Long Assemble Poems

Sappho fragment #155
translation by Michael R. Burch 

A short revealing frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

*

Sappho fragment #156
translation by Michael R. Burch 

She keeps her scents
in a dressing-case.
And her sense?
In some undiscoverable...

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I sung all the night with the Devil,
It seemed harmony had found itself spooning with dissonance
Not indeed needing to be one or the same
Yes—the light indeed could sustain itself in the midst
Of what then was...

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FICTIONAL BIO:

The missus asked me
(hitherto known as her bozo)
just mere moments ago
to craft humorous poem to glow
nsync with the shiny nose of Rudolph
keeping syncopated metrical flow
thus methought to crow
about being equally as foolish
streaking naked outside...

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Book 2
“Next we will use and abuse, the wedge of doubt.  To place a misgiving, a slight of hand, an apprehension into the day,  to mold the day thoughts of these apes, these...

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Fragments United In Perfect Imperfection
And all the smeared colours unite into white
	
All
     the
           little
       ...

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Big boats traffic people from pillar to post only heaven knows where it goes
Something fishy is transpiring in the sea, there is a unique smell for you and me. Little fish are brought in creates...

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DESCRIBE HEAVEN FOR THE BEAUTY

For the beauty of heaven Golden gates, made of gold;
Environment perfect temperature not hot nor cold;
Holy dwelling of the Most High Lord ;
For the beauty of heaven;
Can't even begin to comprehend...

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or The Mysterious Lost Love Quest
 

The old man dusted himself off and quickly started on his merry way
 this his last port was where his desperate soul sought to forever stay
Decades of sailing ships...

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Suffering and pain for our nation’s gain,
but no one recognizes what those before us went through
because in today’s self-centered society the only thing that matters is you.
They fought for their freedoms, rights, and happiness,
yet all...

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"The Deconstructed Lilith"




Decomposing from a past
left forgotten and buried 
under the weakness of the first man banished

from 
Her Forest,

She rests, bound in the arms of angst 
eternally suspended, 
invisible and unheard

gagged, Her spirit waits 
and...

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'Fragments and crumbs of life, all little pieces'

           John Ruskin   1853  




      FRAGMENTS OF LIFE

  ...

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the Universe, a self-defining everything
  but then, what of the Cosmos wherein we all dwell?
  that big bang blast, forever on a far-flung fling
  from beyond and within which, lurks heaven and...

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  In the meta-versed binaural wish song beats, 
skid row streets of the bottomless pits of Metropolis/ Thebes, 
you are quardoned off and printed in a likeness 
wronged-vaped, winged
to the wilderness by their covens,...

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Acute advice for those* who would be King from the THIRUK-KURAL: Valiarithal - K475
[*like presidents, prime and chief ministers, dictators or even modern-day "emperors" under the guise of revolutionary leaders of oppressed peoples]

Note: In this...

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No matter what you've done
 in the past
I was in Idolatry, greed, covetousness, love of money, 
I was Complaining, not loving God full of gluttony, 
High-mindedness, disobedience, lover of self, 
GOD LOVES ME

I put family,...

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First,
competing dominant patriarchs
become filled with climate toxic fear
about long-suffered win/lose evolutions
presuming Earth's great revolutionary Rapture.

Second,
hopeful matriarchs touch
and taste
and see
and hear win/lose suffering ecosystems
stubborn-headedly turning
to embrace western healthy aspirations in
with eastern wealthy respirations out
against nihilistic climate...

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Metre in the THIRUKKURAL: Kural 35 of Canto 4, a random example.

alukkaa ravaavekuli yinnaacchon naangku
milukkaa viyanra tharam (unrefined, given in the original state of  
         ...

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I am trying to compose a rhythm that everyone can sing, I am trying to compose a rhythm that everyone can join in. You did not go to school and you don’t know the golden...

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A LETTER TO MOM 1918
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


At Last Dear Mother, this Nightmare Will Cease
In a Few Short Hours There Will Be Lasting Peace
A  Full Armistice Will Go into Effect at Eleven
I Loathe These Soiled...

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Private Residence

Sign at the gate – no solicitors –
Beyond the rosewood door sanctuary in seclusion
Untouched by hands racing round
A face framed by chimes and alarms –
Measures of mincing minutes
Exiled with suitcases packed
To astral planes of...

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Villanelle: Remembering Not to Call
by Michael R. Burch

(a villanelle permitting mourning, for my mother, Christine Ena Burch)

The hardest thing of all,
after telling her everything,
is remembering not to call.

Now the phone hanging on the wall
will never...

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These are modern English translations of ancient Egyptian Harper's songs. 

Harper's Song: Tomb of Djehutiemheb
translation by Michael R. Burch

The sky is opened for you,
the earth opened for you, 
for you the good path leads into...

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What fear absorb the world when much of the story is untold, what fear absorb the world when the miracle is yet to unfold. The secret ballot is already unleashed and the people began to...

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“Whoso List to Hunt” is a famous early English sonnet written by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) in the mid-16th century. 

Whoever Longs to Hunt
by Sir Thomas Wyatt
loose translation/interpretation/modernization by Michael R. Burch

Whoever longs to hunt,...

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Reeds and dry mud walls,
Into whose crevices, weaving needles and knives are fixed.
Iron sheets of rust on top,
(The only modern feature!)
With leakages through which we can even visualize the sun,
Through which rain water and even...

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