Long Cough Poems

They were gambling in front of the house.
Manservants and pages bustled about
Serving Suitors who just curse and carouse.
Few mix wine with water. I heard one shout,
"Clean down the tables with wet sponges! Rouse
Yourselves! And when...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems V - Ber Horvitz, Yitzkhak Viner, Franta Bass

Der Himmel
"The Heavens"
by Ber Horvitz
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

These skies
are leaden, heavy, gray...
I long for a pair
of deep blue eyes....

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The Moon as a Metaphor for Your Mouth
by Michael R. Burch

When I was closest to love, it did not seem
real at all, but a thing of such tenuous sweetness
it might dissolve in my mouth
like a...

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Poems about Things that Break I
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

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Poems about Things that Break III
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

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BILLY BOB:
This is ANDERSON WALKINHSHOES... 
Chorus:
Ooh...ooh....new life, new soul. 
Ooh... Ooh... Life on a good road. 
New page will be flipped after life shools me, we, they and you too.
Yeah, That's the truth.
Crazy what billie...

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Sonnets LXXI-LXXX

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly, in despair.

Because you...

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Is how it all began our beautiful thing we both knew it was arcade concealing it the way we did and was we wrong for protecting the jukebox the many simple pleasures hidden treasures would...

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...cont

Always wanting to get the most from life,
one morning after a terrible snow storm
she rose from bed stretching 
the most radiant, playful grin spread across her face,
"I feel incredible," she screamed,
"Let's have a picnic!"
"In this?"...

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I sing my songs with rageful joy in mind,
Forgetting the past struggles, aches and sorrows
That intertwine with my mind’s eye, leaving all of me behind
Forgiving others of their wrongs for better tomorrows

You know who comforts...

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I've been watching the people across the street for about a year now. We wave at each other every once in a while, not really much more than seeing a familiar face without a name....

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Prelude

After banishing my foe off to hell
The Lord took pity on my soul 
And returned it to my undead shell
Again, I was alive and whole

But the consequences of a second chance
Meant that I would have...

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Once upon an evolving time
we were a great first nation,
or second nation,
depending on your historical perspective,
but definitely not a third nation
although some cooperative economists
thought we might be competing ourselves
in that over-invested and ego-inflationary direction.

This first...

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On the canvas of a cold, grey, winter sky,
In large black letters above the Iron Gate,
Read the message: "Arbeit Macht Frei".
A shrewdly sinister, propagandist lie,
Designed to deceive all of our eventual fate.
This was the very...

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I killed my friend,
I never wanted,
Do not see me cruel,
I did it for love.
We both ran naked
Under this influential shower.
No one uncoupled his lips
Against this faint madness,
We were indebted,
Either had to earn the prize.


It was...

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Suddenly, I constantly cough, cough, cough
I haven't had enough, for this life's so rough 
My friend is right beside me and he truly understands 
Where I stand and I thoughtfully fiddle with my hands 

Oh,...

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Tasting Africa (One L****ick at a Time) Part 2
(Though the title's a joke, my limericks are not!)

5. Yet Another World Wonder
Feel like now I am older I need to admit
A Safari to Africa costs quite...

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       Hay un dia feliz by Nicanor Parra, Translated by T. Wignesan

      To come by a happy day

(In this poem, Parra maintains lines of...

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THE RISING HILLS, THE SLOPES, TO QUENCH MY THIRST.
In the last century, the hopes were little,
Grasses they collected, yellow bananas, they peeled,
To move up the slopes, preparation was fore filled,
Oh the grower of banana trees,
To...

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In the deep spiked pine forests

On a walk you forgot you took

Snow up your knees

Twenty feet away

An enormous old house

Not abandoned, smoke from the chimney

Large windows, dark wood walls

A forest castle here for you 

To explore...

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MEMORIES OF WAR 


In prison we turmoiled 
packed up cards to fall 
whilst they sucked 
genitals like bonbons 
a quartz on a table
gleamed its knowing

War torn ghettos with 
swollen stomachs 
stretched wide, auras 
shattered, splintered...

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 (Chant: You threw me out like a pen that ran out of ink
I’m no longer useful for writing…drawing…I’ll stop resisting & fighting
Though the tears run down my eyes…the tears were clouding my eyes –...

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Afterwards.

Didn’t we once used to smile and laugh?
I can see that we seemed to be happy 
As I look at an old photograph.
But now our mouths
Seem almost paralysed
Or are tight and grim.
I vaguely recall a...

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It's the best I can do to explain myself
is standing in between it all, so I can view both sides.
Who are you to say that a summer days more beautiful
than the dead of night?
You profess...

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Hiccups 

An involuntary spasm 
of the diaphragm 
and respiratory organs, 
with a sudden closure 
of the glottis 
and a characteristic 
sound like that of a cough.

Rather mundane topic 
lest one cursed 
with said minor inconvenience
that...

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