But I’m falling out of kilter

at least one step behind 

 

I’m standing where I should be

But it’s empty space and time

And nowhere is a place 

Where there is no paradigm 

 

So is this a destination  

...

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Younger bones

How age aches - for younger bones

firmer flesh

How wrinkles gorge - on smoothest skin

their harts content

And how my hart lives - for every beat   

for every breath 

For my love - my life - I breathe - for you              

 

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different windows

Beyond the door  

behind your face    

behind the wall

of paper paste

 

twisting hallways 

many rooms 

hidden secrets 

broken rules

 

in this maze

thats all of you

are different windows 

different views 

 

in these views 

you set the scene

the perfect moment 

the perfect dream

 

behind the mask 

the hidden you

masquerading 

to al...

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Arid

 

                         I see death

                     the form of a tree

               Dry, brittle, next to a river

                  bed writhing in motes 

                   of                      dust

                     A ballet of breeze 

                          Time swirls

                         the arid world 

                              unseen

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Fates do fall as rain

The chick does fledge in aspiration

full of hope and expectation 

but fate derides its innocence 

cuts short its life with ambivalence 

from nest to grave it briefly flies

never too adorn azure bright skies

and how the fates do fall as rain

upon our lives to ordain

those of whom will adorn no sky

those of whom in azure bright will fly

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Embryo

Before darkness I was silence

Serene within my thought 

I lingered

 

in absence

 

Whencesoever I came 

This immortal thought 

Before statutes of time

I dwell in and beyond

 

mortal minutes

 

I will sing of lullabies 

To my sweet children

Wheresoever they go

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Survivor

In the chaos of the time

When fruitless words have fallen

to aria of wind 

When the end dictates 

the beginning of a virgin earth

wiped anew with destruction 

In the residue of life

Where will the memories lie

of the child, of the youth 

and the wise old man

 

In the hand of death in the eyes that see

In the eyes of you and in the eyes of me

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Stone

this was the eleventh hour

cool words upon your breath

the nights chill spoken

edged with, stones cold caress 

no ember flickered 

no last minute redemption 

the twelfth hour struck

with the hand of the guillotine

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Haiku/senryu

Your thoughts 

Grow tangled like vines

But flowers still fruit 

 

Your flavour lingers

Although I spat you out

Bitter on my tongue 

 

Chained...

Freedom just a hope

Within your eye

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Didactic (tanka)

I’ve chosen my world 

But hear your constant preaching 

exhorting with snarls

In your didactic speaking

The dogma of oppression

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Haiku...

Moonlight falls

on the sky

Of your dreams 

 

In nighttime Breeze 

Candlelight flickers

Shadow into light 

 

rose upon the water 

decaying in the stream

A soul without a shrine

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Gull

how the calm sea roars

deep in lamentation 

depth and presence beating

to storm upon these shores

and how the foul wind hungers 

to taste acrid on my lips

lungs aching for salvation 

exhale the screeching gull

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Senryu/Hailku

darkness withers too

The echo of your footsteps 

they are immortal 

 

You reach for the sun

And lose sight of the moon

Consumed like a moth 

 

A different world

Moonlight shinning through 

Your open window

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Tanka ?

Within my grave

Twisted upon my face

The smile of death 

As you slip away

Forever silent in my night

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Mind

In deep pools of stillness 

I drink of time 

as spherules drop

to ripple

Life’s reflection 

Seconds dance forever

Briefly stretching time

Eternal drops of motion 

spilling through 

my mind

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Senryu 1

Clouds running leeward

Far; stretched to the horizon

Freedom for the eyes 

 

Cherry blossoms fall

Softly upon the water

Flowing through the soul 

 

Willow dappled light 

Dances lightly on my soul

Always in my hart

 

Nightly you appear 

To masquerade as moonlight 

deceit in your stealth 

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Wind Birds

 

Where rivers flow from mountain falls

In the mist where myths do enthrall

Of wind birds high in still blue skies 

To glide aloft in pale sunrise 

With haunting cries the wind birds fly

Silhouettes in towering sky

With beat of wings the winds are borne

Across the lands and seas as storms

Upon the lands strong trees do bow 

Against the storms the winds bestow 

Upon...

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Three Senryu (I think)

The penny’s that drop

Resonate in the cavern

Of what we have lost

 

There are no phantoms 

Just ghostly consequences 

Of past endeavours 

 

With breath there is life

With life there is awareness 

With awareness, self

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Crimson

I feel the glint 

The sparkle to the edge

Razor sharp, lancing through 

 

Penetration of the intended 

 

The verbal lancing of your boil

Of the festering puss

The discharge of your resentment 

 

The relief you have, I need too

 

Eyes  rage

Faces bloom, the crimson colour 

Of hate

 

We fail to negotiate 

 

Fists fly

Blood splatters

We both...

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The seer

air hangs close upon his skin 

the feel of fervour ushered in 

by weave of word and chant of spell

time does wane and stillness well

and in the well he sees of time

of realms perceives and fathoms minds

 

the air hangs close ushered in

the feel of fervour upon his skin

he walks through realms in desolation 

feels the madness of annihilation

the seer sees of chaotic...

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Ballad of the Willow

I sit beneath the willow 

As it weeps upon the wind 

With trunk forlorn and hollow 

Where hart wood used to sing

 

Of folklore and of heroes 

Of villains and brave kings

Of beauty and of honour 

And all such noble things

 

I sit beneath the willow 

Where hart wood used to sing

With boughs forlorn with sorrow 

Just whispering on the wind

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To purloin with finger snatch

To steal of riches

With fingers to be adorned 

Filching fingers grasp

With deceit of wily touch

Golden rings to be adored

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The Last Sirocco

This light that binds, this ether of sun

Heat, bleached upon the bone

That, that leaves no shadow  

no air on which too draw

writhes, as wraiths upon the wind 

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Into life

Into this life you where branded

Pulled in, to the flesh of the world 

Escaping oblivion 

To fall, victim to love

To be torn by emotions, shaped to fit

Or distorted and squashed 

Fed to the wastes 

that feeds with ravenous hunger

To be devoured, subdued

excreted from life

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Sleepless

Reflection, shuttered in

a dark room behind my eyes

Heart beats, breathe

Beating through my mind

Troubled is this nighttime

To rest but never sleep

I hear you sing inside of me

Mnemonic one more time

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It and I

You whisper within me

Born from myself

Of my shell

To stare out of me

into my face

With brooding eyes 

 

I see your mastery of me

For me to change

to the face of you

of a creature 

that passes from within 

Maleficent and immoral 

 

To return unashamed

To settle within 

To hollow the shell

Is your face my face

Am I the creature 

That whispers...

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march

He walks in time on withered legs

The weight of life and death upon his back

And around his neck a pendulum hangs 

Swaying to his beat 

 

He sows, he scythes gives love and grief 

The steady pace of time 

And lives he reaps to history’s keep; 

Succumb to the march of time

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child like

the snow whispers, gently falling 

a child like dream revealed

Crisp white snow 

upon a starched white path 

To a wonderland I will go

To make a footprint 

To slide along

To build a snowman 

a carrot for his nose

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The red wood

 

 

What can I give 

that you have not taken

In the red wood I followed 

withstanding fear

And bled true passion 

from within my heart 

The hart you betrayed 

to use against me

 

You corrupted

what was freely given

Deceive and abused

what once was love

As blood bleeds from 

that cut to the throat

My blood for

your existence 

 

As I fall i...

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Ochre

Ochre stained thoughts 

fleshed to the rock

finger withdraw 

from the space conceived 

Here, I am this space 

But you know me not

But in millennial you’ll see 

with intrigue 

That once I was here

And wonder of me

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Do not wander into this fearful night

Do not wander into this fearful night 

For he who covets darks eternal life

Will bid you aside from gods lucent light

Into the domain of eternal strife

 

Do not wander from the refuge of light

Do not wander into this dreadful strife

For he will deceive with all of his might

To lead you away from god lucent life

 

He who stands within the darkest shadow

and fears th...

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The falling man

The form breaks in vibrant heights 

To fall like stars from heavens sky

And visions writhe as scarlet tears

Torn by thorns of others eyes 

 

Malign words rake your maladies 

The Dissolution of your mind

Word for word of your mantra built

To fall as dying stars

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limpet

Must I await you 

Cleaved by emotion

Like a limpet 

to a rough sea wall

 

Do I await the tide 

Though it ebbs

To a distant shore

 

Surely as moon and motion 

Move the vastness of the sea

Surely my emotion 

will bring back the world to me

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Sagacity

His voice was laden

guttural sounds heaving words

the weight of lead

Sagacity spoke 

winnowing lies like chaff

from the grain

And within his mind fell depth

a deepness

welling from the soul 

pouring forth his wisdom

softly spoken in dulcet tones

His eyes smiled; veracity

Of truth Sagacity spoke

Gentle with a giant touch

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Chaffed

His voice weighed heavy

guttural sounds, heaving words

of weighted lead 

Winnowing life to the grain

Chaffed with dark humour 

His eyes smiled; an edge of wisdom 

Gentle with a giants touch 

Wrought from; the fire of life

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