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Category: Lines

Poetry, including verse and song lyrics.

Celebrity Nobody

Published on July 11, 2025

I don’t need to hang your poster.
You don’t need to worship mine.
I don’t need to have your autograph.
If you ask for mine, I won’t sign.
I don’t need your attaboy,
and you sure don’t ask for mine.
I don’t need my name in lights,
nor plastered on your picket signs.
I don’t need your plastic smiles
or superficial hugs.
I don’t need protection from
your loving, mindless thugs.
I don’t need to think you love me.
You don’t want my affection.
I don’t need you to approve me,
any more than your rejection.
I don’t need your picture in a frame.
We’re both too old to play that game.
I don’t need you telling me
inside we’re both the same.
I don’t need to share my secrets.
You don’t tell me yours.
I don’t need your vital essence
to keep my future visions pure.

I don’t need to tell you this.
You don’t even care.
I don’t need to say a thing.
You’re not really there.

11 JUL 2025

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What You See: triolet

Published on July 11, 2025

What you see is what you get.
Be careful since the eyes can lie –
a simple truth we often can forget:
what you see is what you get,
and once you’ve got it, you’re in debt
to those who’ve shown you what to buy.
What you see is what you get.
Be careful, since the eyes can lie.

You may not get what you deserve.
There is no fair exchange on high,
no sacred balance to preserve.
You may not get what you deserve.
The masters change, the source may swerve,
but we all live, and serve, and die.
You may not get what you deserve.
There is no fair exchange on high.

The only time you have is now.
There is no past or future tense
to look for or work through, somehow.
The only time you have is now,
and in this moment is allowed
the brief chance to experience
the only time you have is now.
There is no past or future tense.

11 JUL 2025

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Throw Me Something: terzanelle

Published on July 10, 2025

Just throw me an emoji, mister, if you like my song.
It only took me years to learn and drove my parents nuts,
because it didn’t start so sweet – that happened after long

and tiresome exercise until, somewhere deep in my guts,
I figured out just how to train my blistered fingers right.
It only took me years to learn and drove my parents nuts.

Along the way I learned the way to keep a tempo tight.
Despite being self-centered, I began to listen well,
and figured out just how to train my blistered fingers right.

It was not easy work, in fact, sometimes it was sheer hell,
imagining a world where art and commerce got along.
Despite being self-centered, I began to listen well,

and managed, in my own small way, to sing my simple songs.
I tried to find connections with those people who might hear,
imagining a world where art and commerce got along.

At some point, only recently, the point became more clear:
just throw me an emoji, mister, if you like my song.
I try to find connections with those people who might hear.
Just throw me an emoji, mister, if you like my song.

10 JUL 2025

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Ignorance <> Bliss: sonnet (terza rima)

Published on July 9, 2025

If ignorance is bliss, why are so few
of us enraptured by our current state,
imagining so much left us to do

and in a worried struggle with our fate?
That does not seem so blissful or serene.
We try, but often miscommunicate

and fail to share with others what we mean.
This leaves us in the dark, and quite alone,
afraid that our own shadows are obscene.

It does no good to live life like a stone.
The human spirit cries to become more,
to grow and learn beyond mere flesh and bone.

If ignorance is merely our cocoon,
we must try metamorphosis – and soon.

09 Jul 2025


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The Diamond Sutra: sonnet (Spencerian)

Published on July 9, 2025

What is an unexcelled and perfect light,
and who would recognize that state as such?
To judge it by comparison’s not right,
and once you’re past that point, there’s just not much

to measure with. No real yardstick or crutch
would be of too much use out there, beyond
the realm of seeing, hearing, and of touch.
How could you catch a ripple in that pond?

Quite honestly, too many saints are fond
of these imaginary turns of phrase.
The truth is out there past such simple bonds,
quite empty of both struggle and malaise.

Enlightenment? What do you hope to see?
Once there is no more seeking, you are free.

09 JUL 2025

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The End of the World: sonnet (English)

Published on July 8, 2025

Perhaps the world will end tomorrow night.
With so few sane in charge, that would make sense.
Besides, if the Cassandras have it right,
it’s way past time for sitting on the fence,

pretending that our waking up at last
can make a whit of difference to the tide.
What opportunity we had has surely passed.
Our only hope is to survive the ride.

And if the planet stops its steady spin,
it may be just what Mother Nature needs.
Once it’s called as a game no one can win,
who cares for a scorecard none can read?

If everything is ending, what’s the fuss?
There’s no more worry for the two of us.

08 JUL 2025

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A Soul in Cement: sonnet (sonetto rispetto)

Published on July 8, 2025

I will not live my whole life just to spite
one more imagined evil at my door,
some cloud determined to block out my light,
or leave my spirit destitute. No more.
Why be a tool for either left or right,
when a binary choice is still piss-poor?
You’re always wrong when you pick just one side,
and where you end depends on how you ride.

The truth that can be shown in white or black
is just one more illusion, just a trick
that gives you hope for something permanent.
Reality is change. Stop holding back.
Your life is not cement that will grow thick
and make your purpose more self-evident.

08 JUL 2025

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