Long Athens Poems

Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.



Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It's not that every leaf must finally...

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Athenian Epitaphs

Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be,
but go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.
—Michael R. Burch, after Plato

Does my soul abide in heaven, or hell?
Only the sea gulls
in their...

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Athenian Epitaphs II

These are ancient Greek epitaphs for lost family and friends, including dogs and other animals ...

Now his voice is prisoned in the silent pathways of the night: 
his owner's faithful Maltese... 
but will...

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I have travelled through the cluttered corridors of my tired mind countless times. 
I have reached deep into the dark abyss of my captive soul and in that profoundly disturbing darkness, I went searching to...

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AN ILL-FATED ADDRESS

Being on holiday in Athens was truly the best 21st present 
my parents could have given me, stayed with my granddad,
felt great, I traveled on my own, no more an adolescent.
Sad that I...

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[Characters: Thomas, Jesse, Mark]

In a small town of Athens, Thomas and his disciples served the town well, with their Wisdom and Knowledge, by helping out the less fortunate, feeding the homeless, teachings, and gaining more...

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We’re (Lisa and I) back in Athens Georgia (hometown USA), where it’s the halcyon days of summer. The south used to be the home of summer heat - not anymore. Now everyone has their little...

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In school it was all about Greek and Latin at a stretch it proposed
                     ...

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the grace of Paris
lingering in my thoughts. . . 
Madrid’s grimy walls

As our small group of students entered Madrid, it was an early morning in late January. We had left behind us what has been...

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I am walking Athens with Socrates
And see the world through his eyes
Barefooted with white robe
Tied in a knot with linen rope
I follow him like a shadow
Starring at the faces of Athenians 
Who lived ago a...

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Dear friiends those who first read my poem i left an important line out in the donkey story

The first dance after our wedding,
Was absolutely exciting, intoxicating,
My darling whispered in my ear,
My wedding present to you...

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PRELUDE
There has always been animosity between Greece and Turkey as far back in history as we wish to go.  Greece was occupied by the Turks during the Middle-Ages for almost 500 years.  My...

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(1.)  Honoring John Keats
, fifth poet in my dedication series

Oft From A Distant Echo, It Is Heard

At the start comes just a solitary word
oft from a distant echo, it is heard.
Imagination steps on into...

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We came walking blind bends at dusk, 
An overhanging fig picked fresh.
No pavements, just a nervous trust 
that drivers would skirt our single line.

Hugging the roadside with torches lit, 
Phones swung glowing to the ground...

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Often times I wonder if I may have missed 
a greater calling or purpose in my life.
As a young man I was frivolous and non-sensical
when it came to asking the most important questions:
“Why am I...

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I was born on the closing days of
The second World War  
In a small village of north-west of Greece
Up on the mountains.

The country was devastated
After four years of occupation by
The Nazis and Fascists and
Then
A...

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1.
Once upon a very long time in the eleventh century B.C.
There was a king in, Athens, who ruled both land and sea

2.
To all was known as king Codrus*, a mighty warrior was he 
His enemies...

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About two thousand years ago
In the early morning hours of a cool day
When the wind was calm and the Sun had just 
Started showing his sign in east 

A small vessel boat standing near the...

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When the first humans walked the earth,
They all huddled in droves,
Hooted and cried to warn of dangers,
Lurking in the mangrove,

Loud voices and echoes, conveyed a return,
Along with a large kill,
A lone unreached tenor, to a...

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This dread disease that has afflicted my home, 
This malady, this plague on my house;
This making convertible the former quaintness and provincialism thereof 
Into something wholly despicable and disgustingly homogeneous,
Yclept "cosmopolitanism," and "worldliness," and "globalization,"...

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Heraclitus :
The world continues to be in a state of flux ,
Where strife (Nekos) and love (Philia) , 
Are the dividing and uniting forces in control ,
To ensure the balance and unity of the whole...

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For “EARTH HOUR” we pledged  without words rearranging,
Let us try and attempt to stop things from changing
Am doing my bit as promised to myself and me,
wrote a poem on “earth hour”, published it and...

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PLATO EPIGRAM TRANSLATIONS

These epitaphs and other epigrams have been ascribed to Plato...

Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be,
But go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.
—Michael R. Burch, after Plato

We left...

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pure and simple
the smile and dimples
the vanity of being wanted

loved and adored,
 such admiration might
 cause one to be ignored

thus should such behavior
 cause others to favor
simply by the looks of the flesh

eyes can lie
and...

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POEMS
0F MRS PANAGIOTA CHRISTOPOULOU-ZALONI
Athens-Greece
20160621

It’s time
It’s time of thought.
The Love discovers
Secret paths 
And “she’s guided to the dream”.

It’s time of beautiful… 
The Love conquers 
The summit of Olympus
Emotion plays pleasantly.

It’s the time of union…
The Love gathers...

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