Long Glean Poems

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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“I thought about the former days, the years of long ago.” * 

If you saw something beautiful in a people, a place, a thing;
If you heard about something captivating and fantastic;
If you felt something soothing...

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The tears well up, and scarce could she not moan
When father, brother, husband, all have died.
She now has no possessions, neither home,
But travels to a distant, unknown land:
Once so secure, yet now compelled to roam;
Once...

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“I thought about the former days, the years of long ago.” Psalms 77:5 NIV

If you saw something beautiful in a people, a place, a thing;
If you heard about something captivating and fantastic;
If you felt something...

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In the darkness of the night, 
a ruby gleams 
to contrast a slumbered eye awakened 
to feeling, 
reflection, light, 
Lady "Genie", eyes aglow
like a beast, in mid-stride,
lost in her midnight dreams is clothed in a...

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Invisibly tortured courtesy existential nihilism

Psyche wracked with agony
impossible mission to extricate lovely bones
they wanna remain permanently abed.

I chiefly function to amass knowledge
courtesy assiduously, habitually,
and judiciously reading
an eclectic assortment of written material.

Yours truly woke
with ambition, disposition,
inclination,...

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Hmmm, where do I start? With deep sighs, I am sighing right now.
I just finished burying 2 lizards, and my heart is heavy...

Let me back up a bit...bear with me if I might turn out...

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15.7
“You are That in which the universe appears 
like waves appearing in the ocean
You are Consciousness itself
No need to worry”


The concept being that the world is nothing but thought
Transient and therefore necessarily unreal like a...

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Strategically placed when raised 
Upwards
By your masterful and well 
Practiced hand.
To mingle with ever changing 
Skylines 
That frown down with arrogant 
Scowls
Upon the indigenous populous of 
This just and tolerant island.
To study and pontificate upon...

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Beneath the mantel's alabaster gleam
Where verdigris flames pirouette, in cerulean ballet's beam...
We gather close—a familial love—
In hallowed halls where chimes of crystal laughter, stream.
Amid the yuletide glow, memories take flight, a morning dove...

Cinnamon-kissed balsam and...

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Loving my refurbished fifteen inch mid 2015 Macbook Pro

A lightning fast machine
purchased three days ago
now comfortably nestling with
said technological wonder,
where outside a cold wind howls
measuring windchill factor of five below
allowing, enabling and providing me
an opportunity...

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1. The Welkin
Wind blows / clouds race / vast blue sky
Breeze tugs / trees sway / great green hills
Sun scourged / sand glares / small white beach
Skip stones / thoughts nag / mind fug stills

2....

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Ability to defecate wildly swings (both ways)...
between incontinence and constipation

Irritable bowel syndrome i.e.
the former excretory bout I address
the above (polite way to phrase diarrhea)
and avoid moon efficient cheekiness,
yours truly doth buttress,
a literal warranted pain in...

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If my rhymes rugged and clucking might be
As it would better fit to wretched hole
Above which are pointing all rocks to see,

I would express my concept as a whole
More clearly; but since I do not...

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Figurative paralysis laid waste body electric of mine

This is Spinal tap 
bamboozling, binding, bleeding, bombing...
ripped from every dog eared 
and book marked page
recounting latest ill fated fiasco, 
now peppering my life and hard times
causing quite...

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The Rottweiler

I wouldn’t provoke a Rottweiler
Not unless I were prepped like a miler
Seems a little inbreeding
Done without heeding
Has turned Benji into a Sieg Heiler

The Saint Bernard

Though not in his nature to beg
He would flip for...

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5.1
“You are immaculate,
touched by nothing.
What is there to renounce?
The mind is complex—let it go
Know the peace of dissolution”

5.2
“The universe arises from you like foam from the sea
Know yourself as One
Enter the peace of dissolution”

5.3
“Like an...

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(This is all just my opinion,
what I glean from the internet,
Mainstream News, and my imagination – 
do your own research.  If there is any
truth in my observations, this write will
definitely not make me a...

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Please do not weep for me!

(alternately titled: dost newt expend
precious tears toward pitiful poet!)

Intense passion to read
doth foster divine enlightenment...

Also simultaneously, albeit instantaneously
triggering brutal mind-numbing self awareness
starkly underscoring how existence (mine)
devoid scant trace
positive life enhancing...

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Some things are royal
others so prosaic

and then there's everything else

You bring your own biases to the choice

BUT the question then arises:

do these (even these)

belong to you?

It's Your day
Your life
Your breath

(cratered between small clumps
of sunrise and...

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If you saw something beautiful in a people, a place, a thing;
If you heard about something  captivating and fantastic;
If you felt something soothing and wonderfully therapeutic;
If you knew that you were soundly built on...

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it was a momentous occasion at the Lord's last meal
time for Jesus to tell His Disciples what is the real deal
the tension was thick about the table, anticipation was in the air
Jesus to reveal to...

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Achilles, The Journey To Troy, 
(Part Two) of (Part One-titled, Achilles, His Heart and Soul Were Mortal)

Achilles, The Journey To Troy

Woe! wretched horrors Olympic gods sent that day
mighty king suffered, his treasure stolen away,
power of...

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My parents were born in the USA as was I,
but about my heritage I have never been shy.
My grandfather came from a distant land,
one I've never seen, but still hold close at hand.

He took that...

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O balked from the tree of his righteousness
Dried out, crushed to bitter pulp, I am bleached
Of his nature, his image sin digest
Till I am a chemical drip, a leached
Embodiment of human reason, just
Paper without special...

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