Long Assemblies Poems

I feel like a high school civics class dropout.

So much confuses me,
to this day, you see,
about democratic constitutional legal equity,
which feels like it should have WinWin original empowerment intent,
about public and private rights, unbent
protected against...

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Leonardo more than a Renaissance man
artist? yes but - 
sculptor? yes but - 
musician? yes but - 
anatomist? yes but - 
cartographer? yes but - 
scientist? yes but - 
engineer? yes but - 
inventor? yes...

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Ode To ‘Mother’ Creator ©
Not only is it a marvelous happen chance in being able to have ‘shares’ in Mother Nature’s flora creations 'first hand'---
But, we are then granted to sit before her, these ‘set...

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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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People need free societies, but I am not referring to the deadly monstrous global pandemic! They need freedom of expression on line and/or in person.
And they need the freedom of speech coupled by a free...

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Excerpts from "The Tulip of Sinai"
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Withered Roses
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

What shall I call you,
but the nightingale's desire?

The morning breeze was your nativity,
an afternoon garden,...

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Nobody Likes A Know-It-All

(Or ... I Know What I Know)


(Prov. 1: 29* / Prov. 1: 22-33 / John 15: 19 / Matt. 7: 3-6 / Prov. 3: 7 / Prov. 9: 7, 8)




Nobody Likes A...

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ALLAMA IQBAL TRANSLATIONS INTO MODERN ENGLISH



Excerpt from Rumuz-e bikhudi (“The Mysteries of Selflessness”)
by Allama Iqbal aka Muhammad Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Like a candle fending off the night,
I consumed myself, melting into tears.
I spent...

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Excerpts from "Cordoba"
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Withered Roses
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

What shall I call you,
but the nightingale's desire?

The morning breeze was your nativity,
an afternoon garden, your sepulchre.

My tears...

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Note: "How can there have been such strife in a Morlde` filled with beautiful Music; &
how could there have been beautiful Music such in a Morlde` filled with strife?"  -Soupy 
Sales, 2012.

The 12 Panes...

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ALLAMA IQBAL TRANSLATIONS INTO MODERN ENGLISH



Ehad-e-Tifli (“The Age of Infancy”)
by Allama Iqbal aka Muhammad Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The earth and the heavens remained unknown to me,
My mother's bosom was my only world.

Her embraces...

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The walls are talking as I walk down the old halls
the sound of the keyboard 
so late at night
the tears running down my face
the hours of my deepest emotions
The hours when people would learn the...

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The dim darkness-the diffused light-dimness of one merging into the other-imparting more length to the long trees that are standing like stretched out shadows wearing stars in their hair-

silence is imparting more depth to the...

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It is the last week of school.
Children all over America are going
On field trips, having assemblies, 
Parties, and water fights with their teachers.

Teachers who have not smiled all year long
Are pulling out all the stops....

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Caren, Caren, Caren,” the optimistic, positive principal said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry to lose you.”
I was sorry to go, but stay I could not for I had been reassigned to a dull building across...

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I’m sorry for my flaws
I appreciate everything you do for me
I wish I could always smile at passing children
I wish I felt better about myself
I wish I saw the light you provide for me
The light...

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Un-nerved by formal sentencing assemblies,
Marks and Words, bound by conjunctive amenity.
The tried beliefs that short cuts speed words into action.
Made stuffy Old School feel out of fashion.
Punctuation board-slams her silver gavel;
“A shortened distance, yet far...

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This air blows around me 
Reminds me of the good old days
High school days which are past
Gone never to return
Old faces come and go
My head is full of them
Can remember the locked ins and outs
Wish...

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If I could sing a song of furtherance, 
There would be a score and a door;
Demonstration would exemplify, 
What we learn and store. 

Appropriation would be reason, 
And rationality would be king, 
People-centred values would...

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The old school bell would ring out at the start of the day.
Chalk on blackboards, shirts and ties.
The school colours of green and gold.
Crowded classrooms, with very little room.

Lunchtimes were spent in classrooms,small and crampt.
No...

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When I was a lass, we didn’t have much
Funny how we liked it though, just as such
We played in the street with a whip and top
In the school playground on a hopscotch we’d hop

Streets were...

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As you sit in your car
All dressed in black.
 You know,
It didn’t have to end like this
Now as you think back you remember
The faint white scars etched in her fair skin
And the timid smile that...

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One Nation.
8 social class groups; 
63 million people; 
50,000 millionaires; and 
100,000 homeless. 
One Nation.

One Nation.
Two parliaments; two assemblies 
6 mainstream parties; 
650 MPs; (27 ethnic minorities MPs); but
35% of the population never voted. 
One Nation

One Nation 
14 million children; 25,000 schools
7% of...

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Only thing I could ever say, about the way I felt the day I got acquainted with E N J.
Thick hips skinny midriff, her feminine was undoubtedly… an acquired taste.
Brown coating, hazel perceptiveness, lips regale...

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I am a son of God, that lives in the Assemblies of God
That’s not too far, but very near and clear
I have no fear, no worries, no doubt, it’s clear
He sent His only Son, to...

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