Long Cantos Poems

Villanelle: No man can on his own escape written fate

         For Thiru-Valluvar, the “nameless” author of 
the THIRUK-KURAL

Note: In my previous posts, especially on Canto 38, I...

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Thiru-Valluvar on Praising the Good Qualiities of Ladies: Canto 112 - Nalam Pinainththu Uraiththal

[The poet devotes the third part of his treatise, the Thiruk-Kural to INBATHTHUPPAAL, the amorous relationship between the sexes, i.e.,  cantos...

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Niithaar Perumai, the Fundamental Role of Ascetics, Canto 26 of the Thirukkural, the Tamil Classical Treatise on Ethics, Translation and Commentary by T. Wignesan 


[Given the scarcity of information (mostly conflicting even then) on the...

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Book Three of the THIRUK-KURAL on Un-Authorised (concealed) and Authorised (religion-ordained) LOVE: Cantos 109 THAGAIANANGKURAITHTHAL to 133

(Note: Love between mainly the wedded pair from the standpoint of the fair liana-like “lady” of the pliant bamboo-shoulders,...

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Moments are not the retinue of time. There is one which

decides the turning point of mankind. I can’t hand over to sighs

that time which stands and beckons me. To hell with the shades

to recline and...

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Canto I: The Words of Laozi  

The Divinely Illustrious Sage  
Prays for every soul to heed:
That neither woe nor weal
Heaven has foreordained,
But wrought by men alone,
The fruits of virtue and vice
Pursue the begetter...

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When we pleasantly stroll down
the streets or boulevards
of any historical city or town,
we  stops pensively and reflect deeply
by the magnificent monuments erected for the great;
and reading the engraved words,
we are astonished by the accomplishments
of...

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Oh, the poet sees you not just as a fleeting shadow that fades into horizons,
He falls in love as the sun in gold transfigures the curve of your cheeks,
In the line of the smile that...

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I can repeat the beat without knowing what I’m saying                         ...

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Part Two

shrinking you again within our ruwai
though always fearing, always cringeing at the thought
of the day
when his brothers would come in numbers
bearing fire-spitting engines
over the sodden earth
in search of you

« My people… my PEOPLE…
Will avenge...

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Yesterday I walked down the stairs
and found myself going within
the clubhouse of a league of folk,
who strive daily for excellence.
Our membership is rather rarefied
and reserved only for those
who find their voice in epic poems,
instead of...

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Rufescent clouds descend on the Victorian horizon as the sky dies
Beneath them bone chilling winds roar as salvos,
I feel like an acceptor who adheres to the doctrine of disguise
While looking through the prism of a...

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Bloody, bloody Ezra Pound
I never got my head around
his magnum opus: The Cantos
I’ve tried so hard but goodness knows
he didn’t intend it to be easy
for me or his mate Mussolini.

Perhaps obscurantism was his policy
or perhaps...

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THE LOST PARADISE

Danmaajeh:
What shall we do to put away
The gigantic barricade that blocks the way
Should we stand and say nay
Or fold our hands and enjoy the play?

Ak_waziri19:
Our paths darkening, we are going astray 
The future...

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("Red Skin", 2023, original encaustic)

Cantos of Love

Was it ever here at all…

Faces, eyes, lips, breasts and thighs
Parade through memory
Fading, fading fast
As years advance.

Maybe these closets 
Need more juice to unlock
Than these old bones hold.

Funny about...

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                                  ...

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I know the way you feed

your wife and children.

 

I see you asleep at daytime

as though it were night.

The bamboo floor

complains about your

body weight and

length of unconsciousness.

You move and change

position to achieve

the most comfortable

stance, and...

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By any other name what is in a name 															prosody Rosa Dee the sweet voices arise in                  ...

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Se eu tenho de morrer
Meu deus! 
Que não seja já
Eu quero ouvir nas ruas o meu povo gritando
“ Havemos de voltar”
Quero ver a minha terra tão linda e tão rica!
Quero dormir a sombra da mulembeira...

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One dark and stormy night, when half my life lay behind me ?I wandered from the straight and narrow path too far.
And took my heart for a  ship’s compass
All through the darkness, I followed...

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Dear Mr. Pound, 
Your holiday in Italy
Has besmirched your legacy.
Your Cantos, they plead, 
But don’t exonerate,
Not as far as I can see.

Dear Mr. Pound, 
Did praise from Hemingway 
Whet your narcissistic thirst?
As an ex-pat abroad,...

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CANTOS I (Tract I)


The woods were stirring,and the stars twinkling,
   the wind whispering a thousand new breezes;
....if a sound came, it came with smiles -----
   and if it spoke it would...

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As if time has stalled for but a moment
 above the pleasures of a new day’s play
 Fantasy seems to have taken a holiday 
 under full sails of this craft this day

 The sun...

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overnight the summer heat left for dull
the sun is hidden in the sky today
all is quiet even that loud, loud gull
heard a thunderstorm will come in the gray_
outside there is silence and a deep...

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I cursed Ezra 
and now he is 
                    following 
      ...

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