Long Embankment Poems

I Know The Truth
by Marina Tsvetaeva
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I know the truth?abandon lesser truths!
There's no need for anyone living to struggle!
See? Evening falls, night quickly descends!
So why the useless disputes?generals, poets, lovers?

The wind...

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The young lady's car slowed to a stop ...

As she pulled as far off the highway, (onto the shoulder), as she could
(Allowing for any snow plow that might come along).
She had chosen poorly this time
Believing...

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So bridge to bridge, of other things speaking
Of which my comedy does not take care,
We walked; and reached the top, when seeking
For watching the next slit, then we stopped there
Malebolge to see and crying vain;
And...

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Geese, Goslings and the Bridge

Sometimes, when you least expect it, Mother Nature makes a u-turn and draws you into the ridiculous.  Such was the time recently as I was returning from a friend’s home...

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Betty was bonafide crazy. She had shot her husband after a night of drunken quarreling, and was in the state mental hospital instead of being in the slammer. She'd shot the louse in the stomach...

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A dawning twilight's me. Oh, joy. Oh, what a joy. This day. Oh, what a day. A breath bestills my eyes and I, e'er slight, a deeper breath that reopened them and myself to a...

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Ohh I could have sat with my heart 
--elevated with dribbled echoes-- 
ahhhhhh until it yet exhaled the tarnished seams 
capturing only the quiet current lapping
and soaking dirty steel embankment	
along the river’s edge beneath the...

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(The memories are simple, living the feeling significant)

After conquering Beamsley Beacon due Southwest,
Rombald’s moor stood, while for centuries
within the valley the minute dwellings
of grey stone, brick and muck.
Main waterway, depending on era
town or sailor beck,...

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It is the winter of 1980.
I’m twenty-eight years young, 
Driving a red Mustang with glass T-tops,
Feeling all of my awesome sassiness, from toe
To Afro, when I notice the cards driving ahead of me
Are all slowing...

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"Ladies and Gentlemen, it's closing time," was a classical ending to some theatrical
theater events most likely.

However, this writer is not referring to the theater, but to a warning message of
Jesus Christ, recently given to her...

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Innocence and peace are states of mind at the very beginning and 
towards the very end . Everything in between , the mid-cycle , of our lives are what 
create all the differences , through...

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A gorgeous day, first day back at school. 
I could hardly wait!
It was still dark when I left,
On two medications that should have never been prescribed together.
But they were, and by the same doctor, two...

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My dear Siblings,

I voted for Hillary. 
I would have preferred Bernie, 
but she agreed to much of his platform-especially universal health care and education and seemed to be cognizant of environmental/climate change issues and bonus--she's...

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I’m freedom’s beckoning call light as air, an elemental being
Set adrift beyond the universal light beam, a speeding
Bullet shifting, suspended by my own spiritual uplifts
Bending in the stratosphere by raw forces
Gravitational pull.
A streaming particle of...

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I’m freedom’s beckoning call light as air, an elemental being
Set adrift beyond the universal light beam, a speeding
Bullet shifting, suspended by my own spiritual uplifts
Bending in the stratosphere by raw forces
Gravitational pull.
A streaming particle of...

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The Alligator Man
 
This is the strange tale of the Alligator Man 
it all took place in the Amazon River, as a young 
alligator is looking for food to satisfy his
needs. Above him a large...

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The old Ford truck was dustin’ the gravel roads that day
I was listening to some pounding seventies hits
My second bottle was about empty by my thirst

Nothing much else to do on a hot dry southern...

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Moon shed maximum bulb shares us 
      her grey making floodlight flash beam
      Hitting front sides bright, the rest seen
     ...

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AsylumBlowup
Deep purple and pink Floyd you have colour in your valium _yellow like sunlight inside this hole place of evil minds come to bare_a-trolley a-cometh to your table lots of goodies and your medication eat...

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Croatoan
The flames that once licked at our feet and kissed our cheek and flirted and beckoned us...
It engulfs us.
The truth is around us and its gentle call gives way to a nasty hiss.
The dreams that...

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Clutching
The end of my Zebco rod and reel
As the cast of tackle is flung
Like a small knot of costume jewelry
Skimming atop the caramel-colored Grand River
Dragonfly rattling awry

The vibration tingling in the palm of my hand
As...

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The flames that once licked at our feet and kissed our cheek and flirted and beckoned us...
It engulfs us.
The truth is around us and its gentle call gives way to a nasty hiss.
The dreams that...

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“…know what son, this here trains 'bout to derail, I think I'll be gettin' off real soon. Ya feel this car rackin' from side to side? We're up on two wheels as this here box...

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ATTACK

I can still see their faces
mouths open screaming silent screams
silenced by the loud barking 
of weapons, theirs and ours;
sudden explosions rendering moot
intensity of automatic fire.

They came out of the trees
running across the stream,
the dark forms...

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Well, how to say, the story begins well, I go on a path (wide enough for a tractor), 20 meters long, which leads to a field (I had never had the curiosity to go there,...

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