Long Embellished 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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The great Sabbath day descended, though not in my heart and mind
On this new day,
I imagined rays of God’s light shining generously upon the mountains,
Pools of living waters gurgling, and winds gently rustling trees
Wishing for...

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But we of the Three Tribes live undiscovered 
   In the reverberating stillness of the 
 Three Gorges...
And are therefore unknown to the warring mongol;
    His impassioned lusts -- his...

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Up up the fly away wig doth go revisited and revised April 19th, 2023

IM pen named Pilot Jane A. Rug
who ascribes to writing poetry
as opportunistic, holistic, and cathartic
warming me body electric
courtesy an outsize 
warm brimful...

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Malevolent maverick mailer-daemon...
wrought maximum monetary mayhem
within mein kampf

Incomprehensible inhumane
inquisitorial imp incarnate injudiciously,
ineffably, indescribably inflicted
inxs inexorable insidious injury.

Snake charmer also known
in the underworld as Harvey Specter
subliminally slithered,
and deftly insinuated himself
into body electric of yours truly
forever remotely...

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HALLS OF AMENTI :1

My Kingdom is clear of books
                          ...

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The Room of the Unrequited
By Roger White
    That evening, stillness permeated the lavender-scented room.  Dusk crept through the windows
smudged by oily fingers, The day’s twilight left a dull umbra on wall...

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Up up the fly away wig doth go revisited and revised March 10th, 2024...

(Any resemblance between the following humorous account and real life circumstance tis purely coincidental).

Went off for hair raising shindig
donning noggin of villager...

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A mirror never reveals  
fallen secrets sewn with soulful sequins;  
time unmutes raven melodies within,  
tawny tunes of truth~
   I once spoke in colorful dialects.  
Now, I trust just...

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Ah Consuela! Invoking vast vistas for visions of green Spanish eyes,
I discern them again where she left me back then,
                 as we kissed when she parted, my friend.
Through those ruins I tread towards the footlights,...

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Up up the fly away wig doth go revisited and revised March 10th, 2022...

Went off for hair raising shindig
donning noggin of villager in Nigg
(historic county of Ross-shire,
historic region of Ross
and Cromarty, northeast
coast of Scotland).

Somehow postiche...

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One day I wish to know, 
as the scars of devils do, 
when your eyes, married to the auburn fox, 
will remove their pantheon of petrified ghosts
and lay with me once again.


Lay with me again...

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When the sun hangs low
by scarlet-threaded silk, 
you'll find my soul
waltzing in the womb of woodland
like a viking warrior, 
where I'm rooted ~ 
beyond decaying diamonds, 
as life unfolds a watercolor symphony
falling from the canopy...

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Conquering Normans in siege they lay
waste to all England
to pillage and slay.

William the Conqueror rode overland
with nobles and ladies
of high ranking band.

Surveying all territories with equal measure
His decision unanimous,
and at his leisure

Decided on Londinium, the...

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As the mediterranean torrents 
thawed away this wildflower of Medusa ~
once roaring in merciless thunders, 
now, I'm found swaying,
midst lemongrass fields ~
conversing with freshwater naiads
for, every weed is a storyteller
     ...

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Once upon a time, 
when juliet was a jewel 
of psychedelic phrases ~ 
steering rubies of romance 
to distant shores, 
where sapphire seafoam 
had never kissed the silence of sands ~ 
there blossomed an ode,...

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NOSSIS

There is nothing sweeter than love.
All other delights are secondary.
Thus, I spit out even honey.
This is what Gnossis says:
Whomever Aphrodite does not love,
Is bereft of her roses.
—Nossis translation by Michael R. Burch

Most reverend Hera, the...

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I once was a
sea lavender star, 
soaked in sunsets, 
draping evenings
with soft yarns of
hydrangea haze ~
before you stole
me from those
sangria skylines like
a windswept wave,
and placed my
hyacinth heart upon
the tan throne of 
your verbena soul. 
Never...

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there flies a bird as white as life,
an ugly, peaceful dove,
 which carries darkness in its beak,
 the poem wroth with love:
 the farmer wakes at morning,
 weak with pain and ache;
there's no peace in...

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Texture is nature's and life's universal adornment.
Texture titillates and tantalises the senses,
adorning the smooth, flat and boring
with bumps, context, meaning, dimensions and grip.

See me, hear me, touch me, smell me, taste me -
all get embellished...

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Fertile Crescent
and Vestigial Conscience

The sun overshadowing my morality
my self- righteousness eclipsed

Where early mans' dawn is, 
Our sun over my left *should* threaten to tinge me if
I pontificate platitudes that fail to connect us to
full stomachs...

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Dear poetry soup family, today is a very special day as we celebrate the birthday of a new year star ~ my lovely, Ink Empress. She is one of the kindest, compassionate and purest soul...

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"Clinging to me
Like a last breath you would breathe
You were like home to me
I don't recognize the street

Please don't close your eyes
Don't know where to look without them
Outside the cars speed by
I'd never heard them...

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“since thoughts speak in past tenses,
drop mind, rely on senses,
embracing and releasing,
pain pangs and pleasure pleasing” ~ Unseeking Seeker 

The sun
w a n e s into the saline swell,
and the ether
undresses corseted ruminations,
while heart follows...

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Although flowers bloom it’s awkward to say that they are flowers
because they are not flowers, but thorns disguised as yellow pistils 
and stamens surrounded by the petals made of pieces of colorless
paper. Moreover, their fragrance...

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