Long Flour Poems

Medieval Poems



Wulf and Eadwacer
(Old English circa 990 AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

My people pursue him like crippled prey.
They'll rip him apart if he approaches their pack.
We are so different!

Wulf's on one island; I'm on...

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With my Uyghur poetry translations I am trying to build awareness of the plight of Uyghur poets who are being sent to Chinese "reeducation" concentration camps.

Elegy
by Perhat Tursun
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Asylum seekers, will...

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Damian was on the tele-video 
conference with various Prestigious 
Proper people of distinction. The US
Vice president was on Skype along
With Secretary of State. He spoke 
With Russia's top diplomat, Valeiry
Sergei Shonikov, South African president 
Holu...

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Where do we come in
					in medias res  not knowing nor caring when
doesn’t everybody pine being number one we leave behind our lives in pages  pictures  or else make for images of what...

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Perhat Tursun

Perhat Tursun (1969-) is one of the foremost living Uyghur language poets, if he is still alive. Born and raised in Atush, a city in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Tursun began writing poetry...

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On that night the moon seemed hidden from her starry brothers
The kind of night not suited for the fighters nor the lovers
I ventured out only to put out the low burning lamp
When there I saw...

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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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THIS IS THE SECOND 1/2 of my "Tiny Town Events" piece, posted separately, (one half at a time), due to Poetry Soup's poem maximum-length requirement.
To enjoy the entire story, you'll need to first go to...

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Translations of the Oldest English Rhyming Poems

The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem aka The Riming Poem
Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

(excerpt)
He who granted me life...

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Our lusty voice was in the tramp of narrow, winding,
     Scree-littered, deep-rutted roads;     
 Ravens, uttering guttural croaks, slow-wheeling above      
 ...

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This is, as indicated, the 2nd THIRD of this lengthy poem. Due to Poetry Soup's file-size limitations, this piece had to be posted in 3 parts. 
   The 1st and final thirds can...

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“I apologize for any offense I have given to your wife,” DynDoeth.
DynDoeth just smiled.  Joulupukki, after listening quietly since the meal began, spoke up.
     “Seileach, Ceridfen has a wicked sense...

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Stars fall under failing skies...stars fall...stars fall...
But stars do not cry.
Into Ochs valley, through the Vale of White Horse...prancing 
besides a Dragons Hill;
It was here that a Roundhead - did a Royalist Cavaliers blood in...

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The white race has a point
But that doesn't mean
They should treat us improper
The white race has a point
Nature is repeating it over and over
White snow, white moon
white Jesus, white angels
white robes, white clouds
White pedestrian crossing
White...

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My stomach is growling from the coconut trash bubbling in my system, my stomach is growling from toxic energy circulating in the street. My stomach is growling from words people are shouting in the town;...

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A rising sun burns like a solar flare
  from St....

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Give me a minute to catch my breath before I discover what’s in store
Embrace your passions…never let it go…
I smell the scent of death…what am I waiting for?
Embrace your passions…never let it go…
One…two…three…four…I’m waiting behind...

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I once invested a year
as Board President.
Indeed, I was often a bored resident
of our State Affordable Housing Coalition.

My platform,
to speak grandly
of what was more of a healthy whim,
was for safe and beautiful affordable housing

Habitat is...

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Terrence the Turkey was feeling quite perky
Passing time in his rafter and doing no harm
No fighting nor squabbling, just gabbling and gobbling
Turkey talking turkey down on the farm.

Whilst having a natter, tame turkey type chatter
Before...

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I OPENED A DOOR TO THE QUANTUM DOT WORLD 
OF INORGANIC ORGANIC MATERIALS.
ALSO KNOWN AS SYNTHETIC BEINGS. PART HUMAN 
PART MACHINE. ONE MIGHT EVEN SAY CYBORG.

CONTROLLED BY FREQUENCIES RADIATING FROM 
WHAT APPEARS TO BE 6G...

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This piece was inspired by a journal left behind by an adventurous young man that elected to take his wife and two young children, by ox-drawn wagon, to California, in the early 1850s, expecting to...

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Night one on the new river, the campfire is spirited
and the future appears hospitable,
everyone has their rations, everybody is resting their pride
for on an expedition epic to each man and for a republic as well
souls...

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“His fastball, so they tell me, has been clocked at 105!
His ERA is 1 point 4!   The guy can really pitch!
I heard he’s making more than any athlete alive,
doing what…when baseball started…didn’t make...

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Every summer Mother’s folks would take us to their cabin. ‘Twas neither big nor fancy. Had no furnace. No TV! 
The cistern pump beside the sink was all there was for plumbing. So primitive…and yet...

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Mighty Oak Tree, Its Acorns Fed Many
  (A Native American Food Source)

Hard-cast shell
flung down in Fall,
food for man and beast
nuggets of forested treasure,

Nature
sprinkles its bounty
majestic Oaks rain
fruited missiles to ground:

thy treasure feeds life itself
creatures...

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