Long Fending Poems

Introduction: once again I incorporate 
my trademark penchant 
to fabricate fictitiously
portions of the following poetic endeavor
can you care to 
discern fact from fiction?

Attempts at lifelong friendships and holy matrimony...

Shot thru with figuratively cankerous nub,
cuz yours...

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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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Norwegian bachelor farmer days I never lived

Woebegone and egg foo young on you
meaning me of course
sidestepping a crucial positive
electric kool aid battery acid test
prior to pledging troth,
and tying Gordian knot
to strangulation point,
never fending for myself,
nor...

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When vitamin and medication bottles became plaything of the missus

Mental health of yours truly
heavily reliant upon one selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitor named fluoxetine (Prozac)
aside from countless
(approximately seven) other
prescription medications kept
stashed in a plastic tray
until one or...

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I
At the marketplace
by sunrise
when the serenity of the dawn is ravished by unknown
voices…

When the Sun passes through the merry-go-round
beyond the horizon
when the turbulent wind is silenced,
and the voice of the cicadas
is no longer heard…

From a...

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Secrets are anxiously being kept with a behavioral struggle, as one of the special few enters the room; obviously preoccupied with his thoughts. Bottom teeth are nipping his upper lip tucked tight, rope acting as...

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A short video that I watched this morning said it all.                        ...

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The (tongue In Cheek) Balm...
Of "permanent" Sleep

Abbott, nothing beats the
     immortal heavenly reincarnation
     after mortality odometer
     unexpectedly set to zeros
preparing deceased
  ...

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Child, pay close attention to what 
I am going to say
to make you aware of a heavenly sight,
" The bell that you hear tinkles
with a joyful melody...
as if it were sung by invisible angels. "

Years...

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Afghanistan 911 Emergency
By Franklin Price
09/08/2021

Nine-eleven, two thousand one, the world we knew was changed.
We were attacked by terrorists, our lives were rearranged.
We went to war with Saddam Hussein. He was the leader of Iraq.
The terrorists...

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"I truly feel that it is only when humanity can genuinely show love and
         respect, by nurturing and protecting the environment and all forms of 
 ...

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Bread and butter on the plate
It is what everyone hates
Bread and butter on the plate
Someone is searching for a date
As morning comes alive
He began to search for his wife
He passes through the market place
With a...

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The Shamans gather to discuss the oblivious reason
Dispel cruelty as fate opens for our unorthodox legion
Conformity’s blue armies will try to trap you and me in
Destroy notions preconceived, let the celebration begin

The mind is confused...

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Excerpts from "The Tulip of Sinai"
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Withered Roses
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

What shall I call you,
but the nightingale's desire?

The morning breeze was your nativity,
an afternoon garden,...

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ALLAMA IQBAL TRANSLATIONS INTO MODERN ENGLISH



Excerpt from Rumuz-e bikhudi (“The Mysteries of Selflessness”)
by Allama Iqbal aka Muhammad Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Like a candle fending off the night,
I consumed myself, melting into tears.
I spent...

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Excerpts from "Cordoba"
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Withered Roses
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

What shall I call you,
but the nightingale's desire?

The morning breeze was your nativity,
an afternoon garden, your sepulchre.

My tears...

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ALLAMA IQBAL TRANSLATIONS INTO MODERN ENGLISH



Ehad-e-Tifli (“The Age of Infancy”)
by Allama Iqbal aka Muhammad Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The earth and the heavens remained unknown to me,
My mother's bosom was my only world.

Her embraces...

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the first day you entered this world                            ...

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Marvelous mitzvah "munchkin" minted

Thy eldest daughter Eden Liat
treasured more'n a pearl
(otherwise known as Rapunzel)...
donated cut hair to charity - you go girl,
ha, whereat your fine brunette locks of love

will be repurposed into wigs for kids,
and...

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I feel for gentle hearts in this loud world, 
Ever suspect, dismissed and derided, 
For long has been the shy a songless bird,
That Darwin dismissed as ‘odd state of head’, 
Jane Austin gave shyness a...

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Joseph Robinette Biden
now commander in chief yay
manning ship of state
tossing anchors aweigh
heavily pierced tattooed
donning sheepish pirate(s)
at heady roiling waterway
fending off trolling rapscallion
much more thrilling

than watching cabaret
January twenty first two thousand
twenty one marks his first full...

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TRAPPED

I run through life wounded with a steel jawed trap
ensnared onto my foot restricting my life’s essence.
Day in and day out I’m never able to shake it off,
 in relentless movements as fast as I...

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I run through life wounded with a steel jawed trap
ensnared onto my foot restricting my life’s essence.
Day in and day out I’m never able to shake it off,
 in relentless movements as fast as I...

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(alternatively titled eldest daughter despises us)

Eden (beloved eldest daughter) icy
flat tone of voice spoke volumes,
when she talked with the missus and me
courtesy cellular telecommunications key
December twenty seventh
two thousand nineteen
unwavering listless dull verbalization see
I subsequently told...

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A weary way-fairer all lost in wood 
One dark night fending for food fell in well— 
Unused and dry— it left him fate to brood, 
But clutched on still to Banyan roots that fell 
Into...

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