Long Donkey Poems

The first soft snow: 
leaves of the awed jonquil 
bow low
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

Come, investigate loneliness! 
a solitary leaf
clings to the Kiri tree
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

The cheerful-chirping cricket
contends gray...

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Dusk-gliding swallow, 
please spare my small friends
flitting among the flowers! 
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

A bee emerging
from deep within the peony's hairy recesses
flies off, sated
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

That dying cricket,...

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When oppositional cognitive dissonance 
deflects focus from compassion,
I've learned to go back to when I deflected focus from her.
She sends me passive-aggressive messages,
bread crumbs leading back in time 
to where she began to feel alone,
marginalized,
siloed,
anxious,
neglected.

If...

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History’s Greatest Miracle Play

Let me tell you a story - Prologue

Actors gather to play their parts
To set the stage – backdrops and props –
In history’s greatest miracle play
Called to speak their lines
On redemption’s stage
In a...

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The pencil now resting the image was 'testing' for the creature before him, (his badly-drawn drawin') had come out 'not right' somewhat twisted and tight.

The picture in question, it burst with suggestion, for lines that...

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Old Pharaoh had enslaved the Jews; he would not let them go.
So God devised a mighty scheme; his go-to guy was Mo.
His brother Aaron was the voice, for Moses talked real slow,
So he would wave...

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As I woke up this morning I was thinking of what should I do through COVID-19 pandemic.
I said to myself, “I want to go for a walk.”
While walking along the street, people were passing with...

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A a 	big A little a
                   What words start with the letter A
    ...

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The Call

For as long as I can remember, I have been phoning my mom. Even before leaving home when I was a teenager. Whenever I had good or bad news, it was just natural for...

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There Is This Dark Place Where I Go

There is this dark place where I go 
when feeling overwhelmed
When life is too much to go on
My light all but dispelled

I take myself up to my room
And...

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From my lowly bachelor’s house
Proudly christened ‘Embassy Fair’
I woke up to the chirping of birds
On the trees above and across the vale
And the riverine bushes in-between
I woke up to the crowing of cocks
And the mooing...

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I dread the United States presidential 2024 outcome...

Whereby yours truly presages and doth abhor
nothing short of an imminent civil war
dwarfing insurrection on January 6, 2021
oddly enough even reducing
ordinary decibels to a mute whisper
madding crowd trumpeting...

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Life is not cricket: though a game of cricket reflects life 
It portrays real-life conditions; from cradle to urn 
Starting with toss of a coin; ends in pulling bails off
Just as cricket life is simply...

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Unquotable quotes: Teachers – XXI

The pupil, the bitch and the walnut tree, the more the teacher beats them, the better they be.
In the old days, teachers were born to the métier like poets; today softwares...

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LOVE as any worthy heart fascinated by the beauty of intellect ~ tell me, what Love is invited.

Dreams like awakened terrors of minds tearing my thoughts in bright daylight
a savior polluted called Jesus says i'm...

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Babylonia : Part Two -
Noah’s walk


Pandas chew bamboo, while you film them in the nude;
Red Elephants are extinct (Apart from a view).
Fly up high, escape the zoo’s!
The latest attraction is a Man named Hu.


Hu Man?...

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a cycle in eight parts
with a slightly criminal coda
(quickly recanted)



I - the thing


the thing the thing the thing!

oh the thing

          the thing is IT

  ...

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Newsflash:
"Stranger times have never been
As humanity battles forces as yet unseen..
Not just those things beyond our eyes
But hidden troubles that wrestle for our lives.." 
---

Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Glory to the New Born King 

So...

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a cycle in eight parts
with a slightly criminal coda
(quickly recanted)


copyright T.H.A. Hassan,
the ZKH Foundation for Holistic Human Development
18 Mohammad Saleh Street, Dokki, Cairo, EGYPT
tel/fax 20 2 37491481


I - the thing


the thing the thing the thing!

oh...

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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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The wicked is calling the wicked 
wicked
Oh what a wicked
The wicked is calling the wicked
Wicked
Who is really wicked?
The wicked is calling the wicked 
Wicked
Can’t you see that something is wicked?
Wicked man,
 Wicked woman, 
Wicked boy,
...

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A field day shoe fit for Mother Goose
  
Fruitless effort squeezing figurative juice
Pandora called triggering 
helter skelter to get loose
necessitating Bullwinkle J. Moose
to usher at yours truly 
(an aspiring wordsmith) vamoose!

Hey diddle diddle the...

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My contingency measure in case of…götterdämmerung

A scenario unfolds
more abominable among
any previous warring factions,
his wicked weltanschauung
charred effigies futilely hung
against regime of brutality
considerably more unbearable
than infestation of fruit flies brung
about courtesy evil monster sprung
shortchanging restless and young.

Seconds...

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“For other answer”, told, “ I cannot lean
Than do it, because to honest question
Must follow action, with no word between”.

We dropped down the bridge with its progression
Where following it is reached the eighth bank,
Then I...

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Although born in Scotland I have no memories of there as we left when I was two.
My first recollections are of Las Palmos in the Canaries.
I recall the donkey passing daily and being told he...

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