Greetings, and welcome to my blog. Please check back occasionally to read my most recent musings. More from the mind of that mystical Celtic Bard of Maryland, “The Poet-Provocateur” ...
“My Collected Poetry” is now available at the Lulu Bookstore, Amazon, and Walmart.
“A Poet Too Late”, a chapbook, is also available. Contact me for details.
“There are many ways to write a line of poetry to convey a particular thought.
But, there is only one way that will resonate with emotion”.
~ D. W. Orr
“And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand”.
~ W. Shakespeare (Sonnet 60)
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What We Are Losing & Lost
September 11, 2026
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What a quaint idea that all once was —
Democracy for the many for 250 years,
To be dismantled by the few, for greed.
Marble memorials for the fallen in wars,
To be occulted by a ruler’s vanity arch.
Cheap transport for the common man,
To be threatened by greenhouse gases.
Instant information in your hand’s palm,
To replace your job thru art...
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An August Morning
August 12, 2026
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This is what I view from where I sit:
Two yards from me is a window.
Just outside that window, stand
An array of potted flower plants.
A Carolina Wren arrives with food.
He lands on the mid-level pot rim.
He jumps up to the next level pot,
Disappears deep inside the plants.
Buried amongst that pot lies a nest,
With a clutch of four eggs, a...
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A Clarion Call
June 16, 2026
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Listen now, my fair-haired lassies and laddies,
For a surprising, subversive is rising,
Who will shock all your mommies and daddies.
You sheepish beings, who range far and wide,
Fear not him, to come hither to divide.
German-blooded with subdued eyes of fire,
This Irish-souled rebel brings Truth to inspire.
His tongue speaks — as a rascally...
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Odyssey of the Sauntering Stranger
March 21, 2026
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Along a wooded pathway, a sauntering stranger,
Wrapped in a long, dark, trench coat, with a
Worn, chocolate-brown hat perched atop,
Traverses a trail of compressed, fallen leaves.
Decomposition thru bacterial decay, had already
Started its entropic labor, on the lifeless foliage.
A misty fog has rolled in after an autumnal drizzle.
Diffused...
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Go Lightly
December 21, 2025
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Be thankful for the Creator’s
Blessings, bestowed onto thee.
Grateful, to navigate through
Tribulations, cast before thee.
Tomorrow hides what it may bring,
Worry not, but be joyful, and sing.
Ah, ‘tis easy to say this very thing.
You preach to be merry with mirth,
Travel is treacherous on this earth.
Tread lightly, my friends, yes, Go Lig...
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Force Field Streams
September 21, 2025
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He floated about the room, with that wry smile,
Projecting quiet wisdom - Unnoticed.
Seemingly knowing what the others did not.
But these party goers are carefree and blind.
They spend their lives in suppressed desperation,
With a myriad variety of insignificant distractions.
The world is burning to the west. Is dry and thirsty.
The coasts s...
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A Generational Tale
June 22, 2025
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One tired old century closes - A new one begins.
Fire, war, and pestilence sweep over the land,
Causing great cries of anguish, for all in its path.
Why me? They ask. Because it is, my dear — it is.
Misfortune, with its companion Melancholy,
Pass their way down through the ages,
Mysteriously, onto the next generation.
Hidden, unknowingly i...
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Oh Lucky Me
May 11, 2025
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Oh lucky me, to find such a beauty as thee.
With elegant grace and such natural poise,
Heads turned thy way, of many young boys.
That gold hip chain sway would mesmerize,
The fixed stare, of this boy’s enchanted eyes.
Who with courage to ask for a dinner date prize,
That was accepted by you to my gleeful surprise.
It was soon to the altar we...
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Truth and Beauty
April 23, 2025
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You cannot stop this quest, of avaricious greed,
We must relentlessly push on, for fame, to succeed.
Time passes slowly but quickly, this we do not perceive.
Our fate is unsure, our gains so few, what do we leave?
Could we not pause ourselves, to stop a bit and wonder?
Or would we think that would be, an unforgivable blunder?
Ah, to be notabl...
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The Grand Awakening
March 21, 2025
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From absolute Nothingness, a Universe was created,
Filled with nebulae nurseries of dust and gas,
Destined by gravitational force to collapse, and
Forge into stars of an ever expanding,
Protective Universe.
Rocky and gaseous planets emerge as companion
Spheres to special stars, with sufficient elements
To sustain advanced life forms,
That l...
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An Offended U. S. Grant
February 05, 2025
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A persistent false claim, hard to endure,
Was a 2020 vote, that was stolen, for sure.
It was shouted all about — “Not on the level!”,
Four years ongoing, ‘til the next tallied
Vote yields, a doomed pact with the Devil.
So we enter that new year,
With dismay and valid fear.
Watch the tech oligarchy bend the knee,
Kiss the royal ring with s...
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A Poet Too Late
February 02, 2025
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Whittling, whittling a Creator-gifted life away,
Hoping this long pathway leads us not astray.
We heedlessly listen and follow the Man,
Believing he has our best, in his vast plan.
But the hourglass of fate, does not lie,
As we look back with regret, sorrow, and cry.
So much was wasted on frivolous folly,
And entertaining, relentless, jovial...
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Blowing in the Wind
November 06, 2024
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The vernal season of ‘25 has arrived.
Social unrest is fervidly fomenting,
Across this land of spacious skies,
From California to the New York Island,
Just as it was three score years earlier,
When the Answer was Blowing in the Wind.
The Democratic norm has been broken.
A Supreme Court adjudicates to coronate,
Lies and misinformation permea...
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The Silent Sentinel
August 04, 2024
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Just outside a picketed wood fence,
Stands an unassuming witness tree,
Stately and straight at 70 feet tall,
Providing annual summer shade
Across many years past,
For a family of five.
Casting the sad shade of the
Final moments, of a beloved
Spaniel, seized by a brain spasm.
But glad shade was there too,
When two forest fawns nuzzle,
And...
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Profound Questions
May 05, 2024
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She felt it. A Presence.
Something no longer of this time.
That has come, only to observe.
Far away in the distance,
Train carriage wheels,
Roll along steel tracks,
With their rhythmic, thumping cadence.
Overhead, geese in chevron flight,
Announce they are headed home,
As their honking melody fades into the twilight.
Soon, a canine howl p...
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My Blog & Poetry
The Poet-Provocateur
”The Man who sees well beyond the day-to-day Bullshit”
~ D. W. Orr
“To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion, all in one”
~ John Ruskin
© D W Orr