Long Braid Poems

World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - IV - Primo Levi

Shema
by Primo Levi
translation by Michael R. Burch

You who live secure
in your comfortable houses, 
who return each evening to find
warm food, 
welcoming faces...

consider whether this...

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Film Noir

By the lampost at night
with the pale moon shining bright
but obscured by the fog
I saw her in the harbor
standing where my boat lay moored
but she knew that
her azure eyes beckoned me to come
smoke from...

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Film Noir

By the lamppost at night
with the pale moon shining bright
but obscured by the fog
I saw her in the harbor
standing where my boat lay moored
but she knew that
her azure eyes beckoned me to come
smoke from...

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This whip is a relic of war
an instrument of severe education, 
come now Avia, look how lovely and vulgar,
it is essential for you to appreciate it's intention,
feel it's supple weight, the simple fright,
I use jasmine...

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Reflecting in her garden sits a winsome little maid;
She holds a purple flower like the circlet that she made
And wrapped about her braids to grace her forehead like a crown;
Her thick and shining braids that...

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Temporal incarnation of Aphrodite...

induces idyllic reverie
delight evoking similar surge,
when skirting, and eluding 
fidelity defining the marital law
on par with courting in flagrante delicto.

After reading about 
Greek goddess of love
fancy notion woke whereof
warmth suffused me
snug as...

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Afternoon musing, not quite content,
Wondering where the time all went -
The time not really given, only lent.

The first day of fourth grade,
In the next desk a new girl stayed,
With honey colored hair all in a...

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“Thank you again for your hospitality, Raðulfr.”  Joulupukki stood and lifted Jessica to her feet.
     “Do not argue with me child,” Raðulfr knew he was starting a battle when his...

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THE LONGEST DAWN PART 3 H.C.SONNETS

There is nothing, everything, pain and joy
We can’t go back, struggle on for their sakes 
A blank sheet to fill, take heed of the ploy
Think twice move once keep an...

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Her romantic letters, birth as heart pure and true 
supported deep vows we both swore to be held to.
Her grace, soft as the silence of morn's falling dew
with vows to keep hot passion of love...

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Her Grace, Soft As The Silence Of Morn's Falling Dew
 
Her romantic letters, birth as heart pure and true 
supported deep vows we both swore to be held to.
Her grace, soft as the silence of...

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“Auld Lang Syne” - the most-sung New Year's Eve song

Courtesy Robert Burns
circa  (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796)
the National Bard,
Bard of Ayrshire
and the Ploughman Poet.

Two hundred sixty one orbitz elapsed
since brief existence of...

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"Painting is silent poetry and poetry is painting that speaks" _ Greek philosopher, Plutarch

O hearts  that breathe with nature breath! 
O eyes that dipped in heaven's wine! 
O souls in world of pain who...

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Some days I wake up 
Brush my teeth with anxiety 
And braid my hair with pain
There are days I chafe at my dark skin
As insults burn holes in my heart as I walk in
The school...

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Three wholesome troubling years before, a thousand cursed days back
    I lay, most stiff within my bed, my house of death did reek
And all my nightmares, all my slumbers, they were deep...

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It matters not no I think this is so and thus it is no?
Yea, I do believe this to be the way it shall be
From this past moment justly risen and so it will 
Catering...

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Auld Lange Syne
by Robert Burns
modern English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And days for which we pine?

For times we shared, my darling,
Days passed, once...

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this culinary humble verboten pie eating older mwm 
   in sore want of coital aid
with no intent to rile nor up braid
certainly not prompt ye to call military enfilade
nor cause nerves to get...

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Daddy: I tried to throw aside childish ways. But to no avail.  I was already in jail the day you 
came into this world.  When I first saw the tiny little girl. ...

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Still, on a bench, watching eyes inquired
To the heights of Brakeman’s Hill
That on its rounded peak 
Poised a bright copper house
And held the company 
Of a strong oak tree
It bore a twisted truck 
And roots...

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We’re on Fall break this week and Peter’s favorite aunt - Lita - is visiting. Lita’s a tall, slim woman (eek! A guess), in her early sixties. She’s nicely weathered and tan. I’m sure she...

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I'm an orange monkey
in China I was made,
stitched with much affection
and garlanded with braid.

Purchased then on eBay
and wrapped to make a gift,
I was posted to a friend
who felt a little miffed.

I felt I wasn't wanted
when...

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The CoOp featured Women and Families
and their Matriarchal Allies,
often LGB and/or T,
and even some curiously queerer,
but not meaner
in appropriate demeanor
regardless of habitat
and camouflage
and costume,
ready for a folksy ball,
come as you neighborhood are
at Three Sisters CoOp.

The...

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It was said by pilgrim sons next to the Boston Harbor,
That to take tax without redress was action of dishonor.
And so a team of farmers went and built themselves an army,
To drive the redcoats off...

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Before They Came

Sitting here with my daughter between my knees, I braid her hair; One by one I place the lucky cowrie shells in her hair. I hear the call and response in my village....

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