In the land of lost content, irregular shadows play,

Stronger memories are now fading in the light of day.

We've harvested all those yesteryear fields where dreams were spent,

Whilst on the wistful journey to the land of lost content.

Through autumn's fallen leaves, through libraries of tales untold,

Wayward laughter set in a gallery of smiling gold.

Where your pou...

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Jim was on his way to a sheep auction in town,

Unfortunately his truck full of sheep broke down.

Jim guided the sheep,except for one ewe,to the sale in Blackburn ,

But got a fine through the post for making a ewe turn.

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Writing a character reference
for a friend
for someone I thought I knew
to mitigate their crimes
to ease them on their future journey
humbled, kneecapped and sore
Two thoughts spring to mind…

What good have they done
and how can it be expressed
Were they always the first to lend a hand
were they always there for those in need
Which of their actions
should I recall and paint in colour
...

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All adults may easily pick and choose
To stay sober or to drink some booze.
It can make us silly or even absurd,
As we giggle with our every word.

Should we indulge in those drinks we crave?
Though it may change how we behave.
And with alcohol we may soon find
The huge effect it has upon our mind.

So whilst it may take our sense and fear,
The effect in time shall disappear.
And while...

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Homeless, hopeless

figures below the radar

invisible, divisible

scant on comfort

at the blunt edge of hope.

But we all know there should be a home

a hearth at which to sit, make the best of it.

Without such a place we lose our hearts

with nowhere to rely on

a perimeter without a centre

a view without focus. 

We all know there are not enough homes to go ro...

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I am truly blown away by the poems I have found

With provoking thoughts, emotions, or an aspiring phrase

Written imagery from people who absolutely astound

I wish to comment but fear the words sound like hollow praise

A tapestry of emotions woven with the thread of living

Raw beauty in written exposes originating from the heart

The culmination of our essence, the sum of our being

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Ghazala Lari, a shining star✨
With grace and beauty from afar💫
Her eyes like pools of liquid night🌠
Her presence fills the room with light 🕯️

Her voice, a melody so sweet 🎶
It carries on the gentle breeze 🍃
A poet's heart, a soul so pure ❤️
She weaves her words with skill and lure 🧶

In her presence, time stands still ⌚
Her laughter, like a gentle rill 😂
She captivates with every glan...

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It strikes me that this little prick has got away for quite some time now with some serious red-washing.  So it falls to Yours Truly to subject it a little revisionist challenge.

Let’s start with Rudolph’s isolation.  He would have it that he was excluded from the other reindeers’ games, clearly trying to elicit sympathy from a more gullible readership.  Indeed, if the reason was down to bullyi...

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When I look at you all, I don’t see

I don’t see the barriers others may see

Others may see what they want to see

What they want to see, I don’t

I see people for who they are

For who they are, I see them

I see them as the same you see

You see, everyone is equal

When I look at all the wars, I see suffering

I see suffering in many peoples eyes 

In many people’s...

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I like the people I hate 

they have their points

they have their say 

they go about their lives

the opposite of mine 

sometimes I can’t find 

the differences 

at which time 

I hate the people I like 

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            December

December is a troubadour singing in celebration

of vanillla-ice skies

snow-cone hills

frost-sculptured window pane

of crackling fire

steaming hot chocolate lamp-lit reading chair

of children laughing,

dragging homeward pine tree

decking it with kindergarten art

candy canes, and flashing lights

hanging hope in a stocking

saying pray...

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Flight fearlessly taken,

An escape from this reality.

Too scarred to face

The heights of idiocy,

The lows of idiocracy.

Facing up to a void.

Nothing to fear

Except fear itself.

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Wake in the morning

arms stretch up to the sky

and down to the earth.

Light is invited,

and in a single breath,

light arrives,

an eager friend

illuminating all.

Praise to the light,

praise to the dark,

arriving and leaving,

as with breath,

as with all--

death is a friend,

life is a friend--

illumined by light,

is there even a difference?

Yes, of c...

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The owl and the pussycat, the porpoise and bear

The fox and hound, the tortoise and hare

One day in the Spring in the open air

In the pool for a swim went the tortoise and hare

Said the tortoise  to hare, ‘I really must ask',

As the hare took a break from swimming on past

‘In case you are blind or simply can’t read

Each lane has a name correct for its speed’

Thought ...

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النكبةAl Nakba: Day 27,375 and Counting…

With client hacks,

quiet words in ears,

he loves the craic

at working lunch

with the journo sewer,

making numbers crunch,

his purging list,

is at the ready,

on power pissed

he’s biding time,

and keeping steady

the applecart,

election ready,

to be off like a fart,

the lobby’s man,

so quiet when

it suits him ...

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Where on earth (or space) did we come from?

What intrepid seed made us be?

I like the idea of God

But, my mind's eye won't let me see

They say we're all made of stardust 

So, perhaps, there lies a clue

Just molecules & atoms congealed 

From the old primordial stew 

Were we once nebulae or quasars?

Drifting upon solar winds

Dancing to songs of the universe 

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Why do they try to murder Ukraine?

Why do they turn their hatred on us?

Why do they dump their anger again

And then feign surprise at all the fuss?

Why do they slaughter the best of our youth

And try to efface all the signs of our past,

Pretending to be the masters of truth,

Denying their part in each deadly blast?

Why do they wish to hollow us out

Why do they ...

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Napoleon wanted to buy them
And if it wasn’t for Elgin’s divorce
The Government might not have acquired them
At half the price, of course.
He told them that he had a firman
Although its veracity’s in doubt,
He said I’m telling you that the Sultan
Said I could take all the marbles out.
He was going to keep them in private
If it wasn’t for his divorce
Byron thought he was a pirate
And the...

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Ghosts of the future

Can inhabit a computer

He spent half his life

Playing video games

The world of e-gaming

Is his afterlife domain

I stared at that ghost

I stared so very hard

'Cause I new that that ghost

Wasn't from my graphics card

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He needs your heart

But not for love

That he gets from any woman

He just needs a healthy heart

For a patient in his family

And so also your liver and kidneys

You may just have fever

Once you are in the hospital

His work is done easily

He has recruited his agent doctors

Who will conduct surgery at a plea

Charging money for transplanting

Your healthy heart, liver ...

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I will take the crispy  toast

and get the milk

from the fridge and

put it back

And I looked at you

moving

As you smiled with dishes

In your hand

And I watched knowing

That even in this room
I missed you

And I held a hand

To your cheek
And
I ached at the
thought...

Tommy Carroll

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A Dense Fog

A dense fog pervades the atmosphere,

obscurring any sight of the nearby volcano.

Yet it's presence could be felt,

as the earth trembled with sulphur and cordite

 in the fetid air.

I could hear the sound of the nearby ocean,

a valve through which escape was possible.

The land was dark and foreboding,

no canopy of stars could be seen.

I stood alone fear...

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Let’s away to the mountains
to the music of loss when elegy-tossed
the sun above us burns mists away
as we walk back to the valley of youth. 
Today, I walk the blue moutains of forgetting,
just above the far-horizons of sight,
no closer after five days of tramping the fields;
I keep going and going whilst knowing futility
in every pore, I just keep heading
for the rising sun or the waning...

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Winter trees are spindly spare -

Like old men in their show;

Shivering in the brittle air,

Bespoke in coats of snow.

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

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My motor car crept along, under the majestic shape of Co. Sligo’s prominent mountain, Ben Bulben, covered in an ominous black cloud, as I and the wife explored Yeats’ Country.

We filled up at Betty Hanharan’s, with a huge pot of tea to follow,
and met an old chap called Brian, whose delight it was to visit such a splendid county.

‘I’ll buy you a glass of stout,’ he told us,
‘down the road ...

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I had meeting once with the powers that that think their all that 

Something about performance they said, is how there settled in and that 

They asked many questions 

I just smiled and nodded hoping they keep on paying me 

Cause that's the game my time for your money 

So I can go on spend on Spills thrills the odd pill and a new pair of kicks 

Just to fill the avoid  to fill the ...

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Coconut oil suntan lotion
slathered on my skin.
Motion of the raging ocean
a fire brews within.
Adirondack on the boat deck
letting the sunbeams in.
My note to you
in a closed glass tube
I sent it for a swim.
The day you find the note I wrote
will surely be my end.

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It's been a long go 

Some projects just take time 

With a little prayer all the pieces arrive just when they should 

I've never been a rich man through the ways of money

But I have always been rich through the ways of relationships

Which in my ponderings I have found is the nature of the universe

For that reason I put forth and find positivity in all people

The construct of th...

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Riding our bikes along the levy trail,

the willow tree’s branches

hang low over the path

in the early afternoon haze.

I reach up like a thief

to grab a handful of leaves,

mischievously tossing them up in the air.

As they scatter and float in the wind

behind me, riding through them,

she reaches out to capture a few.

Later, the rescued leaves

are a...

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Harsh and dangerous years
grey pebbles encased in ice
seasons in their perpetual cycle
visit yet to gather their tithe.
Black covers of a book slammed shut
epitomise time here where we are
thankful of sleep as the hours may pass
but think too of the unconscious loved one
that precious time you realised, dumbstruck
they had fell from the heavens for you
a pristine figure you had to reac...

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I think I left the door open -

At the back of my brain

And you got in there

and stole what’s mine. 

Implanted thoughts of you

in every small Corner and Crevice,

Burrowed your way into my subconscious

Until I could never forget you. 

I think you slammed it on your way out -

One last defiance,

One final fuck you,

Jammed it shut so no 

One could enter again -

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and so the sky split above her. 

the sky that held her world and all that she knew. 

it fell, 

it fell for days and months at a time. 

she built forests with trees as high as she could imagine,

she asked them to sow the sky back up. 

and she played her music and she walked on,

she traverses the planes of her life.

but the sky is still split, and all she knows or knew is sti...

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Slip into the river

Through the silver door

The sun is setting 

God like fingers of light

Filter through blood clouds 

Playing the keyboard of fields 

Raising the earths chorus 

As all prepare for sleep 

Monochrome moon lays its hands on the shadows

Cooling the air 

Suspension of reality 

This is the world of Things

Skulking in the blackest pits 

Stealing awa...

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Most beautiful dragonfly you ever did see.

Descends to land upon my left knee.

We looked one another deep in the eye.

Then with a wink, it flew away into the sky.

www.deanfrasercentral.com

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my instrumental album: https://cbyrne.bandcamp.com/album/samples

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Think twice or thrice if you wish to stroll,

And be merciful to your pitiful soul,

With many things ahead,

Than what one can think,

Where each of it awaits,

To make you sink

With sanitizer in hand and shielded with a mask,

You are a soldier on task,

With regular thermal screenings

And quick swab tests

You are seen doubtfully

For the traces of the unholy enemy ...

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The October sky caved in all around me,
Like a blanket without contact.
I stood stagnant in the dark, aware and somehow unafraid of all that lurked among the darkness.
If I ran now there would be no escaping the guilt, but if not now then I never would. 

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They’ve identified our golf club

for returning to the wild

It’s to become a verdant Eden 

For every adult, dog and child

A place of natural splendour

Where no groundsmen smoke or hunker

Sheltering from the elements in the deeper fairway bunkers

No more Pringle sweaters in pink and blue and grey

No more Captain’s Prize and no more Ladies’ Day

No more midweek medals o...

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together

thru all the glue

filn history's glossy cracks

and all the pines

from wane to wax

we were(are, perhaps)

moonrise bent

lain with backs

pressed on tarmac

slid red, long

longer than we thought possible.

dream-licked heads

shattered and spread :

painted lines on painted lines

on

painted lines

down along this serpentine road.

without a motion ...

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As the cockroaches flee,

Do you feel like a god?

Or do you squirm in your skin,

And let primal urges win?

Benevolence, for a thing of ill repute

Malevolence, for a thing of beauty

Built from the carrion of creation

Built from the decay of a nation

As the cockroaches flee,

Do you feel like a God?

The power of creativity

Held in palms fiercely,

As t...

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Oxford Road train station
Asking me do I have
A spare cigarette
And I smiled ill at ease
And said
‘I don’t smoke’

He then asked do I
Have a spare can of Fosters
And I shook my head
Surprised slightly
Said sadly not.

He then asked did I
Have a
Tin of beans
And then asked
Did I have a spare silk tie
Both of which
I said I didn’t like beans
And I don’t have a tie.

With a nod,...

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Once I was an objector, I was a pacifist.

Once I was a protestor, I was an abolitionist.

Once I was a demonstrator, I was a militant.

Once I was an opposer, I was a dissident.

Once I was an activist, I was a picketer.

Once I was a nonconformist, I was a dissenter.

Now I’m a snowflake-worrier, an enemy-within extremist.

A social-justice warrior, must I be made a conformist.

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Without so much as a thread of decency,

Antoninus Elagabalus, high priest

and mother’s boy, made biographers weep.

Proponents of discipline almost choked,

repeating the syllables of his name.

His sculpted head is unremarkable

and bears no trace of his supposed excesses;

the muddled genes of his outlandishness

those of a handsome kid who, like the best

of us, w...

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Late November, 

early December. 

The blood-spattered dress. 

The shattered lenses. 

Across the years 

same shock and tears. 

Rifle skills into practice. 

Imagine such riches. 

The Communist, the Christian: 

two fame-jealous hitmen. 

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I turned the volume down so I could hear you.

Everything is still too loud.

Too many voices, and not the one I needed to hear.

I want to hear.

Mourning that lasted for nine hundred sixty four days.

Salty tears soaked waterlogged greenery.

Droopy head. Droopy leaves.

Pruning a root bound plant

Repot. 

Acclamation felt like dormancy

Dormancy was intense

Lef...

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A storefront window

dissolving echoes of truth

eternally etched

in the minds of old youth

sits centered

on a mossy brick facade.

Those passing by

never see what’s inside.

Though honestly,

that’s by design.

Perpetual dissonance

behind the arched cedar door

with its inside, not out

weathering more.

And the old cobblestone road

leads to long...

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Let’s act all crazy

Forget being lazy

Dance to the tune

Fly high like a balloon

Not looking around

Just moving to the sound

Heart racing faster

Becoming a master

Chill out and party

Feeling very hearty

Work is never-ending

Orders always pending

So just shake your body

And be a little naughty

Laugh and be silly

Life is like a beautiful lily!

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Secondary not one more,

Be thrilled to be here,

He steadfast manner and held hand high.

Can't say you didn't see it,

Can't say you didn't hear it,

But the eyes see deeply at night.

Not that it matters,

What little remains,

A remnant of a forgotten peace.

In desecrated corpses we lay,

In a future world set aside in lenient light,

Edging more to the li...

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Poem my creation

Haven’t you pondered on wonders

Do you not question genes of your origin

Well, DNAs of your composition do vary

Process and placement do call for art though stylish

Conception of your form is meaningful though arbitrary

Conceived to whispers of stimulative thoughts

Born to scribes of ink onto faces of paper sheets

Revealed to sight in trace marks ...

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