Long Earthquakes Poems

These are peace poems, prayer poems, hymns and lullabies I have written for family, friends and the world over the years ...

Peace Prayer
by Michael R. Burch

for Jim Dunlap

Be calm.
Be still.
Be silent, content.

Be one with the...

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Turkish Poetry Translations II

Çanakkale Sehitlerine
"For the Çanakkale Martyrs"
by Mehmet Akif Ersoy
loose English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Was there ever anything like the Bosphorus war??
The earth’s mightiest armies pressing Marmara,
Forcing entry between her mountain passes
To a...

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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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Sneaking into the museum to avoid the sudden rain
Raisin said, “I don’t want to get soaked right through again,
It was bad enough when that truck through that puddle dashed
And you and me - but mainly...

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~ Come  To  The  Lord ~ 
( Christina's  Trinity ) 


~O~


Come to the Lord, He's Mighty, Good
Find Him always in all mood
With Him you'll be strong
With Him you'll belong
Today, all life...

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The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Nineteen sixty-eight confirmed the year
Of discovery by ‘Humble Oil’
To North America’s largest oil field,
On the North Slope of the Brooks Range;
A west to east Northern Alaskan mountain chain.
An area forty miles wide...

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Final Lullaby
by Michael R. Burch

for my mother, Christine Ena Burch

Sleep peacefully—for now your suffering’s over.

Sleep peacefully—immune to all distress,
like pebbles unaware of raging waves.

Sleep peacefully—like fields of fragrant clover
unmoved by any motion of the wind.

Sleep...

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Dearest Sons
and dearest Cinderella StepSister,
I regret ways I have failed each of you.

From today's view of memory clips,
frames as farms of teaching-learning times,
my Great Lover Eldest, yet perpetually unfulfilled,
AfricanAmerican urban male Thug,
driver of van repurposing...

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MORNING DEVOTION

Heavenly Father:

I lift up travelers to You. 

I pray for peace for Jerusalem and safety for Israel. I pray that between one and all of Her children would come to a saving knowledge of...

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"Exits Exist"



prophecies materialised
bad dreams of tomorrow
arrived vaporising today

the higher ones 
prepared their exit plans
they thought they were gods

but they were just
children playing 
at being man 

insanity is a monster
who no longer sees
exits exist

on bended knee

dark...

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Mehmet Akif Ersoy: Modern English Translations of Turkish Poems

Mehmet Âkif Ersoy (1873-1936) was a Turkish poet, author, writer, academic, member of parliament, and the composer of the Turkish National Anthem.



Snapshot
by Mehmet Akif Ersoy
loose English translation/interpretation...

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NA Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Ink Empress


                          Temporary Travellers
 
 ...

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Discard Flat Packs Have Faith

There is a God of the Universe parallel that is and I call 
her freedom ‘Come into my space’ she seems to contradict 
‘do not be afraid’ to fall off that...

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Haiti is a country that I love dearly
That's where I was born
That's where I took my first healthy breath
That's where I had my first inspiration
That's where I saw the first birds
There I saw the first...

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I was taught by   my father to be obedient in the dense forest to save the individuals trees, stop destruction to plantation. I cannot be silent under the detriment from lumberjacks to global...

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DEMONS DO EXIST . . . 

You can't spend all your time stuffing them in your bottom drawer
In time they will all work their way out and when they do, it's war

Thousands of years of...

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The Greek gods were egotistic, arrogant, jealous,
Said to be excellent lovers, fanatics, and zealous
About everything and anything, lounged around
Adorning places like Marathona, the Acropolis
The Parthenon.  Archaeology
Maintains that Greek Mythology 
Goes back to the Bronze...

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Alexandria, Egypt is well known for being the city where Cleopatra once ruled her people and both she and her famous lover, Mark Anthony met their final, tragic fates.  It is where the "Pharos...

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Living in California is a brave thing to do, I’m convinced
Any time the ground around you could break into pieces, but residents seem so indifferent
of this threat that the ground they stand on could take...

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I was only twelve or thirteen when Dad bought
	The twenty acres alongside the highway
		On the east side of town in 1956,
That seemed so quiet then, unimportant even.

A piece of ground where horses had been kept...

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"Chaos Theory"



The Message is sent on a breeze
Fire eats the wounds of a Mother

Her skin blisters
cracks and peels 

Her children inhale a different pollen
Drones bark messengers like Bowie's Diamond Dogs

Tables now turn
machines are giving orders...

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Neftlix, Hulu, autumn elaeagnus
thorns, small hairy buds, twigs hyper-lenticelled
fruits supposedly edible, leaves elongated, oblong
xerophytic but found in wetland
introduced species, some say invasive

Xbox is invasive
Hulu is the best source of foreign films
and foreign films represent reality...

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“In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.” Rumi





"Whypt...

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In the realm of existence, where time unfolds,
A tale of wonder, in verses untold.
A symphony of life, in hues of vast,
A saga of futures, present, and past.

From the womb of chaos, creation springs,
With every heartbeat,...

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I have to put you away again
My Dear and Special Friend
Deep inside of my folly, a
Pleasure having you visit 
My Irish melancholia

You’re here, I am not sure why
I think it’s not locking up
These months you...

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