Freedom Elegy Poems

Hundred steps I made
From soiled ground to the bridge of cursed shade

Three dungeons of heroic souls
Locked up over four hundred in shoals

Living souls of eddies...

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Old Persian expedition of eight ships
Eight hundred soldiers on board with whips
Traveled and obliterated Aksumites of good gesture
People of worship, peace and humane nature

Aksum of...

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Until the blood
   Flowing in my veins equals
     The blood flowing in theirs 
 The cry for freedom
 ...

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A tyrant's reign is like a storm
That leaves a path of fear and dread
It brings destruction and despair
And fills the people's hearts with dread

The tyrant's...

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Young hallow, how long will you let this one?
The brewing of Dizzying Falls,
The perching of your quiet screams.
The Aching, Panting Frowns that steams stiffness from...

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A patriarch, legend, family man,
A moral compass,
An arc of proprietary leadership
With octopus creeping advancements
Inducing pomiferous effects
Africa’s epitome of
Struggle against racial oppression
The Great Madabe :
An iconic...

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These are my modern English translations of sonnets by the French poet Stephane Mallarme.

The Tomb of Edgar Poe
by Stéphane Mallarmé
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Transformed...

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The idyllic painting

I remember it well
The dirt road
The neglected
Domestic landscape
Growing wild
Tall
Ongoing battle
Freedom
For the strongest
I walked
Into the painting
Wore clogs
Yellow dust
Behind me
Going north....

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Yesterday,

It was just yesterday in September,

He was laid to rest in golden casket,

Though he lived a golden life to deserve more.

Yet as men do,

The celebration...

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The Panther
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

His weary vision's so overwhelmed by iron bars,
his exhausted eyes see only blank Oblivion.
His world is...

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Mortuary is a place full of hope
They pray for an opportunity
That one day they go there
To live forever quiet peace
In freedom from noisy men
And troubling...

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When the imperial waves
came rushing in,
century after century upon 
kneel capitulation
The khanate carnage
was pale tears
in a vassal vale devastating —
What a Caucasus burial field

O how...

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Courtesy of one or more tradesmen, 
first Monday in September set aside
for employees able, eager, ready 
and willing to acquire money 
to marry groom or...

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Transcendent meditative
ascendance assuaged
deep sleep grogginess resultant
resounding residual REM cycles
profound dreams decreasingly faint grip
fading fast, yet...

after effects heavily linger
courtesy toehold subconscious sojourn
oft times mentally exhausting,
nonetheless requisite...

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Two hundred forty two
(12.1 score) years ago
countless stripling soldiers
strapping farming homeboys
healthy agrarian lads
raised among generations

in summer re:
offspring original settlers heirs
family acreage encompassed
wide uninterrupted forested swaths
across...

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