Sinless Mirrors

By Paul Zeppelin

This book is the eighth collection of poems by Paul Zeppelin which deal with the unique philosophy and understanding of emotional and societal issues that affect a person’s life and ideas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781663250049

Paul Zeppelin

Paul Zeppellin incorporates the fragments of his lifelong experiences into an undeniably vivid and masterfully defined imagery which leads a reader into an exciting journey across the wide-ranged world of Paul’s poetic vision. His distinctive poetry must be heard from the first row.

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Copyright © 2023 Paul Zeppelin.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6632-5003-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-5004-9 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 01/19/2023

Contents

Foreword

Prologue

Final Flight

My Window

Fiction

From Within

Enthusiastic Reader

Gourmet Recipe

Wicked Whiff

Stubbornly Unbowed

Fragile Kinship

Ultimate Inmate

Green

Border Sheriff

Foggy Senses

A Riddle

Reasons

Hefty Drink

Fig Leaf

Morbid Wit

Lady Pig

Birthday

Nightly Breeze

Great Sapphire

Too Often

Canaries

Somber Night

I Slept

Literary Damper

Tunnel Ended

Happy Eighth

Fishless Nets

Homesick Traveler

Crying Candles

Nobody Follows

Crystal Ball

Too Far

Quiet Dove

Eerie Smokes

The Bucket

Unique Concern

Great Divides

Awfully Brittle

Near Me

The Letter

My Existence

Life

Daily Yarn

Augean Stables

Espresso

Brown Eyes

Parisian Smells

Spooked

Ripened Figs

Forgot

Wish

So Long

Human Lives

Innuendo

Another Epigram

Old Epigram

Epigram

Lifer

Cherries

Broken Mast

Santa

Thorns

Abandoned Craters

A Gap

Ailment

Bagels

Beer Truck

Bottom Line

Ceaseless Marathon

Compared

Daily Yarn

Eighty-Six

Erratic Sky

Exhausted Soul

Fallen Heroes

Fermented

Flying Kites

Forgotten Art

Genetics

Golden Dime

He Winked

Imaginary Wins

Infinity

Kitchen Sink

Linguistic Pulp

Millennials

Much Younger

My Tale

Naughty Wink

Name Engraved

Oops

Pinnacle

Protracted Childhood

Remember This

Roman Holiday

Steering Wheel

Ten Inches

Three Apples

Tomorrows

Trembling Shoulders

Unending Journey

Venetian Masquerade

Vodka Tsar

Wisely Masked

Wedding Carriage

Venus Stripped

Unraveled Quilts

Two Sides

Two Hooves

Town Sleeps

Tombstone

The Shade

Still Soar

Singing Swan

Revolutions

Predicted

Planet Earth

Orchids

Nocturnal Cat

Never Soar

My Word

Amazing Void

Ancient Dance

Anesthetics

Asking Price

Basic Math

Beaming Yolk

Beaten Paths

Blindfolded Truth

Blue Moon

Chancing

Childlike Man

Chosen Aim

Come True

Competition

Constant Dread

Cutting Edge

Dancing Candlelight

Deaf Stranger

Drift Away

Ego Wins

Entirely Free

Existential Despair

Fainted Light

Falling Snowflakes

Fated Roles

Few Thoughts

Film Noir

Final Whistle

Forbidden Fruits

Freezing Kiss

Gloom

Gloomy Downfall

Glowing Place

God Grins

Golden Idols

Has Gone

He Winked

Heavy Pestle

Homage to Pablo Neruda

Horoscope

Humble Bard

Impenetrable Wall

Incoherent Dots

Infamous Apple

Long Distance

Manners

Misty Caves

Moving Target

My Barge

My Dimes

My God

Nostalgic Pains

Older Broom

Others Cry

Regrettably

Remorseless Sinners

Revolutions

Seven

So Long

Something New

Squeaky Floor

Subconscious

My Tale

This Hook

Tightly Locked

Treasure Trough

Trusted Thief

Via Delarosa

Warped Mirrors

Wasted Chances

Autumn

Most Wanted

Simply Tangled

Almighty Puppeteer

Gambit

On Bail

Behind the Final Curtain

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Paul Zeppelin writes his poetry as a passionate but convincing stream of bright ideas, intense emotions, and laconic clarity without any taboos, whatsoever. He comfortably writes about Forbidden issues as religions, sex, politics, and ethics. His verses unearth the deepest layers of our beliefs and doubts, of our dreams and hopes. There is an ancient proverb: Only the mirrors are sinless.

Paul tried to be a cold-blooded mirror reflecting the world we dwell in, but quickly realized that his vibrant curiosity led him into a no-way-out labyrinth of, at times, dark conclusions about humans as such.

Being a pragmatic optimist, he often sees a ray of light at the end of his lifelong journey.

Judith Parrish Broadbent

Author of Golden Days: Stories and Poems of the

Central South and Beyond

P.S. I am eager to mention that Paul never hides his admiration of Irish and Russian limericks, lullabies and counting rhymes.

Prologue

I see my verses as a current of fresh, often unique ideas,

Tightly intertwined with our sincere and ageless emotions.

I hope you like to read them and cross the creek with care.

Final Flight

I don’t have all I love,

But I intensely love

All that I have;

A little more the feisty half.

At last, I am a self-indulging hermit,

I am a solo master of my final chapters;

Life was indeed a prearranged disaster,

And I have been a target in that strife…

I am finally and ceaselessly determent

Not to obey the stop or any other sign,

But win the race and cross the finish line,

Then weep at the enigmatic happy end.

I want more distance from the sun,

It only blinds me every day;

I want to be much closer to the moon,

To her caressing silver light;

Please, wait, I do my best, I run,

Please, wait, I am on my way,

I’ll see you very, very soon,

I am climbing the stairway’s final flight.

My Window

Aloneness

Doesn’t enjoy the rite of springs,

Aloneness

Is dispassionate and awfully quiet,

Aloneness

Comes when my cellphone is silent,

But the out-of-date alarm clock rings.

And yet, I offer my poetic craft

To those who appreciate my rhyme.

I pour a flow of my verses like a draft

For transient, but forever thirsty time.

The ardent drummer-rain

Is knocking tango on my window.

It sounds like a long-distance train

That leaves behind a hint of innuendo.

Fiction

I am a child of doubts

And a protagonist of fiction

Confronted by the miracles of faith.

I am the one who went to see St. Paul

I am still alive; the angels missed my soul.

The rhythmic knocking of the wheels

And rather gentle rolling of the train,

Let go the annoying tasteless meals.

I hope the lasting trip is not in vain…

When I arrived, Paul was on vacation,

I overlooked his train, it left the station.

My future is unknown and unexplained,

It’s like a tenebrous masterpiece,

Somewhat mysterious and luring…

My life is not a one-way street,

I am not a one trip pony,

I am not lost between he trees,

I am marching to my own beat,

As long as I remember, and even during

The heaven’s unintended acrimony.

From Within

The fallen angel made a single ripple

In the small pool below my town digs,

I heard what said a passing stranger:

"The more I learn about people,

The more I like the pigs."

Nothing on Earth is