Long Fringe Poems

Postcard 1
by Miklós Radnóti
written August 30, 1944
translated by Michael R. Burch
 
Out of Bulgaria, the great wild roar of the artillery thunders,
resounds on the mountain ridges, rebounds, then ebbs into silence
while here men, beasts, wagons...

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Goodness, I nearly lost my balance on the spiral seashells and broken sea stone chipping matrix.
My quaint obsession with marine life and that skyline paradox blossoming so tantalisingly,  might be a source of some...

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Greetings to those who would willingly seek admission to theater of the absurd. Zoltan Goliath and Otis Trench are masters of the avant-garde genre silent musicals for the imaginary stage, an art form sui generis....

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A born lioness my untamed heart? ha! 
a mouse, this pulsing token ruled by unruly wants
at times given, traded or stolen - sometimes
thrown down on a dare to be won or lost 
till it became...

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HEROES

Near somber guards, units of children heap 
dead leaves, naive to any else fallen.
Friend, you chuckle, but your posture speaks
of duty on this day of contradictions.

Firefighters bow heads in silent paean, 
while polished trucks stand...

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My most popular poems on the Internet (III)

A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot...

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In the intimate interlace of chance and fate, in the ultimate interplay of time and place, and with the consummate checkmate of my human dignity, all that is -- is over, in the stormy, swarming...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - III - Miklos Radnoti

Miklos Radnoti was one of the greatest of the Jewish Holocaust poets. He died on a Nazi death march, shot to death in cold...

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The elf stared into his eyes for a very long moment, pondering his answer.  He knew this would change everything in the life of the man who sat before him.  He knew what...

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Now, if you’re going to Laughing Pines,
I’d laugh and say, “You can’t get there from here”.
Should you go remember to forget your baggage behind.
Just pack a sense of humor and an open mind.
My dyslexic directions...

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There is a water glint,
just shining through the copse beyond.
Autumn's sinking sun, 
barred by spindle trees and the last 
of summer's brindled reeds 
and sedge and rush that fringe this stilling pond.
.
 
Damp leaves hide...

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“The songs are casual and careless in a satisfying way, like the used condom your latest lover left lying on your bedroom floor, a souvenir you’re not yet ready to dispose of.” Candy Cotton, Modern...

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Kids of today, we here them say, no respect, what do you expect
Always hanging around on the streets, doing nothing and nothing to do
Is it their fault in this decaying society or should the blame...

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Opening 
Fourth street and the divide meet 
Near the stream where it's waters Impede 
Five metres walk from the wooden bridge 
A little further away from the deserted car park 
Underneath the third tree with...

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skinny island rump
  highway seas churning the horizon under turbulent skies
  entity England
  migration waves still grounding along the continental shelf
  monarchs, priests and lords
  relaunching history and hope, the...

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It was the summer of my 16th year. Mother encouraged me to spend part of my summer vacation with Granddad, a self-professed stoic. I reluctantly agreed, for he was a peculiar man. I couldn’t imagine...

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Sun setting over the dark green fringe of a shivering lake on the last day of winter
An old man still unbent sits on a deserted wooden bench
   with the load of his cares...

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Recalling moments stored in memories with people I miss
Staring at a star-filled sky sometimes it's nice to reminisce
Seems like it was yesterday if only a short while
Cruising along my own time machine with thoughts that...

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Fringe benefits (a plug) for perks (yo man) living at 2 highland manor drive

Expanse of green acres draped
like a petticoat when ye arrive
birds of a feather flock together
and bees gather collect nectar,
pollen, and water to...

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I walk along the old familiar path in the wood of my childhood -
the place that I willingly abandoned  
for the lure of new friends and activities 
that carried me ever farther from my...

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The skeletons and songs of samsara eternal
fleshed, fattened and flamed in karmic harmony,
your heart begins to beat in dark plethora roll
an in utero thunder thumps godly
as the warmest water touchable enshrouds,
you haven't yet forgotten the...

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A problem for more successful Nazi leaders
during the early exterminating 1940s
was what would they be
should they no longer have any reason to war against
the soon to be extinct Jews.

Yes, they were a nation of Aryan...

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molten times, volcanising immensity, vast plateau
  belly-belching landform
  oceans, shallow seas and lakes swell up and down
  land-bridging, submerging
  any one place moving astride, stutter-shifting
  continental drifting world
  climate...

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"Papyrus, Lapis Lazuli and the Valley of the Kings - Part 2"

Rush...
the sound of the wind 
licks her ears, bites her neck, stings her lips
the deep heat caresses her hips 
brandishes, burns into her skin
travels...

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As I sit in crumbling sand, that’s laced between my toes,
I wonder.
The gentle breeze caresses my cheeks,
whilst the wind plays daintily with wisps of fringe.
Faces are but a distant silhouette in orange hue.
I watch as...

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