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©2008, Reprinted by permission of Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
THE OTHER
The dark-ending beginning
was in ashes and midnight,
and sweet smoke
Curling upward,
its tendrils measuring the distance
between knowing and the unknown.
It was between...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
AFTER A YEAR
Copper-lidded,
I waken
to
Circles unbegun,
unended,
Rings of sound
no one hears, and
Reality's undulations
Raze the edges
of disinterred dreams.
Compressed...
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such a burning love
ensures me a wonderful life
which offers constant joy
without a care
with heartfelt warmth
we’re safe and secure
knowing we can be secure
knowing it’s not forbidden love
feeling love’s warmth
gives my life
without a care
so filled with joy...
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Have you ever been to Sleepy Hollow?
I was at a very old tavern built as it was,
under an ancient oak tree, in time to see
a dark rider on a black horse, what a scare!
Have you ever been to Sleepy Hollow?
I was there for just one night on business.
After...
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Walking aimlessly through this life
Filled with so much heartache, so much strife
Im so lost within myself now
Theres no other way but down
Already been to my highest point
I guess now it's all low
So many tears stream down my face
You really put me in my place
Took me to...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
DAWN
It is five o'clock and I am
Alone with the morning
The cloak of darkness still shrouds the sky
But earth moves inexorably
(Sometimes I feel it)
Darkness surrenders gracefully
To the hues of...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
AUTUMN
I accept autumn
It follows green summer
and the willow-yellow-green spring
preceding it,
melting the sooty snows
of the unspeakable cold time.
Autumn I accept
Even as I embrace spring,
...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
DYING FIRES
Lighting fires we know will die,
Making sure bridges behind me still stand,
Silently the piper and his friends converge
with statements
for past services rendered.
My drummer beckons,
Far...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
SEPTEMBER
September's crickets are more insistent now
than the ones in still-remembered August.
They rub out calls in emergency sounds
Knowing,
as we do now,
They must clutch life close
and hold on fast
before the...
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As my years wind down to moments, the ache
The pull of life at its end, death washes over,
Red, black and icy cold, all sense’s cry
It will not end.
Suddenly a warm golden glow sparkles random
atoms to life, as vista, sounds echo and fill me.
The notes of song, voice a...
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So anyway I'm new to this whole blogging thing, and I haven't written a blog yet. Today I felt a need to contribute but while I searched my mind to find something clever or interesting to write I was at a loss. So I've chickened out and in lieu of something thought provoking I'm...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
THE CLOSET
They lie hidden there
in the closet of my life,
Those emotions of my humanity.
No place for them in the light
Because they are dark and deep
And would shock sensibilities
finer than mine.
So they lie...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
TIME TRAVELER
Time - space for one on a lonely sphere
Trick is to find along the way
A fellow-traveler who fits the space
Or one who can fake a fit
And stow away for the ride of life.
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
A FRAGRANCE
A fragrance forgotten
Flutters across your mind
Taking you back
To some other place and time
By feelings of the wordless memory.
The fragrance then vanishes,
Quickly, quietly,
Leaving you
...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
PRISONER
My prison was one without walls
My unrelenting jailer me
I did not know I lived in there
Till someone set me free
My prison was a dusty one
And cobwebs drifted lazily in my mind
Like a...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for author
SUMMER
Heat-waves shimmer off rooftops.
Lying there, drenched in sun
and soaking in the sensuousness
of summer,
Languidly drifting on waves
of the senses,
I have forgotten for a time
I am a thinking...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for author
RETURN
Dustbolts heave and billow
And we gag and choke
Kneeling harder to hope
for rain's respite,
Repair for unrelenting dry and wind
of endless parched summer
Wails of supplicants, hoarse and...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for author
PATIENCE
Before Time had been flung
upon the faces of clocks,
dry leaves and the sun
marked its passing,
But there was more,
so much more.
There was no beginning or end.
...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
THE BAYOU AND I
Heat-lightning punctuated
the crimson of near-sunrise
on my way to the Gulf.
The bayou,
Winding gently with the road,
was lined with shrimp boats
Still sleeping,
Their nets strung
and...
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© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
HALCYON
I knew the meaning of it
Long before I looked it up
to reinforce
my sense of knowing
I knew it meant special
in some way
I knew it meant peaceful or --
perhaps the better word --
tranquil
...
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Indian Magic
Lost my balance on a low cloud
over the valley that day
And fell by a fire
Built long ago by Indians
Who knew fire, and clouds,
and made them both by magic.
Magic can bring you
to the top again,
Atop the cloud
Made by the...
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©2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for author
Sentinel
Paths of rain-soaked,
blackened pines in patterns,
Like paths to perfection,
Descend the mountainside
to the valley below,
Standing as a dark sentinel
over a fresh damp earth.
They spill into the...
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October
Very still, the night is very still.
I hear the house breathing
in the stillness,
The alive sounds houses make
When autumn stirs them
out of summer's lethargy.
Floorboards creak
From some long-ago footstep
just remembered
And pale October spiders
Seek refuge in...
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Told Before
My lies,
Great transparencies
projected through the brown of my eyes,
Become sepia stories with the flavor of something old,
something told before,
And lull you
With the honesty of age
© 2008, Reprinted by Alicen Jay, nom de plume for the author
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CHARTED LAND
I float encaptured
in my own freedom
under a beheaded sky,
Nerves unnerved
by some Lydian rhythm
(a raking fingernail
across the blackboard backdrop
of blind eyes),
And grope unseeing, unseen,
for boundaries,
those neat squares of existence
thought to be....
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LEAVES OF LIGHT
It was one of those
crisp, early-summer mornings,
cloudless.
In the distance –
and you could see forever –
leaves sparked lights
from the sun,
each leaf its own light source.
The message was clear:
Summer is here,...
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Paint in Peace
I paint my way into a pretty little dream
out of pain out of worries away from misery
what’s going on behind the scenes you will never see
I won’t allow my mask to fall to be revealed to all
I smile before I shut the doors
I nod to acknowledge...
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Bloody Roses
Bloody roses left in vain to some,
but not me.
chained and shackled they remain,
to the flesh without gain.
viewing their hearts is no mystery,
they're just black and grey!
oh search all over and there is no pearl!
their hearts were just dust, blown away.
Gold...
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What makes The Empty Space unique?
With seven different community theatres in the Bakersfield area alone - not to mention all of the school and professional productions that come to town - it can be tough to keep up with our local theatre scene. And despite the various marketing tactics...
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Valentine's Day is around the corner and a lot of Bakersfield.com users are pouring their hearts out on our site.
As promoted in The Californian's Eye Street section, we're soliciting love poems from all you prose pros out there. Read a selection of submissions so far, or submit your own.
...
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Blessings is a reflection of Christian tradition designed into a contemporary and colorful art print. The image and poetry is ideal for presenting as a gift to anyone in need of encouraging words. Download Free and print with your computer software by visiting the following...
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Attention poets and wannabe poets: The Californian and Bakersfield.com are looking for a few good love poems to warm us up for Valentines Day.
So what do you have for us? A sonnet? A haiku? A full-on song? Click over to Bakersfield.com/yourwords to submit your poetry. And PLEASE include a...
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A Maid Before Tapestry
Gregory Clemens
In her sunlit morning room, she reads
again each word on perfect lips too young
to know a sweetheart’s kiss, her only letter from the man.
His words that found her on an afternoon
a full moon ago, she knows
His words...
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As many of you know, "Highway 99" is the seminal anthology of Valley poets, essayists, fiction and nonfiction writers. Published by Heyday Books's Great Valley Books imprint (with help from the James Irvine Foundation), it's the first book to anthologize the Valley's many accomplished...
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There's a gorgeous poem by Fresno poet Peter Everwine in this week's New Yorker. It's called "Aubade in Autumn," and it's the October 15, 2007 issue.
Everwine's most recent book of poetry is "From the Meadow: Selected and New Poems." It can be purchased directly from the...
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The INNER EAR Poetry Jam is a monthly event held at Fresno's Full Circle Brewery. It always takes place the 3rd Thursday evening of the month.
Forwarding this month's event announcement below...
From: bryan medina <freeh2040@yahoo.com>
Subject: Event reminder: The INNER EAR...
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Cross-posted from valleylitlist@yahoogroups.com
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Please distribute to any poets you know. Thanks!
The Philip Levine Prize in Poetry 2007
The Philip Levine Prize in Poetry is open to all poets except current
or former students or faculty of California State University,...
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For those poets out there..
11th Annual Tuolumne Meadows Poetry Festival
Saturday, August 18th and Sunday, August 19th
Parsons Memorial Lodge, Yosemite National Park
*Featuring one of Central California's finest writers and farmers, David Mas Masumoto, author of "Epitaph for a...
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http://www.pbs.org/moyers/j...
Again another eclectic evening with Bill Moyers,one that had me laughing while I cried.That is the most effective way to teach harsh subjects~the ones that would either crush our spirit or we turn away from in horror.
First up...
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It seems the brains of today’s society have been liquefied by television and the internet. Of course I'm one to talk being on this web site. But I'm hopeful that there are still a few literary nuts out there. I was curious as to what people are reading these days, I've found some...
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Suffering,
Bleeding inside,
Gut wrenching pain,
Won't go away.
Praying,
Hoping for something to take this away.
Crying,
Screaming,
Dying inside
My misery.
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Calico.3.1.07.carrie
Young and free
How could this happen
You lay there twisted and broken
Eyes wide open to the sun
Copper and beautiful
On hard pavement
To be passed under harder stares
I’ve watched you from my window
Following your mother
Leaping at your shadow
...
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this is rough but important stuff... will someone please follow up by posting happy thanksgiving bunnies or something? does give one pause, i think... there is a lot of work ahead to overcome so many of these things WSB says we should give thanks for...
http://www.youtube.com/v/C7...
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One of the most difficult things I encounter both as an artist myself and also as a Director and Producer is the "No, not this time" message.
It is hard to hear. It is even more difficult to say.
AND - as someone who stopped performing for thirty years, it takes courage...
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