Long Flourished Poems

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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Medieval Poem V

A Proverb from Winfred's Time
anonymous Old English poem, circa 757-786
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

1.
The procrastinator puts off purpose,
never initiates anything marvelous,
never succeeds, and dies alone.

2.
The late-deed-doer delays glory-striving,
never indulges daring dreams,
never succeeds,...

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Winter Awakens My Care
anonymous Middle English poem, circa 1300
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Winter awakens all my care
as leafless trees grow bare.
For now my sighs are fraught
whenever it enters my thought:
regarding this world's joy,
how everything...

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My auntie came to visit when I was three, but nearly four.
    I proudly and lovingly wore her name gifted to me, a sweet legacy.
       I...

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'Continental Drift' - The Metaphor

In the seventies (1), few people dreamed ‘it’ was true,
guessed by scientists first when rough coastlines compared (2)
matched like parts of a puzzle (a jigsaw), found place
that joined ‘drop-offs’ waves hid...

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PRELUDE.
When the sky and world are dark no sounds are heard in the woods. Perhaps the scrabbling of night creatures on the hunt fo food. But no sound of woodpeckers ra ta tatting, bird song...

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem
Old English Poem (i.e., Anglo-Saxon Poem) from the Exeter Book, ca. 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this sun
and...

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem - Part II
anonymous Old English Poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this...

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"The Reptilian Anthropocene"



The Reptilians
war daily 
enrobed in their
stiff distinction suits
rainbow coloured badges 
pinned to their lapels
they beat their breasts 
and oily palms
profiting from all 
the soft-boiled 
foxes on the run
cerebral cortex bound
thinking they are free-willed
and...

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Madison's defense of the establishment clause to the Virginia legislature:
"Religion both existed and flourished, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them, and not only during the...

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yeah, right ...
do you really think I believe that?
that I'll swallow that pill?
look at the damn lines on this brow ...
do you think they were etched
by happenstance??
not even CLOSE, sweetheart
I earned those ragged rivulets one-by-one
and...

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It was late in gorgeous springtime, and I was teaching my class,
A lesson in African history, and the events of time's hourglass.

My fourth graders were very attentive, as I recounted the glory,
Of tales such as...

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Opening the window for a breeze… Dogs are barking!  My mind is only on me.  Relaxing…  As my story of the day unfolds, someone knocks.  Startling me, I hurry to the...

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I've noticed
since early years on the family farm
with large matriarchally planted and harvested gardens,
that food,
for moms,
is a natural,
and yet also spiritual,
communion relationship.

Nutrition evolves from and for communal relatives
of which we are ourselves made
and nurtured into...

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Once upon a time there was a brave man
he loved the princess and she returned his love
the king saw a chance to test the young man
he set him three tasks to complete to win her...

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Kitchen counters alive; the vivid colors of red, green, purple and yellow glass jars. Your garden flourished.
.
Pickled beets mingle boiled eggs; a pretty periwinkle purple.
.
Yellow and purple tinted fingers; dandelions and elderberries distilling; musty aroma...

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"Strange Vampires"

all those years 
ago, when conspiracies
flourished around 
did we or didn’t we go 
to the moon, when we
were once human,
proved to be lies,
whichever way 
the dark shadows 
conveyed it.

the truth 
came out much later,...

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Roaring Twenties

Nostalgia and age like bacon and eggs,
With buttered toast and jam on the side for breakfast;
And coffee, and a glass of orange juice to drink,
And a memory in-between to rethink.

The day begins with boring...

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I was a busy archaeologist, who enjoyed interesting and fulfilling work,
And I was very intrigued, with the ancient sites where mystery lurked. 

My painstaking work caused me to travel, ofttimes to far distant lands,
As golden...

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Wonderment at existence – mine

a sixty four year old married bloke
born January 13th, mcmlix
under Capricorn sign in general,
and January 13th in particular
who dons online personage
with custom (think 
swiftly tailored harried styled) 
made poetic raiment cloak.

With...

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He was there in the beginning
and through the eternal ending.

He'd scattered his seed 'cross numerous worlds.
They flourished.
They perished.
Flora, fauna, innumerable forms,
aeons of evolutionary warfare.
Extermination of the unfit
without the mercy of design.
Quadrillions of cadavers
paving a road...

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When the colonists felt that with the king of Great Britain they could no longer reason,
Their leaders signed the Declaration of Independence, though they knew it was treason.
Because of their belief in the unalienable rights...

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Wonderment at existence - mine
born January 13th, mcmlix
under Capricorn sign.

With my scrunched  
and bushy furrowed brow
I often ponder precise circumstances 
that linkedin yours truly to be born
tracing back lineage of self 
or arbitrary individual...

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With scrunched and bushy furrowed brow
   I often ponder the precise circumstances
   that any thing 2 be born this way
   as a poker face
Tracing back lineage of self or
...

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The sand is stained red
with our bygone blood,
the blood that brought us from Ararat to the Alti,
a tribe trekking intrepidly through the Eurasian terrain,
caravans of Caucasians clad with Celtic tartan twills
plaids upon the pale horse...

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