Long Columnist Poems

The Story
by Kamal Nasser
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I will tell you a story ...
a story that lived in the dreams of my people,
a story that comes from the world of tents.
It is a story...

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Yahya Kemal Beyatli translations

Yahya Kemal Beyatli (1884-1958) was a Turkish poet, editor, columnist and historian, as well as a politician and diplomat. Born born Ahmet Âgâh, he wrote under the pen names Agâh Kemal, Esrar,...

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Snoring bush pig
Relishing in  reverie like a hog
Trudge on day-dreaming
Wandering  beyond yonder
Think of no blunder in wonder-trance
Junking the Fourth Estate 
Jumping at the Fifth Columnist Estate

The men in trance  
Unsuspectingly saddled with...

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Yesterday as I was going to my chair
I saw a cat not sleeping there!
He was’t asleep there,  again today
Oh how I wish he’d not be away.

At home at last after beers - three (or...

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Having it all means being satisfied with what I have. It means being happy with the gifts God gives me on a day to day basis, which I usually am not. Why? Because I am...

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of the world war (3rd!)
I'm not the forced applicant
I don't wanna be the forced applicant

of the world war (3rd!)
no; I'm not the well-wisher
not the advance receptionist

columnist, they are political analyst
journalist, they are critics of the...

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I miss some information while the news drones on today,
and lose a favorite TV chair, while commentators lie on air.
The coddled cats, now cozy in my spot, have no respect for playing fair. 
Their clawing...

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Unprecedented and unannounced
The sound out-hauls the band
The beat of corruption much allowed
Now in dual they posses the land

Who should the finger now highlight
The finger itself is bent and bet
White in the day but black at...

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Three thousand three hundred and thirty-five poetic blooms,
Lewis Milton Hankins has in his bouquet, like bright plumes;
Each is rich in theme, form, rhyme, rhythm, and figures of speech,
In sound, style, symbol, and syntax each one...

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The Ethical Self
by
Rick Folker

If there is evil here, it is complacency, and it is collective.
- Courtney Martin/columnist for On Being

The Moral Arc is bent
but not broken
It can be retrieved and repaired
like a shattered heart
withering in...

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Pyramids as a Place

A prophetic poem to you will send
And no one would I want to offend
With him communications did exchange
Something appeared to seem so strange.

The way he speaks and shuts his eyes
Is a surprise...

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Dedicated to Fran Salone-Pelletier,
News Columnist and Lead Chaplain

There is a point many people may miss;
No one is either without gifts or useless
When what our goal should always be
Making sure God is always in our company.

Why...

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THE TOKEN POETRY EDITOR

Sexless, unloved, this poem tycoon
Reads the heart’s treasures as the brain's boon,
And riven with erudition, explores the spaces
Where uninvited couplets kill the places

With talk of probity and probability.
This mortgaged toad of honesty...

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A big "if"
get a whiff
Me? zero.
my hero...

Ben Franklin
wise statesman
scientist
columnist.

Ben's passwords -
Poor Richard's
crackerjack
almanack.

Did Silence
Dogood sense
women's rights
and insights?

Philly fire
would inspire
Ben's brilliance -
insurance

Self-taught, thence
Ben invents
bifocals 
smart mogul.

Next project
he'd perfect
ladder chair
with step stair.

Millionaire
takes a dare
Kites and keys
lightning please.

A new...

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It was floor number thirteen
that Captain America got
but he ended up in the basement
with green-cloaked misfits

Bucky tried his best to find him
though ended up getting his own trap door
they would reunite to battle
enemies galore

Cap exchanged...

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