Long Grates Poems

Yosa Buson haiku translations

On the temple’s great bronze gong
a butterfly
snoozes.
?Yosa Buson, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Hard to describe:
this light sensation of being pinched
by a butterfly!
?Yosa Buson, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Not to worry...

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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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Moods oscillate in cadences of peaks and valleys
Music to fractious emotions on greasy dance floors
Mistimed cues of flares smouldering relationships

Angst of redundancy seethes from within as lava
Anger is camouflaged with the cloak of reticence
Ardour suffocated...

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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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Moods oscillate in cadences of peaks and valleys
Music to fractious emotions on greasy dance floors
Mistimed cues of flares smouldering relationships

Angst of redundancy seethes from within as lava
Anger is camouflaged with the cloak of reticence
Ardour suffocated...

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To Crush Mar a Lago Estate, and lower the Economic debt ceiling...

Now that DACA docked amidst 
marshy tidal outskirts of Poker flats 
(readied to be sunk) off shore 
(beach combing divers – ectoplasmic flotsam 
glorying...

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what do you need to be told
to make you capable of pragmatic liberation
which could be the foundation to a new
assessment of the inevitable
darkness is our measure but never our limit
its manic prism reflects everything all...

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Cold misty clouds rise above the grates
The streets only illumination, tossing shadows like pennies
Faded street lamps at each end
The cold is biting, as I roll the collar over my neck

I received a call earlier that...

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I’m freedom’s beckoning call light as air, an elemental being
Set adrift beyond the universal light beam, a speeding
Bullet shifting, suspended by my own spiritual uplifts
Bending in the stratosphere by raw forces
Gravitational pull.
A streaming particle of...

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I’m freedom’s beckoning call light as air, an elemental being
Set adrift beyond the universal light beam, a speeding
Bullet shifting, suspended by my own spiritual uplifts
Bending in the stratosphere by raw forces
Gravitational pull.
A streaming particle of...

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I remember living in one room dingy and dire 
with old lino on its rotting wooden floor. 
I remember crystallised spit dangling from guard at the fire; 
as mother cleaned, he'd only honk the more....

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Resurrections lone fallen spiritual being, kneeling within the darkness of mine
Own tormented soul, broken, fractured at fetters ivory appendages, a flightless
Angelic Dark winged angel standing alone, weeping in the nights blackened clouds of utter blindness,...

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Only read this if you have a good understanding of the English language, because it is all about how word spellings differ but for no particular reason.

This write is quite right in that it highlights...

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The Devil’s watch has started and the time is consummate
A strange and tranquil calmness mocks our terrifying wait
There, just beyond our window moves like fearsome reprobates
A pair of tortuous demons meant all Hell to perpetrate
We...

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I was driving outside of the Black Hills
and came upon a wildlife park there,
claiming it had all sorts of animals,
the park mascot was a mighty black bear.

It was one of those drive-through attractions,
I’d heard of...

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A dedication to Eileen Ghali
for her prolific production of
inspiring work

Willow Tree = Keyboard
And that’s your only clue

Hurricane Eileen - The Storm

As darkness drew nearer
Light falling to drearer
I knew, the night was a foul
The windows were...

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Bright lights, flames in motion.
Arms weighted with emotion,
as each carries
their burdensome torch.

Lit alleyways, littered by mayhem,
breached by commonsense.

Is it too late
to chase scintillating dreams,
to rid the streets
of the beast?

The mantra
had captivated mouths and memes,
seemed the...

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Gaggles of ghetto girls mollycoddle, dandle cranky babies;
some cradled on arm and hip, some hustled along
on low-rolling rides. Granma’s noodle their talk
together with headshakes, busy body elbows akimbo.
Thin men lounge outside bodega’s, soft-soap, 
play imaginary...

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Baltimore Tales


lazy fat cat meowing, begging for a meal,
mother baking cookies, grates an orange peel. 

husband’s belly flopping, cold beer in his hand,
watching Jimmy Kimmel, singing with the band.

little Susie playing, with her pregnant worn...

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I used to garden naturally,
but now I'm guard'in chemically.
I've traded in my life bucolic
for one much more diabolic.
I'd rather play in the dirt chem-free
where weeding is great therapy:
tending herbs and building beds,
watering and dead-ing heads.
I'd...

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Steam rises up from sidewalk grates
The sounds of the city is dense and cacophonous these days
As dark and shadows all that's seen
As the light has given way
And nature has just turned to dust
Made way for...

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the door grates open and I bite my lip so hard it bleeds
she can't see you cry, she can't
my palms sweat against the doorknob
 attempting to hide my worried face, 
I try to take in...

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Hatred spews from his heart
It’s in his eyes, in his breath, in his smirk
Feels like he could tear me apart
I’ve never met an angrier jerk!

Resentment silences every hope
She is the word bitter screaming out
Toward the...

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The morning mists falling from Snapdragon eyes
Standing on high peaks viewing the verve of diversity
Starlit nights viewing the galactic milieu painted above
The promise once made now viewed after the rainstorm…
In these moments I see the...

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With wings of golden starlight your spirits flare
Each woman burst forth a steadfast astral pyre
Your valiant souls are / defying / confining 
      the tethered snare
Like distant suns that are...

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